History Main / MusicIsPolitics

* ''Film/LoveAndMercy'': The Music/BrianWilson biopic shows Brian [[CreativeDifferences clashing]] with Mike Love over ''Pet Sounds'' and his own father buying Music/TheBeachBoys' music publishing without telling him.

* ''Film/StraightOuttaCompton'': The {{biopic}} of Music/N.W.A shows the group dealing with an unscrupulous manager and internal tensions. Jerry Heller tries to get Music/IceCube to sign a contract without Cube’s lawyer reviewing it first.

* ''Film/BohemianRhapsody'' has a number of these moments, most notably when music executive Ray Foster [[ItWillNeverCatchOn pours cold water on the titular song]].

* The founding of Drum Corps International is a result of this trope. Prior to DCI’s founding, the major shows were governed by the American Legion and VFW. Corps directors wanted more control of the activity. This included a more equitable distribution of the show’s proceeds among the corps (under the VFW/AL, only the top corps received any contest money), uniform judging standards (the two veterans’ groups’ criteria often varied considerably and were subject to the whims of their directors), and greater artistic flexibility (the VFW/AL ruled that aspect of the activity with an iron fist). As a result, in 1971, a group of Midwest and Western directors led by Don Warren (Cavaliers) and Jim Jones (Troopers) founded The Combine to gain more control over the activity. One year later, they merged with the United Organization of Junior Corps (their East Coast counterpart, who formed under similar circumstances) to form DCI. They quickly gained firm control of the drum corps activity within a few years, while the VFW/AL became increasingly irrelevant, hosting their last major championships in the early 1980s.

* ''Film/{{Yesterday}}'' has a man suddenly being the only one who remember The Beatles, and thus he attracts the attention of the music industry. And he has a crash course in how brutal and unscrupulous those people are, with one executive outright says his songs will make a lot of money and they will take most of it.

%% * This trope was a major part of ''{{Theatre/Dreamgirls}}'' story.
%% * One of the themes in ''Film/ThatThingYouDo''.

* Music/OutKast experienced this after their record label got bought out. The executive who signed them was excluded from the merger, and the new executives didn't have the same understanding. Because of this, the Idlewild soundtrack wasn't marketed properly, and despite having a significant buzz built up around the songs "Mighty O" and "Hollywood Divorce" they weren't able to record videos for them. Things got worse, when Big Boi decided to record a solo album he butted heads with executives for various reasons [[ExecutiveMeddling such as them taking away his creative control, and trying to get him to copy other artists]]. [[DevelopmentHell The album was held up for three years.]] Eventually, the label let him out of his contract, but under the stipulation that Andre 3000 can't collaborate with him on his solo records, as the label wanted exclusive rights to Music/{{OutKast}}.

* As previously mentioned in the Outkast entry, record companies have a very high turnover rate in regards to executives. Someone new comes in and starts to scrap everything and start over from scratch. This is how a lot of artists get dropped unceremoniously, because some new guy/girl came in and took over the company.

* Music/{{Visage}} suffered from an ''awful'' case of this when the band got [[PuttingTheBandBackTogether revived]] in 2012. [[https://i.postimg.cc/TwxZh2W7/Untitled.png According]] to [[WordOfGod a private email Rusty Egan sent to a troper]], the restarted Visage was supposed to feature five original musicians[[note]]presumably including Billy Currie, Music/MidgeUre, etc.[[/note]] to be paid 1/6th of the royalties. However, MRC Digital's [[CorruptCorporateExecutive John Pitcher]], who financed the project, convinced Steve Strange to forgo paying the five members in favour of just using session musicians. [[FromBadToWorse To make matters worse]], [[ThePrimadonna Steve]] rang up Rusty, telling him "[[{{Jerkass}} Fuck you.]] [[{{Narcissist}} I am Visage,]] [[KickTheDog I will never repay and we don't need you.]]" (This from a man who once proclaimed "[[WeUsedToBeFriends Rusty became my saviour]].") Pitcher was [[LaserGuidedKarma later sued]] for pulling the same trick on the French disco group Space. The saddest part is that Rusty [[WhatCouldHaveBeen made his own album]] that was far closer to the Visage sound than the dull electro-pop drivel of ''Hearts And Knives''.

