E!

JPRESIDENTI

MARSHALING

A DEFENSE
FOR THE ARTS
Notes on a Culture
In

Crisis

BY MICHAEL
President,

GREENE
Academy

The Recording

n an election year where even the incumbents are calling themselves agents of change, it's no secret that the self-satisfied smugness of the '80s has fallen out of fashion. But while the images are being overhauled and the sound bytes rewritten, please rest assured that we are not nearly as directionless and adrift as the commentators are claiming. Rather, our country and our culture are being aggressively sold down the river by a cadre of opportunists who see America's most precious traditions - cultural diversity, public arts education, free expression - as so many sacrificial lambs to be slaughtered by self-invested political zealots. How has the public conception of our musical and cultural traditions become so distorted that the arts are now regularly spoken of as either an unnecessary indulgence or, in the most cynical rhetoric, an enemy within that covertly undermines America's value system? Has our artistic community truly become a cultural elite that preaches to the converts rather than to society as a whole? While these charges are obviously part of an effort to use the arts as a political scapegoat, they do underline an uncomfortable truth that our cultural community has been slow to acknowledge. Practitioners of the arts too often mistake isolation for independence, resulting in a breakdown of communication that allows politicians and bureaucrats to position the arts in America's agenda. What can we as a creative community do to ensure that we both preserve our rights and meet our responsibilities in 1992 America? The stakes here are high and there can be no thought of losing this battle. To begin, we need to step back and take stock of where we are today and examine some of the events that have gotten us here. There is no question that, in today's society, music has become the primary means of communication between our children and parents, BlackAmerica and White America, and the status quo and the socially forgotten. As such, it is more important than ever that these lines of communication remain unencumbered and that freedom of speech is vigorously protected. Not surprisingly, much of what our kids, our disenfranchised and our socially disconnected musical provocateurs are saying, singing and rapping stings and irritates those who own the franchise of the current order of things in America. And it's no coincidence that this same music is now being subjected to the most vehement campaign against free expression since the McCarthy era. While

Daryl Gates and Rodney King's assailants enjoy lucrative publishing contracts, the musicians who deal most directly with contemporary themes of America's injustice and inhumanity run the risk of being silenced. Let's look at the pattern here: On June 13, Washington put into effect the nation's first lewd lyrics law. The state that gave us Nirvana, Pearl J am and Soundgarden, now has "Sell a Record, Go to Jail" legislation that promises fines of up to $5,000 and jail sentences as long as a year. Governor Booth Gardner, who received 4,000 written protests, signed the bill into law only a few weeks after proclaiming himself - and I quote "Governor of the home state of Nirvana, the hottest new rock band in the country."

The resignation

in protest

of two NEA advisory

panels.

T The resignation of three of the agency's top directors. T f.. shift in decision-making from artist peer panels to
government bureaucrats. the

All this is a mighty high price to accommodate

artistic tastes and hidden agendas of Jesse Helms and Pat Buchanan. And while the NEA's notorious indecency test was finally ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge last month, rest assured that the battle continues. At the rate we're going, the NEA will become watered-down such a tepid, arts agency that, if Helms and company

finally succeed in pulling the plug on them, nobody's even going to care. Our government's total disregard for music educa-

Last year, a Florida jury convicted Charles Freeman, a

small record retailer, on obscenity charges for selling rap records. In a scenario fit for Simi Valley, an all-white jury decided what does and does not constitute in a black, inner-city music form. community that has topless donut shops here - no sir. artistic merit no racism This took place in a

tion is another symptom of the same problem, and runs completely contrary to the will of the American public. A recent Harris poll revealed that nine in every 10 people

"PRACTITIONERS

OF

THE

ARTS

The media, politicians and others have tried to turn the issue. The dynamics which and multiFOR INDEPENDENCE, RESULTING IN TOO OFTEN MISTAKE ISOLATION

most recent situation with rapper Ice- T's "Cop Killer" into a polarized sound-bite fostered the LA riots are far too complicated

faceted to be viewed in such superficial and simplistic terms. Rather, we need to examine this controversy in a much broader historical cultural context: Fact, we live in a racist society, and now, more than ever, artists must continue to be allowed to express the rage and sense of hopelessness that led our society's underclass to riot. Unfortunately, much of the discourse that emerges from this situation is far from constructive, whether it be the stereotyping of law enforcement people by Ice T or the chants of "Ban rap it's all crap" by Time-Warner demonstrators. Nevertheless, people must be allowed to foster their own forms of artistic expression and, within the boundaries of non-violent activities, call attention to

BREAKDOWN

OF

COMMUNICATION

THAT

ALLOWS

POLITICIANS

AND

BUREAUCRATS

TO

POSITION

THE

ARTS

IN

AMERICA'S

AGENDA."

