Selena Quintanilla-Perez, also known as the Queen of Tejano Music, was born in Texas in 1971. (Editors, 2017) In 1995, her life came to the end when she was shot by her fan club manager.(Editors, 2017) Selena has been singing since she was six years old. Before Selena signed her recorded deal with Capitol/EMI, she played with her family’s band called Selena Y Los Dinos.(Editors, 2017) They started playing at weddings and clubs in Texas. Selena would sing all her songs in Spanish but was brought up speaking English.(Editors,2017)

Selena is considered to be one of the most influential Latin artists of all time. The first reason why Selena has a title of one of the most influential Latin artist of all time is that she was culturally influenced.(Saucedo, 2016) She is Mexican American which brought together Latinos by her music.(Saucedo, 2016) Selena’s music was influenced by Tejano Music with an influence of Latino which created new genres of music.(Saucedo, 2016) Selena sang her songs in Spanish but in her later years, she made some of her songs in English.(Saucedo, 2016) As Selena grew up she spoke English and could never speak Spanish fluently until 1990 when she started going for Spanish lessons so she could be closer to her culture.(Saucedo, 2016) The second reason why is because she broke records. Selena was the first Latin artist to make the top 10 with Spanish and English language songs.(Saucedo, 2016) Her song “I Could Fall in Love” made it second on the top music charts and it won a Grammy.(Saucedo, 2016)

Selena was known not only for her voice but by the way she dressed. She started designing outfits at the age of twelve and made her own outfits for her performances. She then opened two boutiques because of her love for fashion. Selena’s style influenced women in today’s life. One artist that we see Selena’s style is Jennifer Lopez.(Blay, 2016) Not only is Selena’s style influenced Jennifer Lopez as an artist but she also influenced Beyonce because they grew up in the same state of Texas.(Blay 2016) Beyonce “Remembers hearing her on the radio, even though she did not know what she was saying Selena helped her with her pronunciation in the studio”. (Blay 2016)

On March 31st, 1995 Selena was shot and killed by her fan club manager after she confronted her with taking money from Selena Etc Inc. (Editors,2017) Selena’s death was tragic and hit the United States and Mexico community hard. Even after Selena’s death her presence never died, in 1997 a movie was released about her life journey to fame.(Editors, 2017)  The movie was called “Selena” where Jennifer Lopez was cast for Selena.(Editors, 2017) The reason why the movie was made so close to Selena’s death was that her family wants to show the world the true light in their life and Selena’s life as well. (Tonight, 2017) The movie shows how Selena’s journey was not easy but she pushed through it and never gave up.

Before Selena’s death, she was working on an album in English but was not able to finish it before her passing.(Editors,2017) On July 18th, 1995 Latin EMI released the album. This album spent 22 weeks on the top 10 list and sold 175,000 copies of it on the first day. (Ehrlich, 2018)

Listening to some of Selena’s songs a couple stood out to me and I could not decide which one was my favorite. One is “Bidi Bidi Bom Bom” and the other one is “Dreaming of You” both show a different side of her. “Bidi Bidi Bom Bom” shows her fun side, it is also an easy song to get lost in and find yourself dancing to it. While listening to the song, it sounded like a heartbeat when you are happy to see someone or your pet after a long day at work. “Dreaming of You” shows a sensitive side of Selena to us. When listening to the song, I can picture someone in a car staring out the window pretending they are in a music video. Another thing that comes to mind when I listen to the song is that every girl had one of these nights before thinking about their crush and wishing at 11:11 that he likes her back.

Selena Perez should be included in our textbook because she is still alive in people’s hearts today. From artists today getting influenced by the way she dressed or how she presented herself to her fans. Selena was unfiltered, she would wear bras on stage for a top and do her signature move her mom taught her which was the washing machine. Selena gave hope to the Mexican-Americans that they can follow their dream if it was becoming a singer like her or something completely different. She was idolized not only by Mexican-Americans but by Americans them self. Selena was very humble not letting the fame and money get to her head. Her family was worth about $5 Million but still lived in a middle-class house.

Between Selena’s style to her Humbleness, she shows the Latino people that she is someone to idolize.

Work cited

Blay, Zeba. “17 Artists Inspired By The Divine Glory Of Queen Selena Quintanilla.” HuffPost Canada. March 30, 2016. https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/17-artists-inspired-by-the-divine-glory-of-queen-selena-quintanilla_us_56fa8945e4b014d3fe241b8c.

Saucedo, Adriana. “10 Reasons Why Selena Is Iconic.” The Odyssey Online. November 14, 2017. https://www.theodysseyonline.com/10-reasons-why-selena-is-iconic

Ilich, Tijana. “Who Was Selena Quintanilla-Perez?” ThoughtCo. November 26, 2017. https://www.thoughtco.com/biography-of-selena-quintanilla-perez-2141134?print.

