Can Whites Sing Black?

In his 1969 New York Times article, "Why Do Whites Sing Black," Albert Goldman makes several bold assertions about the white personalization of traditionally black soul music like gospel, blues and jazz. Trying to figure out why white youth was so drawn to black music and asking the question of how a "milk-faced, middle-class kid who has never had a hole in his shoe sing the blues that belong to some beat-up old black who lived his life in poverty and misery," Goldman theorizes that the transformation has both social and political roots. Using examples of young white stars who adopted soul music with tremendous success, like Janis Joplin and Paul Butterfield, Goldman comes to a couple of striking conclusions: Firstly, using the example of Janis Joplin, he determines that adopting black music was a temporary way for white youth to shed the spiritual shackles and rebel against its own repressed and inhibited culture; and secondly, using the example of Paul Butterfield, he concludes that this transformation and infusion of contemporary rhythms and tempo into an old-time style actually adds and contributes an element to soul music black musicians could not contribute. While Goldman makes some interesting points that are subsequently well-supported by Mike Daley in his 2003 article "Why Do Whites Sing Black?: The blues, whiteness, and early histories of rock," in the end, the Black Students Alliance at Smith College makes a far more convincing argument that black music comes out of the black experience and therefore cannot be bettered, or even duplicated, by white singers.

Albert Goldman and his supporter Mike Daley cite to several factors as proof for Goldman's theory that white adoption of black music actually made it better. Their most persuasive arguments are evidence of how black musicians frequently enjoyed and even supported this musical melding. Goldman, as an example, uses a white young man by the name of Paul Butterfield. Butterfield fell in love with blues, started going to blues bars in Chicago and became so proficient at the blues harmonica that older black musicians took him under their wing and taught him as they wood an aspiring young black musician without any regard to his skin color. Daley brings up an example of the legendary blues musician B. B. King, who toward the later parts of his career played for an increasingly white audience and appreciated their understanding and respect for his music.

While Goldman's argument makes sense on a purely scientific and sociological level, it does not take into account music as a form of human expression and a reflection of the human experience. This is where the argument of the Black Students Alliance makes much more sense. White people cannot adopt and imitate black music, let alone make it better, because music is not simply about notes, beats, rhythms and chords, but about expressing the culture that made those musical elements possible. It is one thing for black soul musicians to teach and pass on some elements of black music to white musicians, and to respect white people's attempt to embrace and understand what has traditionally been only black music, but it is something completely different to claim that this blending has now transformed black music into something better. It cannot be better because the very element that made it so special to begin with-the pure, unadulterated expression of the black experience-is no longer there when a white person performs it.

While Goldman's theories on the blending of black music and white culture are interesting and worth considering, they are ultimately incomplete as they rely too much on sociology and scientific elements of music and fail to take into account music's expressiveness and cultural importance.