Ballroom Dancing
SXSW panels
By Robert Gabriel, Fri., March 18, 2005
It Takes a Nation of Millions to Make this Panel
Austin Convention Center, Thursday, March 17
With so much of American music indebted to the integration of black and white culture, critic Dave Marsh's opening premise that "nobody is off the hook" set the tone for healthy discussions surrounding stereotypes and appropriation. Singer Peggy Scott-Adams illustrated the frustration of having to record two different versions of the same song, one with a country feel for her white audience and one with a heavy R&B slant for her black audience, just so that her message could be heard by all. Bluesman Otis Taylor reiterated the double standard of racially motivated labeling by questioning why bluesmen are seldom ever considered as singer-songwriters in league with their white counterparts. Journalist Kandia Mara Crazy Horse further stoked the fire by citing Mick Jagger as the most glaring example of shameless and culturally careless exploitation. Author Mark Kemp elaborated that point by drawing a distinction between the Rolling Stones, who merely dealt with the black experience from afar, vs. the Allman Brothers, who physically grew up in an environment heavily guided by racial interaction. KGSR host and author Kevin Phinney came off as the apologist of the bunch, but his optimistic message merely reiterates what Little Richard was saying at last year's conference: "Music will be the thing that brings us all together." While subjects as touchy as Jack White, radio payola, and neo-soul jostled about the room, the premise that seemed to attract the most overwhelming consensus was that of rap as the new minstrelsy. If only the hourlong clearing of the air could've spilled over into the barrooms just up the street from the Convention Center.