The Black Rock Coalition is a New York-based artists'
collective
A collective is a group of entities that share or are motivated by at least one common issue or interest, or work together to achieve a common objective. Collectives can differ from cooperatives in that they are not necessarily focused upon an ...
and
nonprofit organization
A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...
dedicated to promoting the creative freedom and works of
black
Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...
musician
A musician is a person who composes, conducts, or performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general term used to designate one who follows music as a profession. Musicians include songwriters who wri ...
s.
Founding and purpose
The BRC was founded in
1985
The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations.
Events January
* January 1
** The Internet's Domain Name System is created.
** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
by
Vernon Reid
Vernon Alphonsus Reid (born 22 August 1958) is an English-born American guitarist and songwriter. Reid is the founder and primary songwriter of the rock band Living Colour, Reid was named No. 66 on ''Rolling Stone'' magazine's 2003 list of the ...
(guitarist for the
rock band
A rock band or pop band is a small musical ensemble that performs rock music, pop music, or a related genre. A four-piece band is the most common configuration in rock and pop music. In the early years, the configuration was typically two guita ...
Living Colour
Living Colour is an American rock band from New York City, formed in 1984. The band currently consists of guitarist Vernon Reid, lead vocalist Corey Glover, drummer Will Calhoun and bassist Doug Wimbish (who replaced Muzz Skillings in 1992). S ...
),
Greg Tate
Gregory Stephen Tate (October 14, 1957December 7, 2021) was an American writer, musician, and producer. A long-time critic for ''The Village Voice'', Tate focused particularly on African-American music and culture, helping to establish hip-h ...
(journalist for the ''
Village Voice
''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the creat ...
''), Dk Dyson (lead singer of Eye & I), and Konda Mason (producer), but today has members from around the world. Members that helped propel BRC at that time include but are not limited to;
Chuck Mosely (lead singer,
Faith no More
Faith No More is an American rock band from San Francisco, California, formed in 1979. Before settling on the current name in July 1983, the band performed under the names Sharp Young Men and later Faith No Man. Bassist Billy Gould, keyboardist/r ...
,1983-1988),
Angelo Moore (lead singer,
Fishbone
Fishbone is an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1979, that plays a fusion of ska, punk, funk, metal, reggae, and soul. AllMusic has described the group as "one of the most distinctive and eclectic alternative rock bands of the late ' ...
),
Corey Glover
Corey Glover (born November 6, 1964) is an American singer, guitarist and actor. He is the lead vocalist of the rock band Living Colour and has toured as the vocalist for the funk band Galactic. As an actor, he played Francis in the 1986 war movi ...
(lead singer, Living Colour),
Bevis M. Griffin (frontman, Banzai Kik).
Many of these members were key players in the formation centered on the band Living Colour to start with. The Black Rock Coalition was created to band black rockers together in the music world because of racial discrimination in the music industry. At the time of formation of the BRC, society was racially stratified in that structural differences remained even though musical aesthetics spread beyond original borders. There existed racialized associations that defined and categorized mankind. In other words, stereotypes depicted which music was coded as black or white, making claims of who had the right to produce a certain genre. African American musicians were experiencing a categorical struggle, as stereotypes were pervasive in the music industry. Behind the stereotypes, there was a notion produced by culture and mass media that “it was just easier to market conventional R&B to black kids, and conventional rock and roll to white kids.” Consumers were ignorant to the fact that black musicians were capable of producing certain genres of music, such as rock ‘n’ roll, due to lack of exposure provided by mass media. Further, the idea that black people even wanted to play rock 'n' roll was implausible to many record executives and music consumers who held opinions as to what constituted authentic black music. With black musicians wanting their sound to be heard and recognized, they began fighting racial stereotypes. One way these artists began pushing past the barriers was through marketing their albums by strategically designing album covers. In the 1980s and 1990s, some Black rock bands such as Living Colour and Fishbone had illustrations rather than photos as their album covers. LaRonda Davis, the executive of the Black Rock Coalition, explained this was a marketing tactic used to avoid any confusion that the consumer may have off their judgment of the album cover. "If you saw a Black person on the cover, the assumption was that the music was R&B or hip-hop. It was about the look of the person on the cover as opposed to the sound inside, which created more work for the marketers."