YouTube. March 21, 2017. https://youtu.be/VbR9iFwoXRA

Ehrlich, Allison. “#TBT: Selena’s Posthumous Album Release in 1995 Featured Street Dance and Lip Sync Contest.” Corpus Christi Caller-Times. April 16, 2018. https://www.caller.com/story/news/special-reports/building-our-future/throwback/2018/04/11/tbt-selenas-posthumous-album-release-1995-featured-street-dance-and-lip-sync-contest/508406002

Hunter Brothers

The Hunter Brother is an up and coming band which consist of five country brothers that were born and raised in small town Shaunavon, Saskatchewan.(Hunter, n.d.) The brothers who make up the country band are Brock (Electric/Acoustic Guitar), Dusty (drums), J.J. (Guitar/Keyboard), Luke (Bass), and Ty (Lead vocals/keyboard). The Hunter Brothers signed a record deal with Open Road Recordings . (Hunter, n.d.) They released their first album in 2017 called “Getaway”. Their song “Born and Raised” made the top 10 and five songs on their album made the top 40 country hit list. (Hunter, n.d.)

On July 7^th, in Yorkton, Saskatchewan the Hunter Brothers were set to be on stage at 9 pm. The grandstands were filled with families, old couples, and teens who were tired of standing. The place in front of the stage were 17-22-year old girls, in hopes of touching hands with at least one of the Brothers or just getting a good picture of them. There were around 500-600 people there that day waiting for the clock to hit nine, so they can see the small-town band hit the stage. The Hunter Brothers performing in Yorkton brought all the small-town teens and adults on a night out. The surrounding area is into country music every wedding, graduation, or dance has more country songs playing than any other genre.

The atmosphere at the concert was energic, lively, and entertaining. The Hunter Brothers got the crowd on their feet with every song they played, if it was their own song or a cover of an artist they always found a way to make the crowd interested. In one song they did a Hunter hip flip where Brock and Luke went to the front of the stage. where they performed the move. Luke then bent down a little and Brock rolled off him and did a front flip after the roll and landed on his feet. In between songs they told stories about how everyone had a major injury at least once in their life or how their mom reacted to their “El  Dorado” from the meaning behind it. “El Dorado” is a song about their grandfather who owned an El Dorado and after his passing, they wrote this for him and once their mom heard it she was in tears instantly. All their songs have a meaning behind if its “Getaway” which is about their significant other and when they are with them that’s their getaway, and “Born and Raised” is about them being proud of where they came from and through all fame they still will be the same person. Throughout the concert, they fooled around on stage, from lowering Dusty’s mic stand because he is short or when J.J. was introducing the brothers he added in the land locations of each brother. When they got to Brock, he stopped J.J. and introduced him and said, “I can take it from here, since I am the only one not married so I can speak for myself”. The brothers liked teasing each other through the whole night which is one thing no one expected from them.

The Hunter Brothers did a tribute to the Humboldt Broncos accident which happened on April 6th, 2018, where 16 people were killed and 13 injured when a semi-trailer truck struck the Humboldt Broncos bus. Their song “Where I Wanna Live When I Die” became the song for the Humboldt Broncos tragedy. The Hunter Brothers were personally affected by the tragedy from knowing people who passed away, playing hockey themselves and traveling with the band on a bus on that exact road where the tragedy happened. They told a story how Saskatchewan is such a small province because Dusty played hockey for the Melville Millionaires which is just 20 minutes down the road from Yorkton where the concert was held.

The Hunter Brothers songs are easy to find the beat in any of their songs, easy to two-step or just clap along too. In the song “Country Stuff” this is an unique song because it shows all the brothers voices abilities, it shows Ty’s and Dusty’s high vocal range, Brock’s and J.J.’s deep range they both can go “burn it up” and burn it down”, it stands out from the rest of the vocals, and Luke’s vocal range, in general, it showed off. The lyrics in this song is all about what they do back home like “there’s no harm in killing dust up on the farm.” (Hunter 2016) Throughout this song, they vocally complemented each other. A lot of their songs have repetitive lyrics and most of the songs use the same instruments as guitars, drums, and their feet, but they find a way to make them sound different, so their songs do not sound the same.

After the concert, they talked to people who were around the stage and asked who won the sing off they had between themselves and Brett Kissel on their Instagram story from the weekend before. They also were by their merchandise table and encourage people to take pictures with them and get autographs. They were talking to people about all stuff like farming, music and I got to ask Luke how they got into music and he said, “it’s pretty simple dad wanted us in hockey and mom wanted us in piano and it just took off from there” Well it sure did take off because now they are set to be the opening act for Brett Kissel for his upcoming tour.

The whole night was fun, it never felt boring, no one left during the concert. For me, the concert was enjoyable because, the Hunter Brothers knew how to keep a crowd engaged and, on their feet,  which lasted the whole concert. They made sure their fans knew they predicated them for coming out to see them. When talking with some people surrounding me about the concert they were all impressed by how they were so full of energy and not even one person complained about anything through the night. I would recommend going to see the Hunter Brothers if they are performing near you and are into country music or just want a night away from the house. I will be going to their concert again that’s for sure.

