Bobby Shaw’s career in the dance music industry actually began as a bartender in 1977 at
Manhattan discotheque, The Barefoot Boy, this being a venue where he was blessed to become a close pal with their premiere disc jockey, Tony Smith, who introduced him to many of the record labels’ dance music promoters of that time, one of them being TK Record’s Ray Caviano, who would hire him in 1978 as the company’s mailroom employee. Subsequently, this man would land a job at Warner Brothers’ Records and after his being at “The Bunny” for a few months, Shaw received a call to come join Ray’s staff as one of their dance music promoters. Although Mr. Caviano would eventually move onto another label, Warners retained Bobby’s services, elevating him to the position as national dance music manager, where he pioneered acts such as Gino Soccio, Change, Kraftwerk, Laid Back (discovering and mixing the classic 12″ White Horse), The Time, Prince, Chaka Khan, Patti Austin, Janice McClain, Stargard, Talking Heads, and the Tom Tom Club. Perhaps most noteworthy though was his relationship with Madonna as he helped guide her through the early stages of her career with Michael Rosenblatt and Mark Kamins. Shaw helped set up Madonna’s early club gigs and was her promotion person for the early masterpieces Everybody, Physical Attraction, Holiday, and Burning Up. As a matter of fact, he was recently interviewed by CNN and The New York Post with regards to the 40 year anniversary of the release of Madonna’s first album.
In 1984, MCA Records’ executives Richard Palmese and Jheryl Busby took notice of Shaw’s work at Warner Brothers and they created a national dance music promotion manager’s position for him. He remained there until 1998 and during that time span he became the first corporate vice president of dance music promotion at any label. Shaw’s experience was the backbone for bringing luminaries such as Elton John, Patti LaBelle, Dan Hartman, Bronski Beat, New Edition, Stephanie Mills, Fine Young Cannibals, The Jets, Londonbeat, Colonel Abrams, The Communards, and Tracy Lords to the dance floors of the world. In addition, Shaw became the only record company executive to ever win the AIR competition as he took this honor in 1986.
In 1999, Shaw started his own promotion company, Bobby Shaw Promotions, this of which
continues to be one of the powerhouses for bringing dance music to the masses. Keeping up
with the times, Shaw embarked on a new method of exposing music in 2020, this being the
servicing of jams to dance spinners who program tunes on the Twitch app, thus reaching a
global audience. He continues to be the only person in the industry concentrating on this fresh way of creating visibility for a broad spectrum of tunes. Furthermore, Shaw initiated his own Saturday night Twitch music show, aptly called, Bobby Promo’s School House as he bestows new tracks while also educating his audience on songs from past decades.
It’s been an amazing career for Bobby Shaw, with no end in sight as he looks for the hits
and artists of tomorrow.
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