Black Music Quotes

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  Musicians don't retire; they stop when there's no more music in them.

  Louis Armstrong

  Inspiring, Music, Retirement

  1968 Quoted in the Observer, 21 Apr.

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• I guess hip-hop has been closer to the pulse of the streets than any music we've had in a long time. It's sociology as well as music, which is in keeping with the tradition of black music in America.

  Quincy Jones

  America, Long, Hip Hop

  "Q&A with Quincy Jones". Interview with Robert Hilburn, articles.latimes.com. April 18, 1997.

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• The Beatles were huge. And the first thing they said when you interviewed them, 'Oh yeah, we grew up on Motown.'..They were the first white act to admit they grew up listening to black music.

  Smokey Robinson

  White, Black, Listening

  18 Copy quote

• Historically, black music has influenced other cultures and other genres and created other genres.

  Miguel

  Other Cultures, Black, Genres Of Music

  16 Copy quote

• Black music has increased my enjoyment of what I do. It has increased my range, my ability to reach into myself and accept myself.

  Michael Bolton

  Black, Accepting, Range

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• Black music has always known, and not been afraid to acknowledge just how high the stakes of Black thought are. To summarize the final soliloquy of Clay, the protagonist in LeRoi Jones’ (aka Amiri Baraka’s) play Dutchman. You’d better be glad Charlie Parker could play him some horn and Bessie Smith could sing, because if they didn’t make music they might murder you. One would be hard pressed to find another group of people on this planet whose music is a surrogate for murder. One would be hard pressed to another group of people on this planet whose life is a proxy for death.

  Frank B. Wilderson III

  Aka, Play, People

  10 Copy quote

• At the same time, I was listening to black music, and I began to think that the best musicians were receiving the worst treatment. The people who were doing the greatest work were despised as lower class, with no dignity accorded to what they did.

  Henry Flynt

  Artist, Thinking, Class

  7 Copy quote

• Though I'm not the first king of controversy, I am the worst thing since Elvis Presley. To do black music so selfishly, and use it to get myself wealthy.

  Eminem

  Kings, Black, Use

  Song: Without Me

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• Bob Marley performed the 'One Love Peace' concert in Jamaica with the two different warring political sides. There's always been that in black music and culture in general. It's no surprise because black music is such a reflection of what's going on in black life. It's not unusual for hip-hop.

  Mos Def

  Reflection, Jamaica, Two

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• The impact of black music and black art forms on American culture is really difficult to appreciate.

  Jess Row

  Art, Impact, Appreciate

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• A lot of my success comes from black music. It's something I'm very proud of.

  Michael Bolton

  Black, Proud

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• The problem is the following, black music is increasing encumbered by white elements, often pleasant but always superfluous, easily and advantageously replaced with black elements.

  Boris Vian

  White, Black, Elements

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• I never thought I was playing black music. I was just playing music, the stuff I liked. I sang blues at parties and things when I was a kid.

  Mose Allison

  Party, Kids, Black

  Interview with Jason Heller, www.avclub.com. February 04, 2010.

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• I prefer black music in general.

  Phil Collins

  Black

  "Biography / Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• Anybody under the age of forty knows hip-hop, gospel and R&B pretty well, and it's all a part of what we consider to be 'black music.' There is a natural synergy between the three.

  John Legend

  Hip Hop, Black, Age

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• The Righteous Brothers were purely rhythm and blues, black music.

  Bill Medley

  Brother, Black, Rhythm And Blues

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• ...black music is a group music. That's why I don't like doing a solo saxophone thing: My feeling stems from rhythm, I really have to feel that rhythmic thing happening.

  Jimmy Lyons

  Feelings, Black, Saxophone

  5 Copy quote

• Black music has become a commercial commodity. Live performances are not so accessible as they were previously. It use to be possible to go to the bar on the corner and hear music. It was available for a fifteen cent beer.

  Archie Shepp

  Beer, Black, Bars

  "Dialogue with Archie Shepp". Interview with Scott Cashman, www.detroitartistsworkshop.com.

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• I have a very simple mantra and it's this: I want to make black cinema with the power, beauty, and alienation of black music. That's my big goal. The larger preoccupation is how do we force cinema to respond to the existential, political, and spiritual dimensions of who we are as a people.

  Arthur Jafa

  Spiritual, Simple, People

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• I am the greatest thing to happen to black music.

  Thom Yorke

  Black, Happens

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• With the White Stripes we were trying to trick people into not realising we were playing the blues. We did not want to come off like white kids trying to play black music from 100 years ago so a great way to distract them was by dressing in red, white and black.

  Jack White

  Kids, Years, Play

  "Jack White: 'I knew we'd get into these places and stir things up'". Interview with Sarfraz Manzoor, www.theguardian.com. March 13, 2010.

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• I was relatively isolated from people of color. My parents are too old to be Baby Boomers; they had me later in life. So we didn't listen to any black music at all in the house, not even Ben E. King.

  Jess Row

  Baby, Kings, Later In Life

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• I don't do black music. I don't do white music. I do fight music, unified in Christ music.

  LeCrae

  Fighting, White, Black

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• I think kids in Europe have developed a deeper knowledge of music and of black music in particular. You go to Europe, and these kids know about all this obscure funk and soul that kids over here wouldn't know. I think it's getting better in the States, though, with the age of the Internet.

  Lenny Kravitz

  Kids, Thinking, Europe

  Interview with Raphael Saadiq, www.interviewmagazine.com. February 14, 2012.

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• Rock and roll came in and changed my life and changed the whole music scene forever, and then I grew to love R&B and Motown and all black music, gospel music. But I never dismiss any form of music. I listen to everything.

  Elton John

  Rocks, Rock And Roll, Forever

  "Interview: Elton John Talks Gnomeo And Juliet And His Long Career". Interview with Cole Haddon, www.mtv.com. February 09, 2011.

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