What happened to local music?

[Frankie's Market]

Re: What happened to local music?

Yep, sadly what you say is pretty much true. Corporate ownership and all that. Back in the 50s 60s and 70s, local top 40 radio played a mix of national hits and some local, non-Hawaiian pop/rock music and even mixed a few Hawaiian tracks in. Those days are gone, all playlists dictated by corporate and national charts.

It should be said that corporate ownership of radio and the strict playlists that stations must adhere to has led to the virtual extinction of regional pop hits throughout the nation. If you look at any surviving local top 30 or 40 leaflets that radio stations used to hand out in record stores during the 1960s and '70s, chances are you'll find the listing to be peppered here and there with homegrown acts who never achieved national stardom. Or there were the occasional flipside of a bigtime act that catches the fancy of a certain town, but never really caught on with the rest of the country. That is all a thing of the past, for the most part.

We both forgot that right now the most successful Hawaii artist as far as airplay, national record sales and stuff is Jack Johnson. He still claims Hawaii as his home, does benefit concerts and yet has made a national name for himself on radio and the Billboard charts.

Very true what you say about Johnson. But not every performer from Hawaii wears their hometown on their sleeve. Let me explain.

I have a friend from childhood who had the opportunity of going to the LaGuardia School of Performing Arts. (This is the school that is portrayed on the movie/TV show Fame.) Very talented dancer and singer. But she admitted to me that she while she didn't hide it, she also didn't go out of her way to advertise the fact that she was from Hawaii. It wasn't because she was ashamed of where she came from. But as someone who aspired to go as far as she could in the entertainment world, she quickly learned that being known as someone from Hawaii pidgeon-holed her in other people's minds and she found it very limiting. "Oh, you're from Hawaii? Can you do a little Hula for us?"

It's a very sad situation when aspiring performers from Hawaii go through experiences where their place of origin can actually be a hindrance in their drive for success. Hopefully, attitudes on the mainland have changed and people there realize that, yeah, in Hawaii, there are folks whose performing talents are just as good (if not better) when it comes things like ballet, jazz dancing, etc. We don't just produce Polynesian entertainers.

So while mainstream success is fleeting, it is possible... probably more so if the artist moves out of Hawaii.

Here's a "What If" for everyone here to think about. In the days when the Hawaii radio stations were free to give boosted airplay to a local band or singer trying to make it in the bigtime, how much of a difference could it have made to the recording careers of Hoku Ho, Tenderoni, or even Jasmine Trias?

[jkpescador]

Re: What happened to local music?

Frank Orrall of Poi Dog Pondering does consider himself from Hawaii. Not all of his band members are but he and Ted Cho are.

"Poi dog pondering formed in Hawaii in 1986. The first live performance was at the Honolulu Arts Academy. "

His memories of Hawaii ...
http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?f...ogId=198303322

[Kimo Akane]

Re: What happened to local music?

Adding to the list of local bands that got non Hawaiian airplay "The Mop Tops", Nohelani Cypriano, Krush and all those artists from the Homegrown albums.

I agree that times are different now... and they have changed for almost everyone.

Record companies no longer rich from the toil of the artists don't rush to sign every and any artist hoping one will break through.

And now anyone can make a cd (we see them all... the kine that look like real major label productions and the ones written in badly penned sharpie).

Is corporate ownership responsible for the tightening in radio playlists? It may have sped things up a little, radio playlists have continuously evolved over time (ownership not withstanding). It's ugly and bloggers don't like to hear it but the truth is "tighter playlists" yield higher ratings. It's pretty obvious that the broader a stations playlist is the less it will appeal to a specific demographic confine.

In the movie Pirate Radio they state that in 1966 the BBC played 45 minutes of music "A DAY". Here in hawaii we had maybe 3 stations that played music back then. Fast forward to 2009 and you have 30 radio signals, 500 cable channels, CD's, DVD's, music downloads, torrents, youtube etc... we just don't have that captive an audience anymore.

If you're still reading this what I'd like to know is with all the entertainment options listed above why are we still bitchin' about not hearing obscure artists that you'll never care about again on . While we can list 20 or 30 bands that were how many bands did we actually forget about?

[mel]

Re: What happened to local music?

Adding to the list of local bands that got non Hawaiian airplay "The Mop Tops", Nohelani Cypriano, Krush and all those artists from the Homegrown albums.

Yep, the Homegrown albums got lot of airplay... but mostly at the time of their release.. on one station... KKUA.

Nohelani was lucky enough to be popular with "Lihue" that it got played on other top 40 stations.

I could never stand The Krush, but they were indeed popular in the early 1980s with "Waialua Sky" and their remake of the Young Rascals' "My Hawaii." Ditto for The Ali'i's without Don Ho... I think Danny Couch was one of the lead singers in the early 80s when they hit with "You Are The Best of My Life".

