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White Pass/Black Pass: Erasing Race Found this article. Interesting. An answer to the "white pass"/"black pass" threads. Good insight about music and race in two-thousand-now.
Erasing Race Xposed, January 2004 By NEKESA MUMBI MOODY http://www.xposed.com/ent..._race.aspx NEW YORK - Watching newcomer Fefe Dobson jumping around onstage to the rhythm of thrashing guitars, she looks like the typical pop-rocker girl, with a tough attitude and sneering voice. Typical in every way but one. With her caramel hue, the biracial Canadian is unusual even in 2003. Musical acts are still tightly compartmentalized by genre and race _ and few are able to break the mold. But artists like Fefe and another teenage newcomer, Joss Stone _ a white British singer with the voice of an old soul veteran _ are trying to break through musical stereotypes in an industry where image and artistry are inextricable. "When people are like 'Oh, you sound black' and all this, I'm like, I sound like me," says Joss. It's possible for artists to cross over, in either direction. The white singer Justin Timberlake got plenty of urban radio airplay with his disc "Justified," and black acts like Living Colour, Lenny Kravitz, Macy Gray and others have appealed to rock and alternative radio formats. Still, it's rare _ and rarer still for two high-profile teenage girls to come along at the same time in the "wrong" categories. "The charts would indicate that it still is a challenge," says music mogul Clive Davis. "There aren't too many examples of it when you go up and down the urban charts. You can see only the rarified few are able to do it, for a white artist on an R&B chart." At a glance, with her long blonde hair and hip-hugging pants, the lanky Joss _ real name Joscelyn Stoker _ looks like a Britney Spears in training. But when she opens her mouth to sing, a soulful voice that rivals Beyonce's pours out. "Maybe my voice doesn't fit my body," Joss acknowledges. Judging by the slew of media attention her debut album, "The Soul Sessions," has received since its September release, others agree. She can't understand why it's become such a big deal. "Music has no color. How can it have a color because you can't see it? How can you say that I sound black or white, or purple or pink or whatever?" she asks. But in music, people hear more than just sounds. Usually, the more "soulful" one sounds, the "blacker" they are assumed to be. Elvis Presley caused an uproar in his early days for "sounding black"; one of the early criticisms of Whitney Houston was she sounded "white" because her music wasn't heavily R&B, plus her voice didn't linger or riff on many notes. Felicia "Fefe" Dobson, whose self-titled debut was released earlier this month on Island Records, said she initially had a deal in her native Canada with Zomba/Jive, home to Spears, Timberlake and R. Kelly. But executives there had her sing pop and R&B, she says _ not the driving rock beat that she loved. "I thought, there's something wrong here _ I need more guitar," she recalls. Fefe eventually got out of her deal and signed with Island/Def Jam, where label head Lyor Cohen encouraged her sound from the moment he first saw her perform. "Being biracial, my mom being white and my dad being black, I always found it hard to know who liked me, what I belonged to. I had problems with it," Fefe says. "Knowing that they saw it as a beautiful thing was really what inspired me to just feel confidence in this business ... (to) not feel ashamed of being a dark-skinned girl doing rock 'n' roll." Cohen says he didn't even realize Fefe was black. "I'm not going to put her in the box," Cohen says. "I'm not going to say that because she's black, I'm going to put her in urban. That would be retarded, because if you slice her open, nothing bleeds urban." Although black artists who don't do R&B or hip-hop have found it tough to get radio play, Fefe has gotten a push from MTV and her song "Take Me Away" has gotten airplay on pop and adult contemporary stations, says Sean Ross, vice president of music and programming at Edison Media Research. Whereas Fefe sounds a bit like Avril Lavigne, Joss sounds like old soul, and her album is filled with classic R&B interpretations ranging from the sultry Isley Brothers classic "For the Love of You" to the White Stripes' "Fell In Love With A Girl." Joss grew up listening to singers like Aretha Franklin and Al Green, and didn't want to change to conform with what was being played on Top 40 radio. "I want to be a singer," she says. "I'm not going to go sing pop just because I'm a white girl with blonde hair." Veteran singer Betty Wright worked with Joss to help her hone her craft. Like Wright, the majority of people who contributed to the album, pictured on the album's artwork with Joss, are black. One person who isn't prominently pictured is Joss _ her face on the cover is obscured by a microphone. To a cynic, it might recall the days in the early 1950s and '60s, when labels, afraid to show white fans that the groups' they loved were black, put other images on the covers. Regardless, her album had hot word of mouth and heavy publicity, including appearances on "The Ellen Show" and the upcoming Kennedy Center Honors. Although her label, S-Curve, hasn't pushed her at radio yet, she's making her first video, for her White Stripes cover. Joss admits the contrast between her looks and her voice has probably helped raise her profile. "I have had it easy," she said. "I feel like I've kind of jumped the line a little bit." [This message was edited Fri Aug 20 12:36:58 2004 by JANFAN4L] | |
