Now if We Can Only Get that Alternative Soul & Black Rock Music station......Enter the Cosby Effect!

Folks-pass this around, I vow to do whatever I can to push for alternative Black music to be given a forum. Some may think that my push for an alternative soul (and a Black Rock) channel to be created for satellite radio is a pointless endeavor but I beg to differ. I think that if I'm able to see such a development to fruition, it is in essence-a seed being planted. This seed may grow towards terrestrial radio representation and hence a balance of perception. And better yet, it's an alternative revenue source. Black people are not a monolith-so why are we still getting singular media representation, oftentimes the buffoonish minstrel kind? Now the media are reporting that African-American films that show the middle class side of things are starting to gain in popularity and here's the real shocker-these films can actually make money. So I guess the potential for making money promoting alternative music by artists of color would be a fluke also? God forbid that the powers that be explore the concept. Check out this excerpt from the Chicago Tribune regarding the Cosby effect in movie making:

"A studio's traditional thinking was if you want to pull in an urban audience, you need to have a hip-hop element," said "This Christmas" producer Will Packer. "Over the past 10 or 15 years, hip-hop was a new and emerging form that pulled in that core African-American audience as well as had that crossover potential. It was a business decision more than anything. What is happening now -- and it's a great time as far as I'm concerned to be making films about the African-American experience -- is Hollywood realizes that there is an audience out there that doesn't regularly see themselves on film."

And when those films are in theaters, that audience will support them.

Buoyed by a strong cast, led by Angela Bassett, the 1995 drama "Waiting to Exhale" grossed $67 million domestically, according to numbers provided by Box Office Mojo (http://www.boxofficemojo.com ). In 1997, George Tillman and Bob Teitel's set-in-Chicago film "Soul Food" cleared $43.7 million. And "The Best Man," the 1999 comedy-drama starring Taye Diggs and Nia Long, made $34.1 million.

"That middle-class African-American audience is sporadically taken seriously," said Brandon Gray, president of Box Office Mojo, which since 1999 has tracked Hollywood box-office numbers. "You will get a picture like 'Why Did I Get Married' or 'Soul Food' or 'The Best Man,' and it will do well, and the industry will act shocked and surprised by it, as if it came out of the blue. But there is this sense that the audience isn't being as consistently served as it could be, because it is a lucrative market. These films tend to be relatively low budget, and they tend to post good grosses. None has been a real blockbuster, but they don't need to be blockbusters. They have a built-in audience."

To check out the Chicago Tribune article in its entirety, click on the link below:

African-american films ride Cosby Effect