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Strange assignment from my music teacher

BenzorBenzor Posts: 886
edited April 2008 in Other Music
So I'm taking a class about rock 'n roll this semester. Just got this email for an assignment due tomorrow. I have to respond to this in front of my class. Yay.


"Despite obvious stylistic changes in rock/pop music over the last forty years, I don’t think there’s much evidence that the music industry today is any less racist or sexist, both in the music it produces, and in the manner that it markets these products. If anything, I think it’s worse—that’s right, I’m suggesting that the music of your generation is more racist, more sexist, and of less redeeming social value than anything my generation produced!"

Any thoughts?
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • BenzorBenzor Posts: 886
    Thats the problem I have...I have to find a way to disagree with him and argue that music today is less racist, sexist, and more socially redeeming. I competly disagree with this opinion and I'm kinda stuck.
  • Blind MelonBlind Melon Posts: 911
    Ouch, that sucks...
    If I could, think I would give in.
  • BenzorBenzor Posts: 886
    ok i just emailed him and told him my problem...he said that you can choose either side of the issue. i should be fine. thanks guys.
  • mookeywrenchmookeywrench Posts: 5,953
    uhhhh Pat Boone anyone?

    He coverd music on the R&B label (the music label for black people) so that it would be safe and proper for white people to listen to.
    350x700px-LL-d2f49cb4_vinyl-needle-scu-e1356666258495.jpeg
  • BenzorBenzor Posts: 886
    Pat Boone = joke
  • pjoasisrulepjoasisrule Posts: 3,412
    I dont know if I would call it racism.
    Alpine Valley 2000
    Summerfest 2006

    "Why would they come to our concert just to boo us?" -Lisa Simpson
  • catefrancescatefrances Posts: 29,003
    pjoasisrule wrote:
    I dont know if I would call it racism.

    then what would you call 'it'?
    hear my name
    take a good look
    this could be the day
    hold my hand
    lie beside me
    i just need to say
  • prljmngrlprljmngrl Posts: 320
    It wasn't because Pat Boone wanted to make rap music safe for "white" kids, he was protesting the fact that the entertainment industry was promoting gangster mentality. So he created his own music in that genre to show that it didn't have to involve gang banging. Don't get me wrong, Pat Boone was a flake, but he wasn't off base in his assesment of the industrialization of glamorized ghetto life.

    As for the original topic, music today is just as racist as it was "back in the day". It's just different. Blacks are promoting the segregation just as heavily as whites.
  • merkinballmerkinball Posts: 2,262
    Take a look at music outside the charts, maybe some 'critical favorites' that don't necessarily sell well or hit the billboard hot 100. So maybe the mainstream is still producing music like that, but there is more avenues or distribution methods for music that doesn't fit that, and therefore an audience for it.


    You can also look at the mainstream acceptance of non-white and/or female artists as compared to previous generations.
    "You're no help," he told the lime. This was unfair. It was only a lime; there was nothing special about it at all. It was doing the best it could.

    http://www.last.fm/user/merkinball/
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  • ByrnzieByrnzie Posts: 21,037
    Benzor wrote:
    Thats the problem I have...I have to find a way to disagree with him and argue that music today is less racist, sexist, and more socially redeeming. I competly disagree with this opinion and I'm kinda stuck.

    You can talk about how a lot of the black musicians in the 50's and 60's were ripped off and how a lot of their songs - and also, to a degree, their attitudes and culture - were appropriated by white musicians who proceeded to make a fortune.
    Take Elvis and the Rolling Stones - two examples from either side of the pond. Both of their early repertoire's consist of nothing but cover versions of songs by black musicians who never gained the recognition or comparative wealth that their white peers did.

    Then again, I don't really know enough about the subject to supply you with enough to take into a class presentation. I'm just planting seeds....
  • Blind MelonBlind Melon Posts: 911
    Benzor wrote:
    ok i just emailed him and told him my problem...he said that you can choose either side of the issue. i should be fine. thanks guys.

    I think you should still try the other side that you're comfortable with... I think usually that makes a better speech because you actually try to look for reasons and justify why you believe it's correct... you may not believe it at all, but just trying to side with it can expand your reasoning/hone your speaking skills more so than doing the one you know... at least, that's what I've found out, not saying it's true for everyone.
    If I could, think I would give in.
  • reversedarwinismreversedarwinism Posts: 1,151
    slowly stroke me... stroke

    brown sugar, just like a black girl should

    I'm just a dirty white boy

    I see your honey drip, can't keep away
    bombs, dropping down, please forgive our hometown
  • PearlJamaholicPearlJamaholic Posts: 2,019
    oh common on rock n roll isnt racist, its satanic!!!!!!!!!

    seriously i dont know about music it produces but the markets it tries to reach. list 5 mainstream rock bands that have a black singer? when it comes to marketing, blacks do the rap, once upon mo-town, and blues before that. women do pop music, and white men do the rock. thats pretty much how its sold. a few exceptions to the rule, eminem, seven dust(but they arent even that mainstream), anyone still remember kittie? i dont think the music is that bad for rock today. its pretty tame what they play on the radio now. but who they play seems to hint to some sort of racist/sexist practice.
    http://db.etree.org/PearlJamaholic
  • muppetmuppet Posts: 980
    Elvis was a hero to most
    But he never meant shit to me you see
    Straight up racist that sucker was
    Simple and plain
  • FunkdogFunkdog Posts: 85
    I think you could possibly argue that since the music video came along and popularized music on tv instead of radio that music has strayed towards style instead of art. Whatever makes the most $ is done again and again and again until something more appealing comes along, and then the cycle repeats. It's hard to uphold any moral values when the only pupose is to maximize $, just look at the way corporations operate everyday. However you could argue that the majority of the top selling singles are rap/r&b songs and also that a plethora of top selling ablums are performed by female artists, but you'd have to look at the billboard charts to verify. That would contradict the sexist/racist theory somewhat. That's just my opinion though, hope it matters to someone, if not who cares.
    "Trying is the first step towards failure" - H.J.S.

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  • FinsburyParkCarrotsFinsburyParkCarrots Seattle, WA Posts: 12,223
    reversedarwinism wrote:
    slowly stroke me... stroke

    brown sugar, just like a black girl should

    I'm just a dirty white boy

    I see your honey drip, can't keep away


    The working title of "Brown Sugar", as revealed in Stanley Booth's definitive "True Adventures of the Rolling Stones", was "Black Pussy". True.
  • Clifwith1fClifwith1f Posts: 143
    Benzor wrote:
    Pat Boone = joke

    I rented a car to him when I worked for Enterprise. Anyway...
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