All true Charlie.

Yes, I was talking specifically about the period you mention in your last paragraph, now known as the 'post Lefsetz era'. 
(More accurately, from the arrival of MTV to the present.) 
------Original Message------
From: charlieboard@nc.rr.com
Sender: audities-owner@smoe.org
To: audities@smoe.org
ReplyTo: audities@smoe.org
Subject: Re: Caution, May Induce Vomiting
Sent: Dec 27, 2008 10:16 AM

> Kinda confused here, Rob... You've noted that Thriller essentially opened the 
> door to black artists / rap / new R&B taking over the mainstream charts,

Ironically, the presence of black artists on the mainstream charts peaked during
the end of the era Lefsetz was rhapsodizing about.  I actually did a statistical study
on this several years ago...I'm not sure if I still have the results laying around anywhere
but one takeaway was that mathematically the proportion of "black" records in the 
Billboard Top 40 peaked in 1972-1974.   The numbers I ran were from 1957 to 
somewhere in the mid 90's.  The proprtion is likely higher now...but then the Billboard 
pop charts are pretty meaningless now, too.

Not all that surprising when you think about it.....Motown, Stax and Philadelphia International
were ALL at the commercial peaks in the early to mid 70's.  James Brown was rolling. Classic
soul was still in its heyday, funk was at its popular peak, and proto-disco was just emerging.

IIRC, though the study did show black music bottoming out in the 1981-82 period....and THRILLER (followed quickly by 1999 and PURPLE RAIN) surely did turn *that* around and kiick off a resurgence of sorts.





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