Why does black people never want to rock?

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Blacks have composed, played, and performed rock music since its emergence in the 1950s, but the term “black rock” came to be recognized around 1985. At that time, guitarist Vernon Reid and music journalist Greg Tate joined with a small group of black musicians and music industry professionals in New York City to found the Black Rock Coalition (BRC). Reid was a young but accomplished musician whose work with avant-garde jazz artists such as Ronald Shannon Jackson had drawn critical attention. More significantly, he had recently formed the ground-breaking rock band, Living Colour, an all-black heavy rock band that would eventually score a string of minor hits on rock radio. BRC co-founder Greg Tate was beginning to establish himself as a journalist through his writing on black music in the Village Voice and to build a reputation as one of the major theoretical voices of the burgeoning hip-hop movement. Reid and Tate rightly recognized that the structure of the American popular music industry limited the growth of many black artists’ musical intentions, since throughout the era of rock ’n’ roll, the American music industry engaged in a kind of commercial segregation, placing black performers in tightly regulated categories designed to appeal to perceived demographics of the music audience, and it was rare to find a black musician given official sanction to perform the same with white rock.

http://www.jahsonic.com/BlackRock.html

― Jan Geerinck, Saturday, 1 February 2003 23:14 (twenty-one years ago) link

The thing with this is the first post is asking about "why does black people never want to rock", yet you're specifying indie rock, which generally doesn't rock whatsoever anyway.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Monday, 3 February 2003 14:44 (twenty-one years ago) link

Well, for the most part.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Monday, 3 February 2003 15:09 (twenty-one years ago) link

It can very much rock. It might not funk, though.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 3 February 2003 15:29 (twenty-one years ago) link

why does aboriginals not want to funk?

― the internet (scg), Monday, 3 February 2003 15:34 (twenty-one years ago) link

one year passes...

wow, in light of the OutKast semi-scandal, that's a very prescient post.

― My Huckleberry Friend (Horace Mann), Monday, 16 February 2004 20:49 (twenty years ago) link

I suspect that many african americans perceive the "rock" sound to be white. Co-optation of the form has caused many to turn to sounds they can claim as their own. I can see this continuing with the present backlash/rejection of caucasion artists in the "so-called" backpack movement. Racism and all its cultural attachments "color" our perceptions for better or worse.

― illcentric sounds, Monday, 16 February 2004 21:31 (twenty years ago) link

90 Day Men

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Tuesday, 17 February 2004 01:27 (twenty years ago) link

John Mayer & Dave Chapelle to thread!!!!

― Jon Williams (ex machina), Tuesday, 17 February 2004 01:37 (twenty years ago) link

I rock everyday. However, I call it hip hop. I nod my head. I thrash. I break stuff... Uh okay I don't break stuff, I just fire off a few rounds on the desert eagle. Point is we been rocking. We did it with our gospel (speaking tongues), our blues, our jazz and OUR rock. How else we gonna get that out that frustration.

― METALFACE, Tuesday, 17 February 2004 18:40 (twenty years ago) link

I'm getting frustrated just reading this thread!

― Donna Brown (Donna Brown), Tuesday, 17 February 2004 21:22 (twenty years ago) link

Donna, do you like the Darkness?

― Jon Williams (ex machina), Tuesday, 17 February 2004 21:24 (twenty years ago) link