Something that occurred to me while reading this article - if Teena Marie had gone pop, would she have been the first example in music history of a white artist crossing over to a white audience?
Sayin?
Someone said she was the biggest "Crossover" artist ever or some shit.
Did her Motown hits ever get to Rock/Pop radio? Did Rick James Superfreak even get to POP radio?
In 81-83 White Radio had abandoned "No Disco" by then?
Something that occurred to me while reading this article - if Teena Marie had gone pop, would she have been the first example in music history of a white artist crossing over to a white audience?
Sayin?
Someone said she was the biggest "Crossover" artist ever or some shit.
Like I was saying to somebody else, it is RARE to see a white soul singer actually stick with the soul market. Most of them do the soul thing for a few years, then switch to country or rock. Even Hall & Oates were only in their blue-eyed soul mode maybe half the time. But the black audience was always Teena Marie's bread & butter.
Did her Motown hits ever get to Rock/Pop radio?
According to Billboard's charts, Teena Marie only made the pop Top 40 twice, and only one of them was a Motown hit: 1980's "I Need Your Lovin'", which stopped at #37.
Did Rick James Superfreak even get to POP radio?
Top 20, so evidently the pop stations had it in rotation.
In 81-83 White Radio had abandoned "No Disco" by then?
That's a different kind of "white radio" you're talking about.
It was the FM rock stations that were doing the whole "death to disco" trip.
The white "Top 40" stations were different and played whatever happened to be popular. And if a record with a disco sound was in the charts that week, that's what got played.
Comments
Sayin?
Someone said she was the biggest "Crossover" artist ever or some shit.
Did her Motown hits ever get to Rock/Pop radio? Did Rick James Superfreak even get to POP radio?
In 81-83 White Radio had abandoned "No Disco" by then?
TNC, as usual, nails it.
Yup - Heroin Gibberish Steez.
"Eatin Cars/Mars/Bars....etc"
Like I was saying to somebody else, it is RARE to see a white soul singer actually stick with the soul market. Most of them do the soul thing for a few years, then switch to country or rock. Even Hall & Oates were only in their blue-eyed soul mode maybe half the time. But the black audience was always Teena Marie's bread & butter.
According to Billboard's charts, Teena Marie only made the pop Top 40 twice, and only one of them was a Motown hit: 1980's "I Need Your Lovin'", which stopped at #37.
Top 20, so evidently the pop stations had it in rotation.
That's a different kind of "white radio" you're talking about.
It was the FM rock stations that were doing the whole "death to disco" trip.
The white "Top 40" stations were different and played whatever happened to be popular. And if a record with a disco sound was in the charts that week, that's what got played.