🎶Music industry icon Gladys Knight can now add Kennedy Center Honoree to her sprawling collection of accolades. The 78-year-old Atlanta native known for such hits as “Midnight Train to Georgia” was one of five film and music artists recently honored at the annual gala in Washington, D.C.
The Empress of Soul began singing at the age of 4 and later went on to a storied career with her brother and two cousins, who joined her to make up the group Gladys Knight & the Pips. She is a seven-time Grammy Award winner with No. 1 hits in pop and R&B music. She has recorded more than 38 albums. Her work has earned her a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and a place in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. She also has Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame and BET Awards as well as a Legend Award from the Soul Train Awards.
Knight’s Kennedy recognition comes as the Georgia music industry seeks parity with the state’s film industry, which has received billions of dollars in tax incentives in the last 15 years. Last year alone, the film industry spent $4.4 billion in Georgia and has created 65,000 jobs statewide since 2008.
Senators met with musicians and producers during the last quarter of 2022 to hear their concerns and ideas about what should be done to further promote the music industry in Georgia.
James Brown, Ray Charles, Gladys Knight, The Allman Brothers and R.E.M put Georgia on the map, musically speaking. Now artists like Zac Brown and OutKast are making the state a musical mecca for up-and-comers trying to break into country music, hip hop, rap, rock and R&B. And the music industry, which extends to bluegrass and folk music, wants its due.
While Georgia has provided some tax incentives and benefits to the music industry, “other states have tax incentives and grant programs … which are more generous than Georgia’s, giving them a competitive edge in attracting music productions and…retaining talent,” the Senate’s Joint Georgia Music Heritage Study Committee said in its final report. “In Georgia, however, entertainment industry promotion efforts have focused solely on film, to great success, but the music industry has fallen by the wayside,” according to the report, which recommends creating a music tax incentive that lets out-of-state productions invest in Georgia businesses and talent, a dedicated Georgia Music Office within the governor’s office and grants for local musicians, recording studios and other music-related projects.
Read the Senate study committee’s final report here. |
