Clyde McKenzie, ContributorAll Jamaica should come together in singing praises to the recent success of Shaggy's album.
Whoever might have any concerns about the merits of Hot Shot would find it difficult to argue with the over six million fans who have voted for Shaggy with that most important ballot, their money.
In the wake of Shaggy's success, we are now being treated in the media to excesses on how his exploits can be replicated. It would seem that those of us who are engaging in the exercise of writing about the formula for Shaggy's success might better serve ourselves and the music industry by following Brer 'Nancy's dictum 'Do Mek Mi Si'.
It is ludicrous for any individual blessed with the secrets of hit-making not to exploit this special knowledge.
While I applaud Shaggy's success, I must first caution that had I been in possession of the secrets of hit-making I would not be spending my time writing this article about him as I would be quite busy counting my blessings to the strains of "money, money, money."
Selling one million units in the music business is a major achievement, so one can begin to understand the importance of scanning six million units in the United States alone. Shaggy has joined quite an elite crowd with this kind of album sales. An artiste selling that number of units over a number of projects would be happy to have those figures.
Milestone
What Shaggy has done is what every artiste would be happy to do once in a lifetime and which many successful acts never manage to do in their time on earth.
It is clear that Shaggy works tremendously hard. Here is a man who is not afraid to spend many unpaid hours to promote his material. Very few Jamaican acts would be willing to devote the kind of time to free promotion that Shaggy does.
This man has paid his dues. Add to this mix, the fact that Shaggy has good management in Robert Livingstone and his crew considered among the best in the music business plus Shaggy's great personality and wit and there is the basis for success. Please note that I did not say guarantee, for all this, coupled with a good album, will not necessarily a hit make. The business of hit-making is far more complex than this and even more so for a Jamaican act trying to make it big.
Time
Carlos Santana won nine Grammys last year, but it took a span of 30 years for him to show the promise which he initially showed on Black Magic Woman. Was Santana not good all these years? Did he not make great songs during this time? Well, it's hard to say. What we can say is that the business of hit-making can be rather haphazard or as the philosophers like to say stochastic.
Records not only invite us to twist and turn, but to experience these gyrations in their sales figures as well. Hot Shot started very slowly on the charts, prompting many to crow that nothing was happening to the album. It Wasn't Me was not the first single on the album.
The song might have escaped the marketers at MCA when they planned their release schedule for the album. Yet, Hot Shot seemed to have one vital ingredient that we unfortunately cannot summon at will, luck.
As the story goes, there was a major connection in Hawaii which saw a great number of programme directors and radio jocks in attendance. The song It Wasn't Me was in heavy rotation on the radio stations in Hawaii and individuals who were making decisions as to what to play across the nation heard the song.
Now, the conspiracy theorists among us might believe that this was just one big set up. The more rational among us will know that the success of the album, while based on a number of objective moves, is also due to a number of factors that were not predictable.
Every day record executives try to play the role of soothsayers with varying degrees of success. There are some like Chris Blackwell and Clive Davis who seem to beat the industry average in terms of hit-making, though even these geniuses have their misses.
What we, perhaps, will never ascertain is how many potential hits these great men passed on. As the guy says in the ad promoting the New York Lotto -- an equally unpredictable venture as the music business -- "Hey, you never know."
The music industry is all about hits, but it is certainly about misses as well. The fact is, we don't know when it will be one or the other.
While there are good songs that make it, there are many great ones that don't.
