#TheShowMustBePaused

Music industry shuts down for a day in racism protest.

Classic Rock was proud to throw its weight behind the music industry initiative #TheShowMustBePaused on Tuesday June 2, 2020. The day saw the freezing of our websites, in solidarity with our black colleagues, with the black artists whose music we love and owe our careers to, in protest against racism.

Coming in the wake of the killing of African-American George Floyd by the police, the initiative was set up by two black Atlantic Senior Directors of Marketing: Jamila Thomas and Brianna Agyemang. Although launched from within the music industry, #TheShowMustBePaused was adopted by thousands of everyday people who flooded social media platforms with symbolic black squares. Statistics from Instagram alone showed posts with the hashtag #TheShowMustBePaused were used more than 22 million times by the evening of the day concerned.

As members of the rock community, we pride ourselves on being open and welcoming. For that to mean something, we need to make sure we’re standing with everyone our scenes represent, offering support to those who need it when it matters. And it matters now.

We know that going quiet for a day isn’t enough. Change needs to follow, and we want to be part of that change. We spent the shut-down day focusing on how to make that change meaningful and longlasting, to learn and to figure out how we proceed from here.

Although streaming platforms such as Spotify supported the initiative, their playlists and podcasts went symbolically dark instead of pausing for the day.

Peter Gabriel was among those to show solidarity, tweeting: “Along with the civilised world I was horrified by the racist murder of George Floyd. This type of brutality needs to be confronted directly, with justice clearly seen to be done whenever and wherever it occurs.”

Rod Stewart stated: “As a singer I would not have had the success that I’ve had if it wasn’t for the great black artists that came before me; Sam Cooke, Muddy Waters, Otis Redding and many more.”

“Yesterday was a strong start to the change we want to make in the industry,” summed up Brianna Agyemang and Jamila Thomas in the aftermath. “We are taking all thoughts and ideas that were gathered and will implement them into Phase 2 of this movement.” To learn more, visit www theshowmustbepaused.com

Classic Rock, Metal Hammer, Prog and Louder will be behind them every step of the way, in print and online. There is no room in music for racism – or in our society as a whole.

This is only the beginning.