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Date: 2001-09-21 18:57:51

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from the ap..

Music Industry Walks Fine Line


Updated: Fri, Sep 21 4:49 PM EDT

By NEKESA MUMBI MOODY, AP Music Writer

NEW YORK (AP) - Roberta Flack's poignant "Killing Me Softly" is usually considered mellow and endearing enough to merit countless replays on "lite" music stations.

But after the terrorist assault in New York and Washington, the title alone was enough to get it taken off the air at KISQ, an R&B radio station in San Francisco.

"I didn't want to play that for the first week," KISQ program director Michael Erickson said. "I just don't want to hear those words right now, and that's subjective for me."

Those in the music industry are walking a fine line since the Sept. 11 attacks, trying to entertain while remaining sensitive to the pain still fresh across the nation.

Radio stations are playing patriotic tunes like "God Bless America," Ray Charles' "America" and Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the U.S.A.," and MTV - better known these days for shows like "Jackass" - is airing more soothing fare, digging into their archives to play such inspiring songs as Bob Marley's "One Love," Mariah Carey's "Hero" and George Michael's "Freedom."

"I definitely get the sense that people are turning to music that's very meaningful to them from a spiritual standpoint, and maybe a political standpoint," said Arista Records President Antonio "L.A." Reid, whose label re-released Whitney Houston's version of "The Star-Spangled Banner."

Denver rock station KBPI is among the stations who have been playing Houston's song, besides other patriotic tunes, like Jimi Hendrix's version of the national anthem.

"We've gone out of format and played a Don Henley song called a 'New York Minute,"' said Bob Richards, the station's programming director.

Greenwood's 1984 song "God Bless the U.S.A.," repopularized during the Persian Gulf War, appears to be far the biggest patriotic tune of the moment: Billboard's latest Top 100 shows it's become the 16th-most popular song in the country.

Other new songs have gotten a boost from the tragedy, such as New Age star's Enya's "Only Time," according to Sean Ross of Airplay Monitor.

While poignant, inspirational songs may have gotten more airplay since the tragedy, others have gotten the boot.

At KISQ, Erickson re-evaluated his playlist immediately after the attacks - yanking songs that could be misconstrued, such as the Gap Band's 1982 dance hit "You Dropped A Bomb On Me."

"As we started to play the music, we're just more conscious about not playing anything that would be considered in bad taste," he said.

Richards stopped playing songs by Megadeath simply because of the band's name. He also pulled a song by Drowning Pool called "Bodies."

"I made a decision that some of our programming wasn't appropriate for the mood of our audience," he said. "That's not to say that we're not going to go back to that - we will, when the time comes."

Richards, whose station is part of the nation's largest radio station group, Clear Channel, even drafted a list of songs that could be considered troublesome and shared it with other programmers. Clear Channel, which owns some 1,200 stations, also confirms that one of their officials sent programmers a suggested list of songs to steer clear of.

Richards and Erickson, whose station is also owned by Clear Channel, denied there was edict to ban certain songs.

"It was a matter of good taste, and being sensitive to the needs of the audience," Erickson said.

MTV's Tom Calderone said his network was particularly sensitive not to show videos with violent or disturbing imagery, adding: "There's so many great songs that maybe haven't been heard in a while."

Although feel-good videos dominated the station's airwaves right after the attack, things have been returning to business as usual, to a degree: "TRL" began airing with an audience this week, although the fans have been considerably muted.

Similarly, the industry is returning to the business of selling their music. At Arista, singer-producer Babyface was rescheduling promotional appearances for his new album that were canceled after the attacks; performers such as Jay-Z resumed doing concerts this week.

Industry figures show that the terrorist assault did not decrease record sales: In fact, statistics from Soundscan, which tracks record sales, show sales of the top 200 albums actually increased, to 5.1 million for week ending Sept. 16 from 4.7 million during the previous week.

Although some small tours were canceled, others by performers such as Britney Spears and U2 have been unaffected.

Some artists canceled appearances overseas for fear of flying, and rapper Ja Rule decided he will only travel by bus for his upcoming nationwide tour.

Suzanne Vega, whose album "Songs in Red and Gray" is being released Tuesday, canceled plans to go to Europe, but she's still going ahead with plans to tour the United States and promote the new album.

Nonetheless, she said: "It's a bizarre situation to try to sell a product at this moment."


just to put it in perspective....

god bless US