Segregating Sound by. Karl Miller
To my surprise, this book was very interesting. It explored the cultural divide of music between Southern whites and blacks during the 20th century. During this time, there was this notion that blues music was to be enjoyed by black people, and country/folk was to be enjoyed by white people. This ideal led to the development of “Race Records”. These were records developed to be purchased and enjoyed by African Americans during the 1920s-1940s. It wasn’t common for Caucasians to to listen to these records due to the cultural climate at the time seeing that this was during the time of Jim Crow. However, some did begin to pick them up over time. One quote that stuck out to me the most was, “White southern artists faced a different challenge. They had to paint the pop tunes they loved with a patina of down-home credibility. (pg 227)” I found this to be a very profound statement in this book because when thinking about music created by African Americans, it is often said that they naturally bring a type of soul and passion into their work. That generally is because they use their music to tell real stories about their lives, experiences, and general things that are relatable to everyone within the culture. On the other hand, it is often said that soul is something that white people often lack in their music. The way that I interpreted this quote was as if white artist struggle to bring their own personal stories into their music making them lifeless. I found that the use of the word “paint” was a unique in this sentence because I immediately thought of painting a picture of false images. To me pop music fits in this typical type of mold of unoriginality, and any deviation from that mold can make the song less popular because that’s what people want to hear. This made me question whether or not that is what creates the challenge that Miller was talking about. Possibly it is difficult for southern white people to create songs with ‘down-home credibility” because unfortunately that’s not what sells in the music industry for their demographic.
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