One of the reasons I loved radio as a child growing up was even though the stations I listened to had set formats and were classified as “Black” or “urban” they still played whatever the hell they felt like.

I can remember a great number of artists that one wouldn’t consider exactly urban music getting considerable burn on the radio in the late 70’s up into the late 80’s. I often look back fondly on that era and feel sorrow that today’s youth will never experience the same thing today.

I once did a post about the phenomenon of decidedly non urban acts getting significant play on urban stations or ending up on mixtapes or playlists of Hip Hop fans in the 80’s back during my Poisonous Paragraphs days. It was such a popular post (and original idea) that I did a re-up including the songs that missed the original list a year later (with a few clerical errors I believe).

I grew up in an age where Tears For Fears “Shout” would get played before “The Manipulator” during a Hip Hop DJ’s set at a party & not one B-Boy or B Girl would stop dancing, bat an eyelash or even look up & give the DJ a side eye.

There’s a documentary that specifically details the birth of and rise of British synth pop that was created in Sheffield in the UK and made it over to the US where it became a mainstay on urban radio as well as the Pop/Top 40 charts.

Groups like Cabaret Voltaire, ABC, Heaven 17 and The Human League opened the doors for groups like Level 42, Depeche Mode and Art Of Noise to end up getting bumped by Hip Hop fans stateside in the 80’s. Did anyone even care what color Nu Shooz were? I don’t think so. They were on the same damn urban radio playlist as Club Noveau without even being marketed as an “urban” act. That would never happen today.

So let’s try to figure this out, shall we? We’re coming out of an era of music where people thought Madonna was Black until her video appeared on MTV. Prince and Rick James were making guitar driven Funk/Rock and kids in the hood knew all the words to Duran Duran or Pat Benatar songs. LL Cool J was on American Bandstand and Run DMC did “Walk This Way” with Aerosmith. With all this miscegenation happening on the radio why did it all suddenly grind to a halt by 1990?

There are a few theories. One is the fact that the late 80’s saw a bunch of people leave the music industry as labels began looking for lawyers, marketing executives and accountants rather than people that championed and nurtured musicians and groups. Then labels went public and it was all about pleasing shareholders and seeing profit each quarter rather than the quality of talent and their music.

Another factor was the growing aggression of Rap music coupled with 1986-1989 being what is universally considered the first Golden Age Of Hip Hop. Classic and seminal Rap albums were being produced with such increasing frequency that it began to even affect the R&B/Soul music aesthetic of the era as well. These changes helped to slowly usher in a new era of radio apartheid that continues to this very day.

Gone are the days where you could have Rick Astley, Robert Palmer or George Michael songs played on urban radio without that artist being marketed specifically for that audience or demographic first. By the time we get to 1990 only George Michael will still get any support from urban radio and it would be sparse to say the least. The rise of New Jack Swing made it so if you wanted to be played on urban radio (or BET) & you weren’t Black you’d better choose to be an R&B artist first.

The 80’s ended with artists like Lisa Stansfield getting burn on urban radio but she was still considered an R&B/Soul artist (like Teena Marie or Sheena Easton) as opposed to a straight up pop act like Phil Collins would.

Oddly enough, Taylor Dayne had started out getting major burn on urban stations but moved over to Pop/Adult Contemporary radio in what seemed like overnight. I’ll never forget how she went from Right On! Magazine features to being in Spin Magazine & Rolling Stone, never to be played on urban radio again.

In the spring of 1990, a white label 12” single called “Don’t Wanna Fall In Love” from some woman named Jane Child began to burn up the airwaves of urban radio. The album the song was from actually had dropped in 1989 but the artist was Canadian and didn’t get much push. In order to make the song spread, a video was made & it hit all the major video shows. Then came the new single pressings with her picture on them. That’s what Jane Child looks like? Really?

After Jane Child’s video premiered, urban radio stopped playing the song as it got picked up by more and more pop stations nationwide. It became a huge hit and mostly everyone forget or didn’t know Black radio initially played the song without knowing she was White. The next year, Tara Kemp had two hits that started on urban radio but it was clear who her market & demographic was from jump. It was officially over. Solid genre lines were set in stone on the radio by 1990.

Now that I have my own radio show called “Scrunchface Sundays” with my fellow Bloggerhouse compatriot Eric C. we can do whatever we want regardless of what genre it’s considered. I don’t care if you term it Hip Hop, Wonky, Grime, Dubstep, Electronica, Glitch Hop or Beat Music it’s all the same to us. Shit that induces us to make the scrunchface and include it on our show’s playlists week after week.

We refuse to stay bound by those same rules & regulations that force us to give out genre names, categorize or try to put music in a neat little box so it’s easier to market & sell. All you need to do is play it, sit back and let the audience listen and decide for themselves. Just like the radio did when I was a kid. Let’s bring that shit back!

One.