LogFAQs > #892498557

YourDrunkFather posted...

The idea that you need to be a certain race or be from a certain background to enjoy or take part in a music genre is idiotic and honestly pretty racist

Ok, here's where I start to think there's something of an argument to be had.

Certain music genres require strong cultural elements to make it work. As soon as you start having to fake an accent or pretend to be something you're not in order to make it work, it comes across as pretty disingenuous at best.

Think about me, a white scottish man, putting on a ghetto detroit accent and trying to pass myself off as someone who knows what it's like to grow up in "the hood" so that I can sell hip hop records. Imagine all my lyrics being about hoes and tricks and drugs and gangs when you know and I know that I went to a boarding school in the north of Scotland for the best part of my adolescence.

Or think about me trying to do a Gospel preacher accent and talking about Jesus and touch your neighbour and so on when I'm not religious nor did I ever spend any time in a gospel church.

Now if we're just talking about things like how beats work or styles work then sure, you can adapt a musical genre to your background and make it work. Like The Streets, or Hilltop Hoods, or Die Antwoord - all examples of how you take a genre and mould it your background and treat the entire thing with respect. But I don't know if you can straight up mimic american hip hop or gospel as someone like me without it being pretty blatantly racist.

I enjoy these genres immensely and I don't feel guilty for doing so, but I'm not about to start pretending that the themes they're talking about and the culture that gave birth to them has anything to do with me.
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CE's Resident Scotsman.
http://i.imgur.com/ILz2ZbV.jpg