Racial Underrepresentation Across Artists and Music Executives
As we discussed in the previous article, the current state of the music industry restricts musical expression from demographic minorities. We specifically discussed how the lack of female representation strips many of the ability to have role models in music. Sadly, this void of role models infects the music industry beyond women–it extends to racial minorities. While on the surface racial representation may not seem to be an issue worthy of discussion, there is most definitely a lack of racial diversity within music.
At first glance, it might seem as if racial diversity in music is not as much as a problem. After all, last year was “the fourth consecutive year where the percentage of underrepresented artists increased”. In 2020, 59% of 173 artists were of underrepresented ethnicities. However, this argument fails to account for the fact that the definition of the term “underrepresented” misconstrues the image of representation. The term simply brushes all ethnicities separate from Caucasian under the same group, ignoring the representation of more specific populations. While it is great that the African American population is making up an increasingly large proportion of artists it does not mean that all ethnicities are receiving more recognition.
To more specifically analyze racial representation in the high-profile music industry, I decided to examine the Billboard Hot 100. I concluded that as this is the most coveted and respected music ranking system in the world, its racial composition would provide an accurate portrayal of the music industry as a whole. I found that across Billboard’s 2020 Year-End Hot 100, only 4% of the artists were of Asian descent.
It is important to understand that the music industry is made of more than just the voices we hear on the radio. The companies that work to make this happen have just as severe a lack of diversity. There are a vast variety of types of music companies—streaming, radio, live music, record labels, etcetera—and all these groups have their own lack of diversity, as proven by another study from USC. Across streaming companies, 7.4% of executives were black. Music groups? 7.2%. Radio? 4%. And live music? 3.3. Even worse, across 9 major music companies like Spotify, Sony, Universal and Warner Music groups, 100 percent of executives were white and 1 of the 9 were female. This just goes to show that the bigotry goes beyond the artists and even infects executives across the music industry.
The most devastating part of this is not the numbers or the graphs. That is not what makes the exclusivity matter. The sad part is that when people barely see others that look like them on stage—when we hear people who look like us on the radio 4% of the time—in what world can we have role models? What fantasy do we need to live in to have an idol to look up to? There is a painful lack of racial and gender diversity within the high-profile music industry and it is a problem idols like Serena Williams have proven they can help solve. It is a problem our society does not need or deserve to face.
