Musical Space: Brexit

Musical Space

Watching a country tear up its continental agreements has gotten me thinking about how music is an international industry. The U.K. exports more than three billion dollars worth of recorded music a year. Its artists make another billion from live tours, acting as goodwill ambassadors in the process. A lot of this success comes from British artists’ abilities to freely sell their records and live music to other EU countries. But it seems 10 Downing Street has forgotten both how important music is culturally and its part in offsetting the mounting English trade deficit. [Music: Foals, “On the Luna,” Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost - Part 1 (2019) - On the Hyundai Mercury shortlist this year] British pop is international at its core. Bands like The Beatles and The Stones fused American black music with a European sensibility to dominate the charts. The same has since been done with punk, hip hop, and electronic dance music - a string of roaring critical and commercial success for more