It is important to the career of any entertainer to keep their fans happy. However, giving them too much material too fast can cause them to get bored with the artiste. Artistes are encouraged to make quality music but allow some time between production.

Published Monday, February 5, 1973

Big Youth, Dennis: Too much, Too fast

It happens repeatedly on the local pop scene. A popular star emerges and in a flash, floods the market with records. The fans consume them as fast as they are produced, so he continues to make them in quick succession.

Then gradually, the fans become tired of him, and his records sell less and less. Soon, he vanishes into obscurity.

Inevitably, he will try to make a comeback (his ego won't let him give up). Some make it back to the top. But rarely do they enjoy the popularity that greeted them when they first started.

The reality of this sequence has warnings for two very prolific entertainers now dominating the local scene: singer, Dennis Brown; and disc jockey, Big Youth.

While a few singers have experienced this disappointment, record DJs are the ones who have suffered most from overexposure.

The reason is obvious. Singers are better able to give variety to their records both in terms of pace (slow or fast) and of content. DJs, on the other hand, are restricted in this respect. Thus the monotony, which eventually causes rejection of their music by the fans, Like U-Roy, the man who many people regard as the “dean of deejaying”; his predecessor King Stitt or Dennis Alcapone.

All have one dominating feature about their whirlwind rise to the pinnacle of local reggae music: they all came on strong following their first hit, saturated the market with follow-up tunes, and got toppled.

Consider the development. In the beginning, there was King Stitt, thrilling the country with his imitations of cowboy Clint Eastwood, then the star of the DOLLAR series movies, telling Lee Van Cleef: “I am gonna get you in the big gun down.”

Then along came U-Roy, waking the town and telling the people in that memorable period, “there is a new sound coming your way” and dethroning the 'King' in the process.

Next in the chronological sequence was a guy named Lizzy, who enjoyed brief popularity, and after him I-Roy, a definite U-Roy imitator (note the name), and then Dennis Alcapone.

Alcapone was toppled briefly by Scotty with his nursery rhymes, but he, too, became monotonous after a while, and Alcapone came back strong to regain his fans.

There were many people who thought U-Roy could not be dethroned. Now, although his name will live on for a long time, musically, he has vanished.

Now we have a new star called Big Youth, labelled as “the reggae phenomenon”.

At the time of writing, he had five records in the Top Ten charts, and his phrases like “Lion” and “A so we stay” are recited like nursery rhymes by youth all over the country.

There is therefore no question of his influence. Just witness one of his stage performances. The way everybody moves when he is deejaying one of his hits; how they dance in the aisles and in their seats, and about for him to give them more.

Dennis Brown, while his influence is not as spectacular, also has a large following and has made many hits in the short period he has been carving his name in local music.

But aren't these two entertainers, idolised by thousands, going too fast? How much longer will their supply last before it dries up?

People say that each record D.J. is destined to serve a particular era and; just like U-Roy and the others, Big Youth's era will soon end-so-he should earn as much money as he can now.

That may be true. But no artiste should allow his fans to be choosey about his records. He should let them “starve” for them, to the point where when his next record is, produced they rush madly to buy it.

Take Ken Booth or Ernie Smith. Both produce an average of about five records per year; Ernie a little less. So the fans are always eagerly: awaiting their next release.

When it comes it is usually well, prepared (lyrics, musical arrangement and voice). And one out of every two are hits.

With Dennis and Big Youth, even before one of their hits have been established, another is produced in quick succession

These two young men are both at their pinnacle musically, and are talented performers. It would be a pity for them to give too much too fast or, correspondingly, seek too much too fast and then, like the others, see the fans becoming apathetic to their music.

There is also the question of whether these two are getting the full benefit of the success of their many hits as they record for different producers who get more than they do.

For the sake of those who love to hear them, my message to them is: Please slow down.

 

-F.J.N.

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