Why Is Country Music So White? | Between The Lines 

Not helped They stole & banned black artists calling the music race records instead of what it was country music.

ZombieDeathRace unlike rap, country is nothing but folk + blues. Blues evolved into gospel, soul, jazz, R&B, rock n roll, funk, Disco, House music ( techno) and later EDM, Hip hop and every sub genres of all these modern music. But it all started with ragtime and scot Joblin ( Ragtime superstar- black composer btw) started modern music as we know it today. So to say that country music has nothing to do with black music is utterly stupid. Slaves used to play drums and banjos before a five or six string guitar was even a thing. I never denied the fact that country music has Scottish influence in it. But you have to understand that slaves used to be forced to sing to their slave masters. White American has nothing to do with music. It was all about being “superior “ than the other races while barbarically tormenting slaves and cleansing native Americans. Some of the country singers were even sooo obsessed with visiting black prisoners to record the songs and publish them in their own names. Do your research and come back please.

Yes exactly we are trying to build peaceful communities that means no rap.

james - STFU.

This is true for the U.S., Australia, the UK, Canada and Ireland. Now in Germany, Austria and Switzerland it's the same, BUT white hip hop artists/rappers being the majority. Then, you have ones with Turkish, Moroccan, French and other origins. So, yes it deals with the home country...

Cuz y'all stole everything from us all we have is hip hop. Y'all stealing that too

You have terrible taste.

Yeah you white inside. It’s a racist genre. Enjoy!

subscribe!! otha allen jr. i got some new music coming soon

I'm Black and I love country music

Country is heavily influenced by blues which is black music...

Dead Bear American folk + blues = country music 🎶

Buna I wrote my senior thesis on the origins of country music. Country was folk and brought of by slaves on the ships; and your right the blues melted with the mountain folk (hillbillies) who played banjos in south. It eventually evolved into Opry style and influenced Tejano music in Texas/Mexico. It’s all combines :)

Veronique Ramirez Most Americans musical styles are combinations of european and African dances and instrumentation.

@@vr6535 So based on your research for your senior thesis, did Irish, Scottish, English and Welsh folk music had minor influence in the development of country music compared to African folk music? Or how would you allot the percentages of influence?

@@Tes-qe1jc Don't forget Old Time and Western

White people started this by infiltrating Black spaces and claiming to be superior ie. Eminem.

Great comment, so true

lol lol Because it is true. White people can have it tho and Rock. You can steal the art but not the art maker..... Black people will continue to create different arts.

@@jhondelv8891 it's not true, anymore than fried chicken is a purely black thing. Scottish dish + African spices = something new and uniquely American just like country music

@@CabMech you have a point

@@jhondelv8891 Which arts ???

@@jhondelv8891 Trying act like black folks didn't got influenced or stolen be stuff but it ok when black folks do it

Shut up.

I think it's an effort to create shock value for likes.

Shannon Henson - ZZzz

@@hueykhalidX great argument 👌

Elisha Hassell hey did you realize that country is folk + blues music? Blues gave it a soul.

Elisha Hassell - STFU.

@@hueykhalidX you’re just mad

@@user-us7py1cy2k - STFU

wikipedia is not a reliable source for anything academically speaking. You need to dig deeper than wikipedia, literally anyone can edit and write on that site.

he didn't invent it.

Some of it sounds more like Polka music than it does country music. Just saying.

This video is not about thw music or identity. It is more about origins. It is good not to be ignorant and know some history.

Lol cry harder racist.

Thought just the same.

Pretty much

very true

very true.

Wrong. Square dancing was a rip-off of African American dances. The call-out method is square dancing came straight from the enslaved people; you all appropriated it and made square dancing boring, and without rhythm; the guitar is an African instrument: the African Krar Harp, The Kora, the Guitarra, which is a North African guitar. The Guitarra was brought to europe when the moors conquered parts of it. was br

country music is black music. y'all just appropriated it and stole it like white ppl tend to do.

"Wah wuz kangs an sheit"

The banjo, central american ukelele, and it's south american cousin the charango, are all different versions of the european mandole and citole, the instrument often used by bards in medieval times. Blacks didn't invented any european instrument the same way native americans didn't invent the charango and the ukelele, and the tuning of the strings is done over armonic tonic scales which are, basically, european concepts (asian music such as chinese and middle eastern music is atonic). "Rythm" is not "african", in the same sense hitting a drum is not an african only thing. Drums have been around in pretty much every culture around the world since the dawn of humanity because well, any human with two brain cells can hit a thing with a stick and create "rythm". For rythm to be armonic, there needs to be a melody first. And yes, there were lots of african american musicians... Who were thought music by european and their descendants. If black could be able to create music by themselves, they would have done it in Africa since they have been living there for the past 1 million years. Yet, they haven't invented other musical instruments than drums. They have no music.

