Common Issues within the Music Industry with Jack Salter | Feature

I sat down once again with Jack Salter, to discuss common, yet inexcusable issues within the modern day music industry. The issues in discussion are things personally deprecating that needed a little delving into to find out more information. Here's what we found and discussed:

Reading Festival 2020 Lineup, just the female acts

Issues within the music industry is an uncomfortably common subject. These topics seem to pop up at every corner of the industry and regrettably, they’re usually legitimately discussed each time. What’s more important though, is why these things make themselves such a common occurrence. Why haven’t they changed and is anything happening to stop them? Jack Salter, a BIMM guitar student from Southampton and independent tech-death metal and prog writer, came and discussed some of the problems within the music industry and how they’ve been approached by either the public or the relevant parties.

Beginning with the most repetitively debated issues, there’s a lack of female representation within the music industry. A statement in regards to why this is a problem particularly in the music industry is arguably the most misread statement of all time: ‘women aren’t as interested in music as men’. This both is and isn’t the case. Women in general are indeed seemingly less interested in pursuing careers in music than men, however as Jack Salter put it: “it’s symptomatic of a problem that existed a long time ago, and still to this day to some degree, where record labels and A&R reps only really care about female artists if they think they can sell them.” The reason that women aren’t interested in pursuing this career is because they don’t want their body or looks to be the reason they make it in life. So why is this still a complication post-20th century? Most likely because little has actually been done about it - until recently, it was only discussed in physical conversations; in comparison to other issues such as AIs or streaming taking over the business, this issue is hardly covered. There’s been a slight boom in coverage following primarily the Reading Festival UK lineup announcement including only 19 female-led acts (Broadhurst, 2020), against 82 male-led acts. Luckily, according to Salter, change is just around the corner: “By [Billie Eilish} coming forward and predominantly wearing baggy clothes, making a lot of statements about it, and speaking out against sexualising female celebrities when they don’t want to be - I think that that’s gonna push a lot of future female artists to stand up against labels wanting them to sell themselves.” Billie is just one of a few female artists starting to use their platform to speak against the wave of thinly disguised misogyny, so perhaps we will start to see a difference soon.

Another common issue within the music industry is one that never gets given much thought, in fact it was only brought to our attention when Jack mentioned it in the interview - the (UK) government’s distinct lack of support towards the creative arts, including the music industry. What has been mentioned, however, is the lack of money in the industry. This is very clearly through an absence of funding but it’s never been really thought into. One very clear example of the government’s nonchalance is summarised by Jack Salter: “they've cut the school budgeting for music continuously in every yearly budget.” They’ve done this for most of the creative arts taught in schools too. The cuts began almost as soon as the conservative government came into power; in October 2010 it was announced that Arts Council England (ACE) was going to have a budget cut of almost 30% (BBC, 2010). “[With the current situation (COVID-19)] it’s so blatant that they do not care. I’m sure they know that so much of the music industry is self-employed… It's been a real massive issue for gigging musicians who make their wage that way and the government has just turned a blind-eye.” Not much more needs to be said on that. Unfortunately this is another situation where not much can be done by anyone except those responsible, but the opposing party have and still are trying their best to push more change that benefits the many. One final statement that Salter wanted to say before closing the interview, is: “Don’t vote for a tory government if you want to be paid.”

Despite all these issues in the music industry, it has to be credited for all the good things that can come out of it. For example, we have some amazing role models such Lizzo, Demi Lovato, Billie Eilish, Hayley Williams, Sam Carter, Harry Styles, Rou Reynolds, and Cory Henry, for all the young people in the world. We have some comforting songs to help through both the good and bad times, and of course world-class entertainment than anyone can access.