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Over the past few weeks, as the Black Lives Matter movement continued to thrive, many corporations and industries did their part in showing solidarity towards the cause and the initiatives started in turn. These actions, though at times seen as diluted by big corporations and monotonous statements, were not lost on the music industry.
On June 2nd, when social media feeds from Twitter to Instagram were covered in Black squares donning the hashtags, #blackouttuesday and #theshowmustbepaused, many were unsure of the origin of the Black Lives Matter trend. This social media influx was started by music industry executives Jamila Thomas and Brianna Agyemang, from Atlantic Records and Platoon after the deaths of Amaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, amongst many others. This was created in the effort to show solidarity and to acknowledge the impact the Black community has on music, with artists, record label CEOs, industry execs., etc.
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In a released statement they revealed, “Tuesday June 2nd is meant to intentionally disrupt the work week...It is a day to take a beat for an honest, reflective and productive conversation about what actions we need to collectively take to support the Black community.”
This led to different actions like labels, such as Warner Music Group and Sony Music, supporting the cause, Apple Music only playing the music of Black artists that day, and Spotify replacing the images of some of the playlists with Black tiles and creating a “Black Lives Matter” playlist with Black artists.
While many artists posted Black tiles on social media, some realized that while a post of that nature may bring about awareness, it isn’t enough to elicit change on a larger scale. Rapper Killer Mike gave a speech at an Atlanta press conference and spoke about discrimination towards Black police officers and how the Atlanta police department should work to reinforce the review board so that they can be ready for what was to come in their line of work.
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“We don’t need an officer that makes a mistake once, twice, three times and finally, he kills on national TV, and next thing you know the country is burning down,” he said.
Some artists even protested with demonstrators across the United States. Hip-Hop artist Kendrick Lamar was seen out protesting in his hometown, Compton, California, and J. Cole was also seen protesting in his hometown, Fayetteville, North Carolina.
Other artists created music to express their feelings about the Black Lives Matter movement and the subsequent events that happened after protests, further police brutality, and celebrations of being Black. Compton rapper YG released a song called “FTP”, an acronym for the phrase “F**k The Police”, where he calls for the defunding of the police. This song acts as a sequel to his last protest-oriented song, “FDT”, short for “F**k Donald Trump”. Beyonce also released a song on Juneteenth—a day to celebrate the emancipation of the last of slaves in 1865, two years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. The song titled, “Black Parade” is an anthem that acts as a celebration of Blackness. In the song, she celebrates her southern roots and recognizes Black history with lines like "Ankh charm on gold chains, with my Oshun energy."
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Other artists donated funds to different organizations to help with the advancement of Black people and effort to support Black Lives Matter. The Weeknd donated $500,000 split amongst many organizations including “Black Lives Matter Global Movement, The Colin Kaepernick Know Your Rights Camp Legal Defense Initiative and the National Bail Out”. Drake also donated to the National Bail Out fund giving $100,000 after he and the Weeknd were called out by Mustafa the Poet. Coming as a surprise to many, the K-Pop group, BTS and their management Big Hit Entertainment, donated 1 million dollars to Black Lives Matter and they are now encouraging other celebrities to do the same.
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On a completely different note, the movement and uncovering of many racist behaviors of people on social media led to a lot of self-reflection for some artists. For the country music band, Lady Antebellum, they decided that the word “antebellum” needed to be dropped from their name because of its connections with slavery.
With the new name, Lady A, the band released a statement apologizing for the “hurt this has caused and for anyone who has felt unsafe, unseen or unvalued" with the following explanation regarding their name, "But we are regretful and embarrassed to say that we did not take into account the associations that weigh down this word referring to the period of history before the civil war, which includes slavery."
Similarly the country music girl trio the Dixie Chicks also decided to drop the “dixie” from their name to disassociate themselves with the Confederate-era name that referenced the Southern United States.
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Though this isn’t everything that has been done in the music industry to better the Black community and attribute to the many causes, initiatives, and funds, it displays the large efforts that have been made toward the goal. With the Black community continuously shaping the music industry, it only makes sense that this industry would be the one giving back so generously.
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