Why are Blacks musicians so soulful & talented in music, singing, jazz, dancing?

[Winston]

Wow check out this scene from the Scott Joplin movie I mentioned above. It shows black people having a good time with connection, camaraderie and great vibes while playing Ragtime music. Wow. Do black people today have this much wholesome fun and camaraderie today? lol

[andrewfitzpatrick]

Wow check out this scene from the Scott Joplin movie I mentioned above. It shows black people having a good time with connection, camaraderie and great vibes while playing Ragtime music. Wow. Do black people today have this much wholesome fun and camaraderie today? lol

That Scott Joplin scene is one of my favorite music scenes in movies. Blues player Taj Mahal is great as the obnoxious show off.

Though my favorite scene is still the guitar duel in Crossroads.

[Winston]

Ick, that guitar music is noisy to my ears. Not beautiful or sophisticated. Not my taste at all. Sorry but I'm too much a man of the 19th Century for that. lol

Btw, what about the snake dance scene in the Quentin Tarantino movie "From Dusk Til Dawn"? It was very rad and hot and over the top. lol



Also, the piano duel in "The Legend of 1900" on board the cruise ship between Jelly Roll Morton and the Legend of 1900 was awesome too. People say it was worth seeing the movie just for that.

[Winston]

Some great music albums by Jelly Roll Morton, the black and mixed race musician who invented Jazz.

[Contrarian Expatriate]

It is not really a black thing at all, its a religion thing. This comes from blacks who grew up in protestant black churches where music, singing, and dancing is the norm.

Most black Catholics, Muslims, and atheists have no particular penchant for music because it is not the norm in their lives growing up. In fact, being Catholic with it's reverential services is a decent indicator that a black American is conservative and/or middle class as opposed to protestants who are overrepresented among the black working class and poor.

The same thing can be said for the black super high achievers in sports. They tend to come from the certain lower socioeconomic strata.

[MrMan]

Waiting for Cornfed to come in and say something racist.

[Winston]

It is not really a black thing at all, its a religion thing. This comes from blacks who grew up in protestant black churches where music, singing, and dancing is the norm.

Most black Catholics, Muslims, and atheists have no particular penchant for music because it is not the norm in their lives growing up. In fact, being Catholic with it's reverential services is a decent indicator that a black American is conservative and/or middle class as opposed to protestants who are overrepresented among the black working class and poor.

The same thing can be said for the black super high achievers in sports. They tend to come from the certain lower socioeconomic strata.

CE, does this video clip from the Scott Joplin movie where black people are dancing and clapping together, represent the kind of fun and camaderie you have with black people in America? lol

[Contrarian Expatriate]

It is not really a black thing at all, its a religion thing. This comes from blacks who grew up in protestant black churches where music, singing, and dancing is the norm.

Most black Catholics, Muslims, and atheists have no particular penchant for music because it is not the norm in their lives growing up. In fact, being Catholic with it's reverential services is a decent indicator that a black American is conservative and/or middle class as opposed to protestants who are overrepresented among the black working class and poor.

The same thing can be said for the black super high achievers in sports. They tend to come from the certain lower socioeconomic strata.

CE, does this video clip from the Scott Joplin movie where black people are dancing and clapping together, represent the kind of fun and camaderie you have with black people in America? lol

Very funny.... Unfortunately, I never had much rapport with black Americans. My family history is just different than what is represented in the clip. My paternal great grandfather was born a slave, but died a land-owning tobacco farmer who thrived while most Americans suffered during the Great Depression. My maternal great grandfather was a successful produce farmer who also thrived at that time period. My parents were the type that kept me away from the black underclass in terms of where I lived and went to school. The black underclass represented a curiosity to me at best, and a resentful threat to my wellbeing at worst. I would say I have less rapport with Black Americans than almost any other group. However, upper middle class blacks seem to view me as a long lost relative when we encounter each other.

Even upper middle class whites and I have much more in common than typical blacks and I. I therefore know that class trumps race in American society, but that is still a taboo realization to express. Socioeconomic class confers values and culture in ways that race simply does not. In fact, most black Americans I find personally annoying or downright hostile to me because of class envy. However, working class or poor whites only rarely have given me negative energy or class resentment. I get on with them quite well.

Most curiously, while I have been treated respectfully by whites all my life, it has been blacks (especially black females) who seemed hell bent on signaling that I deserved to be treated no better than anyone else. That is part of the Marxist groupthink that exists in black culture where the poor are seen as the noble and righteous, while the bourgeoisie is viewed with scorn and hostility. There is no need for anyone to endure such backwardness, hence my life mostly abroad.

