In the late 40s to early 50s, music was a big part of our lives in BVN. One of the most popular bands in the late 40s was a band called the Treniers. The Treniers was a band made up of Black musicians. This was sort of between the big band era and Rhythm and Blues. Rythym and Blues ran its popularity in the barrios and in the ghettos until Rock and Roll made its debut with a song called Sh-Boom. There were two renditions of this song. One by a white group called the Crew Cuts and one by a black group called The Chords.. The song went over big in the white sector for the Crew Cuts and it went over big for the Chords in the Ghettos and in the barrios. Basically, the difference in appeal was probably cultural. Discriminatory in taste. Discriminatory in a healthy sense. Nothing to do, in general, with racism. Some people like something that other people dont particularly care for. It is the nature of things. As time passed, and as I remember the music mostly heard in the barrios of Los Angeles was Rhythm & Blues. One of the first dances as I recall was a dance called the Bop. It was a simple uncomplicated dance step. Rhythm & Blues music was uniquely Black music. The most popular DJ at that time was a man whos name was Hunter Hancock. He referred to himself as Ol HH. He professed to play the most popular Negro music of the time. He began his show everyday with the same familiar introduction: Be Bop to Ballads, Swing to sweets and Blues to Boogie. His radio station and his music was ubiquitous in the barrios. Walking passed the homes in the neighborhood you could hear his voice coming from inside and the familiar tunes of that era. The cars cruising through the barrios had the volume to their car radio up high on Ol HH. Whether the DJ was speaking or the music playing you knew it was Rytthm & Blues. You also knew it was coming from the Hunter Hancock Show. The singers had names like Little Richard, The Orioles, The Meadowlarks, The Penguines, The Ronettes, The Crystals, Johnny Otis, who was Greek, The Drifters, Jackie Wilson, Esther Phillips, Etta James, The Miracles, The Temptations, Lenny Welch, Junior Walker & The All Stars, Big Jay McNeely, The Pips, The Crows, Johnny Ace, The Platters, The Clovers, TheCoasters, Little Willie John, Muddy Waters, Howlin Wolf, Thurston Harris, The Silhouettes, The Spaniels and so forth. All these entertainers, for the most part were Black entertainers. Some of these groups had one or two white or latin singers in their group. Only a few Black groups had white singers. Chicano music had not hit the airwaves. However, there were some mixed groups that had hits in the fifties. Nevertheless, most of the music that was heard by Chicanos was from Black entertainers. The most popular DJ, as mentioned was Hunter Hancock. Ironically, Hunter Hancock was an Anglo. Yet, he did not play anything but Black music. Hunter Hancock was on during the day. Another well known DJ, Dick Hug, who also stuck to Black music was an Anglo known to his listeners as Huggy Boy. He was on the airwaves at night, late night. He, too, was big in the Barrios of Los Angeles. He would make reference to Chicanos being his biggest listeners. As time passed other DJs came on the radio and played Rhythm & Blues along with pop music. White singers and white groups made headway into the barrio. A few white singers and white groups made it big in the Barrios. Bill Haley & the Comets, Jimmy Clanton, Dion & the Belmonts, Johnny Rivers, Buddy Holly, and the Everly Brothers, to name a few. By and large, however, so-called white music was popular to a limited extent in the barrios. It seemed that even young Anglo kids didnt like so-called white music before Rock & Roll. The older white generations didnt approve of Rhythm & Blues. They referred to Rock & Roll as the Devils music. They wanted to squash it. It seemed that the white kids reached a point where they wanted to listen to what they wanted to listen to and Rock & Roll was it and so it came to past that Rock & Roll made it big in the young Anglo community. The kids who attended high school dances were forced to play music approved by the school staff. Most of the staff were older white teachers and administrators. This went on even after Rock & Roll music came in. Chicanos made fun of their music. However, it seemed the white kids didnt like their own music all that much either. It seemed that the older generation of whites wanted the younger kids to continue to cling to their taste of music. Music from the big band era. While Chicanos, too, rejected their parents taste of music and stuck mostly to Black music, Chicanos in Texas had ventured into their brand of music. Their music was not well known in California but a few did reach the L.A. radio airwaves. One of the first to be heard in L.A. were Sunny and the Sunglows. There sound was Chicano Rhythm & Blues but they called it Tejano music. However, some Chicanos, indigenous to the city of L.A., eventually did manage to have some song hits. They mostly remained big in the barrios. East Los Angeles produced the most popular home grown Chicano band with their unique distinguishable and expressive sound. When you heard their music you knew right away it was the Thee Midniters. A band that continues, to this day, to maintain their level of fame, recognition and popularity in the barrios throughout the state of California. Perhaps the Southwest. Then the Hippie era came in and the 1960s radically changed the music landscape throughout the nation and the world. The barrio was swept up into this new sound as well. The barrios never let go of the old Rhythm & Blues sound, now referred to as the Oldies, but instead augmented their taste with the new white music. White music was not anything like it was in previous decades. Now groups like the Rascals, Chicago, The Turtles, The Beatles, BeeGees, Rolling Stones, and The Animals, had gripped the barrios listening organ like never before and the new sounds of Rock & Roll music came in with a vengeance. Now the barrios had a new sound to add to their own brand of music expression. The eclectic sound of oldies, blues, Country Western, Chicano and Mexican music. A mixture of sounds not heard anywhere else other then in the barrio. Mexican music, in the barrio, had, by by now, reached a certain level of acceptance. Mainstream Latino singers like Linda Ronstadt and Freddie Fender helped to give credence to Mexican music and helped to bring it into the Chicano mainstream. Now-a-days it is much more likely that you will hear latin rock sounds. Sounds brought into the forefront by Tierra, Malo, El Chicano, War, Etc. The progression of music in the barrio has been an interesting one. Mostly, a non-discrimatory progression. The music of the barrio is not a linear adaptation. Rather, you hear all kinds of music. A melting pot of different cultural sounds. All of which has origins in the U.S. and Britain. BVN was a part of all of these changes. Although Black music isnt dominant in BVN anymore, it is historically a big part of our history. As Chicanos early on, we rejected White and Mexican music. Instead, we, in the fifties, chose to adopt music from a culture neither White or Chicano. Even though we have our own sound now, we continue to enjoy the old Rhythm & Blues music played by a very popular DJ known as Art Laboe. In all likelihood, Art Laboes largest audience, in contemporary times, is Chicano. His emblematic theme is the acceptance of dedications from people who call in and dedicate songs to people with whom they intimately relate to in an on-going basis. Many of the dedications go to the forgotten brothers and sisters in the prison system. The songs are now either Oldies But Goodies or Old School. Nevertheless, the music has roots in the barrio. The music of the Barrio continues to keep us in touch with the past and the present. It adds to how richly we relate to each other in the Barrios and it continues to bring us together as one, like glue in the form of pride. Brown pride. A La Brava. (Its a fact).
Posted on: Wed, 19 Nov 2014 00:58:34 +0000
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