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One beautiful day last week I was sitting on my deck with a cup of tea and began daydreaming about the New York Yankees. I was thinking about this coming year and how great it will be with the addition of Randy Johnson and a few other great pitchers. I was actually considering the possibility of an undefeated season when suddenly, the devil reminded me of last year's World Series and I snapped back to reality and broke out in a cold sweat.

So then I started daydreaming about Southern Gospel Music. As my mind wandered (not a difficult thing), I imagined myself as “King Of Southern Gospel Music”, with the power to change anything I wanted.

By now I know some of you are thinking “This guy has played too many bad chords on the piano and he's finally snapped.” Well, I'll confess to the part about the bad chords, but I don't think I've snapped…yet. I'm just fulfilling scripture…Acts 2:17 “…and your old men shall dream dreams.”

I love this industry…I love the music…and my heart is saddened when I see what's become of it. Even sadder, unless we make some changes RIGHT NOW , we'll soon be talking about Southern Gospel Music in the past tense.

Sadly, I see no solution in the near future, which is why I daydream about ways to fix the industry I love. In my most recent excursion into “La La” land I started talking to myself (this is not healthy, especially when you answer ). “You old windbag, all you do is bring up problems. How about a few answers? Okay, I said, if I were “King” of SGM, here's what I'd do”.

KING NICHOLAS THE FIRST

#1- First I would establish a committee of 12 men and women, astute business people that didn't earn a nickel from SGM, and had no personal agenda…other than mine. (Hey, I'm the King). Their first duty would be to develop and implement an advertising campaign for SGM, similar to the beef and dairy industries. I know you've seen the ads of famous people with milk on their lips.

#2- Secondly I would have them establish sub-committees of like-minded individuals to oversee Radio Stations and Radio Promoters, Record Companies, and the Print Media.

#3- I would begin a membership drive for a unified organization of true professionals that believe in our industry and exclude anyone who did not subscribe to our high standards.

#4- My first proclamation would be to make songwriters rulers of the land. Whenever a songwriter entered a room, everyone would have to bow. Every artist and record company that failed to pay songwriter royalties would be subject to a $5,000.00 fine, and have their name displayed for all to see.

$5- I'd establish the Official Southern Gospel Music Compilation Compliance Act. All compilations would be subject to review before being foisted on the public. Anyone sending a compilation disk to a radio station without approval would be sentenced to fifty years of hard labor in Siberia .

#6- I would demand that every radio station be set up on a computerized system to monitor airplay. Those that failed to comply would be removed from all lists, and anyone sending material to theses stations would be fined and put on a blacklist. Even if we only had 10 stations reporting accurately, we would be better off than we are now.

#7- I would also demand that our print media included a chart of retail sales along with the radio charts, and make them print a full-page retraction whenever a song reached a high chart position without a corresponding position on the sales chart. I would also insist that they printed all the news, good and bad…you know what I mean…fair and balanced.

#8- I would make the National Quartet Convention a thing to behold. First I'd change the name to “The National Southern Gospel Music Convention” The NSGMC…has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?

An unbiased group of people with actual musical knowledge would determine who would be on the programs. The only criteria would be talent, none of this “no soloists” stuff.

Each evening would be an event, a well-produced show with a theme, Patriotic Night, Awards Night, Old Timers Night, Convention Singing Night…the possibilities are endless. I would certainly have a grand and glorious talent show night, with the winner being crowned the new “SGM Star” or something. You could have choirs, comedians, dramas, and even invite artists from other genres to come and sing Gospel songs with us, Barbershop Quartets, Country Artists, Black Gospel Artists, Jazz Artists, etc.

This would be a huge improvement over an emcee saying “And now here's The Bobtail Quartet…make them welcome” A…L…L... N…I…G…H…T… L…O…N…G!!!!

#9- Every custom recording company would have to adhere to a strict guideline of disclosure to each artist. Any company caught ripping off an artist using the current method of recording and radio promotion would be banned from SGM.

#10- I would apply rigid standards to all Radio Promoters. Any promoter whose compilation failed to pass muster 3 times would be forced to go back to their day job.

#11- Every artist would be required to complete 90 days of training before entering the field of SGM, and would be required to pass a test before being allowed to record.

#12- Every artist, record company, promoter, producer, magazine, would have to agree to become accountable to one another and the public for our actions and decisions

IN THE REAL WORLD OF SOUTHERN GOSPEL MUSIC THERE IS NO ACCOUNTABILITY .

This is our Achilles' heel. No one has to answer for their actions and thus you have an industry with no rules or guidelines.

Our periodicals refuse to print anything that doesn't come with a lollipop and so there is a continual flow of “fairy tale” news.

No one ever makes a bad CD, according to the reviews I've read.

Our radio stations fill out their chart reports while eating lunch, and our charts are grossly inaccurate. This is proven by the fact that you can have a high charting song without the corresponding retail sales.

Many artists don't pay songwriter royalties because there are no repercussions if they don't.

Our biggest event of the year, The National Quartet Convention, is little more than a Southern Gospel concert in a big building.

Any artist can enter our industry and no one seems to care whether or not they have any talent.

We have recording companies that are ripping off our artists and yet, we refuse to name them or even warn the artists.

And the biggest problem of all, which I addressed in an earlier article… WE ARE AN INDUSTRY THAT IS FEEDING ON ITSELF!

Radio Promoters, Record Companies, Trade Magazines, NQC, Talent Agencies, all make the bulk of their money from the artists. Very little effort is expended on reaching the retail market, or even expanding the market to broaden the demographics. Why should we? As long as there is money to be made from exploiting our artists, who needs the public?

The reality is that whenever you have an entity that is feeding on itself, the one thing you can count on is that the food supply will soon end.

Now I'm aware that there are those of you that refuse to believe any of this. To you the SGM industry is a utopia, a place where the sun always shines and there are gingerbread houses and pretty flowers. If we continue to live in this fairy tale and refuse to address the problems facing us, we will soon be forced to eat those gingerbread houses.

I know how astute you readers are. You have your own ideas about improving our industry…maybe you even daydream about them. Let me know what they are. I'm quite sure I've omitted some that are important to you and I want to hear from you.

As always, I welcome your comments

God Bless You,

Nick Bruno

Reader Comments

I agree with about 90% of your article Nick. However, I do have one problem with it. Radio hits have never equaled sales success, and sales successes have never equaled radio hits. There have always and will always be songs and artists who top the charts and never sell an album in every genre of music. Granted, there SHOULD be a lot of the same names on the sales chart and radio airplay chart, but the two have never and will never be mutually exclusive. Looking at the current Christian AC chart on R&R;, I see 6 songs that don't match with album sales.

Just an observation. I think too many times we think they have to match up. Sometimes it just happens that a great song won't sell.

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