Race Alone Doesn’t Determine The Genre Of An Artist
Contributed Anonymously:
I just wanted to say something about the whole racial issue of the genre of an artist. I somewhat don’t understand why some people are making this way too complicated. I mean yeah, whether we like it or not, I think race to some degree does determine the genre of an artist, but I don’t think that alone categorizes them into it. Like some of y’all are saying that if Christina Aguilera were black, she would be called an R&B artist. Um, yeah right. If she was black and she released songs like “Genie In A Bottle,” “What A Girl Wants,” and “Come On Over,” she would be IGNORED by the black community, and R&B stations wouldn’t even play those songs. Why? I mean c’mon people, what exactly is R&B about those songs? Those are pure unadulterated pop, if Christina were black and released those songs she would still be considered pop!
Listen to the MUSIC. Listen to those songs and compare that to the music of Destiny’s Child, and you will HEAR the difference. If you are going to use Christina as an example, might as well use Britney Spears while we are at it shall we? Now, if Britney Spears were black, do you seriously think she would be called R&B? Yeah I can see it now….R&B stations playing “Baby One More Time..,” “Oops I Did It Again,” and “Crazy.” I can imagine all the people in the club bumping and grinding to “I Am Not A Girl, Not Yet A Woman,” “Lucky,” and “Don’t Let Me Be The Last To Know.” Gimme a break people! Do you seriously think that Britney or Christina would have been called R&B because they were black, and still getting away with that title by singing “Genie In A Bottle” and “Baby One More Time”?
Seriously, no matter if they were black, Latina, Chinese, whatever, if they released that kind of music, they would be called pop. R&B stations never have and never will play music like “Genie In A Bottle” and “Baby One More Time.” End of story.
Look at Whitney Houston for another example; she was kind of looked down upon the R&B community because her music was more pop than R&B. Or Lionel Richie, when he got away from his group and went solo his music crossed over to pop. Or Eminem, no way would he ever be called pop because he’s a rapper. And yeah people call him the “White Rapper” but so what? That’s a title that Eminem should be proud of. He’s the only white rapper that has become so mainstream in rap and pop. At the end he’s still a rap artist. If you listen to the music, you know its rap; his skin color doesn’t and shouldn’t make you assume that he’s a pop artist.
So yeah…there is more to categorizing the artist than just their color. Instead of looking at the color and assuming that if Christina or Britney were black they would be R&B, listen to their MUSIC. And compare that to R&B artists like Destiny’s Child, Ashanti, etc. Some of you need to simply LISTEN to the MUSIC, looking at the color and making assumptions is not a smart way to look at things. At the end music shouldn’t even be labeled because of the person’s color.
