While scrolling through Twitter I came across this tweet.
Now, I have know this for a while. Black people’s influence on rock and roll is one of the truths that often gets erased by Eurocentric music history that focuses on white figures and ignores all the black blues musicians and black rock figures that influenced the genre. Figures like Muddy Waters (who Led Zeppelin stole from) and Chuck Berry are forgotten, while the people they influenced e.g. Elvis, Zeppelin are immortal to audiences of all ages and races.
I am no expert on black influence on rock music. All the facts presented here are the result of some cursory searching on my part: Less than a few hours of research over numerous months. You don’t need to be a blues or rock aficionado to know about the erasure of black influence. Which is what makes it more frustrating when people respond with comments like this:
As I told this guy, Elvis was influenced by black blues musicians. As Elvis said, “rock and roll is nothing but rhythm and blues (which was dominated by black artists at the time).” Black artists, like Chuck Berry, are also credited with popularizing the use of classic rock stylings, e.g guitar solos. The fact that the black influencers are erased only highlights the impact white supremacy has on history.
To be fair to Stephen, he actually admitted he was wrong.
Sadly this is not how it typically goes online or in real life. When people are presented with information that clashes with their world view, they typically just double down. For every “wow that’s interesting” you get five “lol ok.”
The OP here also brings up a point about people embracing new genres, such as rap, once they find non-black artists that they like. For these people, the genre is only good due to the presence of white or Asian artists.
I can’t say it better than this tweet. I know plenty of people who ignore black rappers and then rave only about Eminem. Now, I love Eminem. But if you think rap was garbage before he got popular, then that shows your own racial bias. Likewise, if rap only became tolerable to you once BTS got involved, then that just shows you were actively avoiding black musicians.
Here is a great example. Rap has never been just about “the swag.” Some songs are about that. Maybe some of the stuff you hear on the radio is about that. That does not mean it encompasses the whole genre. That is like me judging all of rock music from what I hear on the radio. I used to think country was all about pickup trucks and beer, because that was the country my college roommate played. Then I did my own digging and found country that is stylistically closer to blues. I broke out of my ignorance.
People who stereotype an entire genre of music, are more likely to stereotype an entire group of people. One could argue the tendency to stereotype people leads to stereotyping music. Chicken or the egg I guess.
“…without blues there’d be no devil’s music (rock).” Lucifer Morningstar, Lucifer
Leave a Reply