[Lenn]

I love all kinds of music, from all over the world. Rock and rap are just categories; they're neither good or bad. Within them are so many different levels of musicianship and styles, and kinds of messages. Some artists are concerned with making a 'positive' impact on people, which means helping people become more enlightened by understanding their feelings better, feeling freer via expression, being more accepting of themselves and others, etc. Some artists don't care what impact their music has on others, as long as they make lots of money. That goes for any category of music you can think of.

It's unfortunate, don't you think, that when we think "rock," we think "white," and when we think "rap," we think "black" or "person of color." Black musicians in this country especially suffer from these categorizations. Check out the careers of people like Tracy Chapman or Dion Farris. Commercial music isn't a natural force like the sun or trees. It's a human-made thing, which means there's politics involved. Politics means power dynamics. There are many good books about the political history of music in this country. Did you know the roots of rock are in rhythm and blues, a music innovated by black people? Do you know who Chuck Berry is? Did you know that he did what Elvis Presley did before Elvis did it, but was only allowed have a certain amount of success, because he was black? Unfortunately, though music is pure, people are not. So, read, read and read some more. If you want to know some great books to get I can recommend some titles to you.

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Name : Lenn, Gender : F, Race : Black/African American, City : Oakland, State : CA Country : United States, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

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