Whatever happened to Black Music?

There was a time when Tamla Motown ruled the (music) world producing great songs, great singers and memorable melody. From Gladys Knight to Martin Gaye, from the Temptations to the Supremes, Black music was right up there and to be admired. We moved through the 60’s and 70’s and of course we had other great vocal groups like The Stylistics and it was all great. But it didn’t stay great, did it?

Fast forward to the emergence of Rap, Gangsta, Drill and god knows what else and I suggest that black music goes to hell. Why was this? What changed that erased the glories of soaring melody and replaced them with vulgar virtually incoherent brutality? It is sad to see and I don’t know whether music simply reflects society. Our society is also more brutal and vulgar. Black culture produced wonderful music and was an inspiration, now it looks like it has been gutted from within. Is this as a result of the large Corporations and the relatively few people who control them imposing a new brutalised version of what black artists should produce? Is there a deeper agenda in place?

Anyway, here is a memory when Black music was great…