If Only My Industry was More Like The Music Industry

Hey, guys. Back at it again here. I hope everybody is doing Okay. I'm basically the same, unless I tell you otherwise. I know this was supposed to be on Sunday, but a lot was going on and I was too tired to type it up (I write on paper first) and possibly have like a shit load of errors that make you question me as a writer. That writer insecurity is real. Can you blame me? Lol.

Now, let's jump right into it. I've made you guys aware of all aspects of my situation within my field, and some of you know from your own experience. How cold people are in this industry we're trying to get into, how inconsiderate (not to say other fields are not) people are, how boujee they are when it comes to taking on us up-and-coming writers and our material. Most of all, how our so called "peers" or "mentors" (anybody find some for me yet?) become a part of the same hypocrisy for their own benefit. And as a result of blocking out new writers (especially us black folks), we have an overload of these franchise movies (which, are more bombs than hits) because that's the "safe bet" (oh, I'm sorry, the "bankable one"), and we have the same people (actors, writers, directors) attached to consecutive movies within the year. Now, all of a sudden, " The film industry has declined," "studios are making less movies in the year," or "Rotten Tomatoes reviews are why films (I meant to put shitty in front of this) aren't doing well." And yes, there is an article uttering this bullshit, I've read it. All the wrong excuses from an industry that "know" what it's doing and "know" what's marketable. Funny, this is the only field that seems to be having "trouble." The television industry is getting it more and more. Even the uppity fashion industry has caught on. Look at Rihanna and Fenty (made 70 million dollars within like four months). The one key word is change. Cliche at this point, right?

Now, let's access the change in the ever-progressing music industry. Before we even go there, let's access how much more open the music industry is from the film industry. For one, there's many different recording arts companies (along with the independent companies) that look for different artists across the board. Now yes, there is a mainstream circuit in the music industry where everybody sounds the same, but it doesn't dominate the music industry like the mainstream circuit dominates the film industry and in such a cancerous way. That reason is because the music industry aggressively seeks that new sound, the new voice that can impact the global masses every year. And that is why they will continue to progress and make money. And instead of sucking all they can out of the A-list music artist year after year (some may do it, I'm sure), they allow A-list music artist to establish their own labels and find more undiscovered artist (hence, Jay Z's Roc Nation and Rih, Ye, and Cole). They've mastered a progressive balance that the film industry are too stubborn to establish for themselves. They're too busy eluding the inevitable change for as long as they can.

And damn do the writers in music get treated like they matter. Teams of songwriters are hired for one artist, songwriters are signed to publishing deals, just to write songs that'll be shelved for other artists (mostly new artists). Might I mention, they aren't hurting for money. Fresh young writers are actually sought out in the music industry, and not only by the record companies, but by the artist as well. That's another key thing there that lacks heavily in the film industry and another big reason why the music industry is progressing better than the film industry.

Now, we're going to top it off with the change I've been harping on. As you all have seen, the music industry adjust to the times effortlessly. Streaming is the new wave in music that us young people utilize (never bought a CD in my life, it's always been iTunes). It's not about physical copies anymore (bad long term investment in my opinion). The leading music genre is no longer rock and roll, which caters mostly to a white audience (and what was the majority in America), hip-hop is the leading music genre now (and we're the new majority). The music industry picked up on it and is going full steam ahead as the relatively new music genre continues to reach new peaks and heights, as well as expand its audience.

Back on the note of us being the new majority, we're the ones going to the movies (proudly) more than everybody else, which is that unspoken reason some of these big budget movies have bombed. These movies they're making don't reflect the majority audience, so... they're not going to do well. Have you noticed that the movies that reflect the majority (I would name them, but they stand out pretty loud now) are doing really well? No rocket science, but the film industry wants to play naive and treat the recent success of black films as a phenomenon. Another reason us black writers are on the outside looking in. They want to block our moment to flourish and push the film industry into a more progressive direction. They vulture our narrative on their terms, which only boxes us in a negative and imaginative light, not an authentic one. And the little bit of black writers that we have devour all that there is for us without even turning back and welcoming us new hungry writers to anything. That's another big difference compared to the music industry. The artist in the music industry are not selfish, they're collaborative, as music is a collaboration of sounds and thoughts. They're not only the big picture, but a perfect fitting big picture. Artist recommended producers to other artists, songs are recommended to other artist, even label heads send their artists to other labels if it's a better fit. Where that is amongst the black folks in the film industry, I don't know. It's almost like they were pushing so hard against inclusion that they actually became to us young black writers and creatives what we're supposed to be fighting against. I think about how many black folks I've reached out to (I can count on two hands) and have been burned by, I mean not even attempting to make an effort, passed on like the genuine homeless person that most people don't care about and just pass by.

If you don't get the point I'm making, I'll sum it up very clear, our industry needs to take notes if they want to progress. They need to wise-up and adjust to the new majority audience. And these are just facts with proof of statistics, this isn't a "black people are taking over" because black people are all around the world. And upon them wising up, we'll know because there'll be a higher percentage of black writers working in the industry. And you want have a dedicated young black writer like me spazzing (see what I did there? I know, terrible) on a blog about not getting fair consideration.