Sen. Joseph Lieberman has summoned high-level execs from the Big Six record companies to a meeting Friday to discuss the state of the music industry. The conservative Democrat from Connecticut has again joined forces with Empower America chief William Bennett, a pairing that has some music industry execs concerned.
Though the agenda is anticipated to be a wide-ranging one, it is expected to focus on Universal's half-interest in Interscope Records, a pet concern of Bennett, who claims the label releases albums with objectionable content.
The meeting would mark the first face-to-face discussions between politicos and high-level music industry execs from the congloms.
Previously, Bennett and his cohorts have chosen to attack the industry at highly publicized events, such as press conferences, rather than through substantive closed-door discussions.
The pair, along with activist C. Delores Tucker, blasted Seagram's purchase of the rap label in a press conference late last year and asserted that the Canada-based beverage firm favored profits over corporate responsibility.
Sources said this gathering will be comprised of unusually high-ranking execs from BMG, EMI, Sony, Universal and Warners, instead of the usual label reps who participate in lobbying efforts.
Recording Industry Assn. of America execs asserted that Bennett's crusade is not about cleaning up already self-policing labels, but rather a power grab for Bennett to help sell the books he has written, among them "The Book of Virtues."But while Bennett's linking with Lieberman portends a likely turning up of the heat on labels that distribute rap music, it is much more significant.
The pairing of a conservative Democrat with the Republican former Education Secretary Bennett also gives the anti-rap crusade an air of bipartisan support, while also giving Empower America some much-needed legitimacy.
The enlisting of a U.S. senator could also be beneficial in the event any legislation is spawned. Lieberman is also critical of Seagram's advertising hard-liquor products on TV and radio.
Bennett and Tucker, who heads the National Political Congress of Black Women, were instrumental in getting Time Warner to jettison Interscope in 1995.
They have recently claimed Seagram's CEO, Edgar Bronfman, broke a promise made to them that MCA would not distribute albums with offensive lyrics, such as those from gangsta rap acts and Death Row artists Snoop Doggy Dogg and the late Tupac Shakur. Interscope distributes Death Row.
It was just over a year ago that the then-dubbed MCA acquired half of Interscope for $200 million (Daily Variety, Jan 19, 1996).
The Ted Field/Jimmy Iovine-run label has been enjoying its hottest period since the acquisition, with its own and distributed acts laying claim to the top berths on the nation's sales charts in the past three months.
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