Category Archives: Editorial

Trails of colour dissolve

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It’s not really my place to posit upon racial issues – at least often. What is interesting, however, is how racially divided music is.

The topic recently occurred to me after I talked with my other half. I suddenly realised that most musical genres she’s averse to are stereotypically associated with black culture. It surprised me even more to notice this isn’t even an unusual stance. Rap, hiphop, reggae, dub, jazz – these are seemingly reviled by the upstanding middle class of British society. We prefer our music to ROCK! Even though rock ‘n’ roll has its roots in black culture: Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, et cetera, such traces have all but disappeared. When modern – famous – guitar bands have black members, it’s an oddity. I can name a few off the top of my head, but the fact I have to think about it makes me nervous. What happened?

I’m sure you could write an entire PhD thesis on this, and still get nowhere. It still worries me. Because there’s so much great, innovative music out there across all genres, yet so many people I know hate so much of it. I don’t – for a second – think this is racially motivated. At least for most people. It definitely seems like a cultural divide, with people of different colours and backgrounds being brought up with different genres of music, which tend to polarise with generation. And it seems to get worse. It’s because of this that rap artists like Professor Elemental are so funny: they play on our cultural expectations of genres. When we’re confronted with rap, we expect aggressive, young american black men – not a middle-aged English professor.

Raging Against the Machine

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You’d pretty much have to be ignorant of Christmas to have ignored this (that is, a fan base trying to get Rage Against the Machine as a Christmas #1). Facebook has always been a fertile ground for campaigns like this. I think people enjoy the idea of wresting power away from those they feel control them, and as a mob getting to the limelight for a second. It’s the same idea as flashmobs, behind getting the Wispa bar back, demanding Space Invaders reduced to 10p.

I’ve noticed, however, a worrying streak in all this. I mean, Space Invaders have been the same price for so very long, inflation has eroded the true price, and they’re a lot cheaper than they used to be in real terms (ie: this is a group for people who do not understand inflation). The Wispa Bar facebook campaign was started by a PR company hired by Cadbury’s, and has to be the most cynical human manipulation I’ve noticed outside of Charlie Brooker’s Newswipe.

Anyway, RATM for #1. It’s a large campaign that has variously been attributed as ‘anti-capitalist’, ‘for real music’, and hilariously enough, ‘democratic’. Excuse my cynicism. First off – who cares about Christmas #1? Really? It was a construct of major labels to fight for it. I think if you care about music, it’s low on your priorities. I lost trust in the charts years ago. I think we can assume if someone buys a single, it doesn’t affect anybody else except the person who bought it. So why do so many people apparently care that X-factor artists might get the questionable prize of getting most singles sold around an arbitrary part of the year?

Here’s why: I think most people see music as a war. It’s us versus them. The rock fans vs the pop fans. The people who care about music versus the people who don’t. People who rap against people who play guitars. Et cetera. I don’t have to point out to you that no such boundaries exist. This is entertainment. Buy stuff you enjoy. They will buy stuff they enjoy. Everybody wins.

Secondly – anti-capitalist. Now, forgive my economic intuition, but last time I checked, capitalism involves buying stuff. What are you going to do, make RATM’s label so rich that capitalism self destructs?

The plot thickens, though. Rage Against the Machine are owned by a label called Epic Records. They’ve only ever been signed to them, by the looks of it. Epic Records are not a small, rebellious, or independent label. Sony Music BMG owns them (and have since 1988). They are the same people who fund the massive campaigns behind Anastacia, Shakira and Jennifer Lopez. Rage Against the Machine get loads of well-funded, clearly targeted advertising and shelf space. You need a major label to fund that kind of investment. For a band that is anti-capitalist and anti-consumerist, they sure do mix with a strange crowd.

You might ask who profits from X-factor, apparently the force which this campaign is fighting against? Well, obviously it’s Simon Cowell’s label, Syco, who signs all the X-Factor winners, and the more successful losers. Syco are obviously a professional outfit, but they’re also owned by Sony Music BMG.

So what we have here is a war where Sony owns both sides, and can’t possibly lose (and in fact make twice as much money). On purpose or not, nobody wins from this. Not musicians, not fans, not the industry. It vilifies one part of it and stuffs its pockets at the same time.

(sorry for the cynical tone lads – I’ve also been to see the Pains of Being Pure at Heart twice and the last ever Twee as Fuck. I’ll save these for another update)