#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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you totally forgot to mention reggae. What’s going on in Southern California with the Sublimes (now dead), Expendables, Slightly Stoopids, Rebelutions, Tomorrows Bad Seeds, and other bands is just ridiculous. I don’t want to hear that good relaxing SoCo reggae. I want to listen to country music all day.
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The apex of jazz music back in the ’20s was in Harlem, where it was the epicenter of black American culture: home to a large educated urban upper-middle class. Then came the “Great Migration”, when transplanted poor blacks from the rural south made Harlem their home. Some wealthy blacks commented on most of the newcomers aren’t educated and shown some discorn on their kindred. +
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Since when do black people not listen to Jazz or the Blues anymore? You missed the mark on this one. Try Rap music. I see more white people running around trying to look like black rappers and talking slang that went out of “style” with black people years ago. You are off the mark with this one.
I guess the thing that depresses me most is the thought that music can be either white or black. Its a shame that we’re still stuck on that. Of course, most historians agree that it takes at least 100 years to effect social change. That figure seems to sit pretty well with the slow progress we’ve been making here in America. Its understandable really, no other culture historically has had a racial monoculture in slavery. Egyptians and Romans were equal opportunity slave traders. Then add almost 100 years of segregation and you still need 100 more years to iron out those injustices.
Of course we might never have complete social harmony. I mean, if we look at Serbia and Herzegovina you see Serbs and Croats who have been tossing racial slurs and hand grenades for more than a 1000 years. Yet an outsider might say, “Why do they hate each other, they’re both white?”
Being a white man who has dated some beautiful black women I like to think I’m progressive, but I know I’m wrong. I don’t know if I’ll truly “understand” the black perspective. I think that’s the trouble though, people saying “You don’t understand”. Well, I don’t have to understand to be accepting. I’m happy to be friends with people who are different than I am. Further, I doubt even my close friends who are black will ever “understand” the white perspective, and I don’t care if they do, as long as they are my friends.
This whole thing is upsetting. I think I’ll go pour myself a glass of Shiraz and listen to Jazz …
Im going to go throw my cameron album on, or should i rather wait a few years..
I just figured this out months after first reading it. White People like this for the same reason American snobs at least used to be anglophilic. The point is it’s old. The snob used to be saying ‘My family were rich and powerful back when Britain was which is how we picked up these tastes and habits’. These people, new snobs, are saying ‘I was cool even as a kid growing up in name-the-decade so I’m up on the black music of the period’. As Lander describes perfectly, it’s all about impressing/one-upping other White People.
I think the real question we should explore beyond this article is “what is white music and black music”. In reality, the stuff some people of other races may classify “black music” is not actually what all black people listen. So called “black music” has categories as well and you would not know that unless you seek/take that musical journey. I definitely wouldn’t call what you hear on the radio “black music”…you actually only hear pop music in different genres of music (my opinion). Most black people listen to all sorts of music and know about most of the big named stars (within black music especially) before they make it “big”. The same I am sure applies to “white music”. I personally think the music labeling terms are absurd considering that I think musical taste are regional, if you come from the south like me I tend to not mind country music and in some way can relate to it
and on the other hand because of my ethnicity I can relate to the international sound and love world music. Bottom line “music is universal not white, black, old, or new.
Anglophilia made a comeback, you can’t miss a few on the net boosting their high sense of education or being cultured about stuff, mainly what came out of Britain. To like the dry humor of the Monty Python show, getting your news from the BBC, to read Agatha Christie murder mystery novels and owning a 1980′s Brit-pop CD “West-town girls”…are common once again in a disenchanted superpower have an inner feeling “We Americans shouldn’t broke off from them”. +
A haute classe, academia nostalagia, white people moment. Pet Shop boys “West end girls” is a poetic tribute to huge class disparity in London, though it speaks truely for many urban areas from post-1990 Berlin to Paris, Manhattan to L.A., the “poor East-rich west” phenomenon in Europe and North America. Enjoy responsibily. +
Robert Miles- Children made in 1995 is a non-vocal techno hit with multiple beliefs why he made the song: Either it’s about the victims of the Holocaust or the recent Bosnia war, and about the future of the world particularly in Europe at the time the European Union (EU) began to unite all the European nations with a long bloody, hateful history. +
the truth is, black music is in a crisis at the moment.
They don’t have innovative ideas anymore.
The last was Timbaland with his off-beats..but after him nothing new came anymore.
