Hi-Fi Choice - May

OPINION
All white on the night
Music shouldn’t be about colour, right? Nigel Williamson can’t help but wonder where
all the black, asian and ethnic minorities are when it comes to awards ceremonies
Picture credit: Shutterstock/Tinseltown
S
uddenly race is back on the cultural agenda.
The reality, of course, is that despite the
lip-service we pay to multi-culturalism, racism
never really went away and has remained the
elephant in the room. First the Oscars set everyone talking
about the inherent racism of Hollywood and now the same
argument has broken out in the music industry.
At the Grammy awards in February, the most prestigious
award, the album of the year, went to Taylor Swift who
beat off Kendrick Lamar and Alabama Shakes to make it
eight years in succession that the winner has been a white
artist. The other main ‘prestige’ award, best new artist,
went to Meghan Trainor, the ninth time in the last 10 years
that a white performer has won.
A similar thing happened at the Brit awards, where only
two non-white acts even received nominations. The event
was lambasted for ignoring black British music and a
number of artists – including Lily Allen and Laura Mvula
– spoke out about the failure to recognise such black
British success stories as grime king Stormzy. The
controversy generated its own Oscar-style hashtag,
#BritsSoWhite, and Stormzy went on to express his
frustration in his tune One Take Freestyle.
Then you can add in the fact that the biggest music
companies in the world including Live Nation, Apple,
Spotify, AEG, Warner Music Group, Clear Channel and
Black musicians
gave us disco, which
made millionaires
of the Bee Gees
Universal Music
Group are all lead
by teams of
predominantly
white executives.
As a pale male, I
find this disturbing.
Some will say that I am showboating my liberal conscience
and claim that good music is good music regardless of the
social, cultural or racial background of those making it.
I’d like to believe that is true, but that doesn’t mean there
isn’t a problem – and in an art form that’s supposed to be
breaking down barriers, the stats aren’t good enough.
Nobody in a position of authority in the British music
industry is prepared to use the ‘r’ word. But they do
acknowledge a “lack of diversity” and something positive
may yet come out of the rumpus surrounding this season’s
award ceremonies and Ged Doherty, chairman of the
British Phonographic Industry, the body which organises
the Brit awards, has moved swiftly to promise changes.
For many years I was a member of the Brits voting
academy and the Mercury Music Prize judging panel and
both were overwhelmingly white in composition. Doherty
is now committed to establishing an advisory committee
comprising “members of the black and minority
ethnic music [BAME] community” and has
pledged that in future the Brits voting college
will have at least 15 percent BAME participation,
in line with national population trends.
History shows us that almost every
successful rhythm in popular music was
first invented by black musicians and then
appropriated by white musicians. When Sam
Phillips was recording black r&b singers at
his Sun studio in Memphis in the early
fifties, he famously opined: “If I could find a
white man who had the Negro sound and
the Negro feel, I could make a billion
dollars.” The result was Elvis Presley and
rock ’n’ roll.
Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf invented
the electric blues, but it was the likes
of Eric Clapton and Led Zeppelin who
reaped the greatest rewards. Black
musicians at labels such as Motown,
Atlantic and Stax went on to create
soul music, which has since been
copied by generations of
blue-eyed singers starting
with Steve Winwood, Van
Morrison and Joe
Cocker, followed by
Simply Red through
to Amy Winehouse
and Adele.
Redressing
the balance
It was black musicians who gave us disco which made
multi-millionaires of the Bee Gees and a black Jamaican
rhythm called reggae that created hits for the likes of The
Police, Eric Clapton and 10cc. It was black artists who
created hip-hop for the likes of the Beastie Boys and
Eminem to exploit. And more recently it has happened all
over again with dubstep and grime.
None of this appropriation has been wrong or directly
racist in intent, and white musicians borrowing from black
forms and styles has given us some great music. But the
originators can be forgiven for wondering if they have
received their full dues. Ged Doherty is to be commended
for admitting that the Brits “have somehow become
disconnected from this heritage of diversity”. But that’s the
easy bit. Now comes the part of translating those
well-meant words into a meaningful outcome ●
Taylor Swift
at this year’s
Grammys
continued the
long run of
white ’prestige’
award winners
NIGEL
WILLIAMSON
Colour blind
MAY 2016 87