I know that some say "if you can't say anything nice don't say anything at all." But sometimes it is best to become aware that there is an elephant in the living room before it makes a mess. For 14 of the last 15 years there has been this unofficical gag rule regarding BA and the powerful little clique at its nucleus. R'n'R did an article in 1995 that featured some articulate, astute, and in retrospect extremely valid statements re: their concerns about this one company controlling so much of the format and imposing such a narrow focus. The introduction to the piece said that it was the last article they would be doing with critiques of BA's methods and assumptions. As if anything ever was totally black and white. After that everyone shut up.
Since then a small clique have ruled with an iron hand from a high horse while everyone assumed that since they had power they must be completely right and everyone else must be completely wrong. Then when the NY station flipped the dam broke and people actually begin to express alternative viewpoints, as well as bringing to light some of the strong arm tactics that this clique have used to maintain control and keep shortening the leash on both musicians and radio people. Finally the leash has gotten so short it turned into a chokehold and began to kill the genre in terms of image, quality of recorded music, and obviously the shift to lite vocals (often of questionable quality.) When someone comments on an incident they experienced with being bullied or called an idiot by these guys there is often this recogniton that "gee, I wasn't the only one." That is healthy, not negative.
Growth and evolution happen when there is an open exchange of ideas by a good sized group of people who don't all think just alike. Has our fear of appearing "negative" or of being accused of being a "know nothing" because we don't agree with the ones who hold enormous power contributed to the current stagnation? What if the concerns expressed since the format flips started, which are pretty much the same as the ones in the 1995 RnR article, had become topics to explore rather than to squelch?
It helps to know where you are and how you got there so you can get up, dust yourself off and move foward to build a more solid foundation. While one doesn't want to wallow in a place of criticism and negativity sometimes one of the most effective ways to begin to rise from the ashes is to point out the fact that there are ashes there to begin with and this is how they got there so the rebuiding can begin and we can all be aware of traps we don't want to step in or re-create.
Since then a small clique have ruled with an iron hand from a high horse while everyone assumed that since they had power they must be completely right and everyone else must be completely wrong. Then when the NY station flipped the dam broke and people actually begin to express alternative viewpoints, as well as bringing to light some of the strong arm tactics that this clique have used to maintain control and keep shortening the leash on both musicians and radio people. Finally the leash has gotten so short it turned into a chokehold and began to kill the genre in terms of image, quality of recorded music, and obviously the shift to lite vocals (often of questionable quality.) When someone comments on an incident they experienced with being bullied or called an idiot by these guys there is often this recogniton that "gee, I wasn't the only one." That is healthy, not negative.
Growth and evolution happen when there is an open exchange of ideas by a good sized group of people who don't all think just alike. Has our fear of appearing "negative" or of being accused of being a "know nothing" because we don't agree with the ones who hold enormous power contributed to the current stagnation? What if the concerns expressed since the format flips started, which are pretty much the same as the ones in the 1995 RnR article, had become topics to explore rather than to squelch?
It helps to know where you are and how you got there so you can get up, dust yourself off and move foward to build a more solid foundation. While one doesn't want to wallow in a place of criticism and negativity sometimes one of the most effective ways to begin to rise from the ashes is to point out the fact that there are ashes there to begin with and this is how they got there so the rebuiding can begin and we can all be aware of traps we don't want to step in or re-create.
