# Do black people in the south listen to country music? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 4, 2006, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-black-people-in-the-south-listen-to-country-music/338328 "2006-01-04T02:11:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![mamboman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecb155/32.png) [@mamboman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mamboman)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2006, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-black-people-in-the-south-listen-to-country-music/338328/41 "2006-01-04T23:40:27Z")
> [@whole bean](#): > > “I Shot the Sheriff” ain’t so bad anyway. Everyone knows Sheriff John Brown always hated him and was aiming to shoot him down. That’s why he shot, he shot, he shot him down. Pure self-defense. Meanwhile, the killer of the deputy walks free. Where’s the justice in that? mm ---
**Author:** ![whole\_bean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/96bed5/32.png) [@whole\_bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whole_bean)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2006, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-black-people-in-the-south-listen-to-country-music/338328/42 "2006-01-04T23:41:28Z")
> [@mamboman](#): > > Meanwhile, the killer of the deputy walks free. Where’s the justice in that? > > mm if he is guilty he will pay ---
**Author:** ![Zabali\_Clawbane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecd19e/32.png) [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2006, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-black-people-in-the-south-listen-to-country-music/338328/43 "2006-01-05T00:14:57Z")
Probably one of the guys that nodded was **[Cowboy Troy](http://music.yahoo.com/ar-17890839-videos--Cowboy-Troy)**. IIRC, he was on tour with Toby Keith recently. Link goes to his Yahoo Music page, Videos section. Check out “I Play Chicken with the Train” This guy has to be heard to be believed. I went :eek: then 😃 when I heard him and dragged people over to hear for themselves. ---
**Author:** ![Zabali\_Clawbane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecd19e/32.png) [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2006, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-black-people-in-the-south-listen-to-country-music/338328/44 "2006-01-05T00:18:41Z")
Hmm, according to his video he’s been performing with Tim McGraw, not Toby Keith, or maybe it’s both? Had to pull it up again, decent fiddler I’ll say at least. ---
**Author:** ![R.P.McMurphy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7993a0/32.png) [@R.P.McMurphy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/R.P.McMurphy)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2006, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-black-people-in-the-south-listen-to-country-music/338328/45 "2006-01-05T01:13:22Z")
Maybe the key word is “influence”. This is America. Every cultural thing that happens in this country has a multitude of influences. Do young blacks listen to Blues? No. Is their music influenced by it? Yes. Do rednecks listen to Scotish folk tunes? No. Was their music influenced by it? Yes. Were the Beatles R&B artists? No. Was their music influenced by it? Yes. It’s that way with all American music. Trying to draw line is an exercise in futility. Blacks, whites, whatever, in America it’s all become a mix. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2006, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-black-people-in-the-south-listen-to-country-music/338328/46 "2006-01-05T01:31:17Z")
In Black Russia, records scratch you! ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2006, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-black-people-in-the-south-listen-to-country-music/338328/47 "2006-01-05T02:37:41Z")
> [@whole bean](#): > > Everyone knows Sheriff John Brown always hated him and was aiming to shoot him down. That’s why he shot, he shot, he shot him down. Pure self-defense. That, and every time the singer plant a seed, Sheriff John Brown said “kill it before it grow”. Sheriff John Brown always hated him, which is going to make mounting a defense tricky, since the singer had a clear motive which probably involved the Sheriff’s destruction of his mrijuana crop, there were apparently no other witnesses - save, of course, the alleged actual killer himself - and all we have is his word that the Sheriff was looking for to shoot him down. Selling the self-defense angle to a jury is going to be tough. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2006, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-black-people-in-the-south-listen-to-country-music/338328/48 "2006-01-05T03:05:35Z")
> [@Case Sensitive](#): > > As I recall, quite possibly incorrectly, it was during the media storm after his metal band Body Count put out _Cop Killer_: he pointed out, quite reasonably, that there wasn’t much difference between his “offensive” lyrics and that FM staple _I Shot The Sheriff_". > > Heh. I still have my original copy of that album, before the song was pulled off it: we used to get _very_ stoned and _ad lib_ Tolkienesque lyrics to it, substituting “orcs” for “niggas”. Elf Killer! You’ll probably get a kick out of [Lords of the Rhymes](http://www.lordsoftherhymes.com/), then, who do Tolkien-based rap songs. Pretty good, considering the astronomically high nerd index. Elf booty got soul! Elf girls like to rock and roll! ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2006, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-black-people-in-the-south-listen-to-country-music/338328/49 "2006-01-05T03:56:06Z")
> [@Case Sensitive](#): > > That, and every time the singer plant a seed, Sheriff John Brown said “kill it before it grow”. Sheriff John Brown always hated him, which is going to make mounting a defense tricky, since the singer had a clear motive which probably involved the Sheriff’s destruction of his mrijuana crop, there were apparently no other witnesses - save, of course, the alleged actual killer himself - and all we have is his word that the Sheriff was looking for to shoot him down. Selling the self-defense angle to a jury is going to be tough. It was too bad too, because he was in such a Mellow Mood, what with his Coming In From the Cold to Simmer Down from all the crap the Crazy Baldheads and the Slave Drivers had thrown into the Crisis, or So Jah Seh… ---
