It seems that for the most part, the wrong people are posting on this thread.

lilgish said:

that's the jewish people, silly.

Anx said:

You've gone and made Mel angry again.

Racists, hypocrits and biggots are all strange to me. How can you generalize any group of people and more importantly, why would you? Ignorance, I guess, but what a limited existence. Ignoring cultures and whole groups of people and their music based on ignorant stereotypes is

The only time I have blinders on are when then some beautiful women in my presence, then it's a challenge to put 2 words together.
[Edited 8/2/06 12:52pm]

tA, 99% of the time, I'm drawn by the music. If I hear something that grabs me, that artist is going to get my support.

The only time race/ethnicity enters into it is if I get a vibe from someone that they're co-opting something to be commercially successful. Think Vanilla Ice or Joss Stone (who might not fall into that category, but I don't care for her voice anyway).

I mean, Nikka Costa might be in the category of "artists who try too hard" for some, but I dig her music. Same for John Mayer, who is just a super-talented dude.

When I was a kid, my dad would bop his head and hum along to Elton John and Billy Joel, as well as to Stevie Wonder or the Temptations. I think growing up in an atmosphere that loves music for music's sake might decrease the likelihood of having color-based rules with regard to music consumption.


"is is" baby edit...
[Edited 8/2/06 13:01pm]

PFunkjazz said:

Hey, my FAVE vocalist along with Billie Holiday is,,,

Lady Fairouz

But I'm biased about my people(black people) becoz I can simply identify with them more as opposed to artists from other races. It doesn't mean that I don't dig other artists though coz I'm def open for possibilities.

I am however WAY MORE biased toward female artists(black, white or in between) than male artist but thats another whole topic.

Call me racist, biggot, hypocrite or ignortant, thats up to you to believe coz I know who I am. But I don't see why I should sugercoat myself in order to make the next person feel comfy cozy,,,hell, thats how I personaly feel and I'm responding very respectly and honestly to Audience's ?uestion. And I don't apologize for what I think, feel or believe.

Hi

I don't know what we're talking about or what's behind the question, and I don't understand the question. Maybe because I've been off the board for a week.

I personally love ethnic music if that's what you call gypsy, jewish, and middle eastern folk music. (That's what comes to my mind when I hear the word "ethnic") I would even go so far as to say I fetishize ethnic music, but that's just because it speaks to me.

Harlepolis said:

Your post is not in the least "racist, biggot, hypocrite or ignorant". It's very understandable.

When someone says something like "I don't like giving my money to white people", it just makes me roll my eyes though, because it's basically just lumping a whole group of people into one negative sounding entity. Unless PFunkjazz meant that as a joke or something. Because if I said "I don't like giving my money to black people", I would be called a racist and probably kicked off the board. But whatever.

If someone has something against giving money to white people, they shouldn't have bought any of Prince's albums, for example, because he has a history of mixed race bands. I assume they all got paid for their efforts with him, although he HAS been known to be pretty stingy though.

The types of music I like are funk, disco, rock, house, etc. I don't give a damn if it's a black rocker making the rock or a white funker making the funk. If it sounds good, I like it.

There are lots of types of music that I don't like such as shit hop, country, folk, classical, opera, symphonies, etc. I dislike these forms not because of race but because they are boring as hell.

However, there are people out there that do care about race. I have listened to funk and been accused by white people of "listening to jungle music". On the other hand, I have listened to rock and been accused by black people of "listening to country music". All that is just ignorance on both sides and racism itself is ignorance.
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[Edited 8/2/06 13:23pm]

This may be a rote answer but I'll use it anyways, I'll listen to any music regardless of the ethnicity of the performer, if it sounds good to me I may just buy it as well. As great as Black people are, we have no exclusivity to great music nor are we always " The Innovators " of everything that concerns popular music.

Recent purchases of my collection includes, Death Cab For Cutie, Gnarls Barkley, Corinne Bailey Rae, Chuck Berry, R.E.M. and Carly Simon ( only iTunes singles ) .
Many of the artists are not the typical choices of Blacks but I'll no longer let outside peer pressure or societal norms influence my record buying choices. Great music comes from talented people, why should it be an issue where they were born or what ethnicity they are?

Harlepolis said:

Okay, to this I will readily admit. When I see a feature in a magazine that lists upcoming bands to watch, I skip over all the all-male bands and only make note of the ones with frontwomen (or better yet, the ones that are all women). I just prefer the way women sound and like watching women play live. Men in general bore me now. I guess I'm sexist that way.

sextonseven said:

I think just about anyone would be lying if they said they didn't have some kind of preference (more than half of my music is rock by white men), but it should come down to style more than race or gender.
[Edited 8/2/06 13:56pm]

minneapolisgenius said:

Partially joking; my reference was more to live performance club dates or concerts than record company mechanics.

