Musical Stereotypes Quotes

Although the civil-rights movement did a lot to change how black life was dramatized on the American stage in the fifties and sixties, white composers and lyricists often still rely on familiar tropes when it comes to representing black women in musicals.

Is it racist to prefer country music over the blues? Or is it simply a classic case of tribal antipathy toward the unfamiliar, in favor of gravitating to what you know?

To women, drummers seem like these adorable, sexy Neanderthals, and lead singers seem mysterious and dangerous. So while the lead singers all want to be David Bowie, floating into parties and being the center of attention, it's the drummers who are in the corner doing keg stands and breaking tables. Usually it's the drummers who get the fun-loving ladies and the singers who get the nutcases.

[W]e have always resented the natural inclination of most white people to demand spirituals the moment it is known that a Negro is about to sing. So often the request has seemed to savor of the feeling that we could do this and this alone.

When I was growing up, the people who liked the Beatles, I didn't like, so I didn't pay attention to them.

Growing up with my dad being a musician, it seemed like a male centric world to me. I just didn't know many girls playing guitar.

I think when people think of music from coming from Oklahoma, they think of Toby Keith or even Garth Brooks or even Woody Guthrie. People think, "Why do we have to just be about the Bible and about football? Why can't we be about something like the Flaming Lips?" And I salute them! I say, "Well, that's great if you want that."

There are three kinds of pianists: Jewish pianists, homosexual pianists, and bad pianists.

It's bad to be labeled just another singer-songwriter.

I came to town thinking that everybody had the same idea of what country music was that I did.

Why am I a closet country music fan? Because I grew up being into rock, and I always thought that country music was, like, something my mom was into. Like, it wasn't cool. It wasn't happening. They were all singing about driving around in their trucks looking for Lulu.

I don't want to be seen as this math-rock geek.

So much good music has been looked over because of preconceived notions of genre.

It can be a bit frustrating to always get the soft-rock stamp.

Folk music has been our popular music... There is a myth that youngsters only like heavy metal or rock music, but that's not true.

When I first came out, country wouldn't touch me because I was way too rock, and rock wouldn't touch me because I was definitely country.

We were derided as a boy band, with pop music and not really country.

You have Extreme and Van Halen and the history that I have with other people I played with. There are some effects that will hopefully break that stereotype.

I tend to not want to put labels or categories on the music, only because people come with preconceived ideas about what they're going to hear, or won't come for this reason.