Note on Commercial Music
Reading Langston Hughes poem, “Note on Commercial Theatre,” reminds me of current Hip Hop and Rap. I’ve been told that Rock has roots in black America, but to me that seemed almost impossible to imagine. I listened to rock growing up and there weren’t any black bands I knew of. I may not have been looking for it, but I certainly didn’t come across any. All the bands I knew were either predominately white or all white. I asked my 55-year-old uncle and even he hardly remembers the black bands he listened to, although he told me black artists started or helped start rock-n-roll.
In the first stanza, “You’ve taken my blues and gone-/…You sing ‘em in Hollywood Bowl/ And you fixed ‘em/So they don’t sound like me.” I’ve cut out a few lines, but this parallels a lot of the conversation I have with my friends about current rap and its future. My best friend asked me “Will our children be able to image a time with only black rappers?” This of course isn’t to say other races can’t rap, only that the erasure of its roots and vastly different opinion on rap (Hip Hop and Rap were looked down on when I was growing up) are misleading and disrespectful.
He says in the last stanza that someday, someone will write about him (whoever the speaker is). Hopefully with current music that won’t be necessary and we can find an inclusive harmony and not erasure.
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