Richard says of BMI:
> It was not formed because ASCAP was doing a bad job,
> or didn't like hillbilly music, or wouldn't give rural blues
> songwriters a home - BMI was formed because ASCAP's demands
> for license fees were considered too high by the broadcast
> industry, and BMI thus became the perfect example of putting
> the fox in charge of the hen hut.
That is indeed how BMI was formed - during a dispute between broadcasters
and ASCAP back in 1940. The dispute was settled not long afterward,
reintroducing the writer hens to the broadcasting foxes, but, as Ronnie Pugh
says in the BMI entry in the _Encyclopedia of Country Music_, "BMI continued
to grow by leaps and bounds because of its open-door policy toward music
that had not gotten much support from ASCAP: primarily country, blues, and
r&b," and Bill C. Malone says essentially the same thing in somewhat greater
detail in his book, _Country Music, USA_. BMI is certainly here to stay,
especially in country music, and to suggest that it is, or ought to be
otherwise, is somewhat akin to suggesting at this late date that the IUE
dissolve itself because of the tainted circumstances of its creation (as a
red-baiting alternative to the UE, for those unfamiliar with US labor
history); it ain't gonna happen.
Jon Weisberger Kenton County, KY [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://home.fuse.net/jonweisberger/
