indignantnonsense - Tumblr blog

indignantnonsense · 4 months ago

Text

Chappell Roan is right

Jeff Rabhan is wrong. The Hollywood Reporters sucks and here's why i think so. Paragraph by paragraph. Just for my own sanity I guess.

I do largely agree with his first paragraph. I think collectively, music artists could make a great change. But as a collective union force, not as individual artists. I'm not certain if Rabhan would agree with me there, but I don't think it's likely.

In the second paragraph, he basically says that the way the music industry functions currently makes artists lots of money through royalties and credits, so it would make no sense for them to function as employers. This obviously ignores the countless artists that don't benefit from that system, like songwriters who are largely in the background and able to be hyper-exploited because of it. But it also ignores the very basic fact that most industries are not equitable when constructed purely by those profiting at the top. We have labor unions to thank for the changes that make industries better for their workers.

He's so condescending in the third paragraph with his obnoxious personal responsibility argument, concluding that labels basically don't owe artists shit because they pay advances and royalties. As if artists aren't the very reason they are able to make so much money in the first place. Just classic devaluing of workers as always.

He then tells Chappell to do something about it, in a continually condescending and patronizing manner. But why should she? Labels are the ones responsible for this. If she should do anything, it should be organizing with fellow musicians and artists to figure out how to withhold their labor to force labels to do the actions necessary to make their industry more equitable for all artists, large AND small.

His characterization in the next paragraph is honestly so out of touch and batshit. She is not a part of the establishment. She's been famous for 5 fucking minutes. Anything could happen, she could flop into obscurity within the next year and she would still need health insurance. She would still need a living wage. She would still have next to no work experience outside of the music industry to help her land a job where she could actually comfortably support herself. This happens all the time!

Even if she was a part of the establishment, she's right. She's speaking for the young girl inside of her that wasn't a famous artist. The girl who was dropped and learned the harsh lesson that if you aren't generating profit, than you're worthless. That none of these companies give a single fuck about any of us. They will run us dry, replace us and leave us out to rot in the cold.

Then it's just another throwaway paragraph with more condescension and telling her she can do something about it. Putting the responsibility back onto artists, instead of the labels with all the power, making most of the money off of these artists.

He follows this up in the next two paragraphs by explaining that labels are businesses that want to make money, and that's why they invest in their artists. He also points out that paying artists like salaried employees ignores the fundamental economic structure of the music business that he lays out for us. And, like, duh??

That economic structure is the problem. I'm not going to sit here and act like I intimately know the structures that allow the music industry function as it does currently. But as someone who dreamed and tried to be apart of that world growing up, I know it ain't great. I know Chappell knows much more about it than I do, and she knows it ain't great either.

Other industries have been able to make positive change with collective organizing and by withholding their labor. He should look into how the film industry operated before SAG became a recognized union. A union that was only recognized because of the resounding 98% of actors who voted to go on strike and scared the ever loving shit out of the production companies.

Holy fuck, not the ayahuasca shaman and toilet that speaks four languages. What the actual ever loving fuck. You know you're on the wrong side of history when you equate a call for something as basic as healthcare with this outlandish garbage. What a petulant child of a man making an argument. Yes, businesses operate like businesses. But also, people deserve healthcare and to be able to criticize those businesses.

He then spends the next paragraph championing Roan to call on the Beyonces, Taylors and Biebers of the industry to fund a top down approach to these issues. This part is soooo funny to me. Don't get me wrong, those three are titans of the industry. They cannot flop themselves into obscurity at this point in their careers the way Chappell can. But to act like they are the ones at the top, and not labels, is so laughable that I just can't.

He then plays the "others have it worse" card in order to tell her to stop complaining for basically the whole paragraph. And immediately follows up by pointing out that an advance is an investment not a salary and that investing in an artist is a risk. He's not wrong, that how things work. But how dehumanizing? Why do they HAVE to work that way? Because that's how it's always been done? Because if that's the reason, its a terrible one.

