Blackout Tuesday grew from which original music-industry initiative hashtag?

Blackout Tuesday grew from the original music-industry initiative hashtag #TheShowMustBePaused.

The initiative was created by music executives Brianna Agyemang and Jamila Thomas, who worked at Atlantic Records. Their proposal called on the music business to stop conducting business as usual and devote time to confronting racism, inequality and police violence. The campaign’s language emphasized that pausing for one day was intended as the first phase of longer-term action.

The hashtag #TheShowMustBePaused circulated before the broader Blackout Tuesday label became dominant. Record labels, artists, managers, streaming services and other media companies interpreted the pause in different ways, from suspending releases and meetings to making donations or publishing statements.

A common mistake is treating #BlackoutTuesday and #TheShowMustBePaused as completely separate campaigns. The former became the widely recognized name for the June 2 action, while the latter identifies the original music-industry initiative that helped launch it. The similar-looking alternatives in this question were not the originating hashtag.