Support Diversity in Music (and in everything else too)

I wrote late last summer that I would go away for a while, learn, and come back with some advice for how to support diversity in music.

If you take only one call to action away from this blog post, let it be this: follow and support voices of people who are different from you. It’s simple and easy, but better than blog posts (including this one) and “top ten lists”; it is the best way that I have found to develop and sustain diversity of my support of artists, movements, organizations, authors, and more.

Though I still have a lot to learn (and will continue to do the work), here are some tips for supporting diversity in music.

BE A SUPERFAN

As I noted here, the advice I offer in Superfans for how to be a superfan still applies, with a few adjustments below:

1. buy merchandise and music directly from the artists’ websites or stores

2. stream music on platforms that pay more in royalties

3. support artists on social media — repost their releases, follow them, send them kind notes

For #2, I recommend using Bandcamp to discover and support artists. Bandcamp supports artists directly every day and donates 100% of their share of sales to NAACP on Juneteenth. Use their tags to discover sub-genres and curated lists like black-bandcamp, which was “[m]ade to showcase, leverage and directly support as many black artists, producers and labels from different spectrums of music as possible.”

To get you started, on Juneteenth last year, Vulture published this curated list of 19 Black musicians to support on Bandcamp.

Soundcloud is another great platform for ensuring that your streaming dollars go directly to the artists you listen to. The platform just announced what they call “fan-powered royalties”, a model which pays out subscription or ad-based revenue to the artists based on the customer who contributed that revenue actual streams. Essentially, if I listen to Chance the Rapper on Soundcloud, even via a free account with ads, the artist’s share of the money Soundcloud makes from the subscriptions of the users who listen to Chance the Rapper or from the ads the free account users watch while listening to Chance the Rapper would actually go directly to Chance the Rapper. (You may be thinking, “Wait this is new? This isn’t how it’s been working all along?” Yes, it’s new!)

When practicing superfan support #3, share and follow more than just your very favorite (or very famous) artists. The more diversity in those you engage with on social media, the more diversity in the music, experiences, and thoughts you’ll see in your feed. This is simple, easy, and effective — if you’re going to mindlessly scroll through social media while rewatching Psych, you should follow Black musicians so you’ll learn something at the same time. You’ll likely find out about other music you enjoy or organizations to support in the meantime.

BE MORE THAN A LISTENER — BE A SUPPORTER

It’s important to support organizations aimed at educating the public about the immense influence on music and the performing arts that the Black community has had and furthering that influence.

Donate to non-profit organizations with varying missions aimed at supporting Black musicians, such as:

• The Coalition for African Americans in the Performing Arts, which offers educational programs, promotion through concerts, scholarships, and other resources to accomplish their vision of “promot[ing] opportunities for Black classical musicians and others in the performing arts through arts performances, education, and outreach.”
• Music by Black Composers which aims to increase the diversity in the education of young composers and musicians, and in “the ranks of performers, composers, and audiences,” and to “make the music of Black composers available to all people regardless of background or ethnicity.”
• The National Association of Negro Musicians, Inc. which “promotes, preserves, and supports all genres of music created or performed by African-Americans” through scholarships, encouragement, education, and more.

Here’s a list of other organizations aimed at supporting Black artists in general and not just in music. It’s important to lift up all areas of creativity and culture.

LEVERAGE ALGORITHMS AND INFLUENCERS

It sounds like a no-brainer, but by following just a few new Black artists on your preferred streaming or social media platforms, you’ll start to broaden your musical tastes and ultimately supporting a more diverse group of artists from all cultures. You’ll start to hear more stories that will highlight both the work we have to do to improve and the good that is out there in the world that we can capitalize on.

A good way to start is by leveraging built-in features of streaming platforms like curated lists. Spotify also has playlists to promote discovering diverse voices, like “Black Lives Matter”, or they host artist “takeovers” resulting in playlists like “Black Girl Magic” by Koryn Hawthorne which features Black female artists. Once you start to follow those artists on Spotify or Instagram, you’ll receive recommendations for similar artists naturally through algorithmically created playlists or curated posts.

IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT MUSIC

My final word here is that in order to promote diversity in music, we need to be anti-racist every single day in everything we do; we need to promote diversity of thought, culture, art, music, food, business, education… everything.

We need to STOP telling musicians of all races and ethnicities and backgrounds that they should “focus on music” and “stay out of politics.” Music is an expression of the human experience — all of the human experience. For a musician to speak out against racism, sexism, classism, homophobia, etc. is for a musician to speak about their human experience or what they want the human experience to be — equitable, free of hatred, and full of acceptance and love. If anything, artists are the most qualified to share their views because of their intense study of the human experience. I applaud them for being more courageous and vulnerable than any of us on any given day.

It’s not just about music. I was brought to tears by Amanda Gorman’s performance of “The Hill We Climb” on Inauguration Day. I started to follow her on social media right afterwards, of course, since I wanted to learn more about her journey and support her. I’ve never felt this way about an Inauguration performance or poet before and I attended Barack Obama’s Inauguration in person in 2012 when I lived in DC. I haven’t audited my social media accounts but I’m willing to bet she’s the only poet I follow.

Following Ms. Gorman has been so rewarding. Not only is she brilliant and talented, she has shared stories which have opened and re-opened my eyes. Recently, she shared a story with us on social media of an all too familiar scene in which the security guard of her apartment building called her “suspicious” and questioned if she lived there. After proving she did, he did not apologize to her. Quite frankly, the security guard’s behavior was racist, unacceptable, and wrong. Ms. Gorman tweeted about her experience: “This is the reality of black girls: One day you’re called an icon, the next day, a threat.”

Had I not followed her because of her fantastic performance at the Inauguration, I probably would not have heard this story. I wouldn’t have been reminded of the work we still have to do. I wouldn’t have been reminded that this is the experience of Black people all over the world, and especially at home in America. I wouldn’t have felt the deep empathetic pain that I felt when I read about her experience.

For her birthday, Amanda Gorman asked that we donate to these special non-profit organizations that helped her along her journey. I plan to give back to those who supported her so that they can continue to do good work supporting others like her.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I still have a long journey ahead. My world has become less and less diverse as I’ve moved from Lehigh University to Washington, DC to Boston, MA. I acknowledge that. I am committed to becoming a better and an anti-racist person. I want to help create a world in which women like Amanda Gorman aren’t followed to their apartment complex entrance by peppered with questions by racist security guards, in which innocent men aren’t pepper-sprayed and accosted by racist police, and in which people aren’t murdered and peppered with rubber bullets.

Supporting diversity in the arts is just a very small start.