Yesterday, Aluna Francis of AlunaGeorge released an open letter to the dance music industry, calling for an end to “long standing racial inequities” in how Black and POC artists are received and promoted by gatekeepers like playlist curators at major platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, and others. “As a member of the Black Music Action Coalition and a Black woman in dance music, I need to challenge the ‘dance music industry’ on its long standing racial inequalities,” she wrote. “We not only need to give credit to the artists that created the genre, we also need to establish a long-term plan to secure a healthy future for dance music that is culturally and racially inclusive.”
Aluna specifically calls for an “upgrade” to the “current genre definition and industry-designed parameters of dance.” “There are many types of dance music made by Black producers that were never accepted into the genre widely (Juke, Jersey club, Baltimore club, Philly club, footwork, soflo jook, ballroom/vogue, slowflo, Miami jook, UK funky, New Orleans bounce and more),” she writes, citing DJ Sliink’s recent interview with Billboard on racial inequality in dance music. “The original sounds of dance drew from and embraced many aspects of Black peoples’ rich musical heritage. As the genre was westernized the sound changed to the point where its original cultural influences were no longer heard or associated with the genre… For example, if a white producer uses African beats, it will be accepted and playlisted as dance which has a well worn pathway to mainstream pop music. However, African house music produced by a Black person will not get the same opportunity.”
Aluna closes with a call for different subgenres to be folded under the “dance” umbrella at DSPs, and for DSPs to give more prominent placement to editorial playlists for genres like afrobeats, afropop, dancehall, and reggaeton. “They’re treated like an isolated genre, yet, these sounds have influenced mainstream dance and pop music for years. Dance music needs to be progressive and move us into the future, especially right now, as we have globally united in the fight to end racism. The role of dance is to give healing, to uplift us, and to serve as a celebration of those who are on the front line making a better future for us all.” Read the full letter here and below.