SOUL TRAIN can save Black music....

"How?...", your young ass says...(if you think there's absolutely nothing wrong with Black music currently, then exit this post and continue listening to Rick Ross...Have A Nice Day...)

Black youth, for the most part has NO CLUE how actual music is made....

if any of you musically inclined producers has ever spent any time in a studio with a rapper or singer with no musical inclination trying to explain to you what you're doing wrong vs. what they wasnt can attest to this....

"make the beat HARDER and then make it go DOWN....then up a lil' bit...."

in this machine age...you have cats making millions of dollars who are not musically inclined....

now when I say musically inclined, bear in mind that's NOT the same thing as musically TRAINED....whoever made that Yung Joc song doesnt know a a GODDAMN thing about music(print that and tell him I said it...)

a cat like Pete Rock is musically inclined....he cant play any instruments, but he has studied music thru listening and has educated himself in the mechanics of music...

a non hip-hop example would be George Clinton, who also plays no instruments but thru his study of music/listening shaped himself into a master producer....

alot of it also has to do with "the ear"....the ear is extremely important....the ear allows one to hear things that others would miss...to hear things that arent there, even...the ear is a combination of instinct, imagination, skill, and creativity....

Why is this so?

there are many reasons, but I'll focus on the most important one....

since the cultural take over of hip-hop coincided with the extinction of the Balck band....we dont SEE Black folks playing instruments making CURRENT music....

even this blathering crap we have today has to be PLAYED on keyboards...

white kids get to SEE their music being played....we dont unless we go to a concert and MAYBE there will be a band.....

kids are unaware that INSTRUMENTS make music....

concurrently, the other factor that attacks our cultural out put is the fact that Soul and Blackness are at an all time low in our community....

I've said this before...Niggerdom is running rampant, but BLACKNESS is seldom seen....

while Soul, Blackness, and Niggerdom may intersect at some points it is NOT the same thing....

when I say Soul and Blackness..I'm not speaking of wearing dashikis and fighting Mr. Charlie...though those things are exponents of Soul and Blackness....

I speak of being proud of who you are and where you come from, being cognizant of the cultural wealth that is as close to you as the elders in the next room....

I'm talking about wearing your heritage lke a badge of honor and feeling like your genetic makeup is a blessing and being grateful to God that you were born with these natural gifts....

Niggerdom is the exact opposite...feeling that what you are is a curse...a lifelong punsihment of second class citizenship, hopelessnes, poverty, violence, despair, sickness, and early death....acting out wildly as both an acceptance of this fate and a cry of suffering....

We have lost our way.

To celebrate cocaine but to scream foul when Bill Cosby says "Educate yourself and be productive in society..."

We have truly lost our way.

Let's bring it back to music...

What Black kids dont have is history in their faces....we can talk about how ill James Brown is but they dont know because they dont SEE him....

How is it that kids around the globe as young as 5 years old STILL know Michael Jackson?

Because they SEE him....they see him dancing in the videos and as most of you know to see Michael Jackson performing when youre a child is a wondrous experience....

but even cats my age who were diggin on Mike in his heyday, most of us didnt know that the majority of Mike's moves(and Prince's too, for that matter) were taken directly from the JB catalog...

we didnt know becuase we didnt SEE James Brown...

but then there was SOUL TRAIN....

when I was a youngsta, Soul Train was already on its last legs...

even though NEW episodes STILL air(I dare you to find it....THEN I dare you to watch it all the way through), Soul Train is best referenced by memory...

in its 70's prime, Soul Train was nothing more than glorious weekly display of Soul and Blackness...with music and dancing being the catalyst....

but it was SO much more than a dance show....Soul Train was hair, fashion, culture, Black pride, Black sexuality, and dance class all rolled into one...

it put the artists in touch with their audience and brought the party to your livng room if you couldnt to the one in your neighborhood....

the effects of Soul Train still last....any gathering of Black people where music is being played makes the possibility of a "Soul Train Line" being formed is at least somewhat likely...

but these days...we dont really dance...we simulate sex on the dance floor as a substitute....but we really dont DANCE no' mo'...

new dances are few and far between....Black people in America not dancing???....what part of the game is that?

Which is why we need the old episodes of Soul Train available...

Whether on cable(VH1 Soul would be perfect)or on DVD....Mr. Cornelius needs to quit bullshittin'....