To clarify: I'd rather spend my dollar$ seeing a black, mixed-race or non-white band, than an all white band. All said, there are still a number of white acts I will eagerly pay to see live (Steely Dan, Gov't Mule, Les Claypool/Primus, Medeski,Martin & Wood, Pat Metheny, Allman Brothers, Buckethead...).

Okay, You're gonna get me started. It's Record industry executives who have decided That looks and Race are more important the talent. If Alicia Keyes, Rihanna, Beyonce, Ashanti, Keisha Coles, Pink and Kelley Clarksonay all woke up tomorrow morning, 50 pounds heavier and 20 shades darker, Their videos wouldn't get another second of airplay. Even though there talent (Or lack of) was still there.

Yes it makes a difference, but in the good way.
As mentioned by Dream, we are basically divided into sub-cultures. There are negatives to this but there are more positives. Because of divisions, there are differences. Every culture has it's own rhythm and it's own spice and these things have an impact on the music.

Do I prefer the music of some cultures over others? Yes. Do I prejudge? Not really, because I listen to and will continue to listen to everything. If something is good or if it moves me, that's all that really matters.

NDRU said:

True, I don't automatically like all female fronted bands. Evanescence , Antigone Rising But I at least will give them a listen first which is more than I can say for rock radio. And I think that is part of the reason right there--women are practically non-existent on rock radio so I'm giving them that chance that rock PDs aren't.

If a band of dudes sound cool, I'll buy their record (my fave band of the last ten years is Deadsy), but their music usually has to come to me in some way rather than me seeking them out.

anon said:

This is such a good point. Imagine how boring it would be if everyone was the same (sometimes I think that's the way we're going).

theAudience said:

I dont.

So far this has been a very good discussion.

For those concerned about my motives, the intent was to have a civil venting platform and possibly get some things out in the open
(sans any flame wars).
This is why I wanted the commentary to be personal (YOU) as opposed to theoretical (THEY).


Some interesting points have been made.


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

sextonseven said:

Definitely, you dont need to seek out man made music, it's there. It's the same reason my girlfriend votes for women buy default if she doesn't know the candidates. Not because they're more qualified, just because they're underrepresented.

i've never cared about ethnicity. if it sounds good then cool. the only time in i've had a problem with music when it came to race was when i was a extremely huge fan of Guns n Roses. i would buy their albums as soon as they hit the stores until they came out with 'G n R Lies' when i heard 'one in a million' i was disappointed (and don't even mention the homophobia which is unrelated to this topic..),i never bought another piece of music from them. i was young and torn 'cause i really liked them but my conscience wouldn't let me listen to or buy anything else of theirs. i even went so far as to throw away what i already owned.
[Edited 8/2/06 15:03pm]

brownsugar said:

I was looking for a rock record to buy back then and I almost bought 'Appetite For Destruction' but didn't for the same reason. I bought The Cult's 'Sonic Temple' instead.

sextonseven said:

and 'appetite for destruction' is such a classic

sextonseven said:

Understandable, but a tough call since Appetite is such a great album. I guess I enter into it knowing that Guns & Roses aren't all there emotionally, ethically, or morally. I don't expect artists to be perfect people, and as long as they're not actually hurting people or advocating it I allow them a couple moronic points of view.

NDRU said:

I've listened to it enough times because my friend owned the cassette in college, but I never bought it myself. However, I do have their 'Greatest Hits' CD. So much for my principles.

sextonseven said:

Nice! But now this is kind of a different topic. I'm guessing you don't care about their race, but you care about their perceived racism.

To me the Hendrix thread raised the issue of artist vs person. I don't know if Axl Rose is prejudiced or if Hendrix beat women. I can understand people being upset by these things, but I prefer to judge the music on it's own terms.

Like Andrew Dice Clay, it might be a persona or a character. I don't like Dice because he's not funny, not because he has sexist act.

sextonseven said:

nah i don't think your comprising your principles. they did make good music and good music is so hard for a music lover to resist i'm sure that prince has made some comments in his lyrics that can be questionable to someone who is sensitive to things like that, its just up to them whether to not endorse it or see it as just artist bullshit and continue with it.

I like some songs from the neo-nazi white power band Fear, If I saw a used fear disc I might pick it up, never stop listening to Guns or other bands who might have prejudice overtones in some of their songs. I'm not endorsing that hate against my people, I'm just taking it in for what is worth, beacuse I know some whites have those feelings, and some of it might sound good on a purely music level. I wonder what a Jewish person thinks when they hear something like New York New York from the Last Poets? That's a great song, no matter, the content.
[Edited 8/2/06 15:45pm]

NDRU said:

In my case when I heard those GnR tunes I'd crank 'em up, but I had no plans to see them perform live until I saw Slash onstage.

lilgish said:

its up to the person to take it how they want to take it. in my case it bothered me alot but i'm not gonna comdemn someone who decides its not that big of a deal. music is something else, when its good, its good.