Talking about “sounding white” reminded me of how my friend and I were listening to Jesse McCartney‘s new album and we decided he sounded “really black.” My friend told me the first time she heard the song she thought it was Chris Brown singing and was shocked to find out it was a little white boy that use to sing pop. Talking about sounding “white” or sounding “black” made me wonder what was it that made Jesse McCartney sound black. His voice was still the same and when I first heard his song “Leavin,” I recognized it as Jesse McCartney. But I agree with my friend, there was something “black” about him. Listening closely to the song made me realize it was the lyrics.
I listened closely to the song and took a look at the lyrics. It made me realize that it was what he was saying and how he was saying it that made him sound “black.” First there is the title, “Leavin.” The fact that it does not have a -g in the end makes it slang, which is associated with the urban world, and thus “black.” He does not have perfect pronunciation, which people also consider “black.” He does this throughout the song. Another reason the song sounds very urban are the words he is using, which might also be considered slang/urban. He uses words such as “shawty” (that is how it is actually written in the lyrics) and “fly.” These words are not usually associated with “white” people. My friend and I then went on to compare Jesse McCartney’s “Leavin” to Chris Brown’s “Forever.” We felt like they switched places and that they should be singing each other’s song instead. By looking at the lyrics of the song, anyone would agree. Unlike Jesse McCartney, Chris Brown has perfect pronunciation (he says “forever” not “foreva”) or any urban vocabulary. Some might say he sounds black becuase of the genre of the music. Jesse McCartney went from singing straight up pop to R&B and more soulful songs. These genre of music are usually song by black people. However, there are some white people that sing R&B that do not sound black. An examply would be Mariah Carey. It is most likely becuase in her lyrics, everything is pronounced correctly and she is not using slang.
Sounding “black” usually has a bad connotation. I wonder if that applies for this case. Does Jesse McCartney mind that he sounds black?
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Even though I disagree and don’t think Jesse McCartney sounds black at all really, I do think he is being marketed as that pop/R&B crossover to widen his audience. But I don’t think it is really convincing. He doesn’t have a soulful voice which I think people associate with black musical artists typically. His saying “shawty” doesn’t make him sound black to me personally, it rather makes him sound like a mimic. I think this form of mimicry and imitation really explicit in this song because he’s using all these R&B references (e.g “Dont stress, tell him to the left left left”) but at no point is he actually trying to sound like Beyonce or any R&B artist for that matter.
also, mariah carey is part black
yeah, in the beginning, he said how he always wanted to be a, and i quote (or try to as nearly as possible without having an actual quotation in front of me..) “white boy with soul”. that explains the sudden break to R&B. and i think he does sound a little black, but if it’s intentional, i don’t know. I DO think that he can sing any genre, be it teen-pop, pop, or R&B. Because he rocks.
it might be like timbaland who, before i saw the guy, i thought WAS black. what stays in my mind, however, is that “Apologize” is an awesome song, whether it was sung by a white guy, black guy, gray guy (?) or a purple people eater.
By the way this is tangential but Mariah Carey is biracial I think.
timbaland is black. he produced apologize. the lead singer is white.
I agree with you roxicool that good msic is good music but I would be careful not to trivialize race into just-a-color category (i.e listing black and white next to gray and purple). Race has always been intimately connected with music, who buys what, who plays what, what gets airtime etc. Its important not to take it lightly or blow it off especially given its historical context.
I think a lot of how Jesse McCartney is perceived is due to the fact that he is a child singer desparetly trying to transition into his adulthood. Obviously he’s not how we’d categorize a soul singer, but at the end of the day, it comes down to how he can be package and mass produced. I remember seeing a video of him performing a T-Pain song (I think ‘Buy U a Drank”…?) and it took a really long time for me not to think it was a joke because of how crazy he looked and sounded- he used to be more bubblegum pop, right? Then I came to a conclusion that he’s sort of like a Barbie doll. It doesn’t really matter if she’s a pilot or a doctor, as long as dolls are being purchased and pockets lined with cash.