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Music industry engages in day-long blackout #TheShowMustBePaused

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By on News, Opinion

#TheShowMustBePaused

The music industry will fall silent on Tuesday following the death of George Floyd, Getintothis’ Lewis Ridley reports on #theshowmustbepaused.

The music industry is set to engage in a day-long blackout tomorrow in response to the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis last week, labelled #TheShowMustBePaused.

Major record labels, artists and news outlets have joined the initiative which will see no posts shared on social media and offers a time to reflect and organise with the Black Lives Matter movement.

All three major record labels have shared a message on social media promising “a day to disconnect from work and reconnect with our community”.

Interscope vowed not to release new music this week, while Apple Music’s Ebro Darden cancelled his radio shows.

A widely shared post, which went viral under the hashtag #TheShowMustBePaused, read: “Due to recent events please join us as we take an urgent step of action to provoke accountability and change.

“As gatekeepers of the culture, it’s our responsibility to not only come together to celebrate the wins, but also hold each other up during a loss.”

Music industry employees have been given Tuesday off as “a day of action,” intended to “provoke accountability and change“.

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Floyd, a 46 year old African-American man, died following a US police officer kneeling on his neck for several miutes last week and has sparked outrage on a global scale.

https://twitter.com/TheWomensOrg/status/1267206583135744001

Many of music’s biggest stars have spoken out about the father-of-two’s death.

Taking to Instagram on Sunday, Rihanna spoke of the “devastation, anger [and]sadness” she has experienced over the last week.

Beyoncé filmed an Instagram video urging fans to sign a petition seeking “justice for George Floyd“.

“We all witnessed his murder in broad daylight…We’re broken and we’re disgusted. We cannot normalise this pain“.

However, not all music industry figures share the same opinion, with artists including BC Camplight commenting that the initiative: “reeks of another token easy fix hashtag to feign support for a life or death issue”.

COMMENT: The death of George Floyd was avoidable. It is abhorrent that we live in an age when these incidents continue to happen.

Once again an African American person has died needlessly at the hands of those who should be protecting members of society. It should not happen again.

For nearly nine minutes a police officer knelt on an unarmed Floyd’s windpipe, in broad daylight, crushing the breath and life out of him.

The regularity of these brutal events are being captured at an alarming rate – and still nothing seems to change.

It is time to pause. It is time to reflect.

It is time to stop what we would be doing and think of George Floyd, Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Walter Scott, Freddie Gray, Alton Sterling, Tamir Rice, Philando Castile, Delrawn Small and the countless others that have been killed by police officers.

On Tuesday June 2, Getintothis will stand in solidarity with many of those in the music industry and we will cease publishing and social media.

We stand with George Floyd, his family, friends and the entire Black Lives Matter movement. Something has to change. – Peter Guy

https://twitter.com/WeAreTheMU/status/1267465364994170883

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