Why are blacks over represented in music?

[Lance Alworth]

Blacks make up about 12% of the country's population, yet they are more than half of all the so-called "musicians" you hear on the radio and MTV these days. Who is listening to this crap? and its not just rap either. Its like all you have to do to be successful in music these days is to be black. If you're black you'll automatically have your videos played on MTV and radio, and you'll be granted a tremendous amount of success despite having little to no musical talent. Why have we whites allowed this to happen? As a former musician, I find this trend very disturbing, and its almost getting to the point where very little real music is being made anymore. If you look at most black "artists" there is little to no actual instrumentation on any of the tracks they produce. Most rappers and other types of black artists mainly use studio samples and turntables to create what they call "the beat" to their songs. It's nothing but outright laziness (too lazy to compose their own instrumentation) and sometimes outright plagerism as they have been known to steal songs from the 70's and 80's to make them their own. Anyway, I'm rambling here, but like our sports, we really need to take back the music industry as well

 

[Colonel_Reb]

I agree. I can't listen to black music because its not real music. Similar to alternative/grunge taking over from metal in the early 90s, the music industry has shown a penchant for accepting less talented artists/musicians for decades. The technical expertise of many guitar players in the 80s was cast aside for the sloppy sounds of the 90s bands. The lack of instrumental excellence is just another reason why I don't like modern pop or hip-hop/(c)rap. Everything is technology driven, and real artistry has become a thing of the past.

 

[Don Wassall]

The entertainment industry is built on some of the same lies as the Caste System, in this case that blacks are naturally more "entertaining" -- they're better dancers, have better rhythm, are more charismatic, more "soulful," more expressive, etc.


There are two main reasons for the Caste System -- one is part of the ongoing process of degrading whites psychologically, morally and spiritually whilewe are simultaneously being replaced in the population by non-whites as part of The Imperial Multicultural Empire's globalization process, which demands that whites be made into deracinated, mindless consumers. The other is to "uplift" and appease blacks by making them appear to be far better in sports and parts of the entertainment industry than they actually are.


The powers that bearen't going to make surgeons, airline pilots, businessmen or any other vitalprofession artificially black dominated because the results would be disastrous and obvious to everyone, but sports and entertainment are a different story. What else doblacks have to point to as "theirs" in a society in which they perpetually languish at the bottom in every other area?


That's why the Caste System is so entrenched; if sports were conducted on a color-blind, level playing field, blacks would not be nearly so prevalent in football and basketball. Same with what passes for music and other forms of entertainment in American "culture."

 

[jcolec02]

not to mention Robert Johnson and other blacks are so overrated its not even called for...

 

[Leonardfan]

Colonel, no offense but some great bands did come out of the alt/grunge movement. Soundgarden,Alice In Chains and Pearl Jam all have great musicianship and lyrics. There were plenty of good bands in the initial wave but like everything the music industry wants to capitalize on what is popular and signs any bands that fit those criteria therefore watering the whole genre down.

 

[Lance Alworth]

Not to hijack my own thread but I agree with Colonel. Grunge sucked big time. We went from the lofty heights of such players as Van Halen, Yngwie Malmsteen, Michael/Rudolph Schenker, Steve Vai, etc... to low depths of grunge druggies like Kurt Cobain and his ilk. I've heard first year guitar students that could play better than he could. He was just as bad as the rappers were in terms of influence on white youth

 

[Leonardfan]

Jerry Cantrell is one of the most underrated guitar players of all time. Kim Thayil of Soundgarden is also great as was Mike McCready of Pearl Jam. The 80'S had its own crappy music which was the hair bands. Im not disagreeing about Cobain's musicianship but there were talented musicians that came out of the 90's.

 

[Colonel_Reb]

I came of age around 1990 and remember all those bands, and yes, they produced some memorable work, but as a whole, musicianship and being good singers has gotten pretty bad. It just seems as though the music industry as a whole has put so much more emphasis on putting everyone into a slot that they overlook many talented people who are out there. There are a few new songs I like, but I listen to older stuff mostly. Edited by: Colonel_Reb

 

[Lance Alworth]

The hair bands could at least play. By the way, I hate that lameass MTV term. If it wasn't for the "hair bands" (I prefer the term Glam metal) of the 80's, I wouldnt have gotten into the other stuff like Helloween, Savatage, Slayer, Testament, Hammerfall, Rhapsody etc.... and my tastes probably would have been more along the lines of multi-culti pets like Blink 182 and Fall Out Boy. You can thank "hair bands" for bringing metal into the mainstream and bringing in the fanbaseEdited by: Lance Alworth

 

[Leonardfan]

In the 80s during the dawn of the that whole scene there were legitimate bands but the music industry is a copycat industry and eventually every scene will get watered down and overexposed. I don't see how you can say bands like Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and Alice In Chains do not poesess great musicanship, lyrics and vocals. They essentially got their influences from bands like Sabbath, Zeppelin and Floyd. Im with you guys wholeheartedly though on the rock of today, it sucks and rap sucks too.

 

[Lance Alworth]

anyway back to the topic at hand. Don made a really good post about the reason the music industry is so black these days is because like the caste system in football, it is a way to artificially build up blacks when they lag behind in just about every other major field outside of sports and entertainment.

I don't hate blacks, I just find that their culture and mannerisms is all style and no substance. That goes for their music as well. There is no substance to it.

 

[JD074]

I like some of the less well known music today, I guess you could call it "Indie Rock" or "Indie Pop," for lack of a better term. The Shins, The Kooks, Death Cab for Cutie, Interpol, Built to Spill, The Decemberists, The Strokes, etc. (And I really like Hot Chip, I don't know what category to put them in.) I probably don't have an ear for musicianship (like great guitarists) that you guys do though. If I hear a melody that I really like, I fall in love with the song, even if it's not perfect.

