theAudience said:

When the technology allowed everybody and his brother (not necessarily a bad thing) to put out product, many felt they could go the one-man band route (ala Stevie, Todd, Prince, etc).
The problem, in too many cases, was that the talent factor wasn't on par with those cats.

BlaqueKnight said:

Thank you for that point.
One of the ultimate forms of non-verbal communication when done properly.



When the technology allowed everybody and his brother (not necessarily a bad thing) to put out product, many felt they could go the one-man band route (ala Stevie, Todd, Prince, etc).
The problem, in too many cases, was that the talent factor wasn't on par with those cats.

tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

BlaqueKnight said:

Thank you for that point.
One of the ultimate forms of non-verbal communication when done properly.



When the technology allowed everybody and his brother (not necessarily a bad thing) to put out product, many felt they could go the one-man band route (ala Stevie, Todd, Prince, etc).
The problem, in too many cases, was that the talent factor wasn't on par with those cats.

tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

vainandy said:

See, this is what I was trying to explain on another thread a while back. There's an entire generation of people that have been "skipped" in a sense. If you are 30-something or 40-something, you've been told to either rock with the "old folks' shit" or roll with hip-hop/neo-soul/contemporary R&B but there are a lot of 30/40 somethings who grew up on FUNK and labels could sell them new music but they are far more interested in selling music to their children, which makes business sense but there's no reason to completely ignore a generation and their music.
VH-1 had an 80s show the other day that HAD NO MENTION OF PRINCE! NONE! WTF? Come on! You never hear about the music that was really going on in the clubs back then; you only hear about the music tailored to fit their marketing plan. They will talk about Run DMC and The Beastie Boys but not Prince, Cameo, Zapp, The Bar-Kays, S.O.S. Band, Midnight Star, Stacey Lattisaw, Glenn Jones, Klymaxx, The Time, Ready For The World, Midnight Star, Atlantic Starr, Cherrelle, Freddie Jackson, Shannon, Cheryl Lynn and that's just off the top of my head, but you get the message. We may talk about some of these artists on here but the general public never sees mention of them in the media. I find it offensive that they are trying to re-write our musical history to suit their needs. A lot of the media industry are trying to pretend that certain portions of the 80s didn't happen and I know why. We are living in a society that is pushing towards conformity and the 80s was the last stand of the free thinkers where being original and innovative held some relevance. You can't sell cheap jogging suits to people if they all want their own "individual style" and individual styles cost money. Music influences culture. Industries took an interest in the music business for a reason - so they could control peoples' choices. Corporations don't want people looking at the "outrageous 80s" and either feeling nostalgic and being reminded of what they've forgotten about individualistic thinking or the youth getting "inspired" by it because is counterproductive to what they are trying to do; keep people thinking in line.

I'm only 22 years old, but I can vividly remember seeing marathons of Soul Train, American Bandstand, Solid Gold and the like in the constant rotation in the 90's. The big 3 of music television (MTV, VH1, BET) had no qualms about meshing genres and playing older acts alongside newer ones. I practically knew all the words to some of the 80's biggest hits just as I could verbatim recite what was being played of the then current acts of the nineties.

Fast-forward to now and you would be hard pressed to catch any video or music program from a decade ago being aired, let alone a recent one. The aforementioned programs are nearly non-existant to today's current generation.

The one man band thing doesn't always work. Not everyone can play all of the instruments, produce, compose, write and sing

I don't know WHY people thought THAT would work. You have to be EXTREMELY TALENTED to pull THAT off!

IdentityCrisis said:

Right. Plus TV has become so boring that even the multi-channels I get doesn't dwell any of the pain I feel for the decline of music shows. Now all we got is American Un-Idol.

bboy87 said:

Timmy84 said:

I'm thinking that all musical gear should probably include the following statement in their documentation: Talent not included.


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

Timmy84 said:

That's because nearly all the music channels and their subsidiaries are owned by the devil: Viacom!

bboy87 said:

Timmy84 said:

I'm thinking that all musical gear should probably include the following statement in their documentation: Talent not included.


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

theAudience said:

I was taking a music literature class and one of the things that the teacher said that I couldn't agree more with was "Not everyone is a triple threat. Not everyone is the 'complete package' "

You can't expect every star to know how to do it all. I wish some people on the org would realize that

You hit the nail right dead on the head. I bet the show you are referring to on VH1 was "Black To The Future" (the 80s episode). I called it "White To The Future". VH1 knew what they were doing. That show was catered to the largest audience possible but under the disguise that it was to a "black" audience that would have been around during that era. Actually, it was catered to the young and also the white. If you noticed, most of the people that were talking during the segments were young shit hoppers that would have been too young to remember anything from that era. A lot of that show was focused on the rap in the later years of the 1980s because that eventually led to the music of today's generation. Also, the younger generation has heard of those rap groups because of the references that the young shit hop artists have made to them. All that was geared toward the young audience.

It was also geared to the white audience even though it was called "Black To The Future". Every single artist they mentioned was Shitney Houston, Lionel Richie, a very small mention of Prince's name, and Michael Jackson. What were all those artists? They were not only crossover artists, but huge highly successful crossover artists that were extremely well known in the white community. A true representation of "Black To The Future" (80s version) would have featured folks like Rick James, Cameo, Zapp, Midnight Star, The Gap Band, Con Funk Shun, The Dazz Band, One Way, Bill Summmers and Summers Heat, D Train, Yarbrough and Peoples, Shalamar, The Whispers, Dynasty, and endless others. Why weren't any groups like those featured on "Black To The Future"? It's because they were so "black" that white folks had never heard of them and VH1, as well as the other corporations these days, want to cater to the largest audience available regardless as to whether it's actually an entertaining product or not.

vainandy said:

Just hearing what you're saying, I'm surprise that show didn't at least mention Cameo, The Gap Band, & The Dazz Band when they did have a very few songs that were well know in the mainstream crossover arena (Word Up!, Whip It, You Drop The Bomb On Me, etc.).

A true representation of "Black To The Future" (80s version) would have featured folks like Rick James, Cameo, Zapp, Midnight Star, The Gap Band, Con Funk Shun, The Dazz Band, One Way, Bill Summmers and Summers Heat, D Train, Yarbrough and Peoples, Shalamar, The Whispers, Dynasty, and endless others.

Those shows worked because there were fewer outlets back in the day, and if artists wanted to be seen (outside of concerts and the occasional video), they had to go through these 2 shows. Does the tired "Old-school vs. New-school" rant always have to come into play with these kinda threads? Let it go. 10 years ago, people were saying 'nobody dances no more". Today, kids create steps that everyone can get down to, and now it's not "real dancing"?