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Before I read this I thought: "There are black acts who can't get the "black pass." Guess that's why artist don't like being boxed in and having their music labeled a certain way. But, then too, I'd like to think that there are plenty of intelligent listenings who don't let race dictate their musical tastes. I'd like to think.... | |
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I think the posts were in jest to demonstrate how artists can appeal to people of different races. Good night, sweet Prince | 7 June 1958 - 21 April 2016
Props will be withheld until the showing and proving has commenced. -- Aaron McGruder | |
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I'd just like to make one small correction:
JANFAN4L said: teenage newcomer, Joss Stone _ a white British singer with the voice of an old soul veteran
That should read, "a white British singer with a voice like someone scraping their fingernails down a blackboard...." (Or perhaps I should say "chalkboard".....)  "Not everything that is faced can be changed; but nothing can be changed until it is faced." - James Baldwin | |
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deebee said: I'd just like to make one small correction:
JANFAN4L said: teenage newcomer, Joss Stone _ a white British singer with the voice of an old soul veteran
That should read, "a white British singer with a voice like someone scraping their fingernails down a blackboard...." (Or perhaps I should say "chalkboard".....) 
No, she's the NEW ARETHA! Or something. | |
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deebee said: I'd just like to make one small correction:
JANFAN4L said: teenage newcomer, Joss Stone _ a white British singer with the voice of an old soul veteran
That should read, "a white British singer with a voice like someone scraping their fingernails down a blackboard...." (Or perhaps I should say "chalkboard".....) Yeah, music journalists go overboard sometimes with the analogies. | |
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I've got Fefe's CD. She's got a couple of decent tracks, but all in all, she's not that great. She needs vocal training. Joss has a decent voice, but come on...she's doing NOTHING NEW. I could throw a rock in any Baptist church on a Sunday and it would hit a young sista who could get with this chick vocally. She doesn't rival Beyonce. Its only fascinating to white folk who aren't exposed to that kind of singing. I think the reason the black community doesn't really support a lot of white voclists that do R&B is because so many of them are sub-par on the "black scale". If you found a white guy who could sing like Luther Vandross or Gerald LaVert, black folk would buy his CD like hotcakes because that would be SPECIAL. Instead, labels push white girls that sing like Whitney. So what? Its obvious Joss listens to a lot of Aretha. Its obvious Christina listens to a lot of Whitney. It takes more than just studying the style. Teena Marie won the black audience because you FEEL her.
Maybe if labels would stop signing post-pubescent blonde boy-toys and sign some grown women with a little life experience behind them they might find their next Teena. Black folks ain't trying to buy a 17-18 year old girl who sounds like a grown ass sista. We would rather buy the grown ass woman's record and cut out the pretense; hence the success of artists like Jill Scott. As for Fefe, she needs experience; desperately. Her act may fly in Canada  , but here in the States, you need more than cuteness and a rocker girl attitude. Looks like she saw Josie & The Pussycats and decided to get a record deal.  | |
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The animosity towards Joss Stone from some quarters is predictable and dull.
Y'all are some tired mofos sometimes.  | |
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BlaqueKnight said: [color=blue:477f8fdc0d]I've got Fefe's CD. She's got a couple of decent tracks, but all in all, she's not that great. She needs vocal training. Joss has a decent voice, but come on...she's doing NOTHING NEW. I could throw a rock in any Baptist church on a Sunday and it would hit a young sista who could get with this chick vocally. She doesn't rival Beyonce. Its only fascinating to white folk who aren't exposed to that kind of singing. I think the reason the black community doesn't really support a lot of white voclists that do R&B is because so many of them are sub-par on the "black scale". If you found a white guy who could sing like Luther Vandross or Gerald LaVert, black folk would buy his CD like hotcakes because that would be SPECIAL. Instead, labels push white girls that sing like Whitney. So what? Its obvious Joss listens to a lot of Aretha. Its obvious Christina listens to a lot of Whitney. It takes more than just studying the style. Teena Marie won the black audience because you FEEL her.
