Tuesday, May 25, 2010

#321. Journey


It is telling that in the final episode of the HBO show The Sopranos, the song Don’t Stop Believing played at the series denouement. The Sopranos was a show that Black people viewed with apprehension since the first episode and that discord grew with each passing installment:

No television show is as provocative in dealing with race as "The Sopranos."

That's saying a lot, especially since the acclaimed HBO drama has never had any actors of color among its regular cast members. Yet throughout its five-season run, the disconnects, misunderstandings, and suspicions underlying this nation's tinderbox racial dynamics have been as much a part of the series as mob violence and family acrimony.

In this week's episode, Janice (Aida Turturro) was forced by her husband Bobby (Steven R. Schirripa) to attend anger management classes after she was arrested for assaulting a snippy parent at her stepdaughter's soccer game. During her session, Janice at first presented herself as racially enlightened -- she claims to have participated in the civil rights movement -- then says the bitter result of her noble activism is the sight of black folks

riding around in SUVs and blasting rap music. It was almost a throwaway line, delivered as still more proof of Janice's temper. And the black woman to whom the comment was directed confronted Janice, not about her casual prejudice, but her inability to control her anger and address its real source. Yet amid the evening's beatings, excavation of several long-dead adversaries, and jokes about Tony's ever-expanding midsection (this show's subtitle could be "Fat Guys in Track Suits") it was another one of those little "Sopranos" moments revealing how bigoted thoughts or opinions are never far from the surface.

An even better example came in last week's show, one of the best of the season. Among the various storylines -- from Carmela's futile attempts to find a divorce attorney to Vito's apparent, and shockingly revealed, homosexuality -- was a single thread running through the episode. Four characters -- Tony (James Gandolfini), his cousin, Tony B. (Steve Buscemi), Meadow (Jaime-Lynn Discala), and Vito (Joseph Gannascoli) -- blame various crimes on black men.

In each instance, a different term is used:

Tony B claims his limp was the result of a mugging by "black guys." Vito drops an N-bomb to describe the phony assailants in a concocted story about another mobster's vicious beating at a construction site. Meadow tells her boyfriend that her former paramour, Jackie Jr., was murdered by "African-American" drug dealers. And Tony continues to tell everyone that he missed a big heist -- the one that sent his cousin Tony B. to prison for more than a decade -- because he was jumped and beaten by "jigaboos," who stole his shoes and split his head open. (The episode's title was "Unidentified Black Males.")

Fitting that Tony Soprano would select the song Don’t Stop Believing out of the hundred at his disposal for the climactic scene of the show, as Journey is a band that Black people find infuriating also.

If you want to see a room full of white people clamor to their feet and arise with righteous cause, put on a Journey song. If you want to see a room full of Black people descend into the doldrums of music induced sadness, play Journey.

Looks of “What the f is this?” from the latter and looks filled with pure joy from the former will be seen as Journey is the one band that acts as the panacea for white people’s melancholy and yet has the auditory power to unnerve all Black people.

Power ballads are strictly the forte of white, big hair 80s bands and Journey has the market cornered in singing tear-jerking numbers that have accompanied more nights of copulation and – axiomatically - procreation than any other band on record.

Black people are long thought to be the standard when it comes to composing and singing hits in music that have the ability to create hysteria and adulation in crowds, yet Journey is a band with fan base that is almost entirely white and though they continuously reinvent themselves, are a group most known for their run with Steve Perry at the helm with lead vocals.

Many people believe that no music is greater to attract the most desirable group of people – twenty-something white females – to frequent a nightclub in any major city across America than rap music. The fusion of rap music with pop and R&B has resulted in a musical world where new hits are produced daily that seem largely indistinguishable from one another.

The inchoate sounds that Top 40 artists of today employ have the unfortunate result of appearing contrived, bland and unemotional not to mention rootless.

However, it is bars and nightclubs throughout America that have bands like Journey blasting from their loudspeakers that attract the most desired crowds and constantly bring in the biggest profit margins.

Throughout the south, fraternities and sororities utilize bands to play at their formals and important events and for the past decade, the most popular have been 80s cover bands. It is understood that 80s cover bands have one song in their arsenal to unleash on the crowd that is guaranteed to cause group singing and an emotional response of unparalleled quality – Don’t Stop Believing.

