Music Censorship and Book Burning

David — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 07:13:55 GMT

I have been invited by The Times to become one of their official bloggers. My first piece is a shortened version of this, but I will be posting on their Blog site regularly from now onwards. You can mosey on over there and check it out at: http://blogs.thetimes.co.za/

But here is the extended remix version:

There is a new magazine out and about that unfortunately too few people seem to have heard about. It’s called Empire, and it is a pity because in February they ran an article that should have all right thinking citizens very, very worried.

In an article entitled, “Bad Mix” highly experienced music journalist Diane Coetzer delved into the many issues surrounding South African music and radio play, our quota system and the Department of Arts and Culture’s (DAC) agenda’s for promoting our culture internally.

In short it was a terrifying read. In the course of the article two clear things emerge. One is that the DAC is hopelessly out of touch with the current state of the music business and secondly, that they have some worryingly fascistic ideas about how to promote what THEY see as being representative of South African culture in music.

Firstly, apparently the DAC is going to fund the building and establishment of recording studios around the country so that more artists can get their material recorded. Now while this might sound like a good idea, to anyone versed in the ways of the music industry, this is clearly putting the cart before the horse. What good is a recording when no-one knows who you are? What record store is going to stock CD’s by an artist no-one has heard of. Every millimetre of shelf space costs retail stores money. To have unknown stock sitting gathering dust will cost money. They will not do it. But more importantly, the entire music industry is rapidly shifting BACK to an environment where what is most important in an artists career is not product, but live performance.

The significance of Prince giving away 350 000 copies of his new album with a newspaper in England is not that the man is crazy. It is that he sold out 30 nights in a row of live shows off the back of it. Tired of over-processed, over hyped and basically poor music on albums, the public is returning to the core values of music: the ability to perform. This is a massive global trend. While it is true that CD sales in South Africa are actually bucking this trend by growing, it is inevitable that the trend will begin to be felt here. And in any event, our local scene has always been very driven by the live performance aspect. So if the DAC wants to make a real contribution to the career of artist and their ability to make a living, they should be looking at venues, not recording studios.

The shortage of real performance spaces in South Africa is one of the biggest crippling factors. Antagonistic resident’s council that shut venues down over noise is another. Simply put, with nowhere near enough good venues with good sound and lighting on hand, South African artists are struggling to earn enough gigging to sustain their careers. The number of albums already on the shelves proves that there are more than enough recording facilities. What is lacking is the means to make oneself heard. Not enough venues and not enough radio play.

In the same article the DAC is referred to as saying that responsibility for how much local music we hear on the radio lies with ICASA, not the DAC. Funny that, seeing as it is the DAC that has a special portfolio set up for Investing in Culture. One sure fire way to increase revenue to local artists, drive up attendance at live shows and boost CD sales would be to up the quota significantly. But there seems little will to do this. Instead the DAC is spending millions building recording studios to create product that these self same radio stations are not going to play. Interesting strategy.

Talking of this Investing in Culture Portfolio, its deputy director-general, Victor Julius seems to think that what ever culture we are exhibiting now, is not good enough. Again, quoted in Ms Coetzer’s piece, he says, “We don’t want kwaito to become the music heritage of this country.” Now excuse my obtuseness, but who are the custodians of culture in any country? The government or the people that express it in their lives? To insinuate that the very home-grown music that has grown our industry to its current heights is not good enough to be considered a musical heritage is like saying that certain books are not agreeable and should be burned. Yes you heard me right. A government body trying to dictate what can and cannot be considered South African enough is tantamount to the social programming efforts of the Nazi’s in Germany in the 1930’s.

Julius even has his own brigade of Black Shirts in mind. He thinks that the DAC can enforce musical taste in South Africans.

“Mobilisation,” he is quoted as saying. “We will get the Zulus to mobilise and lobby for their music to dominate.” He then goes on to refer to Iraq where, he claims, police stop people in their cars and check what they are listening to. So not only does the DAC want to tell us what we should listen to, they also want a squad of their own militia, preferably Zulu apparently, to patrol our streets enforcing this idea.

From one totalitarian regime to another. And here I thought we were living in a democracy where the government was by the people for the people. The people are voting with their hard earned cash for what music they like, and its kwaito, and its hip hop and its Afrikaans, gospel and many other things. Just because the ministry has some high brow intellectual tastes themselves does NOT give them the right to dictate what direction our musical culture must take. It smacks of fascism, totalitarianism and must be resisted at all costs.

Make no mistake, attitudes like this are just one step away from attempting to control what we may or may not read about and talk about. If Kwaito is not African enough, how soon will it be before being coloured is not African enough? Speaking English is not African enough? The Nazi’s started with books and ended up killing 6-million Jews and god knows how many allied troops. The Africanist, non-racial values of the ANC are being perverted here by people in the DAC who seem to think that being in government gives them the right to tell people how to behave. It does not. As Henry Rollins said when he performed in South Africa earlier this year, governments should be scared of the people that elect them, not the other way round. Clearly the DAC is not of that opinion.

If Kwaito is so culturally impure as to be banned from our airwaves by the DAC, what of Rock? Or Hip-Hop? Of anything that does not pass through the sanitising scrutiny of their gaze? Personally I don't want to be saved by the DAC from my own culture. I want my culture to grow and mutate and represent the people I live and work with. Not be pruned and trained by some ivory tower intellectuals in government. The Nats tried this stunt too you know. It was called National Christian education. And we all know where that got us.

Back to the DAC: Culture is not an asset you are free to regulate. Do your job and support everyone who is out there making a living. And maybe get a reality check on what the real issues are out here before spending my tax rands on white elephants.

The Chiz : DAC

Music Censorship and Book Burning