Maybe if labels would stop signing post-pubescent blonde boy-toys and sign some grown women with a little life experience behind them they might find their next Teena. Black folks ain't trying to buy a 17-18 year old girl who sounds like a grown ass sista. We would rather buy the grown ass woman's record and cut out the pretense; hence the success of artists like Jill Scott. As for Fefe, she needs experience; desperately. Her act may fly in Canada , but here in the States, you need more than cuteness and a rocker girl attitude. Looks like she saw Josie & The Pussycats and decided to get a record deal. [/color]hahah she reminds u of the blk chick in josie and the pussy cats 2 huh? haha...i dunno i dig joss and fefe....i got fefes album and i'd rather listen to undforgiven,we went 4 a ride, take me away, or julia over ALOT of stuff thats out there now...but i do agree that she needs vocal trainin...but then again that aint y i like her...some ppl u like not cuz of their voices but bcuz of their songs...thats y i like people like her the beatles, cyndi lauper and aaliyah...they don't have great voices..but they have nice songs. as for joss hey joss is cool.....she has a great voice and to me color don't matter. i don't have josses album but i think fell in love with a boy and diggin on u r again some of the better songs i've heard recently. and whats so new about joss is yea u could go in any church on sunday and hear that but joss is WHITE and even tho color don't matter to me how many white chicks r out there wit a voice like THAT? hmmm? now how many white chicks r there outthere wit a voice like britney or hilary duff? hmmm? a helluva alot more than who have josses. i also disagree wit u on the rival beyonce thing...beyonce aint doin nothin new either...there are more beyonces out there than there r josses....and (i kno all of yall r gonna jump on me) i'd listen to joss over beyonce any day. and as for the black folk aint trynna buy a 17 18 yr old girl who sounds like a grown ass sista, i'm black and i'd buy her in a minute if i had some cash on me! Yesterday is dead...tomorrow hasnt arrived yet....i have just ONE day...
...And i'm gonna be groovy in it! | |
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Fefe Dobson is crap IMO. She doesn't even rate as high as Avril Lavigne in the talent department -and she's pretty low.
Who cares if she's black/biracial? If she's got no talent, why should I pay attention? "A Watcher scoffs at gravity!" | |
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I have to disagree about the Beyonce thing. The first time I saw Destiny's Child, I hadn't heard their song. (I avoid the radio). When I saw Bey hit the stage, I knew she would eventually go solo. Her stage energy is far above and Beyond-say, Christina, Britney, Monica, Ashanti, Brandy, and almost every other performer of that type. The only chicks that I thought would hold their own against her were Mya and Aalyiah. Aalyiah had that total packag and so does Mya. People sleep on Mya, really. She got off to a lame start and its hurting her now. She's upped her vocal game big time and she's always had the live energy as a dancer. Bey is not one to be trifled with on the stage, though. Joss is missing something whereas Beyonce is the total performing package. Joss, like Christina, has the voice but the genre she's delving into is not Beyonce territory, its Kelly Price/Jill Scott/Angie Stone territory.being white will get her a degree of sales, but 0 points with the urban community. Without that validation, her career may be short-lived. Maybe. | |
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At a glance, with her long blonde hair and hip-hugging pants, the lanky Joss _ real name Joscelyn Stoker _ looks like a Britney Spears in training. But when she opens her mouth to sing, a soulful voice that rivals Beyonce's pours out.
I'm the first to admit I haven't listened to this child beyond the single she had out months ago BUT I feel comfortable saying her voice does NOT rival Beyonce 
journalists  ...come on Alfred... pack ya shit...  | |
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NoodleSoup said: The animosity towards Joss Stone from some quarters is predictable and dull.
Y'all are some tired mofos sometimes. agreed  | |
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Rhondab said: NoodleSoup said: The animosity towards Joss Stone from some quarters is predictable and dull.
Y'all are some tired mofos sometimes. agreed  I love you | |
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Beyonce's a classic shouter - she really belts it out and despite some dodgy notes on overwrought vocal runs (no Stevie, it has to be said) she has an impressive power.
Joss Stone has a nice raspy feel, which people might latch on to because it's not so common these days, but could benefit from some time. There are plenty of Beyonces (wannabes though, not as good I will say) but less with rasp. Sometimes u don't want Aretha, u want Gladys. There's plenty of room for both. | |
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