CDBurns

Very good point! You aren't wrong at all about the distinction. I honestly don't know very many people who purchase the score cd of a film. I do know a ton who purchase the soundtrack and in that case Blacks are doing very well.

Your point about the beginning with something else and starting your improv was featured in one of the best movies ever Finding Forrester. Just like you when I read these posts it often sparks a memory and that is a beautiful thing. Check out this scene. Forrester gives Jamaal some of his work to jump start his own work so that Jamaal can find his own voice. This is exactly what you are saying Cynique and this scene represents it beautifully.

One of the greatest writing films ever. 

Another off topic, but not really since Troy brought up sampling, is this article on Hip-Hop and Jazz. http://www.wonderingsound.com/feature/hip-hop-jazz-in-the-90s-blue-note-records/

I do think this is a direct reflection in the shift of music in the Black community. More important the lack of music in schools and the lack of interest in learning the craft of making music. Interestingly enough it is not the fault of Hip-Hop as it seems only the Hip-Hop community is attempting to score films at all in the Black community. I guess we could say Pharrell scored a film, Despicable Me, but that's not a Black film.  Then again, Hip-Hop isn't even scoring soundtracks. They are making albums, but not scoring. The closest thing we have to a person scoring soundtracks is Terrence Blanchard with Spike Lee. 

I do think Red Hook Summer was not very well constructed and relied on a lot of Spike's cinematic go to's as opposed to him reaching to break new ground. We know with Spike we are going to get the floating character shot and the erratic camera during dialogue, but it's not enough to cover the fact that Spike seems bored with indie film and is now fully entrenched in creating major films to pay the bills (which isn't a problem, get your money Spike). 

It is unfortunate that we don't have any major film scores being produced by Blacks though. However it isn't surprising at all when you consider that most of our art dwells in the realm of immediacy. Black music is no longer soulful in the mainstream. We don't have composers anymore. We only have producers. Guys just don't care for the music that much (generalization). We know this is not really the case though when we look at D'Angelo, Robert Glasper, Jose James and Timothy Bloom. We are making music and composing, but we aren't being chosen to score films.

How dope is that!!!!!! Very cool Troy. I'm smiling hard as hell right now, so I know you are just cheesing and really eating this up. Then again, she's promoting building  Facebook page. Do I sense some internal family struggle on the horizon, lol.

That's right he did sing on the album as Alexander "Nevermind" which was also a nod to the fact that Alexander O'Neal didn't want to be controlled by the Purple One. I always overlook Andre Cymone, but I shouldn't. Just like I shouldn't forget Lisa and Wendy who went on the have incredible careers scoring soundtracks and writing music for a lot of people. Oh and the fact that Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis have produced some of the greatest pop songs ever, is a testament to Prince's reach.

The amount of groups influenced with that Minnesota sound is incredible.

Sheena Easton

Sinead o Connor

Sheila E

Vanity 6

Appollonia 6

The Family

The Time

Jesse Johnson Revue

Alexander O Neal

The list is long. I think there is always an allusion to music in text. Choosing a Prince title is perfect. I am definitely one of the biggest Prince fans of all time. While Prince isn't Hip-Hop technically, his dancing had a lot of B-Boy Elements and he often raps on many of his songs. Did you know Alexander Oneal (Fake, Weekend Love) was supposed to be the lead singer of The Time before Morris Day?

I think we spoke to soon. At least I did in regard to scores. Terence Blanchard has scored a number of films: http://www.theneworleansadvocate.com/features/movies/11404787-171/new-orleans-grammy-winner-terence  He also won a grammy.

The RZA of WuTang scored one of my favorite films "Ghost Dog".

Herbie Hancock won an Oscar for scoring as well as Prince, but no Blacks have even been nominated for an Oscar for film score. I think a lot of Blacks don't even know that they can score films. Film isn't taught in high schools either so kids just aren't aware. I made it a point when I was teaching to have the students do screenplays and film short films to learn about scoring films and soundtracks and about producing a movie. Once again there is a root problem of the lack of education in flim. Overall though the Blaxploitation era was very important. Groundbreaking and possibly a golden era of film.

Oh Public Enemy actually didn't sample, they pulled the writer into the studio and recreated the song. But that soundtrack/score is dope! Unfortunately Public Enemy is an Indies band now and their extremely potent music is rarely heard though they are still cutting records.

