FEATURE:
Cross That Line
IN THIS PHOTO: Tinashe
Segregation and Division in the Music Industry
_________
I often think about the music industry…
PHOTO CREDIT: Penda Kamati/Pexels
and whether it has improved rapidly and markedly as it should. In terms of interaction, battling discrimination and division. Thinking of women in the industry, there is still so much misogyny and sexism. Very slowly moving towards equality. I do hope I live to see a day when women feel safe, accepted and valued in the music industry. Get the opportunities they deserve in terms of equal pay and exposure. Get festival headline slots and as much time on radio playlists across the board. Are not subjected to harassment and abuse. I don’t think as much has been done as possible to tackle that from the government. Even if racism within the industry is not quite as extreme or widespread as it was in years past, it is clear there is still segregation and labelling. Black artists being divided and separated from white artists on playlists and in genres. I have been thinking this after reading a recent interview from Tinashe. Speaking with The Guardian, she was very frank and open about her career. How she had face misogyny and RCA forced her into working with R Kelly and Chris Brown. What a potentially poisonous move that could have been! The real lack of respect and appreciation for Tinashe. Something a lot of women in music have to endure. This very toxic environment. The fact that she was almost made to work with predatory and abusive men. Tinashe also noted how there is this segregation and racial division:
“Despite trying to ignore much of the music industry, Tinashe still has a strong handle on its mechanics, and feels that it wouldn’t know what to do with her – a Black artist looking to make genreless pop, not just R&B or rap – if she debuted today. “There’s still a lot of segregation in the industry,” she says. “When it comes to playlists, award shows, who works on your music, how they promote you, it’s very black and white, literally.”
And Tinashe still feels she’s fighting an uphill battle when it comes to her own career – despite the huge success of Nasty. “In terms of being able to build to a huge place, a real mainstream-machine type role, that still is very much gate-kept,” she says, letting out a withering laugh. “It’s hard to achieve as somebody who isn’t playing in those systems”.
It is very true that, when it comes to artists of colour, they are promoted and marketed very differently. In terms of who they work with too. Tinashe is living proof of that. You still see so many playlists on radio and streaming services where Black artists are compiled together and often separated. Especially when it comes to genre-specific playlists. Maybe unconscious racism, things are very much black and white. Very few Black artists given the same budget and attention as white counterparts. When it comes to the mainstream and getting the sort of focus and hype as other artists, there does seem to be this segregation there. Tinashe has hit on something that has been present in music for decades. If you look at the mainstream today and the artists getting the most attention and spotlight, you can see this division. There are amazing Black artists heralded and supported, though very few pushed to the top levels. So much more of a struggle for them to achieve the same sort of adulation and respect as other artists. Music charts especially have been segregated for so long. I was reading this 2021 articles from The Guardian, where Kelefa Sanneh (author of the book, Major Labels) talked about this more:
“The more a genre evolves and sprawls, the harder it is to define its essence. Disappointingly for anyone who cherishes border-crossing artists such as Sly Stone, Prince and the Specials, Sanneh shows that these distinctions usually come down to race: country and rock are deemed to be whatever white people like, while hip-hop and R&B are whatever Black people enjoy. Two years ago, there was furious debate about Billboard’s decision to remove Lil Nas X’s country-trap smash from its country chart because it lacked “enough elements of today’s country music in its current version”. Lil Nas X responded: “A black guy who raps comes along, and he’s on top of the country chart, it’s like, ‘What the fuck?’”
“Our music charts are still kind of segregated because our country is still kind of segregated,” Sanneh says. “There are upsides and downsides to this. In America, Black people are 12% of the population so if every genre was diverse in a way that reflected the population of the country, Black people would be a small minority of listeners in every genre. It’s easy to say that country music should be diversified but it’s harder when you look at R&B.”
Sanneh is adept at disrupting simple binaries; his typical argument is a supple chain of “but…”. He says: “It’s important to me not to reduce any music story to good guys and bad guys.” On the hot topic of cultural appropriation, the man for whom Paul Simon’s Graceland was a unifying family soundtrack questions what we mean by ownership of culture. “Once you start thinking about cultural appropriation in music, it’s hard to think where you would stop. Even if you grow up in hip-hop, there’s going to be stuff you hear later that is not part of your childhood. When Notorious BIG released Big Poppa he was borrowing from the sound of west coast hip-hop. Broadly defined, cultural appropriation is absolutely everywhere”.
Thinking about articles like this from 2020 and this in 2021, has there been much progress?! When you look at award ceremonies and there are entire genres defined by white artists. Black artists usually defined and labelled as Soul or R&B. Country music has been very slow in assimilating and accepting Black artists. The Pop mainstream still struggles. So many areas of music segregate and define. We live in a time when fewer Black artists are given headline slots. In terms of the artists that are given the most airplay and focus by the industry. If things are slowly improving, it is clear that it is a struggle for so many artists. Tinashe being an example. New artists coming through and looking at the landscape. How genres and playlists have this bias towards white artists or will often lazily label Black artists. What she said about gate-keeping and how it is also hard to get to the mainstream if you are genre-less or do not play he game or fit the ideal. With racism and discrimination still widespread in music how easy is it to change things effectively and quickly?! There is a lot to think about and tackle. Something that is so deep-rooted is hard to correct overnight. With artists calling it out, there does need to be action. Award shows accused of racial bias and tokenism, things are not really progressing and improving as fast as they should. It is a deep and challenging subject that deserves more investigation and discussion. Tinashe’s words about her experiences will resonate with so many of her peers. That feeling of segregation. Fewer opportunities to get to the mainstream. These barriers in place if you are an artist who is independent and does not want to compromise their sound and identity. For an industry still not doing enough for women and artists of colour, addressing the issues it still has around race and segregation should be…
A huge priority.