While it may seem to be a modern-day issue (for some, a non-issue), the extent to which the music industry is built on white supremacy goes back to its very beginnings. As blues and later jazz were adopted by affluent white folks as popular forms of entertainment, many gaps have been created throughout time that have made it easy for the erasure of the Black roots of many genres of music. Without the history of spirituals and work songs passed between enslaved people* in the plantation fields of the Deep South, much of the music that is popular around the globe would not exist. Without the influencers that informed the sound and the Black pioneers that have carried it forward and allowed it to evolve through generations, this music would not exist. In what ways has the music industry, and its big media conglomerates (record labels), been shaped by the early history of spirituals, blues and roots music in the Deep South?

Shortly after the Civil War, live entertainment shows became popular events for rich white folks. Freed black enslaved people* were given the opportunity to become show people (minstrels) for financial security and career advancement. However, these opportunities were steeped in racism and total mockery, and the main roles were often given to white performers that would use blackface. While it seems that there is more and more accountability being asked of Hollywood and the commercial music industry to make genuine space those that do not fit into the white-supremacist ideal (and many other ideals as well), the history of this goes as deep as Black history in America.

Even some of the most colloquial phrases or figures of speech we now use can be traced back to the same roots of the blues. A well-known example is the saying that someone “sold their soul to the devil.” The origin of this actually goes back to the 1930s when blues music and juke joints were really shaping the cultural landscape of live entertainment, and a man named Robert Johnson was gaining notoriety around Chicago and the Mississippi Delta area.

The legend of Robert Johnson has been told and retold over many years. The theme tends to be that a young Black man appeared at a popular juke joint with a guitar in the 30s and asked some of the local performers if he could play. They gave him a chance but as soon as he started, they laughed at him, and told him to come back when he had developed some skill. Well, the young man went away. He disappeared and reemerged about a year or so later with his guitar. When he sat down, he slightly turned away from the audience and then began to play. Everyone was completely blown away by his musicianship and performance. The legend is that after he was rejected by the blues players at his local joint, Johnson went down to a crossroads somewhere in the Delta where he met the devil. He, then, made a deal that he would sell his soul and in return become the best blues player that anyone had ever heard.

Sadly, Johnson passed away at the age of 27, as did many incredible and well-known musicians after him. Though a fairly minor figure in the evolution of blues music, his story has become such a part of American history that it has been written about hundreds of times. This story begs the question: what was it that informed such a darkness that it has become a modern euphemism for entering the music industry itself? Unsurprisingly, traces of deep mental illness, addiction and alcoholism can be found in many of the stories within blues history.

Has the notion that fame and praise is a reasonable trade-off for one’s mental and physical well-being become that normalized? Perhaps a topic to be explored another day.

Like most Black artists of the time, it was not until long after he had passed that Johnson received any real credit for his skill or contribution to the blues, and to popular culture as a whole. White supremacy, as it has continued to do throughout history, made it inevitable that the contributions of Black folks were viewed as being solely for the benefit of white people. Without the same opportunities afforded simply because they were Black and seen as fundamentally beneath and also a threat to whiteness, there was never a time when proper credit was given where it was due; the deeper meaning of this music was completely lost on the white people that began stealing, marketing and profiting off of it from the very beginning. The difficulty in researching this history online today (the meticulous fact checking and seeking out several sources for comparison) is a testament to the depth that white supremacy as an institution goes to erase the receipts Black contribution.

As Robert Johnson was gaining notoriety as a bluesman, a boy named Sam Cooke was born, in the early 30s, in Mississippi. Cooke would become a gospel singer and the first R&B recording artist, that would later be the centre of one of the biggest yet little known scandals of the music industry; a scandal that arguably started the industry as we know it today. In the late 50s, Cooke released a string of pop and R&B hits that made him immensely popular in the United States. Though there are several theories surrounding the story of his rise and eventual death by gunshot wound, there are also many holes in the story and missing pieces that make it difficult to determine the truth of what happened to Sam Cooke. Documentaries have been made and books written speculating on the events that led to Cooke being shot, but his death in 1964 remains a controversy, as his many questionable relationships with white music executives and publishers are considered to be connected. Much of his most popular work was released posthumously, and there is controversy around these recordings as well. His story is not unique and can be compared to controversial deaths of other popular Black artists that occurred later in history.

*Edit: As we collectively work to dismantle white supremacy and colonization, it is important to note the ways in which these systems can be internalized and perpetuated through the conditioned language that we use. Parts 1 and 2 of Popular Music, White Supremacy and The Blues originally used the term “slaves” to refer to African people enslaved in the USA. This has been corrected to “enslaved peoples(s)”, or omitted altogether where appropriate.”

Citations:

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/sam-cooke-dies-under-suspicious-circumstances-in-la

https://www.michaellewanski.com/blog/2020/12/30/the-us-classical-music-industry-and-the-white-supremacist-capitalist-patriarchy

https://www.panafricanalliance.com/who-controls-hip-hop/

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/music-industry-racism-1010001/