* Music/{{Visage}} suffered from an ''awful'' case of this when the band got [[PuttingTheBandBackTogether revived]] in 2012. [[https://i.postimg.cc/TwxZh2W7/Untitled.png According]] to [[WordOfGod a private email Rusty Egan sent to a troper]], the restarted Visage was supposed to feature five original musicians[[note]]presumably including Billy Currie, Music/MidgeUre, etc.[[/note]] to be paid 1/6th of the royalties. However, MRC Digital's [[CorruptCorporateExecutive John Pitcher]], who financed the project, convinced Steve Strange to forgo repaying the five members in favour of just using session musicians. [[FromBadToWorse To make matters worse]], [[ThePrimadonna Steve]] rang up Rusty, telling him "[[{{Jerkass}} Fuck you.]] [[{{Narcissist}} I am Visage,]] [[KickTheDog I will never repay and we don't need you.]]" (This from a man who once proclaimed "[[WeUsedToBeFriends Rusty became my saviour]].") Pitcher was [[LaserGuidedKarma later sued]] for pulling the same trick on the French disco group Space. The saddest part is that Rusty [[WhatCouldHaveBeen made his own album]] that was far closer to the Visage sound than the dull electro-pop drivel of ''Hearts And Knives''.

* Music/{{Visage}} suffered from an ''awful'' case of this when the band got [[GettingTheBandBackTogether revived]] in 2012. [[https://i.postimg.cc/TwxZh2W7/Untitled.png According]] to [[WordOfGod a private email Rusty Egan sent to a troper]], the restarted Visage was supposed to feature five original musicians[[note]]presumably including Billy Currie, Music/MidgeUre, etc.[[/note]] to be paid 1/6th of the royalties. However, MRC Digital's [[CorruptCorporateExecutive John Pitcher]], who financed the project, convinced Steve Strange to forgo repaying the five members in favour of just using session musicians. [[FromBadToWorse To make matters worse]], [[ThePrimadonna Steve]] rang up Rusty, telling him "[[{{Jerkass}} Fuck you.]] [[{{Narcissist}} I am Visage,]] [[KickTheDog I will never repay and we don't need you.]]" (This from a man who once proclaimed "[[WeUsedToBeFriends Rusty became my saviour]].") Pitcher was [[LaserGuidedKarma later sued]] for pulling the same trick on the French disco group Space. The saddest part is that Rusty [[WhatCouldHaveBeen made his own album]] that was far closer to the Visage sound than the dull electro-pop drivel of ''Hearts And Knives''.

* Music/{{Visage}} suffered from an ''awful'' case of this when the band got revived in 2012. [[https://i.postimg.cc/TwxZh2W7/Untitled.png According]] to [[WordOfGod a private email Rusty Egan sent to a troper]], the restarted Visage was supposed to feature five original musicians[[note]]presumably including Billy Currie, Music/MidgeUre, etc.[[/note]] to be paid 1/6th of the royalties. However, MRC Digital's [[CorruptCorporateExecutive John Pitcher]], who financed the project, convinced Steve Strange to forgo repaying the five members in favour of just using session musicians. [[FromBadToWorse To make matters worse]], [[ThePrimadonna Steve]] rang up Rusty, telling him "[[{{Jerkass}} Fuck you.]] [[{{Narcissist}} I am Visage,]] [[KickTheDog I will never repay and we don't need you.]]" (This from a man who once proclaimed "[[WeUsedToBeFriends Rusty became my saviour]].") Pitcher was [[LaserGuidedKarma later sued]] for pulling the same trick on the French disco group Space. The saddest part is that Rusty made his own album that was far closer to the Visage sound than the dull electro-pop drivel of ''Hearts And Knives''.

