AFRAM 337 Post #2

Brendan

From the article, "How Rock and Roll Became White", Jack Hamilton describes how the rock-and-roll music genre eventually became segregated. Hamilton highlights a factor that fueled the push in segregation inevitably drew from differences in percieved authenticity. My feelings towards what I thought I knew about rock-and-roll history changed when Hamilton explained that, "Rock ideology is first and foremost an ideology of authenticity: It delineates what constitutes 'real' rock music, including who is authorized to play that music and who is authorized to lsiten to and talk about it." Jimi Hendrix serves as a notable example, where many considered his profile as a black musician in rock-and-roll was distasteful and not authentic. I thought this was important to reflect upon since those who profiled Jimi Hendrix in this way made it easier for people to make a distinctions in pairing racial groups with different music genres. After reading the Wikipedia article discussing the history of hip-hop, I made the connection of the possibility to why hip-hop even began. After the 1960s, as described in Hamilton's article, is when rock-and-roll presumably dominated by white individuals such as Bruce Springsteen and other racial groups were classified in a realm outside of rock-and-roll. Wikipedia denotes that hip-hop began to find its place in the 1970s, so I asked myself whether this was a transiiton due to prior separation of rock-and-roll music in the 1960s. The development of hip-hop may have contributed to continuing the process of subjugating music into groupings that mark racial boundaries.
On another note, the songs linked below exhibit how individuals challenge depictions in considering authenticity between genres and artists. Both of these artists are of white background and display how they have driven their careers in an atmosphere where they are conisdered the minority.

Eminem- Godzilla https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_0JjYUe5jo
Post Malone- Congratulations https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SC4xMk98Pdc