It started with a joke in this piece about getting your music played on the radio:
Before you send anything, know who you're sending it to.
If you're a metal band, don't send your music to the hiphop show. If you're a funk band, don't send your music to a heavy metal radio station (also, don't be a funk band). It sounds like obvious advice, right? Nope. I've been hosting Locals Only, the Pacific Northwest music show, for years, and I often receive press packages from bands out of New York and California with clueless letters promising "the Locals Only audience will love us!" Not only is it a waste of time and money, but you look stupid.
First, I WAS KIDDING. It was a joke. Second, I do not like funk but that doesn't mean everyone who does should stop playing it. BECAUSE I WAS JOKING. But my anti-funk comment clearly hit members of the funk community right in the heart as the comments prove.

The letters came via Facebook and e-mail, too. Some excerpts:
...first of all, as a veteran funkster on this scene, fuck you...what kind of snarky racist shit is that?..have you even fucking LISTENED to funk??..why NOT be a funk band?? What's your deal with suggesting to the seattle music scene not be in a band that is black music based?..i'm not mad at ya, sis, but i'm funky..i play the funk, the whole funk, nothin' but..there's quite a funky scene here in seattle...for all my fellow funksters out there,that's some insulting shit you dropped.. you need to apologize to the readers of this paper that do appreciate funk music...
And:
I'm fighting back some anger from that comment but will just say this: I won't pass up job opportunities, relationships and burn the candle at both ends for being dismissed. I moved to this city in 2000 to pursue music. The main band I'm in had to stop identifying as "funk" label because nobody in this music industry would even give us a chance. Funny how it's just accepted to dismiss and not given any thought of true artistic merit. It'd be great to be told that our music sucks, because then at least we know someone actually took the time to listen to it.
I didn't know that funk was such serious business.
UPDATE: Please see the post entitled "The Funk Megan Seling Challenge: Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is" here. —Ed.
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