Paul Stanley Says He Doesn’t Think Music Has A Color While Sharing Opinions On Soul Music’s Black Roots

KISS frontman Paul Stanley opened up about the fact that roots of soul and rock music were mostly defined by black artists during an interview with the Rolling Stone, and revealed that music doesn’t really have color since there are numerous marvelous white musicians while there are also plenty of black musicians who re-defined the music.

As many of you know, many people consider soul music as a black musical genre since its origins go back to traditional African-American gospel music and rhythm and blues as their hybridization. The musicians whose recordings in the 1950s contributed to the emergence of soul music were also black such as Etta James, Little Richard, and Sam Cooke.

Just like soul, the foundations of rock music were originated in a melding of various black musical genres of the ’50s, including rhythm and blues and gospel music, with country and western. However, rock became a music genre that was spreading faster than anybody could not expect as every ethnicity created their own interpretation with it, having representatives such as Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, Latin rock band Santana.

During a recent interview, Paul Stanley opened up about the origins of rock and roll and the fact that black musicians mostly regarded as the founders of the genre and stated that while the greatest rock guitar player was Jimi Hendrix, according to him, there are still plenty of amazing white guitar players out there.

Furthermore, this type of generalization does not reflect the reality since there is always a musician who may break a stereotype and became one of the bests in that genre of music or instrument regardless of expectations. Therefore, KISS frontman stressed the fact that music has no color since it’s all about the art itself.

Here is what Stanley said:

“Well, I think that it’s narrow, and it’s a generality. Arguably the greatest rock guitar player was Jimi Hendrix. And there are loads of terrific white — for lack of a better word — ‘soul’ singers.

I think it’s a very broad statement. And I think that generalities don’t do justice to the exceptions of the generality. In a different era, Dusty Springfield was an amazing R&B singer and super well regarded by everybody, for example, at Motown. So there’s always going to be people who, I think, pull it off beautifully.

So black, white… I don’t think music has a color. I think it comes down to, do you understand the intent? Do you understand what’s behind it? And if you do, you can do it truthfully.”

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