Before it became the title of a well – known song, the phrase “He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother” was the motto for Boys Town – a community established to help troubled or homeless boys.
It’s been said that the founder of Boys Town, a priest named Edward Flanagan saw a drawing of an older boy carrying a much younger boy on his back with the caption, “He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother.” The picture moved him so much that he asked permission to use the picture and the words as the identifying mark of his mission to help teenagers in trouble.
Many credit the motto and the picture as the key element in the success of Boys Town U.S.A.
They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. The emotion behind the picture and motto is that when you love something you don’t even notice how heavy it is. You carry it because it needs to be carried, and you do it willingly. The picture shows us that it is the older more mature that always willingly carries the younger, needier brother without thought to the heaviness of the load.
This is true everywhere except in Southern Gospel Music.
No, in SGM, the reality is that it is the young “newbies” and the often underrated “weekend warriors” who are carrying the weight of the older, industry professionals. These are the heroes who truly love SGM simply because of what it is and what it stands for. Many make little or no money at it, and give up weekends at home with families and friends because they love what they do. They carry the load of SGM because they love it and don’t realize that they are carrying the big fat industry professionals who should be carrying them instead.
To prove my point, let’s suppose that we could somehow snap our fingers and every weekend and part time group would disappear and be out of SGM. That leaves about 40 full time and professional groups.
• What would that mean to the National Quartet Convention? Who would buy all that booth space? Who would sing in the showcases? Who would pay to enter the talent shows? Who would buy all the food in the food court?
• What would that do to radio promotion? Where would they get the hundreds of songs to send to radio? How would the radio promoters make a living?
• How about radio? Where would the 20 or so stations that actually can be called Southern Gospel stations get their songs?
• What about The Singing News and other publications? How would they fill the right page of the radio charts, 41 -80? Who would buy the ads thanking the DJs for playing their song?
• And the churches? Where would they find artists to come in and sing for FREEwill offerings?
Folks, make no mistake, this entire industry we call Southern Gospel Music, all of it, is floated by the “newbies” and weekend warriors. Take them away and we have nothing. Every enterprise in SGM is financed mostly by “newbies” and weekend warriors.
Because they love SGM, they are saying, without realizing it, “It ain’t heavy – it’s SGM.”
I wonder how much of what we now call SGM would exist if these artists woke up one day and realized that they don’t need a booth at NQC, or an ad in the Singing News, or a song on the radio.
Who told these groups they need all that? You guessed it…the ones who are making a living on the backs of these artists.
You see, if these artists were actually trained and taught and mentored by our industry, they would be strong in their understanding and be able to make good decisions. They would know that there are better ways to build a career than standing behind a booth for a solid week, or wasting money on radio promotion, or taking out ads that no one reads but their family.
Our industry would become stronger and everyone would benefit from it.
BREAK THE CYCLE – GET OFF THEIR BACKS
Let me make one thing perfectly clear. I am not against anyone making money. I wish the NQC, radio promoters, the Singing News and other periodicals, radio stations, custom recording companies, and anyone else making a living in SGM, would make so much money they would have to carry it to the bank in a tractor trailer.
JUST DO IT RIGHT!
Here is what happens now:
• A group makes a custom recording
• It goes to a radio promoter, who sends it to radio.
• The station sends a report to the Singing News.
• The group takes out an ad in the Singing News thanking the DJs for playing the song.
• The Singing News puts the song at #79.
• The group sends out press releases about the song being #79 and buys a booth at the NQC.
Three months later everyone has completely forgotten about it…except the group, who now has to make payments on all the money they borrowed to pay all these people. It’s a vicious cycle. They’re all in it together.
All I’m saying is if you guys in the industry insist on making money on the backs of these little groups at least have the decency to provide the services and give them their money’s worth.
NQC
Every pro group who receives a check should be required to devote time to teaching.
Every group who pays for a booth should receive 5 days of seminars from 9 -12.
Abolish the talent contests.
Every amateur group should be entered into a drawing and 3 groups should be randomly selected each night to sing 2 songs on the main stage.
Singing News
Magazines make their money from advertising. There is an endless list of companies, carpet, furnishings, vacuum cleaners, lawnmowers, etc. from which to solicit advertising and make boat - loads of money. There is no need to dangle the carrot of the “Top 80” to these little artists in order to induce them to take out ads. In fact the right page of the charts should be eliminated completely. Also, the chart reports should be included for all to see. It’s time to end the era of “secrecy.”
Custom Recording
This is how I make my living. I want the artist to know everything about recording, it makes my job easier. I also help the artist find songs, arrange them, teach them their parts, and anything else they need to make the best recording they can make. I spend a full day in pre-production with the artist just to be sure we are prepared to cut tracks. I do this with EVERY artist.
