It's no secret to those who know me that I love music. I'm ecclectic, which I'm pretty sure is someone who likes different types of music. So you can imagine my suprise when a friend of mine said to me, while watching a music countdown on TV, that the number 1 song on the chart was porbably going to be some 'white song' - naturally, I hit the roof.
I practically screamed 'what the hell does that mean?' which caught him off guard (and probably scared him a bit too) and he quickly said that what he meant to say was that it was probably going to be some punk/rock or grunge song. When I asked him why he referred to it as 'white' he simply said he was refering more to the artist/s - yeah right, and I'm a monkey's uncle!
I know I've heard this expression before but never really thought about it until now! I mean, since when did music become 'Colour Coded'? White music/Black music - who's to say which is which? As you can probably tell I totally disagreed with this logic and my example I 'heatedly' gave to my friend was, of course - Justin Timberlake. Last time I checked, he was white and I'm pretty sure he still is. Now it's not rocket sicence but we all know that his music is definitly not grunge nor punk rock!
It's bad enough that I get the 'weird-eye' from strangers when I'm rocking away to the sounds of 'My Chemical Romance' or 'All American Rejects' on my Ipod on the bus or when I have it blasting in my car, but to be labled because of the 'colour' of the music I listen to is insane. I mean, I love all types of music, and I listen to whatever I'm in the mood to listen to - sometimes it's rap or R&B and sometimes it's pop, rock or grunge. If defining music by colour were in fact a reality, then what colour would that make me?
What is it with humans and their need to label things? I mean, come on people - Music is Music, it's not black or white or any colour of the rainbow. It's an expression. You feel it, you don't see it. Why do we always feel the need to fit things into a 'box' and label it what society deems it to be? Can we please get over this obsession and leave music the way is should be -
purely unmarked.
2 comments:
good point, sally! now you're making me think...;)
Yes very good point which made me think as well. Must be an Amanono thing cause I like all kinds of music (well not heavy metal lol) Music shouldn't be colour coded!! Good writing :o)
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