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Pop Rock Nation

Category: People

all-about-musicians-and-the-people-who-help-them-make-music

  • Beyonce & Maxwell Lead the Pack in Soul Train Noms

    I remember watching the Soul Train Music Awards in 2007. It was PATHETIC. Everyone that won an award that night accepted via videotape. It was like no one even cared to attend…the only big names I remember seeing that night were The Isley Brothers and Robin Thicke (who was just in the process of blowing up). It was like the BET Awards came and knocked everything out of the box.

    Well, the Soul Train Awards are back. The BET and VH-1 merger network called Centric will be airing the 21st annual ceremony and it looks like the organizers have made this an event for the grown folks. This is almost completely an R&B award ceremony, making it a decent complement to the BET Awards, which are heavily hip-hop skewed.

    This year’s big nominees are Beyonce Knowles and comeback king Maxwell, with four nominations each. Newcomer Keri Hilson also scored four nominations, including Best New Artist, where she’ll vie against Drake, Jazmine Sullivan, Ryan Leslie and Solange. Hmm, sounds like the Soul Train Awards have picked up the very Grammy-ish habit of selecting Best New Artist nominees who aren’t new artists.

    To me, the strongest categories are Best Album and Best Male Artist. Beyonce is joined by Kanye West, Ne-Yo, Jamie Foxx and Maxwell in the former category. Maxwell leads the latter category, going against Raphael Saadiq, Robin Thicke, Charlie Wilson and Musiq Soulchild.

    Wilson, of Gap Band fame, will be honored with a special achievement award at this event, along with the legendary Chaka Khan and the production team of L.A. Reid & Babyface. A special posthumous Entertainer of the Year award will be given to Michael Jackson.

    The Soul Train Music Awards will air on 11/29 on both BET and Centric.

     

  • ClashBack: “Sugar Don’t Bite”

    You know how random things pop into your head with absolutely no rhyme or reason? Well, that’s how I found myself on the internets over the weekend, looking for “Sugar Don’t Bite” by Sam Harris.

    For those of you who are wondering who the hell Sam Harris is, well, the simple answer would be that he was the Kelly Clarkson of the 1980s. Sam won the first season of “Star Search” back in 1983, performing songs like “Over the Rainbow” with lungs that rivaled Patti LaBelle’s. After wowing audiences on the syndicated talent contest, Sam went on to sign with Motown Records, releasing two albums and scoring a Top 40 hit in 1984 with “Sugar Don’t Bite”.

    After his contract expired, Sam went on to Broadway, where he’s become an in-demand actor and performer. He’s worked with artists from Wayne Brady to Michael Jackson over the years, and is still in demand today.

    That’s all well and good, of course, but the main reason I’m writing this column is to show you the video for “Sugar Don’t Bite”. Now, even if the video was set in a boxing ring and starred Mike Tyson, the song would still be the campiest thing in the world. Add in what might be one of the gayest videos of all time (even by 1984 standards) and you end up with a spectacle so queer that pink triangles practically float out of your television set.

    It’s also worth mentioning that the chorus is very melodically similar to Madonna’s “Papa Don’t Preach”, which arrived two years later. Is it possible that Madge, always a friend of the gays, had the melody of “Sugar” stuck in her head when she wrote “Preach”? Well…no, because Madonna didn’t write “Papa Don’t Preach”. But there *is* a similarity. I’m just saying.

    Although no one can deny the man’s vocal talent, I’d imagine that Sam looks at this video nowadays and either has a hearty laugh or hides his head in shame.

  • New Releases 10/27/09: Michael Jackson Monday

    Sony Music has bumped the date of the “This is It” soundtrack one day. So all of you who were waiting for this project to be unveiled tomorrow? You can get it a day early. As you all know, the “This is It” movie, which contains footage from the rehearsals for what would have been a 50-date run at the O2 arena in London, opens wide on Wednesday.

    This appears to be more of a collector’s item than anything else. I mean, let’s face it. Most people own Michael Jackson’s greatest hits already. I found out from GG that the unreleased stuff (a spoken word poem and a few demos) are available separately on iTunes. However, for those of us that are record collectors, I hear the set has a SWEET booklet and the packaging is really stellar. For someone like me (who already owns MJ’s greatest hits in 4 or 5 different configurations), this is a no-brainer. I’ll have my copy by the end of the day.

    You can preview the demos on Michael Jackson’s website.