Reimagining the Music Industry: Black Power, Control and Equity

Catalog description

This 14-week colloquium puts students in direct conversation with executives, entrepreneurs, and artists to answer the question: What would a truly equitable music business look like for Black Americans? The music business was founded in the early 1900s, in the midst of the Jim Crow era, and the modern industry still retains its contours. Segmented into market sectors which segregate both artists and executives by race and ethnicity, the business of music — by structure and design — continues to place white executives in charge of marketing a culture largely derived from Black Americans, while placing artists and executives of color in marginalized positions. And yet, the narrative of the music business has not been one of constant defeat for Black Americans. In fact, most of the progress out of Jim Crow has been the result of a succession of Black entrepreneurial successes and victories; and these strategies give us also a great sense of possibility. The American music industry, like so many other institutions, is currently being challenged by coalitions and initiatives, as never before, to confront and overcome its deep structural inequities. Racism is far from the only problem: There is the systematic diminishment and exclusion of women; patriarchy and sexism are twinned with and reinforce white dominance. Instead of incremental reform, what actions could we take, both inside and outside the business, to create more radical models that no longer disenfranchise Black people, diminish women, and center whiteness? The final projects will put these ideas into the forms of actionable proposals and business plans.