First off, I'll try to give my brief thoughts on the Brexit results before delving into its potentially crippling effects on the music industry. What's really interesting about this vote in the U.K. is that it sort of parallels what's going on in the U.S. The U.S. has the leading candidate of the Republican Party (thou shalt not even speak his name because I am still in denial that this is even happening) saying that he wants to take back the U.S. while the U.K. had (I say "had" because the lovely chap has already resigned before having to clean up his own mess) the leader of the UKIP (U.K. Independence Party), Nigel Farage, also declaring that he wanted to take back control of the country. Both share an interest in anti-immigration laws and have hobbies in lying to their countries by fear mongering. These two should go for a nice drink or a round of golf sometime, shouldn't they?

On the other hand, you have this huge movement of young people from both countries who are enthusiastic about older, anti-establishment, liberal politicans, yet they feel their voices aren't being heard. In the U.S., the presidential candidate who is, by far, the most well-liked among young people is Sen. Bernie Sanders. In the U.K., they have the leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, who is extremely well-liked among young people who have never voted before (much like Sanders), but who may be ousted after the failed campaign for Britain to remain in the European Union. Young people in the U.S. have overwhelmingly told the country that they wanted Sanders, while young people in the U.K. overwhelmingly told their country that they wanted Britain to remain, but alas it appears that neither will happen. What's really sad is this current phenomenon of young people of both countries getting this future thrust upon them that they don't want and older people voting for a future that will hardly even affect them.

In other words, Britain voting to leave the E.U. is extremely unfortunate, especially with its currency already plummeting, the fact that Nigel Farage already admitted that the Leave campaign knowingly made false promises and misled the country's voters, and the fact that the country is so divided with 52% of the country voting to leave and 48% voting to remain. Now, there are a lot of technicalities around this complicated issue. Many people are calling for a second referendum and there's just a lot of overall confusion and uncertainty surrounding all this Brexit stuff because it's uncharted territory. Many people used to laugh at the idea that this would ever happen in the first place.

So, assuming that the Brexit vote goes through and Britain does leave the European Union, how would that affect the country's thriving, world-famous music industry? It's hard to give specific numbers on things, but it is pretty obvious that the independent music scene would suffer quite a bit. According to Louder Than War, many U.K. bands could have to get U.S. style visas to play each European country, which can cost £5,000 or more and they are often delivered late, meaning cancelled gigs and tours. Many great bands, especially independent, up and coming bands can't afford to pay these bills, which is why many of them don't tour the U.S. until they are well-established (a sad reality for an avid British rock fan living in the U.S.).

According to polls by the British Phonographic Industry, the Featured Artists Coalition and the Creative Industries Federation, almost 90% of U.K. musicians and labels backed the Remain campaign. This is likely due to a few different factors, especially the uncertainty of Britain's currency and economy and the fact that touring Europe would become more expensive. Like Forbes points out, it's not like it's like huge, stadium artists like Coldplay or The Rolling Stones are going to struggle to tour Europe. It's going to be the hot, new indie bands that have little to no money. It's gonna be the bands with a small or nonexistent record deal who have cheap equipment and just a tour manager, a small crew and their dad or random friend who drives their van, who are going to hurt the most.

Another reason that the British music industry would suffer is that they would lose funding from Europe that's specifically for the music industry. Just before the Brexit vote, the European Commission announced a new initiative called "Music Moves Europe," which would provide a new funding stream exclusively for the European music industry. The initiative is designed to "equip the [music] sector with the right set of tools for a flourishing future." The program is also said to develop "a new European strategy and redefine the support for the music sector, which has a great potential in terms of both economy and culture."

Also, to make matters worse, according to Forbes, "Upon leaving the E.U., the U.K. will likely no longer have an official say in the future of the Digital Single Market, which could significantly dampen British independent artists’ negotiating power in both domestic and international copyright reform as a whole." Well done Britain. Well done.

So, how do British musicians feel about the results of the Brexit vote? Understandably, they were overwhelmingly angry and saddened by it. British group, Disclosure, tweeted "Moving to Mars with Bowie." Scottish band, Primal Scream, tweeted with the hashtag "Brexs**t." Johnny Marr tweeted "Viva la resistance." Noel Gallagher shared a picture on Instagram with the caption, "Black Day" while his brother, Liam, tweeted, "Stop the world I'm getting off LG x." Welsh band, Pretty Vicious, tweeted "If it wasn't already hard enough for smaller bands to break the European market, it is now." Tim Burgess tweeted "Hey Nigel Farage, I'd love to get my country back. From right about the time just before you popped up spreading your grubby lies." These social media posts just go on and on, even one with British grime musician, Stormzy, asking, "How many retweets do I need to become prime minister?" The tweet already has 80,000 retweets, but apparently that's not enough yet (though I will keep you posted in case I hear anything about a formal announcement of his candidacy).

New up-and-coming British band Vant (who is pictured above and is one of my favorite new bands at the minute) played a show in a tent at the prestigious Glastonbury Festival where lead singer, Mattie Vant, proclaimed, "If you voted leave, get the f*** out of my tent." There was also a tweet from the band that read "Can I declare independence from the U.K. and rejoin the E.U. as an individual?" Part of the reason that I think I connect with this band so much is that it is a young band that isn't afraid to unapologetically integrate its political views into its music, something that many bands tend to stay away from. The song "Birth Certificate" so wonderfully and openly rips into the absurdity of the anti-immigration movement, while another, "The Answer," bashes the injustice that was the Iraq War. Brilliant.

So, this whole Brexit situation may seem like a dark cloud hovering over our every move, but at least we know that most young people and British musicians are on the right side of history. Overall, as a young person and a huge fan of British music, I have definitely felt a great sense of togetherness and optimism after realizing that these two groups of people, who I feel connected to the most, are all on the same page as me. At the end of the day, along similar lines of my recent article on musicians canceling gigs in North Carolina, we've never needed music (that celebrates peace and togetherness) more than in a time like this. Hopefully, we'll get some great protest music out of this and we'll gain more and more great, young musicians who will become role models for kids by advocating for peace among all people. Then, young people can continue to build on their social, cultural and political movement that will always choose to promote unity over divisiveness.