Art Held Hostage
Capitol Records, The Music Industry, and the Fight For Artistic Freedom
It was in 2021 when Morrissey confirmed he had finished recording new album, Bonfire Of Teenagers. Shortly after, it was announced that Capitol Records would release the project and fans across the globe waited for what they assumed would be the imminent arrival of the artist’s 14th solo studio album.
As of today, the record has still not been released, Capitol Records show no sign of Morrissey on their artist’s roster, and the company has declined to comment on requests from the press to clarify the album's status.
In an announcement on Morrissey’s own website, Central, a statement read:
“Capitol Records (Los Angeles) proudly promotes Sam Smith’s ‘Satanism’ yet they consider the honest truth of Morrissey’s Bonfire Of Teenagers to be their biggest threat, and they will not release it despite their contractual obligation to do so.”
What is to become of Bonfire Of Teenagers? It is ready to be unleashed, the artist wants it released, and fans demand to hear it on social media, yet nothing appears to be happening. We have reached a dead end. How and why has this situation come to be? Morrissey’s current predicament is unfortunately not an uncommon situation in the music world.
One doesn’t have to dig too deeply to see that Capitol Records/Universal Music Group have a history of treating artists this way. Morrissey is the latest in a long line of creatives who have suffered a similar fate.
When Morrissey’s single — the only one so far to be lifted from Bonfire Of Teenagers — was released, fans loved it. Rebels Without Applause was an infectious earworm of a track that showed promise for the forthcoming album.
The trouble is, many of his fans didn’t even hear the song upon initial release. The single appeared to have dropped out of nowhere overnight, without his label's announcement or promotion. It appears as though a significant number of Morrissey’s Spotify followers (approx. 2 million) were not alerted to the single through Release Radar, which is an industry standard for any new track, maximizing the reach of a song.
It’s little wonder that the single failed to match the success of Morrissey’s other more recent releases. This seemed to be the first red flag that things might not be going to plan.
Failure of promotion isn’t just something Morrissey has suffered with. In my own interview with Grammy Award winner Van Hunt for Made In Shoreditch Magazine in 2021, he said it was often businessmen who tried to change his art and the direction of his career.
The singer, who has also been signed with Capitol (and experienced a fall-out after they dropped his album from their release schedule in 2007) explained:
“During that time, the influences at the top of the hierarchy were heavy-handed. Men who have no instinct for the spirit of sound were trying to tell me what parts of my expression were valid.
It was really quite absurd — the kind of thing you would only encounter in a society overrun with delusion. A delusion predicated on the fictional status we give people who have more money than we…and of course, their importance is based on nothingness, but it has very real consequences.”
Hunt, who fought long and hard to have his album Popular released, ended up waiting a long and arduous ten years before the project saw the light of day under Blue Note Records/Capitol.
Lack of promotion is one thing, but it’s an altogether different issue when an album is put on the back burner by the people who are supposed to be supporting it. American rapper Ras Kass was due to release his third album, Van Gogh, with Capitol Records in 2001, but Capitol shelved the project — and would not give the artist back his rights to the album, either. Kass then engaged in a public dispute with the label, eventually filing a lawsuit against them. After a long-winded battle, the artist settled, and Kass was then free to pursue deals with other companies — which is all he ever wanted.
For some on the Capitol label, being freed from their contract is not on the cards. Take for instance Sky Ferreira, who joined Capitol Records when she was just 15 years old. After a period of time, it became evident that the music giant wanted to mould Ferreira into a “Britney 2.0,” which was everything the singer herself said she wanted to avoid.
Ferreira had several disputes with the label, according to an interview in 2022, and accused them of sabotage. In that interview, Ferreira said she felt she was “set up to fail” by Capitol, and accused them of negligence for leaving some of her music off streaming platforms and blocking various collaborations that she wanted to take part in at that time.
In a Tweet, Ferreira said,
“It feels like I’m forever cock blocked for being somewhat vocal about this and bringing it to their attention. I will be shut down and held back for being ‘difficult.’”
A petition started online by her fans at Change.org states that “Sky’s debut album came out nine years ago, and since then we’ve only had two songs. Her label Capitol is blocking/won’t support and promote her new album…”
Another example can be found with American rock band Splashdown, who, after a successful debut, found their follow-up album shelved by the label. For reasons that remain unclear, Capitol Records would not release the record but also retained the copyright, meaning that the band could not release the album with any other label.
Fearing Capitol would own any future songs and lacking energy after their fight with their label, the band members announced in 2001 that they were on an “indefinite hiatus” and stated that their time as Splashdown had ended.
What of those artists who tried to stand up for their work and regain control? In April 2022, music website Digital Music News reported that nine musicians were suing Capitol Records/Universal Music Group in a class action lawsuit because they wanted to regain control of their masters. In effect, the musicians wanted to take back control of their old music recordings with the label, claiming that the company was ignoring its obligation to return the masters when asked. In January of this year, however, Billboard reported that the judge involved in the case stated that the UMG artists cannot sue the labels in a class-action suit, given the complexities of each artist’s case. However, he said that the case raised big questions over the issue of fairness between artist and label.
Similarly, US glam metal band Poison (who formed in 1983 and had a string of top 40 hits through to the 90s) sued Capitol and EMI for violating its recording contract. An article for The Hollywood Reporter stated that Poison’s complaint referred to Capitol incorrectly calculating royalties, making wrongful deductions, failing to account for certain domestic licensing income, and paying royalties on compilation albums.
Of course, Capitol Records are not unique in this regard. There have been many well-known disputes between artists and their labels. An article by CBS details several high-profile rifts between singers and labels, including singer Michael Jackson who accused Sony of failing to promote his 2001 album Invincible. Jackson said, “The recording companies really, really do conspire against the artists — they steal, they cheat, they do everything they can.” Prince, too, had a very public fall-out with his record label Warner Bros, when he felt he was being blocked from releasing the music he wanted to and wanted to own the original masters of his albums.
The seeds of discontent seem to have been scattered liberally through the music world, leaving many artists feeling trapped, dissatisfied, and powerless. There appears to be an oppressive hierarchy in which an artist is left at a dead-end without an option for moving forward. For entertainers who may not have the recourse to fight against some of the giants of the industry, there is a feeling of disenchantment that the beauty of art in this world is held captive by men in suits who can derail a project at will — and with little or no justification.
As rapper Ras Kass stated in an open letter to Capitol,
“As a corporation, EMI/Capitol Records has a financial obligation to it’s shareholders to make sure that it’s stock goes up each quarter, but at some point isn’t there some ethical obligation to it’s employees (artists) to be humane and show some degree of moral turpitude?”
The world of art and business do not readily mix, it would seem. For singers, songwriters, and entertainers, the world of writing and performing is not of this world, and yet everything that they release is in the hands of companies entrenched in a system of conformity, profit, and cold and calculated appraisals. Very little regard is given to the artist behind the contract.
For music legend Morrissey, it remains to be seen whether Capitol Records will eventually release his album Bonfire Of Teenagers, or whether they will even respond to press requests to confirm what is happening with the 11-track project. Do they have plans to eventually release it? Have they shelved it? If so, why? Why do they decline to confirm either way?
Already highly anticipated by fans, Bonfire Of Teenagers is an album Morrissey appears very proud of. The singer debuted a string of tracks from the upcoming record during his recent tour to a rapturous reception from fans. However, it appears Bonfire Of Teenagers is yet another example of when art is held hostage by those in power.
