Artist Ethics
“The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There’s also a negative side.”
Whether you’re a fan of the music business or a music fan you’re likely to have seen this famous quote from author/writer/journalist Hunter S Thompson.
I couldn’t help but think of it following the recent Wikileaks story featured in the New York Times and Rolling Stone about Beyonce, Usher, Mariah Carey and others performing for members of the Qaddafi family.
Private gigs are nothing new. Artists are likely to collect big paychecks for these small but lucrative performances whether for a sweet sixteen party on Long Island, a corporate shindig in Las Vegas or a Wall Street bankster blowout.
And after all the stories of corruption, pay-for-play indictments, insider-trading scandals, underage girls dead in rock star bedrooms and numerous overdoses what’s so surprising about some empty-headed pop stars performing for sadistic despots and tyrannical dictators?
Ethics in the music business? Check, please.
But, you gotta love Wikileaks. Right after the story broke Mariah Carey tweeted she didn’t realize who she was performing for and planned to donate her 1 million paycheck to charity. Do you think any of her followers on Twitter have even heard of Libya?
Beyonce stated that she had already donated her million to Haiti a year ago after realizing who her performance was for. Really? You mean these stars had absolutely no idea they were performing for a Qaddafi son at a posh Caribbean resort? Even though her supposedly astute business boyfriend Jay-Z attended with her? I call bullshit.
Even though agents book these shows and not the artist, private gigs, or any gigs, contain lots of “riders” or specific instructions about conditions at event, food, drink, accommodations and more, so claiming ignorance doesn’t hold water. Who do these artists think they are claiming ignorance, politicians?
Even human rights advocate Sting has taken blood money when he performed in Uzbekistan for the daughter of that country’s evil dictator. Sting has refused to give the money back or donate it after receiving pressure in the press. Same with Usher who performed with Beyonce last year.
Let’s not leave out Lionel Richie, a popular artist in the Middle East, who collected a paycheck when he appeared at Libya’s 2005 “Peace” Concert to celebrate Libya’s resistance to the U.S.
Nelly Furtado, however, announced she would be donating her performance fee after the Wikileaks story broke.
Compare that to Eric Clapton who has been asked to perform in North Korea and has so far ignored the request. Or the Beatles who were almost torn to shreds in the Philippines in 1966 for refusing to have breakfast with Imelda Marcos.
But, Bob Marley left a stain on his heritage when he chose to perform for Zimbabwe dictator Robert Mugabe (who is still in charge there) in 1980.
And then there is Michael Jackson, who escaped to Bahrain to perform for Prince Abdullah following indictments on pedophilia. He was eventually sued by the Prince after failing to fulfill that obligation.
Remember Sun City in South Africa during apartheid? Artists were taken to task by their peers and the press for performing there.
Are these artists any different from Sean Penn and Danny Glover breaking bread with Venezuelan ruler Hugo Chavez?
Frankly, none of this surprises me because it’s always about the money. Money vs ethics. I know which one Jay-Z will choose every time.
Even though these artists supposedly have “foundations” that contribute to charities and do philanthropic work, I believe these organizations are set up for tax purposes first and good deeds second.
Where should artists draw the line ethically? Dictators, bad. Corporations, good? What about product endorsements? Should the artist fully vet the brand before agreeing to make sure there are no twenty-cents-a-day jobs making the brand? Or what countries the brands are made in? What about the brands track record of donations to political affiliations?
Whichever side you come down on, one thing is certain, with the increasing transparency of the internet (thank you Wikileaks) the truth will come out about everything. Do you manage it on the front end and try to do the right thing or plead ignorance on the back end or hope no one finds out?
