Are Music Industry Firms Not Supporting Palestinians' BDS Campaign?

Most U.S. antiwar and Palestinian solidarity Movement music fans in the USA and elsewhere in 2024 are opposed to the Israeli government's continued war on people in Gaza and support the call of Palestinian solidarity Movement organizers around the globe for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions [BDS] campaign in which musicians refuse to perform in Israel and music industry firms divest themselves of their Israeli business operations.

Yet in recent years, some music industry firms apparently expanded their business operations within Israel.  As an article by Shirley Halperin that was posted on the Variety magazine website on May 25, 2022 noted:

"Warner Music Group has opened an office in Israel. The new recorded music affiliate is headed by Mariah Mochiach, a veteran of the Israeli music industry...Warner Music Israel, based in Tel Aviv, will locally market and promote artists from the WMG roster....

"Recorded music revenue in Israel saw a rise of 10.2% in 2021...and international music companies have taken notice, with Live Nation and Universal Music Group opening Tel Aviv outposts in recent years....Superstar artists are returning to the country, routing a Tel Aviv stop among tour dates in the region... At Warner, Israel will be part of the Eastern Mediterranean region covering Cyprus, Greece, Israel and Turkey.

"In her new position, Mochiach reports to Alfonso Perez-Soto, president of emerging markets, Warner Recorded Music...

“`I’m honored to be able to open Warner Music Israel for business,' said Mochiach. `Our country is full of unique and extraordinary talent which we hope to propel onto the global stage...'....”

"Added Perez-Soto: `...We hope to turn Warner Music Israel into a powerhouse full of local stars... offering artists the opportunity to tap into Warner Music’s renowned global network...'"

And as Shirley Halperin also observed in an article that was posted on the Variety magazine website on July 29, 2022:

"...In 2021, UMG opened a Tel Aviv office housing a recorded music division and an arm of Universal Music Publishing Group...

"The key factor, says Warner’s Mochiach, is that these artists `are also fluent in English, which is an advantage when it comes to doing international promotion. …'"

Despite the failure of these music industry firms to support the Palestinian solidarity Movement's call for a cultural boycott of Israel, even many commercially-motivated pop musicians had already endorsed the BDS campaign prior to the post-October 7, 2023 Israeli war machine's military actions in Gaza, which have killed over 27,000 people--including thousands of women, children and non-combatant civilian men--as of February 1, 2024. As an article that the New Arab website posted on May 29, 2021 had previously noted:

"Over 600 musicians, including Rage Against the Machine, have signed an open letter calling on other artists to boycott performances in Israel until it ends its occupation of the Palestinian territories.

"The letter, organized under the banner "Musicians for Palestine," follows growing widespread condemnation of Israel and support for Palestine from leading public figures and celebrities...  

"`As musicians, we cannot be silent. Today it is essential that we stand with Palestine. We are calling on our peers to publicly assert their solidarity with the Palestinian people. Complicity with Israeli war crimes is found in silence, and today silence is not an option'" the letter read.

"`Today, we speak together and demand justice, dignity and the right to self-determination for the Palestinian people and all who are fighting colonial dispossession and violence across the planet,' it added...

"The open letter asks fellow artists to refuse `to perform at Israel's complicit cultural institutions...and...stand...firm in...support of the Palestinian people and their human right to sovereignty and freedom'." 

Post-1981 Rock Concert Ticket Price Hikes Revisited

 

As Sean Kay recalled in his 2017 book Rockin' The Free World: How The Rock & Roll Revolution Changed America And The World:

"..The price of concert tickets (often channeled through corporations like Live Nation and Ticketmaster) went up. By 2012, the average concert ticket price had increased abour 400 percent since 1981. This far outpaced the 150 percent increase in overall consumer price inflation."

