think about it like this: for structural and institutional reasons black people in both the US and UK can't fold art into pop and sustain that. they are forced either to retreat to experimental/traditional artist or pop icon by our racist music industry. a black bowie or a black kate bush is simply not possible in the way todays (let's be frank, white supremacist) music industry works.
We feel this in the UK more because most of our developments are based on the supremacy of America as the focal point through which our migrant communities find identification and a space to experiment. but ultimately in the longrun this means we are going to be (and are actually) a victim of our own success.
UK pop consciousness is more open but only accidentally. we always say noone listens to eminem and indie in London, which is true enough for our people. but there is a large section of healthy londoners that are bbc r1 lapdogs to a t. this is why I was never big on k-punks post-punk revival idea. it was already there, Franz Ferdinand, Grimes, joanna newsome and that. the thing is, for our generation black and brown people are not really another. although the universities might give the impression that this is still the case all this is middle class careerism. that's why i hated that vampire castle article. not because it was old white man or whatever, but because it was literally a response to the crisis of the liberal state and as a result slowly pivoting to the opposing class (not saying he'd gone over to the other side, absolutely not.) of course his critics never got this because they were ultimately useful idiots for the bourgeoisie, an couldn't realise that actually, the idea that identity politics *exists* is a far right and liberal talking point, not a working class one.
We feel this in the UK more because most of our developments are based on the supremacy of America as the focal point through which our migrant communities find identification and a space to experiment. but ultimately in the longrun this means we are going to be (and are actually) a victim of our own success.
UK pop consciousness is more open but only accidentally. we always say noone listens to eminem and indie in London, which is true enough for our people. but there is a large section of healthy londoners that are bbc r1 lapdogs to a t. this is why I was never big on k-punks post-punk revival idea. it was already there, Franz Ferdinand, Grimes, joanna newsome and that. the thing is, for our generation black and brown people are not really another. although the universities might give the impression that this is still the case all this is middle class careerism. that's why i hated that vampire castle article. not because it was old white man or whatever, but because it was literally a response to the crisis of the liberal state and as a result slowly pivoting to the opposing class (not saying he'd gone over to the other side, absolutely not.) of course his critics never got this because they were ultimately useful idiots for the bourgeoisie, an couldn't realise that actually, the idea that identity politics *exists* is a far right and liberal talking point, not a working class one.