>No...popularity and mass consumption does not equal white
>bread or bland...No one has ever said that...In fact, most of
>our music discussions has gone on record as saying that the
>'80s was the age of the Cross Over Negro...
>
>The thing for me has always been about the quality of the
>music and what sounds (to me) like deliberate pandering to
>sell records...

So you don't think there have been great records that were deliberately made to sell records or pander to a mass audience? If the issue is if it sounds good or not that I get but to try and get in any artists head in the music "business" is a tricky thing. In general everyone is trying to sell as many records to as many people as possible.
>
>There is indeed quality cheese out there...I mean
>"Celebration" by Kool & The Gang was cheesy as
>hell....lol...But I loved the shit out of that song when I was
>a kid...So no, that's not even the issue...
>
>It's the blatant distance that Richie went to crossing over
>along with the quality of the music after his success with the
>Commodores...And I understand that some folks have a different
>opinion on that....Welcome to America...

So I think you're saying that the music stopped being good right? That I get. I'm not a fan of most of Lionel's solo work either but I'm just trying to get what it is that people are saying is white bread. To me corny or cheesy is much different than white bread.
>
>
>
>>The reason I asked that question is because I think we can
>>forget that mass amounts of Black folks can like some shit
>>that other people might look at as corny or white bread.
>>George Duke, Grover Washington...Smooth Jazz in general is
>big
>>with a ton of Black audiences so I question the validity of
>>calling this stuff white bread simply because it's not
>gritty.
>
>
>Indeed...but again, I think you are missing the point...This
>thread is more about the revisionist history that is being
>played out by some folks...Not to mention the personal
>disrespect and hypocrisy being shown over something as fun
>and trivial as a music discussion...

I got the point of the post but I did want OP to say what he defines as white bread so that we are clear. Plenty of popular Black music has been called white bread from Motown to Nat King Cole so I'm wondering how OP or others in here are measuring what is or isn't white bread.