The Alternative Black Rock Star is the Main Character of 2021

Image via Baby Storme's video Pom Pom https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnX9DflpsI0

Image via Willow Smith's Transparent Soul https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eG9KzyVO638

  Witnessing a pop punk resurrection in 2021 was an unexpected twist for this year but I am excitedly welcoming it and all the artists to follow. Specifically, music artists like Baby Storme and Willow Smith have been churning out alternative rock and experimental tunes that can easily dominate a playlist or two. Pom Pom by Baby Storme is a hypnotic, rhythmic song that is head bang worthy. Transparent Soul by Willow Smith and Travis Barker is a powerful track worth belting at any occasion.Seeing black women like Baby Storme and Willow Smith enter mainstream media spaces while producing alternative rock hits, speaks to me on several levels. 

  I had my “no mom, it’s not a phase” stage in high school. I would spend hours dedicated to listening to pop rock and downloading countless tracks to my mp3 player (yes, I’m that old). As a young black woman with an interest in alternative rock, I quickly noticed that the artists that looked like me, although just as talented as their counterparts, seemingly never made it to mainstream statuses.Was their lack of mainstream popularity a rebellion against the capitalist and predatory practices in the music industry? I considered that they may have been blacklisted due to an unwillingness to conform, maybe they just didn’t get enough support, was racism the culprit? Pondering these theories, I was left answerless.

   Considering the influence black women have had on rock and roll, why does the marketing of black women into mainstream success appear to be such a mountainous challenge? Black women in rock music have a tight knit relationship and history. I am reminded of Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton, Sister Rosetta Sharpe and many more who shaped what rock music is today.Between now and then where did the disconnect happen, writer, Maureen Mahon shares in book, “Black Diamond Queens: African American Women and Rock and Roll”, that “In the American recording industry, music genres facilitate the marketing and promotion of music, identifying artists and their perceived audiences with particular musical sounds and performance styles. Genre categories and the practices and discourses that maintained them created some of the most significant boundaries that these women confronted”. Industry limitations built around gender and race that leaked into the very practices of today’s music industry has been one of many challenges black women in music as a whole face.Mahon shares further that, “They recognize that a dichotomous view of black and white underpins genre definitions and that this perspective presents challenges for artists whose musical sounds diverge from those associated with their race”. Considering these are the practices much of the music industry are built on, I began to recognize these are some of the challenges my favorite artists are facing.

   Although these limiting music marketing practices have been problematic, the music industry is shifting. New music artists with new genre bending sounds are being born everywhere and marketing themselves using the internet. With social media becoming a staple in our society, utilizing platforms to independently build artists and target demographics outside of preconceived industry limitations is helping level the playing field. Frankly, I discovered Baby Storme’s music through a viral TikTok and became a fan.

  This new element in the music industry may change the way industries view music and the assumed genre demographics. Lil Nas X’s Old Town Road was nominated for several Country Music Awards although there was controversy swirling about how country the song is. Lil Nas X’s song also was shared via social media and went viral. As pop punk and alternative rock revitalizes it may take on many new faces in this era where social media is the catalyst for promotion.

 

Sources: Mahon, Maureen. Black Diamond Queens: African American Women and Rock and Roll (Refiguring American Music). Illustrated, e-book, Duke University Press Books, 2020.