#116 Black Music that Black People Don’t Listen to Anymore
November 18, 2008 by clander
All music genres go through a very similar life cycle: birth, growth, mainstream acceptance, decline, and finally obscurity. With black music, however, the final stage is never reached because white people are work tirelessly to keep it alive. Apparently, once a music has lost its relevance with its intended audience, it becomes MORE relevant to white people.
Historically speaking, the music that white people have kept on life support for the longest period of time is Jazz. Thanks largely to public radio, bookstores, and coffee shops, Jazz has carved out a niche in white culture that is not yet ready to be replaced by Indie Rock. But the biggest role that Jazz plays in white culture is in the white fantasy of leisure. All white people believe that they prefer listening to jazz over watching television. This is not true.
Every few a months, a white person will put on some Jazz and pour themselves a glass of wine or scotch and tell themselves how nice it is. Then they will get bored and watch television or write emails to other white people about how nice it was to listen to Jazz at home. “Last night, I poured myself a glass of Shiraz and put Charlie Parker on the Bose. It was so relaxing, I wish I had a fireplace.” Listing this activity as one of your favorites is a sure fire way to make progress towards a romantic relationship with a white person.
Along with Jazz, white people have also taken quite a shine to The Blues, an art form that captured the pain of the black experience in America. Then, in the 1960s, a bunch of British bands started to play their own version of the music and white people have been loving it ever since. It makes sense considering that the British were the ones who created The Blues in the 17th Century.
Today, white people keep The Blues going strong by taking vacations to Memphis, forming awkward bands, making documentaries, and organizing folk festivals. Blue and Jazz music appeal mostly to older white people and select few young ones who probably wear fedoras. But that doesn’t mean that young white people aren’t working hard to preserve music that has lost relevance. No, there are literally thousands of white people who are giving their all to keep old school Hip Hop alive.
Even as you read this, white people are telling other white people about the golden age of Hip Hop that they experienced in a suburban high school or through a viewing of The Wackness.
If you are good at concealing laughter and contempt, you should ask a white person about “Real Hip Hop.” They will quickly tell you about how they don’t listen to “Commercial Hip Hop” (aka music that black people actually enjoy), and that they much prefer “Classic Hip Hop.”
“I don’t listen to that commercial stuff. I’m more into the Real Hip Hop, you know? KRS One, Del Tha Funkee Homosapien, De La Soul, Wu Tang, you know, The Old School.”
Calling this style of music ‘old school’ is considered an especially apt name since the majority of people who listen to it did so while attending old schools such as Dartmouth, Bard, and Williams College.
What it all comes down to is that white people are convinced that if they were alive when this music was relevant that they would have been into it. They would have been Alan Lomax or Rick Rubin. Now the best they can hope for is to impress an older black person with their knowledge.
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This article is accurate.
African American music like the Blues became popular only in the 1930s and lasted only a decade as the mainstream culture (i.e. white folk) and other black folk found the race records of Blues to be too sad. Then came Jazz which had an upbeat tune in comparison to the Blues. None the less it was the mainstream culture which imitated Blues and Jazz and actually stealing black folks songs and then remaking these songs to please a white audience.
For people to say that Elvis Presley was a great artist and then to not investigate his roots in Nashville and the black culture that was there, is a denial of the talent of black Americans.
In any case, here at my university I find that the students here enjoy all types of rap. I personally do no like rap although I understand it to be the blues of the urban ghettos of New York City. I respect the rap of the 80s and the 90s. Mainstream rap does nothing to uplift people’s moods and really exploits the horrors of the ghetto for the enjoyment of mass consumption. As a result, my white peers here at school think that it is okay to have black face parties, dress up like gorillas, write slanderous things about Obama, etc. Here at my school they rather believe rap artist’s lyrics about black women and men than to actually be friends with the community here.
Either way, this is a great article.
And anyone who says that they are colorblind in America is a liar, regardless of race. Racism and all of the other -isms are inherent in our constitution and to the structure of our society (i.e. our form of democracy, capitalism, and structural power).
This blog is absurd – hip hop music, and all popular music, was better in the 90s. I think it could be scientifically proven. Anybody (Black, White, or Brown) with any taste in music knows that Wu Tang is objectively superior to Soulja Boy… cmon. This cat can vouch:
http://www.vimeo.com/7620071
Wow, people still taking the articles on this site seriously?
Grow up, its taking a light jab at some peoples ridiculous behaviors.
Personally, I think the people who protests too much very likely, are afraid that psych 101 dropouts are right; those who protest too much often are the very persons they rally against.
I resonate with the above.
Lighten up people!
yes… this site is holarious..enjoy it folks!
Um, can’t you just listen to Jazz just because you like it? I don’t really give a damn about the color of the trumpet player’s skin, I just enjoy the changing sounds, rhythms, and feelings of Jazz. I didn’t get into it because it was “black” or “ex-black”, and no one else in my small town knew nor gave a shit about Jazz, and I didn’t talk about my experience listening to it, or owning records. I think this article is correct in the sense that pretentious hippies want to show that they can relate to the “hardships of the black man and how he expressed them at the Savoy”, or whatever, but believe it or not, there are some white people who just enjoy it because it’s good. That’s it.
Music changes over the ages, it’s just the sophisicated and upper-class began to appreciate hip-hop in recent years. Anyone recall from their parents or grandparents on many well-to-do white people disliked jazz or rock-a-billy music? Moralists or conservatives may object to a new music form for “shock” factor and being “noise”, but what gives is the music genre is associated with a minority group/race of people in the 1920s, ’50s and even the ’80s they were stereotyped for having a sub-culture of their own, not of moneyed background and a symbol of historic oppression.
you guys need to check out http://www.jusjivin.com for a black perspective, the guy is hilarious
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