Black Artists Have Made Major Contributions in Music

February 16, 2020 Amanda Karp Entertainment 1

Big Mama Thornton was an R&B singer whose song "Hound Dog" was covered by Elvis. PHOTO/Kevin Dooley, Flickr

By AMANDA KARP

Tyler, the Creator was fresh out of his first Grammy win for his fifth album, “Igor,” when he called out the Grammy voting process during a backstage interview.

Tyler, the Creator won Best Rap Album for “Igor,” his fifth studio album. PHOTO/Incase, Flickr.

“It sucks that whenever we – and I mean guys that look like me – do anything that’s genre-bending or that’s anything they always put it in a rap or urban category,” he said of his album winning Best Rap Album. “I don’t like that ‘urban’ word – it’s just a politically correct way to say the n-word to me.”

“I think Tyler is completely right because the Grammys have notoriously pushed black artists aside no matter what contributions they make, so that award that Tyler won is pretty much like a participation trophy” said Chris Barilla, a contract music and journalism major at Ramapo College. “His album was like, the farthest thing from hip-hop or ‘urban’ but that’s the only category they could put him in as a young black man who wasn’t just singing R&B or something.”

His commentary coincided with the beginning of Black History Month, which is held throughout the month of February to highlight the contributions of black people throughout the United States’ history. 

Black people have made significant additions to music genres within the United States, most notably, blues, country, disco, hip-hop, jazz and rap.

Beyoncé’s 2017 album “Lemonade,” which transcended genres, was awarded Best Urban Contemporary Album at the Grammys. PHOTO/Shawn Tok, Wikipedia

Most artists will pull from different genres while creating an album, which was why Tyler, the Creator made that statement to the press; in 2017, Beyoncé won Best Urban Contemporary album for “Lemonade,” even though her album included country, hip-hop, funk, gospel and R&B, among other genres.

The genres that Americans most closely identify with, and feel are representative of them, intersect with genres that black artists spearheaded. According to a 2018 survey by Amy Watson on “Public opinion on the music genres which are representative of America today in the United States as of May 2018, by ethnicity” found that the genres that are most representative, according to black people, is rap/hip-hop with 69 percent, R&B with 53 percent and pop with 38 percent. The findings align with various ethnicities preferences for pop, country and R&B. 

Contributions Black Artists Have Made to Music

As the decades have progressed, there has been more representation of black artists within music. 

As the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964, it made it possible for more black artists to gain popularity in mainstream listening. Artists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Aretha Franklin and James Brown became some of the biggest names of the era.

But even before the passage of the act, black artists were making history in music.

Fitzgerald became the first black artist to win a Grammy in 1958, its first ceremony. She won two Grammys, one for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for her album “Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Irving Berlin Songbook” and the other for Best Jazz Performance, Soloist, for her album “Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Song Book.”

The music black artists create is also tied to artists who may have garnered more attention. Elvis Presley’s 1956 song “Hound Dog” is not an original song of his, but a cover of Big Mama Thornton’s 1952 recording.

“Black music adds a layer of diversity to the American identity and constantly responds to the black American experience,” wrote Mac Dressman and Yewande Ilawole in their 2017 The Hoya article. “The daily struggles, triumphs, hopes and failures of generations of black Americans are carefully and methodically recorded not only in the pages of history textbooks but also by the music and lyrics of the era.”

But there is still progress to be made in the representation of black artists at the Grammys.

Sean “Diddy” Combs criticized the Recording Academy in his Salute to Industry Icons Award acceptance speech at the Clive Davis’ and Recording Academy’s Pre-Grammy Gala on Jan. 25.

“Truth be told, hip-hop has never been respected by the Grammys. Black music has never been respected by the Grammys to the point that it should be,” Combs said. “We need the artists to take back control, we need transparency, we need diversity. This is the room that has the power to make the changes that need to be made. They have to make the changes for us.”

1 Comment

  1. You included so many fascinating facts in this article, it was very interesting to read. Especially the fact about Elvis Presley taking Big Mama Thornton’s original song.

    I was wondering if Tyler the Creator had a full name? He is probably like Cher, Madonna, or J-Lo where people know who he is. But perhaps for people who don’t know, at some point mention his full name?

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