Popular Music, White Supremacy And A History of The Blues (Part 4 of 4)
As global musical movements have birthed and rebirthed genres, the influence that the blues and its rich, vibrant history has had on just about every genre of music (at least those that have become popular by way of captivating enough people to create cultural significance) is greatly understated. It can even be argued that the music industry itself began as a result of the popularity of blues and R&B music (see Parts 1-3). While much of this history exists in documented accounts, and there have been many books, essays, films and documentaries made about the blues and its African American history, the disparity between the popularity of so many genres of music that are inherently Black and the popular knowledge of this history means there is a lot of room for acknowledgement.
Though much has been lost to the erasure of white supremacy, the fact is that much of the Black history of popular music has been hidden intentionally. Underground nightclub, rave and dance music culture was originally created out of the need for safer nightlife spaces for queer Black and Latino folks in New York and Chicago in the late 1970s. Rave culture, in particular, has seen a steady rise in popularity over the last decade with commercial dance music festivals creating a huge boom. Subcultures, such as Chicago footwork, characterized by the subgenre and style of street dance, are also increasingly thriving. Likewise, the Afrobeat scene in Africa, which puts more of a focus on dancing than DJ culture, is also seeing an increase in interest from people around the globe. Music has always brought people together. However, the DJs and producers making the most money, getting the highest paying big stage bookings and being featured on official “Top 100” lists, are disproportionately white. And being one of the highest paid DJs is no small feat – Calvin Harris' net earnings in 2020 totalled $38.5 million USD. Even many of the highest paid Afrobeat DJs are from Europe and are not Black.
As the line between commercial dance music and pop music is becoming more and more blurred, pop music made by white artists has become increasingly characterized by sounds and samples “borrowed” from hip hop and R&B music. While the evolution of art relies on inspiration from other artists, these genres and cultural significators came directly from Black folks living in ghettos and poor neighbourhoods, and unifying to create spaces of expression and entertainment for themselves where there previously were none. Of the 20 highest paid pop stars in music today, only six of them are Black, and while the argument that this is true in any industry is valid, 30% is a rather low number when so much of the history of the music industry built directly on the backs of Black people is considered. Regardless of intentions, this is a systemic problem that goes deeper than just paying racialized artists more, and it bears questions of an insidious but widely accepted, tongue-in-cheek sort of cultural appropriation.
When it comes to dance music, club and rave culture and the subsection of the music industry that was, until very recently, often looked down upon by more traditional musicians, there is a rich history that dates back not many decades ago. In the 1950s, a new culture of street parties was created by a group of DJs in Kingston, Jamaica. They would load up a truck with turntables, speakers, and generators, and throw free street parties that everybody and anybody was welcome to attend. At the time, R&B music was gaining global popularization, so DJs would play these records along with the regional reggae and uptempo Ska. This gave rise to the worldwide popularity of reggae and, later, dub music, with artists like Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Lee “Scratch” Perry and Augustus Pablo gaining global notoriety for their feel-good sounds so characteristic of those genres. This was the birth of turntablism and DJing as a means of musical self-expression and bringing people together. Over the next few years, this was brought over to America and the UK by Jamaican immigrants and had a massive influence on cultural evolution in both regions.
About a decade later in America, the soul and disco frenzy, also born out of R&B, was starting to see its rise. However, discotheques and social clubs in the United States were primarily for affluent white and white-adjacent folks. At the height of the AIDS pandemic when queerness was considered by many to be a disease in and of itself, there also was not a lot of space available for queer folks to gather. Being queer and Black meant both a looming lack of safety in the world, and very few places to spend time with one another and mingle. Though disco’s most notorious included the names of many Black icons (Donna Summer is one example), the culture around nightlife entertainment that carried forward from the days of segregation, and the exclusivity of discotheques and social clubs, meant that the spaces these artists played in were mainly frequented by people that were both white and financially well off.
