Music industry lends its voice to Blackout Tuesday protest
Go to the Instagram pages of some of your favorite celebrities and you'll see nothing but a black box where a photo or video should be.
Stars from across the media landscape, led by the music industry, joined Tuesday in what is being called Blackout Tuesday in order to protest last week's death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man shown on video being held under the knee of a white police officer for nearly 9 minutes.
Pop star Rihanna, in an expletive-laden Instagram post, told her followers not to sell or buy anything.
Drake simply used three words to express his solidarity along with his screen-filled black image: side by side.
Katy Perry also showed her support by adding that's she's donating money to several organizations. And the support wasn't just limited to individual musicians.
Apple Music's Instagram page went dark with the hashtag #The show must be paused.
And Columbia Records said it was going silent and the world should use this time to observe and listen to what's going on.
Both - along with Universal Music - pledged to work with communities to fight racial inequality after protests erupted in the United States last week. Streaming giant Spotify Technology said it would feature an 8 minute and 46 second long track of silence.
That followed a move taken Monday by ViacomCBS, when its channels, including CBS News, MTV and Black Entertainment Television transmitted 8 minutes and 46 seconds of breathing sounds with the words “I can’t breathe,” to mark Floyd's final moments.
Outside of the music industry... Kylie Jenner, actor Bryan Cranston and actress Olivia Wilde used social media to draw attention to protests and the boycott.