We need to see Soul and Blackness as proof that it does exist....

We need to see Black people playing great and exciting music on instruments....

These things are inspiring....

Black kids dont get to see their music being played...the visual presentation of great performances kick starts the creative mojo....

I'll use Purple Rain as proof....after that movie, not only did Prince blow the fuck up.....but all of a sudden, guitar was a very popular instrument amongst Black guys....

We dont know how to play, we barely know how to sing and rap, we dont know how to dance, we dont know how to revel in our Blackness....

Cornelius, quit fakin' the funk....we need Soul Train....BAD...

could the exposure of Soul Train to a new generation save Black music/culture?

I cant say for sure....but it'd be cool to give it a shot....

I am not quite sure whether I agree with everything you have said, but I do agree Hip-Hop/Rap has done more damage to black music than anything else. Whether a show like "soul Train" can restore black music to what is once was is another story though.

It's going to take more than Soul Train to bring Black music back to it's former glory.

TotalAlisa said:

i cant believe it is still on too.
[Edited 6/18/06 18:39pm]

When you have the web, music videos, and so many other places to see the latest trends/dance moves etc...
Soul Train couldn't have the impact you seem to think it can.

Could it be improved? Yes. Could it become something important again? That would be nice, but the format would have to be changed completely.

How can Soul Train be a solution when the majority of the artists they have on the show are beneficiaries of the non-musically inclined producers you speak about. Sometimes I "watch" it for the women - I turn it when the "artists" start performing their songs.

A wack host doesn't help, either...

Soul Train is irrevelant these days.

Prince ain't black. He's brown, and he gonna b there.

I said it the last time when we had thread about this show. The "Soul" left the train a long long time ago.

TotalAlisa said:

Today's Soul Train is absolute garbage

I was flipping the channels and came across a recent episode.I almost cried

They should pull the plug on this show and just release the old episodes (70s and 80s) on DVD.

When Soul Train first came along it was during the era is of "Black is Beautiful". Soul Train was practically reflecting what was going on at the time. There was a black consciouness that doesn't exist in the same way now. You watch an old eposide of Soul Train and the dignity that exudes from both the audience and the artists that appeared on those shows was something else. It was like everyone glorified in their blackness; not a weave sight. Also artists back then were actually very soulful, both in their movement and voices.

Today an episode of Soul Train(although I do not watch it anymore) would probably be rap artist after artist prowling the stage soak in gold with half a dozen black girls that look more white than black shaking their booties around.

Btw has anyone watched the film "Crooklyn". At the end of film there was a scene from "Soul Train", I've always wonder whether that was an episode from the 70's (it was the afros that were confusing me) or a more recent episode.?

this article is bullshit, and most of yall on this board kill me, what is being musically inclined, just like the 60's and 70's said the 80's music scene was horrible and lack talent, now the 80;s kids are saying it about this generation's music.

[Snip - luv4u][Edited 6/19/06 5:30am]

Old episodes of "Soul Train" being available to the public is not going to change a damn thing because it would only be viewed by those of us that love the show and the music. Look at old school radio stations for example. The majority of the people that listen to them are people in their mid 30s and older. The people buying the music that shapes today's charts are in their teens and 20s. If old episodes of "Soul Train" were on the air, those people would change the channel over to either BET or MTV and watch all the latest shit hop videos. That's all they know because that's all that R&B radio has played in 15 fucking years.

I'd love to see the old episodes of "Soul Train" released on DVD from the beginning through 1984. I'd also love to see the current "Soul Train" either go off the air or change it's name to the "Shit Hop Train" because it's destroying the show's memory. At least Dick Clark had the good sense to go off the air in the late 1980s before music turned to shit.

vainandy said:

How can they dance? Hell, the music never gets past midtempo. It's too fucking slow to dance to. The only thing they can do with a tempo like that is walk around a little and wave their arms like they are swatting flies. I've never seen such a generation of boring dead asses in my life. And they actually think that shit's jammin'. I guess if I was raised my whole life on bullshit I would think it's jammin' also.
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[Edited 6/19/06 6:31am]

vainandy said:

Vainandy,you're killin me

But yeah,I'm so sick to todays's boring R&B.It's just midtempo bullshit with a "guest rapper".Woo hoo! How innovative

