I don’t have any credentials to talk much about music, so this is just an innocent plea to end a guilt trip I keep going on when I listen to YouTube music from artists in small markets. The story is that there’s no chum there for these artists. Flat out I don’t have the same guilty feeling when I listen to YouTube music from artists in big markets. Don’t sweat for the rich and famous when they aren’t getting richer. Your sweat should be for people who need your support.

I’ve done quite a bit of work with youth in sports, and I’ve done much informal studying of American sports development, both college and professional. Administration and field management are critical to sports development, and I have good knowledge of the subject, so I can be loud when I get going.

Over the last two decades I’ve gained some experience in the book world, but I have no confidence in this arena. I don’t know how Belizeans in the book world see me, but I’m just out of my water when discussing the art of writing and the water is way over my head when it comes to the advancement of the industry here.

I have absolutely no history in the world of music. All human beings can play a little something if they desire to, but if you are going to be good at anything you need to have passion. I never got past first base in music, because I prefer to listen to music than to play it. Hey, for people who have natural gifts in a field, becoming accomplished isn’t work, it’s all play. But anyone who would be great at anything has to grind it out.

No, I don’t have much to share about the music world, but maybe this lee bit here might be worth something.

I think we should pay for all man-made joy, if we can. Yes, I feel guilty when I play small-market artists on YouTube and I have zero guilt when I play large-market artists. I know, I know large-market artists have rights, but when I play Brenda Lee, Dionne Warwick, Freddy Fender, and Vicente Fernandez, I never think about how they or their family are living. If you’re a music artist from a large market and you’re not making much dough, you’re either in the wrong field or your time has not yet come.

We need to find a way to help artists in our region get theirs. I am aware of the group that is about protecting the copyright. The BSCAP (Belizean Society of Composers, Authors, Publishers), on its Facebook page, says the organization “is committed to protecting the rights of copyright owners (e.g., authors, composers, artists, producers) in the exploitation of their work, so that they can derive equitable remuneration for their creativity, which in turn will further establish the Arts as a competitive, vibrant and viable industry in Belize.”

I understand the BSCAP calls for clubs and radio stations (all commercial users of music) to pay some chum to the artists every time their property is used, but we haven’t received any information about how that is paying off. One negative about the initiative is that if local stations don’t get the support, they will not be able to afford to pay a fee whenever they play our music. That translates to more foreign music, less local music, another beating down of our culture.

Maybe local advertisers can do more, but for sure the government should create incentives for local stations to use local music. The first defender of our culture should be our elected representatives.

There are artists who make themselves appealing to the Europeans, and they earn sizable chum. In the world of Jamaica, Bob Marley is one artist who went out to England and the USA and Germany and made his. Internet sources say his estate is worth US$130 million. Peter Tosh is one artist who stayed home. The website celebritynetworth.com says his estate is worth “only” US$3 million. Marley is more prolific, but I enjoy their work about the same. Hmm, after Googling Tosh I won’t sweat too much when I play his YouTube music.

I Googled the Mighty Sparrow and nothing came up on his net worth. When the Sparrow suffered a stroke some years ago, he needed help from the Trinidad and Tobago government to help him pay his bills. I understand the government over there was hesitating to fork over the funds. It is incredible that an artist as brilliant as the Mighty Sparrow didn’t do that well financially, and salt in that wound is that a whole lot of run-of-the-mill songsters, because of the market where they live, make a mint.

I won’t bother to Google Jamesie Brewster of “Jamesie and the Happy Seven,” another of my favorites, because it will make me unhappy. I bet his family is not getting a daam thing for his great music. I’m glad to see (on the net) that Pluto has between 1 and 5 million dollars and the one-of-a-kind Yellowman is worth US$500,000.
Caribbean governments could help if

they established a permanent fund for musical artists. The Caribbean has over 44 million people, so if our governments work together, we can struggle through the logistical difficulties and secure the chum for our artists that they deserve. Belizean heroes like Rhaburn, Peters, Nabor, Andy Palacio, Leela, deserve more because they enrich our lives.
Hey, all that hasn’t done much for my guilt, but hopefully there’s something of worth for our musicians there. Okay, now for a lee drink and my favorite Krismos artists — Super Furia and Freddy Fender. No guilt about Freddy. He had access to Mexico and the USA, a market of over 400 million people.

Incidentally I’m running some major guilt over a pirated cd I own, that to-die-for Super Furia. Years ago when I went to the music stores in Belize City to buy Super Furia, only the pirated stuff was in stock. If you say I shouldn’t have bought it, you are right. But that Furia Krismos album is some special, and I needed it. Hmm, someday I’ll replace that cd with the original, because Super Furia has a market of only 400 thousand.

We have to find a way to pay our artists who have earned our undying devotion. Our artists keep our culture alive. If our art doesn’t survive, and it won’t if we don’t show appreciation, we will be overrun by artists from large markets. They will crush our culture. Our children will want to grow up to be like them. Of course it’s no easy battle for us to win. But we have to defend ours. And I won’t have to feel guilty.

Our young men really must stop sagging

There are stories that sagging is homosexual invitation in US prisons. Another story out of the prisons is that prisoners aren’t allowed belts, so their pants are always in danger of falling down. They just get used to wearing their pants that way. There is another story that it really is about fashion, in a very rude way. The overriding sense I have is that it is about rebellion, a kind of “expletive you, society, I don’t bow to your rules.”

I’m sure that sagging didn’t originate here, and I’d like our young men to done wid that. We understand American black and brown youth saying to the white power structure over there, kiss my blank, but it doesn’t make sense to say the same to leaders who look like you.

In Belize the leadership looks like us. If you go to the prison and you get some inmates there and research their family trees, a lot of them would connect to the men and women in our parliament or people holding big jobs. Sure, some of our youth are down and out right now, but they have a voice that can change things. Our youth are not without hope.