Republic Records is banning the word "urban" from its company verbiage, doing away with the term for hip-hop and R&B, which many consider an antiquated generalization that marginalizes music by black artists.
The label, which is home to artists like Ariana Grande, The Weeknd and Taylor Swift, said on Instagram today that it will remove the word from department names, employee titles and music genres, clarifying in a press release that this will not lead to any structural changes at the company.
"We encourage the rest of the music industry to follow suit as it is important to shape the future of what we want it to look like, and not adhere to the outdated structures of the past," the Instagram post reads.