A friend of mine, journalist turned rapper, Jahshua Smith aka J'Young The General wrote this article comparing BET to Motown. Obviously not in it's quality, but in it's legacy. Jahshua argues both black-owned commodities failed to live up to the purpose they were created for, eventually succumbing to the white-stream media's "business mode"l and loosing their cultural identity. Well those are my words, not his. His words are better are more eloquent. The article is below: Seems like a blasphemous question from the jump, right? How can we possibly compare what's often compared to a modernized minstrel show of epically stereotypical proportions to a reputed pillar in the Black community that gave us possibly the most meaningful and timeless music of the last 60 years?
Actually, when you unpack it....they're a lot closer than you think.
Motown
No introduction is really neccessary, and the long list of prominent artists Motown ushered into the homes of America have been repeated to us Ad Nauseum ever since we were children in Elementary School. We'll skip all that.
Here's what we know about Motown from an organizational standpoint. Barry Gordy founded Motown with the intent of striking out on his own with the artists that he wrote songs for, noting how lucrative the publishing and recording aspect of the industry was. Through his vision he was able to create an African-American owned label, capable of competing with any other powerhouse out at the time. His meticulous artist development and business saavy created a plethora of African-American stars as popular, if not more, than their counterparts. That led to the first substantial phenomenon of racial integration in music, and suddenly America at large was very familiar with our culture through music and dance, setting the tone for a bridging of the racial gap that the political arena of Civil Rights simply couldn't achieve. To this day music is probably the only conduit that allows thousands of people from different racial/class-based/ideolog
Unfortunately, what gets left out of this success story is a lot of the red tape that we frequently cite as inherent plague in today's industry. Berry Gordy had a very static idea of what worked and what didn't from an artistic standpoint, and many artists had to fight to make the type of music they wanted to make. Gordy rarely made any political statements without heavy prompting by artists and staff, due to the implications of negative backlash. Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder in specific fought EXTREMELY hard to transform into the socially active musicians we laud them for being today.
The problem there is that you can begin to see the instances where our culture became secondary to Gordy in favor of success, and while we did get to enjoy albums such as What's Going On, the fact that so many politics were involved speaks to what creative process stifles the common artist in today's climate.
We also have to point out the presence Motown had in Detroit, which is everlasting to say the least. For Motown to be a burgeoning juggernaut insists that there was an upwind of jobs in my hometown, and a nuturing of the creative sector that helped change the landscape of the city's music roots, as well as the Midwest region in general. Surely having that type of black business in the city would help spur it's economy for decades to come, no?
Well...no. Because of Detroit's limited cultural sphere, a desire to expand into new interests such as movies and television, and seeds already planted in New York and L.A., the groundwork was set for Berry Gordy to eventually leave and move onto bigger horizons. Motown needed a bigger market to fully realize the African-American dream of being a minority-owned global conglomerate of the likes no one had seen up till then.
But the move to L.A. wasn't as impactful as anyone would've guessed or hoped, and although we got a lot of important, scene-altering, music was made during this part of Motown's history, the label was gradually begin to weaken, which is the exact opposite of what one wishes to accomplish with expansion. By the mid-1980s, Motown was losing money and Gordy sold his ownership to MCA in 1989. An anti-climactic ending to what once was perceived as the African-American answer to Atlantic Records. Motown was no longer black owned, and the era that we associate it's name with was over.
BET
Robert Johnson, former cable lobbyist, secured a loan much like Gordy to promote his dream. With a 15k loan paired up with a 500K investment from Billionaire John Malone to start Black Entertainment Television, aimed at the African-American demographic consisting primarily of music videos and popular black sitcoms at a time where Michael Jackson and Bill Cosby hadn't helped level the playing field of those respective genres.
With BET came a lot of the same responsibilities that Motown had to burden during it's precipitous rise, with America needing to be re-introduced to our culture in an entirely different way. This was the counter-culture era of hip-hop along with it's sister R&B, and cousins such as Reggae and numerous other Carribbean styles of music -- many of it's detractors were unfamiliar with the music in general, and you now had a cable channel that showcased it only a daily basis. Once again the racial gap was beginning to bridge with Suburban America's fascination for not just the music, but the culture, growing exponentially, and with a Post-Reagan imbalance in racial disparity straining our relations the stakes were high once again.
