Okay, I'm just going to ask and take my beatings: race and music.

Cafe Society
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First, I’m white. I listen to what I think is a wide variety of music, ranging from classical (Baroque or Romantic) to classic rock to metal to trance to some hip-hop. A little bit of country, jazz, and bluegrass is also in my mix. Second, I live in Baltimore, and in this city, Caucasians are the minority.

What I’m about to ask is extremely sensitive to some groups and may very will get me pitted for being a stereotypist and/or a racist asshole. But I would appreciate it if we can put aside the reactionary vitriol for a moment and have an honest discussion based on facts.

All that said, here goes. It appears to me that young, predominantly urban African-Americans* listen almost exclusively to rap and hip-hop. The white kids I’ve seen and known in my life may not have had the most sophisticated musical tastes, but their tastes seemed to be more diverse.

Thus, I have these questions to ask:[ol]
[li]Am I experiencing confirmation bias? I challenge that I would find it statistically highly unlikely that I would find a black 21-year-old male in Baltimore who listens to Béla Fleck or Deep Purple.[/li][li]What is the cause of this? Is African-American culture generally more conformist than Caucasian? (My social worker mother once told me that you would get shot in the 'hood for listening to anything other than rap.) Do rap and hip-hop relate more to the lives and struggles of young African-Americans?[/li][li]Would I be told that all my music sounds the same by an African-American?[/li][/ol]

I’ll also extend this observation to the large Latin population in my city. The cars and clubs frequented by Latinos/Latinas here generally only play a very specific type of music (forgive me for not knowing the name of it). Artists like U2, Elton John, and Metallica are recognized worldwide, but you’ll never hear it coming from the Rumba (a Spanish bar/club in Fell’s Point).

Pit me if you feel the need, but I feel like I’m not the only one who has had this question but has been afraid to ask.

*I’m not talking about “thugs” here. I know honor students at my college that listen to Nas while studying.

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I won’t Pit you or think less of you. A lot of people have no problems what-so-ever propagating stereotypes of their own race.

It’s still a confirmation bias though because the African American kids that are into a wide variety of music are probably not the same ones blasting it out of the car. Same as no one blasts classical music from their car, only the types of music where that sort of annoying shit is “cool”.

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I do not know about this, but I do know there a lot of great black musicians doing a lot of great work in Jazz, Jazz fusion, Rock and even Heavy Metal (yes, it still exists). I think it stands to reason that if they were inspired to play it, then there must be at least few members of their social communities that are listening to it.

It is sad, but I had to admit that my beloved Rock and Roll is no longer the dominant musical genre among young people and has not been for some time.

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Just want to say, I love your dopername, Typo Negative! Wish I had thought of it! :smiley:

Edit to actually respond to what you were saying: I think most non-pop musicians write music they themselves like. If someone else likes it, great, but I think very few of them think about what the fans want when they write.

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Black people I know listen to mainly R&B (the new R&B…) and rap. Mainly. Also reggae/dancehall. Most of them definitely also listen to jazz, blues, pop and rock, in addition to what they mainly listen to.

The thing about Hip hop is that we saw the birth of it and contributed to it and it turned into such a global phenomenon. We have a pride about it and feel very connected to it. So we probably trumpet that most of all.

ETA: speaking from my opinion and perspective of the black people I know.

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This is my perspective, too. I know kids from a variety of backgrounds; those that are into music listen to a variety of genres - I am sure the ratio of times spent with each genre varies based on their own tastes and some cultural influences…

Kids that aren’t really into music, per se, tend to listen to what is considered cool and popular. From my observation, it appears that R&B and Hip Hop are still considered cool and popular in some African American subgroups…but those genres are considered cool and popular amongst other ethnic subgroups, too…

So:

  1. probably a bit, yeah. I don’t think it would be hard to find an African American 21-year-old who likes DP, if you know where to look. I was just at a local Guitar Center in a very affluent NYC suburb and happened upon a group of three black teens playing loud metal on a pointy guitar. Fun conversation.

  2. I don’t find many groups of teens that don’t have strong conformity challenges. If a given group uses music as a coolness test, sure, it happens. In my school back in the day, Ted Nugent was somebody cool we were expected to like ::shudder in hindsight::

  3. If the person is not a music fan, then it’s possible. Before I opened my ears, I thought all Opera and all Country sounded the same. I got a bit older and took music a bit more seriously. That doesn’t sound like an ethnicity thing…

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Rap isn’t black music. It’s urban music. Youths who live in the inner city, regardless of race, tend to listen to rap.

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Why?

