Why don't more African Americans like rock?

[SunnyDRE]

?

[Phanatic]

I'm black and all I listen to is rock. From my own experience the majority of black communities just listen to hip-hop and rap and all that, so having grown up around that type of stuff it can be difficult to really get into rock or other genres. I mean you really have to discover it as opposed to it just being around you all the time. And most people will just listen to whatever their friends listen to or whatever is most popular in their area. So that's why.

[LaBellaVita]

i'm not sure, rock n roll originated from black culture and music...maybe it's more about the stereotypes of people who do listen instead of those who don't?

Edited March 14, 2010 by LaBellaVita

[inthisriver]

I'm black and i love rnr.. or i did. Getting into more folk and polka as of late.

[stacks on deck]

because, unlike with whites and rap music, it doesn't make one look cooler with one's peers.

[SunnyDRE]

For those who posted in this thread and say they are black, and love rock.

Question. Does it ever seem as if you get stereotyped more?

For instance. I've noticed among my black friends/associates, they always joke with me about trying to act "white/uncle tom", when i listen to rock around them; And among my white friends, they always refer to me as, "that cool black guy/token."

[JesusisSavior]

well maybe if hendrix's were to fall out of the sky and propose rock as a cool genre...

instead today's pop cultured african americans are ludacris, lil wayne, ect

[Phanatic]

For those who posted in this thread and say they are black, and love rock.

Question. Does it ever seem as if you get stereotyped more?

For instance. I've noticed among my black friends/associates, they always joke with me about trying to act "white/uncle tom", when i listen to rock around them; And among my white friends, they always refer to me as, "that cool black guy/token."

I'm usually around people that have known me a while and know the music I'm into, but some are surprised at first that I'm not into the local music at all. It's definitely expected for blacks to listen to a certain type of music around here. People might look at me funny when I talk about my favorite music and all, but doesn't bother me.

[RocketKing99]

Dude, you Americans are so self-conscious about race.

[Cdlove]

Cuz black girls and fat white girls like rap, and black guys like big asses.

[kevin]

AA's have taste

[bluesy]

Despite innovating the genre, once it became a popular commodity in white mainstream culture, there was no going back to black. It was basically a case of "Fuck this!" that happened gradually as the industry started to cultivate, almost exclusively, an all-white brand of rock, even crowning a white man as its "King." I can only speculate that it was tough for many black folks to consume, enjoy, and relate to something that no longer spoke to - or for - them. Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule, but as general trends go, that's pretty much it, I'd say.

[maXx]

it's an identifying thing .. rap and hip hop speaks closer about the blacks' lifestyle and conditions, i think. they can relate more closely. kinda like what bluesy said.

[Lithium]

There's not enough rhythm in it to shake your ass to it.

[Rock_And_Roll_Over]

I'm usually around people that have known me a while and know the music I'm into, but some are surprised at first that I'm not into the local music at all. It's definitely expected for blacks to listen to a certain type of music around here. People might look at me funny when I talk about my favorite music and all, but doesn't bother me.

I'm not black (half Puerto Rican half Italian, lol), but I used to live in Brooklyn and at least 85% of kids there my age are really into rap. I recently moved to the suburbs, and at least 75% of people in my school favor rap over any other type of music.

I think a lot of it has to do with image....you can be raised in suburbia and haven't suffered a day in your life, but because of the color of your skin you're expected to act all tough or whatever. At least that's what I've seen with the black kids at my new school. Hell, they talk like they're on the streets when really they grew up in a quiet cul-de-sac with identical houses.

[Orsys]

Who says they don't?

[Guest Len B'stard]

Because rock n roll is something that happened 60 years ago and isn't really relevant to people anymore. Also, black people don't tend to take music seriously in the same ways white people do. Like a black person will just dig a fuckin album, a white person will now when the motherfucker was born, who played on it, which hand they used, all of that.

See white people invented iconography, the cult of celebrity, black people just invented getting down. The white mans God is a carpenters son from Nazareth (LOVE HURTS! ) the true original black african God were elements. White people are inclined to hero worship of sorts, they're more likely to hold onto things for some reason, i don't know why and of course these observations aren't absolutes but i do think there's some sort of relevance to em.

Or maybe because black people don't feel like rock n roll belongs to them and were kinda waiting for something to call truly their own (which they got with hip hop) because they're plenty into the ol' cult of celebrity now

White guys tend to be like such such and such "is like, a GOD maaan!!" where as black guys are more like, "that ***** ain't shit" Neither is exactly right either

Black people were crazy into rock n roll around the 60s and such and from there on they were sort of in the forefront of every genre really, soul, house, reggae all of em. Also, the fact that nothings really happened in rock n roll since the late 70s that wasn't an almost alterationless derivation of something that happened in the 60s kinda pales things a bit but i think thats bordering on putting black people on way too high a pedestal, like they can't hang with something thats like, unoriginal and repetetive cuz Lord knows hip hops been looking in a mirror talking to itself about itself for near on 20 years now.

Also, there was a lot more going on in the 60s for black people, music was very much the backdrop to other things for black people whereas for a lot of white people in appeared to be THE thing. I hate talking in blacks and whites. White people appear to have clung to rock n roll somewhat and i think its a brilliant testament to the power of the media because, quite frankly, there's absolutely nothing to rock n roll that there wasn't to The Blues or Jazz excepted the fact that rock n roll was the first was that made it past hipsters and into your living rooms by means or radio and TV. And thats all it is really, John Baird made it so people in Europe and England and....Montana and whatever could hear and see the shit so it was the first international youth...movement....thing.

