Keeping a Pulse on the Culture
Sylvia Robinson, 1966/Photo courtesy of Billboard. I do not own the rights to this photo.
Has the A&R’s role and mission in music become unnecessary? Depends on who you ask. For decades, the artists and repertoire rep, A&R for short, has been the engine that’s kept modern record labels in motion. Their role as the talent scout ensures that labels are always connecting with rising artists. At smaller labels, the A&R is responsible for signing artists and representing their interests to the broader organization. With the industry becoming oversaturated with trends, finding quality talent becomes a challenge for any A&R with an authentic passion for their job. Add the complexities of labels confusing talent with metrics and you can begin to piece together why a passionate music fan would feel like the A&R magic has vanished.
Sylvia Robinson, dubbed the Mother of Hip-hop, sits at the pinnacle of A&R examples to deconstruct. A Black woman at the forefront of hip-hop, not often mentioned in the conversation, orchestrating classics such as “The Message” for Grand Master Flash and The Furious Five. Legend has it Sylvia heard Lovebug Starski on the mic at a party in the early 70’s, reciting a freestyle that would later become the opening verse for Rapper’s Delight. Left in awe at what she witnessed, Sylvia drove around New Jersey to find three young creatives to record the actual record and The Sugar Hill Gang was born. No social media. No cell phone. A conscious for creativity, an ear for music and being rooted in the culture.
In a recent conversation with another DJ, he expressed that the A&R withdrawal, in his opinion, took place at the height of the blog era. Websites like Datpiff and 2DopeBoyz lowered the barrier for breaking artist into the mainstream because consumers found these communities without being influenced by traditional media cosigns. The blog era nurtured the seeds for a platform like The Melodic Note to exist, but are consumer powered resources the chess move to force the industry’s hand? Certainly, an observation worth exploring.
Now to address the obvious-- the landscape of discovering artists has changed in many ways with the introduction of streaming platforms. Playlists are updated weekly with tens of thousands of songs. Spotify sees nearly sixty thousand daily uploads alone according to a Music Business Worldwide article from 2021. The physicality of the A&R’s work becomes less visible with every scroll, I fear. The other popular vehicle that emerged in recent years are a set of intimate studio sessions hosted by various platforms, broadcasted via YouTube. These sessions reimagine the structure of traditional controlled performances, providing the artist the freedom to treat their set as if there were an audience present but packaged in a cinematic production. Not quite to the level of a music video but not far short of it. Colors, a popular series that introduces the masses to fresh talent, comes to mind as I type. They’ve done an excellent job at pulling artists from different genres and different corners of the globe. There is also a clear intent to mix up the exposure levels from mainstream to independent artists; very much appreciated, as I’ve found several artists through their library myself.
Since the life cycle of music changes so often, it’s not often that we’re handed a generational talent, the void of research leads us to return to the hamster wheel of trends that come and go. One can certainly empathize that labels are short staffed and often over-extended. One can also argue that curators and tastemakers are doing more research and creating pockets of organic buzz than most label-backed A&Rs. But the outcome remains that quality artists are going unnoticed at a much higher rate than in any other period of music, at least in recent memory.
So what are substantive solutions? Again, depends on who you ask. A change in label decision makers that reflect the culture would be lovely place to start. Seventy-year-old white men are not in touch with what’s happening at the community level of the culture. In fact, the consumers are often left to deal with a lower quality of music because financial interests eclipse the appetite for music made to last through decades. Albums aren’t aging well, and careers aren’t making it out of the probationary period. Whatever changes are made, if they come about, they won’t be immediate. And they probably won’t be favorable to current upper management.