Blog 9: Cult of Personality

The prevalence of racist and sexist sports teams names as discussed in the reading made me think of other entertainment-based institutions in which either racism, sexism, or both are present. While the text discusses how symbols in sports such as the names and mascots of sports teams "demean or defame the powerless because these symbols support the existing power arrangements in society," (Eitzen 522) I'm much more interested in the music industry. I found the following article that discusses the relationship between musicians, musical taste, and musical success, and race.

http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2004/12/03_williamsb_music/?refid=0

While the article is nearly 10 years old now the ideas it presents are still relevant. One of the central ideas presented--and I believe this stereotype still exists to some extent today--is that black musicians are limited to playing specific types of music such as jazz, hip hop, and r&b. To combat this notion, Greg Tate co-founded the Black Rock Coalition in 1985. The Black Rock Coalition is a "collection of artists and music fans devoted to breaking down the barriers that they say limit black artists" (paragraph 3). The article says that according to Tate, "stereotypes are pervasive in the music industry. He says they determine what kind of music hits the airwaves" (paragraph 1).
Furthermore, Tate talks about how information from the mass media specifically with regard to race and music is "wafer-thin" (Tate, paragraph 6). Tate says ideas about race in the music industry are largely founded on ignorance as exemplified by the success of the black rock band, Living Colour. [If you don't know who this band is, check out the video below.

According to the article, people were largely surprised that a black band could play rock music so well; this strikes me as strange and racist.

 The article goes on to discuss the diversity in musical tastes across students of different races who attend St. Paul's Musictech College.

To tie this to class briefly: The notion that white people should play rock music and black people should not is determined by the culturally hegemonic idea that specific genres of music are reserved for whites. This notion is propagated by the dominant culture via the media (MTV, the radio, Rolling Stone, etc) and in other sub-institutions in the music industry such as music labels and music venues.