ABSTRACT:
Groundins
By: Charles H.E. Campbell
The very success of Reggae in the European market could spell the reduction of market share for Jamaican acts in the future. Unless we review and adjust our business, production and promotional strategies, aimed at that continent, Jamaica runs the risk of forfeiting considerable market share to European Reggae artistes and bands who have become extremely popular in these domestic markets.
Reggae is no longer categorised by European promoters as world beat music rather, because of its tremendous popularity, it is now considered by them to be mainstream music, alongside Pop. This theoretically, should be good news for our Jamaica artistes and musicians, potentially generating increasing sales of musical products, and performance bookings. That direct correlation however, is far from the reality on the ground.
It is more challenging to headline major shows and festivals with Jamaica artistes, as European acts saturate and have more audience pulling power in their countries of origin. This is a fact of life that our artistes have to accept and adjust their fees accordingly, especially while Europe is going through a recession. Our artistes will have to consider more collaborative works with European artistes and producers as a way of introducing themselves in these countries.
Secondly, the musical trend has swung back to live instrumentation, featuring unusual instruments and sounds, indigenous to Africa, Asia and South America, creating a new kaleidoscope of harmonised sounds embedded in their music. Our producers therefore have to expose themselves to the different forms of emerging music and fusions, so as to keep abreast of the current market trends. Thirdly, the owners of venues, clubs and festivals, trust and prefer to do business with booking agents established in Europe.
Fourthly, the club circuit, which is the niche below the big festivals is amply supplied by local talent without the extra costs of air fares, visas accommodations and per diems.
Long term, the development of a proper professional system for artiste representation encompassing such functions as promotions, distribution and the booking of our acts is essential. Short term, we have to quickly establish working alliances with major European agencies and a more collaborative, structured relationship with their festival organisers, in order to more effectively lobby our and European governments to facilitate the issuance of visas in a more timely manner , and fund the cost of air travel to Europe.
PRESENTATION:
The very success of Reggae in the European market has translated to a reduction of market share for home-grown Jamaican acts. This does not mean however, that Reggae has declined in appeal or currency. There are a number of European Reggae acts who are now more popular than our own home-grown Jamaican Reggae acts, so much so that they are now closing major European Reggae festivals.
Some of these notable European Reggae acts are names we have probably never heard in Jamaica. Finley Quaye is a British Reggae singer who won the 1997 Music Of Black Origin (MOBO) Award for Best Reggae act; Manu Chao, who sings in French, Arabic, Portuguese, English and his native Spanish, is known for Reggae and festive Ska, a very high speed Ska, with full horn section; the Nazarenes, a roots Reggae duo of Ethiopian born men who are huge in Sweden and have toured Europe extensively; Dub Incorporation, a French Reggae and Dub band who sold out their last tour three months before the tour actually started and the smallest venue they played was a 5,000-seater. They alone can pull between 5,000 and 10,000 patrons- no Jamaican act, not Beres Hammond, Sean Paul or Damian Marley can do that now. Ten years ago, this would never have been heard of.
Since the 1950’s and 60’s, Ska has made a lasting impact on Europe. The genre is now used as a marker of musical versatility and skill by musicians around the world. Every band in the Pyrenees, along the Spain/France border, is a Ska band with a considerable big band Ska repertoire. It is argued that there are 500 Ska bands in Europe alone.
Fundamentally, our musicianship is still miles ahead. Many Europeans still come here to use Jamaican musicians to record their music, though they are not able to play the same way live. In this way, our local recording industry does benefit. The recorded works of European bands are extremely popular with younger domestic audiences, who never grew up with Bob Marley or Peter Tosh. They also often incorporate other cultural elements and instruments, which gives the music more appeal. However, while this popularity is opening up a broader market for Reggae, the European domestic bands are now swallowing up the live performance circuit. This puts our home-grown talent and even the English Reggae acts like UB40, Eric Clapton, Sting and Steel Pulse at a disadvantage. We must therefore review our business, production and promotional practices, aimed at that continent and seek to make adjustments, or else Jamaica runs the risk of forfeiting even more of our market share.
First of all, European Reggae bands are less expensive and less problematic. Logistically, they need no air tickets, when they can drive from the next town, and no hotel rooms, as they will be driving back after the performance. They do not require Schengen visas, which is costly and time consuming application process. Further, Jamaicans have a bad reputation in regards to honouring and respecting a contract. Many European promoters have found themselves in tough legal situations where they have advertised a Jamaican Reggae/Dancehall headliner, who does not show up. The European band will show up because they know they can be sued and they want to be in the promoter’s good books for future gigs. Too often, a Jamaican band shows up and wants to change the terms of contract, for example where it was agreed for per diems in lieu of dinner, upon arrival the act or band demands dinner before their performance.