He then says it sounds like a union thing. Which I agree with. But he takes all the blame completely off labels and blames it on problems with the industry. As if labels aren't the industry. And yes, he is right again that artists can negotiate their deals however they want, but that doesn't change the other fact that those contracts are often extremely exploitative if not negotiated properly. And the power imbalance going into those negotiations is very much in the labels favor.

He then goes on to say isn't an advance a living wage? After arguing that an advance is an investment/loan, not a salary two paragraphs earlier. I find it interesting that he doesn't find those two arguments contradictory.

I also really don't understand the one sentence paragraph "'Let's be revolutionaries -- right after my direct deposit hits.' is a sham." I really, really don't understand what this means. Like at all. Maybe that revolutionary sentiments are disingenuous if they're aimed at individuals making more money? Or that she's being paid to be revolutionary? I dunno, maybe it's me, but I just don't get it.

Bill Maher does not have a point. Activists do not have to understand the complexities of the issues they're addressing to call for the change of those exact issues. Nothing would ever be accomplished if that were the case. You see a problem, call for change and then organize and learn in the process. I have learned a lot of the intricacies of how Sbux operates from our union/bargaining. But I knew our floors were understaffed before then. And learning those intricacies have just altered the approach to these issues, not the need to fix them. I don't want to hear BS like this from people who have never organized a day in their life.

I also love how he deems how uniformed she is from a single Grammy speech that only lasted a couple minutes. This man has done nothing that indicates to me that he has ever spoken with Roan to know how informed or uninformed she is. I will also never take an opinion seriously if it is being used to justify Zionism. Fuck Bill Maher and fuck this patronizing reasoning.

Blah blah blah...don't bite the hand that feeds you blah blah...profiting from a system you are forced to participate in, in order to have a career, means her criticism of the labels/the music industry means nothing and should be dismissed. That's some "You cannot criticize capitalism because you have a smartphone" ass shit.

Now he's wrapping up by basically telling her to be the change she wants to see. I totally agree there but not with the example he gives for her to help. I'm always going to favor union/labor organizing over starting any sort of NGO. I think it's always going to be more effective, give individuals more power and shift the onus for change back on the businesses that profit off of artist's labor, instead of the artists being exploited.

The second to last paragraph starts just as condescending as the rest. He then explains why the industry sucks and says that "good intentions can't overshadow reality" and "it's not cynicism, it's acceptance. " As if artists should just accepts that this is the way it is and can't change it. Which is really funny to me because It goes back to my point on the NGOs he suggested she start. How can he simultaneously call for her to start these in order to enact change, only to follow it up by saying to just accept it. Because this is problem with the labels that needs to be changed and NGOs can't do that. He wants her to put a band aid over a bullet hole and not question why she's bleeding.

His last paragraph is just total BS. Yes, we need to bring people together and champion change but his article hasn't done anymore for that cause than her Grammy speech has. At least her speech inspired a conversation that he is now mucking up with his condescending, bootlicking bullshit.

I do want artists to come to the table. The bargaining table. That's where workers make the biggest impact in their industries. By coming together as a collective, putting their heads together and coming up with creative solutions that they can then bring to the bargaining table to create a legally binding contract to hold companies' accountable for the wellbeing of the people the profit off the labor of. And withhold their labor to demand those changes.

Music artists may not be employees, but they are workers. They sell their labor to the ownership class, the labels. It's a tale as old as capitalism and unions have always been the solution. It's not easy but it's effective. I have no idea how artists would withhold their labor to leverage labels to do better. But I think if you could get music artists to organize together, as actors, writers, and many in the film industry have in the past, that they could effectively come up with those actions themselves.

I trust them to do so much better than some ex-label executive who can't exercise the restraint required to criticize someone without outright insulting and talking down to them for the world to see only to crash out on Twitter when he got a fraction of the pushback from the artist he criticized.

#chappell roan #grammys #union #unionizing #labor rights #the hollywood reporter #jeff rabhan

9 notes · View notes