Echoes wrote:
Don’t take this the wrong way, you are one of the best posters around here, however, your lists seems to reflect that R&B > Rock.
In my opinion R&B = Rock.
R&B IS ROCK! So therefore why would you be making a distinction that somehow R&B is getting more credit than rock, which is what it is in the first place?
Fact: Rock 'n' roll is a black invention, popularized by black artists. Over the 62 years of rock, under all its terms, more than half of it has been performed by black artists, yet on every rock list on this site, except mine, white styles of rock dominate in everyway. They dominate in overall numbers. They dominate in terms of higher rankings on those lists. AND judging by the comments, complaints and suggestions made by posters the overwhelming majority, and by that I mean at LEAST 95% of all posts on rock lists, want more white artists added or moved up. In fact, there's probably a 50-1 ratio in terms of just discussion on white artists compared to black and that might even be under selling it.
So when people see Otis Redding high on a list that I make they suddenly think that position is unjustified because it doesn't fall in line with that overwhelming bias in the other direction, when in fact, it is simply the criteria doing its job. Statistically speaking it stands to reason that in a field as huge as rock that is roughly 50/50 in terms of race that the greatest of all-time would also be roughly 50/50. On this list the top 10 is 60/40 black to white, yet the Top Five is 3-2 white to black. The next ten is similar. Keep going down the list. 25 of the Top 50 are black, and that includes Hendrix, who had a 95% white audience. 47 of the Top 100 are black and I'm including two mixed race groups in that number. That's about as evenhanded as you can possibly get and I didn't TRY and do it, I wasn't even aware of it until I counted right this minute, but that's just an accurate snapshot of an art-form that has been 50/50 racially for decades. All lists should wind up roughly that way because that's what rock is and always has been and anything else that slants it so overwhelmingly in another direction is the list with credibility issues.
What you really should be doing is going to the other rock lists and using their numbers against them, like asking how on the Most Technically Skilled Rock Vocalists there are only 5 or 6 singers who are black. They won't be able to defend it in any way, shape or form. As for this list, you may not agree with it, but there's no bias to be found and the numbers back it up.
But on the whole, I'd much rather be talking music than numbers.
I don´t give a fuck about race.
I didn´t say that Redding was too high. I say that Hendrix and Redding are at the same level and they should be in the top 5. Maybe Redding at #5 and Hendrix at #6 or something like that.
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