**Author:** ![Reloy3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c68b51/32.png) [@Reloy3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reloy3)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2006, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-black-people-in-the-south-listen-to-country-music/338328/50 "2006-01-05T17:28:17Z")
> [@cornflakes](#): > > Most of the black guys that I know who listen to C&W were born before 1960 and grew up in small towns or in the country. There are still some black rodeos around [(here’s a touring one.)](http://www.billpickettrodeo.com/web/pages/2006schedule.php) They tend to be small town affairs, not as glitzy as the big city rodeos and (IIRC) focus on real riding skills (read: bull riding isn’t the main event.) Having followed my dad around on the PRCA, there are a surprising number of black cowboys both in and out of the black rodeo cowboy associations and the PRCA (Pro Rodeo Cowboy Association) and the PBR (Professional Bull Riders), most notable Fred Whitfield, 1999 PRCA All-Around Cowboy National Champion (probably the best calf roper alive today and one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet). When I hung around with them (which wasn’t often, admittedly, as I was in school and not following dad around), they listened to country. I’m not saying they are the majority, but they are around, and there are more of them than you think. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2006, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-black-people-in-the-south-listen-to-country-music/338328/51 "2006-01-05T17:39:02Z")
I presume the question relates to generalizations, since it’s obvious that an absolute answer would be founded in stereotype. (Yeah, they do while eating their fried chicken and watermelon :rolleyes: ) It’s been my experience, living in a state that’s 22% black with a concentration of about 35% (est.) in my particular area, that musical taste in blacks, based on radio programming and audience demographics, seems to be about 40:40:20, the 40’s being R&B and hiphop and the 20 spread over a wide range of music. Of the three black people I’ve known best since moving here, one was a fan of classical music, one of progressive jazz, and one of contemporary Christian music. Also, I talked in passing one afternoon to one 17-year-old black gay boy a few years ago who had a hangup on Aaron Carter, but he was of course yet another exceptional case. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2006, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-black-people-in-the-south-listen-to-country-music/338328/52 "2006-01-05T19:23:46Z")
> [@RandMcnally](#): > > Oh, and there’s a country music rapper called Cowboy Troy. He calls it ‘hickhop.’ I love that name. Everybody say “Y’all”! \ “Y’all”!!! ---
**Author:** ![John\_Carter\_of\_Mars](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/2bfe46/32.png) [@John\_Carter\_of\_Mars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Carter_of_Mars)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2006, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-black-people-in-the-south-listen-to-country-music/338328/53 "2006-01-05T20:40:15Z")
Stephanie (age 38) keeps the radio in her office tuned to the local country station. On casual dress days she wears a western shirt, jeans and cowgirl boots. But then, my #1 right-hand assistant dives a new Lexus to work, has a truck and trailer to haul her horses around to shows and was a fashion model in her previous life. Maybe she doesn’t fit the “black” profile that the OP seems to be asking about. ---
**Author:** ![Walter\_Windchill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Walter\_Windchill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walter_Windchill)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-black-people-in-the-south-listen-to-country-music/338328/54 "2006-01-06T04:49:12Z")
Country comes as much from blues than from Euopean folk music, which is why there’s more guitar and less bagpipe in the average country song. Jimmie Rodgers played almost every song as some variation on the 12-bar blues which I reckon he learned from blues musicians. Heck, he even uses the word “blues” in his songs. The yodels were blues riffs, similar to scat, not Alpine yodeling. And that’s the daddy of country music right there. Listen to some old Bob Wills or Gene Autry (pre-Hollywood Gene Autry) and tell me I’m wrong. You want to know the deep, dark, forgotten secret of country music? It’s that it evolved from the very popular minstral shows of the early 20th Century. We want to sweep that era under the rug. But that’s where it all started: white guys in black face playing black music. Even bluegrass is derived from black music. Old timey met jazz, and bluegrass was born. I know this doesn’t answer the question. I just think it’s interesting. I’m gonna say, if you mean contemporary commercial country, probably not much. Somehow Toby Keith isn’t going to speak to the hearts of young urban African Americans. ---
**Author:** ![Walter\_Windchill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Walter\_Windchill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walter_Windchill)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-black-people-in-the-south-listen-to-country-music/338328/55 "2006-01-06T04:54:33Z")
Big & Rich and Cowboy Troy are novelty acts. But the Brit band Alabama 3 (called A3 here because of being sued by the band Alabama) is the real deal when it comes to a modern spin on country/blues. I recommend 'em if you can find 'em (it’s hard around here). They’re best known for the theme song to the Sopranos, which is not their best song, but has a beautiful intro that is not heard on the TV show. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-black-people-in-the-south-listen-to-country-music/338328.md?page=2)