Is Country Music Racist?
IS COUNTRY MUSIC RACIST?
COMMENTS:And Hollywood isn’t EXACTLY the model of inclusiveness. shouldnt this be under joke ballot? I consider it to be pretty much a joke ballot, but I’m sure there are some who will get all bent out of shape over this. Interesting question! In the 20’s and 30’s there wasn’t that much difference between Country ,or Hillbilly as it was then called, and Blues. One of the very first Country stars was a black harmonica player named DeFord Bailey (he was a star of the Grand Ol’ Opry from the late 20’s until he was fired in the early 40’s- he was supposedly fired because he was black). If there’s anything to legend a lot of those old time country singers learned to pick them gittars by watching and listening to old blues singers singing on street corners (supposedly Hank Williams started that way). Even in the 50’s it wasn’t unusual for a record to become a big hit on both the R&B and Country Western charts at the same time (it was one way though- Jerry Lee Lewis had hits on the R&B chart but Chuck Berry never made the Country Western chart). Since then both R&B and Country have moved more and more away from their roots though. Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly might have paled around and played together once, but it’s hard to imagine 50 Cents and Alan Jackson doing that today. There are whites who want to wear bling bling, but very few blacks who want to wear cowboy hats. I’d say there is definately racism, but it’s more than that really. The cultures have just become irreconcilable. Interesting question, but like Lemmingstraggler just said, the music styles overlapped and were almost indistinguishable at one time. ‘Cept the white boys used to dress up funny at the weekends. ;) by zig on Mon May 23, 05 3:15pm [+] Black people have too much taste to like country music. I do not listen to country… Country music is not diverse because it is made up of all whites (the majority of the population) except for a few notable exceptions. Rap music is diverse because it is made up entirely of blacks (a distinct minority of the overall population) with a few notable exceptions. Explain this please. White people that listen to country and rock instead of listening to rap have the best taste in music. Actually Beelze, there is a black rapping cowboy in country music who has just recently hit the scene. His name is Troy Coleman. He performed at CMT Video Music Awards recently. Actually it’s “Cowboy Troy”. And he performs with the band Big and Rich a lot. Human beings have too much taste to likr the user Cranky. what a cock
^Agree “Country music is not diverse because it is made up of all whites (the majority of the population) except for a few notable exceptions. Rap music is diverse because it is made up entirely of blacks (a distinct minority of the overall population) with a few notable exceptions. Explain this please.”
by herzog on May 23, 2005 Ok. Its easy.
Country MUSIC is not diverse because it does not take its influences from a wide selection of sources.
Rap MUSIC is diverse because it effectively splices together a diverse range of musical sources to create a diverse sound.
Your need to bring this down to skin color is typical, childish and as usual unwarranted.
Actually widehead the entire ballot is about race, you’d know that if you’d bothered to look into it, rather than just scrolling down to my comment and immediately attacking it. Go ahead and take a look at the top of the page, I’ll wait for you to correct yourself. this is just rediculous… of course all the liberals love rap music and all the republicans like rock or country. Liberals on this website seem to embrace every little aspect of black culture and republicans seem so always be the exact opposite. IS THERE A LIBERAL WHO LIKES COUNTRY MUSIC HERE?? IS THERE A REPUBLICAN WHO LIKES RAP? PLEASE TELL ME ONE OF THESE EXISTS ON THIS WEBSITE! side note… widehead.. rap is NOT more diverse than country. Every rap song is about “bling bling”, cars with rims, bitches and/or hoes, and being…….gangster(what ever the hell that means).
By racist do you mean shit? RawIron, Rap is far more diverse than country. Country hasn’t progressed for about fifty years. Rap has blended with Metal, Jazz, Funk, Dance…
You opinion of Rap music is clearly based on the crap in the charts. If you actually went out of you way and listen to actual proper Hip Hop BANDS, you would notice that lyrically, and musically they have far more intelligent, diverse and though provoking than any Country singer.
” far more intelligent, diverse and though provoking than any Country singer. “ Only certain rappers, and most of the emotion you talk about is aggression/ anger. How often do you hear rappers talking about love or the other positive emotions that accompany it? Not as often as country music i can tell you.
Dont get me wrong, i love my rap/ hip-hop ( not the shit in the charts ) but im under no illusions about it, a lot of it is full of negative imagery and outdated attitudes concerning women, male pride, drugs, crime and general attitude to other humans. There is still an undercurrent of anti - white racism through the majority of it as well.
