We should remember that African-American music played an important role in the Civil Rights Movement. Sam Cooke’s “A Change is Gonna’ Come” and Curtis Mayfield’s “Keep on Pushing,” “We’re a Winner” and “People Get Ready” were songs that were labeled “Soul.”
Motown, Stax, Atlantic, Hi and other labels created a musical tradition that grew more valuable and exceptional with time. It started what is now referred to as “Southern Soul.” Subsequently, in the mid-1980s, the music industry was shaken up with the birth of gangster rap.
The late C. Delores Tucker, founder/chair of the National Political Congress of Black Women, conducted a passionate national campaign against obscenities in rap music, in 1993 calling it “pornographic filth” and saying it was demeaning and offensive to black women.
Tucker passed out leaflets with lyrics from gangsta rap CDs and urged people to read them aloud, picketed stores that sold the music, handed out petitions and demanded congressional hearings.
Can you imagine that today many record companies that target the “Southern Soul” or African-American market will not accept some recordings unless they are filled with lewd or suggestive lyrics?
Soul music led to Hip-Hop, R&B and Old School, so why must it be disrespectful? Disrespect can exhibit itself in all sorts of ways in the music business, and to disrespect an entire genre is to act in an insulting way toward the African-American community.
When you denigrate people, you think very little of them. Disregard is all about not showing respect. Actually, it’s about showing the opposite of respect, by acting rude, impolite, offensive and even racist.
The companies that demand the indecent lyrics should know that respect is a characteristic of love, and it means honoring the worth of your listeners and buyers. We deserve respect, and we do not have to earn it.
I am sad to report that these companies are making millions, selling music to African-American men and women who will not demand better. We get what we allow.
Please watch the Bernie Hayes TV program Saturday at 10 p.m. and Sunday at 5:30 p.m. on KNLC-TV Ch. 24. I can be reached by fax at (314) 837-3369 or e-mail at: berhay@swbell.net. Or on Twitter @berhay.