Now guitar music is on top again.
First off, “Black Music”??
I wish you COULD tell me what that was, i would like to hear you name the only songs you can think of just so i can contradict your dumb ass.
As far as rap and hip hop repeating itself, that’s the only point you make. Thats it. Sell your computer.
Black music is a term no white person speaks of, may well go back to just calling it “noise”. Rap and hip-hop can be embarrassing to the African-American community, just ask Bill Cosby and Gladys Knight both oppose the genre.+
White music is a term that no black person speaks of, may well go back to just calling it “noise”. Grunge and Rock can be embarrassing to the White American community, just ask ANY white person who loves ‘Black’ music…they oppose the genres.+
I’m back…and thanks for sharing your POV. Black, white, yellow, brown, red or what have you, music is colorless and transparent. You can’t see it, but you can hear it. +
Truth us ALL music is pretty much stagnant these days, and “guitar music” is the biggest offender. Music on the radio is garbage, you gotta look to street CD vendors and small clubs to even have a chance at finding something both different and interesting, this goes for rap more than anything in my opinion.
And yes this is coming from a metalhead who despises rap.
Demand for hair care products and products for curly haired women is rising significantly.
Damn…are black women stealing white women’s style?
Hi hi hi…
Well Mr. Greybeard……I have u know, that curly hair is natural among minority groups. Black and Hispanic mostly. In order for a white woman to have curly hair she must put a chemical in it called a perm. If her curls are natural, you can pretty much guarantee that somewhere down the line of her geneaology, there was some mixing of some races. Black women who have straight hair either have it because they have straightened it with heat or chemical.
I am a black woman and I have natural hair. It’s very curly and I have numerous white women come up to me and say how much they wish that their flat, dead, straight hair could look like mine. I believe it is very obvious that white women go out of their way to look like black women. Getting perms for curly hair, getting tans for darker skin, putting poisons and plastics in their body for bigger breasts and plumper lips, and of course the nightly routines of applying age defying creams. We all know black people age beautifully and gracefully without need of store bought creams or doctor’s botox appointments.
So Mr. Greybeard, whoever you may be, is it really black women stealing white women’s style? Or is that white women have been trying for years to achieve the effortless natural beauty of black women? The answer is evident throughout history. I’m not sure if you have ever heard of Hottentot Venus, if not, let me educate you and others very quickly. Hottentot Venus was a young African girl brought to Europe in the early 1800s. She was put on display wearing nothing more than a loincloth. White women and men alike, poked at her ass and curves and wondered if they were real. They marveled at her body. They gawked in disbelief at her natural essence and have been trying for almost 2 centuries to achieve that same natural beauty. I was born with curves, breasts, curly hair, plump lips, and melanin in my skin. What white women pay for, I have for free. So I ask you again, Who is biting who’s style?
NaturalBeauty, I agree with most of what you said except there are many white people born with very curly hair. Two groups (or one, really) that immediately spring to mind are the Scots and the Irish. (I consider them to be one group because of their common ancestry and no doubt the common root of their curly locks.)
While not all of them have natural curls, many are born with curls ranging from large to tiny – and their skin is so white ya gotta wear shades!
But there are two aspects of so-called ‘Black Women’s Style’ that I wholeheartedly resent:
1. It is more than acceptable for a black woman to wear a wig. In fact she can own and wear more than one (tho not all at the same time). White women are ridiculed if they wear a wig – unless they are performing in a Las Vegas show or a movie.
2. Any Black woman, from pretty to homely, can wear her hair super short and pull off looking like an African queen. Unless a White woman is very pretty, extremely short hair just makes her look butch – even when she’s not.
Okay, so maybe it’s jealousy and not resentment. Maybe it’s both.
I agree with you MmeVautour. I should have made myself more clear as far as mixing races. When I said that, I of course included minorities but also other ethnicities such as Scots and Irish who have curly hair. I know of many white people who have curly hair and say it’s because their father is part Scot or their mother is part Irish.
And as far as this whole topic goes, I’m very much an advocate of female empowerment and acceptance of themselves. No matter race, ethnicity, size, sexual orientation, or any matter. I wish we could all just love who we are naturally and not try to fit into any societal standards of beauty. Pale Irish women should love their skin just as much as dark Africans and vice versa. I think appreciating the diverse looks of different women of different cultures without thinking that one is superior to the other is goal that we should strive for.
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