Tweedy’s plan, while conversant with and influenced by the idea of reparations, is, at the moment, still structured to redistribute money to traditional non-profit organizations, rather than to individual victims of music-industry-wide racial injustice. It is focused, for now, on the publishing wing of the industry, which Tweedy sees as a focal point for a great deal of the economic racial injustice that has historically taken place in music.
Thus far, Tweedy has been disappointed by the lack of support, public or private, by his fellow artists for the idea he’s proposed. One of the precious few artists who have joined Tweedy’s call to action is Nashville singer-songwriter Erin Rae. “When I saw Jeff’s tweet, it really energized me,” says Rae, who’s already reached out to her performing rights organization, SESAC, to see if it’d be possible to implement the opt-in option.
So, with everything that’s been happening the past few months, like a lot of people, I’ve taken it as a call to be introspective and listen and examine what my role in it is. On one hand, I feel like I could pat myself on the back and say, “Well, this is stuff I’ve been aware of and have tried to be on the right side of and be an ally,” and I think that is mostly true.
It’s not an exaggeration to say our culture wouldn’t be our culture without black genius. There’s a shameful history there, and there are things the industry should still be ashamed of. There are things about the way black artists are treated today that are different and unfair. It’s always been something that I thought, “Surely, in an industry that is so full of forward momentum and progressive ideals, and really being at the forefront of integration and a lot of things that the music business should be very proud of, in my opinion…” You can be proud of having led, in some regards, but it’s not going to last for long if you don’t commit to the full picture. To me, the full picture embraces the finances and the economy of how things have played out in our country.
For a black artist to succeed, almost across the board, most of them have needed to have a white audience, and that’s part of what we were talking about before — what kind of venues they have access to, what kind of financial state their black brothers and sisters are in. A lot of these communities do not have disposable income for concert-going.
Jimmy Page is soiling himself over the very thought thief
Yeah. Corona we have fantastic problems more on soil, Have a deal with North of whaat it, Suppose next to Invanka! I build the wall with North Korean freeedom fighters! Please stay Washington, Russia is nat ready fa Yo!
Sorry, but Tweedy should see a larger picture here. ALL musicians deserve reparations, not only from what record companies and stream services have done to screw the actual artists, but from execs that now determine what gets play, and what doesn’t
Great article. What being an ally looks like in my opinion. Kudos to him for starting the conversation
Is that the right word, Tweedy? You wanna go with reparations?! Shit. Let’s not name it
Where does Vanilla Ice stand on this?
Never thought to go there but it makes all the sense - but the problem is that the culture and value system is so exploitive that even black people use this model. ..”Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”(James Baldwin)
what is unaddressed is the need to abolish slavery NOW, TONITE in countries that still hold slave AUCTIONS TODAY Countries like China, India, Russia, Libya, West Africa are SELLING THOUSANDS of PEOPLE EVERYDAY for money, not this overprivileged empire of blame, END MODERN Slavery
JeffTweedy Universal MG & Sony should also consider reparations because they now own the rights&masters to so many of the country music labels of the 1960s & 1970s that allowed their country talent to appear at rallies for segregationist George C. Wallace
attention Rolling Stones, Elvis, 311, Jack White, etc
And he better start looking to the minority community if you want to do all that now
JeffTweedy is right.
Garbage!!
Artists borrow from artists all the time but when one ostracized group is unable to participate and profit from the creations so much is based on, it’s straight up theft.
No. It’s white culture
Chills reading that, so true