Aida’s pop column: How the fires in Los Angeles are affecting the music scene

The year is not even two weeks old and to be honest: I almost have too much again. Merz is demanding constitutionally untenable things, such as naturalized Germans being able to have their citizenship revoked, the world has exceeded the 1.5 degree mark and is continuing to heat up, Elon Musk acts as the king (maker) of the world and supports Germany openly supports the AfD, which in turn celebrated its festival last weekend and also dropped the last masks, while in front of the door there were even MPs from other parties who were on the move as parliamentary observers at the counter-demonstrations were beaten up by the police. And in California, Los Angeles is burning down.

Regular readers of this column may remember: Until a few weeks ago, I was still living there as a scholarship holder from the Thomas Mann House. Exactly where the flames have been burning continuously for almost a week. Since last Tuesday, I’ve been staring at the fire department’s map every few minutes to see where the flames are currently, whether my friends’ houses still exist, whether my temporary home last year, Thomas Mann’s historic house, now Residence center for German authors and nerds, whether my favorite places still exist. As I write this, some of them are already gone. Just leave. Ash and rubble remain.

And the community of artists and cultural workers in particular was hit hard: many film people live in Malibu and Pacific Palisades, one of the city’s historic, very first film studios (today the headquarters of a new religious organization) is located there, and there is a large community in Altadena and Pasadena by musicians. I think my heart finally broke into pieces when I saw an Instagram video from experimental pop artist Empress Of: she shows the completely burned-out house she grew up in, which her single mother, an immigrant from Honduras, shared with her income as a nanny and in which she now sews Empress Of costumes. “Oh my God, there is nothing,” her mother can be heard saying, and then, as if to reassure herself, “it’s okay, mi hija.” One thing is clear: nothing is okay.

Friends of Empress Of raised money via “Gofundme” so that she and her mother could rebuild the house. At the time of going to press that had already reached $85,000, mostly through micro-donations of between five and $100. Rapper Fat Tony and DIIV frontman Zachary Cole Smith are in a similar situation, whose houses fell victim to the fire. The music scene has organized itself, through the music union UMAW and the organization Music Cares, but also quite grassroots on a publicly accessible Google document. Appeals for donations are collected there for musicians, but also music teachers, destroyed record stores, recording studios and other music places and people. Not everyone is so prominent that their fundraising goals were reached within a few days.

Of course, it’s not without malice: I’m already seeing accusations of selective empathy flying around on social media. Why aren’t you equally interested in Gaza? For Sudan? Where was the comparable outcry over natural disasters in the global south? I understand that given the, well, absolutely catastrophic overall situation in the world, some have trouble empathizing with the people of Los Angeles and especially those living in supposed rich enclaves like Pacific Palisades (where the Thomas Mann House is) or Hollywood Hills (where Bill Kaulitz lives, whose evacuation photo showed his Louis Vuitton suitcase set). But first, empathy is not a resource that becomes scarcer the more you use it. On the contrary: Anyone who tries to look at the world in a radically humanistic way will hopefully understand that there is no hierarchy of suffering and that empathy should not know “either-or”, but only “and”.

And secondly, not everyone in these places are fantastic billionaires and injustice is exacerbated by the climate catastrophe. Natural disasters, many of which, like the current fire, have increasingly violent and extreme effects due to climate change, show everywhere that the losers are always those at the bottom of the pecking order. The few remaining average earners in these neighborhoods—and that includes most musicians not named Bill Kaulitz or Billy Corgan—are far less likely to be able to afford to rebuild their homes. In the face of climate change, large insurance companies are withdrawing from vulnerable coastal regions; last year, for example, they unilaterally canceled insurance policies in areas such as Pacific Palisades and Malibu. And even those who still have one are worried about a protracted dispute.

Indie queen Ethel Cain came around the corner with a rather, how should we put it, problematic suggestion: “#KillMoreCEOs,” she commented on a post by the progressive economist and former US Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, who discussed the influence of oil and insurance companies on the policy explained. Aside from the blatant misanthropy of the proposal, killings will not solve the root problem. Did Luigi Mangione’s murder of an insurance executive affect the US healthcare system? No, of course not. On the contrary, now CEOs can probably demand even higher pay because of the danger they face. If that is possible at all, CEO salaries for some of these corporations already exceed tax contributions.

But just because natural disasters have usually led to more injustice doesn’t mean it has to be this way: Los Angeles is currently showing how the urban community is growing together and stepping up to help each other. Many self-organized donation centers are completely overwhelmed by the volume of donations. Even hardcore capitalist Jason Oppenheim from the terrible reality series “Selling Sunset” is publicly outraged by exorbitant rents and offers his services as a real estate agent for free to people who lost their homes in the fire. Woke Selling Sunset? I didn’t have it on my bingo card, but hey, whatever helps.