"The only art form that Americans have invented, that will commend us down through the years to posterity, is a music born primarily in a community that has the historical memory of being unfree is a supposedly free land" - Ken Burns
this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2025
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This scenario has happened so many zillion times it's not the least bit astounding - something becomes popular with a group of people, then another group and another, in spite of some people hating it or sometimes because of that, and the business world figures out how to make money off it.
Take country music, for example, and all the black parents who were afraid of it, but the black kids who loved it. /s
The trend is fetishizing black culture; music is just a part of that.
Yeah my point is that thinking of it as fetishizing black culture is a very narrow view of a much more universal human behavior, where people like whatever they like without bothering to filter it by who found out about it first, and business people maks a buck out of any and every trend no matter where it came from.
What you're saying just isn't true, though, or at least doesn't explain the sheer fascination of contemporary white americans with mimicking every aspect of black culture
People have enjoyed mimicking each other the human race began. Things that originate in one culture often have broad appeal [shrug]. I wouldn't call it "sheer fascination" but whatever.
Jazz, Rock, Disco, and Rap, at minimum.
Funk, Blues, R&B, Reggae, Bebop, Swing...
and because of rock, we now have death metal. thanks african americans!
edit: for people who are interested: https://musicmap.info/
eeeeeeeh.
I think death/tech death is where the blues influence starts being more vestigial, and it starts borrowing more from classical. Even Polka (what is a blastbeat but a fast polka beat?) Are the diminished scales really from blues? Do the blues musicians play straight 32nd notes the way classical musicians do?
From an evolutionary standpoint, it definately does, since blues to rock to sabbath to metal, but death metal onwards really feels distinct. Especially symphonic.
yea. classical started getting folded back in to the metal music with NWOBHM. a lot of the bands i grew up listening to (cannibal, morbid, deicide) grew up listening to stuff like maiden, priest, venom etc, which i can't stand oddly enough.
I call that a healthy cultural mix! 🤘😁🤘
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Dubstep has strong roots to Jamacian Dub. https://youtu.be/NUOeHoLCisw. Except for the dub guys, are actual wizards making all of their effects with analog technology.
Also reggea and dancehall come from Jamaica as well, incredible such a small country having so much influence.
such a small country
don't forget ska, which is wide ranging enough to have radio bands, but there's also a satanic ska band
Ska punk is my absolute favourite genre of music. Streetlight Manifesto, Less Than Jake, Faintest Idea, Mad Caddies, and the Suicide Machines are all bands I love, to name a few.
what's your most recent favorite album?
Right now, it's Ska Dream by Jeff Rosenstock, and by extension its sister album No Dream. I'm also really looking forward to Streetlight's next album The Place Behind The Stars, as the few songs they've let us hear from it are already incredible despite not being entirely finished.
nice, thanks for the recommendation!
No problem! I recommend Jeff's entire discography, especially his projects The Arrogant Sons of Bitches and Bomb the Music Industry!.
Rock Steady too
Blues?
It's assumed here that rock is derived from blues
EDIT : Blues is blues, which is obviously black.
Blues is the plural of blue which is a different color from black according to modern color theory
Blues is the plural of blue which is a different color from black according to modern color theory
Big if true
Techno came from black kids on Detroit listening to Kraftwerk and then exporting that sound back to Germany
They lived in Belleville, but no one knows where that is.
is this a meme about race, or a racist meme?
About race fetishism and commercial exploitation, I believe
Most of Elvis early hits were ripoffs of black music
I feel like the roots of basically all western mudic today are African American, if you consider techno to have come from hiphop/r&b and punk rock.
i was told in "music appreciation" class in college that, even though percussion has been around for ages, anything with a "beat" can be traced back to africans. rock n' roll got big because it was one of the first new things available through the radio, and kids at the time were sick of their parents' stuffy classical music
In Germany, we differentiate E- and U-Musik. E (Ernst) means "serious" and is classical music and stuff. U (Unterhaltung) = entertainment and is everything African American inspired (Jazz, Rock, Pop, hip hop, ...). This difference basically exists to devalue everything that isn't central European in origin
Yeah... Mozart's compositions definetly are only serious and not for entertainment at all. Stuff like... checks notes "Leck mich im Arsch" or the original text of "Bona Nox". /s
Adam Neely has a good video on this. Music is constantly judged on how well it conforms to "the harmonic style of 18th century European musicians"
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Except for traditional Folk from various European locations. I think this still counts as "Western Music", even if it isn't that popular.
If you consider the Western World to be purely Northern America, then I think you're right, since Native American tribes are normally not considered Western.
Imo, the best music comes from a mix of various cultures, I'm a huge fan of Folk Rock/Metal. (Rock and thus Metal obviously coming from Blues).
Definitly true and fair point, yes i meant pop music in western countries. Also still a lot of new classical music being released. I would be more right if i had said 'almost all genres of western pop music have Afro-American roots'.
All good, I didn't want to accuse you of being wrong or anything. I just like to think of exceptions in cases like that. And I learned a few things on the way :)
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