Thematic Collection 4: Ethnicity

We have spent the majority of our time in this class thinking about how the music industry exploits artists for their sexuality. Another large injustice of the music industry revolves around race or ethnicity. Following the same structures of power as sexual exploitation, those in power have much more of a voice than those without all the same advantages. It is no secret that white males hold all the advantages and power in our society. We have spent a lot of time thinking about the gender part of that equation, but now I would like to spend a little time examining the history of racial discriminiation and disadvantage in the music industry.

A history of exploiting black culture has been a part of American popular music since its very beginning. Beginning in the 1840's, minstrelsy was the first form of musical theater which was created and unique to our country. If you don't know what it is, minstrel shows were basically performances which were completely based around mocking blacks. Performers in "black-face" would sing songs and portray characters which were perceived to be genuine interpretations of African American culture. It took little bits of black culture and exaggerated them and created this system of gaining success at the expense of blacks. Unfortunately, this was a huge staple of popular music for a very long time, and continues to be a part of some music today.

"These negative images of blacks did have some elements of black culture in them, however twisted and distorted the overall effect was . . . Minstrelsy was the first example of the way American popular culture would exploit and manipulate Afro-Americans and their culture to please and benefit white Americans."

-Robert C. Toll, Blacking Up: The Minstrel Show in Nineteenth Century America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1974), p. 51.

The following performance is from 1950, 100 years after the birth of minstrelsy. This shows how long black-face remained culturally acceptable and not viewed as racist at all.

Perhaps the most relevant and common form of black exploitation in the music industry is the cover song. Artists have been covering songs of other artists for a long time. What we dont often recognize is that many of the songs which we attribute to white performers, are actually covers of songs done by black artists. Because of the power and advantage held by white people in our society, they received much greater success for work which was not even theirs. Here are some examples:

                     "Mystery Train"
  -Junior Parker 1953
  -Elvis Presley in 1955

                       "Hound Dog"
  -Big Mamma Thorton 1952
  -Elvis Presley 1955

                         "Sh-Boom"
  -The Chords 1954
  -The Crew Cuts 1954


The industry now prevents songs from being stolen by other artists, but I think it is still easier to for some artists to gain popularity based on there race. Rap was formed in the Bronx in the 1970's and 80's by artists such as Grand Master Flash. But the genre was not legitimized and did not achieve success on the charts until 1986 with "Walk This Way." The reason Run DMC achieved mainstream recognition was because he recognized how important it was to appeal to white men. "Walk This Way" is a collaboration of Run DMC and the popular rock band Aerosmith.