Taylor Swift Could Change the Lives of Thousands of Independent Artists Right Now
So the latest in the music industry, depending on who you ask, is either:
- Signing of the Music Modernization Act into law.
- Taylor Swift following Trent Reznor’s lead.
It will take me some time to go through the MMA (it’s over 100 pages long), so for this post I will concentrate on news item number 2.
When Trent Reznor called out Swift over the summer, I was skeptical anything would come of it. Fact is, Swift and Reznor could not be more different kinds of artists, but here’s where we can distinguish between artist and brand. Music is about changes: changes in chords, tempo, meter, lyric content, tension finding its way to resolution and back to tension. As artists, both Reznor and Swift will continue to change and evolve, such as Reznor’s shift to instrumental music on Ghosts or Swift’s shift from country music act to pop starlet.
The brand, by contrast, is what stays the same. I’ve written on Reznor’s fierce independence before. That fierce independence is what defines his brand. Because of this fierce independence, the artist Nine Inch Nails can be allowed to produce grubby music with gritty lyrics. It’s also what allows for him to speak so brazenly of Taylor Swift in public. From Trent Reznor we expect such radical honesty. Things we know Trent Reznor’s feelings on include: the US government, Coachella, and The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
But Taylor Swift’s brand is firmly mainstream. For Taylor Swift to say anything political would bring a total rebirth of her brand. And, as the woman herself pointed out in her Instagram post, this is really the first time she’s said anything political.
There’s good reason for Taylor Swift to be reluctant to share her views. Look what happened to the Dixie Chicks when they spoke out publicly in 2003 against the War in Iraq: not only was the backlash harsh from their fans, but some say they were blacklisted. And Taylor Swift not only has herself to provide for but an entire team of people who she hires, possibly in the hundreds, who depend upon her brand for their own salaries.
So we can understand the caution Taylor Swift feels when entering the world of politics. Taylor Swift for entering into the world of politics with caution. Meanwhile, I understand and support Trent Reznor’s (and the Dixie Chicks’) need to enact their passion in almost anything they do. Still, as before I mentioned with Reznor, I wonder if there’s a greater crossroads of the political and the artistic that these artists could be using their brands to comment on.
Taking that a step further, what is possible when artists apply the power of their brand to shine a light on the struggle of the working artist?
No matter what happens with the Music Modernization Act, it’s going to be years before many artists start seeing the effects hit their pocketbooks. For now, it’s a great shame that our musicians can’t get paid for the work they do. Taylor Swift had great success years ago pulling her entire catalogue from Spotify. It got her a better deal, and the same could be true if she used that power to help other independent artists.
If Taylor Swift, Rihanna, and Kanye West were to release an album called Pay The Artists Right, we might actually be getting somewhere.
