Breaking Barriers in British Arts

Theme: Music and Arts

Breaking Barriers in British Arts: Support, Representation and Change examines the encouragement and support of British arts, music, and culture. Focusing on backing British talent, we will base our interviews from the BRITs on nurturing the future of arts and music and amplifying British talent, asking individuals about the support of arts, music, and culture.

As a team, we will explore celebrities’ attitudes towards record labels and how the public perceives this. We aim to investigate how celebrities and prominent figures in the music and arts world may not be actively supporting causes that the public champions, such as Black Lives Matter. Additionally, we will examine gender equality among artists. For instance, at the 2023 BRIT Awards, the Best Female and Best Male Artist categories were merged, resulting in an all-male lineup and thereby excluding women from the nominations that year. This exclusion may have affected audience engagement, as 2023 recorded the lowest live viewership, with 2.5 million tuning in.

We draw inspiration from artists like Stormzy and Chappell Roan because, despite their prominence, they remain connected to the beginnings of their careers and actively nurture smaller artists who lack support from major labels.

This issue is significant to us because, as creative arts students, we experience the struggle of large corporations limiting opportunities for emerging talents to be seen and heard. We have observed this trend across the arts culture in the UK and globally.