Black music has been colonized by white industrialists in the music industry for many years. One such example is Tupac. Tupac had his contract with Inter-scope. But he was handed over to death row records. He wanted to get rid of death row records but was unfortunately killed. It has been investigated that the black row records were involved in a fraudulent relationship with Tropic. Black music has always been in high demand. The music industry has always been dominated by black musicians. They also own big recording companies and production houses. However, the main problem exists when these black music leaders in the industry do not have any control over the distribution of the music. Distribution is mostly managed by the white industrialists in the music industry. At times when the demand for music had been flat, the demand for rap produced by black singers and musicians remained at its peak. Blacks had similar characteristics as far as their living standards were concerned. They have low income, live in residentially segregated areas, there is a high demand for products produced by the colonies but sold to wealthier areas and nations, low domestic savings, high birth rate, and low literacy rate. Such conditions make the lives of people of colour worse. However, black musicians have to suffer from similar conditions, too. They produced the music, but much of it was sold to the white youth. Black musicians and production companies received very low returns for the music they produced since they did not own the distribution of the music. This is termed a neo-colonial relationship by the author of the article.
Black leaders in the music industry have behaved in the same way as white supremacists. They degrade even people of their own colour. Black music is mostly produced by the lower and middle class, but profits and returns are always enjoyed by the white supremacists in the music industry. Black music has been subject to theft by whites. Even black leaders are involved in maintaining white supremacy and depriving blacks or blacks of the rights that they deserve.
Blacks are creative, and whites cannot ignore this creativity. They knew the tactics to capitalize on the opportunity that black musicians mostly belonged to lower-income groups and had less control over the material and music they produced. Blacks were deprived of their deserving returns, and whites took away most of the profit, ownership, and credit of the music. Even black leaders sided with the views of the white supremacists. If blacks had been considered workers and producers of creative music and art and had been given the credit they deserved, then these black musicians would have enjoyed fame, popularity, and wealth in the same way as other whites in the music industry. But this is not the case; black music was mostly owned by the whites, and they grasped every opportunity to make the best out of it. Black leaders are mostly the reason behind the worsening conditions of black musicians. They followed a similar set of assumptions as dictated by whites.
According to the author, the main reason why black musicians have always suffered and were deprived of their basic rights is that they were never united. Blacks themselves are self-segregated. Conditions for black musicians would have been much better if they had been given ownership of their music and were credited as founders of black music. Blacks would have enjoyed the same popularity as white musicians if they were united and had full control over the production and distribution of their content. Not only white but black elites have been involved in ruling the music industry despite the huge demand for black music (Kelley, 2000).
References
Kelley, N. (2000, October 1). The Political Economy of Black Music. Black Radical Congress – General News Articles/Reports.