The same book also indicated how the ownership of the corporate media radio stations which air rock music in the USA became more monopolized by only a few corporate media conglomerates--after Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs [SIPA] Professor and Columbia University SIPA's Institute of Global Politics Director Hillary Clinton's husband--Bill Clinton--signed the Telecommunications Act of 1996:

"By 2012 only 6 national corporations owned 90 percent of media outlets. The Future of Music Coalition found in 2006 that the top 4 radio station owners had almost half the listeners and the top 10 almost two-thirds of listeners in the United States. Local or regional ownership had declined by one-third between 1975 and 2005. The Future of Music Coalition concluded that `...radio consolidation has no demonstrated benefit for the public.'...

"This consolidation trend results from President Bill Clinton signing the...Telecommunications Act of 1996...Large companies--many with direct interest in controlling what programming aired--bought out regional and smaller market stations...The Future of Music Coalition shows advertising revenue increased from 12 percent market share for the top 4 companies in 1993 to 50 percent market share for the top 4 companies in 2004 while playlists from commonly owned stations in the same format overlapped up to 97 percent. For example, Clear Channel (now iHeart Radio), the Future of Music Coalition showed, `multiplied its stations holdings by a factor of 30, going from 40 stations to 1,200 within 5 years of the Telecom Act.'...

"Common Cause found that between 1997 and 2005, 8 of the nation's largest communications companies and 3 of their trade groups had spent more than $400 million on political contributions and lobbying in Washington..." 

Steve Chapple & Reebee Garofalo's `Rock`N' Roll Is Here To Pay' Book Revisited: Part 4

 

In their 1977 book, Rock'N'Roll Is Here To Pay: The History and Politics of the Music, Steve Chapple & Reebee Garofalo recalled the pre-1977 history and politics of the U.S. corporate rock music industry in the following way:

"The critical effect of rock music was lost...The music became separated from the political ferment that had provided it with its critical edge...in the...sixties...

"...The potential for cooptation of rock music had always been present...Economically rock music has never posed a problem for the capitalist organization of the economy. Whether in the form of a record, a tape, a concert ticket, or a booking agency fee, rock music was a packaged commodity...

"Most political `censorship' of record artists is self-censorship...It has been estimated that at least 50 superstars make more than a million dollars [equal to around $4.9 million in 2023] each year [in late 1970s]. The money puts the musician in a qualitatively different position than most of his audience...

"Some of the highest paid musicians become sophisticated corporate investors. Bob Dylan owns oil stock, for instance, and Neil Young owns a string of shopping centers. His ventures are managed by Segal, Rubenstein & Gordon, Los Angeles financial counselors...Top stars, the Rolling Stones being a particularly spectacular example, have become part of the standard bourgeois jet set...

"At this point it should be evident that the vast majority of rock music does little to challenge...the basis of American society--production for private profit...For now, of course, rock'n'roll is here to pay. It is a packaged commodity which enriches a few monopoly corporations..."

Steve Chapple & Reebee Garofalo's `Rock'N'Roll Is Here To Pay' Book Revisited: Part 3

In their 1977 book, Rock'N'Roll Is Here To Pay: The History and Politics of the Music, Steve Chapple & Reebee Garofalo recalled the pre-1977 history and politics of the U.S. corporate rock music industry in the following way:

"Shortly after their introduction to America in 1964, the Beatles re-released such classics as `Roll Over Beethoven' by Chuck Berry, `Twist and Shout' by Isley Brothers, Barrett Strong's `Money', the Shirelles' `Boys', `Long Tall Sally' by Little Richard. Similarly, the Animals brought back Ray Charles's `Hit the Road Jack' (written by Mayfield) and Sam Cooke's `Shake'. The Rolling Stones did Rufus Thomas's `Walking the Dog,' `Hitchhike' by Marvin Gaye, a number of Chuck Berry tunes including `Carol', `Talking About You', and `Around and Around'...

"...The Beatles along with the dozens of other English groups that quickly followed them were...more marketable than the black artists they imitated....Black acts in general showed a sharp decline on the singles chart from an all-time high of 42 percent in 1962 to 22 percent in 1966...On the album charts, only 3 of the Top 50 LPs for the year 1964 and 1965 were by black artists...Virtually the only black music on white radio, during this period, was produced out of Motown...It is hard to imagine Eric Clapton being...criticized for playing blues guitar if he were not making millions off his music, while the bluesmen whose licks he copied are starving to death...

