What is the whitest song ever?

Jack-Flash-Jr

Watched an awful movie last night (too embarrassed to name it) in which Chris Rock calls Fleetwood Mac's Sentimental Lady the "whitest song ever". My personal vote goes for Free Bird (with Sweet Home Alabama a close second). ~~Of course, there's always De La Rey.~~

Edited to remove irrelevant reference.

Tonedef

What context? Right-wing douchebaggery or middlin' whitebread tunes?

Norman86

Jack Flash Jr wrote Watched an awful movie last night (too embarrassed to name it) in which Chris Rock calls Fleetwood Mac's Sentimental Lady the "whitest song ever". My personal vote goes for Free Bird (with Sweet Home Alabama a close second). Of course, there's always De La Rey.

Whats wrong with De La Rey???

AndrewD

A racist thread - now there's a good idea..... not :-\

Bob-Dubery

Jack Flash Jr wrote Watched an awful movie last night (too embarrassed to name it) in which Chris Rock calls Fleetwood Mac's Sentimental Lady the "whitest song ever". My personal vote goes for Free Bird (with Sweet Home Alabama a close second). Of course, there's always De La Rey.

What's so bad about being "white" musically?

I know that a lot of rock music is informed by American negro music but it doesn't have to be that way, and it ain't a bad thing if it ain't so informed.

Bix Beiderbecke made great jazz music in an unashamedly white way, not borrowing any cliches from the "black" genres of his day. I've been to great folk gigs where the music was the furthest thing from the blues or anything you'd call rock or rock 'n roll. Two of the most amazing performances I ever saw were by Martin Carthy and Norma Waterson and there are no artefacts from black music in what they play and sing.

Music doesn't have to be racist, naff or good-ole-boy-ish to be "white".

Jack-Flash-Jr

Ignore the De La Rey jibe... detracted from my post which is meant to explore "white" sounds... I like Skynyrd but in retrospect their music is very blues influenced.
Does Western Classical qualify as "white", probably, but I meant in the pop realm...

@ AndrewD: this is not a rascist thread dude. It's about cultural predominance in music styles.

Tonedef

I used to work for an electronics company that manufactures LED display screens and video boards. One of our bigger displays was the large Vodofone display towering over Picadilly square in London. Some of you might have seen it in your travels.

The display had a function where you could SMS text messages to the board (to sort of make it part of Picadilly's soapbox atmosphere), the messages were programmatically censored and whatnot.

Anyway, we supplied a GPRS modem along with the display, and the client couldn't get it set up properly, so I was called in to help (having developed the software).

Of course the client had made some basic errors and I got it running first shot, sommer from my office here in Joburg. I sent an SMS to the relevant number and lo and behold, the very first message ever displayed on the Vodafone sign in the middle of London, for all and sundry to see was "De la Rey, De la Rey, sal jy die boere kom lei?". It went on scrolling for maybe 15 minutes before the client changed it.

I thought it was pretty epic. ?

Norman86

Chris Rock is one of those guys who just shows that irritate me with his ni**er this and that...
But let a white guy say that? then there will be hell to pay. He can make jokes about white people, but if white people make jokes about him then its racist... >☹

Let me rather keep my trap shut...

StephenG

Tonedef wrote Of course the client had made some basic errors and I got it running first shot, sommer from my office here in Joburg. I sent an SMS to the relevant number and lo and behold, the very first message ever displayed on the Vodafone sign in the middle of London, for all and sundry to see was "De la Rey, De la Rey, sal jy die boere kom lei?". It went on scrolling for maybe 15 minutes before the client changed it.

I thought it was pretty epic. ?

? ? ? hero TD... simply - Hero !!!

? ?

Bob-Dubery

The Incredible String Band were pretty "white" or rather "non-negro" musically. Nick Drake apparently started off playing finger style blues but by the time he was making records he was pretty free of the blues cliches that were all over the 60s. Leonard Cohen? Joni Mitchell? Sandy Denny?

