Sunday, August 21, 2005
"What History Can Do to Bad Boys
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/editorial/12434231.htm
"Yet a consideration of the troubled relationship between civil rights leaders and black popular music in the past might give pause to the opponents of contemporary rap, and, for that matter, to proponents of integration. In fact, blues, jazz, rock-and-roll and rhythm-and-blues were all denounced by advocates for racial integration, and for the same reasons rap is now under attack.
In the 1920s, several civil rights leaders were so concerned about the sexual and violent content of popular blues and jazz songs that they established a record company to "undertake the job of elevating the musical taste of the race." Promoted by W.E.B. DuBois and A. Philip Randolph, two of the most important civil rights leaders of the 20th century, Black Swan Records pledged to distribute "the Better Class of Records by Colored Artists," which meant recordings of "respectable" European classical music.
Civil rights leaders similarly opposed the next creations of African American musicians: rock-and-roll and rhythm-and-blues. In the 1950s, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. told African Americans to shun the new music, which, he said, "plunges men's minds into degrading and immoral depths." Likewise, Randolph's Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, which produced a great portion of the civil rights leadership, condemned rock and R&B for their overt sexuality and their "degrading portrayal of Negro womanhood."
This history suggests that the cause of integration has always been at odds with what now is widely hailed as America's most important contribution to world culture. Many scholars argue that the creators of jazz, blues, rock, and R&B were great because of their willingness and ability to work outside European cultural forms and to speak about elements of the human condition that white artists would not, such as sex and violence.
Those who attack the latest form of black popular music for the sake of racial unity and "respectability" might stop to consider which side, in the history that will be written of this time, they wish to be on." ¶ 8/21/2005 06:47:00 AM
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/editorial/12434231.htm
"Yet a consideration of the troubled relationship between civil rights leaders and black popular music in the past might give pause to the opponents of contemporary rap, and, for that matter, to proponents of integration. In fact, blues, jazz, rock-and-roll and rhythm-and-blues were all denounced by advocates for racial integration, and for the same reasons rap is now under attack.
In the 1920s, several civil rights leaders were so concerned about the sexual and violent content of popular blues and jazz songs that they established a record company to "undertake the job of elevating the musical taste of the race." Promoted by W.E.B. DuBois and A. Philip Randolph, two of the most important civil rights leaders of the 20th century, Black Swan Records pledged to distribute "the Better Class of Records by Colored Artists," which meant recordings of "respectable" European classical music.
Civil rights leaders similarly opposed the next creations of African American musicians: rock-and-roll and rhythm-and-blues. In the 1950s, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. told African Americans to shun the new music, which, he said, "plunges men's minds into degrading and immoral depths." Likewise, Randolph's Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, which produced a great portion of the civil rights leadership, condemned rock and R&B for their overt sexuality and their "degrading portrayal of Negro womanhood."
This history suggests that the cause of integration has always been at odds with what now is widely hailed as America's most important contribution to world culture. Many scholars argue that the creators of jazz, blues, rock, and R&B were great because of their willingness and ability to work outside European cultural forms and to speak about elements of the human condition that white artists would not, such as sex and violence.
Those who attack the latest form of black popular music for the sake of racial unity and "respectability" might stop to consider which side, in the history that will be written of this time, they wish to be on." ¶ 8/21/2005 06:47:00 AM