Then, there is the case of parallel bookings, where the act is booked by one promoter, who is covering air fares, ground transportation, per diems, while a whole other set of gigs are booked with other promoters and the original promoter is suddenly told that some of his dates are not possible, due to this. The classic example is where some Jamaica bands and artistes try to stick up the promoter for a higher fee before going on stage. This occurs much less often in Jamaica. In large measure this has to do with the fact that Jamaica is a small society and the fan base in Jamaica relates to these artistes as equals, whereas in Europe, they are treated as demigods by patrons and promoters alike. So the artiste turns up at the venue and sees all these people in the throes of excitement, his superego comes out and reason flies through the dorr with ethics.
The behaviour of the artistes is a major hurdle, which we can mark down to lack of education and lack of overarching business principles and ethics. These manifest in different ways such as being abusive on the stage to technicians and even our own band members; in Jamaica the artiste might say, “bandsman, take it down low”, in Europe it is “pussyhole, take it down”. Jamaicans are notoriously late, which costs the promoter more in terms of municipal fines and work hours for venue and production staff.
We are disorganised and extremely unpleasant, to the point where even the man who sweeps the stage, does not want to be there. In some cases, the public address system staff will demand and receive extra pay to work with particular Jamaican artists and in many instances another layer of staff, persons who have the experience and are culturally allied with these acts, has to be hired as intermediaries. Thankfully, there are still a few seasoned acts like Steel Pulse, Burning Spear and Freddie McGregor who continue to shine bright, as they are considered as having the best reputation on the tour circuit amongst show promoters, technicians, back liners- everything is done professionally and in advance.
It used to be that even with the air fare it was less expensive to bring a Jamaican band to tour, as the costs could be spread out across the whole tour of 3 to 6 weeks or 15 to 30 shows. The social and administrative charges to be paid for European musicians would at least double the performance fee. You can pull a Jamaican musician into a band without taking 3 or 4 days for rehearsals, as within one or two shows he is right there with the rest of the band. If he uses the Jamaican, he would have to pay him 500 Euros. He would pay the French musician 300 Euros, but it ends up costing him 1000 Euros, because of administrative fees, insurance and rehearsals.
A new trend in our touring practices is the very high fees and the infamous entourage – air fare from Jamaica, accommodations, ground transportation for fifteen persons, but only six play onstage. Worse, it is the ones who are not doing anything who create the most trouble- getting involved with under-aged girls, cooking in hotel rooms, wrecking hotel rooms, stealing- all kinds of mayhem, which the promoter has to remedy, more times than not, at his own expense.
Much like the scenario here in Jamaica, the issue of content, in performance and interviews, is a concern for European promoters. Certain types of lyrical content make promoters nervous as their venues or events may become targets of certain rights movements. When an event becomes associated with certain types of activity, it only hurts the promoter. A lot of times the incendiary remarks are illegal and have nothing to do with freedom of speech. The promoter has to be wary about any breach of the law, as he can be penalised. Unfortunately, we have not taken the time to fully understand the context of European law, such as Germany’s Volksverhetzung, which means “stirring up the populace” or “agitation of the people”, of which there are similar legal precepts through the European states. We have little understanding of the cultural nuances and history which brought about such laws.
Minorities are more fiercely protected in Europe, by constitution and specific laws, because Jews, Gypsies and Communists experienced a lot of racism and discrimination during the Nazi and Fascist era of the mid-20th century. Laws like Volksverhetzung, were made to protect such society from Holocaust deniers, hate mongers and right wing extremists. Further, the laws are policed by gays; the mayors of Berlin and Paris are openly gay, so are eleven of the men and women who serve in the British Parliament, the French and UK Ministers of Culture, the German Foreign Minister, who is second only to the Chancellor and the Prime Minister of Iceland, according to Time Magazine article, Europe’s New Leaders: Popular, Ambitious and, Oh Yeah, Gay. (January 18, 2010.)
Our position regarding this issue is foolhardy and akin to us shooting ourselves in the foot. It is interesting, as we are not unique as it relates to our sentiments or our own laws against buggery – Barbados, Dominica, Eritrea, Gambia, India, Morocco, Panama and the Seychelles, all have far more explicit and severe laws regarding homosexuality. Our focus however, should be on ensuring that we do not breach the law, anywhere.
