Where are the African-American artists in today's mainstream AC?

[landtuna]

I don't like today's black artists.

At the risk of sounding too general and painting all Black artists with one big brush I have to agree with you. There used to be true artists who had "color" (no pun intended) to their songs and you listed many of them in your last paragraph. Today's Black artists (and I am specifically excluding rap and hip-hop here), particularly females, are just "screamers". No talent. No artistry. Just loud.

I'm interested in artistry in song, Black or White, and I don't care whether the singer can shatter a champagne flute with his/her voice.

But I guess when one is raised listening to Nat King Cole and Johnny Mathis it is most difficult for others to raise the bar.

 

[carolinaradio]

I don't like today's black artists.

At the risk of sounding too general and painting all Black artists with one big brush I have to agree with you. There used to be true artists who had "color" (no pun intended) to their songs and you listed many of them in your last paragraph. Today's Black artists (and I am specifically excluding rap and hip-hop here), particularly females, are just "screamers". No talent. No artistry. Just loud.

I'm interested in artistry in song, Black or White, and I don't care whether the singer can shatter a champagne flute with his/her voice.

But I guess when one is raised listening to Nat King Cole and Johnny Mathis it is most difficult for others to raise the bar.

I have to agree.

African-American artists put out decent material in to the 90s for the AC format, the Whitney Houstons, Boyz II Mens, etc (most of those songs are forgotten now by AC, but moving on). The slow ballads. That kind of stopped in to the mid-late 90s, then there were boy band crossovers and country crossovers.

 

[vchimpanzee]

I don't like today's black artists.

At the risk of sounding too general and painting all Black artists with one big brush I have to agree with you. There used to be true artists who had "color" (no pun intended) to their songs and you listed many of them in your last paragraph. Today's Black artists (and I am specifically excluding rap and hip-hop here), particularly females, are just "screamers". No talent. No artistry. Just loud.

I'm interested in artistry in song, Black or White, and I don't care whether the singer can shatter a champagne flute with his/her voice.

But I guess when one is raised listening to Nat King Cole and Johnny Mathis it is most difficult for others to raise the bar.

Actually, for me Nat King Cole is a relatively recent discovery. Except maybe at Christmas, I didn't hear much of him until he did that duet with his daughter through electronic wizardry, when I was about 30. It was about that time that I really started listening to adult standards radio.

I had heard Johnny for years but hadn't heard those songs that weren't either Christmas-related or played on oldies or AC radio.

 

[vchimpanzee]

My understanding was that one song which distinguished "urban contemporary" from "soul" was "I Can't Go for That" by Hall & Oates.

What's the distinguishing factor in that song? Is it "urban contemporary" or "soul"?

Originally, "urban contemporary" was a term used like "rhythmic CHR" today. Hall & Oates could be part of urban but not soul, which was pretty much all black artists. At least that's what I heard.

The urban contemporary station where I live, which started out disco, played "Jump" by Van Halen.

 

[vchimpanzee]

A radio station where I live plays smooth jazz on weekends but is talk during the week. According to their online playlist, they're obsessed with Sade. Now I don't like her (their) songs, but she (they) would fit on AC and probably sound good.

 

[mikl73]

Easy Lover - Phil Collins was another song played on urban stations that you would never hear on them today.

Anyone think that urban artists also don't care as much about mass appeal as they did in years past? They have a well defined market place now vs. 20 years ago.

 

[Jay F]

Alicia Keys-Unthinkable was a song I thought could have worked on AC last year. She has some history with the format. This song was probably considered too soft and slow for today's AC. The irony is that it was NOT too slow (and in fact was a big hit) on rhythmic CHRs that play lot's of hip hop.

 

[vchimpanzee]

Easy Lover - Phil Collins was another song played on urban stations that you would never hear on them today.

Only because it was actually Phillip Bailey, who is black, whose name appeared first.

That song has been on my mind a lot because the moderator of one of the Yahoo groups I belong to calls himself that.

 

[mikl73]

It went #3 on the R&B chart at the time.

#2 on the Hot 100
#15 on the AC chart
#5 Mainstream Rock

 

[atlantaboy]

Alicia Keys-Unthinkable was a song I thought could have worked on AC last year. She has some history with the format. This song was probably considered too soft and slow for today's AC. The irony is that it was NOT too slow (and in fact was a big hit) on rhythmic CHRs that play lot's of hip hop.

I think it's REALLY rare for a song to cross over from Urban to mainstream AC, without crossing over to CHR first - I think the fact that it completely flopped on pop basically sealed its fate on AC

I'm almost positive AC programmers watch the Hot AC and CHR charts, not the Urban/Urban AC charts

 

[Jay F]

Alicia Keys-Unthinkable was a song I thought could have worked on AC last year. She has some history with the format. This song was probably considered too soft and slow for today's AC. The irony is that it was NOT too slow (and in fact was a big hit) on rhythmic CHRs that play lot's of hip hop.

I think it's REALLY rare for a song to cross over from Urban to mainstream AC, without crossing over to CHR first - I think the fact that it completely flopped on pop basically sealed its fate on AC

I'm almost positive AC programmers watch the Hot AC and CHR charts, not the Urban/Urban AC charts

I wouldn't call #21 a complete flop. It also happened to be the #1 R&B song of the entire year. I am convinced if given a chance it would have done better AC than CHR, but we will never know.

 

[CTListener]

Easy Lover - Phil Collins was another song played on urban stations that you would never hear on them today.

Only because it was actually Phillip Bailey, who is black, whose name appeared first.

And it appeared on a Philip Bailey album, "Chinese Wall," not one of Collins' albums. I'm pretty sure I remember the CHR jocks back then consistently referring to the tune as being by Phil Collins and Philip Bailey, though. Did the urban jocks put Bailey's name first?