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First, for me to judge if you’re racist based on a question is ludicrous. You are asking for information, because you don’t know.

Delivery people are taken aback when they come to the office and hear “War Pigs” playing, and asking who is playing it, because the only guy around is Black, and (gasp) “they don’t listen to rock/metal”…ROFLMAO.
Allow me to share my music tastes and how they got there.

Mom was 40’s and 50s music; Dad was pure Motown of the 60s and 70s.

Warner Brothers gave me an appreciation for Classical.

Now If your circle of friends listens to a particular style, you will too, as part of socialization.

My friends listened to AM radio, so I got a love for soft/pop rock.

Was old enough later to go to discos, so I added Disco to the mix.

I needed an “A” in college and took a Jazz class. Add Coltrane, Monk, and Miles (among others) to the mix.

Today, my Album and CD and mp3 collection spans from Aalon and Adam Ant to ZZ Top. I am not a fan of Death/Thrash Metal, or almost anything produced after 1999.
I say this because I left “the block” (couldn’t resist the pun). I broadened my horizons. But I also, because of my education, had money with which to experiment. I was blessed in that, based on my multicultural upbringing and experiences, I am a fan of most type of music.

I suspect that the group you see that cling to one style never left the block, or are trying to “keep it real”.

  • My two cents.
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Same reason most country music fans are white?

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Right, hip-hop and R&B are popular with everyone, not just black people. You can look at the current Billboard top 100 here, and you can see that a lot of the songs are R&B or hip-hop.

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But the OP wasn’t about rap and hip-hop being popular with non-blacks. It was about blacks listening to music other than rap and hip-hop.

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Culture.

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That’s true. But I think it’s valid to point out that black people listen to a lot of hip-hop and R&B because that’s what a lot of people in general listen to.

I’m not as sure why black people might not listen to as much other music. I think confirmation bias does play a part. It’s true that it might be hard to find a black 21-year-old male who listens to Béla Fleck or Deep Purple. But Béla Fleck isn’t hugely popular in general and I think it would be difficult to find a 21-year-old male of any race who was a fan. Same with Deep Purple, other than a few white 21-year-olds who listened to classic rock stations and could name Smoke on the Water.

I think cultural expectations also play a part. Probably no one would think anything weird if a white teenager was listening to the Eli Young Band, Maroon 5, or Kanye West. But black teenagers are expected to be listening to hip-hop, and might get weird looks or feel self-conscious listening to the Eli Young Band or Maroon 5 when driving around. So the black teenager might listen to Kanye when driving, and wait til he gets home to listen to other music. This is just speculation on my part.

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I challenge that you’d have the same difficulty in finding a white 21-year old that listened to Bela Fleck or Deep Purple.

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I think this video explains it.

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Some of my favorite and most beloved music act are from Motown, R&B and Blues. I still think the Fifth Dimension was the perfect blend of soul and pop.

It saddens me to see so many black artists that refuse to actually sing. Rap and Hip Hop has just ruined the talent pool.

I was surprised by Cee Lo Green on the Voice. He sang beautifully. Nothing like the material he put out with Gnarls Barkley. I sampled a few Gnarls Barkley tracks on youtube and it just wasn’t my cup of tea.

I like Everlast new material where he sings. He was a successful white rapper in the 90’s and I can’t stand that stuff.

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See Rappers can sing when they want too.

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Yeah, I’m sure they are sad too. I bet they weep every time they go to the bank.

I’m sorry, but this comes across as a tad condescending and exemplifies some ignorance. There are plenty of black vocalists. Just turn on an R&B channel and listen for 10 seconds and you will hear them. Singing is not a dying art amongst the black folk.

I would say there’s some confirmation bias going on in the OP, but not TOO much. I wager that many urban black kids are pretty insular–attending predominately black schools and not socializing very frequently with white people. So their exposure to other genres tends to be limited, and their definition of cool is structured around their specific cultural elements.

But a lot of urban black youth are in fairly integrated environments and are hip to a variety of genres. They aren’t as homogenous as they may appear.

I think parental influence is also important. My dad exposed me to everything growing up, because he’d always listened to everything. My mother, on the hand, is still stuck in 1960s Motown. When I was in high school and she once caught me listening to U2, she commented on my “white” musical tastes–using a tone of voice that hinted of disapproval. My father came to my defense, though. It’s all good.

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I’m not aware of that many black singers anymore. We just lost Whitney Houston. Lionel Richie and Stevie Wonder are still singing. They are older guys from my generation.

There is a new guy that emerged around 1999. John Legend plays the piano and sings beautifully. I’d love to see more young artists go into real singing instead of rap or hip hop.