* Music/{{Visage}} suffered from an ''awful'' case of this when the band got revived in 2012. According to [[WordOfGod a private email Rusty Egan sent to a troper]], the restarted Visage was supposed to feature five original musicians[[note]]presumably including Billy Currie, Music/MidgeUre, etc.[[/note]] to be paid 1/6th of the royalties. However, MRC Digital's [[CorruptCorporateExecutive John Pitcher]], who financed the project, convinced Steve Strange to forgo repaying the five members in favour of just using session musicians. [[FromBadToWorse To make matters worse]], [[ThePrimadonna Steve]] rang up Rusty, telling him "[[{{Jerkass}} Fuck you.]] [[{{Narcissist}} I am Visage,]] [[KickTheDog I will never repay and we don't need you.]]" (This from a man who once proclaimed "[[WeUsedToBeFriends Rusty became my saviour]].") Pitcher was [[LaserGuidedKarma later sued]] for pulling the same trick on the French disco group Space. The saddest part is that Rusty made his own album that was far closer to the Visage sound than the dull electro-pop drivel of ''Hearts And Knives''.

* Music/{{Visage}} suffered from an ''awful'' case of this when the band got revived in 2012. According to [[WordOfGod a private email Rusty Egan sent to a troper]], the restarted Visage was supposed to feature five original musicians[[note]]presumably including Billy Currie, Music/MidgeUre, etc.[[/note]] to be paid 1/6th of royalties. However, [[CorruptCorporateExecutive John Pitcher]] from MRC Digital convinced Steve Strange to forgo repaying the five members in favour of just using session musicians. [[FromBadToWorse To make matters worse]], [[ThePrimadonna Steve]] rang up Rusty, telling him "[[{{Jerkass}} Fuck you.]] [[{{Narcissist}} I am Visage,]] [[KickTheDog I will never repay and we don't need you.]]" (This from a man who once proclaimed "[[WeUsedToBeFriends Rusty became my saviour]].") John Pitcher was [[LaserGuidedKarma later sued]] for pulling the same trick on the French disco group Space. The saddest part is that Rusty made his own album that was far closer to the Visage sound than the dull electro-pop drivel of ''Hearts And Knives''.

* Music/{{Visage}} suffered from an ''awful'' case of this when the band got revived in 2012. According to [[WordOfGod a private email Rusty Egan sent to a troper]], the restarted Visage was supposed to feature five original musicians[[note]]presumably Billy Currie, Music/MidgeUre, etc.[[/note]] to be paid 1/6th of royalties. However, [[CorruptCorporateExecutive John Pitcher]] from MRC Digital convinced Steve to forgo repaying the five members in favour of just using session musicians. To make matters worse, [Steve rang up Rusty, telling him "[[{{Jerkass}} Fuck you.]] [[{{Narcissist}} I am Visage,]] [[KickTheDog I will never repay and we don't need you.]]" (This from a man who once proclaimed "[[WeUsedToBeFriends Rusty became my saviour]].") John Pitcher was [[LaserGuidedKarma later sued]] for pulling the same trick on the French disco group Space. The saddest part is that Rusty made his own album that was far closer to the Visage sound than the dull electro-pop drivel of ''Hearts And Knives''.

* Music/{{Visage}} suffered from an ''awful'' case of this when the band got revived in 2012. According to [[WordOfGod a private email Rusty Egan sent to a troper]], the restarted Visage was supposed to feature five original musicians[[note]]presumably Billy Currie, Music/MidgeUre, etc.[[/note]] to be paid 1/6th of royalties. However, [[CorruptCorporateExecutive John Pitcher]] from MRC Digital convinced Steve to forgo repaying the five members in favour of just using session musicians. To make matters worse, Steve rang up Rusty, telling him "[[{{Jerkass}} Fuck you. I am Visage, I will never repay and we don't need you.]]" (This from a man who once proclaimed "[[WeUsedToBeFriends Rusty became my saviour]].") John Pitcher was [[LaserGuidedKarma later sued]] for pulling the same trick on the French disco group Music/{{Space}}. The saddest part is that Rusty made his own album that was far closer to the Visage sound than the dull electro-pop drivel of Hearts & Knives.

* Music/{{Visage}} suffered from an ''awful'' case of this when the band got revived in 2013. According to [[WordOfGod a private email Rusty Egan sent to a troper]], the restarted Visage was supposed to feature five original musicians[[note]]presumably Billy Currie, Music/MidgeUre, etc.[[/note]] to be paid 1/6th of royalties. However, [[CorruptCorporateExecutive John Pitcher]] from MRC Digital convinced Steve to forgo repaying the five members in favour of just using session musicians. To make matters worse, Steve rang up Rusty, telling him "[[{{Jerkass}} Fuck you. I am Visage I will never repay and we don't need you.]]" (This from a man who once proclaimed "[[WeUsedToBeFriends Rusty became my saviour]].")

