Is racism REALLY that relevant in music?
 

this has something that has angered me quite a bit. Jay-Z recently headlined Glastonbury, something which according to the media upset quite a few people. 'Hip Hop does not belong in Glastonbury' Noel Gallagher said. Rather ignorant of him to say, yes. But is that REALLY racist? Several articles I read about the matter of Jay-Z headlining Glasto seemed to all have the same underlying theme - that the people who were against it, MUST be racist.


Before that, Lethal Bizzle was bottled at Download festival. Yet again, the media pushed it as a racist attack. Lethal Bizzle came out with a statement afterwards, saying that he respected the crowds attitudes and obviously many of them were hardcore metallers who would not appreciate a Rap act coming on stage. He then said that he understands, because if a metal band turned up to a grime rave, things could have been even worse for them. Which is a completely true and respectable statement.

It just angers me, because I do not believe that in these times racism is relevant in music at all. In fact, the media pushing these incidents as racist attacks is simply instigating bitterness between races. I highly doubt that the bottling of Lethal Bizzle was a collective racist assault. It was merely a bunch of metallers who took pride in their genre, and did not want to see some rapper up on stage. Panic At The Disco were bottled at Reading, was that racist? No it wasn't. It was because the crowd thought they were ****.

Music is not something where racism belongs. It isn't like football matches, where a bunch of lunk-headed neanderthals use skin colour to insult the opposing teams players. In music, everyone is in the same team, regardless of race.

Tell that to Lydon.

ah... true point. But he's just one deluded and old fashioned fella from the skinhead era isn't he. Plus, it hasn't been proved that he said it... no one else heard it. It's Keke Okereke's word against his. And Keke Okereke's a **** anyway.

It is relevant, without the slave trade we wouldn't have the blues.

You might want to look up where the skinheads got their influences from.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ider_cover.jpg

No, not the least bit.

I don't really think he was talking about neo-nazism/white power/etc and **** when he posted this. Because you get that in movies, literature, etc and it's kind of it's own deal. Skrewdriver broke up like ten years ago anyway, so they're not relevant today. Besides if you're going to go there why not bring Bad Brains into this too? They were hardly a group of open-minded and loving individuals.

Ever heard of Elvis Presley?

And why do you think your grandparents might call rock n' roll "devil music"? I'm pretty goddamn sure it's not because you're listening to anything remotely Satanic. It's because the original rock n' rollers were black, not white, and anything that got kids on the dance floor that wasn't cracker music had to be in some way related to the devil. And even some of the earliest white rockers (who took most of their influence from Delta blues) were ignorant racists (like Eric Clapton).

It's sad today to see the gross bifurcation of race when you look at different types of music. It's getting better, but it's definitely still a problem.

Bad Brains were homophobic, not racist.

I doubt Lydon is really racist, wasn't he hanging about in ska clubs before the Pistols? You could say that that isn't enough to say he isn't racist but then would a racist really hang around in a mainly black scene?

It is quite funny that some people call the early skinhead scene racist when they were listening to Reggae and Ska especially in England late 60's/early 70's and indeed beyond with 2 tone.

I wasn't being serious, really, I just figured this would be a good thread to post that in.