Barry Shank suggests “that the transformations in popular music that we associate with the rise and development of rock were the result of white fascination with black music.” From this, concepts of blackness and whiteness are useful with understanding development of popular music. This doesn’t mean that people only listen to their relevant racial group music style, however, it means that the beginning of popular music was based in different life situations. For example, blues music developed through the slave trade, and this background is important to understand to fully appreciate the musical sound. Therefore, to study popular music is to understand its background. Through the development of popular music, sounds that began as either Black, White, or Asian etc, have began to fuse so in the modern era these musical styles do not exist separately but more as different genres which appeal to broad spectrums of the audience. “Pop music has always depended upon the interaction between white and black traditions” David Hatch.
I like the way you have bookended this post with contrasting ideas by different theorists and tied the two together.
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