Modern Day Race Records

Although the use of the term “Race Records” diminished after the late 1940’s, the ideology behind it, in my views anyway, are still going strong. Race is an extremely controversial word in this society. In a world where everything must be stated politically correct, many people will ordinarily avert from talking about race in fear that someone may be offended. The fact of the matter is that certain genres of music today do target certain racial and ethnic groups. Hip hop alone was created by African American communities in the Bronx in the late 1970’s and is still today very much dominated by the black culture. Although western music is now a mix of several different cultures, country itself started out as a predominately white genre. Someone mentioned in class that genre targets different socio-economic statuses and not racial backgrounds. I highly disagree however. I believe certain music genres today, just as Race Records did in the 1920s and 1930s, target certain racial communities. Different racial communities are likely to listen to music they can relate to. It is sometimes easier for communities of different racial and ethnic backgrounds to listen to musicians of the same culture.