Okay, it’s not Friday, but the day before Thanksgiving counts as a Friday in my work world. After flipping through radio stations, I came across “I fell in love with the dj” by Malaysian born Australian artist Che’nelle. This raggaeton song is familiar to me because while I was in Tokyo a month or two ago, it was getting major promotion and was #4 on the charts in Japan:
Hella catchy beat (and some four-to-the-floor dance remixes) aside, she hasn’t been made much of a dent in the U.S. Billboard charts. According to a PR Release, Adrienne Lau’s “Magic Tricks” was technically the first Chinese American to enter the Billboard Hot Singles chart, but besides her MySpace page, I don’t have much information about her. Her official website reveals that she’ll be singing the Pop version of the Beijing Olympics theme song. (No wikipedia entry or video on YouTube? Really? Seriously?)
Which leads me to the following question - will there ever be a major Asian or Asian-American artist on mainstream Top 40 radio? The last single I could remember on radio was CoCo Lee’s 1999 hit, “Do You Want My Love” - other attempts by Hikaru Utada didn’t do so well. I mean, it’s not for a lack of talent: R&B A Capella group At Last made the finals of America’s Got Talent, and J-Pop artist Crystal Kay has a mighty fine song called Kirakuni, although never released in the U.S. So what’s the deal? Bad marketing? Wrong A&R? Or is there just no market for Asians in the United States?
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Che’nelle (and other urban artists) | little. yellow. different. wrote:
[...] If LYD seems sparse (it always seems sparse, doesn’t it?) I’ve been posting on a bunch of other blogs lately. While I’ll link or cross-post about my other blogging endeavors in due time, I recently wrote a post on 8Asians.com about Asians and Asian Americans in urban music - all three of them. [...]
Posted on 21-Nov-07 at 4:59 pm | Permalink
Xxxtine wrote:
the main problem is that the A&R reps know that there are talented Asian North American artists out there - they just don’t know how to market them (or rather, they’re too lazy to do the research and following work that’s required of them). There is a market for talent, period. And there is a whole other element the record labels are trying to overcome and that’s the internet. For them to invest in new artists now, and untried markets at best, is way too much of a hassle.
I think Jeff Yang touched upon it in one of his articles on Asian Pop Culture when he said that Asians don’t have a ’set’ music genre. Like there really isn’t one ‘cool’ enough to definitively call ‘Asian music’ and hence it’s difficult to market an artist who’s - and this is the unfortunate part - Asian and producing pop, rnb, hip hop or rock music. In any case, most of these artists usually tour and that’s how they create their following and don’t need SoundScan or Billboard.
Will an Asian American crack the mainstream Top 40 - yes … I’m predicting in about 10 years, it’ll happen and it’ll probably be a pop track. *peering into my Sanrio crystal ball*
Posted on 21-Nov-07 at 6:27 pm | Permalink
sami wrote:
well… in Canada, we do have the halfer George Nozuka who’s pretty hot on the charts. and his younger brother Justin is up and coming. And, I think it’s nice to see that the Nozuka brothers are not constantly being called out to vocalize how they think they’re handling the pressures of being “role models for the asian community” but that most of the interviews with them focus on their music and their talent. In my utopian universe, ethnicity and/or nationality of the artist shouldn’t matter, really, because, as Xxxtine posted above, there should be a market for *talent*. Maybe someday soon? ^O^
Posted on 23-Nov-07 at 10:27 am | Permalink
Xxxtine wrote:
Thanks for letting me know about George, and let’s hope he doesn’t go the way of Kish.
Kish, for those who don’t know or can’t remember that far back, was a Canadian rapper in the early 90s who had a rather popular hit called “I Rhyme the World” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAjTlKb0njs. He is however, a bit of a one-hit wonder. I met him way back during my underground radio days, nice guy.
I suppose I should mention that there are Asian artists who do get signed but subsequently get dropped by labels like Emm Gryner and R&B boy band Kuya. Filipina-Canadian R&B Girl quartet Ora was nominated for a Juno award (equivalent of American Music Award) - actually … all have been nominated for Juno Awards if I’m not mistaken.
Posted on 23-Nov-07 at 1:39 pm | Permalink
Nikkers wrote:
The salient detail that all these aforementioned artists share is the fact that they are singing hip-hop. Therein lies the problem. This musical form was created and is typified by the African-American culture in the US. The argument then would be to point out the sparse number of non-african artists that are popular within rap and hip-hop. I have an answer for that too: when there is a critical mass of listenership from an outside culture or ethnic group, a minority of that outside culture / ethnic group can champion and sustain “one-of-their-own” into that genre of music; it is simply too psychologically uncomfortable for a large number of african-americans to embrace an outside ethnic group otherwise. The chances of being popular among the mainstream listenership is relatively dim because that “group” is going to be more comfortable with artists of their own ethnicity. In the case of european hip-hop artists, that was THE dominant group within america; critical mass was already there and listenership of another ethnic group’s music could sustain a small percentage of artists within the african american genre of hip-hop and rap. If the asian cultures really wanted to promote their own artists and be successful within the US, they should come up with, or introduce their own genre of music, just like the african americans did.
