Word Up! Black American Pop at the BBC

This BBC show is simply put..a must see! Taken from the days when ‘Top of the Pops’ was the biggest thing on TV. It includes some seminal performances from some of America’s biggest black artists! Look out for Doug E Fresh and Slick Rick (one of my favourite rappers of all time), a very sparkly Luther Vandross and even Salt n Pepa.

If you don’t enjoy the music, you’ll certainly be entertained by some of the stylings of the performers. You get to see the lead singer of Cameo sporting a particularly large cod piece and Bobby Brown wearing a blazer with shoulder pads twice as wide as him.

Another interesting observation to be made is actually how much you can see the influences some of these performances have obviously had on todays performers. I was struck by how similar Janet Jackson’s was to some of the Beyonce performances I’ve watched in the past. Farley ‘Jackmaster’ Funk providing one of the earliest dance tracks to be commercially successful, and must be one of the catalysts for that whole early 90’s dance commercial success. And of-course Grace Jones providing one of the more captivating and outlandish performances……Madonna and Lady Gaga??!!! #Jussayin

Shouts to Panza-Ink for this one.