Hello everyone. Today I will be presenting to you «Multiculturalism in the music industry».

Multiculturalism is the way in which a society deals with cultural diversity, both at the
national and community level and it develops according to one of two theories: the “melting
pot” theory or the “salad bowl” theory.

There has been a significant increase in the number of black, Asian and minority ethnic stuff
in the music industry since 2016. The latest report follows moves in the industry to better
support the black community, with initiatives such as #BlackoutTuesday, prompted by George
Floyd's death and the “Black Lives Matter” campaign.
Since then, artists including Little Mix's Leigh-Anne Pinnock have come forward to discuss
their experiences of racism in the industry. She said: “The lack of diversity is disgraceful”.
Of course that more needs to be done, for example: removing the word "urban" to describe
music of black origin, using genre-specific terms like R&B or soul instead; ending the use of the
"offensive and outdated" term BAME, which stands for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnics in
official communications; maintaining a database of people responsible for promoting diversity
across Universal music.

Multicultural consumers — blacks, Hispanics and Asian-Americans — make up the new

mainstream determining music's trends, impact and earnings. Multiculturals have given rise to
greater diversity, resulting in such unexpected collaborations and featurings. The digital age
has been crucial in music's melting pot and technology has taken down all the boundaries and
given a voice and power to the multicultural consumer.

Exhibit One: In 2020, the edition of the Super Bowl, that took place in Miami, featured an all-
Latin line up for the first time. With the iconic Jennifer Lopez and Shakira headlining that year’s
biggest concert. An estimated 103 million viewers tuned in.

Exhibit Two: Popular K-Pop band, BTS, ended 2019 with three No. 1 hits in the U.S., and four
top 10 hits on the prestigious Billboard 200 chart.

Exhibit Three: J Balvin’s megahit “Mi Gente” was remixed by Beyoncé. It brought her closer to
her Latin fans and brought Latin music closer to non-Hispanic audiences, similar to when Justin
Bieber remixed Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s “Despacito” in 2017. Both examples exhibit a
trend towards “reverse partnerships” with mainstream artists looking for in-culture and in-
language collaborations with Latin artists.

The list of exhibits could go on and on. Music has long been at the forefront of setting trends in
our society, with a strong track record for giving minorities a voice. Just take a look to the
Buraka Som Sistema, that made a huge success singing in portuguese and made the Kuduru
style a global phonemon.

Minority artists will continue to discover and fall in love with artists and rhythms that come
from the countries and regions associated with their cultural background. However, we believe
that given the demographic changes in America, we will start to see a steady growth of artists
bringing a home-grown, bi-cultural perspective to their work. Therefore, the next few years
may see the birth of native versions of K-Pop emerging as Korean American artists born and
raised in the U.S. creating more songs that reflect their bi-cultural experience.

Another trend that I anticipate is the creation of the reverse “Spanglish” songs by Latin
American artists. While I believe we will witness a significant number of portuguese (or
brazilian) artists singing in English, I also expect to see songs to be created in portuguese (from
Portugal or Brasil) with some English incorporated into them and also English songs that have a
bit of portuguese thrown in.