Why aren’t Black men more represented in the present day pop/rock scene?

[CHERUB]

Cudi and Dot da Genius gave us WZRD thats grunge rock album to me

 

[Iverson_64]

Cudi and Dot da Genius gave us WZRD thats grunge rock album to me

Could say Kids See Ghosts is a psuedo Rock album too.

 

[Illuminatos]

Black people clowned guys like Flo-Rida and Jason Derulo for years.

 

[Danie84]

Hero The Band, Willie Jones, Yves Tumor, and Sam Dew are dope

 

[King Static X]

Theres not really any rock in the mainstream now anyway. All the pop artists are EDM or Trap/R&B sounding.

I'm not sure we'll ever see a resurgence of rock in the mainstream. The genre needs a superstar or a credible band with broad appeal songs that actually does something fresh for the genre.

Its like how theres no great US soccer players, the people who would be the best chose basketball or football. Same thing for music, Hip Hop took over.

The U.S. literally has a "golden generation" of men's soccer players right now. Including the best of them all currently (Christian Pulisic).

 

[Amo Husserl]

Gary Clark Jr is still doing his thing.

Might be at an all time low though. In the mid 00s there were bands with black dudes in prominent roles, from Bloc Party to TV On the Radio to Sevendust. I'm probably missing someone but I can't think of any noteworthy rock bands right now with black male members. Overall Gary Clark Jr and the lead singer of Alabama Shakes (black woman) are the only black rock stars I can think of.

Also...seems like rock is pretty much dead no? In terms of new bands. Growing up it seemed like there was always a band that became "the band." From grunge to the British bands of the 90s/00s to nu metal to the garage rock explosion to the indie rock Pitchfork darling bands, there was always "the band" right? I couldn't tell you who "the band" is now. I see the Foo Fighters are still popular and bands like Radiohead are still active but who is the band pushing the envelope or blowing up right now whether they're good or bad. I couldn't tell you.

I forget who exactly said it, but the image of black men especially the symbolic nature of a black man with a guitar in his hand making women lose it was threatening.



Rocking out on a phallic instrument...
Similar reasons jazz was frowned upon before it became America's music. Check out Harry Anslinger.
Kinda like how hip-hop wasn't even recognized as music at one point until it was economically viable.

"Why aren't black men more represented...?"
Because that goes against the agenda.

 

[Apprentice]

Black people clowned guys like Flo-Rida and Jason Derulo for years.

They lyrics corny as fukk tho breh
And they personas in the media kinda was too

 

[010101]

weirdo nikkas make the most creative shyte

& the culture kills anything that doesn't fit the mold pushes into the underground or into the hands of white folks

i know so many nikkas with ears that bleed at the sound of anything that isn't the basic

*

 

[Insensitive]

Yves tumor is dope but breh is also unapologetically gay as fukk.
Which I'm totally fine with, I saw him live earlier this year.


With that said yeah. A lot of fukking rock is white and corny.

Sue me.

 

[Edub]

Cuz the shyt ain’t fly

 

[21stCenturyColiMascot]

black culture doesnt support non-thug black men... look at the push back kevin samuels got and is still getting....

 

[King Sun]

Crazy how rock bands never followed the Living Colour blueprint.

 

[Low End Derrick]

I wouldn’t describe myself as a music historian but I do have a pretty expansive taste of music

One thing I’ve noticed is that there aren’t a lot of black men who operate in the modern day pop/rock scene.

Rock and Jazz are genres created by black people and even the “King of Rock” is someone who got lots of his style and influence from black culture

Back in the 80s there were many to choose from such as MJ, Hendrix, Prince etc.

In modern day music, I’d say Bruno Mars, The Weeknd, and Anderson Paak (more or less)

Would be the best example, I don’t feel like I’m mis-categorizing the past but I’d like to hear wat y’all think

Ummmm...

 

[IllmaticDelta]

The pop-rock scene (these are actually code words for "music marketed for white people") was designed to keep black men/people out; they only give room to a few cats (This is why Hendrix and Prince are thought of as the only "black rock" acts while Ernie Isley is never grouped with them while essentially being a rock guitarist) while the rest are forced to stay in their "black" lanes, even if the music is pretty much the same.