"In the early sixties women became a recognized trend in rock'n'roll for the first time. Female vocal groups...began to hit the top of the charts. In addition to the Orlons, the Crystals, the Sensations, the Chiffons, the Essex, the Ronnettes, and the Jaynettes, there were the Shangri-Las and the Dixie Cups, and the Motown groups--the Marvelettes, the Supremes, and Martha and the Vandellas...

"...The female vocal groups were pushed from the charts...when the Beatles crashed onto the scene in 1964-65...The...popularity of the Beatles was the single greatest force responsible for the decline of women on the charts in the mid-sixties...In 1969, one of the great years for hard rock, there were fewer women on the year-end single charts than at any time since World War II. The situation for both women album and singles artists was even worse than it had been at the end of 1966, during the height of the British invasion..."

 

Steve Chapple & Reebee Garofalo's `Rock'N'Roll Is Here To Pay' Book Revisited: Part 2

In their 1977 book, Rock'N'Roll Is Here To Pay: The History and Politics of the Music, Steve Chapple & Reebee Garofalo characterized and recalled the pre-1977 history and politics of Rolling Stone magazine and the U.S. corporate rock music industry in the following way:

"Rolling Stone...plays down or ignores any political movements outside of the two party system or not backed by some sector of American business...The magazine could not be as large...as it is without the large volume of music industry advertising it carries...The record companies are linked in with big business in the United States. There are no indications from the parent firms, the separate power of the record divisions within the parent firms, or `youth' businesses like Rolling Stone that any of them will be responsible for, or support, fundamental political change in the United States...

"Big Mama Thornton recorded `Hound Dog' three years before Elvis Presley, and according to her the song sold over 2 million copies. But as to her royalties she says, `I got one check for $500 and I never seen another.' Presley also recorded `That's All Right,' written by Arthur `Big Boy' Crudup. Though the song was a big hit for Presley, Crudup was reputed to have received nothing more than an appreciative plaque from Presley and his manager.

"Another tactic used against black music was `cover versions' of black hits...The Beatles' version of `Twist and Shout' and `Roll Over Beethoven'...cam several years after the originals, but reproduce them note for note with identical vocal style and arrangement...In the 1950s covers were used by major companies to recover the inroads r&b made into the white audience of the time...

"Several dozen songs were...covered by the majors in the early years of rock'n'roll. RCA began by covering `Kokomo' by Gene and Eunice with a version by Perry Como. Columbia covered the same song with a version by Tony Bennett...Mercury's Crew Cuts...did a cover of the Chords' `Sh'Boom' (originally on Atlantic's Cat label) that became the fifth best-selling pop song of 1954. They pillaged the r&b list after `Sh' Boom; covering hits like Nappy Brown's `Don't Be Angry' (Savoy), the Charms' `Gum Drop (Deluxe), and the Penguins' `Earth Angel.' Mercury's Georgia Gibbs covered Etta James's `Wallflower' with a cleaned up version called `Dance with Me Henry.'...Decca used the McGuire Sisters (on their Coral subsidiary) to cover the Moonglow's `Sincerely' (Chess) and made it the #7 best-selling pop song in 1955, along with their cover of Joe Turner's `Shake, Rattle, and Roll.'

"Pat Boone...built his reputation...by covering black rhythm and blues tunes. His label, Dot, was the most successful company at the practice. Boone recorded `Ain't That A Shame' (Fats Domino), `i Almost Lost My Mind' (The Harptones) and `Tutti-Frutti' (Little Richard), among others."

Steve Chapple & Reebee Garofalo's `Rock'N'Roll Is Here To Pay' Book Revisited: Part 1

 

In their 1977 book, Rock'N'Roll Is Here To Pay: The History and Politics of the Music, Steve Chapple & Reebee Garofalo characterized the pre-1977 history and politics of the U.S. corporate rock music industry in the following way:

"...The music industry is racist...and many of the political forces that are exerted on blacks outside the business are duplicated within it...It is important to look at the unfolding of that racism within the history of the industry...

