Only if those groups are performing here as part of an outdoor music festival. For instance, two or three rock groups perform, then afterwards, someone like The Barkays or The SOS Band might perform later into the night. There are those white people that kind of just hang around afterwards (usually because they are drunk and aren't ready to go home). If someone like The Barkays comes to a venue on their own, I'm usually the only white face in the place. Now, it's completely different with someone like James Brown (when he was living) or George Clinton. Those are groups that have been absolutely worn out over the years and gotten a lot of good press by white magazines like "Rolling Stone" over the years. At those type of concerts, the majority of the audience will be the artsy/fartsy type older whites or white college students who call themselves "exploring black music and culture".

It's really funny over in the "Prince: Music and More" section sometimes when someone will argue you down that they know funk. But when you ask them to list some groups, it's always someone like James Brown, Sly and The Family Stone or George Clinton who has been written about by pop/rock critics for years. Then you get those that go a little further and mention Graham Central Station or Maceo Parker. Well, you know where they've heard of those groups from don't you? They've heard Prince talk about them.

Yeah and ONLY them!

What trips me out is when I call some them out on it and ask them how they are such a funk expert when the only funk groups they know are the ones Prince has mentioned. I get responses like....well Prince knows because he is a musician and you're not. Well, duh, I'm a consumer and there is a whole world of funk out there other than just the artists that Prince grew up on.

Hell, he grew up in Minneapolis. I remember one of his protegees telling "Right On" magazine that all the black stations in their area when they were growing up had a weak signal that would fade in and out so they mainly heard the beat and since the other stations were white, that's why they had such diverse taste. Well, I grew up in Mississippi in a city that was 40 percent black (it's 80 percent now). We've always had plenty of black stations and plenty of funk.