Reality TV; Where Real Talent Goes to Die

in Music by tigger500 — August 4, 2009 at 5:13 pm | 2 comments

I’m not a reality show fan.  And in the spirit of full disclosure, the most recent season of “Making the Band 4″ with Bizarro Qwanell and Cry-Baby Robert sucked me in.  Yes, as I type this, my head hangs in shame.  It’s okay if you don’t take anything that follows seriously.  Just had to be honest.

So knowing that I’m not a fan of reality television, you can imagine how upset I was when three things crossed my radar in a short span of time.

1. En Vogue wants to do a reality show chronicling the recording of their new album with the original four girls;
2. Tameka “Tiny” Cottle is in a reality show with some chick who was married to Lil Wayne; and
3. Kandi Burruss has joined the cast of “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” – despite not being a housewife and actually, you know, having a career.

Let’s just be clear.  We are talking about 6 women who are members of the twin pillars of post-70s black female group singing — En Vogue and Xscape.

These women are so synonymous with a kind of vocal group singing – one in which all members can really sing and really sing lead – that there haven’t been any female groups like them to emerge in their wake.  It would seem other girl groups have just ceded that lane to En Vogue and Xscape and followed the Supremes model.

I go back and forth about whether or not that’s a good thing.  To that point, it’s been said that Kurt Cobain and Nirvana were great, but the genre they spawned?  Not so much.

So knowing all that, I ask you:

Why are these peerless artists squandering their talents on reality TV?

There’s something oddly fascinating about the way reality television has evolved over the last decade.  It has gone from turning nobodies into somebodies to taking genuinely talented, creative individuals and destroying any ability for the average consumer to take them seriously.

I caught a few minutes of “Tiny and Toya” at a friend’s house and watching Tiny, who is clearly a sad sad individual, was depressing.  She’s clearly stifled in her relationship with T.I. and seems to wander about Atlanta aimlessly. 

I was watching her in the studio with her daughter wondering if people watching the show had any idea that they were watching a true talent (crazy accent and hair be damned). 

Tiny is the woman who, arguably, had the strongest voice in Xscape:

I haven’t bothered to watch “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” and the En Vogue show is more or less just an idea in crazy-ass (but so beautiful) Dawn’s head.

But I wonder if the industry pendulum has swung so far in the direction of style over substance that there is no way that any genuine artists can start (or re-start, as the case may be) a career.  We are living in the post-consolidation, post-download era where what the industry will sell is even more narrow than it was in the past. 

There is no black radio.

There are no boutique labels.

There are no more A&R men.

There is not even the pretense that any artist that comes out is anything more than what he/she appears to be.  I mean, Amerie, Ashanti, Ryan Leslie, and T-Pain are defined by their inability to sing.

Where do artists like Kandi, Tiny and En Vogue fit in this world?  Do 13 year olds even know what notes and melodies are?  Or to be less of an old fogie, do they care?  Could they listen to a song these women will likely release in the next year and see any value in it?

What good is it that technology democratizes the consumption of music if the industry is socializing away any ability for a consumer to broaden his/her understanding of what can be consumed?

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1. Breaking News: “Reality” TV Stars may be unstable
2. When Keeping It Real Goes Wrong: Drunk Percolator Edition
3. Lost in Translation: What Exactly Did We Learn from the Greats
4. Chilli from TLC is looking for love on Craigslist, VH1
5. Pepa is salty, regrets dumping Will Smith ‘cause “he wasn’t thug enough”

Tags: a&r amerie ashanti dawn robinson en vogue girl groups kandi media consolidation Music music industry pop music real housewives of atlanta reality TV ryan leslie t-pain tiny tiny and toya xscape