PeteM

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas

Jack-Flash-Jr

PeteM wrote I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas

:roflmao:

@ Bob: I think Leonard Cohen leans pretty heavily on folk blues vibe?

Warren

Haha ?

I've always really enjoyed a good discussion about ethnic, cultural or racial differences that are enriching and that cross boundaries, like musical influences can. Hard to find a good discussion like that though ?

If I consider the music I quite like, pretty much none of it is free from black influence, not completely. If it has any elements of the blues, and therefore rock 'n' roll, you're pretty buggered ?

That said, the likes of The Cure, Duran Duran, et al. those kinds of groups kind of sit in my head as "white".

Bob-Dubery

Warren wrote I've always really enjoyed a good discussion about ethnic, cultural or racial differences that are enriching and that cross boundaries, like musical influences can. Hard to find a good discussion like that though ?

If I consider the music I quite like, pretty much none of it is free from black influence, not completely. If it has any elements of the blues, and therefore rock 'n' roll, you're pretty buggered ?

Not just. The borrowing from black genres keeps on. Soul, rap, hip-hop, reggae... Do you think modern white pop singers like Christina Aguilera aren't embracing (or aping) negro vocal styles?

I think contemporary metal has worked all the blues references out of it's system.

Jack-Flash-Jr

X-rated Bob wrote
Warren wrote I've always really enjoyed a good discussion about ethnic, cultural or racial differences that are enriching and that cross boundaries, like musical influences can. Hard to find a good discussion like that though ?

If I consider the music I quite like, pretty much none of it is free from black influence, not completely. If it has any elements of the blues, and therefore rock 'n' roll, you're pretty buggered ?
Not just. The borrowing from negro genres keeps on. Soul, rap, hip-hop... Do you think modern white pop singers like Christina Aguilera aren't embracing (or aping) negro vocal styles?

I think contemporary metal has worked all the blues references out of it's system.

That's interesting wrt metal. I'm pretty sure the wheel will keep turning and the blues will creep back in...

Norman86

http://undercoverblackman.blogspot.com/2008/12/most-racist-songs-ever-recorded.html

There we go...

There's your whitest songs ever!

Warren

X-rated Bob wrote
I think contemporary metal has worked all the blues references out of it's system.

Much contemporary metal relies quite heavily on classical influences too. I'm not knowledgable enough about classical music to understand all the influences, but I wonder at which point Indian and Asian influences began to manifest in European music. Anybody know?

Jack-Flash-Jr

Warren wrote
X-rated Bob wrote
I think contemporary metal has worked all the blues references out of it's system.

Much contemporary metal relies quite heavily on classical influences too. I'm not knowledgable enough about classical music to understand all the influences, but I wonder at which point Indian and Asian influences began to manifest in European music. Anybody know?

In terms of pop... I think the late sixties saw a LOT of pseudo/actual Indian vibe... Far eastern influence is tougher, a lot of Japanese music for example sounds extremely discordant to western ears...

Edit: maybe Marco Polo brought back some tunes on his iPod.

Bob-Dubery

Warren wrote
X-rated Bob wrote
I think contemporary metal has worked all the blues references out of it's system.

Much contemporary metal relies quite heavily on classical influences too. I'm not knowledgable enough about classical music to understand all the influences, but I wonder at which point Indian and Asian influences began to manifest in European music. Anybody know?

An early influx of "non-european" influences, both in terms of music and instrumentation, would have come in the 8th century with the invasion of the Iberian peninsula by the Moors. Some musicologists hold that just about all modern string instruments derive from the Ud and the Gimbri.

Warren

X-rated Bob wrote
An early influx of "non-european" influences, both in terms of music and instrumentation, would have come in the 8th century with the invasion of the Iberian peninsula by the Moors. Some musicologists hold that just about all modern string instruments derive from the Ud and the Gimbri.

So...

...all music is basically brown?