A really interesting look at not only the black lives matter movement but how it fits into modern day music industries.

Leigh-Anne is one of the members of Little Mix, a British pop band, and she can almost be seen as the token black one. Like Jesy seemed to see herself as the token fat one, and that’s a disgusting way of putting it but the simplest way to show you that, that’s how these girls can be so easily put into boxes.

Leigh-Anne looks at the industry as a whole, and especially at her own label Sony, and start seeing all the ways in which black people and people of colour are being marginalised within the industry. How most of the make-up artists, hairstylists, directors, choreographers etc. are usually white people and how wrong that is.

In our society, in the 21st-century, people should be given job roles and opportunities not based on the colour of their skin or their gender but on their attributes, on their experience, and on what they can bring to that role. The fact that someone has a name that isn’t a standard British name does not mean that they should be overlooked by someone called John or Sally, these elements should not play a part in these roles, and yet they do and a lot of the time people don’t even realise it’s happening.

Thanks to social media and people talking about this subject more it’s coming more to light, especially during the time of George Floyd‘s arrest and murder, there was an outcry after that happened which there should’ve been. People do not deserve to be treated the way that he was and it’s disgusting that those men, if there wasn’t such an uproar about it, could’ve got away with it, but that doesn’t mean that there has to be such violent acts to show racism. It doesn’t have to be so big and in your face to be wrong, and that’s where a lot of industries need to look at themselves and realise what they’re doing, especially in terms of the small things they’re doing that can make a big difference to these groups.

In any walk of life you’re going to have ideas and ways of looking at the world ingrained into you, whether you realise it or not, you may see smokers as dirty or fat people as lazy or whatever but that doesn’t mean it’s true and most of the time it isn’t. We need to let go of these stereotypes and these ways of looking at the world and look at it with new fresh eyes that don’t judge. It’s going to be a learning curve for everyone, whether you’re a normal person or someone who works in an industry where it has marginalised people, but it has to be done to allow everyone the same opportunity as anyone else.

This was a really insightful documentary into the music industry and how Leigh-Anne has dealt with it, but it’s just one industry. All industries have to look at what they’re doing and how they’re looking at certain groups with more favour because racism is everywhere, racism is a horrible thing, and it’s not going to go away unless we look at ourselves and make a change.

I highly recommend this documentary especially if you want to educate yourself more on racism and how it can affect people and what you can do to make it better. Nothing is going to change unless we decide to change and usually that’s the hardest step, but once you’ve done that first step you can head in the right direction and be on the right side of history.

What do you think about racism in the music industry?

Until next time.

Published by shonaharding

Media graduate with a passion for reviewing film and TV. View all posts by shonaharding