As we wrap up 2021, it’s time for a little cultural talk on the NewsBusters Podcast. NPR music critic Ann Powers recently suggested the Beatles signified how the rock band was a white-male institution. NPR also recently brought on Nikole Hannah-Jones to explain that “yacht rock” like Steely Dan, Toto, and the Doobie Brothers is culturally appropriated black music.
NPR recounted to Hannah-Jones that these bands were “drawing very heavily upon Black musical forms and how this has basically happened for centuries.” They asked her how she feels when the Doobie Brothers comes on her radio. She laughed and said she wouldn’t listen to a station playing the Doobie Brothers. Now who’s channeling musical segregation? But you never accuse a black liberal of racial discrimination on NPR. Only a black conservative.
The taxpayer-funded radio network wants to keep white people in a mode of perennially confessing their “white privilege.” Whites who listen to NPR probably nod along and confess. But many Americans get tired of the idea that somehow you’re contributing to segregation by listening to classic rock.
Enjoy the podcast below or wherever you listen to podcasts.