Maceo Musicology Webcast (Maceo's Black Album) (June '10 pt 1)
Rock Hard In A Funky Place
I grew up in a different time...
This podcast is a collection of books from the some of the artists I started following in late 80's when the above really mattered to me (my Black Album so to speak). At the time, I was feeling that society was beginning to define my cultural identity around hip hop, when I listened to a broader base of music. So I reacted with rock. In hindsight, it was a dark period for me (pun intended) in that I was seeking music based on race, which defeats the purpose.
Things are different 20 years later. More so than the success of Gnarls Barley and TV on the Radio, etc, it's the little things like the inclusion by Ymaginatif in the first Triple Threat Podcast of Alice Smith without knowing who she is that show me times are different.
Finally, while most bloggers may disagree, I do think that P's commercial success with playing the guitar (Jimi was not a commercial success in the same way during his lifetime) indirectly led to record companies being more open to signing some of the artists featured (hence the late 80's focus)
Anyway, feel free to ignore my ramblings and put turn the knob up to 11.
see below
Rock Hard In A Funky Place
I grew up in a different time...
Maceo wrote:
Quote 1
The rock star named Stew doesn't have the fondest memories of growing up African-American and loving the likes of Led Zeppelin. "There were about four of us in this predominantly black school who listened to rock 'n' roll," he says. "Everyone else would tease us. It meant you were a pansy." (NY Daily News 'Rock is the new Black')
Quote 2
"Black rock artists have gotten past the fear that prevents many of us from fully following our interests, even when those interests aren't seen as "traditionally" black. "I grew up listening to Joy Division, New Order, Echo & the Bunnymen, the Cure…." says TV on the Radio's Kyp Malone. "I simply identified with something in the [white rock] music.” He took that music as inspiration and, along with his bandmates, created Dear Science, the sharp, angry and euphoric genre-mashing album that Rolling Stone and SPIN unanimously named their 2008 album of the year. It was also one of the blackest albums I've heard." (boldaslove blog)
Quote 3
And what is black rock, anyway? According to critic Greg Tate, editor of Everything But the Burden: What White People Are Taking from Black Culture, bands such as Fishbone and Living Colour emerged from the post-soul era, infusing the emotion of soul music into a more aggressive, modern-rock sound. Author Mark Anthony Neal wrote in The Birth of New Blackness, that the emergence of black rock signified "the conceiving of blackness in the absence of the black racial subject -- what happens to blackness when the need (and desire) to acknowledge the physical presence of black folk is removed." So it is not really about a black face standing in front of a all-white rock crowd, but the freedom to do so without race factoring in to the music they want to perform. And a lot of black fans and musicians play and listen to rock -- fans who are being tired of being ridiculed for attending shows because of their ethnicity and, most important, a community of thousands who want to live a punk or rock lifestyle without being unfairly judged because of the color of their skin." (boldaslove blog)
Quote 4
"The r&b section was always at the back of the record store. I wanted to be in the front" (P)
This podcast is a collection of books from the some of the artists I started following in late 80's when the above really mattered to me (my Black Album so to speak). At the time, I was feeling that society was beginning to define my cultural identity around hip hop, when I listened to a broader base of music. So I reacted with rock. In hindsight, it was a dark period for me (pun intended) in that I was seeking music based on race, which defeats the purpose.
Things are different 20 years later. More so than the success of Gnarls Barley and TV on the Radio, etc, it's the little things like the inclusion by Ymaginatif in the first Triple Threat Podcast of Alice Smith without knowing who she is that show me times are different.
Finally, while most bloggers may disagree, I do think that P's commercial success with playing the guitar (Jimi was not a commercial success in the same way during his lifetime) indirectly led to record companies being more open to signing some of the artists featured (hence the late 80's focus)
Anyway, feel free to ignore my ramblings and put turn the knob up to 11.
see below
Last edited by Mace2theO on Sun Apr 03, 2011 7:33 am; edited 2 times in total
) 
Throw in the Mother's Finest song from the 1st podcast onto this, and we're ready for some serious air guitar displays