Reggae is no longer categorised by European promoters as world beat music. Rather because of its tremendous popularity, it is now considered by them to be mainstream music, alongside Pop and Rock. This theoretically, should be good news for our Jamaican artistes and musicians, potentially generating increasing sales of musical products, and performance bookings. That direct correlation however, is far from the reality on the ground.
Rock and Roll is an American music form and has remained largely so- only Britain has obtained some market share in this. Americans have a virtual monopoly on the promotion of Rock music, though record production, sales, touring, merchandising, though rock bands exist every where from Jamaica to Japan. The closest genre to Reggae is Rock, in terms of appeal, market share. Believe it or not, Rock bands tend to be more disciplined; more organised and understand well, the concept of putting on a show. They are consistent in their performance in general. Often, Europeans comment that when in Jamaica they watch acts that they have seen in Europe, and it is instructive that the performances done here are tighter, more intense, more organised and thought out, minus the idiosyncrasies and the egotistical display.
In general, the standards and requirements for putting on a good show are often slighted, disregarded or short circuited by Jamaicans. European bands bring their lighting director and their monitor and front of house engineers, whereas with the Jamaican approach, the artiste does not even want to bring a sound engineer on tour with him, as he will have to pay that person a salary and per diem. The Jamaican artiste then refuses to do sound check with European engineer assigned to the gig, who might never have mixed reggae before. The engineer is thus forced to learning during the performances, yet when the ‘desired’ results are not achieved, the artiste turns around and say “battyman a sabotage” them.
Rarely is a rock band seen without a manager, and not just a friend or relative- a manager who is professional, experienced and trained, is credible and knowledgeable and who understands the business- a manager to whom the band actually listens.
In terms of the financial aspect, versus a rock band, merchandising is the missing link in our business model. We have not fully understood or exploited this as a marketing tool or as an income stream when we are on the road anywhere. With Rock bands on tour, there is one bus for the band and one for the merchandise- some touring bands have been known to cover their touring costs from merchandise sales alone. Whereas rock bands will go on the road to promote themselves, including interviews and performances for which they do not get paid, many Jamaicans acts believe that they should be paid to do tours, engagements and interviews for the promotion of their own albums.
With European Reggae acts saturating the live Reggae scene and wielding more audience pulling power in their countries of origin, it is ever more challenging for Jamaican acts to headline major shows and festivals. This is a fact of life that our artistes have to recognise, accept and adjust their fees accordingly, especially while Europe is going through this protracted recession. Our artistes will have to consider more collaborative works with European artistes and producers. Some African artists have already successfully used this formula and a few of our own Jamaican acts have begun to exploit this avenue as well.
A prime example is Omar Perry, son of Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry and a relative unknown before he collaborated with Dub Incorporation on Achatah from their second album, Dans Le Décor (2005). The song became a major hit in France and he was invited to perform the song at a concert with the band. The performance went so well, that he completed the tour with them, with Dub Inc essentially playing as his backing band. He returned the next year with his own band and played the same 40 venues he had played with Dub Inc the year before. David Hines of Steel Pulse, also collaborated with Dub Inc on the track Speed. He too was asked to perform with them, and this has helped him to become known by a younger audience, who have now started attending to his concerts.
Even today, a lot of the work that is being produced by Jamaicans, is still being done in the same way that it was done 30, 40, 50 years ago. There is a lot of work for hire, where musicians are hired for a session or two. They still prefer to accept one payment and sign away all their rights. They do not ensure that their residual rights are protected and thus no future earnings are derived from the copies of the album that get sold, or the 130 times a song gets played in an elevator or on the radio.
During the last decade, the musical trend has swung back to live instrumentation, featuring unusual instruments and sounds, indigenous to Africa, Asia and South America, creating a new kaleidoscope of harmonised sounds embedded in their music. Our producers therefore have to expose themselves to the different forms of emerging music and fusions, so as to keep abreast of the current market trends. They have to keep on the cutting edge, be innovative and put out music that makes other nationalities feel that they have to keep up with our musicians and producers. When we do it, it is authentic- somehow, when they do it, it is like a patchwork. What we can produce, really cannot be duplicated. It is a gift Jah gave us, but we take it for granted.