This led to the first underground dance music clubs: Paradise Garage in New York and The Warehouse in Chicago in the late 70s. Both of these iconic venues were created and carried forward by queer, poor Black folks wanting to dance and mingle. Taking influence from the turntablism brought over by soundsystem DJs in Jamaica, the pioneers of house began mixing R&B and disco records together, and this was the birth of house music, named after The Warehouse. Larry Levan and Frankie Knuckles, both Black, are considered to be the two original pioneers of house music and are credited for both its birth and popularization
Later, in the 80s in Detroit, techno would be created by a group of Black artists named Juan Atkins, Derrick May, and Kevin Saunderson, taking influences from house and adding drum machines and other electronic elements.
By the early 90s, these genres started to gain popularity in the UK, as did large-scale dance music parties in warehouses and other clandestine locations. Inspired by both soundsystem culture brought over by Jamaican folks and the queer culture of underground party experiences born in America, a new phenomenon of rave culture was born. However, these events were still mostly frequented by white folks, and the history of the cultures that directly influenced this new sensation was lost on attendees almost immediately. Even today, many people engaging in rave culture, which has since gained mainstream popularity, are unaware of the deep history behind this music, and many actually believe it was started in the UK by white people. Although many subgenres of dance music such as jungle, drum & bass and UK funky did start in the UK, they too were initiated by Black folks. The well-known acronym "PLUR", considered to be an ethical guide for ravers, stands for "peace, love, unity and respect." The original four principles of hip hop culture were "peace, love, unity, and having fun." Is there a responsibility that those both profiting off of this culture and consuming it have to respect its roots?
Hip hop culture has had a massive influence on so much of the music industry and those that have become successful within it. Though the ethos of the culture itself is that anybody who wants to engage with it is welcome, so long as they are respecting one another, there has been an undeniable cultural appropriation that continues to be capitalized on at the expense of Black artists. First pioneered as a sound in the late 70s by a Jamaican immigrant named DJ Kool Herc, the original four main elements of hip hop were DJing/turntablism, MCing, breakdancing (or b-boying), and graffiti art. During the 70s and 80s, much of America was seeing an economic collapse. Black and Puerto Rican neighbourhoods in New York boroughs such as the Bronx were the heaviest hit. As a result, many businesses including bars, clubs and record stores shut down. It was around this time that racialized youth in areas affected the most by the economic downturn began gathering in the streets to find ways to engage and express themselves. After the historic block party hosted by DJ Kool Herc and his sister from their Bronx apartment in 1973, Herc’s iconic style of breakbeat DJing and a turntablism technique known as beat juggling were popularized, and the influence of these sounds have been an integral element of many genres of music since. From streetwear fashion to pop music, there are hip hop influences everywhere. Yet, less than half of the most successful artists in the music industry are Black or even non-white.
How has this white-washing of historically Black music been carried forward in the industry? A lot of it is insidious, but it informs so much of the entertainment that people regularly consume on a large scale. If there is truly to be equity in the world, those profiting within industries that hold the most power are responsible for making sure that changes happen on a systemic level. Until then, it’s up to those working from the bottom up to make changes the same way that the pioneers of these forces of unity and entertainment chose to do, despite the odds stacked against them. With the Black Lives Matter movement and more and more acknowledgement of intrinsic disparities that still serve to benefit whiteness at the expense of those not fitting within that image, there is no better time than now to start really asking questions about the responsibility artists have in creating tangible change that benefits not just Black artists but the equity of everyone working in music. It’s possible that an industry built on white supremacy, inequality and theft cannot ever truly be made equal. If this is the case, it is up to the underground to create change. Perhaps, it has always been this way, but the difference between now and the past is that we have access to more information and technology than ever before, and there is no longer any excuse for ignorance.
Resources:
https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/campbell-clive-dj-kool-herc-1955/
https://iconcollective.edu/the-history-of-house-music/
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/hip-hop-is-born-at-a-birthday-party-in-the-bronx
https://mixdownmag.com.au/features/columns/musicology-the-history-of-sound-clash-culture/
https://www.musicorigins.org/item/the-warehouse-the-place-where-house-music-got-its-name/
https://www.statista.com/statistics/318005/highest-earning-djs/
https://www.streetlife.app/music/the-history-of-sound-systems/
https://www.timeout.com/newyork/nightlife/paradise-garage-the-oral-history-of-n ycs-greatest-club
https://youtu.be/a0QxrtAUqBc