Black people have long wondered what the appeal of Journey is to white people and why this one band has so many popular songs that few Black people have ever heard. The reason is simple: the songs Journey performs are quintessentially Pre-Obama America, conforming to ideals that once thrived among that boring, white bread world.

Songs like Faithfully and Open Arms that bespeak a time of intense devotion to a significant other run counter to the prevailing trends of unholy matrimony that plague the Black community.

Don’t Stop Believing, the song Journey is most known by, is a song that has an ethos completely antithetical to popular Black songs like Jagged Edge’s Let’s Get Married:

Meet me at the altar in your white dress
We ain't gettin no younger we might as well do it
Been feelin' you all the while girl I must confess
Girl let's just get married I just want to get married

Journey sings songs about never giving up and never settling for anything that you don’t deserve, especially in the glorious game of finding true love. Monogamy and the nuclear family seem to be hallmarks of white society and deep down, white people embrace the lyrics of songs performed by Journey that celebrate the search for love and the resulting joy it brings:

Just a small town girl
Livin' in a lonely world
She took the midnight train goin' anywhere

Just a city boy
Born and raised in south Detroit
He took the midnight train goin' anywhere

A singer in a smoky room
A smell of wine and cheap perfume
For a smile they can share the night
It goes on and on and on and on

Strangers waiting
Up and down the boulevard
Their shadows searching in the night
Streetlight people
Living just to find emotion
Hiding somewhere in the night

Working hard to get my fill
Everybody wants a thrill
Payin' anything to roll the dice just one more time

Music has the frightening ability to remind people of past experiences; some that are profoundly great and elicit joy while other memories that many wish were only fiction. The mere chords of a familiar, but long forgotten song can take you back to moments of sheer ecstasy, or to that one moment when the choice you made forever altered your future.

With Journey, white people have a band that emits timeless songs that few, if any, Black people can identify. Looking at videos of Journey live shows from the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, a sea of white faces greets the band in every city.

In fact, when Journey brought in a Steve Perry sound-a-like to front the group many worried about racism on the parts of white people who wouldn’t embrace the singer:

Then, in early December, a short time after I'd heard that Journey was holed up in the recording studio, the band announced on its official Web site, journeyband.com, that it had hired Arnel Pineda, "the Steve Perry of the Philippines," as its new lead singer…

Since English is Pineda's second language - his first is Tagalog - he worked on phrasing and diction with an accent reduction coach.

When he was hired over a singer from a Journey cover band, he also had to learn to deal with an undercurrent of racism among some Journey fans.

"When there were rumors about me joining Journey, there was a lot of that," Pineda told me. "One of the worst things I read on a fan messageboard said that Journey is an all-American band and it should stay like that. But I don't care. I just say, 'Hey, grow up.'"

In this era of globalization, having a nonAmerican fronting a classic American band like Journey is an invigorating development that gives the band a new look and the possibility of expanding its fan base among Filipinos and Asians.

"We've become a world band," Cain said. "We're international now. We're not about one color. I kind of like the whole idea of having a singer like him. It's exotic."

White people won’t admit, but they love Journey precisely for the reasons the article quoted above intimates: the band is authentically Pre-Obama America. Black people know this and despite the recent addition of a third-world replacement singer (who sounds remarkably like Steve Perry), steer clear of Journey.

Worse, Steve Perry who supplied the emotional voice during Journey’s glory years is accused of using racial slurs.

Stuff Black People Don’t Like includes Journey, a band that white people of all ages adore. Black people have no idea what appeal this band has to white people, but know to seek shelter whenever Journey is coming to town or is being played in a public setting, because Journey is seen as one of the ultimate "All-American" bands and of course that terms doesn't include non-whites:

But not all of Journey's die-hard fans — and there are plenty — have embraced Pineda with open arms. When Nell, who did not want to reveal her real name, started an Arnel Pineda fan site in December, the Florida-based web developer says angry Journey fans left death threats on her answering machine. The band's traditional fanbase is mostly white and American, and some are upset that Pineda is neither. "Journey is supposed to be an all-American band," one fan wrote in an online forum









39 comments:

Anonymous said...

hahahaha.........pure gold man, just GOLD.

