I hear a lot of people always complaining that a management team is keeping an artist in a closet while they are one of the smallest spills in why there are still closeted artists in the music industry. That’s why I want to explain it a bit..

The music industry is being controlled by gatekeepers. In order for an artist to be able to come out, several gates need to be opened for them..

The biggest dominator in the music industry is the US Market. Globally, they control the music industry the most. So the biggest gatekeeper is: the US Audience..I don’t know if any of you ever noticed it on this app..but the most homophobic reactions are mostly from American fans

America is a very conservative country. That means that you reject behavior that does not conform to some social norm and you support Christian values. The media outlets are very powerful in the US. They control what is published about an artist,fitting on what the audience wants

So we got the audience, then the media outlets.. that leaves us to the record labels.. the big bosses of the record labels are not all homophobic by heart. Their business strategy’s are build on what sells and what the audience wants.

An artist like Harry for example.. his appeal is resting just as much on his attractiveness as it rests on his ability to sing. An artist like H is primed for his sex appeal to a generation of young woman. Tell them their idol isn’t into woman and you take away the myth..

So after the record labels we get the management team. They are the ones who bring all the party’s together. A manager is the professional representative and advisor for an artist. They are the ones who negotiate and help build an artists career.

If the client is signed to a record label, the manager will need to understand the direction the record label would like to move in and they have to negotiate that the artist will have the most creative and personal freedom but is still heading into the direction of the label ..

We can conclude that this is build up like an pyramid. The audience desides what they want,the media is playing into these wishes,the label is building their strategy on what the audience wants,management is negotiating and then we get the artist who is or isn’t able to come out.