HOME | POLITICS | SPORTS | LIFE | SCI/TECH | OPEDS | HELPFUL TIPS
|
By Judy Ramsook
Feb. 9, 2006 I have always held singers and musicians in high regard because unless one is persistent enough, it is difficult for some of the top people in the business to take notice of one’s work. If one does enough research or just takes a listen to the weekly countdown, you will hear how difficult it was for some persons who are now in the I’ve made it status to have actually done so. How do the top people in the music recording business learn of some one’s skill in the field? First they have to listen to a demo tape, or be present at some venue where such a person is performing, but getting them to hear your demo tape, or be at the right place at the right time, especially if you are an unknown, can be a sometimes impossible task. Obviously, we all know of the ones who have made it in the business by keeping up with their music or hearing their succession of hits on the radio. While on the topic of the radio, as you all know by now, I am a frequent listener of that as well, but I heard something on the evening news the other day that had me thinking otherwise. This something concerned a matter known as the Payola scandal. According to www.history-of-rock.com/payola.htm payola is actually a contraction of two words. Pay and victrola (a victrola is an LP record player). Furthermore, payola occurs when people in the music recording industry give radio stations cash or gifts to play certain songs on the radio so members of the music buying public would hear those songs. While payola itself was not illegal, commercial bribery was and the first case that involved payola took place in 1960 when it was learned that Alan Freed was charged with accepting $2,500.00 which he stated was just an act of appreciation and did not affect airplay. It did affect his career though. When he was released after paying a small fine, his career seemed to have taken a nose dive and he died in 1965 upon consuming too much alcohol. I was so stunned to have learned what I did, that now I seem to question all those songs I do hear on the radio. I mean, how do you know who is really talented from the ones whose songs are getting special attention? What can even be more thought provoking is, or are all those singers’ songs getting special attention? Even as I look at my cd collection I feel sort of drained as I think, could I have been a victim of payola by purchasing an entire cd just because I heard one song by that particular singer on the radio? A singer whom others might think has no talent? It makes you wonder. And although not all of anything is all bad, I have been able to filter out the good singers from the ones who did not seem to have staying power in the business. As for the Grammys, yes I watch that too every year, now I wonder, especially in light of the payola thing, if some of those Grammy winners are truly deserving of the highly coveted award. Thought provoking, isn’t it? ------------ About the author Judy Ramsook: My first book titled: "Karen's Adventure" which is about two young girls who go in search of their missing parents, is now available. I was born and raised in Trinidad & Tobago, then in the mid eighties I came to the US where I attended San Antonio College and The University Of Texas At San Antonio. Visit: http://www.authorsden.com/judyramsook www.publishedauthors.net/g2rdy Email: j2rdy@hotmail.com Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
||||||
|
|
|||||||
|
