Proponents of the term urban music recognised that it was black music. Panellist Ade, a soul singer/vocal coach and music business tutor who heads the UK Urban All-Stars, said he used the term as a “vehicle for opening doors”. In his view, it was a more palatable way to sell black music to white people. He added that most white people felt uncomfortable saying “black music” in the company of blacks. Although not representative of their race, two white people in the audience said they had no issue with saying “black music” in the company of blacks.

The chair, Kwaku, pointed to the fact that white people have always been major consumers of black music, and that many often prefer to the real deal wherever available, irrespective of what it’s called. The Rolling Stones, and several of the blues/R&B white groups that came out in Britain in the 1960s sort out the originals by black American artists, such as Muddy Waters, rather than the white cover acts the major labels were promoting. In other words, white people are not necessarily uncomfortable with the term black music.

The general consensus was that the term urban music has been created in order to make it easier for white or non-black artists to participate in a more inclusive black genre without worrying about the socio-  and political issues that can arise out of the term black music. Majority of the audience viewed the term urban music simply as a marketing tool to (re-)package black music.

Also, apart from its economic value, the all-inclusive, supposedly race-neutral urban term has a racist undertone. As one participant put it, “urban music is used to disguise the fact that racism still exists within our multi-cultural society.”

Many felt we need to hear more of black music, as urban music marginalised and degraded black music: urban music concentrates on the popular black music genres to the exclusion of the wider body of black music, such as soca, jazz, roots reggae, etc. Also urban music has no compulsion to express the serious black experience or struggle. Instead, in its quest for sales and popularity, it perpetuates the excesses within our culture by glamorising the materialistic bling-bling, disrespect of womanhood, use of profanity, crass dancing, etc. Black music, it was said, tended to uplift, have a message, and carried the essence of the black struggle without belittling it for the sake of commercial expediency.

After two years of debates, the BMC programmes, which resume in September/October 2004, will be workshop-based. This means the issues will be focused with specific outcomes expected. For those participants who talk about wanting to help, and indeed for those who like to point the finger at what others aren’t doing, they now have a chance to volunteer as BMC Disciples, willing to commit to take some of the ideas forward. It can be as simple as making sure they bring a friend or two to a BMC activity such as a debate or fair. 

To set the ball rolling, the debate was preceded by the filling in of a questionnaire and workshop that tried to find out what was black music, urban music, and whether we should call our music African or music of African origin (see workshop results). Copies of the May 17 2004 edition of the New Nation newspaper were given to participants, who were pointed to the Pope Fiction column, which provided useful background for the debate.

We also heard about how Harrow Council was considering changing Black History Month to the all-inclusive ‘Festival Of Cultures’. Seeing as there were parallels with the all-inclusive ‘urban’ issue, some of us decided to attend the council’s meeting (see Harrow BHM).

Although some members of the audience felt that urban had its place as a marketing tool for the popular black music genres, notable R&B and hip-hop, and to a lesser extent garage and dancehall, the debate concluded that the body of music we all recognise as black music should be referred to as black music, and not urban music.

Kwaku May 27 2004

• Panellist Ade's introduction.
• Some of the points in this report can be seen in the bullet point list.
• See some of the off-debate contributions.
• See workshop summary.
• Click for some of the Urban/Black/African happenings.

Back