OK pop music let's go!

**MarkK** · 02-19-2009, 01:47 PM

They used to play this on commerical radio in Belgium?

No station like that in the Dam that is for sure. Thanks for sharing.

**djfunq** · 02-19-2009, 02:06 PM

Originally Posted by MarkK

They used to play this on commerical radio in Belgium?

No station like that in the Dam that is for sure. Thanks for sharing.

The entire newbeat scene started in Belgium, but most Belgiums did not like it?
Actually there were more people of the UK who jumped on this, dj's like Dave Clarke, Nicky Holloway and Johnny Walker came specially to Belgium to buy these records.
Gonna have to look something up and hopefully I'll get back to you with some great stations who still play this kind of music

**The White Shadow** · 02-19-2009, 03:37 PM

Originally Posted by DaBownca

The disturbing thing for me was that the previous posts were all by White artists. I'm pretty sure there was no racial intent in their statements, but I was disturbed nonetheless. Just wanted to rant carry on.....

You have a good point because the Pop music bizness as late as the early 80's was indeed racist. The only black artist MTV played when the station was new was Michael Jackson.
This is probably why most of the artists who did Pop records were white during that era with a few exceptions..MJ, Prince, Stevie Wonder, Phil Fearon, Eddy Grant..also a lot of those Pop records..like ABC band, Thompson Twins, Madonna, Spandau Ballet, Wham, etc...had that Dance sound to it that was big in the early 80's, now called Boogie, with a little more commercial sound to it than Vicky D, Mike & Brenda Sutton, Maxine Singleton, Sharon Redd, etc..so it might have been easier to market to a European and mostly white audience maybe...gotta ask the record execs of the era to get a definite answer, but they probably will never admit to it being a racist decision.

Edit : My b for writing that before I read the whole thread as most of this was already talked about.

**rob_s** · 02-19-2009, 03:52 PM

this is a choon!

**The White Shadow** · 02-19-2009, 04:02 PM

Originally Posted by 'Magic' Juan

I am probably alone in this, but I LOVED A-Ha's followup single. Not as popular as 'Take On Me,' but I dug it.

You're not alone.

That was their best single imo..That 12" Instrumental especially is very nice..they always had good 12" mixes of their singles.

That "Take On Me" promo I was talkin' bout there's a little story to it. The main Import DJ store out here at the time in Oslo persuaded Warner Brothers in Norway to press up a limited 12" single for the DJ's. The label agreed to press 150 copies (sorry not 50) that were pressed in Spain. 100 copies were spread throughout Europe, 25 ended up at the WB offices to give to the band and execs probably, and the remaining 25 were sold at 5 times the price of a regular 12" single to DJ's at the DJ store in Oslo which resulted in club play here at the biggest clubs, and more 12" singles pressed to make it available to the general public. That was a different version than the one that made it to no. 1 in the US, and it came out in 84 so from there it still took more than a year for things to really happen for A-ha. The band was more or less sleeping on the streets in London for a good while trying to get signed.