You know white people better than we know ourselves!

Anonymous said...

SBPDL,

"It is telling that in the final episode of the HBO show The Sopranos, the song Don’t Stop Believing played at the series denouement. The Sopranos was a show that Black people viewed with apprehension since the first episode and that discord grew with each passing installment:"

What?! You have to be kidding me with this one. Most black people are quite aware of the thoughts and feeling of the "typical" white person. So the actual or perceived racism of the characters of a hit HBO show matters not.

The Sopranos was great and I own the entire series on DVD. I liked how they honestly portrayed the true racial attitudes of Most Italian Americans of that social and economic background. I absolutely hate shows and movies that feel it necessary to display unrealistic black/white interactions . Italian gangsters and mob wives don't have black friends.

Music is something you feel. It is something that is universal. There are a lot of polarizing songs and groups out there that speak solely to a niche crowd. I'm sorry to say Journey isn't one of them. I wouldn't be caught dead at a Journey concert, but they have more than a few great songs.

I'm sorry I just don't see the racial connection with music. I 'm listening to the Bee Gees "How deep is your love " right now.

-Black guy

Anonymous said...

"Most black people are quite aware of the thoughts and feeling of the "typical" white person."

Yeah, sure, if you believe the common black paranoid delusion that whites are constantly thinking of ways to re-institute slavery, sterilize black people, and poison the entire continent of Africa.

Hirsch said...

In many quarters, Italians are not necessarily considered white, so Tony and crew dropping a few slurs has a different ring to it. Also, it's important to make a distinction between pure hate (as practiced by the KKK) and violence as a means to an end (as practiced by the mafia). There is a difference between lynching an innocent black man and saying the "N" word, and saying "F you n-----" to a black male who is attempting to intimidate or harm you.

Regarding Journey, if SBPDL wants to enumerate the bands that black people don't like, it could stretch into the thousands. Aside from stealing (yes, stealing) sample material from sources, I imagine the sonic soundscapes of Pink Floyd would wreak havoc upon the bongo and tom-tom two and fours to which blacks are trained, like Pavlovian dogs, to respond.

Anonymous said...

Then again Black Guy,

most Blacks don't think as realistic as you.Many still believe that the world is one and that Whites should love them.

Stuff Black People Don't Like said...

The entire point of this post was the juxtapose the song by Journey to Jagged Edge. I think each song highlighted is representative of the mindsets of each prospective racial group.

Stuff Black People Don't Like said...

Hirsch,

An entry I have been researching for quite sometime is "Original Beats"...

CWN said...

See, black guy (Don Cheadle) likes the bee gee's, the white man's music. But he doesn't want to come off as a complete uncle Tom so he has to kinda move things around. Claiming he doesn't see it, or act like all blacks do it. He just cannot come to term with his whiteness. I mean that as figurative, as behavioral. Not as a skin color. This would be an interesting case study. "White black guy, fights his inner whiteness, but not completely"


As far as music, usually blacks need a song that they can bump their dicks to. Or a song that covers onstage theatrical rape. More mellow songs that you can actually understand confuse the black mind a bit.

Now "original beats" would be good. Because what people don't understand, is that all music flows from white people and europe. Whites stealing music from blacks, that is pure b.s. Rock n roll, R and B, even rap comes from white people. Not from africa and their jungle thumping ways. Real music comes from the beauty of whiteness, the essence of pink vaginal skin?

what? crazy white boy.

Anonymous said...

Since I'm so technologically illiterate I can't figure out how to establish a Google account with a pseudonym, I'll comment anonymously for now. Found your site the other day via a comment thread at either Mangan's or Alt Right (can't remember; was surfing the web a bit). You have some interesting and funny entries; however, your comment threads are rather tedious. You have the same old, same old from Desiree at almost every post, and the same old same old responses. I look to alternative conservative sites to avoid the everyday PC game - whether the info is academically or scientifically or wittily based matters not. If it's always just more of the "typical whitey" comments from blacks opposed to freedom of association and private property rights, I'll pass.

