Tyrese Protesting In Front Of A White Radio Station For Not Playing Black Artist Music

[Dooby]

Reaching white audiences is the key to huge commercial success because they're the bigger population. This is what Motown did back in the 1960's




7:30



1:58

Negative. There are millions of Black's in America. You can easily eat VERY well and live comfortably with an all black audience. Again, fukk them and their stations. The purchasing power of Black's is in the TRILLIONS.

 

[daboywonder2002]

 

[IllmaticDelta]

Negative. There are millions of Black's in America. You can easily eat VERY well and live comfortably with an all black audience.

The most you can reach with a pred black fanbase is like 300,000- 500,000

Again, fukk them and their stations. The purchasing power of Black's is in the TRILLIONS.

They don't buy albums though. You're never going plat status w/o the crossover white crowd

 

[daboywonder2002]

The most you can reach with a pred black fanbase is like 300,000- 500,000




They don't buy albums though. You're never going plat status w/o the crossover white crowd

so white people bought keith sweat, joe, r kelly, jill scott?:. they all went platinum. i can name more and they were not getting play on white stations.i think for r kelly- bump and grind and keith sweat- twisted. but thats it. they didnt have crossover hits like that.

 

[IllmaticDelta]

so white people bought keith sweat, joe, r kelly, jill scott?:. they all went platinum.

The times they went plat, they had somewhat of a crossover audience. Jill Scott had crossover appeal/success on first album.

i can name more and they were not getting play on white stations.i think for r kelly- bump and grind and keith sweat- twisted. but thats it. they didnt have crossover hits like that.

R Kelly was a crossover artist, no doubt. Dude did a song with Celine Dion

 

[daboywonder2002]

The times they went plat, they had somewhat of a crossover audience. Jill Scott had crossover appeal/success on first album.




R Kelly was a crossover artist, no doubt. Dude did a song with Celine Dion

no they didnt. keith sweat never had a cross over hit until twisted. he was going platinum before that with make it last forever. white people probably played bump n grind and maybe ignition. but i wish, your bodys calling, honey love, slow dance. those were not cross over hits.

 

[Versa]

We need our own shyt

 

[Whogivesafuck]

no they didnt. keith sweat never had a cross over hit until twisted. he was going platinum before that with make it last forever. white people probably played bump n grind and maybe ignition. but i wish, your bodys calling, honey love, slow dance. those were not cross over hits.

He had crossed over way before that. He was getting top 40 airplay on Rick Dees show.

 

[Destined-2-Shine_HNIC]

This is what happens when you manipulate the art form for the sole purpose of generating dollars. This is the result of 20 years chasing a sound that was either pop or hip hop to fit radio. The result is no respect for the true art form.

The transition in sound from Marvin Gaye to Kellz to Trey Songz to August is damning and reflective of the transition r&b music has made.

I support tyrese movement tho. I think it's necessary and far from selfish. R&b needs to get back to establishing credibility and integrity of its sound. It sold its soul a long time ago.

 

[IllmaticDelta]

no they didnt. keith sweat never had a cross over hit until twisted. he was going platinum before that with make it last forever.

Keith Sweat has some slight crossover on his first album

"I Want Her" is a song by American R&B singer Keith Sweat. As the first single from his debut album, Make It Last Forever, it reached number five on the Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks chart for three weeks.[1] and became the most successful number one single of 1988 on the Billboard Hot R&B chart. [1] This was the first new jack swing song to reach #1 on the R&B charts. "I Want Her" also peaked at number 38 on the dance chart.[2] The song topped the R&B Billboard Year-End chart for 1988.[3] It was ranked number 6 on complex.com's list of 25 best new jack swing songs of all time.

white people probably played bump n grind and maybe ignition. but i wish, your bodys calling, honey love, slow dance. those were not cross over hits.

You don't sell the amount of albums prime R kelly was selling w/o being a crossover artist

 

[DMGAINGREEN]

Only if we exerted the same amount of persistence that we do for white acceptance into creating and investing money into our own platforms

 

[Master Teacher]

when the nikka kid came on I almost through up, that nikka look like fire marshal bill

he got the monster foreal

 

[IllmaticDelta]

For example, here is the flipside of the coin, a white artist with no white fans but a large black one.




