>>And radio has a lot to do with it, too. Urban music is only just >breaking >>in Australia now due to a latent racism that held it back for >>years. Universal has tried for years and years to break Mary J Blige >>but radio will not support her because she is too them "too Black"- >>which is a hideous situation. Radio only reluctantly got behind Lauryn >>Hill - after months of Sony campiagns and then the Grammy coup. > >I don't really think 'latent racism' is holding back Urban music on >commercial radio in Australia...
First off, I link this back to 313 towards the end. Oh I think it is and I have had first-hand experience of it, as have others of my friends in various media, most of them of non-Anglo Australian backgrounds and some very high profile. I could tell you stories! When Janet Jackson's Gots 'Til It Gone came out, someone from a mainstream radio station called Virgin every day to say how much they hated that song because it was "too urban". They played it grudgingly and it was a hit regardless, so what is their problem? I have heard very overt racist comments made by record company and radio people and I have heard things repeated to me by friends. Eg When Kelis came out someone at her label told me something like "oh we should be able to break her as she isn't that dark." What's worse is that this person had no sense of how racist that was and said it to me openly in spite of my involvement with that scene! There is one community station here in Melbourne that is just itching to dump its urban show because it feels that it is "too commercial" (unlikely!) and replace it with a show devoted to techno/house/whatever. I have put it to the show's personnel that they should not be afraid to really put forward the politics of this situation to save what is the station's most highly rated show - and that is that the government funded ABC TV and Triple J radio network does nothing to appeal to the Indigenous and ethnic demographic (Indigenous Australian/Pacific IslanderAfrican/African-American/South East Asian/Asian/Middle Eastern/East European/etc) that makes up the core R&B audience. And when Rage (Friday/Saturday night video show) does hash together a hip-hop special, they drag out all the old Ice Cube/Ice-T videos - like, they have nothing recent? It's true - mainstream radio will play Boyz II Men but never Jodeci/K-Ci & JoJo. The people on the community show have to make that distinction between watered down urban pop and the real thing and argue that what they play (ie the latter) is not supported for cultural reasons. The only reason K-Ci and JoJo broke out in Australia with that song All My Life is that it featured JoJo Hailey's vocals only and he has a nice light tenor. K-Ci's vocals are more bluesy and even gospel-driven and more Bobby Womack-like. If he had sung on All My Life Australian radio wouldn't have played it because it would be "too Black" for them. Silly, isn't it? Australian radio programmers love Backstreet Boys, 'NSync, et al - here is R&B made by white (mostly white as Backstreet has one or two Latino members) people - perfect for them. What an ugly situation. I think fundamentally Australian mainstream types are scared of anything that is "ghetto-centric" - that is anything that either glamourises/celebrates "the ghetto" (ie Puff Daddy) or exposes the hardships/realities of inner-city America (The Roots through to DMX, etc, etc). They say, "this is not relevant to us." Now how does this relate to 313? Well it means that Australians probably feel more comfortable with a Tricky or a Jeff Mills as they articulate something very different to urban music - and ironically this is why those same artists do not fit into the US mainstream's idea of "Black music." So in some ways the Australian mainstream is very accepting, in others it's not. I am just lucky to know of a new generation coming up in labels and the media who are more enlightened. Changes are afoot and it's good.
