Leaderboard

Your comment is entirely true, and still true if you remove the qualifer "African-American". Look at the white music! It stinks! We went from Bob Dylan to Justin Timberlake. There have been brief flashes of light over the recent decades. Snoop Dogg was creative and funny. There are occasional good things, but yeah it bores me shitless. Lately I listen mostly to Toots & the Maytals,. Marley, Bob Dylan and Ali Farka Touré (and his son Vieux). The political side of this is that those in power tightened their control of the music industry following the explosion of music which threatened them. in the 60s and 70s. They introduced playlists, DJs playing only approved songs. Songs expressing dysfunctional culture. Glorification of violence and misogyny. It is BY DESIGN.

All genres of jazz are available for listeners on Cable TV music channels, and FM radio stations. I check them out regularly. I grew up listening to the beautiful love ballads of the 1950s, lush melodic songs with exquisite lyrics sung by artists like Nat Cole and Frank Sinatra and Sarah Vaughn and Ella Fitzgerald and Peggy Lee and this music is now regularly scoffed at as being too bland and slow by the same people who complain about others not liking what they listen to. Everybody thinks what they prefer is the best. Fortunately, we all the the option to skip what doesn't appeal to us.

@Pioneer1, your questions and opinions may get challenged but remain valid and relevant nonetheless especially to this discussion forum. From the time we're born, we collect a lot of data and eperiences. Over time, we can make reasonable inferences from that information stored in our database=brain. Even if a hammer never hit our hand, we would assume that it would be painful based on the experience of another object (size, weight, force, etc.) hitting our hand and causing pain. Despite the stupid and ridiculous things we sometimes do and say, the human brain can be a very sophisticated computer. 😁😎

@Pioneer1 ahh the midwest:) I see:) The funny thing about new york city is that it teaches you how multiracial communities actually work opposed to how so many who don't actually know what it is to be raised in a multiracial environment think it should be. Too many people in the USA talk about mixed communal living but have no true experience in a city that truly has various races of people <phenotype/religion/language/age/gender/ or more> who actually live amongst each other, positively side negatively. I rather say,black people need to accommodate whites over black people desire to be less black. The desire to be less black stems from the mandatory need to accommodate whites by blacks who want to or are forced to use nonviolent means to live in peace or advance their individual selves in white controlled places. The problem is, too many black people supposed in the past that black people through nonviolence could achieve more than individual freedom but collective freedom. NYC is the proof. NYC has black multi millionaires, mayors, police chiefs, teachers, small business owners. Individually you can find a black person has achieved anything individually possible. But, the black community in NYC has next to nothing. The collective success is fleeting but that isn't failure, that is inevitable, through nonviolence communal strength has limits.

Therein lies the stalemate. It's like any other fight, cause or bad accident. Folks are just glad it isn't their problem. As long as people do not see a problem, there's nothing to solve and/or fix in their eyes. Most often it has to punch them squarely in the face.🤣😎

We will always disagree on this point. Today most people get their "news" from social media. Their feed is curated by a sophisticated and powerful algorithm. whose power is not taken seriously enough. Wow, they beat this guy like he was a run-away slave. I had not seen this video until you posted it. Where did you first see it? It is interesting to consider that if the victim were Black it would probably have initiated riots, as in the case of Rodney King. How would Americans react if white folks took to the streets in reaction of a brutal beating like this?

On cue and as expected,😁 while I do not disagree with your sentiment, there's no shortage of AfroAmerican talent. You'll find a whole lot of AfroAmerican talent in black churches, performing arts schools, colleges and universities all over this country. Unfortunately, you will not find the best of AfroAmerican talent on the radio or music videos. Those outlets are designed to sell the McDonald's equivalent of music. There's a reason Jazz lost it's popularity. Not because it's unsophisticated music. To the contrary, one has to be talented in order to play Jazz at a high level. The reality is Jazz doesn't sell well. Any type of music or art in general that requires the listener to pay attention is usually an acquired taste. OTOH, simpler art is easier to consume whether it's music, movies, plays, paintings, etc. Commercial music has been dumbed down for many years. But, that doesn't negate the fact that plenty higher quality music is still being composed, written and produced. You just have to look harder for it. As long as AfroAmericans rely on White folks to finance, market and promote their music, rest assured they're going to invest in the trash that sells and makes the most money. 😎