David Bowie Criticizes MTV for Not Playing Videos by Black Artists | MTV News

I'd like to ask you something I would say you know it occurred to me having watched MTV over the last few months that it's it it's got its a solid enterprise with it and it's got a lot going for it I'm just floored by the fact that there's so many but so few black artists featured on it why is that I think they're worth trying to move in that direction we want to play artists that seem to be doing music that fits into what we want to play for MTV there's the companies thinking in terms of narrowcasting that's evident it's evident in the fact that the only few black artists that one does see are on about 2:30 in the morning on to around 6:00 very few a feature predominant predominantly during the day you know that that's if I'll say that over the last couple of weeks these things have been changing but it's so it's a slow process I know it's funny I think people have different perceptions when you wind up watching let's say watch an hour or two or even three a day people somehow come away with different ideas about what we are doing we don't have any kind of day parting for anything let alone a black artists day parted out of what would be quote primetime we don't have that because one sees a lot on this one black station on television that I keep picking up I'm not sure which station is on but there's a seem to be a lot of black artists making very good videos that I'm surprised aren't used on MTV all right of course also we have to try and do what we think not only New York and Los Angeles will appreciate but also Kipp see your Midwest picks on town in the Midwest that will be scared to death by prints which we're playing or a string of other black faces that's hilarious interesting isn't that interesting you know we have to we have to play the music that we think an entire country is going to like and certainly we're a rock and roll station now the question would be asked well should since we're in New York should pLJ play The Isley Brothers well you and I might say yeah because we have grown up in an era when the Isley Brothers mean something to me and so do the spinners even way after the Islip brothers but what does it mean to a 17-year old well if you talk on the phones to these guys like I did when I was in radio it's actually what it means I tell you what maybe the Isley Brothers or Marvin Gaye means to a black 17-year old ah and surely he's part of America's but I was waiting no question and that's why you're seeing those things so you not find that it's a frightening predicament to be in yeah but less so here they're in radio and is it not well they don't say well it's not means then is it or is it not possible that it's it's it should be a conviction of the station and of other radio stations to be fair it is it is seem to be rampant through American media is it should it not be a challenge to try and make the media far more integrated in those things especially of anything in musical terms mm-hmm absolutely I think it's happening because white music and white musicians are now starting to play more than ever what more than they have lately let's say in the last 10 years yeah what what black artists have been into and now hopefully the lines are going to start to blur and when we play a band like ABC yeah well there's this white and black kids who are enjoying it and all of a sudden well it's it's a little bit easier for a white kid to understand it the fact is quite frankly I could even point you towards a letter in the new issue of the record yeah the magazine the record responding to an article by Dave Marsh that this kid just ranted about what he didn't want to see on MTV well that's you know in certain terms well what I'm saying though is that there's as you say there's certainly a lot of black kids and white kids who may want to see black music there's a ton of them who are it's not like it wasn't 67 we said yeah I'm not into that you know but you are you know it's you're into that I don't like you and that's scary and we could we can't just turn around and go well look this is the right way we can only teach I think a little bit at a time interesting okay thank you very much that it makes sense valid point I understand your point of view

Channel: MTV News

Views: 3,009,352

Rating: 4.9460235 out of 5

Keywords: mtv news, celebrity news, entertainment news, pop culture, David Bowie, interview, Mark Goodman, 1983, Black Artists, questions, criticisms, feature, RIP David Bowie, RIP, Prince, challenge, integrated, radio, integration, understand

Id: XZGiVzIr8Qg

Length: 4min 40sec (280 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 11 2016

Reddit Comments

[u/TheSirPez]

Solved that problem, they just stopped playing videos all together.

Edit: Thank you kind stranger for my first gold!!!

[u/[deleted]]

The reporter tried to debate back with “well you know black music means something to me, but what about the 17 year olds today? We put what they like” Bowie: well, what about a black 17 year old?

I can’t help but cringe. Happy Bowie called him out.

[u/not-rick-moranis]

Maybe my ignorance, but I had no idea Bowie had this Jedi level of debate skills. Dude was a tremendous talent and force of nature.

[u/Odbdb]

The part where the mtv guys said (and I’m paraphrasing) “it’s not like in ‘69, now kids say if you’re into that then I don’t like you .” Powerful to hear from 1983.

[u/thecinoman]

Bowie was a real one

[u/Cake_Fork]

Bowie was truely one of the greatest musicians to walk this earth.

[u/Ragnarotico]

You can see the look of his face like "Dude quit this BS."

[u/death_by_chocolate]

I've seen this before. Bowie fucking buries Goodman--which isn't saying much, but still cool to see. It's fun to watch Goodman dig his own grave while Bowie watches in glee: "G'head. Keep digging. I know what you're going to say before you say it.'

Lots of fun to watch.

[u/Mug_Lyfe]

I worked at a radio station in 2006-07 logging commercials and making sure songs and stations stayed on time. They gave me a set of rules about how songs could be played and if I needed to insert a song to fill time, which songs could be selected.

One of these rules was that black artists could not be played in succession. When I asked why they simply told me, "Our listeners don't like that."

I always made sure to try and double up when I could.