The BRC began to combat racial stereotypes through accepting the “total spectrum” of black music. During this time, society essentially assigned certain genres of music to white people, and other genres black people. Furthermore, society decided "what constitutes 'real' rock ‘n’ roll music, including who is authorized to play that music and who is authorized to listen to and talk about it." Because of this discrimination, along with the lasting effects of the Jim Crow laws, black musicians were limited in all aspects of their industry - the types of music they could play, where they could record, and where they could perform their music. Therefore, the Black Rock Coalition came together to band against racism in the music business. In order to do this, the group followed through on their manifesto - to find recording and performance spaces for black musicians to give them equal opportunities for success.
BRC's stance on origins of rock music
The Black Rock Coalition was formed in order to reaffirm that white rock had evolved from black origins, to combat racial stereotyping in music, and also to work to re-establish rock forms as functionally black music and as further proof of black music’s power to make innovative leaps. By the 1960s, popular culture dictated that soul music was “black” and rock was “white,” despite the fact that black artists had created the rock genre. In order to fight against these stereotypes and promote racial equality, the BRC supports and advocates performances by black musicians of musical styles publicly associated with whiteness – hard rock, heavy metal and thrash.
Another one of the BRC's main goals was to re-establish Rock forms as black music. Because rock was commonly considered white music as many of the musical forms and styles associated with rock are considered white music. However, this is not the case in fact most of the musical elements associated with rock were invented by black musicians. Because rock has origins in blues, R&B, and gospel and in the 60's many rock artists were highly influenced by blues artists, rock music has many of the same elements as blues and gospel. For example, the 12-bar blues structure is prominent in rock songs. Also the use of bending guitar strings and bottleneck slides became a staple of rock music, although these styles were created by blues artist years earlier.
Furthermore, other rock music forms not necessarily based in blues were also created by black rock artists. Other elements of rock such as many rock guitar sounds were developed my black rock artists such as Chuck Berry, Jimi Hendrix, and others. The rock guitar sounds and rhythms that define rock music were developed by artists like Chuck Berry, Muddy Water, and Sister Rosetta Tharpe. For example, Muddy Waters was one of the first musicians to amplify a guitar, which is one of the defining features of Rock music: “Muddy Waters caused a storm by playing through an amplifier, the sort of thing associated with rock n’ roll.” The BRC seeks to reclaim these innovations that have come to be considered as white music.
One of the first rock ‘n’ roll songs to ever be recorded was titled Sh-boom by the Chords, an all Black male rhythm ‘n’ blues group in 1954. The increase in popularity struck influence of covers by both Black and White musicians, and unfortunately the new cover made by the Canadian group greatly surpassed the popularity of the original recording. Although there was an increased interest that brought in White audiences to the musical genre due to its new exotic sound, the White audience revealed that they felt more comfortable with the Canadian made cover during the beginning of the racial integration stages in music.
As a part of their mission, the Black Rock Coalition strives to embrace every aspect of black music, regardless of the genre being performed. The coalition itself works to document the culture and history of black music so it will be appreciated for what it is and the origins of a genre will not be lost. From the time of its creation, the Black Rock Coalition has been famous for hosting historical parties and exhibits, many of which follow along the guidelines that “Rock is black music. Rock is everyone’s music, but the origins of rock are Black… And there’s no way you can get around that”.
Support for black artists
Among other activities, the BRC actively seeks performance
venue
Venue is the location at which an event takes place. It may refer to:
Locations
* Venue (law), the place a case is heard
* Financial trading venue, a place or system where financial transactions can occur
* Music venue, place used for a concer ...
s,
recording
A record, recording or records may refer to:
An item or collection of data Computing
* Record (computer science), a data structure
** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity
** Boot sector or boot record, ...
opportunities, and equitable
distribution Distribution may refer to:
Mathematics
*Distribution (mathematics), generalized functions used to formulate solutions of partial differential equations
* Probability distribution, the probability of a particular value or value range of a vari ...
opportunities for black artists. They work to
archive
An archive is an accumulation of historical records or materials – in any medium – or the physical facility in which they are located.
Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or ...
performance footage of cultural events related to their ''oeuvre'', and to provide or publicize various educational opportunities (e.g. lectures, workshops,
seminar
A seminar is a form of academic instruction, either at an academic institution or offered by a commercial or professional organization. It has the function of bringing together small groups for recurring meetings, focusing each time on some parti ...
s, research, library and audio-visual resources, public forums/discussions, etc.). BRC also solicits funding for projects and provides
networking
Network, networking and networked may refer to:
Science and technology
* Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects
* Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks
Mathematics
...
opportunities. BRC and their volunteer base is a resource to their community of members and other organizations such as the Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls. In 2015 the BRC celebrated their 30th anniversary throughout the month of September with "30 Years in 30 Days" that encompassed events to showcase their support. Events in Brooklyn, New York and neighboring locations ranged from a fund raiser for BRC's Original Rocker Scholarships, a vocal clinic at the Metrosonic Showroom, rehearsal space at the Funkadelic Studios for members and friends, performances by BRC's Orchestra playing tribute to Jimi Hendrix's live album Band of Gypsys at the BAMCafé, and various social events. They also hosted "Million Man Mosh 3" at The Wind Up Space featuring artists such as
Tamar-kali
Tamar-kali (born Tamara Colletta Brown) is an American rock singer-songwriter
and composer based in Brooklyn, New York.
Early life
Tamar-kali was born and raised in Brooklyn a 2nd generation musician through her father, who was a band leader ...
, Thaylo Bleu, and Throwdown Syndicate. Some of the live recordings taken at the events will be included onto BRC's 8th Rock’n’Roll Reparations compilation album that highlights "songs that bring to light some of the issues that affect people and musicians of color" says BRC's executive LaRonda Davis.
Additionally, the BRC documents events and concerts performed by black rock groups, and puts on educational "workshops, seminars, research, library resources, audio-visual resources and public forums/discussions" to expose the public to black rock music and the true origins of rock music. Without this contribution, it is likely that many black artists would have received a lack of publicity and opportunity in the music industry because of persisting racial stereotypes. The goal of the BRC was to "push for and end to 'musical apartheid,'.
Trans-racial audiences
BRC addresses a phenomenon about the crossover of black musicians to white audiences. Two different positions were expressed on the crossover of black musicians to white audiences. Steve Perry (musician) saw the phenomenon of black artists topping the “Hot 100” as positive for its integration and implications for cross-racial harmony. Nelson George (music critic) saw this as a dilution of black social and cultural power, arguing that black artist who aimed at the mainstream were forsaking the black musical tradition. Living Color was one of the bands that were closely connected to the BRC and it played a significant role in the impact of the crossover of black music to white audiences. In the band's song “Which Way to America”, the effects of the crossover are reflected through the lyrics even though the two different lives depicted were not racially defined explicitly. The song also includes notions of problems within politics and economics that were derived from the crossover: “don’t want to crossover / but how do I keep from going under?” The lyrics signify the desire to live a traditional American life that is portrayed in the media, but their realistic America is far from that.
Structure
The BRC is governed by an executive board and an advisory board; board members have included
Me'shell Ndegeocello,
Bernie Worrell,
24-7 Spyz
24-7 Spyz (pronounced "twenty-four-seven spies") are an American rock band from the South Bronx, New York, formed in 1986, originally consisting of Jimi Hazel (born Wayne K. Richardson) (guitars), Rick Skatore (born Kenneth D. Lucas) (bass), Ki ...
, the members of
Living Colour
Living Colour is an American rock band from New York City, formed in 1984. The band currently consists of guitarist Vernon Reid, lead vocalist Corey Glover, drummer Will Calhoun and bassist Doug Wimbish (who replaced Muzz Skillings in 1992). S ...
, Bill Stephney,
Craig Street
Craig Street, born in Oakland, California, is a noted record producer.
Street moved with his family to Los Angeles at the age of 11, but returned to the Bay Area for his high school years. He began playing guitar at age 14, and was in a number ...
,
Sekou Sundiata
Sekou Sundiata (August 22, 1948 – July 18, 2007) was an African-American poet and performer, as well as a teacher at The New School in New York City. Famous students include musicians Ani DiFranco and Mike Doughty. His plays include ''The C ...
,
Chocolate Genius
Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cacao seed kernels that is available as a liquid, solid, or paste, either on its own or as a flavoring agent in other foods. Cacao has been consumed in some form since at least the Olmec civi ...
,
Don Byron
Donald Byron (born November 8, 1958) is an American composer and multi-instrumentalist. He primarily plays clarinet but has also played bass clarinet and saxophone in a variety of genres that includes free jazz and klezmer.
Biography
His mother w ...
and
Nona Hendryx
Nona Bernis Hendryx (born October 9, 1944) is an American vocalist, record producer, songwriter, musician, and author.
Hendryx is known for her work as a solo artist as well as for being one-third of the trio Labelle, who had a hit with "Lady ...
