In a word, no.
Blackness and whiteness within popular music is neither here nor there. Looking back over the years we can see our fair share of both ‘genres’. In the 50s and 60s artists like Elvis Presley or The Beatles famously covered music that was considered ‘black’, listeners were often just unaware of this because the ‘white’ covers were more commonly played on radio. Russell Potter (1999) said with music genres crossing over it is harder to define than ever, which is very true and proves why blackness and whiteness are not useful concepts. While some styles of music may be more ‘black’ or more ‘white’, it is impossible to know whether or not that is the case. Musical style can be inspired from all sorts of cultures and races. Eminem is a good example of a mixture of both. While he is a white man, the sound and style of his music could be considered ‘black’, so if we were to use the blackness and whiteness concepts - where would he fit?
Blackness and whiteness within popular music is neither here nor there. Looking back over the years we can see our fair share of both ‘genres’. In the 50s and 60s artists like Elvis Presley or The Beatles famously covered music that was considered ‘black’, listeners were often just unaware of this because the ‘white’ covers were more commonly played on radio. Russell Potter (1999) said with music genres crossing over it is harder to define than ever, which is very true and proves why blackness and whiteness are not useful concepts. While some styles of music may be more ‘black’ or more ‘white’, it is impossible to know whether or not that is the case. Musical style can be inspired from all sorts of cultures and races. Eminem is a good example of a mixture of both. While he is a white man, the sound and style of his music could be considered ‘black’, so if we were to use the blackness and whiteness concepts - where would he fit?
You raise some reasonable point here.
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