Categorizing Music

On the surface, this topic has absolutely nothing to do with stigmas. But read until the end and you'll see why this was included in this particular blog.

One day recently I was listening to the radio. My husband and I are now driving a new-to-us car and we haven't figured out the radio system yet, so we were testing different methods to find out the easiest way to program and access our favorite stations.

Some of the stations we ran across were obvious - a popular song from the 70s was pretty indicative of an oldies channel; a twangy sound was most likely the local country channel; the mellow speaking voice meant it was probably NPR or a local talk radio show.

But some were harder to guess. Sometimes the lines blurred. A pop rock sound could be a contemporary Christian channel or a latest hits station. Modern country can be confused with some types of old-school rock. Even what seems to obviously be NPR, could potentially be news.

It made me think - where is the line drawn. Just how "twangy" does a song have to be to be classified as country? How loud and raucous does a song have to be to be classified as hard rock? And when does a current hit finally evolve into an "oldie"?

(Funny sideline story... one night I was driving in northern Alabama after visiting my family. I was a little sleepy and was scanning the scarce channels to find something I liked that would help me stay awake. I finally came across a song I loved and sang along happily... 

That is, until I heard, "That was [insert name of a band] and this is the Oldies Channel!" It was one of the first indicators that I was actually old and it struck me harder than I would have imagined.)

Back to categorizing music...

Who comes up with the dividing lines? Is it the artist, the agent, the promotor, or the public? 

When an artist "crosses over" it usually means a jump from one confining category to another. Examples are a Latin singer becoming mainstream or a Christian artist being played in with Top 40 hits.

But what if, as mentioned in the second example, there was no dedicated Christian channel in the first place? There would be no need to try to break out of the shell of only playing to a Christian audience. Non-Christians would have to listen to Christian music and vice-versa. 

There would be no opposition, no polarization, no stigma of being "only a Christian band" (a possible sentiment of the non-Christians) or being "only a secular band" (a possible sentiment of the Christians).

I don't have an answer... I just thought it was an interesting question. But I do happen to think that if this was true, like Louis Armstrong said, "What a wonderful world."

   

Racial Stigma - Sadly, One I Haven't Thought Much About

A couple of weeks ago, I attended a conference in Birmingham, AL called "There IS a Balm in Gilead." It was to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing. 

Growing up in Birmingham, I have seen both sides of racial discrimination. It's still hard to believe how long segregation persisted in this southern city. I have met many black people who weren't able to get the job they wanted due to their race.

But on the flip side, my dad was also directly impacted by discrimination, being passed over for a big promotion in the Birmingham Fire Department by an unqualified black man.

A little over two years ago, I had the great privilege of interviewing Barbara Cross, one of the children of Reverend John Cross, the pastor of Sixteenth Street Baptist. She lived through the bombing and was able to forgive those who did it.

You can read the article I wrote on the Alabama Baptist newspaper's website at  https://thealabamabaptist.org/her-most-devastating-day-pointed-her-to-the-love-that-forgives/. 

When I found out about the conference, I thought of Barbara and wondered how she was doing. I was able to talk to her briefly which resulted in an update of the original article, found here: https://thealabamabaptist.org/60-years-later-pastors-daughter-recalls-16th-street-baptist-church-bombing/.

Due to some scheduling issues, I wasn't able to attend many sessions at the conference but what I learned resulted in a deep shame. 

Over the past few years, I have written about many stigmas related to many different groups - those with mental or physical health issues, those with religious biases, those with stereotypes concerning weight, as well as some others.

Not once did I write about racial stigmas and stereotypes. It's still hard to believe that it never occurred to me to write about one of the most impactful issues of our generation.

Anyway, I'm hoping to write about the other workshops I was able to attend at some point in the future, but I was able to write and submit an article featuring the main keynote who spoke at the last session at the conference - Dr. Tony Evans.

 It was published today. It's well worth the read - not because I wrote it and I'm amazing, but because he had some excellent points, some I had never thought about.

You can find it at https://thealabamabaptist.org/tony-evans-speaks-at-anniversary-event-there-is-a-balm-in-gilead/. 

Look for more posts from this conference in the weeks to come.