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From: doug@terak.UUCP (Doug Pardee)
Newsgroups: net.music,net.tv
Subject: American Music Awards; criticism
Message-ID: <310@terak.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 29-Jan-85 11:08:39 EST
Article-I.D.: terak.310
Posted: Tue Jan 29 11:08:39 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 2-Feb-85 00:33:18 EST
Distribution: net
Organization: Terak Corporation, Scottsdale, AZ, USA
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Xref: watmath net.music:5906 net.tv:2367

Watched the American Music Awards last night.  Was disgusted.

The title seems to have been shortened (to fit in TV Guide) from:

  The Americans-only Mainstream Pop and Country Music Awards
  (with separate easier categories for dark-skinned pop musicians)

I'm not black, so maybe I'm speaking out of turn, but I found it
particularly disturbing that Dick Clark Productions felt that
black pop musicians needed to have a sub-category for every regular
category.  Seems to me that black musicians have been well-established
in popular music from the beginning, and that Lionel Richie, Tina
Turner, Prince, et al don't need separate "black musician" categories.

Jeepers, they must have agonized for hours over whether to let Prince
(who is "only half-black") enter in the "black musician" categories.

No "foreigners" were acknowledged.  Maybe DC should change from "black
musician" categories to "non-American musician".  Peter Garrett (is
that right?) from "midnight oil" must have had strange feelings about
being the token non-American presenter (I don't think that he is the
type to condone tokenism).

Question:  Culture Club was the token non-American performance.  George
O'Dowd looked more like Marshall Crenshaw than Boy George.  Is this
his latest look, or did he have to forsake the usual "drag" because
of the uproar over his performance for last year's Grammys?
-- 
Doug Pardee -- Terak Corp. -- !{hao,ihnp4,decvax}!noao!terak!doug