>...give more variety. Like I said, they let that trap sound
>dominate too long and people got tired of it. Radio didn't
>lead the way.
>
>P-Funk said radio needed a little push to play P-Funk
>
>Radio needed a little push to play De La Soul
>
>But radio got too arrogant when radio decided people would
>love trap-R&B and trap hip-hop FOREVER
>
>There needed to be that "open window" to the P-Funk's and De
>La Soul's that opens up every 10 years on Black radio
>
>
>>But we aren't blameless
>>here, are we? This didn't 'just happen' to us, did it?
>

I'm with you there. Radio has and has had hella data available to do better. And even worse, when they had 'real DJs', they had those folks telling them what they needed to play and a bunch of the stations didn't really listen.

In the 70s and 80s, there were record clubs and DJs/rich kids who were in those clubs would get EVERYTHING (albums, 12" singles, remixes, all of that), so they knew damn well what was jamming. But stations had 'formats' by then so there was only so much they could do. And that says nothing of payola of course.

Even in the mid-90s, I had homeboys who did street team stuff for some record labels. And so sometimes, we'd be in clubs well before they opened. And we'd be talking to the DJs: club DJs, radio station DJs, traveling with acts type DJs, working on a few beats here and there DJs, all of those types of DJs. And what do you know...they knew about EVERY FUCKING THING musically. The labels sent them stuff and they listened to A LOT OF MUSIC. We marveled at how much music those folks had access to (not knowing that we would too a few years later). And they would be like 'man, I can't even break records unless I'm on at *insert some weird time of the day*'. And I was thinking 'how is it that even the damn DJ can't play what's jamming!? That sucks!'. And then, we'd ask them to play weird jamming shit that wasn't going to get played that night over the club speakers before doors opened. And they would. They'd damn near be 'breaking records' to us! And of course, they loved stuff that wasn't always with whatever 'format' they were stuck with at the club and/or on the radio.

Back to the radio and their stubbornness: they damn near need to have a PFunk overtake things before they're like 'oh, aight..let's get in on this'. They did it with 'neo soul' too. We were damn near at Musiq Soulchild in 2000 before it wasn't abnormal to hear the main folks from that group of acts on the radio depending on the 'format' of the station. And even then, it was still kinda weird to catch a Just Friends, Long walk or whatever.

Ruts are ruts for a reason tho. And radio has been in one basically forever. They got away with it because it was much harder to get by without them IMO. But shit..go back to the 60s. Then, cats started going out of their way to make whole jamming albums. Then, Soul Train gave more of a platform to see shit performed while at the house. Then, cable/music videos blew that wide open. Then The Box previewed today's youtube and streaming setups. Then Napster took illegal free shit from 'dub me a tape of that Sade we was listening to the other day at your house' to 'here's all of Sade's music if you have a decent internet connection and space on your 10 GB hard drive. Then CD Burners escalated THAT.

And even then, radio mfers didn't get it! And they were still trying to hold artists and labels hostage! Still!

Then streaming hit and yeah...to me, its been a wrap since then. Algorithms/play counts are the radio. Besides that, there's no central point for 'we might not have EVERYTHING that is jamming, but if it is here, it is PROBABLY jamming'.

Maybe it is because I was just the right age to be be noticing most of these things and how it helped people drift away from the radio that it feels so clear to me that the radio ain't shit, hasn't been for a long while, and its their own fault that people don't take cues from their funky asses anymore.

But there IS something to be said about how this has impacted/further segmented the music to the point where everyone is their own DJ now. And, real talk, most people are NOT qualified for that gig! So artists almost have to find 'lanes' and ride the shit out of them or risk being up a creek with people who don't have the range. It is a wild change from late 90s when rappers were trying to make 'something for everybody' albums. Now, the Griselda dudes will put out a 30-minute release with basically no basslines and a 'You don't know' yelling/singing sample on damn near every song and its totally fine because that's what people want from them.