the disappearance of the black band

[noel emits]

Well, they share a certain distant lineage... but most guitar music directly descended from post punk is pretty un-rock n roll. That was the purifying point where "the blues" was extracted. Although new crossbreeds with contemporary funk and dance musics were quickly made possible with the new form...

Yes, and again not wanting to perpetuate attempts to define 'rock' but I'd also say a lot of the so called Krautrock groups successfully navigated around 'the blues' in the early 70s. Something I like a lot because 'the blues' is just so hoary most of the time.

 

[Mr. Tea]

I agree that the problems of producing and distributing music have all but disappeared. This however doesn't mean that more people listen to it as much and, maybe even more important, pay as much attention to this music, as 70s/80s punkfiends did to their horribly sounding tapes which were sent all around the globe.

OK, but it must mean that the people who do listen to the music are much more widely distributed, perhaps in terms of tastes and interests as well as geographically. It would be sad if this led to the death of the 'local scene', although saying that would probably be a bit alarmist.

 

[Sick Boy]

This is the most cringe-y thread I have ever seen. A lot of people should feel embarassed. (Not you Dart.)

 

[ether]

I think Wu Tang changed the very notion of what a band is, and indie bands have had a hard time adapting to the idea that a band can be a collective of individuals who only join together to form publicity movements for themselves.

I'd argue public enemy where more of a hip hop 'band' in the traditional sense, in terms of most of there compositional initially came from Jamming and improvisation (according to Interviews I've read with Hank Shockley and Chuck D) there had strong concepts and Ideas which drove their work, but the literally hit record and hammered out ideas which where later reworked in tracks. Each member had a role and responsibility.

There seems to be a huge trend for hangers on in rap music in particular, people who's soul occupation is to look menacing and do little else, a kind of legacy to the Wu who really created the umbrella clique concept. Unfortunately the sea of mediocre solo albums affirmed the 'greater than the sum of its parts' notion with a few exceptions. (reakwon/gza)

That said the 'crew' mentality can be of benefit to nurturing the individual artists development as they retain a certain amount of autonomy, didn't Mega man personally negotiate a stupid amount of solo album contracts of the back of the success of so solid crew.?

 

[mms]

This is the most cringe-y thread I have ever seen. A lot of people should feel embarassed. (Not you Dart.)

rightho, thanks for your insightful comments as usual

i think it's an interesting question, more interesting than sasha frere jones ' why is there no black music in white indie' etc, which if course is a little flawed at least at the margins of indie, while this seems to be a genuine thing. the only real black bands i can think of who have any kind of success are the kind of sharon jones nostalgia trip ones, which is fine but nostalgia for a time when this music was there.
i was talking to my hairdressers about music, shes big into soul, she cited amy winehouse as real soul music and was surprised to hear it was all sampled, cos thats how a band should sound and how a modern soul singer should write lyrics to her. She's kinda right, any other uk attempts at soul groups are banded up in a sugary west london tastefullness, and soul music isn't about tastefull positive messages in that same way.
Anyway this thread isn't necessarily about soul, the black rock band is a strange anomaly now when there seemed to be some big ones in the 80's.

 

[gumdrops]

This is the most cringe-y thread I have ever seen. A lot of people should feel embarassed. (Not you Dart.)

what does anyone in this thread have to feel embarassed about?

 

[nomadologist]

SickBoy never has anything to say. Believe it or not, the inverse is true of everyone else here, SickBoy!

No one on here has anything to be "embarassed" by...SickBoy should be embarRassed by his own lack of spelling skills

 

[slackk]

My dad is going to see the Real Thing on friday in the Liverpool Philharmonic. Great band; I'd like to know why soul bands in general don't exist anymore.

 

[Gavin]

My dad is going to see the Real Thing on friday in the Liverpool Philharmonic. Great band; I'd like to know why soul bands in general don't exist anymore.

Your dad doesn't buy enough tickets to support them.

 

[slackk]

I'll tell him to fix up tomorrow.

 

[Gavin]

Sorry for the glibness... All the soul bands are blue eyed (Maroon 5). Hip hop and house/techno are post-soul musics (Marc Anthony Neal's term I believe) for the post-civil-rights mvmt generation.

 

[dominic]

sorry -- i couldn't resist linking to this = white music for black people

 

[X-101]

Its because america is still a very racist country(both black & white) & how the record labels/radio stations/people are over there.

The most known example this is what happened to the detroit techno guys in the early days. The major labels wouldnt sign them becase they werent black enough, they said they cant market a bunch of black guys making furtristic music that doesnt feature singing/rapping, choreography dancing. On the other side they had black radio stations refusing to play techno because it wasnt black enough, the long of the short of it is white america wouldnt accept techno until it went to europe and came back via white european artists & black kids still dont listen to techno because its seen as 'white music'

Simliar things happened over here in the UK, ask any black person who was listening/dj'ing to acid house/techno/hardcore between 87-92 how much stick they got from other blacks for listening to it until jungle came along and added ragga samples, only then was it 'OK' to listen too.

Simliar things also happened in hip hop, the majors took no notice of rap until NWA came out and they saw how they could market is because sex and violence sells, as soon as that happened if you were a rapper and you didnt sing about bitch, gun and selling crack you had very little to no chance of making it on black radio let alone MTV(a station which a decade ago refused to play black music).

Now consider that and think if techno/hip hop artists are having these problems what chance do you have if your black and you play rock ?? what % of bad brains fans are actually black ? 99.9% of blacks have never even heard of bands like the bad brains, black kids today grow up being told if you wanna make music buy a sampler not a guitar.

Ill also add another reason also because the whole radio for black music & radio for rock music means most black kids arent even exposed to rock music