Ghetto Voyeurism?

This article argues that the racial politics of music could reconsidered by focusing on social relations rather than musical objects. In that context it explores the situated politics of reported listening. What can an analysis of classic accounts of listening at the birth of music genres tell us about the changing shape of US race relations? By considering Steve Reich’s composition ‘Come Out,’ the piece exposes the limits of existing arguments about music and race. It then argues that abstract, ‘innocent’ listening is an ontological fiction that has facilitated the perpetuation of assumptions about racial difference. Abstracted descriptions of listening function to naturalize social differences between subjects of different races. The idea that popular music begins with discovery of found sounds also acts as an alibi to transmit these assumptions. To begin placing this in a historical context the article examines instances of listening described by WC Handy, Sam Phillips, Malcolm McLaren and Michael Gregory. While each of their respective historical moments is very different, their accounts of listening reflect a common set of themes. They indicate that racial difference is musically only interesting when it is connected to class distinction. I tentatively label this a “ghetto voyeurist” assumption and suggest that it has tacitly helped to reproduce social hierarchies.