Rap City, Teen Summit, The Tavis Smiley Show, BET News...things that helped familiarize our country, as well as others, with the positives and negatives in our community. One thing that has always escaped Black Nationalism is the absence of the majority to recognize those issues...BET helped broadcast that.
Johnson however, much like Berry Gordy, was never overtly political and rarely energized BET as a political tool to address the ills of the inner city, and at some point that neglect instead became a glamorization that instead reinforced those ills as norms.
The balance didn't begin to really crumble until Johnson sold BET to Viacom in 1998, and well...i don't need to explain what went wrong in the 11 years since then. There's a reason why everyone balked at the comparison to Motown and the proof is in that decade-old pudding.
So Where's the Comparison
The common thread that ties the two together is that in both situations we had forerunners that had the ability to compete with a white-washed media that has long ignored the complete reality of African-American life. Both cases find Gordy and Johnson respectively being given the tools to provide their culture with their own representation, neither limited or defined by other mediums. Musically and visually both provided the chance for us to broadcast our lives without it being lost in America's translation.
But the quest for success in both cases not only highlights the marginalization of culture for prosperity, but also the inability of African-Americans in power to seperate from the majority's business model -- opting to play "the game." Unfortunately playing a game that has been rigged for you to lose means instead of Kings and Queens, we're led by a group of Rooks and Pawns who have power but not comparable to those at the top of either industry. Much like how the uprooting of Motown left the city of Detroit to fend for itself at a time where we needed it most, the new BET abandoned its viewership with a similar need not being met. And although Motown's success bred the ability for the Diddy's, Russell Simmons', and Jay-Z's to be millionaires and own profitable companies, but how many of them own the conglomerates that distribute their label's music?
None.
Motown could easily have been a member of the Big Four but somewhere along the way it lost it's focus and became another mundane record label. That type of failure is what indeed set the tone for BET's downfall.
We're now experiencing the downfall of Black Media being neglected and ultimately overtaken by the majority, and the result is a tainted account of what it is to be Black in this country. That we need Soledad O'Brien and company to teach us what wecould and should've learned on BET years ago really speaks to the state of the latter.
Seeing how we choose to celebrate the success of Motown and nitpick at the failure of BET, we should shift our focus and being objective about both and realizing where both missed their mark in the community. Because, as has been proven by Mr. Johnson, those who don't know or choose to acknowledge their history are doomed to repeat it.
DON'T FALL FOR THE "OOH WOP"!!
Actually, when you unpack it....they're a lot closer than you think.
Motown
No introduction is really neccessary, and the long list of prominent artists Motown ushered into the homes of America have been repeated to us Ad Nauseum ever since we were children in Elementary School. We'll skip all that.
Here's what we know about Motown from an organizational standpoint. Barry Gordy founded Motown with the intent of striking out on his own with the artists that he wrote songs for, noting how lucrative the publishing and recording aspect of the industry was. Through his vision he was able to create an African-American owned label, capable of competing with any other powerhouse out at the time. His meticulous artist development and business saavy created a plethora of African-American stars as popular, if not more, than their counterparts. That led to the first substantial phenomenon of racial integration in music, and suddenly America at large was very familiar with our culture through music and dance, setting the tone for a bridging of the racial gap that the political arena of Civil Rights simply couldn't achieve. To this day music is probably the only conduit that allows thousands of people from different racial/class-based/ideolog
Unfortunately, what gets left out of this success story is a lot of the red tape that we frequently cite as inherent plague in today's industry. Berry Gordy had a very static idea of what worked and what didn't from an artistic standpoint, and many artists had to fight to make the type of music they wanted to make. Gordy rarely made any political statements without heavy prompting by artists and staff, due to the implications of negative backlash. Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder in specific fought EXTREMELY hard to transform into the socially active musicians we laud them for being today.
The problem there is that you can begin to see the instances where our culture became secondary to Gordy in favor of success, and while we did get to enjoy albums such as What's Going On, the fact that so many politics were involved speaks to what creative process stifles the common artist in today's climate.
We also have to point out the presence Motown had in Detroit, which is everlasting to say the least. For Motown to be a burgeoning juggernaut insists that there was an upwind of jobs in my hometown, and a nuturing of the creative sector that helped change the landscape of the city's music roots, as well as the Midwest region in general. Surely having that type of black business in the city would help spur it's economy for decades to come, no?
