Estelle was talking in a newspaper last week about the British record industry, and how she was dropped after having a hit, and had to travel to the US to be taken seriously, while meanwhile lots of white girls with 'black' voices enjoyed maximarketing and consequent chart success in the UK, claiming Aretha's legacy to boot.
Years ago when I started working at the University of the West, the idea was that graduates not only became performers, but also entered record labels as gatekeepers, opening the gates to- guess what? Performers from the University of the West!
The Brit school put this into practice much better, mainly because its students are so much younger and haven't reached their rock'n'roll deathbeds (the age of 23 for girls) by the time they graduate.
A taxi-driver friend benefited from the seventies concept of meritocracy by gaining a place at the National Film School and making films that people like him, a taxi driver, might want to watch. Now he says all the film-makers are called Damien and have rich daddies in the Shires.
Dangitall, the music biz always has been able to block out the oiks, until the oiks get their revenge by reinventing irritating noise that's much more appealing to the likes of them than custardy old Adele or Kate Nash, and tips the lot over. The 'Industry" (meat pie manufacturers to you and me) has an iron grip that squeezes the life out of hope and freshness and chucks disillusioned husks of people on to a pile of rejects. Avoid at all costs! Be an outsider musician unless you possess the noise and energy to frighten the life out of the cosy twats who filter what we listen to!
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