Her album sales with an overwhelmingly, "black" fanbase

Why Teena Marie was our 'Ivory Queen of Soul

Just as most music aficionados of a certain age probably recall exactly where they were when we first heard Teena Marie, we’ll likely never forget what we were doing when we received word of her untimely demise. News of the singer, songwriter, and producer’s death, which occurred on the 31st year of her music career and six years after the death of her mentor Rick James, was in large measure a reflection of the social networking age: unconfirmed reports resounded throughout Twitter, Facebook and the blogosphere before finally being confirmed by her publicist.

It was both a measure of fans’ disbelief and a coda of the public’s skepticism about Internet rumors that the news of Marie’s death was initially dismissed, given that it came immediately on the heels of bizarre reports that actor Charlie Sheen had died over the weekend. The circumstances surrounding Marie’s death at the far-too-young age of 54 were eerily reminiscent of those involving the death of music icon Michael Jackson in 2009, another music icon who died with no advance warning.

Born Mary Christine Brockert, the R&B chanteuse with the powerhouse voice grew up in a predominantly black Los Angeles neighborhood, and counted mostly African-American musical icons among her musical influences. She first rose to prominence by way of her professional and personal relationship with the late James, and was one of Motown’s first Caucasian artists. At the time of her signing to the label in 1976, Motown executives reportedly fretted about possible backlash from black audiences should they discover she was white.

According to Marie’s biography on Billboard.com, her debut album in 1979 didn’t even feature her picture: most programmers at black radio stations operated under the assumption she was black. Over time, she became affectionately referred to as “the Ivory Queen of Soul” — a hat-tip to the fact that whatever she may have lacked in melanin, she most assuredly compensated for in singing talent.

Not that anyone who spent a moment listening to her sing would have any grounds to question her authenticity as a soul artist. Who among us doesn’t recall being bowled over by her debut with James on “I’m Just a Sucker for Your Love”, or the chill we got from hearing her sultry voice alongside James in their signature ballad, “Fire and Desire”? In a musical genre often noted for the “baby-making” qualities it engenders, Marie stood out for her ability to project fiery passion through her ballads, or clear a dance floor with pulsating, rhythmic beats such as those found on her immortal ‘Square Biz.’ Marie’s songs have withstood the test of time, and found new life in the music industry’s sincerest form of flattery and imitation. Her smash hit ‘Ooh La la la’ was sampled in part by The Fugees on their 1996 single, ‘Fu-Gee-La.’

But for all of the early brouhaha surrounding her ethnicity, Marie stood out for her enduring appeal to black listeners. The music industry is replete with examples of “crossover” artists — Madonna, Boy George and George Michael being among the most prominent examples — who achieved initial acclaim from African-American audiences through the use of R&B-influenced sound. These same artists later transitioned into full-fledged (and more lucrative) pop careers, and never looked back.


For her part, Marie remained true to the genre, and audiences repaid that loyalty with their unyielding support. Even as her career appeared to peak in the late 1980s and she was dropped by her label, Epic, fans continued to flock to Marie’s live shows and played her songs endlessly.

Marie’s success as a soul singer also has much to teach us as music fans, specifically about the color-blindness of talent, and the content of a musician’s character. Her decidedly white lineage notwithstanding, the embrace of Marie by black audiences illustrates the extent to which her ethnicity probably never should have been an issue in the first place. Like people of all races who love music, blacks recognize talent when they see or hear it. It goes without saying that Teena Marie was a woman of unparalleled musical deftness.

Farewell, Lady T. You will be sorely missed.

Why Teena Marie was our 'Ivory Queen of Soul'

Born Mary Christine Brockert in Santa Monica, CA., her parents nicknamed her Teena Marie, which she then adopted as her stage name when she signed with Motown records in the late 70's. As one of the first successful white female artists on that label, Teena Marie would soon become a staple on the black charts releasing 4 albums, some of which went gold. And although Motown deliberately left her picture off the cover of her first album, Wild and Peaceful, because they didn't believe that the black consumers would accept a white singer singing as soulful as Aretha Franklin, she persevered.



With the teaming up of Rick James, she would play to standing-room-only crowds that were primarily black across the United States, until the early 80's, when she sued Motown records over unpaid royalties. Teena was then released from her contract with the popular record company and signed with Epic soon after.


