Now, I have been a music lover for as long as I could remember. It doesn’t even matter what kind of music it is, in some way I have been diverse in all different genres. But I can easily say my favorite genres of music are rap and R&B. I think the reason why these have always been my favorite genres of music is because not only did my parents listen to a lot of it, but I was also influenced by it even at an early age. My grandma told me that when I was a baby I would constantly cry about every little thing and would get on her nerves. But one day, Whitney Houston’s “I Have Nothing" came on the radio and I instantly shut up. Years later when my grandma told me the story she said, “If I knew Whitney Houston was what it would take to shut you up I would have played that song everyday”. So I guess you can say these genres of music were a part of my life for as long as I could remember.
But I’m not here to talk about Whitney Houston or how I got on my grandma’s nerves, I’m here to talk about how people love to bring the topic of race into music. The other day, I was talking to one of my close friends and while on my Pandora station, a Fall Out Boy song came on and I said I liked it. Then my friend said, “Man, you really like this white music?” I was kind of surprised at first, but then I just played it off by laughing at him. But it did get me thinking though. What did he mean when he said “white music”?
Did he mean that Fall Out Boy was only for white people? Or that all rock n’ roll music was considered to be white music? While that was just my friend’s personal opinion, he isn’t the only one that has that mind set about music. When most people think of a popular genre like hip hop/rap, they generally think its’s only for black people. While it may be true that black people originated hip hop, that doesn’t mean other races shouldn’t be able to enjoy that music either. That’s why when people say this is “black music” or “white music”, I feel some type of way because it kind of limits people from being able to open up different perspectives in music.
In 2015 we still live in a generation where race seems to always play a role in our lives, whether it is through political issues or through our own personal experiences. It is just something that we cannot simply just sweep under the rug and pretend it doesn’t affect us. But what I’m saying is that race should not be a factor on how we look at our own interests in music. Just because society likes to label music to what race we are does not mean we have to sit back and give in to it. If we looked at music through race by who originated it, then mostly every genre of music would be labeled black music since technically most of the sounds we hear in music originated from African culture. There’s a quote that I heard a long time ago that says, “Music speaks what cannot be expressed”. Now I can’t speak for anyone else, but to me this means that music is something that can be felt and shared by anyone. It doesn’t matter if you grew up in an urban area or if you lived in Mr. Rodgers neighborhood. Music will always be something in life that plays a factor in bringing people closer together, no matter who they are and where they are from.
