Is the music enterprise, historically an arbiter of cool, out of contact with U.S. customers? It’s a troublesome query to ask — and a troublesome time to ask it. However for those who evaluate the outcomes of the presidential election with the politics of artists and executives, it’s exhausting to not.
The dominant temper amongst folks I do know is shock on the scale of Donald Trump’s victory — most anticipated a race so shut that ballot-counting would proceed all week — and an unsettling feeling that the U.S. is just not the nation we thought it was. What occurred and why will probably be mentioned for years. There’s additionally a extra fast query: Why didn’t extra folks see this coming?
A part of the reason being that this nonetheless appears so bizarre — I’m sufficiently old to recollect when speaking a couple of skilled golfer’s personal components would have been disqualifying in politics, not to mention the Republican get together. However a part of it’s that, unintentionally, many individuals within the media enterprise now stay in a little bit of a bubble. I’m one in all them: I stay in Berlin and spend most of my time within the U.S. in or close to New York, and I learn The New York Instances and The New Yorker. With regards to music, none of my favourite artists supported Trump, and one, Bruce Springsteen, actively campaigned towards him. Among the greatest musicians on the earth additionally supported Kamala Harris — Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Ariana Grande, Sabrina Carpenter — as did most music executives. Lots of them should share my shock.
Are they — are we — too indifferent from the mainstream?
A major variety of Trump supporters are right-wing racists — definitely sufficient to make one fear. But it surely’s exhausting to make the case that Trump supporters are extremists in the event that they account for greater than half the vote. By definition, they’re mainstream. Worryingly, the Democrats don’t appear to know find out how to discuss to them in a approach that addresses their issues. Calling them deplorables didn’t work, and making the case that Trump can be a catastrophe for democracy didn’t, both. (Democracy implies that folks vote for his or her leaders — it doesn’t imply that they vote for the leaders you need.) The Democrats focus extra on what folks can do for his or her nation at a time voters appear extra eager about what their nation can do for them. Concepts are essential, however many individuals appear extra targeted on the affordability of groceries.
For no matter cause, it’s now clear that there are extra Trump voters than many individuals, together with musicians and music executives, thought. They’re additionally youthful and extra numerous than folks realized. Lots of them should hearken to pop music. However is the music enterprise listening to them? The concept it’s controversial simply to endorse Trump, with out echoing any of his uglier rhetoric, means turning one’s again on greater than half of American voters. That’s not how mass advertising works.
The problem Trump presents to American democracy is much extra essential than promoting music, after all. And I believe I’ll get just a few emails about how loopy it’s to recommend that anybody market music to individuals who suppose immigrants are consuming cats. However reaching completely different sorts of individuals with completely different sorts of artwork is what the music enterprise does.
It’s additionally what politics is meant to do. Each the music enterprise and politics have to do higher at reaching giant, numerous audiences. That always means connecting with present followers, however it has to additionally imply reaching out to new ones. Typically, folks merely received’t purchase what they’re being offered, whether or not it’s a brand new album or a brand new candidate. But it surely’s essential to have these conversations — each for these of us who need to assist elect a brand new president in 4 years and people of us who need to argue that this one goes to do an amazing job.
Increasingly, politics appears caught in a loop, by which concepts are marketed to, and cheered, by those that have already selected them. In music, that’s often called a superfan technique, and it’s crucial. However constructing one requires reaching new folks to show into followers, or supporters, within the first place.
