The cultural industries came under the spotlight as part of “the new economy” proposed in the 2011-2012 Budget with incentives offered to practitioners and a reiterated call for more local music on the airwaves.
In this week’s Big Interview, veteran songwriter, artiste, copyright expert and cultural commentator Sach Moore speaks to Associate Editor Ricky Jordan about the state of the creative sector.
What are cultural industries and does Barbados have them?
Moore: To put the term into proper context,
I believe it is important that we first look at the definition provided by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) as they expanded on the term “culture industry’” first coined by critical theorists Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer in 1947.
Sometimes referred to as “creative industries”, they combine the creation, production and distribution of goods and services that are cultural in nature and generally protected by intellectual property law. The general notion of cultural industries includes music, television and film production, textual and publishing, crafts and designs, the visual and performing arts, architecture, sports, advertising and cultural tourism, inasmuch as they are viewed as knowledge-based, labour-intensive and creating employment and wealth.
However, let me strike from the list the things we don’t produce and distribute to the extent that they can reasonably be considered industries. To that end, film and television production, advertising and architecture can be knocked off without any difficulty.
Q: What about the literary arts?
Moore: There is, thus far, no available evidence that outside of the print media anybody is making a living from writing full-time. And certainly, we are not publishing anything on a regular basis apart from newspapers.
That brings us to the juncture where most of the activity can be found: music, craft, and the visual and performing arts.
First, let’s look at music and the performing arts. In the calypso and soca arena, you would probably find more than 300 active performers; some full-time, especially those working the hotel circuit in bands, and those who perform at the few remaining nightclubs, at fetes and occasionally go on tour. The others are just part-timers who generally come and go with the Crop Over Festival or some other main event.
Of the regular acts, who may also be releasing a CD each year, if you factor out the ones that hardly perform outside the hotels, you would be left with about two or three dozen acts who find it extremely difficult to take home an average of $30 000 per year. Overall, there would be about 12 acts, if so many, with annual income in excess of $30 000.
Q: How significant are musical recordings here?
Moore: A top local producer told me some months ago: ‘Most of the fellows cannot make recordings because they do not have the money, and those with the money are reluctant to invest in this area because of the fear of piracy, which is a real and growing threat to the music business.’
Back in 1985-1987, we were producing about a 100 45 rpms and about 12 LPs for Crop Over and most of the latter were single artiste’s offerings. Today, for such a major festival, you would be lucky to find a quarter of those numbers. Moreover, local recordings have mainly been confined to compilations. Even then, to sell 2 500 copies – which may barely recoup the financial investment – in Barbados is nothing short of a miracle. No doubt, the pirates fare better.
The few professionals within the crafts and visual arts arena, though not making a significant amount of money, may be doing better than the other creative people simply because they are not affected by the scourge of piracy.
So, you asked me if we have cultural industries in Barbados and I am afraid that I have to ask you: What cultural industries? Where is the capitalism that is so much an integral part of the cultural industries? What from these industries are we exporting in significant quantities and creating foreign exchange?
Indeed, we talk a lot about these industries, dream about them, and perhaps even pray for them. However, when you do a reality check you will not find any because we simply haven’t started the framework for them as yet. And those who say that they have plans for these industries are more apt to fail because they are all neophytes acting on the wrong information; some just act because they are looking for a role in a Hollywood movie.
Q: Will the recent Budgetary proposals assist this sector?
Moore: It’s hard for me to imagine that the minister is receiving good advice, if any advice at all, on these issue. I can, however, imagine that many people involved in the creative sector would be elated about the proposals because in most cases there’s the tendency to take the pig in the poke and run home without even a sneak peek to confirm that you have the right animal . . . .
The proposal for the construction of a multi-purpose, state-of-the-art cultural and performing arts centre sure sounds good to me, but how is it going to help those in music and the performing arts at this critical juncture? Will it be built to accommodate a few thousand more people than the Gymnasium [of the Garfield Sobers Sports Complex]? Do we need it merely for better acoustics and general ambience?
Will it be built to make the staging of cultural events cheaper to promoters, paving the way for more events to be staged annually and more artistes to be showcased and, naturally, earn more money?
The Gym can accommodate about 5 000; to rent it for a show you are required to fork out about $20 000; then you have to start adding other related costs – sound, lighting, stage rental, advertising, performing acts, licensing royalties to COSCAP, VAT, insurance, entertainment licence, security, printing of tickets, and general helpers. Without any financial assistance from a sponsor, you could be outlaying over $100 000 before the first note is struck. Then, to break even, you have to sell no fewer than 3 000 tickets at an average of $35. Of course, if a big foreign act is heading the ticket, then your expenses could triple.
The Gymnasium is under-utilised by concert promoters and it’s evident that the reason has very little to do with size and almost everything to do with cost. Against that background, I would say that a multi-purpose state-of-the-art cultural centre that will cost more to rent or even the same as the Gym is not, by and large, going to provide any real benefits to the performing arts.
Indeed, a few big promotional outfits like FAS, the NCF [National Cultural Foundation], Timeless Barbados Inc, and Gilbert Rowe may find the minister’s proposal somewhat entertaining but I don’t. Why? Because I believe the first beneficiaries of any arts centre by the Government should be the local performers who need the exposure and the money.
Out of the combined performers of all musical genres in Barbados which could easily surpass 600, thus far only about ten per cent get exposure on the big shows, and it’s usually the same acts. So, the need here is to get more artistes onto the stage frequently.
Q: So what is your alternative to the arts centre?
Moore: Two to three arts centres with a holding capacity of between 2 500 and 3 000 that can be rented for, let’s say, $5 000 per event. This would provide the incentives for lesser known acts to stage their own shows on a regular basis, and not have to wait for a call from big-name promoters.