 

[Bronk]

I'll go against the grain here. I like a good degree of black music, but not Rap, which I do not consider music at all. I like some Motown soul, Bebop jazz and some black blues. Frankly, music is one of the few things black Americans do well.

At 45, I'm considerably older than the vast majority of people on these boards. My coming of age was the 1960s and 70s. One of my key formative experiences was being part of a small group of white students who integrated a previously all-white school. Music was a HUGE division line between white and black.Edited by: Bronk

 

[foreverfree]

One of my key formative experiences was being part of a small group of white students who integrated a previously all-white school.

Pretty difficult to integrate a previously all-white school if you're white, right, Bronk?

And closer to the topic, the black music I prefer is classic Motown (even the Commodores, a later Motown group, when they had Lionel Richie), blues, Memphis soul, Chuck Berry, Little Richard ... at least real instruments were used there.

I like Gamble and Huff Philly soul too.

John

 

[Bronk]

Yes it was very difficult being a white kid in an all-white school. I had to pay people to beat me up.

Sorry, I meant a previously all-BLACK school.

 

[Colonel_Reb]

I like older black music that was more soulful than black music today. I also like some of the Delta (original) blues. I think as an opressed white man from the Delta, I can relate to that music much better than a black Deltan my age can. This new "stuff" they call blues ain't nothing like old blues. Robert Johnson wasn't perfect, and neither was his musicbut he inspiredtoo many musicians to shake a stick at.

 

[GWTJ]

Whites have been accused for a long time of using blacks for cheap entertainment. The current Caste system is just Bojangles gone corporate.

The truth is, white government officials are scared to death of black violence and will do most anything to avoid it. The entertainment business is the most logical way to appease blacks so they don't take to the streets.

 

[sport historian]

The entertainment industry is built on some of the same lies as the Caste System, in this case that blacks are naturally more "entertaining" -- they're better dancers, have better rhythm, are more charismatic, more "soulful," more expressive, etc. 


There are two main reasons for the Caste System -- one is part of the ongoing process of degrading whites psychologically, morally and spiritually while we are simultaneously being replaced in the population by non-whites as part of The Imperial Multicultural Empire's globalization process, which demands that whites be made into deracinated, mindless consumers.  The other is to "uplift" and appease blacks by making them appear to be far better in sports and parts of the entertainment industry than they actually are. 


The powers that be aren't going to make surgeons, airline pilots, businessmen or any other vital profession artificially black dominated because the results would be disastrous and obvious to everyone, but sports and entertainment are a different story.  What else do blacks have to point to as "theirs" in a society in which they perpetually languish at the bottom in every other area? 


That's why the Caste System is so entrenched; if sports were conducted on a color-blind, level playing field, blacks would not be nearly so prevalent in football and basketball.  Same with what passes for music and other forms of entertainment in American "culture."  <!-- Message ''"" -->

How often have any of you seen black men working on or repairing complex high-tech machinery? Curiously, there don't seem to be many complaints about this. Not even by people who otherwise trumpet their love for "diversity."

 

[Don Wassall]

How often have any of you seen black men working on or repairing complex high-tech machinery? Curiously, there don't seem to be many complaints about this. Not even by people who otherwise trumpet their love for "diversity."

I was watching "Die Hard" the other day, which has held up pretty well since it came out in '88. The bad guy terrorists are all Germans who speak in both English and German in the movie-- except for the geek in charge of figuring out how to crack seven complex computer codes in orderto open the vault in the skyscraper that's under siege. He of course is black.

 

[Bronk]

The truth is, white government officials are scared to death of black violence and will do most anything to avoid it.

Back in 1968 when Martin Luther King was assassinated James Brown was scheduled to hold a concert in Boston. To keep blacks off the streets, the city government of Boston televised Brown's concert. It worked. Boston was one of the few cities that did not have rioting.Edited by: Bronk

 

[foreverfree]

Yes it was very difficult being a white kid in an all-white school. I had to pay people to beat me up.

Sorry, I meant a previously all-BLACK school.

'salright!!!

John

 

[jcolec02]

I still say Robert Johnson was overrated, to hear some people tell it, he practicaly invented the guitar, and I have heard alot of people call country the white mans blues, I know better than that, whites where playin that type of music long before blacks...

 

[foreverfree]

One fact sums up my attitude about today's hiphop-dominated music scene: My refusal to invest in the latest editions of The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits and The Billboard Book of #1 Hits. IYKWIM. Otherwise I could have looked up the chart performance of recent hits like

"Complicated" and "My Happy Ending" - Avril Lavigne
"Standing Still" and "Intuition" - Jewel
"A Thousand Miles" and "White Houses" - Vanessa Carlton
"Make Sense of Me" - Ashlee Simpson
"Miss Independent" and "Break Away" - Kelly Clarkson
"Drift Away" - Dobie Gray's remake of his own 1973 hit, this time done in duo with its composer whose name escapes me, although I like the 1973 version better

Guess I'll have to be content with the 1996 and 1992 editions (respectively) of the above mentioned books...

JohnEdited by: foreverfree

 

[Lance Alworth]

look at billboard magazine and you will see how much of the charts are dominated by blacks, yet they're only 12% of the population. The music industry is run by the same caste system as pro sports are

 

[screamingeagle]

In the 60's a lot of the white rock bands covered blues songs. In the early 70's I bought a record that had the original songs as done by the black artists. I like the white covers better.

Then again I like some of the covers of Bob Dylan songs than the ones he did.