believe the arts are an important

part of a child's educa-

the systemic factors which have disengaged so many Americans for so long. Express your outrage in public forums, but don't shut down the lines of communication; isolation and the failure to promote dialogue will only serve as fuel for the next riot, damaging both the underclass and law enforcement agencies. the NEA is

tion. 97 percent feel that learning about the arts makes children more creative and imaginative, 90 percent feel exposure to the arts in school makes them become tolerant of other cultures, and nearly 70 percent feel the arts are as important as learning to read and write well! So why are we embarking on a systematic course of gutting arts education in this country? Again, I feel that we as an artistic community, along with our arts educators, share in some of the responsibility. For too long we have failed to organize and communicate the importance of the arts to the public. And now our children and our society are paying the price. Obviously, neither the constitution cultural heritage. are immune nor our country's of our

Meanwhile, back in the other Washington,

being dismantled one grant at a time, sacrificed in a campaign overture to the most ultraconservative forces operating in this country today. we've witnessed: In the last six months, John Frohnmayer in

The firing of NEA commissioner

order to appease Pat Buchanan. T The hiring of new commissioner

to the ambitions

Anne- Imelda Radice;

politicians. and special interest groups. They have known for decades that music and art bashing is an easy way to garner publicity. Artists are being scapegoated for all of

while the jury may still be out, she is widely recognized as a watchdog for the political right.

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our society's ills, from drugs and crime to teen pregnancy and suicide. By censoring music, arguably the most interpretive form of artistic expression, it will become easier for the ugly hand of censorship to reach other forms of artistic expression as well. We, as a recording industry, have found it very hard to react with enough speed and marshall our people to facilitate the transition from reacting to acting. While successfullyputting out a few fires, the industry down played the importance of the Washington bill and was critically late with our efforts in Florida. Which brings us to the root of the industry's problem: its short-sightedness. The same short-sightedness that allowed it to make its own pact with the devil back in 1985 by caving in to the demands of the PMRC. The prospect that you can negotiate with these wouldbe arbiters of American taste and morality is simply ridiculous. Only an industry which has such a poor sense of its own history would have ever given up such sacred ground. Unfortunately, our record industry's preoccupation lies in what the next hit will be -- how to justify the next quarter's P&L report -- certainly not in the understanding of the importance of the arts or having the historical perspective to preclude such shortsighted ac-

THE ISSUE

AT

HAND

he era of "one world, one music" may not be upon us, but the last few years have definitely seen a renewed enthusiasm for experimenting with and, in many instances, breaking down the barriers between musical genres. In this issue's cover story, six prominent artists consider the implications of this genre-bending. Their stories, observations and opinions add up to a thought-provoking inquiry into the difference between musical growth and calculated crossover, the role of musical authenticity in a postmodern world, and the prospects for diversity in a music environment that rewards assimilation. Also in this issue, we're introducing an expanded Academy In Action section, which now incorporates the latest news and events from NARAS Chapters across the country. And, elsewhere in these pages, two departments that went on hiatus during May's Grammy Awards issue make their comeback: Tech Digest returns with its user-friendly sampling of the major studio trades, while our Genre section brings you the artists who form the heart and soul of our organization and industry.

tions. Don't get me wrong, coalitions have been assembled to fight the good fight. But, the RIM is expected to combat record piracy, police parallel imports, design and lobby DAT legislation and INS regulations, monitor the statistics of the industry and fight the record labeling and censorship battles as well. Their efforts must be supported by every sector of our industry, and where possible we must orchestrate our activities and work toward common goals. Music, media and literature have alwaysbeen the most accurate mouthpiece for a society. It shouts what the political power structure, the status quo, would crush to silence. The musical anthems for the civil rights struggle and our country's exploits into Southeast Asia are examples and I suggest that they would have been stickered out of existence if the politicians of the 50's and 60's had been as quick to exploit the vulnerabilities of our Bill of Rights as the state and federal legislators of today. It should go without saying that the music industry needs to get its own priorities straight in the months and years to come. We also need to take a long hard look at what we are releasing into the marketplace and be willing to differentiate between the authentic voices of social consciousness and the marketing opportunists. We must learn that freedom brings with it an equal measure of responsibility, not a license to go around selling, in Michelle Shocked's words, "cartoon postcards of other people's misery to tourists who never get around to visiting." The fact is that to adequately protect our music and our art, we must raise the consciousness of the American people at the grass roots level. Rights are not removed all at once -- they are chipped away a few at a time, generation by generation -- so gradual is the erosion that those who will follow will have no frame of reference to gauge what rights they are missing. That is why we can't afford to wait to make our stand on an issue we are comfortable with. Every issue of freedom of expression must be seen as the mother of all issues. All who create, support or profit from art are within the crosshairs of this menacing gun. We're hearing a lot of talk about wake-up calls, commitments of change and new covenants from our politicians this year. But we must demand some answers to some very specific concerns: ... Where does music and arts education fit into all the vows, pledges, oaths and covenants? Will they once again become a staple of our educational system rather than a poorly-funded elective? ... Will the NEA remain a political ping-pong ball or be re-established as an independent agency? ... Will artistic freedoms be supported? As an artistic community, it is imperative that we demand the answers to these questions and become viscerally involved in the rebuilding of our nation's commitment to its cultural future.

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