[Yohan]

... I was wondering, why are Black guys so soulful and talented when it comes to playing Jazz and Blues? Why are they so natural and fluid in their movements when it comes to dancing (e.g. Michael Jackson)? And why are black gospel churches so expressive and full of energy when they sing?

It seems that black people are very soulful, passionate and down-to-earth in a way that white people are not.

I can only comment about classical music and it is true that there is a certain number of African Americans, who are really good with it, for both - instuments and arias - for example Barbara Hendricks, Martina Arroyo, Wynston Marsalis...

However many of them I like are now rather old people and I notice not so many newcomers among the US-African American people.

Somehow music and performance quality in USA is declining - not only among the black population.
Many of those performers are ending up in drugs and alcohol - some heading to jail or to rehab, some even to their grave... especially with all this gangster rap music trend.

-----

About special musical talent, this can be found also with people of other race/ethnicity - for example here in Asia, nobody will question that Koreans are the best performers/entertainers of all Asia.

[Moretorque]

One thing people need to consider is blacks have been here much longer than the other races so they have had lots of time to get it all sorted out. One thing also I believe I have noticed is there seems to always be one black who is better than anydody else at just about anything. As stated they are the ground for humanity but I have never seen a better drummer than Buddy Rich and he is Jewish, UTUBE " most outrageous drumming ever " .

[have2fly]

One thing not really thought about with black people is they actually contributed quite a bit to electronic music in Europe. Lots of successful black eurodisco and eurodance acts back in the 1980s and 1990s. Of course with those acts, when you're listening a lot of the time you won't "know" the singers are black as techno is "white" music.

Some eurodisco from the 1980s...

But yeah, black people outside of America do really well in music, too. I think America is unique (in mostly a bad way,) though, in that black people have their own "black" musical types, and in America it's almost a musical segregation, whereas Europe it seemed black people in music are just...black people in music. To some extent you saw this a bit in the 1970s and 1980s in America, but you don't see it a lot now, imo, at least I can't remember. There's not a lot of musical groups that have mixed black and white singers collaborating. In America there's a lot more divide between "white people music" and "black people music" and I think it's kinda bad.

http://dreamandhustle.com/2013/04/how-t ... explosion/
I googled it and came to an interesting article somewhat about this subject. Heh.

This is the music I grew up with in Europe. It is properly called Eurodance, but most people will call it techno. I mistakenly thought this music was also popular in the US since 99% of the songs are in English. Boy I was wrong.

Eurodance was fun and optimistic. Lyrics were about love, peace, friendship, sex etc. Never had I ever thought about these performers or songs as being "black" or racially biased. I had never paid attention to the race of the band members. Many times I never knew how they looked, I just liked songs that were played on the radio. Now Eurodance is way more positive than American rap music about drugs, hoes and money. After living in the US Eurodance sounds almost surreal (too naively positive) and I now notice everyone who is black in every video.

Some of those performers were black Americans that ended up in Europe for some reason.

Captain Jack was my big time favorite. He served in US Army, got stationed in Germany and decided to start his own music project there. It was extremely successful. Notice how sexy, but not slutty girls look in the video? Yeah, it does not happen these days.



2 Unlimited duo from Belgium. This song is most likely known by many.


Dr Alban, a Nigerian Swedish. He was extremely popular in Europe and still is.


Many of these projects had mixed black/white vocalists. Fun Factory from Germany.


Modern Talking from Germany. Note sexy black girls in the video. I believe rapper guy is black American.


Bomfunk MC's from Finland. Mixed black/white.


Culture Beat from Germany.


Nana, a German rapper from Ghana.


Brooklyn Bounce from Germany


The KLF. They pioneered house music, both white British guys, but singer and dance crew were black.


Sonique, British from Trinidad.


Haddaway, German from Trinidad.


E-Rotic from Germany. They were blasting on every dancefloor in 1990's.



Booty Luv, British of African descent. Great dance project by Hed Kandi. I wish they kept on going.

[Winston]

@Cornfed
I don't understand something. If blacks are all barbaric and savages, then how do you explain so many great black singers, musicians, jazz composers, pianists, dancing, etc? Aren't they very soulful and gentle people? How do you explain these exceptions? Furthermore, a lot of blacks have made videos praising happier abroad too. See here: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=4763
Obviously that means that black men tend to love truth even if its taboo and outside the box. Don't they deserve credit for that?