John Lennon once said that before Elvis there was nothing, which is wrong. There was a lot before Elvis, its only that before Elvis it didn't have to have viewers in the billions to be considered something.

Thats all it is, thats what special about rock n roll over all these other genres really and nothing more, you just got the chance to hear it basically. Media is great in weeding out sort of...bullshit thematic consistencies across the ocean where they barely exist, things like "the english working class expierience and the black american expierience had were very similar in terms of poverty and lack of regard by the ruling classes hence these two sort of disparate strands identifying with blues" and that whole party line which is a bunch of bullshit really, its just a pretty way of saying they were both broke as fuck. Media changed the footing upon which history was viewed and ypon which the history books were written and white people LOVE themselves a bit of history. Mythology.

Media has a way to make a lot of people feel in on something and whether they are or not becomes quickly incidental because its whether you THINK you are or not that really matters and media is masterful at milking moments. Rock historys full of them, Hendrix lands in England for the first time, gets onstage with Clapton, The Who's drums explode on the Smothers Brothers, The Beatles land in America, The Stones play at Altamont.

By and large though i don't think black people had enough respect for it (and that is a criticism). Maybe because their respect didn't mean shit in them days anyway. Neither did white America either come to that. It took white England to show the way and by the time it got back from there black people couldn't recognise it anyway.

White people get a lot of criticism for stealing rock n roll and its not to be ignored i guess but at the same time they took it some pretty fuckin amazing directions. I can't see a black man coming up with Strawberry Fields or Dedicated Follower of Fashion

So lots of little reasons i guess.

Or hows this, black people are like so fuckin advanced and crazy super cool that no genre ever sticks to em man, its like a constant state of fluctuation, evolving in a short space of time from one genre to another to another to another at like, warp speed, while the dumbass whiteman is still stuck on rock n roll whilst black people have gone through soul and funk and disco and house until they just peaked out with hip hop which is basically as good as music can get, its like the Jesus of music.

Anybody buyin this? :xmassrudolph:

But seriously, i don't think its so much a case of black people not liking rock n roll and more of a case of the establishment having kind of clung to rock n roll because its the closest and most convienient and recognisable idealisation of their way of thinking. Because of the medias ability to make it everybodys it made it all seem so new and fresh. And its reprinted and revisited by your Q's and your Rolling Stone Special Editions and your VH1 and your MTVs and your hordes and hordes of journalists writing newer books and editions over the same fucking subject until the spectre of rock n roll looms large in your mind but thats the only place. Look around you, look down your street, rock n roll is dead

Edited March 14, 2010 by sugaraylen

[Guest Len B'stard]

Maybe it was this 'alleged' Elvis quote:

"The only thing black people can do is shine my shoes and buy my records."

I never heard about that quote until a guy at work brought it up as shocking because his family liked Elvis (and his mother loved Tom Jones).

Probably because the quote is untrue.

[LaBellaVita]

Maybe it was this 'alleged' Elvis quote:

"The only thing black people can do is shine my shoes and buy my records."

I never heard about that quote until a guy at work brought it up as shocking because his family liked Elvis (and his mother loved Tom Jones).

There's a lot going around about Elvis being racist. Given the times, it may very well have been a possibility but considering he picked up a lot of black culture early in his life and was teased for it, I doubt that he was.

[kevdo242]

Do Asian Americans have any music of their own? Not like J-pop n shit, something thats actually good?

[Guest Len B'stard]

Do Asian Americans have any music of their own? Not like J-pop n shit, something thats actually good?

Some of em like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0_GV0P7o9E

I don't understand a word but its some of the most passionately performed music i've ever seen.

I've never heard those kinds of rhythms or seen music performed like that or...i think its amazing anyway at 2:50 its like the boys bout to lose his mind...beautiful. From what i've managed to figure out its religious music, sufism. The money they throw on em is like a blessing or something.

Edited March 14, 2010 by sugaraylen

[Guest deleted_19765]

Like len said, blacks don't really tend to look to the past. Hip Hop culture is dictated by a necessity to be new, in fact radically new, every couple of years. The same can be seen in fashion. Whereas ten years ago it was Enyce sweat suits and shit like that it is now tight jeans and (ironically) Rock T-shirts. Are white people dressing that different now? White listeners of Rock music tend to try to grasp the whole picture, to know everyone and everything that's "important". Most black music listeners don't even listen to Rap unless it is relatively new. Songs become old very soon. Like stacks on deck said as well, Rock wouldn't win any respect with your peers in the black community. Blacks have owned the most relevant and appealing facets of popular culture for a long time now, and they have no reason to turn to Rock music.

[LightningBolt]

Do Asian Americans have any music of their own? Not like J-pop n shit, something thats actually good?

My Korean friend likes a bunch of Korean music. I dunno what any of it sounds like, though.

[Carne_asaDA]

Cuz black girls and fat white girls like rap, and black guys like big asses.

POTD.

[Zint]

John Lennon once said that before Elvis there was nothing, which is wrong. There was a lot before Elvis, its only that before Elvis it didn't have to have viewers in the billions to be considered something.

He as talking about life in Liverpool in the late 50's.

HIS life in Liverpool in the late 50's.

Anyhoo...sitting here listening to Valleys of Neptune pondering the question.

I think some of you are painting with pretty wide strokes.