All you recording studios in every corner of the country should accept the responsibility of teaching artists about the recording process, that is, if you even know what that is. If you have the “2 chords and a cloud of dust” mentality, you should learn how to make good recordings and give “newbies” their money’s worth, or get out of the business.
Radio Promoters
We have a few promoters that do okay, but we have lots that don’t. Radio promotion is a craft. It takes hard work and talent. It is so much more than calling stations and getting reports that say Light – Medium – Heavy rotation. It is about gaining information – Who likes the song? Who doesn’t? Why? What can we do to make the song stronger? Promotions-Ads-Contests-Artists Interviews-Artists Schedules-Creative Ideas and more. No promoter can do this for more than a handful of artists. If you are doing radio promotion and you are not doing this for your artists, you are not a radio promoter.
Radio Stations
First of all, there are not that many quality SG radio stations. There are some that play SG music but they are not what you would call a professional radio station. Radio stations must make money just like everyone else. Advertising is the best revenue source for radio stations and the way to get good quality advertising is to provide good quality programming. Those stations that continue to play poorly produced, bad sounding songs will always struggle. To me it seems so simple…quit playing junk.
IT’S NOT OVER!
One of my favorite songs is “Rise And Be Healed”, and we can do that. We can rise and be healed. The first step in any healing is to acknowledge that we are ill. It isn’t “being negative” to tell the truth. When your baby has a fever you don’t keep acting like it is not sick. You admit the truth- “my baby is sick”- and get the baby the medicine it needs to get well.
Southern Gospel Music has a bitter pill to swallow if it wants to survive. If we keep acting like SGM can survive by expecting our young artists to carry us instead of the other way around, we will die a slow and painful death.
Our disease is pride.
Many in power are too proud to admit what I am saying is the truth. Truth always leads to healing.
Truth is, someday all the people who need a continual flow of innocent “newbies” to feed on will find that they are gone. I fear that, unless we do something now, when they are gone SGM will disappear with them.
As always, I welcome your comments.
God Bless You
Nick Bruno
http://www.nickbruno.com
Author: Nick Bruno
| Author's Website: http://www.nickbruno.com/
Written: 02/01/2010
| 
Category: The Gospel Truth
Comments: 9
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Hey Nick I have disagreed with you on several issues but I whole heartedly agree with you on this issue! I have heard from so many people of the sg industry that the radio promotions are broken. I have experienced it first hand. We visited several radio stations last year. 1 station in particular stood out to me. The radio personality explained his system to me saying that he just put in a comp. disc and let it ride. At that time I realized it was impossible to recieve a true rotation list. His charting system was to give a couple of slots on his top 20 sn chart to the promoters that he liked. With a system like this new up and coming artists really do not have much of a chance without an expensive radio promoter. Most stations do not even name the group that they play. Maybe I'm wrong but there is difinitely a bottle neck to this industry.
I had a realative who worked at a small radio station. The station constantly received CD's in the mail of "Radio Shows" with the request that they play the "Show" every day in their rotation. The CD's were put together by some company that put a bunch of artist's music on together and a recorded "DJ" would tell what the song was and who recorded it. Some of the CD's were "Top 10" lists from publications I had never heard of and some were just a bunch of songs strung together. The live DJs playing music because the audience wants to hear it seems to be going away.
your truthfulness is refreshing AND you are,in fact, a very, very, very good writer.
Great article by a great man in SG!
Nick:
Nick....what a amazing article....has been a while since i read such an eyeopening piece! Let's pray that the buffs also take notice...we're well on our way...you're a buff in my eyes...and one who has the real SGM spirit!
Excellent Article. However, I fear like most of your articles, they fall on deaf ears. The big guys always use the little guys to get ahead. They are like bullies. Unfortunately, they are not going to change. They dont give a hand up , they give a push down.The big guys make the rules, keep the newbies off the main stage,even if they have paid their dues. The old pros( and most of the time, not as good as a newby)Have a say in all that goes down. I think it is down right jealousy.They are afraid they might be showed up.So again I say, Nice article, However, no one is listening. I use to be a Southern Gospel music fan,At 55 years old I now can take it or leave it. They play dirty politics.
Nick...my friend....I am so proud of you and your decision to 'TELL THE TRUTH'. I know that sometimes "the truth hurts". But so does putting years of pain and suffering into a dream that has little chance of ever seeing come into fruition. As comment #7 said @ the very end....'DIRTY POLITICS". The one's that are responsible will not acknowledge it...but it's so very true. It makes one wonder...where will SGM be in 10 years???
Mr. Bruno,
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