Nicki Minaj
Justin Bieber
Young Money
Melanie Fiona
Wale
What do all these artists have in common? Well, all of them are nominated for BET Awards in the New Artist category, (sigh) yes even the second name there. Justin Bieber. I'm not going to digress, I'll get straight to the point.
When you take a white face, give them a "stereotypically" black context and put lots of money behind that white face, you find just how intelligent these record labels really are.
Since the 60s, doing things "the black way" has always been seen as rebellious and we all know that in our society being a rebel is seen as being real and so record labels have found a clever way to exploit this by giving some of their artists a "real" context.
So what happens in capitilism is this, the smartest people find way to fuse things to make lots of money from it.
So of course, because all of us have been subtly programmed to still view being Caucasian as the height of society record labels have spent years trying to make their Caucasian artsts more real and "rebellious" whilst maintaining mainstream appeal. The best way to do this is to give this Caucasian artists urban writers who will strategically throw slang into a song with catchy hooks so that in the eyes of the 14 year old girl up in her bedroom, the music she is listening to is not cheesy and "real," when in fact its been tried and tested for decades.
Still unsure as to what I'm getting at?
Ironically, this poor excuse for an artist has been marketed as Usher's protege' when Usher himself is a victim of the same thing that makes Justin Bieber a success. Anyone remember how upset Usher was with Justin Timberlake because Usher felt like he was being swaggerjacked, well yes he was, but Justin Timberlake is actually a good artist who can sing, and dance and has artistic credibility.
Justin Bieber isnt doing anything that Aaron Carter wasnt doing ten years ago, and he sure as heck itself isn't doing anything that little Bobby from the round way couldn't do when he was four.
However, Little Bobby is too black for white audiences and 14 year old girls only respond to urban music when it has a European face. I am a world-centric person, I believe that diversity is beautiful but I'm a marketing student, I know exploitation and deceit when I see it.
The BET Awards giving Justin Bieber a Best New Artist nomination but not giving Monica a Best R'n'b Female nomination? Are we really suprised? As much as I enjoy BET, we all know that these black organisations are just a way for big corporations to fool black audiences into believing that something is being specifically tailored for them, when in fact it uses channels like BET to appear politically correct. Ironically, the only category Justin Bieber can be found in is Best New Artist, but not in the Best Male R'n'b Artist category? Is that BET's way of acknowledging that Justin is a Pop Artist, but aren't BET anti-pop, wasn't Michelle Williams' We Break The Dawn too pop for them at one point?
No- once again, BET are changing their own rules to suit themselves, I wouldn't be suprised if a financial incentive wasn't provided for them to give the brat a nomination. Then we take a look at the Best Male R'n'b Category, Usher and Chris Brown are there, but no Robin Thicke? A wife beater and a has been who both couldn't even shift discount bombs to Al-Qaeda are nominated over an artist with an album as critically aclaimed as Robin's.
Whatever.
It'd be interesting to see how their audience reacts if the brat wins the award he's nominated for.
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