Long term, the development of a proper professional system for artiste representation encompassing such functions as promotions, distribution and the booking of our acts is essential. Presently, the owners of European venues, clubs and festivals, trust and prefer to do business with booking agents established in Europe. Short term, we have to quickly establish better working alliances with some of these major European agencies and a more collaborative, structured relationship with their festival organisers. This will also assist in our lobby of our government and the European governments to facilitate the issuance of visas in a timelier manner and even to fund the cost of air travel for groups touring Europe.
Go anywhere in Europe and ask which type of artistes stay in four star hotels and has first class tour buses, and the response you will get is - big rock bands like U2 or ANY Jamaican Reggae band. Jamaican acts have to start touring the way that the European bands tour. The European bands, who may draw 10,000 people, will have a tour bus, but no hotel accommodations. Or they will take a van, purpose-built for musicians doing performance tours, with facilities for eating and sleeping. Often these vans are more suitable, as they are smaller units to tour buses, ideal for small city streets.
A tour bus is not practical in a city like Amsterdam, where the promoter will have to transfer the band to taxis or smaller vehicles. Of course, no artiste will come off of a tour bus and walk down the street with his suitcase. In Paris, the streets that can accommodate tour buses are the most expensive parts of the city, where hotel rooms are also very expensive. Tour buses cost 1500 Euros per day, then add 80-90 Euro hotel rooms for each of the 14 members of the touring party, it all adds up. This is why outside of summer festival season, most Jamaican bands cannot tour- even the most popular Jamaican act will not be able to do more than 5 gigs per week, and this has to be sold to a venue or promoter for a performance fee, plus cost of bus, hotels and meals.
Reggae has come this far without much state support or seeding, from the state. In order to promote in and penetrate the markets in the way that the new realities require, the Reggae industry will need state assistance. For instance our diplomatic services must facilitate music penetration of these markets, as a priority task, through their economic desks. They need to study how the music business operates in the countries of representation, so that they do not miss the opportunities that are available, through trade fairs, sports and other cultural expositions which can facilitate cultural exchange. They have to become our conduit of information, that keeps us abreast of changes economic, business and legal that might impact on our ability to tour.
The Jamaican state still does not treat our Reggae artistes as serious and substantial foreign exchange earners, in the same way they view commodity and other service exports. Therefore, at our airports, musicians fall into the same lines of people going on vacation. Touring musicians should have a special stamp in their passports that fast track their airport processing. The Ministry of Culture could act as a kind of one stop shop for the issuing of such stamps. This would also facilitate the state’s ability to build a database of verified, working, touring, earning musicians. It will cut down on the bandooloo-ism and abuse of visas; capture information regarding the volume and value of the music industry and increase the government’s ability to more accurately estimate and track earnings and of course, collect taxes.
Ultimately, the onus is on us to change the way we work, and view the industry as a business, not just for the artiste or musicians, but on a national level. We need to seek to include management and professionalism as the hallmarks of our industry. The artiste is mirrored by every other musician- they are so talented, and the talent comes with such relative ease that they do not see the need to practice and/or rehearse. This is also mirrored by the other disciplines- the engineers, artiste management- all fall into a trap of claiming professionalism, merely by being connected in some dubious way, but do not then go and seek appropriate, relevant training when it is now readily available at our tertiary institutions locally. In so doing, they short change the artiste in their representation, while the artistes too short change themselves.
The Jamaican music industry as a whole has been too slow and superficial in intellectualising what we do, so persons of other nationalities, with half our ability and experience are getting jobs that we should get, simply because they put up a better talking session than us, in selling themselves and their products. We have some of the most technically competent and accomplished persons in the music industry. The very idea of remixing was pioneered by Sylvan Morris, Errol Thompson, King Tubby and Scientist. Big Mick, who mixes for rock band, Metallica, uses mixing techniques created and invented by ET.
Too few Jamaican bands that tour know how to write a proper rider, based on the knowledge of the band. Instead, they download a generic form and make a few changes. How many know that there is a difference in the way it is written for the US versus Europe? How many truly understand the role of a tour manager or production manager? Our collective attitude and mantra must be- this is a job, it is not a holiday, not merely an opportunity for shopping, not primarily about being a star, profiling or girl spree… these cannot take priority over the work.
These are harsh words. I know it is a bitter pill for some of us to swallow. We must, however take stock of where we are at, why we are losing ground to others, and the required business strategies, some of which are recommended here, that will reposition us on a path to better penetrate the European market.
Email:che.campbell@gmail.com
*Presented at the International Reggae Studies Conference on February 19, 2010.
