Happy #BlackHistoryMonth !
I will get to Black history. For now, I'm still on white US history.
Q: Why is so much Black music about violence and misogyny? I'm not racist, but I think Black culture is just more violent. Why does it seem that way?
A: Racism. Rap, trap, and drill, are only the most popular genres of Black music listened to *by white people.* The most popular among Black folk is R&B, almost 2X as popular. Violent rap is mostly for y'all.🤷🏿♂️
https://www.statista.com/statistics/945163/leading-music-genres-african-american/
In the US, "Black products" can be thought of as falling into one of 3 categories.
1) Made by Black people
2) Made for Black people
3) Black people are the product
Many products are a combination. Football is 2) and 3).
Violent rap is mostly 1) and 3). It's "Black" music made for the white ear. That's how a lot of white US music listeners see Black people. 🤷🏿♂️
Trap and dril are definitely *part* of Black music culture, but they're not even close to most of it. But that's how the world sees it.
@mekkaokereke Adjacent to your point: when people say “Black music,” they never seem to mean rock or jazz. Yet the origins of both are solidly both (1) and (2). And in the past, white people certainly thought of both as being Black music.
But huh, look at that, somehow their Blackness seemed to vanish from white imagination as they became popular. Why could that be?
(We know the answer of course. Same answer as always.)
@mekkaokereke Weird thing: earlier there was a reply splaining how rock and roll was really started by white people.
A little while later, the post has mysteriously vanished.
I guess somebody learned something today!
Little Richard was the king *and* queen of rock and roll.
@inthehands @mekkaokereke
Hey cats, dig this! Richard was wicked!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXO1H9i6VdQ
👧🏼 Hey mama! There's this new music called rock and roll! It's played by a queer Black man that likes to perform in drag sometimes as Princess LaVonne! Can you buy me the record?
👵🏻 Absolutely not! Sounds like R&B in disguise!
👧🏼I am sorry mother. I don't know what came over me. So... can I go to the Elvis concert instead?
👵🏻Of course sweetie! That man can sing!
Queer Black man (Little Richard / Princess LaVonne)
https://youtu.be/V1FNveyqgRQ
@inthehands @Voline @mekkaokereke
I met Little Richard IRL in the early 90s. My HS marching band played the Hollywood Christmas Parade, and he happened to be staying in the same Hollywood hotel. He was ultra kind. He was also passing out end times conspiracy tracts which argued that George Bush (Sr.) was the Beast, and JPII was the Antichrist, from biblical prophecies. Because numerology and their names.
It was a surreal experience.
@f1337 @inthehands @Voline @mekkaokereke If that dude invented rock n roll who am I doubt his wisdom
@f1337 @Voline @mekkaokereke
Yeah, ultra-famous people getting into weird conspiracy theories sure is…a thing. I can’t imagine the social and cognitive pressures of being a celebrity. Doubly so being a celebrity member of a marginalized group. I don’t think my brain would survive that.