There is or has been a budding music star in all of us at one time or the other. From a garage band hoping to become the next Jonas Brothers or Jackson Five to a church choir envisioning themselves as the next Kirk Franklin or Amy Grant and Crystal Lewis. Or it could have began as innocently as singing in the shower and doo-whopping anywhere that has a good echo. The dream to sing stays alive and all along we continuously ask ourselves: What if? Could I have if I had stuck with it or not listened to… Was I really as good as I thought? Did my friends’ and family’s slight jabs at my talent foster an insecurity within that eventually saved me from massive embarrassment or did it in fact derail a career and dream that could have been? It can happen, not just for music, but to any dream. Or is it as simple as you felt that no matter how spectacular you thought you were, it boiled down to not having the connections. Not knowing the right people in the right places at the right time.
4Tru, is an all girl singing group that began the way most singing groups begin, a bunch of thirteen year old friends saying, “hey, let’s start a singing group”. It makes one chuckle and smile when those words are said out loud because they are always followed by the next infamous and adolescent phrase which goes like this: ”Yeah, I bet we could be the next [Fill In The Blank]” But it’s okay. That is what dreams are made of. And guess what? Sometimes they do become the next whomever.
But… What do you do if you don’t have a P Diddy, Nick Cannon, Disney Channel or the venerable Clive Davis behind your lofty ambitions. In order to get “discovered” in the past, the lack of star power behind you used to mean playing school dances, talent shows, state fairs, bowling alleys and payola to radio stations to get them to play the “A side” of your forty-five record. But the tools for making it in the entertainment industry have changed. Now, it’s posting to Youtube, iTunes, MySpace, Facebook and doing email blasts which have instantaneous and global outreach. But as the dream remains the bottom line stays the same, talent and perserverance.
There is politics in making it in anything. I like to call it the politics of living. Don’t think so? Stop and think what you had to do to get your kid in a certain school or who and why someone received a promotion over you or you over them or how your church selected your new pastor and how you and your date chose what movie to go see. Some forms of politics are so subtle that we don’t even know we’ve done it. That is what The Digital Political will follow this go round in music. What is the subtle and not so subtle politics of regular kids, wanting to make it in the music business. From the garage to the podium on the new “4Tru Page” we’ll follow, Remi, Leah, Kari and Alex, by interview, recording sessions, video shoots, radio and concerts and in the process maybe what we find can help others navigate the politics of chasing their dreams in music and other areas of their lives. At the end of the day connections or not, you still have to put in the work. Ain’t no politics in that.
OUR FIRST RADIO COVERAGE & PLAY
WGCI 107.5 CHICAGO
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