Chapter 8:
Songs in the Key of
Discontent
Music can be used to build bridges... or to burn them
Music is a world within itself
With a language we all understand
With an equal opportunity
For all to sing, dance and clap their hands
Stevie Wonder, Sir Duke 1976
The newest most fabulous hot spot in dc – AIR – has effectively eliminated its Black patronage with a simple twist of the turntables.
AIR’s major African-American target audience promoter – FlowInsider – is crying the blues (yea. have you seen the The Flow’s ad rates? I’d be crying the blues over that loss, too), and daring AIR to fill its concrete corridors the way it did when The Flow mailing list was in place. Ptttt. Take that!
Puh-lease. One look at the AIR photo gallery, or a good dose of common sense, will tell you that there are plenty of folks who like to ‘party among themselves.’ By the way, they call such events ‘International Happy Hours,’ now. Lovely venues where enlightened, fantastic Americans can go and mingle with acceptable people of color, minus the attitude, malt liquor, guns and general rabble rousing that nightly news swears is par for the course with two or more black people in your venue. NOTE: I did not say ‘white’ enlightened, fantastic Americans, because, truth be told, there are plenty of folks the same shade of unacceptable as Channel X’s Nightly News’ Tyrone in Handcuffs who manage to soften their shade of café latte by denouncing red Kool-Aid, fried chicken and all the other Black folks AIR sought to eliminate.
Non-locals and the un-inaugurated few may not have a full grasp of this situation. AIR is not some bar/grill/lounge turned Friday night hotspot. AIR is a massive ingenious outdoor club that holds hundreds of people. It is the place to be. It is upscale, safe and refined – and so are the type of folk who attend. Yea. Black folk included. The DC Black Bourgeois was having a field day – till we got slapped in the face when the establishment reminded us that neither six-figure incomes, college degrees or houses in the suburbs hide that big fat N sitting on our collective forehead. (yes. collective forehead – there is only one forehead because there is only one type of black people. right? right.)
But this is not a diatribe on gentrification in the big city. Oh no. We (meaning me) here at the INDIE LIFE talk music and only music. It’s not what AIR did; it’s how they did it. Some days, you just got to admit you have been bested. What AIR did was a subtle, unpredictable, non-libelous, exclusionary, brilliant power-broker type move. For those who need translation: AIR went straight gangsta on us.
AIR changed its music format from pop/r&b plus a lil’ hip-hop to club/eurodance/house. Done deal. Black folk: gone.
How did it come to this?
I am not one to appoint the term God to any man, but if any corporal being is deserving of the title archangel, it’s Stevie Wonder. And Stevie Wonder said Music [is] an equal opportunity For all to sing, dance and clap their hands. Tell ‘em Stevie!
But that was 1976. Maybe things have changed. Hmmm… let’s see.
Do you remember the 80s? One music, right? Billboard reports that the chart toppers of 1985 were CARELESS WHISPER George Michael, LIKE A VIRGIN Madonna, WAKE ME UP BEFORE YOU GO-GO Wham! and I WANT TO KNOW WHAT LOVE IS Foreigner. And my jam: EVERYBODY WANTS TO RULE THE WORLD by Tears for Fears. Stop playing. You can take the roughest thug – I’m talking somebody who would spit on his own mamma – hand him this list, and he will not be the slightest bit embarrassed to belt out I wanna know what love iiiiiissss! in the wackest falsetto you have ever heard. I want you to shoooowww meeeee!
That’s what I’m talkin’ bout.
The only black music chart topper then was Chaka Khan (you know which one), unless you count Madonna as a black music chart topper. But we were just kids then, right? We didn’t know better. We just listened to whatever came on the radio. So what about later? College?
Let’s see… 1992…
Now it gets interesting, right? A new generation of crooners, and the top 20 is about 50/50. You remember that, don’t you? That was R&B’s last stand while hip-hop was trying to sift it’s way through pop music: END OF THE ROAD Boyz II Men, BABY GOT BACK Sir Mix-A-Lot, JUMP Kriss Kross, SAVE THE BEST FOR LAST Vanessa Williams and BABY-BABY-BABY by TLC. Ah Kriss Kross. We are still trying to live that down. But you know the other half, too, don’t you? TEARS IN HEAVEN Eric Clapton (awwwwwww), I’M TOO SEXY Right Said Fred and ACHY BREAKY HEART. Now I don’t think I ever listened to Achy Breaky, but I knew about it – you couldn’t miss it, right?
Absolutely.
Now, notice something. Except for referring to ‘black music,’ I haven’t stratified my comments. The whole world reads the INDIE LIFE (hehehe) and I’ve been talking to everybody, because these charts were the NATIONAL charts. Not the just urban/r&b charts or just the pop charts – these are the tops. Overall. All music. All folks.
The 30 and over crew tends to think that the world was more connected musically back in the day because black folk listened to more white music. It was on our radio stations (where we had them), just like Run DMC and Michael Jackson (although who can really say what side Michael was on?). But the truth of the matter is, a chart topper is a chart topper and everybody listens – or at least is aware.
And today?
Well in case you didn’t know: Hip Hop rules. Of all music playing in the country right now, Billboard reports that 11 out of the top 20 are hip hop tracks. And that’s only if you don’t count Usher and Alicia Keys as hip hop… which is up for discussion. And that’s also if we are not claiming the stuff from the Caribbean that hip hop has transformed (i.e. #4 is Turn Me On by Kevin Lyttle Featuring Spragga Benz).
And if the charts don’t tell it all… I have unequivocal empirical evidence (three hip hop workshops I taught in the last month) that says Avril Lavigne has invaded the ghetto. And I ain’t mad cuz Avril is my girl, raccoon eye shadow and all!
So, Stevie is right. (of course, Stevie is right. never doubted it.) Music does connect us… all.
So, then. If we have all been listening to the same music for the last 20 years (much longer, actually… because Motown was before that… and you know the entire country was rockin’ to Motown), how can music be used to keep anybody out of anywhere?
It’s complicated. And I’ll let y’all continue most of this discussion on your own but
some music you can dance to and some music you can’t (and to some you can sort of fake it)
some folks go to parties to dance and some folks go to parties to drink (and some go to sort of fake it)
some folks give up on music too easily and refuse to try new things and some narrow minded conniving individuals will always find a way to make a financial or social profit using that fact to their advantage
Whining about the power and fighting the power are two different things. You can have a ball with 50 of you friends anywhere 50 of your friends will fit – especially if you and 50 of your friends bombard your DJ will all sorts of requests that he can’t fill for three-hours-straight until he is totally embarrassed that he can’t fill them and comes back better prepared next week. Well… it may not be successful, but it might be a lot of fun.
Still, after all discussion, the bottom-line is that anyone who pays $10 (or $20 if you miss the guest list) to a venue to get their groove on deserves to get their groove on to some music that they like to groove to. And no venue changes its format when they are able to pull 1000 plus patrons strong every weekend, unless they don’t like their patrons. We got two choices: take our money and spend it on a lawyer or take our money and spend it on a club that likes us and will hit that Fat Joe LEAN BACK joint at least twice.
(This week, I don’t have a preference so just send me a memo when you decide. It’s the same pair of boots for both.)
one
jh