The paper is to answer the following question – The question is “Did rock and roll unfairly rob black artists of their music, credit for their contribution, and their just due?” Is Helen Kolawole correct in claiming that Elvis — and by extension the other white rock and rollers of the 1950s — “cloud the true picture of rock’n’roll” at the expense of black artists? And is the claim that “rock and roll is black music” ultimately justifiable?
Additional information:
not everyone has seen rock and roll as a “melting pot” and there are many who saw rock and roll merely as an appropriation of black music by whites who “became rich on the backs of black artists.”
From the very beginning, matters of race and American popular music have been inextricably tied together. The two great streams that fed American popular music – jazz and the blues – came from the experience of African Americans in the Deep South and almost all of our music – from country to gospel, rock and roll to mainstream pop – owes a profound debt to the contribution of African American singers, songwriters, and musicians.
One of the dilemmas of popular music in general and rock and roll in particular is that many believed and have continued to believe that white artists merely absorbed black music and robbed black artists of the fame, recognition, and financial rewards that were rightfully theirs. Many black artists, especially in the 1950s, believed that they received “obscurity in exchange for their music.” Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup wrote three songs that were later recorded by Elvis Presley – “That’s All Right,” “My Baby Left Me,” and “So Glad You’re Mine ” – but Crudup received scant recognition for his songs and never received the royalties that should have been paid to him. Elvis went on to become one of the richest and most successful artists of all time and Arthur Crudup left the music business and finished his life as a bootlegger and farm laborer. Not surprisingly, Crudup believed that his only reward was to be that his songs “had made a white man famous.”
As recently as 2002, on the 25th anniversary of Elvis’ death, Helen Kolawole, a black journalist and commentator on black issues, wrote in The Guardian, “As another celebration of a dead white hero winds up, in this hallowed Week of Elvis, shouldn’t the entertainment industry hold its own truth and reconciliation commission? It needn’t be a vehicle for retribution, just somewhere where tales of white appropriation of black culture, not to mention outright theft, can finally be laid to rest.” She went on to say, “The Elvis myth to this day clouds the true picture of rock‘n’ roll and leaves its many originators without due recognition. So what is left for black people to celebrate? How he admirably borrowed our songs, attitude and dance moves?” (The complete article is available at https://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2002/aug/15/elvis25yearson.elvispresley)
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