The Revolution May Not Be Televised, But Will It Be Streamed?

“As the drummer boy accompanies armies, helping the soldiers keep time and signaling important messages, the protest song steadies the feet of protestors- similarly on a march for freedom. Black movements, throughout our history in this familiar yet foreign land, have often been accompanied by much needed vibration. Even in Hip-hop’s relatively brief history there are songs which have been immortalized by protest, for instance: Public Enemy’s Fight the Power. Music plays an integral part in capturing the political sentiments of an era in Black revolution. However, as the music industry continues to shift, with the advent of the internet and streaming, should we alter our thoughts on the protest song?
While music, as an art form, can represent freedom we must remember that it is almost never free. The music industry and Black art have been at odds since those ideas could be forced together. However, there is something particularly upsetting about the commodification of Black movements rooted in disenfranchisement and pain. When you streamed Nina Simone’s iconic rendition of Strange Fruit on your way to protest Breonna Taylor’s (so far) state sanctioned murder, someone received royalties. At the end of the day music is a business and at the intersection of capitalism and pain is an interesting question mark regarding the revolution. Who financially gains from the protest song?
This is an increasingly important question as Hip-Hop/R&B has recently surpassed Rock and Roll as the most popular (read: profitable) music genre. Kendrick Lamar’s 2015 psalm “Alright” became a rallying cry for the recently birthed Black Lives Matter Movement. It represented hope for a young movement that was awakening, and pressing play across multiple DSP’s. While the value of a stream is a conundrum that is not tackled herein, it would be foolish to think that the majority of the revenue from our streams went to Kendrick or into the pockets of the movement. Thus leading back to the refrain of this article, who financially gains from the protest song?
While it would not be the first instance in which the music industry has capitalized on Black pain, what is particularly offensive is the scale; a protest song is not the experience of a person, but rather a people. As such, the industry not only capitalizes off of the systemic oppression of Black folk, but also capitalizes off of our fight to end the same. It is incumbent upon the industry to pour the profits of communal pain back to the people. Re-allocate proceeds from protest songs back to the protest movement. In between marching for our fallen brothers and sisters, we may have to march for this too.
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