An official of the Carnival Development Corporation says he is pleased that more local songs are being played on radio stations for Vincy Mas this year and has credited changes to the media landscape for this.
Speaking during the Miss Glamorous Bikini Pageant in Georgetown last week, the official, Esworth “Ezzie” Roberts, the CDC’s co-ordinator of rural carnivals, lauded some of the local talents that performed during the event.
“And this is one of the benefits of rural carnivals, where persons who are not seen, not popular, not known, get that opportunity to perform on stage,” he said.
Roberts said he thinks that the 2014 song “Soca Girls” has a lot of potential that is yet to be realised because it did not get enough exposure.
“I’m sure that a number of you haven’t heard it before or probably heard it once or twice. This is one of the songs that suffered from lack of airplay in St. Vincent and the Grenadines during Vincy Mas 2014,” he said of the Kamara “Keido” Foster and Juno “Stoppallus” Johnson compilation that the artistes performed during the show in Georgetown.
“This is a track that I believe can go very far, but for whatever reason, the folks that control the airwaves decided that this track was not going to get much play. And we are disappointed with that,” Roberts said, adding that a number of songs suffered a similar fate.
“In 2015, I am seeing a slight difference. We know what competition does and I am seeing some difference. I don’t want to sound too controversial, but if I am sounding so, so be it,” Roberts said.
What Ezzie said is hardly controversial. Anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear know that the radio stations have an agenda. Whatever the agenda is its not good for Vincy music. If it wasn’t for social media I would have thought that we were having a poor year for music. The amount of substandard material that they playing on the radio is a crying shame.
Why are we sleeping on people like Keido, Jojo, Maddscrap, Tabia, Kahalia? Well Kahalia’s and Jojo’s music is getting a little airtime but no soca monarch or ragga soca monarch placement? What’s up with that? These people hold the future of the art form in their hands and they being treated like chopped liver. The soca monarch lineup is a snoozefest. No wonder Grenada soca is surpassing ours and soon St. Lucia will be passing us by too. If the artists know what’s good for them they will render the radio stations irrelevant.
I know Vincy people thin skinned and allergic to criticism but somebody has to say it.