Have you listened to radio in this country? It’s a joke. If you do happen to make the mistake of switching the source setting on your radio from CD player to am/fm you’re more than likely to hear either a vacuous young 19 year old without any interesting stories to tell, the latest 50 Cent number about partying ‘in da club’ or an advert. Moreover, since when did radio disc jockeys have to be so good looking? Remember that old saying you’ve got a face for radio? Well, in this country at least, it doesn’t mean anything anymore. When you do hear South African music on the radio it’s only the safe stuff, the songs that are written specifically for radio and sound just like all the other international songs on the station’s play-list. Singing in an American accent is the key to radio airplay. If you sound South African when you sing people will straightaway, subconsciously think that it sounds wrong and that the singer has a bad voice. It doesn’t help when, every time you turn on the television you see Mark Pilgrim and Musica plugging the latest DVD or CD by some American one-hit wonder that’s made to sound so groundbreaking. During the Christmas period the television plugs for overseas bands and singers was out of control. I’m sure that I saw more ads for dead or broken up international stars than for local acts. So, how can we shake some sense into the people that matter and get them to give the same amount of time, space and money to all the really great local musicians in our country, giving up music everyday in frustration? Is there any hope?

It seems not when songs like My Humps by the Black Eyed Peas dominate the airwaves of South Africa. My Humps was in fact the song that finally made me give up all hope in the popular music scene. Does music just not really matter to these people? Has music become fashion? These are some of the actual lyrics from My Humps, “What you gon’ do with all that junk? All that junk inside your trunk? I’ma get, get, get, get you drunk. Get you love drunk off my hump. My hump, my hump, my hump, my hump, my hump, my hump, my hump, my hump, my lovely little lumps". The accompanying music video on MTV goes out of its way to, once and for all, prove that music is the least important part of selling records. Personally I’d rather have my brain infiltrated by the banal jingles of a similarly vacuous local band than the Black Eyed Peas (although that is not the answer to this riddle). Why are all media gatekeepers so into just blindly buying and promoting what America sells them?

Being in a band myself, it always makes me cringe every time I see an in-depth, five minute advert on TV advertising Britney Spears greatest hits, Mariah Carrey’s groundbreaking new album or A Simple Plan’s new DVD. Those ads, with substantial hype, portray these ‘musicians’ as being so revolutionary and earthshaking. It’s a vicious circle. They advertise what they know is going to sell, local bands don’t sell, so they don’t advertise them, but if they did and they put some real hype into those local bands then people would buy their music. If you build it, they will come. Sure, you’re likely to sometimes see adverts for the new Arno Carstens, Watershed or Prime Circle CD, or the new Sakie Treffers compilation of re-mixed songs, but where are all the great SA bands? The ones that write music for music’s sake and not just for filling stadiums sponsored by Go or Mr. Price and having their songs used in car adverts? Where are all the adverts plugging bands like Fuzigish, Hog Hoggidy Hog, Fokofpolisiekar, The Narrow, Sibling Rivalry, Crossing.point, Lark, Tonight we Die, Half Price or Captain Stu and the Llamas? Just to mention a few.

Bands like Fokofpolisiekar are opening a lot of musical doors just by working so hard and clawing their way into the South African mainstream, mostly through word of mouth. These guys have probably played every venue in the country at least twice and have caught the attention of the popular music scene through the quality of their music.

Recently, after one of our shows, I was chatting to someone that, “Didn’t know that there were any cool bands in South Africa". He had been to Burn a few weeks before to watch Fokofpolisiekar and had found out that there was a “cool" local music scene, despite what the popular media had led him to believe. Here we are wondering why people choose not to come to our shows when, actually, they don’t even know that we exist. He said, “I didn’t know that there were any real bands in South Africa. Just lame ones". It was a mind-blowing experience and therein lies the dilemma.

Perhaps music shops could put the local sections in the front of their shops instead of tucked away at the back? This, though, harks back to that vicious cycle. Local doesn’t ever sell as well as 50 Cent and Beyonce, but it’s time for someone that counts to make a stand, dammit! I remember the good old days when Barney Simon reigned the late night airwaves supreme. All a band had to do to hear their song on the radio was record a demo, post it to Barney and he would play it. A band like Saron Gas, now Seether, would never have made it without the exposure afforded to them by Barney. Say what you want about him, but the man cared. So, without Barney, who now has a Monday night show on TuksFM? There may never be a second Saron Gas story.

Barney SimonThe South African Music Quota Coalition’s manifesto makes the point that, “Other non-English countries have no problem with their own language pop songs being played next to international product in high rotation, whilst South Africa finds it impossible to balance global trends with national identity". The coalition’s website is www.samqc.org.za. South Africa is still awaiting a legislated quota of 30% local content while countries like Ghana have 75%. Doesn’t it just seem absurd to you? Why are the higher echelons of broadcasting so obsessed with international ‘product’? Why are we the supporting acts with the shitty time slot in our own country? Again, local doesn’t sell but if they played it and supported it, and advertised it and even hyped it, it would!

On the Amorfous Music website (www.amorfousmusic.com), in his piece Cry, Beloved SA Music, Sean Burke brings up the issue of royalty pay outs. Royalties are paid out to overseas performers, composers and their publishers every time one of their songs is aired on the radio. These payouts are then converted to dollars and pounds and, “a river of money has been flowing out of our country for years, and, like a leaking tap, millions are wasted every year". Millions that South African musicians and South African music never even sees. How can South African music move a step up its evolutionary chain when it has such a disadvantage holding it back? It’s already caught in a catch 22 situation with radio and that non stance making vicious circle based on the notion that ‘local music doesn’t sell’. Now, all the money that could be going back into the various music scenes is going to the rich overseas stars and forcing music clubs to be on the same streets as crack houses and brothels.

One positive thing that I have seen recently is channel 89 on DSTV, MK89. This is a bold step and a great one for South African music. MK89, which airs South African music videos all day, has been an aide to bands like Fokofpolisiekar whose videos have been on heavy rotation. Face it - people are going to get excited about seeing bands that they’ve seen on TV. It’s an undeniable and sad fact of popular culture. People need the hype, they crave it and they need to see bands on television and to hear them on the radio to ‘want’ to go and watch them perform and to buy their CDs. I don’t know if writing this will do any good, but if people read, it perhaps they will be made more aware of just how unfair it is. Perhaps some rich, business tycoon, music lover will hear my plea and finance a new, national radio station, perhaps not. “Money doesn’t talk, it swears" Bob Dylan.