Being visually appealing has always been a plus factor for people in the music business. But that is even more so the case today, especially for female artists.

Okay, okay, it’s true that Telma Hopkins was not born in Detroit. The actress/singer, one of the most familiar faces on television, actually made her entrance into the world in Louisville, Kentucky. However, she spent enough years in Detroit for the Motor City to justifiably claim her as its own.

“Out of sight, out of mind” is how the old adage goes. Even so, it is surprising that so little is being said about Ronald Isley, one of the greatest singers in the history of Black music and the possessor of a soulful, expressive voice that is unique. (Think about it: No one sounds anything like Ron Isley.)

In many ways, the Rhythm & Blues Foundation has been a godsend. The organization should be better known to the general public; ideally, people should be as familiar with it as they are with the Grammy Awards or the American Music Awards.

By now you may have been assuming that “Soul Train,” which made its national debut in 1971, had come to the end of its long run. You assumed right. The show Don Cornelius created — and hosted during the peak years — stopped filming in 2006. But now plans are in the works for a film, tentatively titled “Soul Train: The Movie.”

In  what is largely a cookie-cutter industry — how much real difference is there, for example, between Rihanna and Ciara? — artists who really stand apart are few and far between. In addition to being talented and daring, such artists are, more often than not, eccentric and uncompromising.

Sly & the Family Stone came on very strong in the late 1960s. No one had seen or heard of a group like this one. To borrow the title of their first album, this colorful (in more ways than one) ensemble was “a whole new thing.”

When the late, great Minnie Riperton was charming us from 1975 to 1979 with her amazing voice and unforgettable songs such as “Lovin’ You,” “Memory Lane” and “Inside My Love,” we never imagined that many years later her daughter, Maya Rudolph, would be a featured comedienne on “Saturday Night Live

Not all of us have a full comprehension of Sean Combs’ talents, but this man — who has changd his name more often than Black people have chosen what they wish to be called — has had an extraordinarily high success rate.

There was a time when yours truly would not go to the theater for a Tyler Perry film. From the snippets that one way or another I had seen, I was reminded of “those” Black plays that I hate, but a certain type of Black audience loves.