A heated discussion on 'Race, Gender & the Blues'

[chuck 249]

Ok, now I guess this has become a what is rock and roll and what is R&B thread.
You say those three gentlemen came out of a R&B background, but I say
they came out of a blues background, and then evolved into R&B
artists.

Maybe I should have, for discussion sake, kept it to country. Let's do
that, instead of argue about where R&B started, and Rock began. Why do
you suppose so few black artists were chasing the country genre money,
if money (as Dick claims) is what it is all about? We know they had
the talent, and the vocal chops. Country music is just as green, or
greener, than that of the blues genre. I know plenty of them listened
to it and liked it, and I know that the country genre has been popular
(i.e. profitable). It wasn't because they didn't like money or need
it, we all do.

Was it simply because of one of the two factors that this Chicago
symposium dealt with was at play, racism? Do you suppose that the good
old boys that ran things said whoa there brother man/woman, where in
the hell do you think you are going (ok, let in the black black guy)
this here is "our music," which I guess is essentially the flip side
and what has some people rattled over whites playing, selling, and
taking some of the blues market share. I think it is, and why the
problem is not crossing over, the problem is the one no one usually
wants to talk about, racism.
The racism is from both sides. I just think that there is an argument
to be made that the country genre has, with a couple of exceptions,
been able to lock out the African American artists from having much
more than crumbs of their country cobbler, while we have been reading
in this very thread that half of many of the blues festivals acts are
white...as is often the case when you listen to the various blues
radio shows.

When it comes to the blues pie, which started off as an African
American art form, the Anglos have come in and taken half the market.
The country genre pie, which is much, much larger, has not done the
same. It is isn't because blacks would not like to make money off of
it just like the whites make money off of the blues. Is that because
of racism? If country music would have welcomed black acts long ago
would there be much less friction between the races? I think so. Elvis
took to covering blues artists, and even though Alan Freed claimed it
was something new that he called Rock & Roll (ok, so he stole that
term too), I cannot help but think that down the line those young
white kids who looked deeper into life than how far Buddy's flat top
stood up, realized that black music wasn't as dangerous as they had
been led to believe. Kids in England probably took home the same
lessons from listening to bands like the Beatles and Stones cover
black artists. They realized, to some degree, that we are all
basically the same. Who knows, if the same headway had been made in
the country music genre we might not have to listen to jug heads
claiming they "want to take their country back."

chuck, in dallas

On May 23, 2012, at 22:44, Jay Watterworth <jaywatterworth@comcast.net> wrote:

> Those three gentlemen (along with others) defined Rock and Roll.  They might have come from a R&B background, but they all quickly made rock what it is. To buttonhole blacks in R&B takes a lot out of what rock really is.
>
> I am not denigrating R&B by any means though I don't care much for contemporary R&B.  James Brown, Otis Redding, etc. represented that art form pretty well even though they had a taste of rock from time to time and certainly influenced rock.
>
> Jay
>
>
> -----Original Message----- From: chuck 249
> Sent: Wednesday, May 23, 2012 8:59 PM
> To: BLUES-L@LISTSERV.NETHELPS.COM
> Subject: Re: A heated discussion on 'Race, Gender & the Blues'
>
> I really don't think of those cats as rock stars....R&B stars, yes.
>
> Try again.
>
> On May 23, 2012, at 21:05, "jinxblues@aol.com" <jinxblues@aol.com> wrote:
>
>
> One wonders...at least this one wonders....why is it that there are so
> many white blues acts/artists, while so very, very few black rock and
> country acts/artists? If the theory about it being all about the
> money, then it would only make sense that black artists would have
> migrated into the rock and country genres, where there has long been
> more money to be made than in the blues genre. That has not happened.
> Jimi and Mr Pride. Ray Charles took a few stabs at the country genre
> in the 60s. There you have it.
>
> ---------------
>
> I have given this some
> CHUCK BERRY!
> thought and you are
> LITTLE RICHARD!
> right, I don't know of any . . .
> BO DIDDLEY!
>
> Dick Waterman
> 1601 Buchanan Avenue
> Oxford, MS 38655
>
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