Sirius XM Stoops to a New Low: Reinforcing Stereotypes
By Ed Oswald | Tuesday, May 5, 2009 at 11:05 pm
It’s no secret that a lot of satellite radio users are quite unhappy with the merger of Sirius and XM. Sirius XM has taken a beating for its questionable programming decisions, as well as its sometimes apparent obliviousness to channel formats.
The latest example involves Sirus XM’s BPM channel, the service’s supposed dance station, which has been anything but lately. Fans have voiced their outrage across the Internet, from Sirius XM fan boards to the channel’s Facebook page. That anger reached a fever pitch Tuesday night with the debut of the Dsquared show.
Dsquared is Dan and Dean Caten, a fashion duo from Europe. What is their connection to dance music? Who knows. But their new show debuted Tuesday night, called Dean and Dan on Air: Style in Stereo. What followed was the most stereotypical portrayal of the gay community I have heard in a long time.
While the music they played was one thing–completely off format–the way Mr. and Mr. Caten portrayed themselves was Godawful.
When you could understand them (they mumbled for 50% of the show), their topics of discussion had nothing to do with dance music. They also reinforced the stereotype of the effeminate, fashion-loving, and pretentious gay man–to the point it was grating.
I don’t know where Sirius XM and BPM are trying to go with this, so I won’t even guess. In any case, the show not go over well at all with listeners. On BPM’s Facebook page, not a single review was positive. Here are a few examples:
I am a young gay man. And those two things that were on the DSQUARED show. So distasteful. That show needs to be pulled off ASAP!
These guys give gay people a bad name, seriously. Way to set gay rights back 100 years. Awesome job! NEWS FLASH, there are more than just gay people listening to dance music.
this show is horrible, and sxm should be ashamed of themselves for putting on such a stereotyping show…
This dsquared show is beyond terrible….GET RID OF IT!!!!!!! Dance music does not equal fashion in America…not everyone who likes dance music is gay (no offense to gay people)
I can’t say it much better than these folks. If you’ve got satellite radio, I suggest you also take a listen for yourself–here’s the schedule. Please take this mess off the air, Sirius XM. And start listening to your subscribers. After all, they’re paying your paychecks.
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Sirius XM Bleeds Customers, Blame the Programming. | Technologizer Says:
May 7th, 2009 at 11:25 am[…] especially in the programming department. We’ve already covered the hot mess that is the DSquared show, but there’s more. It’s as if the service has hired complete novices to program its […]
May 6th, 2009 at 3:56 am
I don’t get it. If it’s so horrible, change the channel. There are tons to pick from.
May 6th, 2009 at 4:57 am
as an avid sattelite radio listener mostly talk radio, and a shareholder i would like to see sirius listen to the community here and work on their bpm channel to get it inline with listers tastes. It can be hard to make every1 happy, but when every1 is upset then something needs to be done.
May 6th, 2009 at 11:14 am
So you tune into a dance music show and its a horrible mess. Hmmm
May 6th, 2009 at 1:24 pm
Thats not the issue, its the stereotype they presented. The quality of the show was one thing… promoting negative stereotypes is another.
May 6th, 2009 at 2:00 pm
I not suprized people here are unhappy since the merger including myself.But accordng to Zellner,he believes he’s doing the right thing and that the complainers are a small minority.Not in so many words,his words are if don’t like the service go somewhere else,meaning its his way or the highway.Kind of very bold statement to make.
May 6th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
Ed,
You NAILED IT!!!! And that’s the abuse dance music gets with that stereotype being reinforced! Yes, gays love dance music…they also love rock, pop, hip-hop, country, polka…you name it! And we owe a lot to the gay community for their contributions to the genre.
But (and you can thank the “Disco Sucks” people for this) to keep using this negative stereotype for dance music on a supposed dance station is injury AND insult at the same time! I know of friends that may be “flamboyant”, but not to the extent like this, and I think what they have done is further reinforce those negativites, and for those straight and gay that is just PLAIN WRONG TO DO!
Thank you for this article Ed!
TONY SANTIAGO
Coordinator
New York Dance Music Coalition
May 6th, 2009 at 7:11 pm
if Zellner said “they can go elsewhere”.. that is a very bold statement since Sirius XM is the only radio sat. provider left. There are no other choices. Sad indeed the US government approved this merger.
May 6th, 2009 at 7:19 pm
I didn’t realize there were rules about how homosexual men were supposed to act during their radio show. Hey Jerry Springer guests…knock it off, you’re reinforcing all those white trash stereotypes!
May 6th, 2009 at 7:24 pm
Well, I got a look at that picture, and the rest followed. BPM in the daytime used to be pretty sweet radio, now I just listen in the mornings. Besides, Rush Limbaugh is on during their show anyway.
May 7th, 2009 at 7:42 am
@Stilgar – do you listen to channel? We on the BPM side come to listen to music, not some girly show about fashion, also the music that doesnt even represent what BPM is about, why not put rick and bubba on Classic Rewind?
May 7th, 2009 at 9:21 am
Good article. BPM management has no clue. I’ve listened to BPM since 2001 and it’s been my favorite station for years, but this is probably their worst screwup ever. I’m a gay guy who enjoys the club scene, especially the music. I even went to the White Party in Palm Springs a few weeks ago, probably the biggest gay dance event on the west coast. No club or gay party I know of would dare to play a set as horrid as this Dean & Dan show, which I unfortunately listened to yesterday. I don’t know who these guys are, and from their picture it seems they do know their fashion, but they have no business trying to do a dance music show. If BPM wanted to do a dance show oriented towards gays it should have picked a good famous gay DJ to do it (there are plenty of talented ones around), not these people.
May 7th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
Remember that BPM as the XM channel was known AROUND THE WORLD. It had gained more recognition and awards than any other US dance channel ever.
BPM was one of the only channels readily available in the US without going to internet streaming. And it was on 24/7 with DJs that in their own right had very successful careers.
That is all gone. This last issue is just showing how low Sirius management is willing to go to cut costs. They are willing to destroy every little shred of reputation the channel has earned in the effort to make it more Sirius like.
May 9th, 2009 at 9:20 pm
Great article..
BPM has really gone downhill.. for those who miss DJ Armando and haven’t been able to hear him, you can now catch him on internet station Radio Danz, he’s on at 5 & 8 PM EST Monday through Friday!! BPM has sadly chosen to play poor programming like Dsquared, but now DJ Armando fans can get their fix of real dance music elsewhere!
May 12th, 2009 at 12:55 pm
I gave up on XM’s dance stations a year ago because they had been getting worse for awhile before that. Now I listen to Shoutdrive.com and a few others that sound like the old, better XM.
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