VoicesCarry said:

Not I! Aaliyah is definitely one of my favorites, and Ashanti is no replacement for her, neither in talent nor beauty!

RipHer2Shreds said:

Matter of fact, I'm going to play some Aaliyah right now.

:::spins "U Got Nerve":::

RipHer2Shreds said:

To Clear Channel she was superior - Aaliyah never had the litany of hits that Ashitty did. And yet Aaliyah's albums were some of the best modern R&B and her last one held such potential and remains one of my favourites of this decade.

VoicesCarry said:

From a chart standpoint, Aaliyah's got something Ashanti-Town will never have - the first #1 based solely on airplay.

I long for the days when Ashanti was just known as a matrilineal society in Ghana.

GrayKing said:

Big difference is that Janet, MJ, Madonna, and Prince SOLD SINGLES AND ALBUMS. Usher can't say that. Also, if you look back those happent to be the four that are the biggies but they weren't the onlys, if you know what i mean. Know it's pretty much only Usher and a few soundalikes. There was a hell of a lot more variety back than. It's nothing like today. Radio play could only get you so far...if people also bought and requested the singles, then radio couldn't deny that it was a hit and they played it. That's the way it used to work. Now of days, radio plays so few atists and songs, it's not like buyers have that much of a choice. Again, not to say that Usher is the worst but I think that if radio was little more even handed (not to say that it was totally back then, either but it was much better) I don't think that Usher would be far and away the most popular seller.

VoicesCarry said:

I don't think people forgot about Aaliyah when Ashitty (and I though I was the only one that said that) came along. In fact, I think Ashitty won or was nominated for some artist of the year thing not to long ago and people had a fit and flooded the award's shows email or something. One of the names that came up as more deserving was Aaliyah. Damn, I miss her but I fear that her catalog is soon going to be fucked. Anyone heard of this "Duets" album? It sends chills down my spine (bad ones, of course).

RipHer2Shreds said:

And people loved that song as I remember ("Try Again"). In fact, it was the popularity of "Are You That Somebody", which ended up not charting for a long time due to the fact that never went retail in America, that probably changed the charts, as we can see, for the worst. I'd hate to say it, but had Aaliyah lived, her hits probably wouldn't be coming as fast and as furiously as Ashitty's did. She would have definately kept a strong fan base though. I'm sure her ablums would have kept getting stronger too. She is so missed. A big loss to the R&B, pop and music world in general. She seemed so down to earth and cool too.

VinnyM27 said:

Usher's sure sold a shit load of albums. and you don't think if there were singles out there, they'd be selling like hotcakes as well?



yeah, now there's Usher and Britney and Christina and Justin and Nelly and Alicia and Ashanti and J.Lo and so on and so forth. contrary to popular belief, Usher isn't the ONLY big artist on the radio at the moment. it may seem that way, but there are others they play in between while they're waiting for the 15 minutes to pass so they can play him again



radio has been using a playlist for decades. there's really no difference.




actually, they do. they don't have to buy it. it may be a shocking revelation, but no matter how much payola a label throws at radio, a station is NOT going to continue to play songs that no one wants to hear. Clear Channel is in the business to make money, and to do that, they have to sell advertising time, and to do that, they have to have a product that is going to draw listeners. sure a heavily promoed song is going to take off like a bat out of hell, but a station isn't going to continue to play it if they see that no one is buying the album (or the single, if there is one), or better yet, if listeners stop listening to the station.





radio was the most corrupt and lowlife segment of the entertainment/media machine long, long, long before there was a Clear Channel. and it continues to be. we now just have a target the size of a barn to aim at when we feel like bitching about how much the state of radio sucks.

VinnyM27 said:

ah, but wait a minute. how do we know that Aaliyah's hit with "Are You That Somebody" was based on actual popularity and not on ClearChannel (and Infinity, and Disney, to be fair) cramming it down our throats? you can't have it both ways.

JANFAN4L said:

I love this story

JANFAN4L said:

AMINAH is awesome! I totally saw everything you said in her performances! She's definitely one of the best dancer's J's ever had!

JANFAN4L said:

Aw man, you posted them and I missed it? Rats. Orgnote me a URL link or something.

GrayKing said:

Is radio really the same as it was in the 80s? Was Clear Channel the monopoly 20 years ago that it is now? I thought there were laws back then preventing one company from owning multiple stations in the same market.

sextonseven said:

there were. but that doesn't mean that just because they were owned by different companies, they were any more above-board than they are now.

GrayKing said:[quote]

VinnyM27 said:

I don't deny that the other people you listed are big as well but the play for Christina's "Car Wash" was only modest and the play for Britney's "My Prerogative" was non-existant. In other words, pop is nearly dead and it's all about faux-R&B. Also, what were the other number one singles this year? If they weren't Usher, they sure sounded like him. Again, radio wasn't pretty 20 years ago, but it was more diverse. I don't doubt radio has been corrupt but now it's getting out of hand, there is little to no variety and payloa is starting to look obivious. Also, the monoploies are making it harder for artists to get radio play. Again, Tommy Mottola was a big reason Usher got so much radio play. Also, I think you're going to notice satelitte radio take off this year and the death of tersterail (sp?) radio and I'll bet you can thank Usher for that.

GrayKing said:

I believe, and I might be wrong, that a song like that would have sold many singles. In fact, I remember asking for the single when it came out and they said they only had it on import and that many people were looking for it but there was no release shecduled. Then again, I might be pressuming but I think I can also safely pressume that no one artist would have control of the top spot on the singles charts for over half the year if the charts were based on sell through singles.

GrayKing said:

I think, nay, know, that radio used to cater more to the areas it served and that songs would take time to become big hits. Sometimes a song would have already come and gone as a hit one area (and the turn over for time when song was a hit was faster, alloning for more hits in a year, hell, a week) and then go to other areas. By the time it was a national hit, it had already been a hit in a certain area. Am I alone here in thinking this? If you don't think that radio (and again, mostly Clear Channel) was showed that it has gone over board this year, then you're the only one. As bad as they were back then, they are ninety times worse now.

Janet rox my sox!
[Edited 1/4/05 10:08am]