Black Music & Industry Blamed for Garage Violence

UK garage music helped contribute to the death of South London schoolboy Jude Akapa, former soccer star John Fashanu said this week at the trial of 16 year old Tristan Gordon, who was convicted of killing 15 year old Jude. Jude died after being struck just once in the face by Gordon after enduring months of bullying.

The dead victim was the nephew of Mr Fashanu, a former Barnados Boy (orphan) who became one of Britain's first black soccer stars in the 80s, before setting himself up as a millionaire entrepreneur.

"It is hard for me to say this as a black man but there is no doubt that black music today promotes violence, dehumanisation and aggression, particularly towards women," Mr Fashanu told the Daily Telegraph.

"When I found out about Jude I couldn't believe it. Jude was a quiet boy, a high achiever, a good boy. Now he has gone."

While the influential ex soccer star criticised the culture of today's British black music scene, Guardian columnist Decca Aitkenhead suggested Britain's music industry itself played a greater role in garage's escalating violence.

"Violent speed garage is a music industry creation," she claimed (in an unrelated piece about the rise of South London's So Solid Crew.)

"Of all the available talent to choose from, you might wonder why the industry opted for So Solid-" she asked before answering her own question.

"The primary appeal of So Solid to the music industry was precisely its volatile menace of violence. Because now that people are getting shot, speed garage is something to talk about. It is a cultural issue, a debating point, a moral panic."

"Officially, the industry is selling organic black urban Britain. That black urban Britain was peacefully producing speed garage for years in obscurity is overlooked."

http://www.guardian.co.uk
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