Steve said...

"...well the world needs ditch diggers too" LMAO Not sure I fully understand this post but anything with a Caddy Shack clip is instant win.

Steve said...

To the Anonymous poster at 11:46. Stick it out. I think you will find some of the comments are just what your looking for. I dont always agree with SBPDL especially on matters such as the Tea Party Movement and the future of America, guess I still have a few threads of optimism in me or I just refuse to give up.
I think some of the past posts SBPDL mention freedom of association and Im sure he will touch on private property.

Steve said...

ohhh I look forward to the World Cup entries! Hope those links I sent you help out.

Anonymous said...

Good post. Journey is such a white people band.

SBPDL, have you ever watched "This is Spinal Tap"? It is one of the funniest movies ever made and I'm pretty sure that no black person in history has ever watched it

Anonymous said...

for south africa
http://monkeytricksinsa.blogspot.com

Winston Jack said...

WWWHHHHOOOAAAAAAAA!!!!!!

This post has sure struck one HELL-U-VA power chord!

"Black people have no idea what appeal this band has to white people, but know to seek shelter whenever Journey is coming to town..."

I would hate to see what effect Boston or even Rush would have on em'!!!!

Anonymous said...

"I would hate to see what effect Boston or even Rush would have on em'!!!!"

Boston was nowhere near as prolific as Journey, and Rush never really crossed over into the mainstream. All great bands...but Journey gets the biggest white response.

BTW, if you've ever attended a company Christmas party, nothing is more inexplicable to black people than watching white people go nuts over "Mony Mony".

Stuff Black People Don't Like said...

Journey is the ultimate white band. The fact fans of the band voiced concern over a non-white fronting the group as lead singer says it all.

Watch any live concert with Journey on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WEbHzVi1Ak

Here is a good one from 2009. Believe me, if Steve Perry rejoined Journey as the lead singer, it would be virtually impossible to buy a ticket to that reunion tour.

White people aren't allowed to have music anymore... for some reason, Journey has become one of the unofficial bands for the idea of what it means to be "All-American"...

Anonymous said...

"Journey is the ultimate white band. The fact fans of the band voiced concern over a non-white fronting the group as lead singer says it all."

I would understand this if the kid sucked, but he's F'ing amazing.

Anonymous said...

"Many people believe that no music is greater to attract the most desirable group of people – twenty-something white females"

Lol, on our way to a baseball game I was with a couple of 20-something white females friends, and my friend Caroline put in a mixed Cd, some country, some rap, and then wouldn't you know it: Don't Stop Believin'. How quickly the air mics came out lol

Steve said...

Boston and Rush wow two of my favorites. Rush puts out some amazing work for a three man band. One of the best concerts Ive been to was the Big Money Tour. lol yep Im old too. Geddy Lee's voice is sure enough to send BRA fleeing.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
... You have some interesting and funny entries; however, your comment threads are rather tedious ... the same old, same old from Desiree ... and the same old same old responses. I look to alternative conservative sites to avoid the everyday PC game..."

This is my first post. I don't know what I think of this site. Some of it horrifies me, because it seems very mean-spirited, and some of it is a huge relief because FINALLY we are talking about race openly. I have been looking and looking for some internet space to discuss race, but I don't want to be, for lack of a better word, cruel.

I am white, female, live in teh United States in a medium-sized city (13% black), and I sometimes work with people of color in my consulting job. I started reading "black" or anti-race blogs to better understand their perspective.

Every time I try to post a comment I end up offending someone. Especially on the "Stuff White People Do" blog, where I have truly learned a lot, but find it extremely frustrating to not be able to DISCUSS anything.

So, I hope to find something here and to add something. My goal is to be fair -- and kind -- to all people. The commentors in the "Stuff White People Do" site have made me pretty paranoid that no matter WHAT I say or do, I will be acting "racist," so I'm burning to defend myself or better understand HOW I am being inappropriate.

But SWPD is not the place for that kind of discussion, and that's OK. The blog is clearly serving the purpose of giving people of color a safe place to share experiences. Nothing wrong with that in my opinion. If this blog (SBPDL) is not the best place for me to do the learning and debating I seek, please send me to a better one.

