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ROCK
"If music be the food of love, play on."
(Wm Shakespeare)
POLITICIANS AND BUREAUCRATS DON'T REALLY 'DO' POPULAR MUSIC, DO THEY?
In all the debates which took place during the EU Referendum campaign in the UK in 2016, many topics were covered. However to our recollection the official Vote Leave campaign didn't talk much about cultural matters, specifically popular music.
In the US and in the UK, music dominates many people's lives, particularly when they are younger, and this was a key demographic to go for. Unfortunately in this respect the alleged brain-boxes at the top of Vote Leave had more in common with the elitest Remainers than they did with grass-roots Leavers.
USA AND UK DOMINATE
Put very simply the USA and UK dominate in the music business, with the UK punching above its weight, it must be said. The USA is the world’s largest exporter of recorded music, with the UK in second place. The graph below shows the number of artists from each country in the world top ten of all time.
Chart © Brexit Facts4EU.Org 2018
ROCKING ALL OVER THE WORLD
Screengrab © DIT
OBSERVATIONS
We hope you found the above interesting, and a little different from the standard fare on most political websites. We also produced another article about music today, more from the British perspective, which you can look at here. Brexit is not going to change people's appetite for music. The cultural dominance of American and British popular music will be unaffected by the UK's decision to leave the European Union.
It's not easy to say this without sounding superior, but if you ever spend any time in continental EU you soon realise why the young people of the EU's 27 continental members choose to listen to British and American music. In some EU countries the local version, is.... well.... Less appealing, shall we say.
Readers who have holidayed across the Channel may recall that until very recently in France a vast proportion of the music played on the radio had to be French, by law. In our view this was one of the cruellest things a country ever did to its young.
In the course of doing research for this article - and the other article we wrote about music and Brexit today - we came across interviews with many British music industry personnel. We're not talking about the head of the BPI or Music UK, we're talking about managers of venues, booking companies, agents, etc. It was extraordinary how many of the individuals quoted came from the EU. We mention this, just in case some smart-alec Remainer on Twitter says something stupid like "Yeah, well if the UK's so brilliant at music how come it hasn't won the Eurovision Song Contest more often?" The answer is of course that anyone who thinks that Eurovision represents music doesn't understand the industry (or good musical taste). And if the music of the EU is so great, how come so many EU nationals seem to think the UK is the place to work?
To our American readers we will simply say this: We like your music. You like ours. Neither of us are forced to listen to EU27 music. Whilst some of the latter might be okay, the mood music of the post-Brexit world will continue to be American and British.
Rock 'n' roll. :)
[ Sources: BPI | Music UK | Dept for International Trade ] As usual, journalists and politicians can contact us for the list of links to the research.
06.55am, 23 Jan 2018
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