David Bowie

[JI7]

below is from 1982 .


<"David Bowie: “Why are there practically no blacks on the network?”

Mark Goodman: “We seem to be doing music that fits into what we want to play on MTV. The company is thinking in terms of narrowcasting.”

David Bowie: “There seem to be a lot of black artists making very good videos that I’m surprised aren’t being used on MTV.”

Mark Goodman: “We have to try and do what we think not only New York and Los Angeles will appreciate, but also Poughkeepsie or the Midwest. Pick some town in the Midwest which would be scared to death by… a string of other black faces, or black music. We have to play music we think an entire country is going to like, and certainly we’re a rock and roll station.”

David Bowie: “Don’t you think it’s a frightening predicament to be in?”

Mark Goodman:“Yeah, but no less so here than in radio.”

David Bowie: “Don’t say, ‘Well, it’s not me, it’s them.’ Is it not possible it should be a conviction of the station and of the radio stations to be fair… to make the media more integrated?”"

— David Bowie in 1982, challenging MTV host Mark Goodman on their refusal to play black musicians on their channel >


http://lacienegasmiled.tumblr.com/post/77809522992/david-bowie-why-are-there-practically-no-blacks

[underpants]

1. One of the vanguards of music videos. I had never heard that story before

Last edited Mon Jan 11, 2016, 08:01 AM - Edit history (1)

[BainsBane]

2. This is a shocker for me

I didn't know he was sick.

He was my favorite musician for decades, ever since 7th grade.

[JI7]

3. yeah, it feels so unreal

Some people who follow Iman on social media did say they had noticed her posting more pics of him in recent days.

[randys1]

11. So much more than a musician. Every area of art was impacted by this giant.

I saw him in concert, if memory serves, Oakland, 70's.

To this day when I go into certain environments, I put this on repeat and play it endlessly

[gvstn]

4. These quotes prove that Mark Goodman was an ass. We all knew it. But the quotes prove it.

[betsuni]

5. My husband watched the DVD of the Glass Spider tour tonight.

1987 I think. I was impressed by the diversity of the actors/dancers, that definitely influenced other performers.

[dembotoz]

9. i saw it and it blew my socks off

[KeepItReal]

6. Wow. Never knew this. Thank you.

Makes me love his music even more.

Rest in peace, Mr. Bowie.

[kentuck]

7. Ground control to Major Tom

[Zoonart]

8. Genius

I am a painter and David Bowie's music has long been the soundtrack of my creative life. Genius is a word that gets kicked around a lot in our culture, but David was, in every sense of the word a genius and visionary artist. I was reading the wonderful reviews of his newest album- BLACKSTAR just yesterday.
I am shocked and saddened, but his voice will never be lost.
RIP- Starman

[dembotoz]

10. for me persoanlly this hurts worse than elvis and lennon

bowie is the one who i looked up to

[Number23]

12. Thanks for this. I had no idea

I thought it was only black artists and consumers that were protesting the blatant racism on MTV during that time.

And unfortunately there were a lot of black artists that were all too willing to give in to the racism instead of fighting it. It was not unusual during the 1980s to find videos by black artists where they were the only black face in their own damn videos.

Herbie Hancock's Rockit always comes to mind. Not only was he the only black face, he was the only freaking human and he was in his own video for a grand total of about 14 seconds.

[wildeyed]

13. This is nice to know.

I am glad he spoke up.

Bowie is my favorite rock star since forever. His birthday was a few days ago and I was chatting away with a bunch of people on Twitter, posting fav pictures. So sad to now know that he was getting ready to leave us. I posted this one. Best mugshot ever.

[DreamGypsy]

14. The stars look very different today...

New Yorker, Bonus Daily Cartoon: Remembering David Bowie

[awoke_in_2003]

15. Bowie surprisingly inspired James Brown

Listen to Bowie's Fame and Brown's Hot (I Need to be Loved)

[steve2470]

16. wow I never knew the discrimination was so freaking blatant, thank you David Bowie! nt

[Stellar]

17. I think Michael Jackson was the first to appear on MTV with "Thriller" wasn't he?

http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6334779/michael-jackson-thriller-premiere-mtv-anniversary

[Digital Puppy]

18. MTV Interview:

[lovemydog]

20. Thanks.

Of course, David Bowie was right.

A few years later, when Yo MTV Raps! debuted, its highest ratings were in Salt Lake City and other places with predominantly white populations.

Great artists of every color are always about blurring the lines, not following ignorant notions about what 'lines' people want to see and hear.

[Number23]

26. That is freaking awesome. I just saw that he was incredibly critical of Australia's treatment of

Indigenous Australians too.

In a 1983 interview with Rolling Stone, Bowie didn't mince his words.

