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PrintableJanfriend said: I'll say it
Justin should not be hosting Motown 45, simply because he's white. Motown was founded by a black man for black artists. These artists weren't getting deals with other labels. Mr. Gordy created a way for these artists to be heard. Motown has a deep (black) history. Sure, there have been a few non-black artists signed to the label in the latter years, but it has always been a predominantly black label catering to black music and black audiences. You can be non-black and like r&b music and you can go ahead and perform it too, but it doesn't mean every door should be open for him and that he should now become "honorary black" and be a part of everything predominantly black. Come on, people, forget this fake PC "one love" bullshit. This is all beside the fact that Justin has only come out with one "r&b inspired" album and all of a sudden he's worthy of hosting the 45th anniversary celebrating the success of one the great major black record companies. Get fucking real What's next, Britney becoming the permanent host of It's Showtime At The Apollo?  So by very nature, you won't have a problems if MTV, VH1, commercial radio and music chains only stock white music then? Ant get shown on white TV? Afterall, they were founded on mostly white artists. Sure there has been some black cross over, but really, it was founded on white. What next, Beyonce on the grammys?!?!?! Hmmmm You say "I'll say it" as if you are stating what many are thinking. Are they? If so, lets please call them out. Lets see who agrees with such a straightfarward racist view. Who agrees a musical person should not be allowed to present musical show, because of the colour of their skin? As for your comment "What's next, Britney becoming the permanent host of It's Showtime At The Apollo?" So what? Is she's into it, and shes a good presenter? Wheres the problem? Or do you have to introduce colour there too? Imagine if I said "What next, Chris Rock presenting Saturday Night live!?" Now wheres that roll my eyes emoticon..... Please, answer the Qs above, rather than spew another racist view back at me. [This message was edited Tue Feb 24 17:09:10 2004 by SquirrelMeat] . | |
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BlaqueKnight said: VoicesCarry said: J
[color=red:ee0f224376]The whole point of Motown was to cross over to a white audience.[/color] [color=blue:ee0f224376]You CAN'T be serious with this statement, can you? If so, then this is exactly the kind of white male arrogance that makes black folk dislike/not trust white folk in general. Read that line again aloud and listen to how STUPID that shit sounds! Berry Gordy being a black male did what many of us do; he started his OWN BUSINESS because he had product that he wanted to sell and times being what they were, he knew he couldn't expect help from WHITE FOLKS. Not every n***a is just waiting to serve "massa". Every businessman, black or white, wants to make as much MONEY as possible. The difference is black folks on the whole know that we have to use what's available to us and try to make it work as best as we can. I'm sure if he could have made the same amount of MONEY selling to an all black crowd, he would have been content with it. He wanted Elvis money. Can't blame him for that. It wasn't the WHOLE POINT of Motown, though. Don't get it twisted.[/color] This is what Berry Gordy wanted, and it's what he got - with Diana Ross, Mary Wells, Barbara McNair, and so on. If you know the company's history, you'll know what I'm talking about. Gordy actively cultivated this, so we really can't say it was exclusively catering to black audiences. I don't understand the "he shouldn't be there because he isn't black" sentiment, because Motown was never about exclusion or discrimination. He shouldn't be there simply because he has no history with the company, because he just isn't talented enough and because presenting there requires some class. [color=blue:ee0f224376]I can somewhat agree with the rest of your post. He wasn't trying to be "exclusive", but I don't think it would have bothered him if he was...IF the $$$ was large enough.[/color] Don't be paranoid - I can't believe how much racism you read into my post. Let me restate it because, yes, it does sound somewhat stupid: Gordy did not START the business to cater to "white folks", he started it to make $$$. No, he didn't set up the business to cross over; that is not what I meant. He did not set it up to serve "massa" (where did you pull that from?). We agree on that point. But he knew where the $$$ was at - if he could have his records heard on pop radio, the label could go big time. He was a damn smart man. He sought cross-over for the $$$, not to "serve massa". Motown was no Stax. THAT was a label full of music that you just wouldn't hear on pop radio at the time because it was too raw - it didn't cater to "white" (racist pop radio?) sensibilities. THAT was a label that didn't streamline its artists with obsessive quality control. Every week, Gordy would sit down and literally THROW OUT incredible recordings just because he thought they were too R&B-oriented or too sexual for pop radio. And these were records that Stax would have just scoffed at and released without a second thought. Great (no, INCREDIBLE) stuff from Brenda Holloway, Jr. Walker & The All Stars, Barbara McNair, Kim Weston, Tammi Terrell, The Funk Brothers, Sammy Ward, Chris Clark, Martha Reeves, The Originals, Gladys Knight & The Pips, Syretta, Yvonne Fair...the list goes on and on. Martha Reeves claims she has over 700 songs in the vaults. Every few years or so some of this stuff trickles out and it's just absolutely incredible - vibrant and unique and dazzling. Considering the reputation of the label, I can only imagine what it might have become if Gordy had fostered more artistic freedom in the 1960s and released some of this material. Christ, he almost prevented Marvin Gaye's What's Going On album from being released - he even remixed the entire thing to a more "pop-friendly" sound (the infamous Detroit Mix) behind Marvin's back. So we got cookie-cutter H-D-H songs (still amazing, but I mean they're incredibly repetitious after a while) like Baby Love, Come See About Me, Where Did Our Love Go, and on and on and on. Because they made $$$$. [Note: Don't interpret this statement to mean that I believe this describes all Motown material; no, it was just indicative of how Gordy guided some select "big name" groups to pop success - the Supremes for example.] That was my original point. I hope I made myself clearer. The original comment I was responding to was from JanFriend, who said: "Sure, there have been a few non-black artists signed to the label in the latter years, but it has always been a predominantly black label catering to black music and black audiences. You can be non-black and like r&b music and you can go ahead and perform it too, but it doesn't mean every door should be open for him and that he should now become "honorary black" and be a part of everything predominantly black. Come on, people, forget this fake PC "one love" bullshit. This is all beside the fact that Justin has only come out with one "r&b inspired" album and all of a sudden he's worthy of hosting the 45th anniversary celebrating the success of one the great major black record companies." [This message was edited Tue Feb 24 17:11:39 2004 by VoicesCarry] | |
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