To better understand music we tend to classify it. Before segregation was illegal the music industry made markets out of ‘black’ and ‘white’ music. Barry Shank talks about 'white fascination with black music'. Where white artists like Elvis were famous for singing what had been defined ‘black’ music.
One singer, Estelle, expressed a controversial opinion about white artists singing soul music [Adele and Duffy] : 'I'm not mad at them - but I'm just wondering, how the hell is there not a single black person in the public eye singing soul? … As a black person, I'm like, 'You're telling me this is my music?''
Duffy responded to Estelle’s comments in an interview on Radio 1: 'If the talent and the desire is there, I don’t really think it matters what colour you are. We don’t live in the 1950s anymore. We're in a multicultural country.'
I think music has proven to be more than what we label it and it shouldn’t be identified by someone’s skin colour. Times have changed and music has evolved with the artists crossing between genres.
No comments:
Post a Comment