What’s the deal with so many white music artists singing black music? Why do white artists who sing black music get better promotion than black artists? Why is R&B music now synonymous with Hip-Hop?
These are some of the hot topics that often come up in private conversations with my industry associates and colleagues. I will attempt to shed some much needed light on these delicate, sensitive and somewhat controversial issues.
To really understand the phenomenon of white music artists singing R&B, you should begin with an examination of the motivation and purpose behind the establishment of black music divisions at record companies in the 60s. While the success of Motown as a black owned operation has been well-documented and highly publicized, many of the competing record labels of that time lacked the personnel to adequately exploit the abundance of musically talented black teens.
White owned record companies shrewdly appointed black music executives who were more in tune and in touch with black music (and the black artists that created and performed it), to help interface with them. This was, after all, a time when race relations were tentative and strained.
Many record companies and radio stations took note of the increasing popularity of R&B music among white teenagers and attempted to preserve racial barriers by denying them access to it. Their denial constituted a potential economic problem since the music industry (like most industries) thrives on supply and demand. Their solution: provide their darling teenaged kids with a “white” alternative; someone who “sounded” black and performed “black” music, a la Elvis Presley, whose popularity was soaring. It wasn’t uncommon for records in that era often to have two different versions – a white version and a black version – which was serviced to the appropriate audience.
In the 70′s, the push toward equality and peace gave birth to a more gregarious and unified music industry. Top bands like Sly & The Family Stone, Tower of Power, Earth Wind & Fire, and The Commodores emerged and enjoyed success throughout the 70s, but many lacked crossover appeal and forced black music executives to search for other viable options in order to save their jobs. One option was Disco – the hot novelty genre.
Disco was more than a new genre; it was a cultural release from the lingering social anxieties and racial tensions of the 60s and emerged as the dominant format because of its mass market appeal and universal acceptance. The music industry eventually sobered up from the lecherous activities and rampant drug abuse of the disco era in 1979, just in time to endure the worst financial year of its existence.
With slumping record sales and a gluttony of music acts that were signed to perform disco songs, the R&B music community returned to its soulful roots and searched desperately for an answer to rectify the problems that plagued it. The answer wasn’t written on the wall, but it was found in the album “Off The Wall” by Michael Jackson, which helped to transition successful R&B music back into a more “Pop-friendly” format that was comparable to R&B in its last heyday of the Motown era.
While Michael captured the hearts and imaginations of white America with his unhuman dance moves, there were plenty of black music pioneers upholding the funky values and virtues of black music as we we marched into the techno era of the 80′s. R&B music seemed to undergo a much needed resurgence.
The R&B bands of the 70s started to downsize in personnel as more emphasis was being placed on solo acts (a la Michael Jackson) and vocal groups. For the R&B music artist, the advent of technology superseded the need to be backed up by a band, ushering in the producer era which R&B music is heavily predicated on today. Continue reading →