* Music/{{Visage}} suffered from an ''awful'' case of this when the band got revived in 2013. According to [[WordOfGod a private email Rusty Egan sent to a troper]], the restarted Visage was supposed to feature five original musicians[[note]]presumably Billy Currie, Midge Ure, etc.[[/note]] to be paid 1/6th of royalties. However, [[CorruptCorporateExecutive John Pitcher]] from MRC Digital convinced Steve to forgo repaying the five members in favour of just using session musicians. To make matters worse, Steve rang up Rusty, telling him "[[{{Jerkass}} Fuck you. I am Visage I will never repay and we don't need you.]]" (This from a guy who once proclaimed "[[WeUsedToBeFriends Rusty became my saviour]].")

* Music/{{Visage}} suffered from an ''awful'' case of this when the band got revived in 2013. According to [[WordOfGod a private email Rusty Egan sent to a troper]], the restarted Visage was supposed to feature five original musicians[[note]]presumably Billy Currie, Midge Ure, etc.[[/note]] to be paid 1/6th of royalties. However, [[CorruptCorporateExecutive John Pitcher]] from MRC Digital convinced Steve to forgo repaying the five members in favour of just using session musicians. To make matters worse, Steve rang up Rusty, telling him "[[{{Jerkass}} Fuck you. I am Visage I will never repay and we don't need you.]]"

* Music/{{Visage}} suffered from an ''awful'' case of this when the band got revived in 2013. According to [[WordOfGod a private email to a troper with Rusty Egan]], the restarted Visage was supposed to feature five original musicians (presumably Billy Currie, Midge Ure, etc.) to be paid 1/6th of royalties. However, [[CorruptCorporateExecutive John Pitcher]] from MRC Digital convinced Steve to forgo repaying the five members in favour of just using session musicians. To make matters worse, Steve rang up Rusty, telling him "[[{{Jerkass}} Fuck you. I am Visage I will never repay and we don't need you.]]"

* Visage suffered from an ''awful'' case of this when the band got revived in 2013. According to a private email to a troper with Rusty Egan, the restarted Visage was supposed to feature five original musicians (presumably Billy Currie, Midge Ure, etc.) to be paid 1/6th of royalties. However, [[CorruptCorperateExecutive John Pitcher]] from MRC Digital convinced Steve to forgo repaying the five members in favour of just using session musicians. To make matters worse, Steve rang up Rusty, telling him "[[Jerkass Fuck you. I am Visage I will never repay and we don't need you.]]"

* The Music/QueenLatifah film ''Brown Sugar'' had a subplot based around the politics of the music industry.
* This trope was a major part of ''{{Theatre/Dreamgirls}}'' story.
* One of the themes in ''Film/ThatThingYouDo''.

** The movie was more or less about this trope.

* ''California Dreams'' on occasion deal with this.

* ''Series/{{Smash}}'' covers some of this in terms of Broadway stars.

* The documentary ''Before the Music Dies'' covers this.

* Music/LeAnnRimes' hit this trope hard later in her career.

* The funk-Pop band Rose Royce imploded because of this trope.
* Creator/{{Motown}} Records was plagued by this.
** In fact, it's rumored that Motown sabotaged Mary Wells' career out of simple spite due to the fact she left the company. (Popular web critics Wilson & Alroy snarked back that one listen to her cover of "I Can't Take My Eyes Off You" is enough to disprove that theory.)

* The song "Sell Out" by Music/ReelBigFish delves into this topic quite well.

* Music/DavidBowie faced this problem several times.

** As well, his label Creator/RCARecords wasn't happy with his choice to move into less-commercial artistic realms with ''Music/LowDavidBowieAlbum'' in 1977, the first step towards his choice to break away from that company in TheEighties.
** At his next label Creator/EMIAmericaRecords, he had the biggest commercial success of his career with 1983's ''Let's Dance'', but choosing to continue with that mainstream album's style as the label pressured him for another blockbuster proved artistically unsatisfying for him; critics and fans regard that stretch of TheEighties as a DorkAge. He left the label when it had reservations about a second album he made with his HardRock group [[Music/TinMachineAlbum Tin Machine]].

