22-04-2004, 12:00 PM
Quote:Originally posted by Pam M
I agree with you Pic...it does not seem fair that the white singers get left out of this type of exposure...
The SA white music scene has always been hindered by politics.
White Rock music and metal only started to get exposure when the likes of Metalmorphosis (Vas' band) forced itself into the SA mainstream.
The main problem, apart from the political correctness issues is that South Africans in General do not support homegrown talent. They'd rather spend R300 on a ticket to see Bryan Adams than R10 to watch a quality local act. Same goes for CD sales.
The SA public buys what is fed to them by the UK and US. Fortunately, that mindset is starting to change.
Here in the UK, it's ONLY local talent that gets the main crust of support from the buying public, followed by American music, hence why the music industry here is one of the biggest industries in the UK, next to booze.
South Africans are generally very fickle when supporting their own. How many of you guys actually go and actively attend gigs by great SA bands like Starseed (based in the UK now). Not many, I would imagine. A great South African singer (and one hell of a laugh) is a guy called Ren Bester, in a band called Nowhere Near The Garden. How many of you have heard of them?
I'll hedge my bets that loads of people own Miriam Makeba albums, but never listen to them. Pic mentioned my mate, Piet Botha - who in my eyes (apart from being son of Pik) is one of the most talented people I have ever come across, yet how many people will buy his albums?
I can go on and on and on, but in a nutshell, South Africans need to look at their homegrown talent with no colour barriers just because they think it's cool - we have some of the world's hottest talent over there that's being wasted by a public that cares more about Busted!