2 answer q bluntly: No.
While I do feel a great percentage of your comments Soul Train since the Hip-hop era kicked in has contributed MORE 2 the downfall of black music than helped it. You can't even perform LIVE on the show. Lip sync is the word of the day. Soul Train SOLD out a long time ago.
[Edited 6/19/06 6:44am]

man the NEW soul train sets back music back instead of saving it and let me ask this why does it have to be "Black music" i think we are past that shit. no im not pullin the race card. i just find it sad that music has to have boudaries by color. when its all universal

People's lamentation about black musicianship borders on hyperbole sometimes. Soul Train, at its best, used to represent a showcase for black working musicians. The fact that it no longer does, in the traditional sense, doesn't mean the musicians no longer exist. Its format changed to accommodate the changes seen in the broader market in recent decades. It's been gradual. Acts (including Prince) started lip-synching on Soul Train in the 1980s.

Whenever I go to music stores -- be it in Nashville, the D.C. area, New York, wherever -- I see black teens there, too. Whenever I go to churches that have phat music ministries, they're being led by young black people. Often church musicians double as session musicians for gospel and secular acts. Blacks are still taking up music as a craft at an early age.

Has the shift in music's reliance on technology changed the numbers of traditionally inclined black musicians? Perhaps in the hip-hop arena.

But, there still are a number of young black instrumentalists out there. They usually don't get the press granted a Jay-Z or a Lil' Jon, but they're out there.

Instead of acting like they don't exist, hit the happening churches, the blues festivals and other lower-tier events where you'll find them -- and turn the spotlight on them.

I agree with 90 percent of what was said. But Soul Train isn't the answer! The music industry should be renamed the sound industry. Contemporary music is far more about sound than musicianship. The reasons behind this are legion. But perhaps the most obvious reason is commericalism. Nothing wrong with money, I'm all for it. But greed led to the music industry "outsourcing" to many rappers who have no idea of musicianship! I love rap and hip-hop too. But there's no originality ..

vainandy said:

Today is great day for me at age 31. Because old-school is STILL the best school.

vainandy said:

Everyone think they're a great dancer after smoking weed & drinking a 40oz to this C.R.A.P.!!!

vainandy said:

ThreadBare said:

We all know that they exist...I think what jasco and the others are asking is if they will have representation...and if so, shouldn't it be Soul Train to give it to them.

I personally think that would be a good move for the show. It would be an entirely different program but it would make it valid again. They might even play on the fact that Soul Train is a Train...do segments where they travel outside the studio to visit the different regions and the music going on in them.

Finding a way to bring a community together and showcasing what others won't, would probably be closest to what it did initially.

anon said:

I hear ya. I think the format you're recommending would be wonderful. But, I wouldn't expect Soul Train to take up that crusade. They seem to be about minimal effort for maximum gains. BET would be a better deal for that, if they weren't so beholden to a tired format. The reality-show route would likely get the most attention from producers, when it would come to showcasing that kind of underground talent.

Soul Train is still simply a dance show.

IF THEY STOP WITH THAT CURRENT BULLS**T FORMAT & SHOW THE OLD CLIPS AS A HISTORY LESSON TO THE CURRENT GENERATION. LIKE "THIS IS HOW IT SHOULD BE DONE"!!!! NOT THAT SHUCK & JIVE ASS BULLS**T W/SHEMAR MOORE!!!!!

ThreadBare said:

Yeah, I agree, it doesn't seem to be their crusade. It's unfortunate when a brand like that fails to see the potential power. Soul Train could be a franchise (dance/music schools, scholarships all that...). It could be a worldwide pillar in "the community". And even if it continues to be a dance show only, dance is a powerful medium. So much can be said/done thru it.

I totally agree but it will take more than Soul Train, i think all networks and shows are already bought and sold. With any change it will have to come from the people and an alternative. Right now there is no alternative, sure u can search music, but the younger generation has no attention span, its the soundbyte generation, its gotta be simple and served to them. Just the fact that this generation would protest "not being able to have their cell phones in classrooms" but not protest the war in iraq, pretty much sums them up. The change will come but not until the sysytem totally breaks down, and that means MTV, BET,Labels, flava of the day, the bling all that shit has got to go, sorry but it does thats the only way its gonna change.
[Edited 6/19/06 19:34pm]

Finess said:

co sign
this right here


this right here is partially why some blacks dont play and aint into rock bcuz of this whitemusic blackmusic bullshit. white kids see their music being played?? what the fuck is that????