Making The Band: Diddy's Quick Fix
must the music be sacrificed for great ratings?
2008-03-28
By Ronda Racha Penrice

Sean “Diddy/Puffy” Combs is a marketing genius. Most people don’t remember that "Making the Band," his perennial MTV ratings sure shot, started out on ABC in 2000 with a much different focus. They were finding a band, alright, but the next Backstreet Boys or N Sync. After the show relocated to MTV to follow the selected group, O Town, for two more seasons, Diddy took over in 2002 and hasn’t look back, even when disaster has struck.

His hip-hop group of rappers, Da Band, plus an in-group hook singer, never went anywhere but MTV.  But, having a group he created flop didn’t stop Diddy. He even dissolved the enterprise on television and then came back more ferocious than ever, mainly because the group’s disastrous sales couldn’t erase the drama-filled ratings bonanza. So, he went all out to create a girl group, requiring the many hopefuls to sing and dance. Some could sing and some could dance but few could do both. Danity Kane, a multiracial group comprised of Aubrey, Aundrea, Shannon and two sisters, Dawn and D. Woods (Wanita), emerged from the fray to gain a second season to create their self-titled debut album. Mixed reviews from music critics didn’t stop the group’s album from reaching the platinum sales club.

While the girls did their girl group thing, Diddy and MTV decided the male version might just work. Although the guys were far less catty and backstabbing in their pursuit of musical stardom, they still held our interest and, out of that 2007 season, we got a group, interestingly all brothers, in the ethnic sense, Brian, Robert, Willie, Qwanell (bka Q) and Mike plus solo white artist Donnie J., best known as just Donnie. To make it interesting, this season combined Day 26, the name the boy group now carries, Donnie and Danity Kane all working on their albums.

Great television ratings are what every producer lives for, but, the stand-out question in all of this is: between the voice lessons, working with such super hot producers as Bryan Michael Cox, the constant reevaluation by Diddy and the other trials of this musical bootcamp experience, why, pray tell, does the music industry suck? If the artists are getting this much preparation, why are we not feeling the final product? Are they beating the talent out of folks? Day 26, a name derived from the day Diddy officially made this band, is arguably the most talented musical artists Diddy has presented since he began his "Making the Band" career. But, can even Diddy create a group music lovers love? So far, Day 26’s official debut single, “Got Me Going”, moved from number 74 to 54 in a week’s time on Billboard.

Moving twenty spots in a week does not a group make. Those of us who don’t have Diddy amnesia have probably asked, “why create the 112 bootleg with five members, including another resident Q, when you had the real thing? That’s not to knock these guys because they are very good. But music is not only magic, it’s time. 112, known for hits such as “Cupid” and “Peaches & Cream” began singing together in middle school. In the span of a few months or a year, how does one test tube that?

Don’t get me wrong I love Making the Band and will probably continue to watch subsequent versions. But, before now, I couldn’t put my finger on why it never works. I mean Bryan Michael Cox is one of the industry’s hottest producers and Diddy is self-explanatory and so is New Edition’s Michael Bivins, who had a hand in forming this group.

The truth is it takes more than that. Sometimes it takes heartbreak, maybe even a few group changes, to perfect it. The sad truth is this is the music industry of today--the quick fix. It makes for great TV but that doesn’t translate into classic music, the kind you fell in love to, cried your eyes out with or even made a few babies to.

Veteran freelance writer and self-diagnosed television junkie Ronda Racha Penrice is the author of African American History For Dummies, which includes chapters on film/television and music.

Photo: MTV