1,200 singers, technicians, concert halls and festivals have signed a petition to attack the “dominant position” of a few large industrial groups in the music sector and denounce the rise of the RN.
In an appeal published on Thursday June 18 in the columns of the newspaper Politicalsome 1,200 artists from the musical sector denounced “the threats from the far right and industrial concentration to creative freedomâ€. Signed by many French personalities such as Renaud, Bernard Lavilliers, Barbara Pravi, Ebony, IAM, Médine or even Les Ogres de Barback, this Call of the 1000: music in resistance, also supported by the Union of Current Music (SMA), considers in its first lines “Music as a living common good”. “It is a popular art: plural, a thousand miles from reactionary fantasieswrite the authors. Music crosses geographic and personal spaces, social classes. »
In this thirteen-paragraph forum, the signatories say they fear the potential arrival of an elected official from the National Rally at the head of state in 2027, believing that he could represent a threat to the cultural sector as a whole. “The project of the far right is the risk of being brought into line:†criminalization or repression of certain musical scenes, racist hierarchy of music deemed legitimate or illegitimate, end of cultural aid for those who call into question the national myth and make progressive speechesâ€they write.
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Launch of a collective
The collective declaration is accompanied by the announcement of the launch of a collective, “Future Cultures”. As our colleagues from France Inter indicate, the collective had its baptism of fire yesterday in the 10e district of the capital, at Point Éphémère. Its members say they want “weave bonds of solidarity to aim for a truly multidimensional culture, freed from racist, sexist, classist, LGBTQIA+phobic, ableist dynamics favored by the current systemâ€.
The message is aimed as much at performers as at technicians and music workers:“Let’s converge our strengths beyond our stages, our aesthetics and our sectors. Let’s connect music to other fields of culture, […] Let’s weigh in on the presidential campaign debate, and let’s build together the solidarity capable of opening up other possibilities.”
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The signatories intend “Taking music back from the machines” so that it remains “free, plural and contradictory”. Several concert halls or festivals have also supported the collective, such as Les Trans Musicales and Marsatac. As for the world of cinema which denounced in Cannes“Vincent Bolloré’s influence over the Canal+ group” last month, the petition finally accused a “A handful of groups occupy a dominant position in the music sector.” “Certain media and cultural empires show how industrial concentration, austerity and the reactionary battle of narratives can feed each other.”she continues, without mentioning names.