In your comments you said soundtracks, not scores which is why I added the movies like Love Jones and Brown Sugar. Those movies songs were created for the film then added to individual albums later or released as singles. Some of the songs were just added,but Hopeless by Dionne Farris was and is an incredible song. As far as the sampling in hip hop I love it when it's done well. When it is done well people are introduced to music they have never heard. What's even better those artists who are still around have started repaying the sample. Before Gil Scot died he was sampled by Kanye and countless others, but his last album sampled Kanye on both the beginning and end poem. He also cracked Billboards top 100 with Drake and Rihanna with "I'll take care of you". That's it for my defense of sampling. This is not another hip hop post.

I wrote a post on Night Catches Us. It's a solid film, but when we say soundtrack we should clear whether we are talking songs vs scores or we cloud the water.

I agree with you all about that era. It was actually a very good time as far as I'm concerned. I guess the concern lied in the fact that this was post Civil Rights and those images were not what people wanted to be seen as... which doesn't make sense considering a lot of the imagery was of super strong brothers and sassy, tough sisters.

Troy there is no way in hell that commercial rap will ever be consider good. Ever. No lol, 

As far as Black films and soundtracks, He Got Game was scored by Public Enemy. Dope soundtrack. The movie Brown Sugar had an incredible soundtrack as well Mo Better Blues, The Wood, Panther and I can keep going on and on about Black films and soundtracks. That's the one thing we are still doing an okay job with is linking our films to music. Consider the Soundtrack of Love Jones was so well integrated into the film that we almost consider the album and the movie as one thing. 

Now the films made now aren't often scored by Blacks at all. Night Catches Us, which featured Black Thought of The Roots, was actually scored by the Roots. 

Blaxploitation wasn't that bad though Sweetback is still considered a modern classic. Isn't it?

I updated the bio on CBP and while it isn't a lot the idea of being able to help is always good for the soul. Your page actually had 5 visits today which is pretty cool since the primary reason for people visiting today was due to Paul C. Brunson. I'm working on a post about the power of a retweet (when it comes from a power broker). I think using the package you did on Lulu was perfect because your book is showing up on every platform and when you do a search it shows up on bing as well. In my book One Hour I talk about conquering your region first. I should follow my own advice. I think you have a great story and the local morning talk circuit would eat your story up if you simply sent them a letter and let them know you are writing and publishing. It would be an empowering feel good story for those people out there who think life is over after retirement. You go girl (lady)!

Thanks Troy. I updated your page Cynique and oh boy it got three likes already! LOL. Every little bit helps. Troy I'm thinking if we begin to use my page as an additional place for information you want to share then it will continue to build a small network. If you have ideas on how to do this, let me know. I'm ready.

Thank you for the trust. I won't request you to write for the site at all. If you click the link your page already has a link to amazon and Barnes and noble. I took care of that. When you feel like writing something you can. In the meantime you have both the page you've made and the page on CBP. I will also add a backlink to your page here on aalbc.

What I will do is tweet and share the page and at the worst all of the work I'm doing will bring more attention to your page. It won't hurt at all.

I think the more author's pages I host on the site the more links we have out there which improves search for our books. I'm going to wait on Troy to weigh in on where he wants your links to aalbc to go. We all need motivation and this is my way of showing support.

Man I gotta spend some time with this one! Good post Troy!

I think it is a simple site. The main thing is getting traffic to it. Does it standout in any way? No, but it's there for the world to see... I commend you on taking the challenge and at least creating a site to get the book out there.

Now let's get to what I want to do. Since you took the plunge, why not actually take a real plunge and become a writer/contributor on CBP? The time that you took to set this page up, I could have created you an account by sending you an e-mail and making you an author/writer on CBP. I would have then taken your bio and done this: http://www.cbpublish.com/authors-writers/author-connie-divers-bradley/

Which I haven't shared and will pull down as soon as you say, "Chris, what the hell?"

Seriously, though, instead of worrying about when to pull down the free site or push forward, you can actually use CBP as a platform. People see my work and your work. You can write those lovely posts that you do here and begin building a little bit of a background (while of course helping CBP :-) Go ahead and take the real plunge and let me create you an account and then I can share this page with my twitter followers and Facebook peeps, (which doesn't help a lot, but hey it's something). What do you say?

On that note: 

You know I have a post for this one I wrote a week ago: http://www.cbpublish.com/business-im-new-to-this/

It's long but very eye opening.

Now that's a great post! We are on Tv. When you stop to look at the shows that are on featuring black folks everyone is there. The problem is the quantity is very small overall and that is my point. It's hard for black actors to get work and blacks aren't giving any options. Blacks simply want shows off the air not realizing that this kills careers. Think about this Malcolm jamaal warner is up for a grammy this year but hasn't been featured in a show since Malcolm and Eddie. He finally returned to Tv this year on American Horror Story and Sons of Anarchy. As a husband of three titty Angela Bassett and as a thug motorcycle gang member. People would complain about that. Taraji was a cop on person of interest but black people don't watch that show. She took the Empire job and people complain.

