Prominent leaders of the music industry have shown their support for the #BlackLivesMatter movement and stated that they will pause business for a day, to show solidarity and support against George Floyd’s murder. Music executives Jamila Thomas and Biranna Agyemang took charge of the movement, with many other artists coming in to show their support. The campaign #TheShowMustBePaused has been started to show solidarity with the protests happening across the United States. Companies that have taken part in the movement include major labels such as Universal, Sony, Warner Music, Columbia, Republic Records and Interscope. Across the pond, the BBC (among others) has also shown solidarity with the movement. Spotify carried out a blackout of several of its most famous playlists, including “Today’s Hits” and “Rap Caviar”. As part of the movement, many celebrities and supporters have uploaded black screens on their Instagram accounts, to both show support as well as raise awareness about long-standing discrimination and racism against black people. Supporters include the likes of Billie Eilish, Britney Spears and Eminem. The goal of the movement is to provoke change among the mindsets of the people. The disruption in services was to call for “a day to disconnect from work and reconnect with our community” and “an urgent step of action to provoke accountability and change”. “Tuesday, June 2nd is meant to intentionally disrupt the work week,” wrote Agyemang and Thomas. “The music industry is a multi-billion dollar industry. An industry that has profited predominantly from Black art. Our mission is to hold the industry at large, including major corporations + their partners who benefit from the efforts, struggles and successes of black people accountable.” However, some activists are worried that the social media movement is detracting from vital news necessary for people to stay up to date. They claim that if you click on the #BlackLivesMatter tag, all you see is an onslaught of black screens. The hashtag could reportedly be clicked on to see important resources – for example, how you can help the movement and what to do if you were protesting. With the hashtag overly filled with nothing but black images, there is a fear that actual, important information might be missed by those who wish to know or need it. Social media users have called for those participating in the Blackout Tuesday movement to continue doing so, but to share their pictures without using the #BlackLivesMatter tag. Twitter user Tatianna says the following: “Posting black boxes on Instagram and hashtagging black lives matter is rendering the the hashtag useless. Remove the hashtag so actual BLM posts can be seen. #blackouttuesday #BlackLivesMatter” The Black Lives Matter hashtag was being used by individuals to share information about protests, donations, organizations willing to help as well as capturing instances of police brutality against black people and the protestors in general.
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