Boards
The NME and racism in the great Hadouken war!
There is a 2 page feature in this weeks NME which is basically a good cop/bad cop stand off between hacksters Sam Richards and Tim Jonze.
The argument is over rising hipsters HADOUKEN. The former hates them cos their white middle class 'misogynistic' chancers hi-jacking grime music for their own cynical ends, and Jonze loves them cos they are just four(?)bright young things having a laugh sending up the Hoxton set. I have no opinion on this band whatsoever as i have yet to listen to them. But...
I was immediately irked by Richards stance as it contained the usual 'Whitey cant sing the blues cos' he aint black!' spill that is so common in articles written by white, middle-class university grads from fading-fast music mags. But it was Jonze's piece that really caught my eye. At one point in his rant he says "Will they find success easier because they're white? Ummm, probably. The music industry is riddled with racism..." and then goes on to say if your gonna be like that about it then you should boycott every major white artist ever on the grounds of stealing shamelessly and soulessly from black culture. He blames racist record label big-wigs and racist viewers that vote the black talent off the X-factor in favour of the MacDonald Brothers.
Now i agree with Tim Jonze on all the above, but, it starts to stick in my throat when i know for a fact that an awful lot of music journals will very rarely, if ever, stick a black artist on their big shiny front covers for fear of a lofty dip in sales (it often happens, worringly) whatever week it might be they choose to stick a black artist on the cover. The NME ARE guilty of this and they know it. So, when they start another rant about racism do we label them hypocrites, cos with this practice (and trust me, the NME, and others, do practice this) they are part of the problem they condemn? or, do we just turn around and let it go because its just business and there are jobs at stake and what you gonna do?...any thoughts anyone?