> CB: Yea, it's more a kind of proportional influence. There is European
> and white influence in blues, jazz, rock'n roll, r and b, but it is a
> "minority" influence. The major influence is Black.
This is about right, though I'm not sure you can break it down proportionately, even metaphorically (as I'm pretty sure you aren't trying to give a figure of 73.5%).
> This is significant
> because in just about everything else in American culture the major
> influence is white. Popular music is different than most of the rest of
> US culture, (except maybe sports culture) in having major Black
> influence in the blues, jazz, ragtime, rocknroll, soul, Spirituals and
> Gospel genres.
I think a fair amount of metal has managed to lose the blues, probably one reason I've never cared for it.
> Also, there is a differentiating dynamic in an oppressed group making
> itself distinct from its oppressor group. So, in many ways Black music
> is explicitly, purposefully, definitively and consciously "not-white".
> Blues and jazz as played by Black people was not just not white because
> Blacks were forbidden to be like whites, but because it was a way for
> Black people to be different from whites ideally, in the sense of Black
> is beautiful, we want to be different from whites. It is in many ways
> specifically developed in antagonism to white musical forms. It is
> national liberationist music. You dig ?
Paging Henry Dumas. Mr. Dumas, there is a party of white people requesting admission to this evening's event. Mr. Dumas, please pick up the courtesy phone.
John A