"...The music business, the record companies and radio stations, are integrated into a much larger framework of other businesses, sources of finance capital, and the general network of the business system which has an interest--a real, material interest--in reproducing and reinforcing the status quo...

"...In many cases record companies are owned by some of the most obviously reactionary and militarist corporations in the United States...

"Three major record companies...are politically indistinguisable from their parent firms: RCA, CBS, and ABC. RCA and CBS have long been part of a business establishment that supports both major political parties on a regular basis...

"...Most directors at CBS and RCA supported the [Vietnam] war when it was backed by Republicans and Democrats under the Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson administrations...

"...During the Vietnam War buildup RCA had annual Defense Department contracts averaging $300 million, and still got some $243 million in DOD business in 1974.

"During the 1960s CBS president Frank Stanton...was chairman of the board of the Rand Corporation, the Air Force-funded think tank that has done extensive secret research for the military on subjects as diverse as counterinsurgency warfare techniques, effectiveness of prisoner interrogation methods, and police surveillance uses of cable television...Stanton was head of the committee that annually reviewed the activities of the U.S. Information Agency, a CIA-funded propaganda operation overseas, and he was chairman of Radio Free Europe, another propaganda outlets, financed through the CIA...

"Given their ties into big and bigger business, no progressive political initiative will be coming from the parent firms of the record companies..."

U.S. Music Industry Tried To Stop Production Of Paredon Records' `Palestine Lives!' Album

 

In the 1970's, some executives of the commercially-motivated U.S. corporate music industry apparently attempted to stop the production and distribution of the Paredon Records label's vinyl album Palestine Lives!. As [the now-deceased] former Sing-Out! magazine editor and Paredon Records co-founder Irwin Silber recalled in a 1991 interview:

"...We really came under incredible attack... The music industry, especially in New York, is very heavily...pro-Israel. So, when word got around that we were doing this record, a campaign began to try to stop it. Literally to stop it.

"And the important figures in the music industry called our various suppliers, the people who made the masters, the plates, the pressing: `Listen!  We’re going to withdraw a whole lot of business from you if you cooperate with these people in putting out this record.'

"There really was such a campaign. And I don’t remember exactly how we solved it. But I know, in a couple of cases, we had to go to some outfits other than our usual supply...

"...It really was an insight into the depth of the emotions stirred by the Palestinian question...I mean I knew it. I mean I’m Jewish and you know I know...the community. But it really got brought home. Really got brought home. And it was, in a way, a provocation to the music industry, because of its particular character.

"But I have always felt that the Palestinian issue is sort of one these cutting edge issues, which it’s sort of like crucial litmus test. Because there’s nothing to be gained by supporting the Palestinians. Career-wise or anything else. Just nothing at all...to stick your neck out and get down in the line with them in the United States."

U.S. corporate music industry tried to stop production of this album in 1970's

And in a 1991 interview, 20th-century and 21st-century U.S. jazz, blues and folk singer and Paredon Records co-founder Barbara Dane also observed that "somebody made a deliberate campaign calling all of our suppliers and the pressing plant and everybody," in an attempt to stop production and distribution of the Paredon Records label's Palestine Lives! vinyl album.'

Paredon Records Co-Founders Irwin Silber and Barbara Dane

 

 

Paul Robeson's December 1952 Letter Revisited

In a December 1952 letter, U.S. protest folk singer and civil rights/anti-war movement activist Paul Robeson wrote the following:

"...For the past several years a vicious effort has been made to destroy my career. Hall-owners, sponsors and even audiences have been intimidated. Recently, in Chicago, 15,000 persons who wanted to attend one of my concerts had to assemble in a park because the hall-owner had been threatened.

"The outrageous denial of my passport bars me from accepting contracts to appear in England, France, China and many other lands.

"Although I have recorded for nearly every major recording company and sold millions of records both here and abroad, these companies refuse to produce any new recordings for me.

"What is the meaning of this? It is an attempt to gag artistic expression, to dictate whom the people shall hear and what they shall hear. It is an attempt to suppress not only one, but every artist, Negro and white, whose heart and talent are enlisted in the fight for peace and democracy..."