From Race Records to R&B: Segregation Still Shapes American Music
By Kianna Amaya
I remember the mix of relief and excitement I felt when Beyoncé won at the Grammys earlier this year. History was made as she became the first Black artist to win Country Album of the Year. However, many white country fans acted as if she was culturally trespassing into a genre not meant for her (or Black people at all). Despite country music’s origins in Black American music, country music is still widely considered a “white genre,” a concept bred from the racial segregation of the music industry.
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Back in the 1920s, Jazz, a Black genre, was on the rise and spreading across the country. Americans wanted to feel free and live again after WWI and the Spanish Flu. As people attended dance halls and drank more, some conservatives believed American morals were in decline. This fear fueled Prohibition and a wave of moral purity and conservatism. Conservatives also saw jazz as out of control, with people dancing and drinking at speakeasies. White conservatives wanted to separate white audiences from it.
Also, in the 20s, “race records” was created as a music category to segregate Black artists from the mainstream. Race records encompassed all styles of Black music like jazz, swing, blues, and even gospel music. Billboard even created a “race records” chart. The race records category limited who could play at certain venues, or be sold in stores, or played on the radio, effectively segregating Black people from white Americans, just like in everyday life.
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Race records were considered for and by Black Americans. Black Americans were excited to buy records and came out in droves to support Mamie Smith, the first person to record a blues single called Crazy Blues. The success of Crazy Blues brought blues into the mainstream, yet Black musicians were still confined to the race records category. All Black musicians were shoved into the same category, ultimately erasing distinctions in sound and style while lumping artists together. Louis Armstrong, Mamie Smith, and Bessie Smith all ended up in the race records category despite making different styles of music.
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America was segregated in many ways, including through the media. For Black people, there was “race media,” meaning white media was the default, the mainstream. This limited what audiences saw in terms of music and films.
Despite music segregation, race records had a profound impact on American music, especially genres later associated with white audiences, like rock and country. White executives found value in producing race records because Black people bought them and were a profitable market, and also because they could exploit Black artists and pay them less than they were owed. Race records were largely produced by white executives.
In 1949, Billboard changed the race records charts to R&B. After the change to R&B, the concept of segregating music became less popular. Yet still American music relies heavily on genre boundaries. When Beyoncé or Lil Nas X releases country music, they’re treated like outsiders intruding into a genre not meant for them.
Even with R&B now, we still see how Black artists are often forced into the category even when their music spans a wide range of styles. Artists like Beyonce, SZA, and Janet Jackson have been pushed in the R&B genre when their music doesn’t always fit there. A song like Yeah! by Usher has more of a pop sound than a traditional R&B song like Be Without You by Mary J. Blige, yet they are both in the R&B category.
While the “race records” category is no longer explicitly written in the charts, it permeated the way we talk about music and the ways the music industry tried to separate Black artists outside of the mainstream. The industry still uses genre to decide who belongs where.
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