Step back to the 1960s to 1980s, one of the major features we had then that is obviously and sadly missing from the local cultural landscape was a plethora of entertainment venues across the island. There was the Drill Hall, YMPC, Caribbean Pepperpot, Marine House, Pieces Of 8, Pandora’s Centre, International Disco, and a number of community centres and other venues. Everybody got a chance to perform regularly, even if only at parochial level; local entertainment was booming then.
Indeed, many of those venues were relatively small; that is, they accommodated fewer than 1 000 people comfortably, but they offered events promoters two significant things that are notably absent today: cheap rental and the right to stock and operate their own bar.
In the circumstances, what couldn’t be realised at the gate could easily be picked up at the bar; and in many instances the bar receipts would out-perform the gate receipts, meaning that two or three big-name acts teaming up for a show and dance could still take home a tidy sum.
Today, when you rent one of the few remaining venues, they keep the bar and still charge a rental fee of several thousand dollars. And we ask why most entertainers are finding it so difficult to etch out a decent living outside of the hotel circuit.
Undoubtedly, there’s a problem with venues for the performing arts in Barbados, but size is not the biggest problem. Rather, it’s the limited number of venues and the high cost of rental for what is available.
To that end, I want to make a loud call to the Government to free up the community centres once again. The rationale of these centres is to provide a meeting place for the people in the community. Moreover, many community folks and organizations used these centres to stage cultural events, which helped to achieve meaningful objectives.
Q: What are your views on Government’s call for all radio stations to commit to 60 per cent local music?
Moore: Again, I believe the minister is very short on sound advice. About two decades ago, I wrote an article which appeared in the local Press calling for the legislation of an airtime quota for radio stations in Barbados. Since then, many voices, including the Copyright Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers’ (COSCAP) would have outlined a strong case for such a policy to the Broadcasting Authority under the chairmanship of Lucille Moe.
If we did a reality check on this issue, the fact would be borne out that 60 per cent is too high as a starting point.
I believe we should start with legislation for 40 per cent, moving to 50 in five years. Both the radio stations and their listeners will want to hear some fresh music ever so often and the creation of music calls for talent and money.
We have the talent but not the money, mainly because the investment returns are not very good.
If there’s an improvement in the music sector in five years’ time, the quota policy could be reviewed and any necessary adjustments made.
Sadly, when all is said and done, I’m afraid that in the absence of legislated airtime quota, the route that several other countries have taken, nothing will change one iota on local radios, including the Government-owned stations.
Q: What about the $50 million five-year grant to musicians, artistes, designers and chefs?
Moore: The basic notion is laudable. However, in order to capitalise on any such investment in local music, the standard must improve significantly, especially in the area of writing. It is undoubtedly true that the standard has deteriorated a lot over the last 10 to 15 years, and this downward trend is not showing any signs of stopping.
Taking the music down the drain is now part of our culture. Efforts to get it out of the drain will not find immediate success; that is to say, it will, on a broad scale, take between three to five years to get us back where we were in the 1960s to mid-1990s.
At the insistence of Mike Cummins, I listened to a number of gospel CDs – Toni Norville’s, Allison Norville-Forde’s, Sister Marshall’s, Hoszia Hinds’ and Mya Daniel’s – earlier this year and was very impressed with the writing, singing and overall production. That said, I know there are still a number of good writers out there, but clearly there’s a need for other mainstream writers to emerge from the crap zone and produce music with much broader appeal.
In music, the market determines success or failure, and most of what we have been producing here in recent times has not sent anybody smiling to the bank; that is proof of what the market has determined.
Q: How will the waiver on recording studio equipment impact the “industries”?
Moore: This waiver is nothing new.
In 1997, after setting up the Recording Industry Association of Barbados (RIAB), I wrote a letter on its behalf to then Prime Minister Owen Arthur requesting the same concessions for the music industry.
In less than five days’ time, I received a telephone call from the prime minister . . . advising we would be granted the concessions. He also advised that he would also be making venture capital available to the music industry for those who wanted to upgrade existing facilities and so on.
As far as I can recall, that policy was put in place, applications for the concessions went through Derek Wilkie, the then president of RIAB, and several people got their stuff in here duty-free.
What is clear is that the Minister of Finance is reintroducing a policy started by the last administration. The major difference between the two offers of duty-free concessions is that the first offer was bigger with fewer strings attached. Of course, the current minister has enough time to tweak his.
Certainly, as far as benefits to the cultural/entertainment sector go, the concessions were vastly under-utilised before . . . when lots of recordings were being done in Barbados and, call me pessimistic, but I don’t think any new concessions will provide any great benefit now that recording activities have ebbed.
Having state-of-the-art recordings studios is one thing, having artistes to record in them is something completely different. If there’s no money to make recordings, the equipment will record a high volume of dust as the reel of misfortune turns.
As I see it, there are three major problems that must be tackled in the music sector, namely, finding money to make recordings, bringing the retail price of a locally-produced CD in the shops down to about $35, and piracy.
I would be happy to present the Government with a proposal on all the above, and it would come out looking good, sounding good, and with only a small investment – less than $3 million, which could be taken from the proposed $50 million, over a three- to five-year period.
Q: Should we create a “Bajan brand” of music again for the industry to really go forward?
Moore: Emphatically, no. There’s no need to create another “Bajan brand” like spouge in order to develop a viable local music industry. Music is just another medium through which an artistic group of people communicate. The thing is to find a method, a genre, if you wish, that suits your style of expression; that allows the greatest degree of effectiveness.
The most important thing for musicians and singers is to create their own style, a unique identity that distinguishes them from the rest. Rihanna and Shontelle didn’t have to rely on any so-called Bajan brand to find success in the industry.
