Arnold:
Well, I think, um, it affected those black artists
who’s music was…
Well, the corporate entry into
black music, um, affected those artists whose music was, let's say, less
accessible to pop radio. Its music was a little bit rawer, more primitive,
um, as they say, and whose demographics weren't as great. I mean the
corporation was looking for the, uh, biggest sales that they could. So music
which did not have crossover potential more or less went by the wayside. And
in some instances some of the artists were, uh, making their music
different. Uh, they were adding all kinds of, uh, strings and horns, and,
and uh, and sort of watering down the funk, as they, as the saying goes. And
so as those artists who, um, couldn't do that or refused to do it, uh, left.
And the music became somewhat, uh, a lot lighter, uh, sweeter and softer. I
think rap is, is a rebellion against that. I think that the, uh, kids in the
street got tired of all these, uh, 50 musicians, and strings and horns and
the cost of production was so great, that music was losing some of its soul,
it was losing some of its funk, and so they came back basically with just
rhythm-driven music, very simple productions, a lot more funk, using some of
the samplings from some of the funk people, and, and that was the birth of
it, because they were rebelling against the watering down of their music,
and so that's what we have now. And if you notice, we're back, uh, to funk
in the rap music, because they're sampling people like George Clinton, James
Brown, and all those people who still have the bass lines and still have the
drums, and that's basically the foundation. They were tired of black people
making their soul so sweet and soft and mellow. Too pretty in other
words.
Well, I think uh, Kenny and Leon, uh, were,
uh, magical in what they were able to do, the Philly sound. Because they
were able to keep the funk in their music, but yet, uh, make it nice and
mellow and sweet. Because, you know, the Philadelphia horns, the strings
that they put on top of it. But underneath all of that, there still is the
driving bass line, there still is the drums. So that they had a magical
combination, and in which they were able to synthesize both the primitive
and the sweet, and uh, it just, it just went. It was a sound that everybody
loved. People tried to emulate it, but it was just impossible because they
had that combination. And uh, they worked with great engineers, great
musicians in Philadelphia, but they still laid the tracks, they still laid
the basic foundation of, of, of soul under their music. But it does have the
strings, it does have the horns, you know, but it still kept the
funk.