When I was growing up - indeed, in this country - there was no such thing as "white" music or "black" music. There was just... music.
Sure, more country artists were white and more soul artists were black, but "more", not 'all." I know, in the early days of rock and r&b, it was "race music", but that quickly faded (thanks mainly to Elvis).
I didn't hear about music being racially divided until Tipper Gore's PMRC in the USA started using the term. Suddenly rap was "black", and that was when country became "white". And it infected the world. Even here, across the Pacific, suddenly music was classified by racial divides.
There were no real racial divides until politicians got involved. Now, it's good to see black people in country and white rappers, and very little racial divides in music. Music is for everyone. As The Who said, "One note for us all."
S🤦♂️ - Oh, I'd forgotten about Tipper. One thing I left out was that I kinda grew up on country. My mother loved and it so did most of my parents' friends. She owned a Johnny Cash Greatest Hits album which I played a lot before I started developing my own tastes. Also, every Saturday afternoon and some Sundays, lots of country music programs on TV, including the comedy/variety show, "Hee Haw." Loved that, too.
Thanks for writing.
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When I was growing up - indeed, in this country - there was no such thing as "white" music or "black" music. There was just... music.
Sure, more country artists were white and more soul artists were black, but "more", not 'all." I know, in the early days of rock and r&b, it was "race music", but that quickly faded (thanks mainly to Elvis).
I didn't hear about music being racially divided until Tipper Gore's PMRC in the USA started using the term. Suddenly rap was "black", and that was when country became "white". And it infected the world. Even here, across the Pacific, suddenly music was classified by racial divides.
There were no real racial divides until politicians got involved. Now, it's good to see black people in country and white rappers, and very little racial divides in music. Music is for everyone. As The Who said, "One note for us all."
Thanks for writing.