Well...no. Because of Detroit's limited cultural sphere, a desire to expand into new interests such as movies and television, and seeds already planted in New York and L.A., the groundwork was set for Berry Gordy to eventually leave and move onto bigger horizons. Motown needed a bigger market to fully realize the African-American dream of being a minority-owned global conglomerate of the likes no one had seen up till then.
But the move to L.A. wasn't as impactful as anyone would've guessed or hoped, and although we got a lot of important, scene-altering, music was made during this part of Motown's history, the label was gradually begin to weaken, which is the exact opposite of what one wishes to accomplish with expansion. By the mid-1980s, Motown was losing money and Gordy sold his ownership to MCA in 1989. An anti-climactic ending to what once was perceived as the African-American answer to Atlantic Records. Motown was no longer black owned, and the era that we associate it's name with was over.
BET
Robert Johnson, former cable lobbyist, secured a loan much like Gordy to promote his dream. With a 15k loan paired up with a 500K investment from Billionaire John Malone to start Black Entertainment Television, aimed at the African-American demographic consisting primarily of music videos and popular black sitcoms at a time where Michael Jackson and Bill Cosby hadn't helped level the playing field of those respective genres.
With BET came a lot of the same responsibilities that Motown had to burden during it's precipitous rise, with America needing to be re-introduced to our culture in an entirely different way. This was the counter-culture era of hip-hop along with it's sister R&B, and cousins such as Reggae and numerous other Carribbean styles of music -- many of it's detractors were unfamiliar with the music in general, and you now had a cable channel that showcased it only a daily basis. Once again the racial gap was beginning to bridge with Suburban America's fascination for not just the music, but the culture, growing exponentially, and with a Post-Reagan imbalance in racial disparity straining our relations the stakes were high once again.
Rap City, Teen Summit, The Tavis Smiley Show, BET News...things that helped familiarize our country, as well as others, with the positives and negatives in our community. One thing that has always escaped Black Nationalism is the absence of the majority to recognize those issues...BET helped broadcast that.
Johnson however, much like Berry Gordy, was never overtly political and rarely energized BET as a political tool to address the ills of the inner city, and at some point that neglect instead became a glamorization that instead reinforced those ills as norms.
The balance didn't begin to really crumble until Johnson sold BET to Viacom in 1998, and well...i don't need to explain what went wrong in the 11 years since then. There's a reason why everyone balked at the comparison to Motown and the proof is in that decade-old pudding.
So Where's the Comparison
The common thread that ties the two together is that in both situations we had forerunners that had the ability to compete with a white-washed media that has long ignored the complete reality of African-American life. Both cases find Gordy and Johnson respectively being given the tools to provide their culture with their own representation, neither limited or defined by other mediums. Musically and visually both provided the chance for us to broadcast our lives without it being lost in America's translation.
But the quest for success in both cases not only highlights the marginalization of culture for prosperity, but also the inability of African-Americans in power to seperate from the majority's business model -- opting to play "the game." Unfortunately playing a game that has been rigged for you to lose means instead of Kings and Queens, we're led by a group of Rooks and Pawns who have power but not comparable to those at the top of either industry. Much like how the uprooting of Motown left the city of Detroit to fend for itself at a time where we needed it most, the new BET abandoned its viewership with a similar need not being met. And although Motown's success bred the ability for the Diddy's, Russell Simmons', and Jay-Z's to be millionaires and own profitable companies, but how many of them own the conglomerates that distribute their label's music?
None.
Motown could easily have been a member of the Big Four but somewhere along the way it lost it's focus and became another mundane record label. That type of failure is what indeed set the tone for BET's downfall.
We're now experiencing the downfall of Black Media being neglected and ultimately overtaken by the majority, and the result is a tainted account of what it is to be Black in this country. That we need Soledad O'Brien and company to teach us what wecould and should've learned on BET years ago really speaks to the state of the latter.
Seeing how we choose to celebrate the success of Motown and nitpick at the failure of BET, we should shift our focus and being objective about both and realizing where both missed their mark in the community. Because, as has been proven by Mr. Johnson, those who don't know or choose to acknowledge their history are doomed to repeat it.
DON'T FALL FOR THE "OOH WOP"!!
-Written by Jahshua Smith
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