week 9: Are blackness and whiteness useful concepts in understanding popular music?

The definition of black from the dictionary ‘ is the darkest colour, with out light’ (Collins: 2000,p55) and white is defined as the ‘colour of snow, light in colour’ (Collins: 2000,p621). By looking at the definitions black and white can be looked at as binary oppositions, but is the colour of your skin complexion useful to understand music? As when you listen to music genres such as rap, pop, house, classical and rock you don’t tend to listen to them because of what complexion the artist is. For instance Eminem is of a white complexion and is a rapper, but he still attracts both black and white people. Duffy who also is a white artist sounds like a black gospel singer, but attracts both audiences. In the 1950’s era you could see that there was more of a distinction of music between black and white people by the segregation going on around that time period, but now you cant. In today's society white people listen to black music such as reggae and black people listen to white music such as classical music. When you listen to music at times it sounds like it’s a combination from both traditions such as blues and country music fused together emerged rock n roll, which can express cultural heritage. For example grime which is rap for the British artist. When we look at blackness and whiteness it makes me think about people that do not fit in to that category what do we classify them as e.g. Michael Jackson and Jennifer Lopez. Which shows that what complexion you are is not significant within music.