. Artists who have participated in BRC activities include
Doug Pinnick
Douglas Theodore Pinnick (born September 3, 1950), sometimes stylized as dUg Pinnick or simply dUg, is an American musician best known as the bass guitarist, co-lead vocalist, and songwriter for the hard rock and progressive metal band King's ...
(frontman and bassist for the
progressive metal
Progressive metal (sometimes shortened to prog metal) is a broad :Fusion music genres, fusion music genre melding heavy metal music, heavy metal and progressive rock, combining the loud "aggression" and amplified electric guitar, guitar-driven s ...
band
King's X
King's X is an American rock band that originated in 1979 in Springfield, Missouri. They were first called The Edge and later became Sneak Preview before settling on its current name in 1985. The band's current lineup has remained intact for m ...
), Spacey T,
Keziah Jones
Keziah Jones (born Olufemi Sanyaolu on 10 January 1968) is a Nigerian singer-songwriter and guitarist. He describes his musical style as "Blufunk", which is a fusion between raw blues elements and hard, edgy funk rhythms. Also his Nigerian roo ...
, Tamar-kali,
Suffrajett
Suffrajett is an American rock band from New York City, currently based in Chicago, Illinois, composed of singer/violinist Simi Sernaker, guitarist Jason Chasko, bassist Kevin Roberts, and drummer Danny Severson. Suffrajett has toured with Loc ...
,
Graph Nobel
Graph Nobel is a Canadian indie/ alternative/ pop musician and songwriter. Her music is " hip-hop inspired with punk rock abandon".
Born and raised in Toronto, Ontario to Trinidadian parents. Nobel tributes several genres as an influence; as is e ...
,
,
David Ryan Harris
David Ryan Harris (born April 19, 1968) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist based in Los Angeles, California, United States. Born in Evanston, Illinois, Harris moved to Atlanta at a young age. Harris has had a varied career as a musi ...
,
Jeffrey Gaines
Jeffrey Gaines is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. Born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, he was signed to the Chrysalis Records label in 1990 and released his debut album, ''Jeffrey Gaines'', in 1992.
Life and career
The first single o ...
, Sophia Ramos, FunkFace, Pillow Theory,
Apollo Heights
Apollo Heights is an American shoegazing band that was formed in New York City in 2002. Consisting mainly of twin brothers Daniel and Danny Chavis, they play experimental rock music. They cite AR Kane and My Bloody Valentine as a major inspirat ...
,
Avery Brooks,
The Family Stand
The Family Stand is an American soul and R&B group based in New York City, active since the late 1980s, consisting of Sandra St. Victor, Peter Lord Moreland, and V. Jeffrey Smith.
Evon Geffries & The Stand
Their first incarnation was called ...
,
Carl Hancock Rux
Carl Hancock Rux () is an American poet, playwright, novelist, essayist, recording artist, journalist, curator and conceptual installation artist working in text, dance, ritualized performance, audio, video, and photography. Described in the NY T ...
,
Caron Wheeler
Caron Melina Wheeler (born 19 January 1963) is an English singer, songwriter, record producer and musician. Born and raised in London, she performed in various singing competitions as a teenager and began her recording career as one of the found ...
, and DJ Reborn.
BRC had an active radio show in the 1980s. As of 2020 it maintains a website as well as an email list and a regular mailing list, an Internet radio station (BRC Radio @ Soul-Patrol.Net), and a Twitter page.
See also
* Mahon, Maureen. ''Right to Rock: The Black Rock Coalition and the Cultural Politics of Race''. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2004
Review*
NAACP
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&nb ...
*
Afro-punk
Afro-punk (sometimes spelled Afro-Punk, Afropunk or AfroPunk) refers to the participation of African Americans and other Black people in punk and alternative subcultures, especially in the United States.
History
The term originated from the 200 ...
*
Black rock music
*
Progressive soul
Progressive soul (often shortened to prog-soul; also called black prog, black rock, and progressive R&B) is a type of African-American music that uses a progressive approach, particularly in the context of the soul and funk genres. It developed ...
References
External links
Black Rock Coalition Official SiteBRCat MusicDish.com
at Soul-Patrol.net
{{Authority control
1985 establishments in New York City
African-American music
African-American organizations
DIY culture
Music organizations based in the United States
Musical collectives
Musical groups established in 1985
Non-profit organizations based in New York City
Organizations based in New York City