Black Americans invented the fiddle technique, just stop it. You pale people as a culture do not even have the rhythm to claim the invention of any damn rhythmic music, just stop the Egotistical bullsh*t. Even the European influence was from eu-melanted Moor's who lived in Europe whose history has been suppressed. The "Celtic" /Scottish/Irish influence was from dark skinned people of these regions, not pale skinned Europeans which is another historical lie.

ZZZzz

Try this, always change Mikey Mike to Whitey White and ask yourself if his is a legitimate question. Or could it be just emotion rousing defensiveness?

Next time watch the video. Judging by your response, ironically, you responded by your aroused emotions.

Nah… that minimizes what whites have done.

STFU.

Tnx to white people & hate & history

Country music is country music. It is whatever people make it to be, no need to put labels on it

It has a lot of black people now tbh.

Country music was invented by irish immigrants not blacks

The Flying Ace - BS. American music = Black creation. In fact, music itself, instruments and even language are all Black creations.

hueykhalidX naw instruments were mostly made by whites like the guitar was made in europe also i don’t get the language thing you talking about english or ghetto rap English

hueykhalidX you said music is a black creation but I rarely hear black music before the 19th century where it was mostly dominated by Europeans

@@shrek19yearsago78 BS. WE were the first on this planet. The first to utter a word. The first to make music. The first to create civilization.

@Dustin Osteen The truth hurts you ppl.😂

@Dustin Osteen stay mad. Black people created country try again

@Dustin Osteen your so triggered

@@user-us7py1cy2k but they didn't though 😂

@Dustin Osteen we most deff did make country , the banjo instrument has roots from Africa and country literally derives from slavery times and blues music try again 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Linda Martell!!

@XXCoreXX no it doesn’t

Trevor Howard unofficial black country singers were singing using banjo before guitar was even a thing in the 17th-18th century.

@@Tes-qe1jc That's interesting, thank you and I would love to have heard such music. But whatever they were singing, it wasn't Country music.

@@trevorhoward2254 Exactly!

@@trevorhoward2254 yea it was. it's wasn't the whitewashed bullshit country you here today. we sang real county music.

@@trevorhoward2254 I guess black Americans in the 17 hundred's were playing hip hop on the Banjo, does that even remotely sound logical??? They were playing what later became labeled by the industry as bluegrass and country music. The Carter Family were literally taught Country music by a Black American by the name of Leslie Riddle. He took A.P. Carter to black segregated hillbilly, and rural communities to "Song Catch" i.e. Steal black American country songs which A.P. wrote down the lyrics and copywriter. Mr. Riddle, also, taught his daughter how to play the country scratch technique on the guitar which she is given the credit as having created. You've been deceived if you think a rhythmic music like country music and bluegrass does not have its roots, and development in black American music styles. Most white people do not even have any rhythm, how in the world could your people have created a rhythmical music, just use common sense, and drop the Ego, and narcissistic analysis, and you will see the originators were dark skinned people.

But where are the black artist?

@@DarkNJuju doing rap

not it's not. its black music first and for most.

how in the heck is Eminem black?

So interesting WHEN ???

That's complete horseshit, you just aren't into the genre. Radio country sucks just like radio rap does, artists like Sturgill Simpson, Jason Isbell, and Chris Stapleton are putting out amazing, genre advancing stuff right now.

@@CabMech Nope, you're full of shit. Between the ages of 16 and 19 I worked at two different recording studios, one on Franklin Road the other on Nolensville Road. My primary job was to drag drunk-ass session musicians out of bars on Printer's Alley so they could finish fucking recording. So don't tell me I don't know about the genre, dumbass. You Don't Know jackshit about the genre. I've forgotten more about country music that you will ever know. And if you noticed all the people I listed are singer-songwriters they're not simple singers dumbass.

Tennessee Whiskey

@XXCoreXX Nope, I have seen some of the most talented singer/songwriters in and around Nashville when I was a production assistant. And none of them could make it in country music because they wouldn't play the music industry game.

Nah, the "borrowing" was more of a One Way High Way street running from segregated Black communities straight into white. Stealing of songs from black musicians was a huge cottage industry back then. Country, Jazz, Blues, Pop, hip-hop have mainly black origins, I know it hurts to hear that, but its the Truth.

@@theumarfam4162 It doesn't hurt at all. Why would it? There was back and forth, however. If a blues musician heard a guitar lick he liked on the country radio he used it, changed it, made it his own and vice versa.

@@theumarfam4162 In your dreams.Don't make excusises because you failiers.Admit you didn't sing good and charismatic like whites and could't save this genres, whites did.Then stop to say bullshit.