"As much as I love this country, it's probably one of the most racially intolerant in the world, well in line with South Africa," he said. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-11/bowie-down-under-at-carinda-pub/7082410

[lovemydog]

19. Bowie recorded the album Young Americans in Philadelphia

and helped spread the beauty of Philly soul music. All those amazing artists like The Delfonics, Hall & Oates, Patti LaBelle, Phyllis Hyman, The O'Jays, The Spinners, The Stylistics, The Trammps, The Three Degrees. We've talked a lot in this group about the beauty of sharing music. He really did that and helped open up a lot of people's hearts. Thankfully, all this music lives on forever.

From Hilton Als in The New Yorker:

"Rock stars are not generally known for their generosity to other artists; it takes a lot to get up there and be such a huge presence. Early on, Bowie realized he was more himself—had more of himself—when he built bridges between different worlds. I wonder how much of that he owed to what he saw in Brixton. Two years before he worked with Pop, Bowie made his first masterpiece—1975’s “Young Americans.” Bowie called it “plastic soul,” which was an honest thought. Bowie was not a soul man; he was borrowing from soul artists—the guys who made the sound of Philadelphia just that—in order to make his new self, backed by incredible black artists like Ava Cherry and Luther Vandross. Dressed in high-waisted pants and carrying a cane, Bowie’s elegance and showmanship on “The Dick Cavett Show,” in 1974, while he was getting his plastic-soul thing together, didn’t so much diminish the rather square-looking Cavett as inject a powerful social formula: what blackness looked like on a white artist.

Bowie was a miscegenationist at a time when it wasn’t necessarily cool, or tolerated. Bowie was “queer” in that way, and things only got queerer on the Cavett show when Bowie introduced Cherry, his lover at the time, to the audience. There, again, he was framing a performer he liked by conferring some of his star power on her. (Bowie worked on Cherry’s album “People from Bad Homes.” Check it out. Her sound is not as big as Betty Davis’s, but there are loads of wonderful moments on it, including the lead track, written by Bowie.) Halfway through “Foot Stompin’,” on the Cavett show, Bowie points to Cherry, the blond-haired black woman to his left, and says, “Cherry!” She dances a bit, and the moment is gone, but not the memory of Bowie watching his friend perform in the aura of his generosity.

Indeed, Bowie’s rendition of “Foot Stompin’ ” was the artist’s tribute to the Flares, a doo-wop group that recorded in the nineteen-fifties and early sixties. Back then, a young David Robert Jones thrilled to the records his father brought home, including those made by that outrageous, vulnerable showman Little Richard. When he heard “Tutti Frutti,” Bowie said once, he knew he’d heard God. Little Richard’s uncommon look and feeling were part of what he meant to project in this common world. Bowie, too. He was an Englishman who was sometimes afraid of Americans and fame but, on his final record, could sing “Look at me / I’m in heaven” as a way of describing where he wanted to end up, maybe, but definitely where Bowie—that outsider who made different kids feel like dancing in that difference, and who had a genius for friendship, too—had lived since we knew him."

http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/postscript-david-bowie-1947-2016?intcid=mod-most-popular

[JustAnotherGen]

21. I feel so bad

For his wife. I think he loved her very very much.

[lovemydog]

23. Yes, I think so too.

I saw some beautiful last photos of Iman and David and their kid together. Sorry I've been surfing around the web this evening and can't remember where.

Amazing that he hid this cancer, and the recording of his last album (released Friday, his 69th birthday, privately. He had people close to him who he loved and trusted.

[betsuni]

27. I think Iman and David shared a similar natural graceful charismatic beauty.

They cared a great deal about beauty and at the same time didn't care.

[kwassa]

22. Here is another great article on Bowie and black artists

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/plastic-soul-david-bowie-s-legacy-impact-black-artists-n494241

"You're going to make it…next year is your year!"

Music Icon David Bowie reportedly uttered these words to Luther Vandross in December of 1974. The declaration is just a snapshot of the special relationship between the two musical geniuses, recorded within the pages of the Craig Seymour biography, Luther: The Life and Longing of Luther Vandross.

Bowie, 69, died late Sunday evening after a year and a half long battle with cancer.

In many ways Bowie's praise of Vandross illustrates his utmost respect not only for Vandross, but for the creativity and originality of black artists overall.

In a 1983 interview with a very infant MTV, Bowie famously called out the network for their lack of black artists and hiding black music videos in overnight programming.

[lovemydog]

24. Thank you kwassa.

I'm glad this is being mentioned as part of his legacy.

[betsuni]

25. I liked Bowie in "The Linguini Incident"

A funny little movie I don't think many people saw. Iman appears for a couple of seconds near the end.

Part one:

[Starry Messenger]

28. I'm working my way down from totally gutted to just a dull ache.