News June 12, 2020

#TheShowMustBePaused organisers detail next moves

Claudio Schwarz/Unsplash

Tuesday, June 2nd saw a mass blackout across the music industry as #TheShowMustBePaused movement surged in solidarity with Black Lives Matter. Now, the organisers have spoken out about the movement, and have detailed their future moves.

If you scrolled through social media on Tuesday, June 2nd you would have noticed how musicians and music fuelled industries around the world posted only black photos to show they remained in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter which has reignited amidst the death of George Floyd who was killed by Minneapolis police late last month.

Organisers Brianna Agyemang and Jamila Thomas recently chatted with Billboard about the movement, and detailed how they plan to move forward with #TheShowMustBePaused.

Both music industry driven themselves, Agyemang hails as a senior artist campaign manager at Platoon (an Apple-owned artist services company), while Thomas is the senior director of marketing at Atlantic Records.

Their plan for #theshowmustbepaused arose from “pure emotion, anger and sadness at what was happening in the world,” and how that notion for a day without social media morphed into the unintended “Blackout Tuesday.”

“At some point between Monday night and Tuesday morning, people thought that a plain black box was supposed to be posted with the Black Lives Matter tag,” the pair noted.

“That caused confusion because it was also pushing down vital information for the Black Lives Matter movement. That was never our intent, never any part of our directives,” stated Agyemang.

“The goal was not to mute ourselves. The goal was to take a break from your daily nine-to-five duties to refocus and recenter. And that meant that you could take a pause and just breathe. Or take a moment to think or use that time to focus on what you could do within your community to make a change and help make progress as well.”

With numerous musicians, music companies, and persons around the globe taking part of this initiative, the pair have stated that they’ll be rolling out the next stage of their initiative as soon as they’re able.

“There are some immediate, concrete actions that we would like to have happen sooner rather than later,” Thomas detailed. “This is an election year, and it’s so important to address voting.”

Additionally, Thomas noted that the two are also forming two branches of their new organisation where one will “focus on social justice and systemic racism… from the boardroom to the boulevard,” with the other honing in on “restructuring the organisation within music industry companies to gain more room for growth opportunities for black people.”

In the end, Thomas noted that they didn’t start #TheShowMustBePaused out of an ego movement, but so that everyone could be a part of change:

“This isn’t an ego thing. We didn’t put our names on the original graphic because it’s not about us. It’s about a movement for all of us. We’re humbled by all the support but we’re also not afraid. We’re assuming this leadership role, honoured that people trust us to lead them to the next steps, working together as a community.”