The music industry, long resistant to a #MeToo reckoning, may finally face accountability following accusations against Sean Combs and a surge of lawsuits. With growing awareness of abuse, many are hopeful that meaningful change is on the horizon.
The music industry has long evaded a #MeToo reckoning like the ones experienced in Hollywood and the media, but the high-profile charges against hip-hop mogul Sean Combs may finally mark a turning point.
Federal prosecutors allege that Combs, known by monikers such as “Diddy,” operated a criminal sex ring, preying on women and coercing them into silence. These accusations have spurred hope among activists and industry watchers that music’s moment of accountability has arrived.
This hope has been further fueled by a massive class-action suit following Combs’s federal charges, as well as a new lawsuit against country star Garth Brooks.
When a series of explosive accusations against R&B hitmaker R. Kelly came to light five years ago, outlets like AFP asked whether it would spark a sea change in the music world. Kelly was convicted and sentenced to more than 30 years in prison for child sex crimes, sex trafficking, and racketeering.
This trial marked a milestone for the #MeToo movement, as it was the first major sex abuse case in which the majority of accusers were black women. However, wider cultural shifts in the music industry — long characterized as a bastion of “sex, drugs, and rock and roll” — failed to materialize.
Over the years, women have made serious accusations against numerous powerful men in the industry, including shock rocker Marilyn Manson, music mogul Russell Simmons, DJ Diplo, and producer Dr. Luke. Few of these men have faced significant repercussions.
“There’s a pass we give rock stars because of the rock star trope,” said Caroline Heldman, an Occidental College professor and co-founder of the Sound Off Coalition, an organization focused on addressing sexual violence in the music industry. “A lot of survivors I’ve spoken with have internalized the idea that they should have expected this kind of behavior — because he was a rock star,” Heldman told AFP.
A Culture That Silences Survivors
Kate Grover, a professor of women’s and gender studies at Washington and Lee University, who has researched the intersections of gender and the music industry, explained that the notion of “geniuses” is especially pronounced in music. “Once we label someone as a genius, it creates a scarcity model where they’re seen as too big to fail,” she said.
Grover added that women are viewed as much more disposable within the industry than men. Many experts, including Grover and Heldman, also say race is a significant factor in determining which cases are taken seriously by the public. Celebrity status plays a major role as well.
The victims in Kelly’s lawsuits were predominantly young black girls and women who “didn’t have the kind of star power that many of the actresses who came forward against Harvey Weinstein did,” Grover said.
Pop stars, Heldman added, are often empires in their own right, employing a network of people who help them maintain their abusive behavior over the years.
Since the initial lawsuit against Combs by his longtime partner, Cassie Ventura, numerous similar lawsuits have followed. Combs now faces federal charges of racketeering and sex trafficking and is awaiting trial. The volume of class-action suits that followed “speaks to the power certain figures in the music industry have to leverage their fame and resources to keep survivors quiet,” Heldman noted.
Systemic Issues Run Deep
A flurry of lawsuits has emerged against other powerful men in the music industry, ranging from artists to CEOs, in the wake of Ventura’s suit.
These cases underscore “the gravity of the situation,” wrote singer-songwriter and activist Tiffany Red, who has worked with Ventura, in an open letter to Combs last December. “The systemic issues of rape culture and misogyny deeply entrenched in the music industry pose a real threat to the safety of many people in this business,” Red stated. “How can we expect meaningful change when senior leadership and superstars face accusations of these crimes?”
Heldman also pointed to the “perverse market incentives” at play: after Kelly’s conviction for racketeering, his sales jumped more than 500%, and his streams rose by 22% the following week. Similarly, Combs’ music saw an 18.3% increase in on-demand streams the week of his arrest, according to industry data company Luminate.
While some of this could be attributed to curiosity spurred by the news, Heldman also pointed to the intense loyalty of fans in the music world. “In years of doing this work with survivors across various industries, I’ve never seen anything like the dedication that music fans have for their favorite artists,” she said.
Still, Heldman remains optimistic: “It feels like we are on the cusp of something. I believe any artist who has been operating under the assumption that they can silence survivors now knows that the jig is up.”
With AFP
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