Sorry to ruin the begining of a beautiful turkey-day weekend.
Posted on 24-Nov-07 at 5:31 am | Permalink
Jesse! wrote:
HELLO!!!! Lyrics Born, yo. “Callin’ Out” on a Diet Coke commercial and the album, Later That Day, hit number 40 on the Billboard… um, well the Billboard Independent Album charts… but still…
Also don’t forget about Dan The Automator’s various projects… maybe they aren’t “mainstream”, but the hip kids know what’s up.
Posted on 26-Nov-07 at 9:17 am | Permalink
Stacy wrote:
I loved At Last! I’m not kidding - they were fantastic. (I didn’t think anyone else watched that show…) Do you know what they are up to now?
Posted on 27-Nov-07 at 8:30 am | Permalink
Radicalpatriot wrote:
Crystal’s problem is the same as with Morning Musume, Hello Project, etc.: The record companies are scared that J-pop will catch on in the U.S. to the point that it will cut into the rap, hip-hop and rock profits from U.S. artists. So they just don’t release it here. Same thing happened to the Beatles in 1963, only then it was Motown that got wiped out what the Beatles’ titdal wave hit. Same thing’s will happen for Crystal and a lot of artists with Asian followings that will soon be coming to the U.S. via the Internet.
Posted on 01-Dec-07 at 10:35 pm | Permalink
8Asians.com » November 2007’s Popular Posts wrote:
[...] Finally, I ponder out loud why there aren’t any Asian R&B artists. [...]
Posted on 03-Dec-07 at 10:02 am | Permalink
Aya wrote:
Aren’t Mike Shinoda (Linkin Park and Fort Minor) and James Iha (Smashing Pumpkins) both played on mainstream radio and well-known?
Posted on 11-Dec-07 at 10:21 pm | Permalink
8Asians.com » Who is Asia Cruise? A Pretty Good Pop/R&B artist, actually: An Asian American/Asian Canadian Blog wrote:
[...] of her music before her video is to prevent her from being typecast as an Asian artist, which haven’t had much success in mainstream radio. Nonetheless, I’ll be channeling the sixteen year old girl inside me and listen to this song [...]
Posted on 24-Jan-08 at 4:44 pm | Permalink
8Asians.com » Who is Asia Cruise? A Pretty Good Pop/R&B artist, actually: An Asian American/Asian Canadian Blog wrote:
[...] of her music before her video is to prevent her from being typecast as an Asian artist, which haven’t had much success in mainstream radio. Nonetheless, I’ll be channeling the sixteen year old girl inside me and listen to this song [...]
Posted on 24-Jan-08 at 4:44 pm | Permalink
pitbull wrote:
Asia Cruise { R&B ARTIST} will open the door for asians ,she is the beginning of “ASIAMANIA” NEVER BEFORE HAS ANY ASIAN FEMALE SOLO ARTIST HAD THE LEVEL OF TALENTED PRODUCERS ON HER ALBUM {T-PAIN,CORNABOYS ETC,} but Asia is much more than asian she is also american indian {a distant relative of Pocahantas) and caucasian. What’s great about her generation is they don’t care about color or if she is this or that (only people who write for mags,blogs,newspapers,tv are caught up in that race shit because it sells their bullshit} they just love her music! She will take the world by storm she is definitely one of the top female artist of 2008! I heard some high school girls singing “SELFISH” just yesterday I ask them why they liked it so much and they said because it’s exactly what they want to say to some boy who thinks he can just treat them like crap and get away with it/ they said it was their favorite song, The FORCE is strong in this one. SEE YA PitT-Bull P.S. That A&R GUY IS ONLY “Mickey “Mephhitz” WRIGHT” V.P OF A&R AT JIVE RECORDS A.K.A THE NEW P-DIDDY! HE only signed T-PAIN , who just so happens to dominate the radio waves of America coast to coast
Posted on 28-Jan-08 at 4:32 pm | Permalink
little. yellow. different. – BoA and the search for the elusive asian popstar wrote:
[...] given the track record of Asian in the American music industry? I’m not holding my breath. At all. Here’s to vocoders and chest pops taking you to the [...]
Posted on 22-Sep-08 at 11:45 pm | Permalink
8Asians.com » Will BoA’s “Eat You Up” Be The Next Asian Popstar to Go Mainstream?: An Asian American/Asian Canadian Blog wrote:
[...] given the track record of Asian in the American music industry? I’m not holding my breath. At all. Here’s to vocoders and chest pops taking you to the [...]
Posted on 23-Sep-08 at 10:09 pm | Permalink