“Winter gettin colder / summer gettin warmer / Tidal wave comin cross the Mexican border / Why buy a gallon, its cheaper by the barrel / Just don’t be busted singin Christmas carols.”
2008
It was said by a prominent Civil Rights activist that the path to equality would have to run against the south, and yet, “there the south stood, with a fiery sword.”
That sword was sheathed thanks to college football, but within the lyrics of country music songs, the performers who write these hits and the millions of fans around the world who congregate in a sea of whiteness at country music concerts, Black people are beginning to wonder if that sword might be unsheathed at some point.
Kanye West, self-proclaimed King of the World, recently decided to interrupt country singer Taylor Swift at a moment of triumph for the young star. Country music fans around the world saw this as a direct assault on “one of their own” and were shocked that nary a soul (save Beyonce) came to her rescue.
There exist no people on the planet as loyal to a country as country music fans. They drape themselves in the red, white and blue and love Pre-Obama America with a ferocity that would make Abraham Lincoln chuckle.
And it is for this reason that Black people look with suspicious eyes at country music fans and shield themselves from listening to this form of music, even though an estimated two percent of the country music audience is Black.
Of course, another reason Black people might not like country music is expressed beautifully in this quote:
“Or does the problem lie with people like MCA Nashville president Tony Brown, one of the most respected judges of talent on Music Row? “Country basically is white music. Why would black people want to sing those straight notes…?” he asked in a November 1996 New York Times interview. “To me, black music is about feeling and white music is about no feeling.”
No, the reason Black people find country music so violent to the ears is because of the message they wrongly perceive to be behind it and who listens to the music: Middle America, i.e., the media code-word for white people.