(January 24, 2016 at 11:19 pm)Dystopia Wrote:(January 24, 2016 at 10:55 pm)RaphielDrake Wrote: The people who can fully appreciate the history behind the blues music are the people who experienced the history behind the blues music.I think the blues example is a bit complicated to explain. Let's talk hip hop instead - Whether it is gangsta rap, mainstream, underground or just hybrid old school hip hop, it's a genre appreciated by people of different races. Now, it's fine for anyone to like hip hop - But let's imagine a few iconic songs by black rappers singing about the poverty and racism against black people... If you're white (or any other race) you can enjoy the song and even cry when you listen to it, but you simply can't understand the situation exactly like the group being oppressed in the song because you are not them and will never know in the same exact terms... Many people think rappers are dumb just because they occasionally say "nigga" during songs, but they forget that culturally it can mean a lot for a black person to say the n word to another black person (also, the majority of good artists don't say nigga that much, I can only think of Lil Wayne for that case and he is certainly not very good).
Its not like you can't appreciate it but lets be realistic; noone from this time can really comprehend the conditions under which it was born or the motivations of its parents. Which is fine, its not a prerequisite.
The sound can resonate in you, make you feel things deeper and stronger than you otherwise might. It could even make you relate it to certain events or conditions in your own life but thats true of everyone. It doesn't make your experience of it any less meaningful.
Using an easier example to explain - I'm Portuguese, and I listen to Spanish music because I can comprehend spoken-Spanish (and read a bit) and I enjoy lots of Spanish music... I can enjoy the music, but my Spanish friends have a much deeper understanding of the artists, the meaning of each song and they relate to specific things only Spanish people (sometimes from only some geographical areas and with specific backgrounds) will properly understand. What I'm saying is not to listen to it, but don't pretend you're an expert about it. I'm not an expert on Spanish music, I just enjoy some of it. I will probably never understand the meaning of some styles of music unless I lived in Spain for quite some time.
Have you ever brought up kids on a council estate in London? For the US readers thats an estate with low rent built for poor people by the county council. In London that usually means living in a shithole. Theres exceptions of course but most aren't really the kind of places you stop for a friendly chat.
My Mum did. This one was mainly populated by black people, they were the majority. Theres alot of estates like that. One time my brother was playing in the park and my Mum was doing something. I can't remember what it was. She turned around to hear two black children debating whether or not to "pinch the white baby". See one of the neighbors had spread the rumor that the reason she didn't socialize with the local community much was because she was racist. We were dog shit there and she wasn't left with any illusions otherwise.
Does this mean my family can more deeply appreciate eminem than a black family in a white majority estate then? I'm not being sarcastic. I'm genuinely asking because that seems to be where your logic leads. That simply being of the same color as the artist can grant someone a greater insight into the music than someone who has otherwise all the same knowledge they do but isn't the same color as the artist.
I'm not sure this is comparable to a language barrier.
"That is not dead which can eternal lie and with strange aeons even death may die."
- Abdul Alhazred.
- Abdul Alhazred.