Plus we all know that white Americans tend to be fake in their greetings and smiles. But black people don't exchange fake greetings. If they smile or say hi, it's authentic. No fakeness. They hate fakeness too.

So aren't all those good qualities in soul, authenticity, love of truth, etc? How do you explain that? It doesn't fit your stereotype that blacks are savages and barbaric and violent right?

Also Cornfed, watch this clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOi9K7yZ6QA

Don't the blacks in that clip look so friendly, warm, wholesome and kind? How do you explain that?

[onethousandknives]

One thing not really thought about with black people is they actually contributed quite a bit to electronic music in Europe. Lots of successful black eurodisco and eurodance acts back in the 1980s and 1990s. Of course with those acts, when you're listening a lot of the time you won't "know" the singers are black as techno is "white" music.

Some eurodisco from the 1980s...

But yeah, black people outside of America do really well in music, too. I think America is unique (in mostly a bad way,) though, in that black people have their own "black" musical types, and in America it's almost a musical segregation, whereas Europe it seemed black people in music are just...black people in music. To some extent you saw this a bit in the 1970s and 1980s in America, but you don't see it a lot now, imo, at least I can't remember. There's not a lot of musical groups that have mixed black and white singers collaborating. In America there's a lot more divide between "white people music" and "black people music" and I think it's kinda bad.

http://dreamandhustle.com/2013/04/how-t ... explosion/
I googled it and came to an interesting article somewhat about this subject. Heh.

This is the music I grew up with in Europe. It is properly called Eurodance, but most people will call it techno. I mistakenly thought this music was also popular in the US since 99% of the songs are in English. Boy I was wrong.

Eurodance was fun and optimistic. Lyrics were about love, peace, friendship, sex etc. Never had I ever thought about these performers or songs as being "black" or racially biased. I had never paid attention to the race of the band members. Many times I never knew how they looked, I just liked songs that were played on the radio. Now Eurodance is way more positive than American rap music about drugs, hoes and money. After living in the US Eurodance sounds almost surreal (too naively positive) and I now notice everyone who is black in every video.

Some of those performers were black Americans that ended up in Europe for some reason.

Captain Jack was my big time favorite. He served in US Army, got stationed in Germany and decided to start his own music project there. It was extremely successful. Notice how sexy, but not slutty girls look in the video? Yeah, it does not happen these days.



2 Unlimited duo from Belgium. This song is most likely known by many.


Dr Alban, a Nigerian Swedish. He was extremely popular in Europe and still is.


Many of these projects had mixed black/white vocalists. Fun Factory from Germany.


Modern Talking from Germany. Note sexy black girls in the video. I believe rapper guy is black American.


Bomfunk MC's from Finland. Mixed black/white.


Culture Beat from Germany.


Nana, a German rapper from Ghana.


Brooklyn Bounce from Germany


The KLF. They pioneered house music, both white British guys, but singer and dance crew were black.


Sonique, British from Trinidad.


Haddaway, German from Trinidad.


E-Rotic from Germany. They were blasting on every dancefloor in 1990's.



Booty Luv, British of African descent. Great dance project by Hed Kandi. I wish they kept on going.

Never thought I'd be quoted 6 years later. But yeah, I stand by what I said. Eurodance was the best. I especially love Fun Factory's "Take Your Chance" of the videos you posted. Definitely a top 5 for me with eurodance songs. A lot of times I roll through the hood in USA spreading positivity blasting my eurodance windows down.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9McVO9hpUE
Personally, La Bouche has the most honorable mention of black eurodance singers, and Melanie Thornton in general. Extremely powerful voice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqs6pverp5U
Ice MC in this song is a Jamaican rapper, but he's actually rapping about not doing drugs, being promiscuous, etc. The song being titled "Think About the Way" is about that.

I was only a child in the 90s, so obviously I couldn't know all the nuances of the adult world in the same way. That said, it seemed like race relations were a lot better back then. Oh well.

[MatureDJ]

I think it goes back to the fact that Africans have always used drum rhythms to communicate across the jungle. They can't help but be great doing rhythm. And African-Americans have always gotten the short end of the stick, so the emotion of frustration is a strong cultural icon. Listen to BB King's "Why I sing the Blues" to get a feeling of that.

[Winston]

Wow check out Peaches & Herbs singing "Reunited" in 1978. It's so romantic and moving and soulful. How come music was so much better before? The black guy singing looks so soulful and full of passion. How come blacks are so talented and good at singing and have such soul in their singing? They are so natural at it.



Btw, is this the same Peaches & Herbs couple below? If so, how come the woman looks like she hasn't even aged, yet the man has?