Work Sited

Brothers, Hunter. "Hunter Brothers - Those Were the Nights." Hunter Brothers - Those Were the Nights. n.d. http://www.hunterbrothers.com/.

The Hunter Brothers - "Country Stuff" acoustic YouTube. March 09, 2016. https://youtu.be/Uf2iS3H9P6c

Hi, my name is Bailey. I was born and raised in the small town of Churchbridge, Saskatchewan. I am going into my second year of my Animal Bioscience degree which is my undergrad degree for veterinary medicine. Today I am going to be blogging about the household word in 1959.

What is Payola?

“Payola is when someone bribes a disc jockey to secure more airplay for their record”. (Campbell 2013 ) The more exposure you got the more likely your record would become a popular song. Labels noticed that disc jockeys can influence sales, the record labels took advantage. By bribing the disc jockeys, they got more airtime in return, which is known as payola. There were a couple keywords that hid payola from the public eye like “listening fees” or “evaluating the commercial possibilities”. (Neira 2004)

The Scandal and Investigation

Payola scandal began in 1958, when a federal investigation showed that a popular game shows “twenty-One” revealed to be fixed. (Hutchinson 2015) That federal investigation led to a similar investigation in the music industry. (Neira 2004) Before payola intensifies, there was a flat rate of $50 to spin their disc per week per record. (Hutchinson 2015) As time went on, the more professional disc jockeys took advantage of this and charged more to spin the record more often than other records. In 1960, the National Association of Broadcaster proposed that payola was going on under the table. (Neira 2004) Disc jockeys were using this to gain personal worth for playing certain recording more than others. If the disc jockeys got involved with payola they would get a $500 fine and a year in prison. (Neira 2004) A threat of losing their licenses, some disc jockey’s who might bring risk were let go for precaution measures. (Hutchinson 2015) The investigation came to conclusion for arresting eight-disc jockeys which included Alan Freed and Dick Clark. (Neira 2004) In 1959, Alan refused to sign an affidavit and turned down all accusation of him accepting any payola but he did except gifts for helping someone. (Neira 2004) Alan Freed was charged with 26 counts of payola but was let off with a fine. (Neira 2004) Another disc jockey was Dick Clark, he denies all involvement in the 1959 and 1960 payola scandal. Later, “Clark

testifies that the only reason he… [got] involved with those businesses were for the tax advantages”. (Neira 2004) Dick did not just get away with a fine like Alan did, he got arrested for his involvement in the scandal. (Hutchinson 2015)

Is there Payola in today’s music Industry?

There hasn’t been a payola scandal in the past few years. The most recent payola to hit the news, was in 2005 when Sony BMG Entertainment was caught. Under a one-year investigation, for “making payoff in return for airtime.” Sony BMG Entertainment was fined $10 million for giving cash or expensive gifts in return for airtime. “The $10 million will be distributed to non-profit groups supporting music education and appreciation programs in the state”. (Arts 2005)

Does payola affect the music we are exposed to?

In the music industry today, payola is still illegal but still causing problems in the industry. When payola is incorporated into the music industry, it is then the records’ labels job to decide who is going to rise and who is going to fall. (McDonald 2018) If payola is happening in today’s society, we are only listening to labels who can afford payola. Unfortunately, the record labels that can not afford to do payola with their artist would not get airtime to show that they deserve to be popular too. Even though we do not hear of payola in today’s society, but it doesn’t mean it is not happening.

My personal thoughts on Payola

In my own opinion, payola is a bad thing. With payola, there are no pros to it, just a lot of cons. The biggest one, in my opinion, is that the rich keep getting richer. To me, the ones who are popular should be the ones who worked for it and not the ones whose label can afford to pay for the artist to be at the top. If the labels kept engaging in payola, the music industry will cost more because the label companies will have to budget for the bribe money they are giving to radio stations to play their rising artist songs. Another con will be that the day of an album release if there are two record labels both having an album release on the same. Say record label “A” has a bigger budget for payola compared to record label “B”. Which album is going to have a better chance at becoming the album of the year or have more songs on the top 40’s list? If you guessed record label “A”, then you are right. The reason behind it is because recording label “A” is able to pay for payola which their artists’ new album will become more of a priority to have airtime which gives them more of opportunity to become number one.

In the past decade, we have not heard of any recording labels getting fined or under investigation for payola. I have not found any research that explores that payola is happening in the past decade, but we can not conclude that it is happening. I do not believe in payola because the popular or top artist should work for that spot and not the ones who just used the money to get there. So, it makes you wonder if the top artist today would be where they are if payola did not exist.

Works Cited

Arts, CBC. 2005. Sony to pay $10M in payola scandal . CBC.

Hutchinson, Lydia. 2015. Alan Freed and The Radio Payola Scandal. Perfroming SongWriter.

McDonald, Heather. 2018. Payola: Influencing the Charts. The Balance Careers

Neira, Bob. 2004. Payola Scandal Rocks’ 50s Radio. Modesto Radio Museum .

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