Week 9 - Are Blackness and Whiteness useful concepts in the study of Popular Music?

The concepts of Blackness and Whiteness can be seen as a way of defining the origin of certain types of music. Some argue that specific genres of music can be separated in to either category. This can be seen as a useful feature of the concepts as it can help to identify the sounds, rhythms and melodies which might be heard in the music in each category. Therefore musically there is a difference which separates certain types of music into Black or White. However, these concepts may not be entirely useful, as it is now difficult to separate styles of music into just two categories. Many artists perform in different genres of music which does not depend on whether they are Black or White. It may have been easier to define styles of music into the two concepts earlier in history when the divide between the two was more pronounced. However, in today’s music, styles are borrowed from all different genres: Black and White styles are mixed.