Conclusion: Racism in the U.S. Music Industry during Cold War and Civil Rights Eras (Part 8/8)

We made it! Part eight of this eight part blog post series. Here we will wrap it all up!

Image: Observer

The roots of America and all of its industries, including the music industry, are built upon a foundation of systemic racism. Each era of American history–such as the Cold War and Civil Rights movement– brought about unique contexts in which racism prevailed in the country (like the IWW and KKK’s political music), but there are three common themes that all contributed to segregation in the United States at any given moment: economic, political, and technological advances. The music industry made no effort to counteract racist conventions within its industry, but rather followed political instructions of the American government; hence, it became a reflection and exacerbation of racism in the United States (Dunaway, 287). Artists and activists like Sam Cooke, Nina Simone, and Josephine Baker demonstrate the everlasting tension between small victories and the long battle of inequality in the music industry and beyond. The fundamental economic-driven values of the business, Anti-communist agendas of the United States government, and the production of new radio technologies all contributed towards racial division within the music industry during the Cold War and Civil Rights movements. As the times change and America fights new economic, political and technological battles, racism in the music industry will most likely still prevail as it does today. It is quite ironic that music, of all things– a product meant to bring people together– is actually more about exclusion than anything else.

Bibliography

Dunaway, David King. "Music and Politics in the United States." Folk Music Journal 5, no. 3 (1987): 268-94. Accessed May 19, 2021. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4522239.

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