tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1930103.post172045127153469106..comments2024-03-28T09:33:26.444+00:00Comments on No Rock And Roll Fun: Amy Winehouse celebrates being urbanSimon Hayes Budgenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07084524317888577404noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1930103.post-31468767243332987852007-09-20T15:25:00.000+00:002007-09-20T15:25:00.000+00:00Have you seen the Mobo website front and news pag...Have you seen the Mobo website front and news pages (as spotted by Holy Moly)? It's <A HREF="http://www.mobo.com/?page=310&t=news" REL="nofollow">here</A> (<A HREF="http://www.holymoly.co.uk/thumb/phpThumb.php?src=../images/gallery/1489/mobosfull.jpg&w=500&q=100&fltr%5B%5D=wmi%7C../images/piclogos.png%7C1%7C100&down=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.jpg" REL="nofollow">screengrabbed here</A>). On the one day of the year when more people than normal might be looking at the site, the person in charge of updates seems to have copied and pasted the list of winners from an email, comments and all, straight into the site.<BR/><BR/>Still, I suppose it's better than the Vodafone awards copying and pasting their list of winners straight from the Brits website.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1930103.post-75223057907017246882007-09-20T12:39:00.000+00:002007-09-20T12:39:00.000+00:00Oh, I came here to say the same thing & see that y...Oh, I came here to say the same thing & see that you're already on it: <BR/><BR/>Anyway<BR/><BR/>The MOBOs is founded on the specious argument that some pop music is somehow 'not' of black origin.<BR/><BR/>Bing Crosby saw himself as, at root, a jazz singer and I can't think of many successful popular music acts since - with the exception of Steeleye Span - who haven't appropriated jazz or R&B tropes as the basis for their music.<BR/><BR/>Furthermore there seems to be a specious, not to say racist, equation of the word 'black' with the word 'authentic'. <BR/><BR/>It's all a nonsense. Bob Marley, to pick one example at random,was as white as he was black and it's meaningless to suggest that only one aspect of his genetic heritage informed his songwriting.<BR/><BR/>Similarly Jimi Hendrix, who can probably lay as much claim as anyone to the invention of Rock (as opposed to Pop) music had antecedents of more than one racial group.<BR/><BR/>Music is either any good or it's not. The origin of the music or the performers should be meaningless, and constantly giving Dizzee Rascal prizes because there are no other male black artists in the frame (where are you now, Billy Ocean?)demeans him and his work as much as it cheapens the notion of these silly awards.Mikeyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09639836396121576665noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1930103.post-63270430866218641192007-09-20T09:12:00.000+00:002007-09-20T09:12:00.000+00:00But, as I said, all rock music and pop is of black...But, as I said, all rock music and pop is of black origin - Elvis borrowed rather than invented, after all. And since the point of the awards was, supposedly, to celebrate black music since it usually gets bypassed by the main awards ceremonies, giving the prizes to the same white artist who wins at the Brits, Vodafones, NME and MTV awards seems to be something of a missed opportunity. It's a shame that a prize celebrating black music can't come up with a black artist to win the award, and that it helps perpetuate the myth, stretching back to the 1950s, that only white people can make a commercial success of black music.Simon Hayes Budgenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07084524317888577404noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1930103.post-90136766417849735862007-09-20T09:01:00.000+00:002007-09-20T09:01:00.000+00:00I really love this blog and have done for years, b...I really love this blog and have done for years, but must take you to task on your Amy Winehouse comments. You've made it clear over the last year you don't like her music, which is perfectly fine, but to suggest her style(s) of music are not of black origin suggests you're attacking just for the sake of it. Her two albums incorporate soul, blues, jazz, motown, doo-sop, R&B, rap and god knows what else...at least half of her (at times up to) 15-piece band are black - why is it such a stretch to accept that she would be worthy of a MOBO? It's far more perplexing to me that someone like Jamelia can be nominated... surely it's the origin of the music we're supposedly talking about, not the colour of the person who performs it.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com