Reply To: Fame

#24081

Dan27140
Participant
Black people started Rock n' Roll. Little Richard, Fats Domino, Chuck Berry and even back to the turn of the 19th/20th Century, argue some historians, the African-American community had full reign of rock. Back in the 1950s in Memphis, Sun Records was one of the few recording studios that would allow black people to record their music and market it to radio stations and record stores. Then Elvis came along: He was white, yet he sounded black. Now kids didn't have to secretly listen to black music on the radio behind their parents' backs: they could freely listen to black music with a white face, their parents none the wiser. From then on, record companies sought white performers who sounded black, purely for marketing purposes. Even today, many white parents would feel more comfortable with their daughters listening to the sterile sounds of N*Sync and Mariah Carey (who appears white at first glance) rather than the rough edges of Mary J. Blige or the blatant innuendo of Sisqo. There's also the possibility that white faces put them more at ease. Although the latter two artists are arguably more talented and cutting edge than the former two, buying tastes and possible misgivings regarding black artists cause the former two artists' platinum records to far outnumber those of the latter two.

With Eminem, I think Dr. Dre got wind of the fact that about 80 percent of rap's audience is white teenagers (when it comes to the mass-marketed stuff) and decided to tap into it. All he had to do was find someone with more street credibility than Vanilla Ice who happend to be a really good MC, and then promote him like crazy.

Although virtually all the significant advances in popular music come from black people (rock, blues, jazz, reggae, soul, funk, metal [attributed to Hendrix], hip hop, reggae, ska, R&B, etc.), the record companies seek to market whatever comes along to the white majority. That is because the biggest portion of purchasing power lies within the majority's hands.

User Detail :  

Name : Dan27140, Gender : M, Race : Hispanic/Latino (may be any race), Religion : Pentecostal, Age : 21, City : Los Angeles area, State : CA Country : United States, Occupation : Student, Social class : Lower middle class,