“America wasn't interested in the roots of house music because it was too black, it was too gay, it was all these things, and today it's made very sanitized and white.” MadeTodayAmericaHouseBlackWhiteGayMusic IsRootsHouse Music Author:Felix Buxton
“I think rap music is the sole reason for a lot of black acceptance in pop culture; because the music is very popular, it gets our image out in other ways than in movies.” ThinkingWayReasonCultureBlackAcceptanceMusic IsPopsRapSolePop CultureRap MusicVery Popular Author:Ice Cube
“House Music isn't black or white. It just is. It feels good & it feels right.” FeelsHouseBlackWhiteMusic IsFeel GoodFeels RightBlack Or WhiteHouse Music Author:Frankie Knuckles
“...black music is a group music. That's why I don't like doing a solo saxophone thing: My feeling stems from rhythm, I really have to feel that rhythmic thing happening.” FeelsFeelingsBlackGroupsMusic IsHappeningsThings HappenRhythmStemSoloSaxophoneBlack Music Author:Jimmy Lyons
“Black people's music is in a class by itself and always has been. There's nothing like it. The reason for that is because it was not tampered with by white people. It was not on the media. It was not anywhere except where black people were. And it is one of the art forms in which black people decided what is good in it. Nobody told them. What surfaced and what floated to the top, were the giants and the best.” PeopleHas BeensArtReasonFormBlackWhiteClassMediaMusic IsDecidedGiantsBlack People Author:Toni Morrison
“I didn't like any British music before The Beatles. For me, it was all about black American music. But then I became a successful pop singer, even though the kind of music I liked was more elitist, which is what I'm trying to get back to.” TryingKindBlackSuccessfulMusic IsPopsBritishSingersGet BackElitistAmerican MusicBritish Music Author:Lulu
“Music is the very cement that has not just held the black community together but holds black selves together in a fundamental sense.” SelfTogetherBlackCommunityMusic IsFundamentalsCementBlack Community Author:Cornel West
“It's not very long ago that we were all singing country music. And country music is equally black as it is white and that's important to recognize.” LongImportantCountryBlackWhiteMusic IsSingingLong Ago Author:Ketch Secor
“Country music is the combination of African and European folk songs coming together and doing a little waltz right here in the American south. They came together at some cotillion, and somebody snuck a black person into the room, and he danced with a white lady, and music was born.” LittlesPersonsCountryTogetherSongBlackBornWhiteRoomsMusic IsSouthFolksCombinationComing TogetherBlack PersonWaltzFolk SongsCotillion Author:Ketch Secor
“It grabs me, but not as much as it grabs some of the other people that rave about them. With the Black Keys, I'm missing crescendos with the sax, keyboard or guitar solo. It never comes to me. All my favorite music is rife with crescendo and I'm not hearing enough with them. If you can get the Black Keys to hear this, tell them I offer my crescendo guitar anytime they desire it.” PeopleIfsEnoughDesireBlackMissingKeysOffersMusic IsGuitarMy FavoriteHearingSoloKeyboardsRaveCrescendoGuitar SolosFavorite MusicBlack Keys Author:Ted Nugent
“I was listening to a lot of Norwegian black metal and death metal. There's a great history to Norwegian black metal. That music is very dark and violent, but it's also beautiful.” BeautifulBlackDarkListeningMusic IsViolentMetalsNorwegiansGreat HistoryBlack MetalDeath Metal Author:Brie Larson
“Mom did not want me to have anything to do with playing music. Being from a middle-class Black family in that particular era, everybody wanted you to have a profession -- a doctor, a lawyer, and so forth. So she sent me to school to study medicine.” WantWantedSchoolBlackClassGrowing UpStudyMiddleParticularMomMusic IsDoctorsMedicineProfessionLawyerErasMiddle ClassWant MePlaying MusicBlack Family Author:Don Alias
“That the language of the poetry of Jamaican music is rastafarian or biblical language cannot simply be put down to the colonizer and his satanic missionaries. The fact is that the historical experience of the black Jamaican is an experience of the most acute human suffering, desolation and despair in the cruel world that is the colonial world.” WorldHumansFactsSufferingLanguageBlackDespairMusic IsHistoricalBiblicalDesolationSatanicHuman SufferingCruel WorldJamaicansJamaican Music Author:Linton Kwesi Johnson
“Mozart's music is particularly difficult to perform. His admirable clarity exacts absolute cleanness: the slightest mistake in it stands out like black on white. It is music in which all the notes must be heard.” DifficultBlackWhiteMistakeHeardMusic IsAbsolutesNotesClarityStanding OutAdmirable Author:Gabriel Faure
“There are a good number of people creating black metal and black metal inspired music in the northwest. Much of this music is radically noncommercial and exists only on a very local, private level.” PeopleBlackLevelsNumbersCreatingMusic IsInspiredLocalsMetalsBlack Metal Author:Kristoffer Rygg
“I understand that the worst people in England at a time were ran to America, for some reason. Then slavery came and calls of aggression. But we've been there 600 years and there ain't no peace between black and whites because the cultures are different - like the Chinese and Mexicans cannot integrate: the music is different, the eating is different.” PeopleYearsDifferentReasonAmericaCultureBlackWorstEatingMusic IsEnglandSlaveryChineseRanAggressionBlack And WhiteIntegrating Author:Muhammad Ali
“It's nice that psychedelic music is kind of a buzzword. When I started with Vincent Black Shadow, stoner-rock was getting big, but it was more of a riff-oriented thing. Now people are starting to get into the 60's-Pink Floyd-acid-pop viewpoint.” PeopleKindBigsBlackNiceRocksMusic IsShadowStartingPopsAcidPsychedelicViewpointsStoners Author:Mike Romano
“I teach a graduate seminar called "Theorizing Improvisation" that is pretty interdisciplinary, but really makes students deal with black studies seriously. A lot of authors of color, a lot of women of color - those become central to the intellectual trajectory. It considers music, but it also considers areas of thought that might seem unrelated to music. That's partly because we're expanding the notion of what music is beyond objects, beyond scores, beyond things.” BlackTeachStudyStudentsMusic IsIntellectualGraduatesImprovisation Author:Vijay Iyer
“I find that the quest to be perfect and make perfect music is like a black whole. I realize that you can come with the intention to capture a vibe and use a formula, but you have to accept that most of the time its not going to be what you envisioned and you might manifest something better. I think that's been the hardest thing to wrap my head around that most ideas we go for ends up sounding different. I think art in general should be about enjoying the process and the experience. All that matters is if you feel the music and it captures the element your going for.” ThinkingArtDifferentEnjoyBlackRealizingPerfectAcceptingMusic IsIntentionManifest Author:Jillian Hervey
“Jazz is a white term to define black people. My music is black classical music.” PeopleBlackTermWhiteMusicMusic IsRacismJazzBlack PeopleClassical MusicJazz MusicClassic Music Author:Nina Simone