People were, certainly in the first couple of months, very cautious, and they are less so now. So it took people time to get past whether they were willing to say things.
When you talk to guys in the record industry you do hear a lot of, 'Wow, she's 30, she's 35,' as if that completely ends any discussion.
That's the difference between hip-hop and other genres,
The acid test will be when there is some anti-war commentary on country radio. That hasn't happened yet.
Program directors have to go earlier and earlier to keep the competitive advantage.
The irony is Santana used outside vocalists before, but now older artists need certain celebrities to increase their chances to get on radio. Stunt casting is the only way you'd expect Herbie Hancock to get on rock radio now.
As for how far it stretches, it's too soon to tell yet. So far, what we know is that it transcends national heritage among Hispanics.
Now we're starting to see artists like R. Kelly work with Looney Tunes on his recent album, and we'll probably see a lot more of that in the future.
There's never been a radio conspiracy to foist terrible records on people with our without payola. The records that are getting played into the ground are the ones that are going to get played into the ground anyway.
As recently as a year ago, most U.S. broadcasters viewed it as a fringe sound in the continental U.S ... not something you could base a format around.
