I realized this was kind of buried, as a reply to a comment made on our A.J. Castillo story. So, we should give it the attention it deserves...
La Guera
2010/10/14 at 6:11 am
Andrew Pulido
TEJANOMEDIA.COM
pulidoae@gmail.com
Wow, judging by the attention we have recently enjoyed from Para La Gente on Facebook, you'd think that we went to the Statesman, KVUE, and picketed the station in a super public way. All we did was express our opinions in our own forums! We didn't angrily send them to Para La Gente, nor did we demand a response. Know why? BECAUSE THEY ARE OUR OPINIONS! That's all! We know that radio stations really don't care what one or two listeners think, even when you send a nastygram directly to the station. Having worked in public broadcasting (radio and television) for several years myself, I know that these things were just part of the deal. In fact, it was even worse because of the "public" part...everyone wants to tell you what to show and when. You can't please everyone, and some people will yell from the mountaintops how much they hate you (yet they continue to watch or listen).
Hey Tejano friends,
As you can see from our website, we have been BUSY!
We will soon publish our latest playlist, featuring over 800 of the greatest Tejano and Conjunto songs ever recorded. This list is not complete, of course. Not even close. We'll be adding more, because we know how much you love to hear it.
okay now folks,
here at Rancho Alegre Entertainment, we have started a new site called Tejano-Conjuntopedia, just a site that will tell you a bit of history of your favorite tejano & conjunto bands, and the best thing is, that it is a profile made by the artist's or artist's family members.
this site will be here where you can get your favorite groups booking info, as well as contact info. it will also feature artist's discography and as much inside info that the artist's want to share with you.
To me, Tejano is a genre in transition, struggling to reconcile its storied past with an uncertain future. And there are two young artists in particular who symbolize the dilemma the music is facing: AJ Castillo and Chente Barrera. I'm not trying to create an artificial rivalry or anything, because I know these guys have recorded together and they probably get along really well, but the difference between the two is rather striking, in my view.
alright now, we all know that piracy, as in making copies of cd's and selling them is wrong, it takes money away from the record company as well as the artist.
BUT!?!, what if the record company has quit producing copies of cd's or is out of business? i mean EMI Latin, Sony Discos, have all stopped producing Tejano music, so lost are a lot of great titles by Chente Barrera, Hometown Boys, David Lee Garza y Los Musicales and La Tropa F among others.
okay now, i seem to be picking on "para la gente 95.1" in Austin,Texas, but i have noticed that joe the kidd has been saying "Si Senor" during his live remotes, as well as when he is at a local club called "Tejano Ranch", the only problem i have with it is that this saying belongs to the great late Conjunto legend Ruben Naranjo, so what i guess i want to say to mr. jk is...if you're gonna say that, then play some fucking Ruben Naranjo or at least Ricky Naranjo.
Look, I'm a guera. I don't speak a lot of Spanish (although I did pretty good when I got my haircut a few weeks ago...) And it's only been a couple of years since I started listening to Tejano. But in that short amount of time, I have fallen completely in love with it.
okay now, it may seem that i am picking on "95.1 para la gente", but c'mon people, what message are they sending? so they have added country to their tejano catalog play-list, basically telling the listener, tejano is not good enough, so here's some country and a little bit of hip-hop.
so, i read castillo's interview on the Austin American Statesman the other day, and i read on how new tejano music should be pushed by radio stations, and that's fine....but!, his thoughts on radio playing tejano classics kinda rubbed me the wrong way.
ya' see, the 90's were the glory days of tejano, EMI Latin,Sony and all the big record companies stood up and noticed tejano music.
