[In response to a comment attacking rock music for its African American origins]
Wow, I missed this. Here goes a VERY overdue reply which likely won't be read..
Negroes never invented an instrument more advanced than beating a hollow log. Therefore any music they make with white technology is at least half white - certainly NOT a product of Africa.
Second, you're missing some enlightening and uplifting compositions. I'd be interested to learn how you equate say RUSH with Afro music. Or ELO, Queen, Triumph, Genesis, Moody Blues, any Prog Rock? The lead singer for Queen recorded an opera. Maybe google "symphonic rock"?
14 comments
A hollow log, you say? Try listening to some of the myriad types of percussion used in Africa, never mind koras, thumb pianos etc. And then try and get your head around playing more than one rhythm at once.
As for enlightening and uplifting composition, how about Milton Nascimento's Missa dos Quilombos, or the Orchestral Works of Duke Ellington?
Negroes never invented an instrument more advanced than beating a hollow log.
I would never have guessed banjos and lutes were hollow logs played by beating them, what with the strings and all. Oh, and a sanza is rather distinctly similar to a piano.
This is probably one of the most blatantly ignorant quotes on the whole website, and this makes me ashamed to be a prog rock fan. I'm sure the vast, vast majority of prog rock musicians would agree with me there.
Therefore any music they make with white technology is at least half white - certainly NOT a product of Africa.
The hell does this mean? What about white musicians who record using technology and instruments made by Japanese companies, who in many cases improved on the previous European/American technology? Does that make their music "at least half Japanese"? Or even at least a quarter Japanese, or Asian in general?
Second, you're missing some enlightening and uplifting compositions.
As are you. Ignoring the huge world of jazz (which heavily inspired prog rock), go investigate Fela Kuti, Cheikh Lô, Jali Musa Jawara--might be some basic African music, but all that is enlightening and uplifting and sounds more advanced than beating a hollow log.
Rush, you mean the guys strongly inspired by blues music? Queen? You mean the band with the gay Indian guy Farrokh Bulsara as their singer? And don't get me started about the blatantly African inspired prog rock.
"Negroes never invented an instrument more advanced than beating a hollow log"
Jeez... I can't get over this idea of "I can't enjoy that music because it started with people I don't like." Some people are way too wound up on race. I wonder how many of these idiot racists eat peanut butter?
And seriously? You can't see how a band by the name of the Moody Blues can be connected to African Americans? Or do you think that black people stole the blues from white people?
Oh good, I'm not the only hung up on how these wonks scream that blacks are bad, but hey, that gay African Zoarastrian from that really Islamic country? Yeah, he's okay.
(Yeah, I always thought Freddy was Asian too, but nope, he's from what is now called Tanzania. So, African.)
Contemporary American music is overwhelmingly 4/4 time. Both Sub-Saharan and North African music uses a much wider range of time signatures. Except for Dave Brubeck, very few White OR Black Americans have bothered to compose out of their "comfort zone." Black American artists seldom explore African scales, either. He really should be complaining about un-African Black artists are.http://www.khafif.com/rhy/ http://www.ancient-future.com/links/rhythms.html
Drums and banjos both came from Africa, and they can be pretty advanced. It's not as if a timpani or a guitar (oh nose! raghead musics!) is such a big step from either.
@Kuyohashi
He's of Gujarati descent but born on Zanzibar. Many east and south African former British colonies have significant populations from India and the rest of South Asia.
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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