Andre Braugher is an accomplished actor but he is now the comic foil police chief on Brooklyn 99. We are represented on cable Tv in a variety of ways and on mainstream but we kill off our very few chances.

Stereotypes are really true but hyperbole. In regard to your friends I assume that's the east coast or the south. I went to school in Cali and the 4 man crew is par for the course there. Here in Memphis most people are single parents. I think our 4 year difference is the culprit here. We are all influenced by media the problem now is the speed it's delivered and our inability to tune out.

We gathered as much LOL!

Troy what that post fails to do is acknowledge the fact that Black people do all of that stuff!!!!!! It's not like Fox is wrong. When I walk out of the house each day I see obese Black women, more than I see healthy Black women. Black men on the downlow is killing off young Black men by suicide and by keeping their behaviors and choices in the closet because of the horrible state of treatment by Black churches.

I can't tell you how often I see Black women staring each other down, or the fact that most Black boys grow up without dads and are effeminate without even knowing. (Hell I had to be called out by my boys in the Navy for getting in my car by sitting down and then putting both feet in. I didn't even realize I did this and that it's the way my mom got in the car because she was wearing a dress! I just copied it by default).

Educated Black men do date White women. Of the guys I went to college with in my crew, two of them are married to white women and one is not married and I'm the only one who has a Black wife.

In other words, this dude is emotional. The show encompasses the Black experience, but it's really the same experience that we all have: White or Black. It's just that Blacks simply aren't allowed to act in these shows. People would rather Black actors sit at home.

I mean honestly this dude making this statement has on his News page "beyonce bares baby bump" and hasn't updated his website in years it seems. This dude may just be a hater who works in the industry that was shunned from the show. 

Cynique I think Troy is definitely talking about a different Dexter. I'd be worried if he was letting his kids watch the Dark Passenger Dexter, lol. Oh and it's the New England Patriots who cheated not the Seahawks. Once again though you are right on point with this one.

Hey the Snake should have stabbed the Mountain through the head and we wouldn't have that picture above, lol. I think television definitely affects our moods, but if we have some balance then its okay. I watched Dexter religiously. It may have made me have some dreams and want to write a book like that, but I didn't become a serial killer. I do get what you are saying though, but stay away from the Cosby show, you might end up raping women and giving a lot of money to Black colleges.

Because, outside of Brooklyn99 and Blackish, the only shows featuring Blacks are reality shows or biopics (as of late). We simply don't have the diversity in our production palette. Tyler Perry has a couple of soap operas, but other than that the newest shows featuring more than 1 to 3 Blacks is either sports releated:

Player's Remorse (backed by Lebron James)

Power (Backed by 50 Cent)

Empire (Lee Daniels)

As a matter of fact, without googling, I honestly can't come up with any other shows except

The Game

Meet the Browns

Tyler Perry's Soap Operas on Oprah's network.

But even on this list is a sports related show with hood rat tendencies. As I said though it is obviously hard for Blacks to get a show on the air. There is Resurrection, but there is one Black character Omar Epps, but the show came from a black writer. I think we need to be on television though or you are going to have a lot of young people give up on trying to be actors. The problems is we often kill a show by our own hand because we won't give it time to develop. The larger networks see our unwillingness to support the show and use this as evidence that Black shows won't make it. That's why I'm so excited for Empire. Getting picked up this early in the season is huge. Just like Scandal and How To Get Away With Murder are huge because it led to Beharry (sp) getting the lead role on Sleepy Hollow where you have 3 major Black characters. this is on Fox as well. 

It's interesting that Fox is such a terrible political brand, but has been the most efficient brand at launching Black acting careers since Roc, 21 Jump Street and through the years with Martin and a host of other shows. Then again I didn't research this, so I may be wrong.

I actually redesigned my site and these additions will fit nicely into the new layout. Nice work as always Troy! You're right, it shouldn't be that difficult to get this information out there, but keep pushing. I think things will definitely pick up this year.

I like the show and Cynique and I are in agreement for a change!! LOL. I think the gay son is a conversation that has been dying to come out in the Black community. I mean literally dying. The frustration of these kids who are gay is incredible. We've seen a rise in the suicide rate of young Black men due to their inability to discover who they are without being judged or alienated. It's a heckuva plot line to develop. I also like Taraji, a lot. It's not a bad show. Basically it's a toned down version of Power with Omari Hardwick and 50 cent on Starz. I like that show as well. Are the predictable? Of course, but the alternative is to not have any Black actors working and I don't like that at all.