I have often wondered why it appears that mainstream black culture does not embrace Jimi Hendrix.
Admittedly, I'm a white dude, and although I appreciate many aspects of what could be seen as a collective black culture, I am not immersed in it. Yet, as a musician, I have often wondered why I don't see black Americans embracing Jimi (or many other iconic black musicians, for that matter). I see young white kids wearing Hendrix shirts and listening to his music constantly, yet I have never seen a young black man wearing one nor listening to his music. Hendrix is revered as a god by many, yet for some reason he seems conspicuously absent from the pantheon of black heroes. Martin Luther King, Tupac, Muhammad Ali, Malcom X - I see that these men are revered by black people of all ages, and they are revered for good reason. Where is Jimi?
I have thought that perhaps it's because Jimi played "white" music... but then I thought of how much Eminem has been accepted into "black" music. Could it be as simple as Dave Chappelle's theory that black people just don't like guitars? It seems like a great many black musicians, such as Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Chuck Berry, Robert Johnson, Living Colour, etc. are embraced by white audiences much more so than black audiences. What gives?
You've said a mouthful there -- and it might take a Masters Thesis to answer it all but I don't have the time to write and I know you wouldn't want to read it so here's the cliff notes veersion ..
I am Black and came of age in the 70's. There were a few Brothers in my
(integrated) neighborhood who were into Hendrix but for the most part, we were into;
1) Music you could dance to
2) What was being played on Black radio at the time
While in most cases, these are the same thing,
Hendrix was neither.
There's a deeper thing at play here
(that has been written about by folks far more eloquent than I) that speaks to the racial aspect of popular music.
Bottom line, a lot of it has to do with racist attitudes in the music industry from day one.
WAAAY back in the day, Black artists couldn't get top-40 airplay. What the industry did would be to take a Black song and have it re-recorded by a white group and play that.
(This is well-documented, I'm just too lazy to look it up. Google the terms "Race music" and "radio.")
Lots of reasons for this ...
* Some economic
(people in power wanted to get paid)
* Some sociological
(All them nigras playing that Jungle music was too threatening to Lily-white culture)
* Some stupid
(folks didn't "Get it.")
That's one of the factors that lead to the success of Motown --
Berry Gordy was smart enough to take Black music and "package" it with fresh, scrubbed, smiling faces that were mostly non-threatening. Don't get me wrong, I love Motown and Motown music but you have to understand how Berry worked his program.
Anyway -- I digress. By the 60's/70's, you now have music totally segregated on the radio by format based on race. Black stations played R&B/Soul, White stations played Rock and
never the twain would their audiences meet. Hendrix' music did not get Black radio airplay because it didn't fit into the Black radio format. ergo, it never gained "Black mainstream" traction.
Don't get me wrong -- lots of Black people appreciated
(and still do appreciate) Hendrix for his virtuosity but they weren't feeling it on the same level as Sly/George Clinton/Others.
As I mentioned earlier, there is a racial subtext to the music industry in this country that would take a Master's Thesis to wind through. Stuff like:
* Rock Rules/Disco Sucks
* Why MTV wouldn't play Black Music
(until Michael Jackson/CBS basically blackmailed them into playing videos from "Thriller")
* Why Eminem was the first rapper to win an academy award
* The misogyny and filth in some Rap music
(and by extension) why "Gangsta Rap" got so much traction.
Again, that's a post for another time.
