Polygrammatical Error

Rip It Up, Issue 239, 1 July 1997, Page 8

Polygrammatical Error

While record companies are not known for their tact or taste, and are primarily a way of making a heap of

cash for those who control them, it sometimes staggers me to see the ill-informed and distasteful lengths they will go to in order to promote their ‘product’. I am referring in particular to Polygram

New Zealand’s recent campaign, ‘Black Music’, which seems to be a way of polarising people with different skin colours. What exactly is this all about? Is Polygram categorising all music made by black people into one allencompassing genre, which is set apart from other (and by extension, ‘real’ music) because of the skin tone of those who make it? So, for example, can I expect to see Public Enemy in the

same rack at a record store as Ella Fitzgerald, alongside Bob Marley, Tricky, Jimi Hendrix, Goldie and Marvin Gaye — different styles of music, but all made by black people. Or is it that Polygram are suggesting to black people that this is the music that we should listen to, as if we’re too damn stupid to make up our own minds, (or maybe because we all share that great sense of ‘rhythm’, this is the stuff that we will be able to ‘shake our booty’ to). Earlier this century, records made by black

musicians were classified as ‘race records’, denoting a limited appeal and documenting a quaint but ultimately worthless sub-culture outside the mainstream of proper music. Polygram, it seems, are attempting to start this all over again. Well, bollocks to that. Whoever is responsible should be ashamed of themselves — this is blatant racism, and completely offensive. Sandy (Black musician), Auckland.