Combining funk, rock, jazz, and gospel, Teena seemed to have her own sound and the industry couldn't categorize her style of music, thus creating difficulties with mainstream billboards. But since she already had a home on the black charts, she continued to find success. She put out 5 more albums on Epic (and a greatest hits album), including the 1984 album Starchild which produced the top 5 hit song "Lovergirl" (That's when I discovered her...). Capturing an entirely new audience, she continued to have success for two more years until she released the follow-up album Emerald City. At this time people generally thought that she just disappeared. But back on the R&B charts, Teena never lost her soulful touch or her fans. With funky songs like "Lips to Find You," "Work It," and "Here's Looking at You," as well as the smoother, jazzy tunes like "Ooo La La La," "Casanova Brown," and "If I Were a Bell," Teena kept on groovin', gaining even more support from black radio and less enthusiasm from the stations that had a primarily white audience.

The Deja Vu Cafe Guest Writers Corner: Lisa LaCri


"Faces: Singer Teena Marie
'I Wish I Was Colorless'"

Singer Teena Marie is white but . . .. Close your eyes when you're talking to her and, because of her inflections and diction, you'd most likely think she's black. Especially on her records, she sounds like a black singer.



In fact some people even refuse to believe she's white. "I tell them I'm white, but they think I'm black and I'm trying to pass for white," Marie explained, feigning exasperation as she pounded her fist on the table in a Hollywood cocktail lounge. She laughed as she carefully examined the backs of her hands and then ran her fingers all over her face. "This is white skin. I'm not trying to fool anybody."


She laughed again. "I've got to keep a sense of humor about this," said the tiny (five foot), talkative, 23-year-old performer.


Summing up what it's like to be a white person whom many regard as a black, she said matter-of-factly: "I'm a different kind of person. Blacks and whites don't really react in any special way to me. I don't get anything negative from blacks and not really anything negative from whites now. But I will say it was different before I started getting some popularity. I don't think it was prejudice from whites as much as ignorance of something they didn't know much about. You know, I wish I was colorless sometimes."


This racial confusion about Marie, who is co-starring with Stevie Wonder in an Inglewood Forum benefit Thursday, is important because, to some degree, it's retarding the progress of her career. First of all it's not unusual for a white singer to have a black style. However, such performers stick to rock and pop mostly aimed at white audiences. Marie -- who's an excellent singer by the way -- is unique not only because she sings rhythm and blues but because her music is geared primarily to black audiences.


Consequently she's treated by radio stations as a black artist. Her records are played extensively on black stations and rarely crossover to the white pop stations.


To Marie, it's an honor for her music to be played almost exclusively on black stations. "That's flattering to me," she boasted. "They tell me I'm the only white woman singer in this kind of position."


It may be flattering but it's also limiting. The only way to become a big recording star is to get exposure on pop stations and sell records to the mass pop audience. Even though her audience is limited, Marie has done quite well. Her first two Motown albums, Wild & Peaceful and Lady T went gold (500,000 sold), and her latest --and best-- Irons in the Fire probably will too.


Motown, however, thinks she can appeal to more than a black audience and is now trying to expose her to the pop masses. A big move in that direction was signing her as the opening act on the Shaun Cassidy tour last year. It was one of the year's most unlikely bills. His audience consists mostly of females who are white and barely pubescent. Her audience is black teenagers and young adults. The crowds were composed almost entirely of his fans.


"It wasn't publicized that I was on the show, so no blacks knew I was there so they didn't come," she explained. "They wouldn't want to see Shaun Cassidy anyway. It was a rough situation for me given the way I sing and with my band being black. Those young girls didn't know my music and they couldn't really relate to me or the band."


While Marie wants to attract a pop audience, she made it clear she's unwilling to whitewash her style. "I'll never go all the way pop," she said emphatically. "It'd be nice to appeal to pop fans too, but I want to keep my black audience."

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[jadillac]

Salute to Tyrese

I made this same thread in TLR and ppl were calling Tyrese a c00n for seeking white acceptance

Only on the Coli.

 

[satam55]

Contemporary R&B (80s to present) has always had many substyles that had HipHop, Disco-dance-synthy (EDM) to deep Soul influenced sounds.

You might wanna change that title Contemporary R&B started in the late 80's.