​@@theumarfam4162 Well that's a dumb statement. You cite Jazz and Blues and yeah blackwere first played by black people. But who invented the instruments they used TO play it? White people. Who invented the turntables and records that early pioneers of hip-hop used to craft their sound? White people. White people invented the instruments. Black people said "hey that sounds cool, I wanna try that" and they tried it and created new music based around those instruments and white people said "hey that sounds cool, I wanna try that" and they did and evolved the music further. As for country music that mainly came from Celtic folk music but also incorporated parts of African music such as the banjo. So yeah, safe to say it was a two way street.

Are you saying white people invented music instruments? You may as well say they invented oxygen too. Jesus!

Literally the entire society we live in was founded and groomed on the basis of race and identity. Everything done/most of the things we have today was influenced by black people in some shape or form. This is NOT to say White folk aren't talented and don't contribute because they are/absolutely do contribute, and I would never discredit them. But thats literally the point, white people in these mediums have erased the black identity, or rather DNA, and claimed it as solely their own. That's the issue. That's always been the issue, and it should not be forgotten/not discussed so easily. Have nothing but love for you, but these types of videos need to be out there and people have to stop being so angry when faced with the truth.

@@DaRegime How to hate your life and your past speedrun. I will not let race live rentfree in my head about every aspect of media that I like. I will not let race be a factor in my decision making. I will enjoy the things that unite us without constantly having to bring race to the table. You should too.

@No Body I love my life, friend! But I don't have the luxury of not thinking about it. It's all around me. It's a thirteen year old me hearing about a boy my age getting sent to prison and tried as a man. Or a boy half my age being out on death row for a crime he didn't commit. Or, all the culture we helped establish being taken away or history revising it to say we had no parts. It's all there, and I refuse to navigate this world willfully ignorant when I can help the next brother or sister who is ready and willing to learn and unlearn. Seems you're not there yet, but I still love you. And trust me, I move without worry all the time! I just know when and where to bring it up and this was one of those moments. If you have it in you, I encourage you to listen to the podcast "seeing white" just to grow a perspective. Not to hate who you are, because you shouldn't, but to know the actual roots of why our society is the way it is. Peace be with you today!

@@DaRegime It's exactly this kind of attitude and narrative that I will never agree with. Using phrases like "Unlearn", "You're not there yet" and "Seeing white" simply disgust me, they always will. I stand vehemently against the deconstruction of the most advanced societies on this planet, just because some bad shit happened to a group of people who are a lot better now. I (european) want to protect my culture and see the deconstruction and "un / relearning" bullshit that the american left is pushing as a dangerous precedent for my children to still grow up with the same love for their culture that I was luckily able to grow up with. I will die on this hill, whatever it takes. As such I will never come around to your side and you will never come around to mine. What we are left with is two options: Be enemies or ignore one another, not giving a shit about the other's perspective. I choose the latter, but with the state of things currently, I see a future of becoming the former. Simple as.

@No Body I'd love to clear things up and also pose a few questions to you. The first and most important question is to look at our very short conversation and ask why have you gotten so incensed and disgusted when, for the most part, I've been really kind with my rhetoric. Even when calling you out. 2. You aren't there yet, and although you live in a very different culture (I'm assuming you are based in Europe) your very post shows me that you willfully will not think critically or openly on this topic. 3. "Seeing White" is the name of a podcast by a white man. It's not an inflammatory charge on people, but an examination of where and how society (particularly American society) got its ideas on race and thus racism. 4. I could care less about the American left. Though I'm left leaning, I'm first a human being who just wants to educate myself and those around me. Your initial comment struck me, and I felt inclined to respond. Not to be combative, but because it was relevant to what I've been learning and very topical to the video discussion. 5. No one wants you to destroy your culture? I love European culture and celebrate it unconditionally. But it should be examined, just as any other culture should be. We are doomed to repeat mistakes if we don't learn from them. Unfortunately, modern European culture (established in the late middle ages) can be attributed to the destructive nature of racism and its harmful effects on society today. All culture is beautiful, but these blemishes exist, and they should be eradicated. Only to do so is to learn so our future generations (your beautiful children) will be better than we ever were. 6. There is a third option. I never saw you as an enemy. I still don't. But you see how you immediately got upset with me? That's what I want to change. It starts with hard conversations, empathy, and openness. We can agree to disagree and still be allies/friends. Society, once again an examination of culture and how we've grown, has dictated that we must be enemies or we must ignore each other in disagreement. We actually don't have to. And I'm more than willing to learn and listen, only if you are open to doing the same. 7. To your original point, music does unite us all, more than anything. I've played and performed with all different types of people. But its history (especially contemporary), just like any other things has roots of oppression and hatred. You can't control what your ancestors did, but you can contribute to how our society learns and operates from those horrible decisions.