AFRAM Blog Post #2

Johnny Le

In Tracy Moore's "Oh, the Unbelievable Shit You Get Writing About Music as a Woman," Moore begins to emphasize and the absolute ridiculousness of male reactions to female songwriters. Moore specified that if other men talked to her about rock, it would be a "hostile attempt to quiz me on records to 'prove' I had the right to talk about a band" (Moore). This sort of "gate-keeping" rock is an obvious form of rockism, where white men are claiming it as "their very own." Based on the prior articles we read for this class, we should be aware that the white men were the ones "stealing" from marginalized pioneers. In this case, Moore clearly has an expertise on rock music and songwriting, yet people that are less or just as equally talented as her are doubting her skills, simply due to the fact that she is a woman. Moreover, in "Still Fighting the Power", Theresa Riley interviewed Jeff Chang, the author of a book on the post-civil rights era on hip hop. Chang stated that Chuck D once said that "hip hop was CNN for blacks... since then he would say that it's become CNN for marginalized young people" (Riley). Some people may see this statement as a way of gate-keeping, like typical white men with rockism. However, this draws in the importance of separating the two. Hip hop was originally created by and for black people. Although hip hop used to be commonly stereotyped as "inappropriate," the real struggles are sometimes best translated through vulgar language. As for rock, white people took ideas and songs from marginalized people and claimed rock as "the white genre."
I chose two songs by Rico Nasty because I think she best exemplifies defining genres. She normally blends the sounds of rock and hip hop together without caring about people's expectations.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-D4happ4TQU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qF-HLNVKi0I