Music of different race and culture are

becoming more accepted in America.

Modern Music More Accepted

By: Joshua Nunley

I think we can all agree that music has, is, and always will be a universally loved art. All
over the world from the beginning of time we have incorporated different styles of music into
our cultures. To start, lets go back to a time of great musicians such as Michael Jackson or the
Beetles, where music was more or less segregated in America. For example if you wanted to go
see a jazz band you could probably expect the performer to be African American. If you wanted
to go listen to country or blue grass, you would probably be listening to Caucasian performers.
There are and always have been several different genres of music. A lot of the more known and
popular of the genres consist of rap, hip hop, classical, country, jazz, rock & roll, and alternative.
Then theres

music of

different

cultures in

America.

Latino,

Oriental,

middle

eastern etc.

The

evolution of

music has

come a long

way in

America.

Today we

see rappers of all different types of race and culture, such as Eminem, a white rapper, or Pit Bull,
a Hispanic rapper. We can even find different races in Country music, such as Darrius Rucker,
an African American singer. I think today we can find different races and different cultures in all
types of music across the spectrum. For some this may be a problem, but for a lot of people
including myself, I see it as not only an evolution of music, but an evolution of acceptance.

Music as a Movement
By: Joshua Nunley

Back when different races began to appear in other genres of music outside there
stereotypical style, it caused a lot of discomfort. I think as Americans we tend to fear what we
dont know, so it wasnt a shock that issues aroused when people started exploring outside of
what was

normal. In my

opinion, we

can only grow

when we are

outside of our

comfort zone,

and because of the

rise of different

races becoming

more accepted

in America, we

did. Today we

wouldnt look at

an oriental

rapper and think it

was odd, or an African American country singer and think, strange. It started with people like
Jimmie Hendrix, a black rock artist, and Vanilla Ice, a white rapper. Through people like them it
opened up a gate for more artists of different races to explore and do whatever type of music they
felt most passionate about, despite feeling weird. As we became more and more accepting of
racial and cultural music, we also became more accepting of race and culture in general. Seeing
someone of different race perform as well or greater than an artist of more traditional standing I
think really opens up the eyes of skeptics. Just because youre different doesnt mean you have

statues of limitations on what you can or cant do. It has been a blessing to get to witness music
changing every day. We now have genres like Electro, and dubstep whom people of different
races indulge in everywhere.

Eminem Biography
By: bio.

As a teenage dropout, Eminem found a way to express his passion for language, as well
as to release his youthful anger, through the emerging musical genre of hip-hip. He identified
with the nihilistic rage of late-1980s and early-1990s rap music, and he was especially taken with
N.W.A., the popular and highly controversial gangster rap crew from Los Angeles.
Although at the time rap music was almost exclusively produced by black people, Eminem, who
has pale white skin and bright blue eyes, nevertheless entered into the Detroit rap scene as a
frequent competitor in rap "battles"competitions in which two rappers take turns insulting the
other through improvised rap lyrics. Eminem proved highly skilled at such verbal sparring and,
despite his race, quickly became one of the most respected figures in Detroit's underground rap
scene.
He recalled, "I finally found something that yeah, this kid over here, you know, he may
have more chicks, and he may, you know, have better clothes, or whatever, but he can't do this
like me. You know what I mean? He can't write what I'm writing right now. And it started to feel
like, you know, maybe Marshall's gettin' a little respect." Mathers assumed the stage name

M&M, a playful reference to his initials, which he later began writing phonetically as "Eminem."
This period in Eminem's lifeworking odd jobs to make ends meet while participating in rap
battles and desperately attempting to land a record contractwas later dramatized in Eminem's
semi-autobiographical film, 8 Mile.

Social Movements, Music, and Race

By: Princeton University Press

On December 23, 1938, the left-wing magazine New Masses sponsored a concert in New
Yorks Carnegie Hall titled From Spirituals to Swing, featuring some of Americas nowlegendary African American perform-ers, including Count Basie, Sister Rosetta Tharp, Sonny
Terry, and the Golden Gate Quartet. The program notes put the music in social context: It
expresses America so clearly that its readiest recognition here has come from the masses,
particularly youth. While the intelligentsia has been busy trying to water our scrawny cultural
tree with European art and literary movements, this thing has come to maturity unnoticed
(From Spirituals to Swing program). One of the songs, Im on My Way, could be heard a
quarter century later in freedom rallies in places like Albany, Georgia. Commentators again
embraced the sounds of African American culture as the music of America. Other parallels are
found. The 1938 concert and 1961 Albany musicking each occurred dur-ing a peak of social
movement activity, the communist-led Old Left that resulted in the unionization of Americas
core industrial sector, and the civil rights movement that crippled the insidious system of
legalized ra-cial segregation. In both, African Americans and whites joined to make music,

challenging the dominant racial order that infected all aspects of social life. The aspirations of
both movements to bridge racial boundaries with music were explicitwedding black music
(spirituals) and black- inspired white music (swing) in one event and invoking a universal principle (freedom) in the other. And both were but one moment of many in larger cultural projects
that have used music in pursuit of social change.

The Life of Mars

By: bio.

After graduating from high school, Mars decided to leave Hawaii for Los Angeles,
California. Over his first few years in L.A., he struggled to make a breakthrough in the music
industry. And especially because he had performed so frequently while growing up in Honolulu,
Mars grew frustrated with waiting for his career to move forward. It was during this period that
Mars first turned to songwriting. "I only started writing songs when I moved up to L.A. because
when I was in Hawaii, I never really needed to," he recalled. "But it stemmed from just learning
that you have to do everything by yourself. It's not like what you see in movies, where you walk
into a record company and you're given all these great songs to sing. You have to write the song
the world is going to want to hear and play it over and over again. I learned that the hard way
here in L.A."
Side Note: In the cover story for Entertainment Weekly, Mars stated that the song
"Nothin' on You" was rejected because of his race by a "music industry decision-maker a guy
he won't name". That experience made him feel like a "mutant", and he says that was his lowest

point. "Even with that song in my back pocket to seal the deal, things like that are coming out of
people's mouths. It made me feel like I wasn't even in the room.

This is a picture of the Black Eyed Peas. To me this portrays racial acceptance in music.