** The MissingEpisode ''Toy'' (which focused on remakes of his little-known work from TheSixties, pre-''Music/SpaceOddity'') was supposed to be his first album after ''hours...'' but wound up shelved by EMI/Creator/VirginRecords.

* Film/BohemianRhapsody has a number of these moments, most notably when music executive Ray Foster [[ItWillNeverCatchOn pours cold water on the titular song]].

* Music/{{Paparazzi}} is a sterling example of a great group ''imploding from within'' to the [[PointyHairedBoss ridiculous whims and demands]] of [[WereStillRelevantDammit trend-chasing]] [[ExecutiveMeddling execs]], to the point that you could have a whole documentary made about the politics of the music industry of the era failing them.

* ''Music/{{Paparazzi}}'' is a sterling example of a great group ''imploding from within'' to the [[PointyHairedBoss ridiculous whims and demands]] of trend-chasing [[ExecutiveMeddling execs]], to the point that you could have a whole documentary made about the politics of the music industry of the era failing them.

* ''Music/{{Paprazzi}}'' is a sterling example of a great group ''imploding from within'' to the [[PointyHairedBoss ridiculous whims and demands]] of trend-chasing [[ExecutiveMeddling execs]], to the point you could have a documentary made about the politics of the music industry of the era failing them.

* Music/{{Boston}} couldn't release another album after ''Don't Look Back'' for ''eight years'' thanks to a lengthy lawsuit from CBS, who wanted the group to rush out an album under their specified time-frame and were upset when that deadline wasn't met. During the lawsuit, new material continued to be recorded, but couldn't be released due to the lawsuit. It wasn't until the court ruled in Boston's favor that the group managed to sign with MCA to get ''Third Stage'' on the market, using said material as the album's basis.
* Not even Music/TaylorSwift was immune to this. After leaving Creator/BigMachineRecords for Creator/RepublicRecords, Big Machine decided to sell itself to music manager Scooter Braun, taking Swift's Big Machine albums (which propelled her to super-stardom in UsefulNotes/TheNewTens) with it. Swift, who had been negotiating to re-acquire the masters for some time, was infuriated by the sale, noting Braun's history of abusive behavior (he was the former manager of Music/KanyeWest, whom Swift has had an infamously troubled relationship with) and the fact that she had not received prior knowledge of the sale before it was publicly announced. She subsequently announced [[LoopholeAbuse she would re-record her Big Machine albums in an effort to claim complete creative control of all her music, a condition her Republic contract guaranteed]]. That quickly escalated to Big Machine sending her a C&D letter barring her from performing any songs from her Big Machine albums publicly unless she fully committed to re-recording them, and the public uproar was so strong that several top artists, including Music/SelenaGomez, Music/{{Halsey}}, Music/SaraBareilles, Music/{{Cher}} and ''two American politicians'', Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, spoke out in support for her. In the end, she was able to act on her promise, with ''Fearless (Taylor's Version)'' being released in 2021, with plans to redo all six albums being well underway.
* While when they first got signed, Music/{{Waterparks}} [[https://www.musicconnection.com/signing-story-waterparks/ claimed that Equal Vision let them keep control over their creative direction]]. Things went sour after Cluster as Equal Vision took more umbrage to Parx's personal marketing strategies (streaming lower quality snippets of demos of upcoming music on Instagram is bad, apparently) and side projects (Awsten Knight doing a whole parody rap mixtape is also bad, apparently). The hassle impacted how they planned to go forward, either with a more tolerant major label or self-publishing, until they decided on Hopeless Records. Equal Vision now owns Cluster, Double Dare, and Entertainment, which necessitated the creation of the "Double Dare 2019" and "Entertainment 2019" mashup tracks. The studio versions of those tracks were later made unavailable for purchase and streaming due to the continuing legal issues, but live versions were later made for purchase. In contrast, Hopeless Records gave them far more promotional support for FANDOM despite only being signed for a one-year deal and even handled distribution for their live concert film the label financed after they moved to 300 Entertainment.