Sunday, 26 April 2009
Are blackness and whiteness useful concepts in the study of popular music?
Popular music in Britain today contains artists of many different racial backgrounds. To both put whiteness and blackness in categories to create a study in music may be difficult as music can all be linked, for example classical music is seen as a white were as jazz is seen as black. In modern popular music rock bands predominantly are all white; the only example of a black rock artist in the present charts is the lead singer from Bloc party. This is after Rock come from a black origin. Another example would be Eminem, who turned out to be one of the greatest rappers ever. To sum it up, I feel that there is no need to create a divide, as different raced artists perform in the same genres of music as each other, and as music evolves the same will happen with the type of people who sing it.
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I think you touch on the point that certain musical genres have clear, racial lineage but that as those genres have developed, this line becomes less and less clear. My first thought, when reading your mention of Jazz and Classical genres is, where does something like George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue fit into this analysis?
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