On Fri, 8 Dec 2000, christos wrote: > > > I agree. Our music isn't "black" enough. It's too fast, there's no > > rappin, mackin and pimpin in it, it's not "urban" enough. House is too > > "gay". I have stopped worrying about it. If I was waiting to get paid > > from negroes, I'd be living under the overpass on I-75 and Mack. Or > > living in a refrigerator box like my man Jean-Michel Basquiat.
I think this position may be missing a couple of things: 1. The are structural reasons why the type of music people listen to in Detroit is NOT techno/house... 2. When techno became rave and came back from overseas, the sound changed. Blaming black people--actually YOUNG black people....because there are still a core group of house/techno heads in the 25-40 demographic...for either #1 or #2 doesn't make much sense to me. Given that techno is a "universal" underground phenomenon rather than one particular to black audiences....it makes SENSE that whites buy the music more than blacks do. There are more OF them to. The same with hiphop. > This is something that really bothers me. Although I am white (or > caucasian, or whatever) , I think that cultural diversity and a strong > black influence are what make Detroits music excell. Think about this- > how many cheesy trance djs or happy hardcore djs are black? Without the > black influence, or any cultural influence on dance music, the music > becomes bland, boring, and lame. "Bland,boring, and lame" are all subjective judgements....but I feel you. It's at least partly because of how I came into the music that the term "happy hardcore dj" ITSELF conjurs a painful image in my head. > One reason behind this, is that 90% of Americans think that "techno" or > electronic music in general is a European thing. The mainstream music > industry adapts to such a belief and markets thier product of dance music > to a white audience. Its amazing how well this works, for even when you > have an alleged "underground rave scene" which has grown nationwide, yet > still attracts a largely white suburban audience- despite the fact that > the music originated in Black communities, and despite the fact that > "ravers" cling to that stupid, hypocritical slogan "PLUR." Market > segmentation, audience building, and stereotyping are very sucessful tools > used by the media coroporations. But they are also the tools of any underground right? It's just that the audience choice in this particular case ends up alienating the segment that for a long time represented the genre's core audience. > Sorry about this rant, I can go on about this forever. It just scares me > that dance music MIGHT fall down the same path as rock, r'n'b, etc. It is > already heading that way with trance. Well...I think the biggest concern with dance music is that it becomes synonymous with the trippy drug scene. We're definitely moving towards that..... peace lks
