It doesn't happen every season...but we do get heavy rotation from time to
time....just not from the Goldies, Roni Size's, Tricky's, Guy called
Gerald's and anyone else pushing the envelope. Black America shys away
from experimentation and "being different" ... at least the Black America
I live in does....Remember, they didn't start playing hip hop on urban
radio
until a few years ago....and the hip hop they do play is generally pretty
damn weak.
Commercial radio is exactly that - Commercial - Music For The Masses -
whatever their flavor. It's hard to raise our expectations of the medium
when they target the lowest common denominator. The people who push the
envelope are the artists and people like you and I that seek 'it' out. This
is true of all art forms - how many of us would hang a Picasso on our wall,
attend the Opera, disconnect our CableTV?
As you are well aware, access to 'different' music is a big problem - just
look at how hard we work at it! Surely we can't expect same from the
general populous.
I suspect 'Black America' is too large of a gross generalization or perhaps
just the opposite, maybe the virus is more pervasive than I care to admit
(hmmm...this thread saddens me as it leads to 'contempt' for the human
race, so I'll stop here).
-----Original Message-----
From: elson trinidad [SMTP:elson@westworld.com]
Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 1997 7:16 AM
To: Tony Reid; acid-jazz@ucsd.edu
Subject: Re: omar
I may take a lot of heat for this, but someone must say it. I honestly
believe the Black American music industry
is biased against foreign black artists - look at the Brand New Heavies,
whose new album, like it or not, is their most radio-friendly album yet,
and still have yet to make many urban station playlists. I may be wrong,
but
why hasn't urban radio been hip to other black British/European, or even
Jamaican or - God forbid - African
artists, who are more worthy than the Puff Daddies and Boyz II Men ripoffs
in the US of A?
(I'm not trying to incite malicious debate, if someone out there has an
answer for me I'd like to listen to it).
I'm not knowledgeable about the workings of the Music Industry but I
suspect that as in other industries, business units are set up by continent
or country and these business units work hard at 'protecting' their
territiory by building walls around the industry within the
continent/country - even at the expense of their sibling business units. In
other words, it may be the desire of say RCA/US to develop a market
representing a specific music genre within the US in which the European
music companies (including RCA/Europe) cannot compete. If you allow the
Brand New Heavies to gain acceptance then other competition will soon
follow - better not to educate the masses, instead serve them more plunk!
Just a thought. Mitch