SA Music Quotas

There’s a lot of talk on the go at the moment about Quotas, representation and enforcement thereof. Personally I regard this as something of a contentious issue. I have been reading various posts submitted on the debate surrounding the SAMQC (South African Music Quota Coalition). I am behind SA Music all the way, (one of my favourite bands are South African, and haven’t even made massive headway on local playlists yet). South African artists in general however; I can’t say that I enjoy all of it, but I do support their cause, their creative talent and the mere fact that they are South African. My Ideas on quotas on the whole however are not so sympathetic.

Everyone who is a sport loving South African must already be incensed about the hotly disputed Quota system in place in our Provincial and National selection processes respectively. A lot of that is meant in good spirit to redress past transgressions. Super Idea! Except in practice it has detracted from the overall standard of our export quality where our National Sports are concerned. The employment climate in SA, pretty much echoes the same sort of ideals with the same sort of problematic reality. A reality that doesn’t sit well with everybody.

To be perfectly honest, it doesn’t sit well with me either. I believe people, services, goods even music should be chosen or promoted on the basis of merit, not on the basis of disadvantage.

Before everyone involved with SAMQC send me death threats and start poking hatpins into wax dolls made in my likeness, let me say that I do also believe that the imported drivel we are forced to listen to on our Radio playlists are by and large no better than their South African counterparts. Furthermore, I think we are suffering the legacy of bad habit, the unfortunate by-product of democracy and the typical side-effects of Pop-Culture, which is that the Pete Watermans and the Sony™ Musics of this world actually dictate to the ready and willing masses what is “in”, what is “happening” and what is “mainstream”.

The Legacy of Bad Habit
Alex Jay should have retired a long time ago and because someone is hiring him, leads me to believe that they are out of touch with their own listening audience. The people who control the Radio Stations and Media Houses are not adventurous or progressive enough when it comes to sourcing good music. Granted, you cannot please everyone, but that is why there are CD Shops selling Kenny G and Shakira. They follow trends and someone else’s crap decisions on the other side of the world are just propagated here and we are forced to listen to it, while our SA talent suffers the consequences and have to gig for peanuts while we pay International Bands fortunes to stumble around pissed on stage.

The Un-Fortunate By-Product of Democracy
I would much rather be a wise cynic than an oblivious optimist. No disaster in the history of the world has ever been averted by sheer optimism. Cynics always see it coming first. Democracy is an terrible example of misplaced trust. Just listen to the High 5 at 5 on 5FM and then come and argue the point. People vote for that song. I remember when I was in Matric and there was a Public Referendum that year and I recall that only those kids who had turned 18 that year, in other words those who had failed a previous year, were allowed to cast their ballot. The irony escaped everyone else. Democracy was the same super vehicle of human rights that put GW Bush in power for two consecutive terms.

The Typical Side-Effects of Pop-Culture
I have two words for you: Pop Idol. How we dress, what we listen to, how we wear our hair, we decide almost none of that. It all cascades down, via the medium of Pop-Culture from The United Kingdom and America. We were not put on this earth to walk in the shadows of others, and sometimes when I consider the means required to liberate us of the shackles that bind, and the unchallenged diet of Pop-Culture then I think I would rather risk the inequity of Quotas than watch South African bands and artists lick the boot heels of Corporate Radio and Music South Africa.