Why does black people never want to rock?

You don't have to get them. You must only admit that they -- like'me or hate'em -- do indeed rock.

That should've been like'EM, not like'me, but ya don't have to do that either.

I don't think less of them for not liking it, I'm just curious as to why I never see any black people at concerts or hear of any black indie fans. True, I don't see many Pakistan inides either. It would be fun seeing a Pakistan Pavement fan though! And most genres have crossovers of their fan base demographic. Many white people listen to rap etc.
-- Indieholic Anonymous (@ .co...), July 25th, 2002.

1. D.H. Peligro (Dead Kennedys drummer)
2. Skeeter Thompson (Scream bassist)
3. Sly Stone
4. Gary Powell (the Libertines drummer)
5. Bad Brains
6. Poly Styrene* (X-Ray Spex)
7. Chuck Berry
8. Little Richard
9. Mick Collins
10. Jimi Hendrix
11. Pat Smear** (the Germs, Nirvana, Foo Fighters)
12. Vaginal Creme Davis
13. Carl Crack (Atari Teenage Riot)
14. Ivan Julian (guitarist for Richard Hell & the Voidoids)
15. Jean Beauvoir (Plasmatics bassist; Ramones songwriter)
16. Slash*** (Guns 'n Roses)
17. Tom Morello**** (Rage Against the Machine, and, uh, Audioslave)
18. Santi White (Stiffed)
19. Phil Lynott***** (Thin Lizzy)
20. Michael Cornelius (JFA bassist)
21. Bubba Dupree (Void guitarist)
22. Ike Turner
23. Robert Johnson

* = English/Somalian
** = White, black and Cherokee
*** = mulatto
**** = mulatto
***** = black/irish

When it came time for us to discuss Hip Hop in class, the prof brought in some producer from the detroit rap scene called MC Surreal. She was the only one in the class who didn't like rap, with the except of MC Paul Barman who she enjoyed.

A Thousand Miles - Vanessa Carlton
12:51 - The Strokes
Seven Nation Army - The White Stripes
The Scientist - Coldplay
Torn - Natalie Imbruglia
Spaceship - Kanye West, GLC & Consequence
Lucifer - Jay-Z
Sleep to Dream - Fiona Apple
Cause I Love You - Lenny Williams
Mystery of Iniquity - Lauryn Hill
Distant Lover - Marvin Gaye
Am I High - N.E.R.D.
Used to Love U - John Legend
This Love - Maroon 5
Take Me Out - Franz Ferdinand
No Such Thing - John Mayer
Scar Tissue - Red Hot Chili Peppers
The Reason - Hoobastank
Selfish - Slum Village, Kanye West & John Legend
99 Problems - Jay-Z
Electric Relaxation - A Tribe Called Quest
How Many MC's... - Black Moon
The Rain - Missy Elliott

"12:51" (Track 2): "Ah man, I love this song so much that I almost f**ked up the mix down on my album because you can barely hear their lyrics. I went in the mix on my album trying to make the guitar louder, trying to make it sound like The Strokes, and Common was like, 'Come on, man, that don't sound like hip-hop. Come on, man, turn them drums up.'"

"The Reason" (Track 18): "Them my homeboys, I always see them we go to places like England and Canada. We always kicking it backstage you know just having a good time."

"Seven Nation Army" (Track 3): "OK this is another song that is all black people's favorite white song. Everybody loves The White Stripes so it's kind of cliche, but it's really dope and I love the singer/songwriter/producer thing going on, so..."

christ.

I had no idea that Hoobastank kicks it backstage.

But there is still a tendency, that while there have always (well, after 1955 anyway) been a lot of white people getting into musical genres that are normally stereotyped as "black", the percentage of black people getting into musical genres that are normally stereotyped as "white" is considerably smaller.

And I don't really buy the comparision between indie and Christian country here. Country music, not at least the Christian kind, is usually connected with a culture that black people have a good reason to distance themselves from. I mean, you've got the rednecks, the Christian right, the Ku Klux Klan etc. All of them part of a culture that is deeply rooted in the American South. Yes, I am aware that most African American music was pioneered in the same geographic areas, but country music is still very much linked with white people down there, and particularly with rascist and very much right wing ones.

As for indie, particularly in the US, indie started out in the college rock circuit, that is, among kids that were usually liberal, educated, and considerably less likely to be rascist than the Rednecks. Sure, they may be considerably more Middle class than the rednecks, so from a marxist point of view, they may be part of the oppressors while the rednecks are among the oppressed ones. But still, that kind of people are considerably more likely to have a tolerant attitude towards black people and black culture than the stereotype redneck does. And before post-50s r&r, pre-disco, these people were a lot more likely to be into R&B or early funk than the rednecks were too.

So I don't see why black Americans (as a general stereotype here, as I stated in the first paragraph, there are of course lots of exceptions to this stereotype) should see the need to distance themselves from indie (or the rock "canon", which is usually created by rather educated and tolerant people as well).

Indie is of course just an example, and it is correct that, for instance, Coldplay (a band that is loved by Timbaland btw) don't really "rock". So maybe a more natural question would be, why is is so hard for the vast majority black audiences to get into melody/song oriented "white" pop?

Oh, Anthony is so funny! How To Rock Like A Black Feminist Critic to thread. (And I actually think the jump to country is a lot less hard than the jump to indie.) Even if every black fan of let's say Arcade Fire went to a show at one time, there's still way less of them than the white fans due to sheer numbers. What are there like 10 million black people compared to 100 million (okay, exaggerating) white people?

xpost I think part of that, Geir, is social indoctrination. There's socially coded "black things" and "white things." "Black things" when I was growing up in NYC: Hot 97/Kiss FM/WBLS, Video Music Box/Yo MTV Raps/BET, Right On/Honey/Vibe magazines, Martin/Def Comedy Jam/Jamie Foxx Show. "White things": Z-100/K-Rock/WPLJ, 120 Minutes, Rolling Stone/Seventeen/People, Friends/SNL/Home Improvement. Of course because those are mass media things, people are crossing all the time. In the "black community," the general reaction to black people liking "white shit" is "you're weird" so it inhibits people that compared to white people liking black stuff where it's like "whoa, you're so cool and forward-thinking!"

Sure. I mean, I count understand that they prefer listening to Banghra or Bollywood. But why hip-hop? What is it in their cultural background that would make the particularly likely to enjoy American hip-hop? The fact that some American rappers are Muslims?

Geir, people of all colors and religions all over the world are fascinated with and enjoy hip-hop. You can hear rapping in countless different languages.