You’re Black and Everyone Keeps Telling You That You Like “White Music”
If you’re black and you like a genre like rock, EDM or K-pop chance are you’ve been told that your like white music or that your music taste makes you “not black.”
Music has such a significant impact in almost every culture. But the group of people who pioneered almost every genre of music are black people. In the mid-1950s Chuck Berry played a major role in inventing Rock and Roll despite Elvis being given the recognition, in the late-1950s Motown was created influencing the music scene with black artists. In the 70s Charley Pride was a pioneer of country music and and of course during that same time period black artists in New York created Hip Hop in the 70s, which has a major influence on pop culture today. Many of the top artists on the charts today are black such as Beyonce, Drake and The Weeknd. The other top artists today are heavily influenced by black artists in the past such as Ariana Grande being inspired by Aretha Franklin, Demi Lavato saying she owes her career to Black women like Whitney Houston, Nas and Kanye West being the inspiration of BTS and Bruno Mars crediting James Brown for his career in music.
Even with black culture being a major influence of music of all genres, it seems as though if you don’t listen to just Hip Hop, Rap or R & B then anything else is considered “white music” and your music choice somehow makes you less black.
A large part of our “oreo” experience was receiving these comments on our music selection. Amari talks about loving Paramore and being into more emo music in school, Kia started her fandom of the Jonas Brothers in middle school and then Lady Gaga in high school. She is now a huge EDM/Dance music fan but often finds herself being a small percentage of black attendees at her concerts. Janae opens up about her love for BTS and states how the group is largely influenced by black people and if she feels like there is a level of cultural appropriation there.
In recent years we’ve seen almost a resurge of black influence in music genres like the rise of Alabama Shakes and Lil Nas X crushing charts with Old Town Road.
In this episode we discuss the music we were raised listening to and how it evolved throughout the years.
Is it more acceptable now for black people to like genres outside of Rap and R & B? Is this just because we are older or because times have changed?
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