Daily Show correspondent Dulce Sloan responded to criticism of Beyoncé making a country album, saying that if white people don’t like cultural appropriation, then they shouldn’t be making good rock, jazz, blues, country music pop because it was all stolen from black people everybody.
Sloan said, “If white people hated cultural appropriation, then they shouldn’t have created music.” “Because every form of music in America was stolen from black people: rock’n’roll, jazz, blues, country, pop music.
So if you have a problem with cultural appropriation — y’all created classical music, y’all could have stuck with that,” she continued. “Roll the piano into this concert,” joked the comedian.
Critics argued that this ignores the positive contributions of white people enjoying black music and how the music industry, not all white people, exploited black artists.
John McEuen of The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band added, “Country music wasn’t called that yet, but it was the music of the country. It was a combination of the Irish; the recently freed slaves, bringing the banjo into the world; the Spanish effects of the vaqueros down in Texas; the Germans bringing over the ‘oom-pah’ of polka music, all converging.”
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Michael Bordash “Could she understand that much of rock, blues, and jazz music were all derived from classical, especially baroque?”
Tanner Gregory “Blues and country share a common ancestry in European folk music. All contemporary Western music stems from that. African music sounds nothing like it.
The argument CAN be made that blacks are responsible for the synthesis of African rhythms, blues, and traditional marching band arrangements to come up with jazz.”
Tandy “As dumb as this is, let’s just say she’s right. Fine. We’ll give up performing rock & roll and she can give up indoor plumbing, the printed word, cell phones, and wheeled transportation.”
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Carl Lazlo wrote, “Beethoven was really black and his real name was Leroy Jenkins.”
SherOhio added, “Wait, what? White people create music, but they stole it from black people. LOL, you can’t make this shit up!”
Open your eyes added, “More correct to say West Africans that came to America appropriated European music forms to advance their own styles.”
Alberta boy “She’s condescending and racist.”
Darvio Morrow wrote – “Here’s the issue with this. They take something that is an irrefutable fact (the foundations of American popular music comes from Black Americans) and then mix it with some bullsh*t (every form of music in America was “stolen”). I can’t believe I have to say this in 2024 but ITS NOT A BAD THING THAT WHITE PEOPLE CONSUME OUR CONTENT.
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Yes, there have been issues with the music industry robbing Black artists, obscenely so during the Rock and Roll era.
And I’ve already laid out how the INDUSTRY stole rock music from Black folks. But you can’t blame the whole country for the practices of the entertainment industry.
That was the industry, not the people. The audience never stopped loving our music.
I view our immense contributions to American popular music and culture as a point of pride. The number one genre of music in the country TODAY is Black music (Hip-Hop/R&B).
To take something we should celebrate and bash the country with it is so stupid and counterproductive.”
Despite backlash, Beyoncé’s country single topped the Billboard country chart, making her the first black woman to do so.
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