It was around the early 1980s that non-Hawaiian pop and rock hits got their last doses or regular airplay on local radio, before the market started to get fragmented.

Frankie's Market mentioned regional hits and B-sides. I remember back in the 1960s, 70s and early 80s many songs were regional hits here in Hawaii but not on the mainland by both Hawaii artists and those from the mainland and foreign countries. I mentioned some in another thread years ago....

B-sides? Most kids today don't know what a B-side is since music is no longer bought on vinyl by the masses today. In Hawaii one of the biggest hits that was a B-side that I remember was "Ebony Eyes" by The Stylistics in 1972. Huge hit that was the B to "Betcha By Golly Wow" which was a hit in an of itself too. Big on Hawaii top 40 radio back in the day.

Is corporate ownership responsible for the tightening in radio playlists? It may have sped things up a little, radio playlists have continuously evolved over time (ownership not withstanding). It's ugly and bloggers don't like to hear it but the truth is "tighter playlists" yield higher ratings. It's pretty obvious that the broader a stations playlist is the less it will appeal to a specific demographic confine.

.... Fast forward to 2009 and you have 30 radio signals, 500 cable channels, CD's, DVD's, music downloads, torrents, youtube etc... we just don't have that captive an audience anymore.

Yep, it's going for that lowest common denominator thing. Play the safest music on the block that fits your format and demographic. Sell ads and wrap music around them.

We have hundreds of radio stations available to us (locally about 40 and many more online) and most play the same music.

You want to hear something different there are genre and niche websites and streams to fill that void and of course you can buy, rip or download your own music and play what you want on your iPod, iPhone or any other music device these days. More of today's kids are listening to their iPods vs. the radio as has been discussed in a radio thread elsewhere on this board.

If you're still reading this what I'd like to know is with all the entertainment options listed above why are we still bitchin' about not hearing obscure artists that you'll never care about again on . While we can list 20 or 30 bands that were how many bands did we actually forget about?

Ahh... it's all academic and fun to rehash some of these things... over and over again... just like the music that is played over and over again.

I pretty much don't listen to much radio just for music and have my own station with my own weekly playiists and formats set up for my Mac and the various iPods connected to it.

So I can go back in time to the 1970s and play all the old top 40 hits mixed with most of the Hawaii non-Hawaiian music like they used to back in the day or keep up with the latest songs that I think should be the hits of today.

Listen to some old hits here:

http://8tracks.com/macpro/classic-island-radio-hits

http://8tracks.com/macpro/super-golden-oldies

And some newer stuff

http://8tracks.com/macpro/power-tracks-2009

[craigwatanabe]

Re: What happened to local music?

Talk about 8-Track! I was at the Salvation Army and picked up an Emerson 8-track home player for $2.00. It even came with a Saturday Night Fever sound track and it works! Now if I can only find some old 8-track cartridges that still work too. Listening to the Bee Gee's over and over again is getting to me.

[mel]

Re: What happened to local music?

Talk about 8-Track! I was at the Salvation Army and picked up an Emerson 8-track home player for $2.00. It even came with a Saturday Night Fever sound track and it works! Now if I can only find some old 8-track cartridges that still work too. Listening to the Bee Gee's over and over again is getting to me.

I have 2 unplayed 8 track tapes stored with some of my records... Elton John "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" and Paul McCartney "Tug of War". No player. Had one ages ago. Long gone, along with some of the contemporary Hawaiian and other rock 8tracks I had back in the day.... probably less than 2 dozen tapes total.

Cassette was better in the late 70s and into the 90s... this would be a topic for another thread.

[Random]

Re: What happened to local music?

We both forgot that right now the most successful Hawaii artist as far as airplay, national record sales and stuff is Jack Johnson.

And yet I don't go out of my way to listen to his music. Rather listen to Jason Mraz's "I'm Yours."

I've always wondered what happened to the local bands I grew up listen (a child of the 80's am I) like the Krush, Toma Natto, etc.

I hope that we have taken the history of local music more seriously. Would love to hear the Krush's music again on MP3. Also "All My Love to You" from Toma Natto.

[LikaNui]

Re: What happened to local music?

Judging by the performers who showed up at the Crouching Lion Inn for Open Mic night a few hours ago, local music is alive and well!!!

[craigwatanabe]

Re: What happened to local music?

I have 2 unplayed 8 track tapes stored with some of my records... Elton John "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" and Paul McCartney "Tug of War". No player. Had one ages ago. Long gone, along with some of the contemporary Hawaiian and other rock 8tracks I had back in the day.... probably less than 2 dozen tapes total.

Cassette was better in the late 70s and into the 90s... this would be a topic for another thread.

We should get together