I do not want to be prejudiced. I will fight that urge for the rest of my life, I hope.

By the way, I do not assume that the author of this blog truly thinks that ALL black people do X, Y and Z. Does anyone truly think that narrowly about the blog host or black people?

My neighbors are black and I'm not wary of them at all. But a saggy pants teenaged black male (come to think of it, white male teens are scary too) is a different story.

Thanks.

THINKING WHITE WOMAN

Anonymous said...

One more thing -- I hope that Desiree (spelling) keeps posting here. I find the back and forth insults boring but she had some good counterpoints.

Anonymous said...

"Thinking White Woman" - what a misnomer. I'm also a white woman, and I think you are as naive and self-abnegating as any I've come across. As far as the inference that only a non-thinking individual would be a hateful racist - I don't play that game. I outgrew comparing SAT scores and college degrees and job credentials long ago. I was raised as a knee-jerk liberal Democrat. It took many years and living in many countries, plus two robberies (just my own; many others of friends) for me to shed the liberal brainwashing and realize that no, race is NOT an artificial construct but biological and social reality. I had hoped this site might offer humorous but honest (i.e. race realist) social commentary; as I said, however, the comment threads keep sending me back to Mangan's and VDARE and other straight-forward websites.

Stuff Black People Don't Like said...

"I had hoped this site might offer humorous but honest (i.e. race realist) social commentary; as I said, however, the comment threads keep sending me back to Mangan's and VDARE and other straight-forward websites."

There is a delicate that must be found when doing this website. I can't vouch for the comments - many are worthwhile, however some are trite and lack any relevance to the article - but I think there is some interesting stuff you will find here you won't find at Mangan's and Vdare.

In fact, VDare has stolen a lot of my ideas and used them in articles.

If you read Alternativeright.com, you might notice an article there about Robin Hood, which was a collaboration by that websites venerable editor, Richard Spencer, and yours truly.

http://www.alternativeright.com/main/the-magazine/lions-lambs/

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
"Thinking White Woman" - what a misnomer. I'm also a white woman, and I think you are as naive and self-abnegating as any I've come across. As far as the inference that only a non-thinking individual would be a hateful racist - I don't play that game.

-----

Thank you for pointing out that my name is not a good fit. I never thought it could be taken as a judgement on others.

I just wanted an adjective in front of White Woman. "Thinking" just seemed kind of like "searching" or "trying to study."

Wow -- first post and I've already offended somebody! Maybe I could be Offensive White Woman.

Nah, I'll go with Commenting White Woman. Seems benign enough.

I will check out those sites you mention. Thanks.

I've been a crime victim too, more than once. Black males. I'm not sure what you mean by naive.


COMMENTING WHITE WOMAN

Anonymous said...

"Especially on the "Stuff White People Do" blog, where I have truly learned a lot"

Learned a lot? That site is one big Blame-Whitey Fest, and they don't allow dissenting comments.

Anonymous said...

"Learned a lot? That site is one big Blame-Whitey Fest,"

True. Which is why I said it's a site for people of color, not me.

But some of the anecdotes I've read there made me treat the Blacks I work with differently. I think I treat some of them better than I did a few months ago. But in general I am more afraid to say ANYTHING because the people who post at SWPD seem to read everything Whitey does as condescending or some flagrant show of white privilege.

I thought the goal was to treat adults like adults, not to filter every syllable. Which is why I can never post at SWPD. It's too much work.

Commenting White Woman

Anonymous said...

Welcome CWW. Another site I would look at is Guy White Making Sense on Race. Another is Steve Sailer. The only point people get tired of Diseree is when she goes off point and starts her all black people are not responsible for anything because the white racism. What many here realize and talk about is black on white racism that seems to be getting momentum every year. There must be a point where black people can take responsibilty for the failing of their own people. We are supposed to celebrate how we are enriched by diversity - when the only enrichment we seem to see is unlivable neighborhoods, corrupt black government, murder, crime and rape. I will celebrate diversity once I understand how it has enriched me.

Dark Age Fire said...