That’s the same as saying all RAP music is racism. Is it? Country music is facing the charge of racism here because there are few, if any, black country singers. All ountry singers care about is making stupid love songs, or songs about the complexities (lol) of modern cowboy life. Rappers talk regularly about black power, stealing whiteys money and power from him ( and often his wife ), and starting million man marches to put a black president in power, so he can free all the black people from prison whether guilty or not ).
Now, you tell me which should be facing the charge of racism?
Rockhead No.
I’m a fan of neither rap nor country except for maybe some old, old stuff. Could somebody please explain Kid Rock to me?
He’s a “cowboy baby”.
“Actually widehead the entire ballot is about race, you’d know that if you’d bothered to look into it, rather than just scrolling down to my comment and immediately attacking it. Go ahead and take a look at the top of the page, I’ll wait for you to correct yourself.”
by herzog on May 24, 2005 I was addressing your comments, herzog. Your comments were about the diversity of music - or perhaps you weren’t clear enough.
Perhaps you read the question to be to ask “Is the Country Music scene racist?”
The fact that a particular genre of music is dominated by performers of a particular race is not racist in itself. Certainly the attitudes of the performers, or the content of their material, can be racist but again, that is clearly not what was asked.
Sorry for addressing your points and highlighting your usual closet racism.
“Does the lack of inclusion of minorities constitute an act of racism?”
There you go. Obviously you didn’t read the ballot. The entire thing is whether or not a lack of minority singers makes it racist. Please try to read the ballots in the future. I have niether the time nor the inclination to spell every one of them out to you.
“The fact that a particular genre of music is dominated by performers of a particular race is not racist in itself.”
by wideheadofknowledge on May 24, 2005 There I go again, addressing the question. Well, well, whatever next?
“Certainly the attitudes of the performers, or the content of their material, can be racist but again, that is clearly not what was asked.”
Uh oh, bringing up a salient point! Not one of your methods I know herzog, but still, some of us like to do it now and again.
And lets review what you said…
“Country music is not diverse because it is made up of all whites (the majority of the population) except for a few notable exceptions. Rap music is diverse because it is made up entirely of blacks (a distinct minority of the overall population) with a few notable exceptions. Explain this please.”
by herzog on May 23, 2005
Your confusion of music with the music scene was deliberately done to bring up some false belief that Rap music is exempt from being called racist (because it is diverse) thus highighting your favourite topic (reverse racism) once again. No one suggests that the Rap or Country scenes are diverse because in terms of ethnic make-up they clearly aren’t. Moaning about the rap scene being made of predominantly black artists is like complaining because most bagpipe players are Scottish or that most didgeridoo players are Australian.
The music itself though is a different matter. You choose to confuse the two on purpose.
In the same way that you whined about your myth of Affirmative Action you are now doing it here. Accusing minorities of sidestepping laws that keep the white population oppressed.
It is racist, it is nonsense and, thankfully, more and more users here can see you for what you are.
Your presumption is false widehead. Only a very few mindless ruminants such as yourself think Herzog is racist. Anyone with any degree of intellectual and emotuional equilibrium can see otherwise.
*emotional Let’s review what’s gone on here so far. The ballot was created to address wether country music is racist because it is dominated by whites. I point out that if that is the case rap is just as racist because it is not diverse at all. All well and good so far. Then you come here and claim that the racial diversity has nothing to do with the ballot and I shouldn’t have written anything. I point out that of course the ballot has everything to do with lack of diversity being equal to racism and you pretend that you have addressed the issue and I haven’t. That about sums it up. Oh yeah, and you called me a racist a number of times for no reason, that’s about on par with your usual strategy. If you can’t win with a well thought out argument just call your opponent a racist and hope he gives up. You could be the next jesse jackson. country music is all about either love, God, or the ups and downs of everyday life. Sometimes funny too. Now the rap that is on TV nowadays has gotten worse than in the 80s. The stuff you don’t see it even worse. Go to the music store and look in the Rap isle. Most of the CDs there have a “Parental Advisory - Explicit Content” on it. You hardly can find any like that in the country music isle. Now, hip-hop on the other hand has some good artists and isn’t as bad as the rap/hip hop genre. COWBOYTROY.com There were lots of black country music artists, including Charlie Pride, Cowboy Troy, and Deford Bailey, among others. 3 cheers for Charlie Pride.
