Tracy Chapman: Pasty, White Man

[packbat]

Let's back up a bit.

Okay, set the Way-Bac machine to ... err, yesterday, maybe the day before (C confirms this). My roommate is watching a YouTube music video (hey, where'd you think I got it?) of James Blunt, and I, glancing over his shoulder, comment on how I had no accurate image of what James Blunt looked like before I'd seen him just now. The topic is off and running, now: my roommate (let's call him B, for simplicity) mentions how he was surprised the Righteous Brothers were white, I mention how I was surprised Joan Armatrading was black, and across the hall, one of my other suitemates (the aforementioned C) says he was amazed when he saw Tracy Chapman wasn't a "pasty, white man". (Yes, that's a quote.)

I was shocked at this. But this shock was only exacerbated, and greatly so, when, as I played "Fast Car" for B and C, they maintained, even while listening carefully, that she still sounded like a guy! They even began speculating that maybe she was big, and that's why her voice was so deep – ignoring the obvious fact that my voice is deep, and I'm a five-foot-seven kinda-skinny dude compared to their five-ten, plus. (And she's five foot four and a half, according to IMDB.)

Now, I imagine many of you know who Tracy Chapman is, and why, given the political/sociological nature of her lyrics, I might be surprised at the "white" part. (Yes, I know black people don't write all of these songs – to make a positive assumption of whiteness, however....) What is almost more interesting is something which I reminded myself of, when I said to C, "You're one of those people who thinks Smokey Robinson is female, aren't you?"

See, I used to be one of those people. When I found out Smokey Robinson was a male countertenor, I was dumbfounded. I really shouldn't be critical of these guys – I did the same thing, and I know how hard I found it to really analyse how his voice sounds, and how other people's voices sound, that I could begin to tell the difference. And I don't know today what I've twigged to as gender-specific that makes, say, Tracy Chapman sound clearly female, and tracerj on Game Grid sound (and I apologize for this) male.

And really, that brings up a more general point: this is just a signal, not the thing. Sometimes it will be wrong, and wrong in different ways for different people. Signals are just like that. And it's ... well, shallow, to get in a huff over it, because it really isn't that important.

(Man, if I'd known talking to people was such a good source of journalling material, I'd have started sooner!)

(Oh, and B is the second of the two roommates quoted in my DeviantArt blood painting post – the other would be D, if I stuck to my naming convention.)

(It is fortunate for said naming convention that I don't spend too much time chatting with the two people in A. Although they happen to be geeks and fellow members of the local Diplomacy Club, so it's somewhat odd that I don't.)

(One last thing before I forget: might be a little break (yeah, that's new!) as I move out of the dorms, given that my laptop's still dead.)