 

[IllmaticDelta]

The pop-rock scene (these are actually code words for "music marketed for white people") was designed to keep black men/people out; they only give room to a few cats (This is why Hendrix and Prince are thought of as the only "black rock" acts while Ernie Isley is never grouped with them while essentially being a rock guitarist) while the rest are forced to stay in their "black" lanes, even if the music is pretty much the same.

why else do you think these black "rock" musicians aren't known more? It's the downfall of performing inside perceived "white music" as a black person because that's exactly what the terms "POP" and "Rock" were designed to do

Arthur Lee?

LOVE (Rock Band): (Singing) Yes, I see you sitting on the couch. I recognize your artillery. I have seen you many times before. Once I was an Indian.

TONY COX, host:

He called himself the first black hippie. As founder and front man for the psychedelic pioneers Love, Arthur Lee led what was possibly the first mixed-raced lineup in rock music history. A fixture on the Sunset Strip in the mid-1960s, Lee was both controversial and beloved.

His band influenced peers like Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison in the 1960s. And today, Love's album Forever Changes is consistently cited as one of popular music's most important albums. Lee passed away last week at the age of 61 of leukemia.

Joining me now to talk about Arthur Lee and his legacy is Charles Cross, author of A Room Full of Mirrors: A Biography of Jimi Hendrix. The book includes a section on how Arthur Lee's work influenced Hendrix. Charles, welcome to the show.

Mr. CHARLES CROSS (Author, A Room Full of Mirrors: A Biography of Jimi Hendrix): Thank you, Tony.

COX: Musically, what did Arthur Lee and his band do that was so different?

Mr. CROSS: Well, he was really, truly one of the first psychedelic acts. What was so interesting about Arthur is that, you know, because he came from African-American background, people were surprised when he started walking around Sunset Strip as what he called the very first hippie. He's universally accepted as the first Black hippie, but he thought he was the first hippie regardless of race.

(Soundbite of music)

LOVE: (Singing) Yeah, I heard upon that plane somebody said to me you know that I would be in love with almost everyone. I think that people are the greatest fun. And I will be alone again tonight with you.

Mr. CROSS: The music that he explored with Love was truly some of the first psychedelic music that the American music scene every saw. You know, he brought psychedelic and pop music and mixed those things. And the records that they created back in the mid-60s truly were revolutionary.

COX: Known as a hippie is one thing, but he also spent 12 years in prison and struggled with drug and alcohol addiction. When you look back on his life, how do you think he should be remembered?

Mr. CROSS: Well, certainly the records that Love created. Most specifically, Forever Changes, which is a record that consistently ends up on critic polls as one of the greatest records in rock and roll history, despite the fact that it's sold very few copies, even today.

I think that record was one of those records that launched 1,000 other bands. People heard that, and cited it. Everyone from Led Zeppelin to more modern bands like Prince, I think, were greatly affected by that record. So I think that will be Arthur's legacy.

Clearly, his personal life was a tragedy. As you said, he did spend some time in prison on a weapons charge, and had some struggles with drug addiction. And those things, sadly, kind of stopped him the latter half of his life from really repeating the success he had as a youngster.

Arthur Lee: A Musical Influence Passes On

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Jimi had to leave the USA because he knew he could never make a career out of Rock music there. In America "Rock" meant white music and no blacks allowed for the most part. Even now when black people do rock type music they don't get any real attention.

For example, these brothers from Detroit by the name of Death..

Before Bad Brains, the Sex Pistols or even the Ramones, there was a band called Death.

Punk before punk existed, three teenage brothers in the early '70s formed a band in their spare bedroom, began playing a few local gigs and even pressed a single in the hopes of getting signed. But this was the era of Motown and emerging disco. Record companies found Death’s music— and band name—too intimidating, and the group were never given a fair shot, disbanding before they even completed one album. Equal parts electrifying rockumentary and epic family love story, A Band Called Death chronicles the incredible fairy-tale journey of what happened almost three decades later, when a dusty 1974 demo tape made its way out of the attic and found an audience several generations younger. Playing music impossibly ahead of its time, Death is now being credited as the first black punk band (hell...the first punk band!), and are finally receiving their long overdue recognition as true rock pioneers.

They basically had no shot to make it because Rock is thought of as white music so that made them unmarketable which is the same reason Jimi had to find backdoor through London to make a mark in the USA.