Soul Train Awards mark 15th year

LOS ANGELES — Don Cornelius created the Soul Train Awards 15 years ago to recognize black musical performers who may not enjoy widespread pop success. Despite the proliferation of awards shows since then, it still does that.

While multiplatinum artists such as Destiny's Child and Dr. Dre are celebrated all over, the Soul Train Awards — to be broadcast in syndication starting Saturday — also pay homage to artists such as gospel sensation Yolanda Adams and the group Jagged Edge, largely unheralded outside of black households.

"The basis of Soul Train is to provide an opportunity for people who don't get opportunities for national exposure on television,'' said Cornelius, best known for his 30-year-old syndicated dance show, "Soul Train.''

"The purpose we serve is not to duplicate what the Grammys and the AMAs (American Music Awards) do, because we can't, and conversely they can not duplicate what we do.''

Cornelius started the awards show to ease the frustration of those in the black music industry who felt their music was an afterthought at other awards shows.

For instance, when the awards show began in 1987, rap was not a category at the Grammys. (It was added the next year.)

"It may have been the Grammys that made people who belonged to certain other genres such as R&B and hip-hop feel like it wasn't really their party, that they were guests at a party that really belonged to someone else,'' Cornelius said. "There was a lot of grumbling about the way that black artists in particular, and black music executives as well, were treated with regard to certain general market awards shows.''

Michael Greene, president of the Recording Academy, said that the Soul Train Awards filled an important void left by the Grammys, which was lax in the attention paid to black music.

"I totally agree with Don that when they (the Soul Train Awards) started, it was a total necessity,'' he said.

While black artists have completed some of the Grammys biggest sweeps — Michael Jackson won eight with "Thriller'' and more recently Lauryn Hill five for her "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill,'' they usually tend to win top honors when their albums have sold millions of copies.

Toni Braxton, a winner at last month's Grammys, said other awards shows usually have only about two or three R&B categories, and "everybody can't win,'' but at the Soul Train Awards, there are more opportunities to be honored.

"It's really important as an African-American and a woman to be acknowledged,'' Braxton said, noting that the first award she ever won was from Soul Train. "This is our moment, this is our day.''

The nominees and winners are decided by about 2,000 industry insiders, such as radio programmers and artists.

The show is usually broadcast live soon after the Grammys, but because of a conflict with another awards show this year — the NAACP Image Awards — for the first time, the Soul Train Awards were taped.

Over the years, some of the big winners at the Soul Train Awards have often been the same people who took top honors at the Grammys or AMAs — entertainers such as Erykah Badu or Hill, for example.

But both Greene and Cornelius say the increasing parity at the mainstream awards shows hasn't lessened the importance of the Soul Train Awards.

"We need as many venues as possible to provide a stage for this world of great music that is out there,'' Greene said.

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