Race in Music

In the beginning of this class when Professor O’Malley was discussing how music is a racialized choice, I already was writing my post in my head. I was going to say how even back in history in record stores when you make that choice that is “saturated” in a specific race based on the type of music you’re choosing, it even is like that now. Then he asked the class if we thought society is like that know and it has to be. There still is racial coding among music with all the “white” music being categorized in country, rock, etc and the “black” music being more towards hip hop, soul, and r&b type of music. Of course there are exceptions to this, a white person can love listening to Drake, or a black person loves listening to Kenny Chesney (no idea who that actually is tbh I just hear people associate him with country songs) and that’s fine. At the same time, if you’re going to immerse yourself in “black,” music but still deny the fact that they are, TO THIS DAY, prejudiced against, then you’re apart of the problem in America. That problem has existed since slavery, Jim Crow, minstrels, etc, and anyone who disagrees is probably implicitly (or even explicitly) biased.