Political correctness is the new religion of the modern west, complete with inquisitions, priests (professors) and heretics (race realists).

There is no debate, you must accept the liberal worldview, also known as the 'white devil theory of history", or you are cast out from polite society. Well polite society is crumbling under the weight of its pc lies, the biggest lie being that race is a social construct, when in fact society is a racial construct.

Africa for Africans. Asia for Asians. White countries for everyone. This is genocide.

Anonymous said...

"But some of the anecdotes I've read there made me treat the Blacks I work with differently."

Could you give an example?

Anonymous said...

Yes. An example is I won't touch a Black woman colleague now. I sometimes touch people when talking to them, usually if we are laughing together. I'm talking a light touch on the arm.

Also, I won't compliment a Black female colleague on her clothing or her hair.

People of color on SWPD have found behaviors like this from white to black people to be condescending or somehow pushing assimilation.

Never in my dreams would I interpret it this way, one adult interacting with another.

Commenting White Woman

CWN said...

Here is some fun black music for you. Warms the heart really.

http://www.amren.com/features/rap_lyrics/

Winston Jack said...

“The reason is simple: the songs Journey performs are quintessentially Pre-Obama America, conforming to ideals that once thrived among that boring, white bread world.”

Emotionally evocative indeed! Like the first commentator said ,“ You know white people better than we know ourselves!”

I would also venture to say that for those of us living up here in the (formally) Great White North, Rush captures pretty similar sentiments.

A couple of years back one night, after working the late shift, I had the pleasant surprise commute on a trainload full of enthusiastic fans coming home from the Rush concert. Every single one of them white, and over half of them under 25!

Winston Jack said...

To CWW,

Welcome to SBPDL! The journey (no pun!) from an indoctrinated lib-tard mindset to, say, here, can often be an arduous one. (Been there, done it.) The fact that you ARE here and ARE commenting shows you’ve made something of a leap-of-faith, and are off to a good start. I would encourage you to keep reading this site. In time I think you may very well enjoy these posts as much as I do, as well as grasp the author’s underlying genius behind them. It’s amazing how clear the world around you becomes once the scales start to fall from you eyes!

Also, be sure to check American Renaissance and Occidental Dissent for some more good reading. Both sites allow comments as well.

I recall a comment here some time ago which effectively stated “The only people offended by this site are the ones who deserve to be!” I think that sums it up nicely.

Happy Reading!

Silent Running said...

I do not want to be prejudiced. I will fight that urge for the rest of my life, I hope.

Then you're not long for this world.

I myself work in a field with many blacks and foreigners. We have a cordial working relationship and I don't wish my coworkers any harm, but I do not try to engage them. As well as we get along with each other, they are not my people, and nothing is ever going to change that.

Personally, I view the HBD argument as helpful but incomplete. I tend to find Lawrence Auster's blog View from the Right more illuminating on most issues than Mangan's. Auster's catalog on NAM-on-white violence is a good place to start.

And if I may make a suggestion, drop this "people of color" nonsense. All people possess color, including your own. Welcome to SBPDL.

Anonymous said...

"People of color on SWPD have found behaviors like this from white to black people to be condescending or somehow pushing assimilation.

Never in my dreams would I interpret it this way, one adult interacting with another."

Wow.

Great example of the black victim-mentality, which apparently knows no limits.

Welcome to SBPDL, stay awhile.

Anonymous said...

The term “prejudice” comes from pre-judge, and can refer to any preconceived opinion or feeling, either favourable or unfavourable. This is essentially a natural survival trait ingrained within humans, and passed along genetically through our lineage.

“I do not want to be prejudiced. I will fight that urge for the rest of my life, I hope.”

Like any properly indoctrinated liberal, you have been taught that your base survival instincts are “evil” and “racist”.

Ignore them at your peril.

Anonymous said...

There was an early-80s DC-area new wave band called "The Young Caucasians" that most black people would not appreciate either.

I myself never cared for Journey that much, except for When The Lights Go Down In The City.

Anonymous said...

SBPDL, how have you missed Heavy Metal as the ultimate musical "Stuff Black People Don't Like"????

Black people would rather work than listen to Metallica or Motorhead.