Race

Race

1. The Minstrels

   • Performed on stage as caricatures of what white people believed it was like to be black
   • Created sense that black people were "other": untelligent, crude, uncivilised
   • Black and White Minstrel shows were shown on British TV until 1978
   • the shows proudly affirmed the social, moral and cultural superiority of whiteness (Ward)

2. Black became white

   • White people have appropriated genres which are typically black such as Rap
   • The music industry developed separate and unequal branches to cater to racially segregated markets (Shank)
   • Before the 1950s, whenever a new form of African-American popular music would attain growing commercial popularity, greater economic rewards would go to the white performers who had adopted the broad outlines of the current musical style and who had better access to the channels of the music industry that catered to the larger white audiences
   • Surfaced when Elvis Presley captured the rock'n'roll crown from its black innovators. He was a white guy selling black music to white people
     • This controversy has become particularly lively since whites like Vanilla Ice have achieved superstar status in Rap
   • Issues
     • For whites: authenticity
     • For blacks: self-determination
     • For both: cultural identity
   • By and large, African American artists must first demonstrate success in the black market before gaining access to the mainstream [pop market] (Garafalo, 1993)

3. Gospel

   • Came out of Black church
   • gave soul music nationalistic credentials
   • Mahilia Jackson was the godmother of gospel. Unlike Ray Charles who saw the transition from gospel to pop as profitable, she refused to sing secular music
   • Example: 'Move on up a Little Higher' (1948) text is religious but can also be read as a text representing salvation
   • Ray Charles was one of the first artists to turn gospel music into popular music: he made it into a rhythm and blues standard
     • Ray Charles covered The Southern Tones 'It Must Be Jesus' (1954) which was religious in nature used for congregational singing and made the well known gospel song about a hot-to-trot woman with 'I've Got a Woman (1954)
       • The impact of 'I Got A Woman'...[was] nothing short of apocalyptic (Guaralnick)
   • Sam Cooke + the Soul Stirrers 'Wonderful' (1956) released under a pseudonym so as not go offend his gospel fans
     • Sam Cooke 'Loveable' (1956) released in the same. Whereas the previous text was religious, these lyrics are trite
   • In the context of the Civil Rights Movement, musical influences of Gospel were appropriated by the secular world of Rhythm and Blues

4. Rock & Roll

   • Parents condemned the music for precisely the reasons their children loved it
   • It was loud, sexy, fetishistic about the material trappings of young lifestyles – cars, clothes, girls, boys, haircuts, television, music and dance – unmistakably ‘black’ in origin, and increasingly biracial in production and usage (Ward)
   • Example: Little Richard 'Tutti-Frutti- (1956)
     • Mannerisms taken from gospel music
     • Natural extensin of gospel tradition
     • References in lyrics to some sort of sexual conquest
     • Pat Boone stripped Little Richards song of its cultural and sexual meaning (Pat Boone Sydrome: When artists covered black releases in a more acceptable style)

5. Civil Rights Movement

   • Early 1960s led by Martin Luther King Jr.
   • Amendment of declaration of independence needed for the protection of black people
   • 1964: JFK assasinated, legislation passed to allow Black people to vote
   • 4th April 1968: MLK assinated which brought on riots in cities through America (also signaled the end of the Soul movement
     • James Brown scheduled to perform on April 5th in Boston. However, city fathers persuaded gig to be televised rather than live for safety reasons
       • In wake of his performance he released 'Say it Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud' which became an anthem for black liberation
   • Soul
     • Hard-driving sound of Southern Soul
       • Soultrain: Show from 1970s-2000s
       • More than providing a ‘voice’, mass political music reinforces solidarity because the music becomes a vehicle through which the oppressed recognize each other and become more aware of their subordination.
     • Music captured spirit of the emerging black militancy in tone (Garafalo)
       • Sam and Dave's 'Soul Man' (1967): message reflected back on African roots and the community awareness at the time of not belonging in America
     • More poppy sound of Motown was out of sync with the search for African roots
     • Camille Yarborough's 'Take Yo' Praise' (1975) which is sensuous and groovy became Fatboy Slim's 'Praise You' (1998). He made the message gospel 'praise you' and rearranged the instrumental accompaniment to sound like a gospel backing
     • It's no accident that its popularity was limited to the early and middle Sixties, a time when awakening black pride went hand in hand with civil rights activism (Guralnick, 1980)
     • Too singular a purpose to adapt to to changing trends and styles (Guralnick, 1980)
   • Bob Dylan early on claimed a leader with 'Only a Pawn in their Game'
   • The rise of more structural and aesthetic changes in the music industry began with the rise of independent Rhythm & Blues labels (Garafalo, 1993)

6. Funk

   • expression of black cultural experience in America
   • It was a rhythmic anchor at a time and in music of great turbulence (Ward)
   • Aimed to 'rescue dance music from the blahs' (George Clinton)
   • rude, greasy and unwanted (McEwen, 1980)
   • Parliament/funkadelic=extreme, Earth, Wind and Fire= rested comfortably on the side of pop orthodoxy

7. Disco

   • Wasn't respected until the Beegees
     • They made Disco safe for white, straight, male, young and middle-class America (Garofalo, 1993)
   • Perceived as a black pop music, performed more and more by whites, black radio stations had to add more white artists to hold onto listenership

8. Black 1980s Pop

   • Michael Jackson's Thriller LP pointed the way to the immediate future for the industry
   • African-American artists such as Prince were catapulted into a pop industry fully operated by whites
   • Positive: artists who do pop-orientated material are appealing to a broad-based audience, regardless of race

9. Rap

   • Started around the same time as Disco but remained a street movement
   • Only form of black popular music that has become more Afro-centric as it has gained mainstream acceptance (Garofalo, 1993)
   • Black radio has shown a reluctance to broadcast rap
   • Third base: white rap group