Blackout Tuesday Brings Entertainment Industry And Others Together Against Racism

MIAMI (CBSMiami) - The music industry is pressing pause in an initiative called Blackout Tuesday.

It is dominating social media: the posting of a simple black square image showing solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. And within the movement a specific call for the multibillion-dollar music industry to take a time out Tuesday – literally not work. Using #TheShowMustBePaused, two music executives spearheaded this initiative indicating a long-term call to action to be announced.

CBS4's Lisa Petrillo spoke with Ted Lucas owner of SlipNSlide Records in Miami. He created the careers of a number of artists including Trick Daddy, Trina, and Rick Ross. He's a Miami Gardens native and represented by David Bercuson, PA.

"I take my hat off to my partners, such as Atlantic Records, to call me and say 'Ted we're not contacting no business right now.' This is very important to everybody in the music business," said Lucas.

A slew of music artists and labels have joined in, including Quincy Jones, The Rolling Stones, Taylor Swift, The Weeknd, and many more, showing support and calling for change. Since George Floyds' death sparked outrage many celebrities are speaking out, including Beyoncé who posted a message on Instagram.

Major corporations have come on board in support of #BlackoutTuesday including ViacomCBS, Amazon, Youtube, and many more. The trend is growing in other industries.

"When you do entertainment a lot of that trickles down into sports, they all come together, Instagram, Twitter the whole TikTok, the impact, that's the whole purpose of doing this, that kind of impact music has on this country," explains Lucas.

Singer Billie Eilish is using her platform of over 63 million Instagram followers, posting ways to support the cause, stating a call to action "just don't do nothing."

It's peaceful and important movements like this, said Lucas, that is meant to bring people together and not lose sight of the purpose.

"I tell everybody, every police officer is not bad, let's get that clear. I know some great police officers but we do have to take our time and weed out the bad ones," he offered.

Spotify will add an eight-minute and 46 second moment of silence to select playlists and podcasts on the platform. Again, the suggested hashtags for this movement are #blackouttuesday and #theshowmustbepaused."