Fake controversy: Leftists try to tell black artist how she’s allowed to use her music

How’s this for a fake controversy generated by wokester identity-politics fanatics?

A top country music star named Luke Combs pulled in a number-one hit by singing the 1988 song of a black female folk singer named Tracy Chapman, and instead of celebrating that happy revival, the radical left is out complaining,

True to form, the Washington Post has created a fake controversy by quoting a malcontent:

To quite a few people, this is cause for yet another celebration in Combs’s whirlwind journey as the genre’s reigning megastar with 16 consecutive No. 1 hits. But it has also prompted a wave of complicated feelings among some listeners and in the Nashville music community. Although many are thrilled to see “Fast Car” back in the spotlight and a new generation discovering Chapman’s work, it’s clouded by the fact that, as a Black queer woman, Chapman, 59, would have almost zero chance of that achievement herself in country music. 

Really?  The song certainly did pretty well when Chapman sang it in 1988, reaching number 6 on the Billboard charts.

But here’s the important thing: Chapman’s not a country musician.  Combs is, and through his own talents, he brought her song into the country genre.  It didn’t do that on its own.  When Chapman’s song was released in 1988, it was played on new age stations of the era, where it did very well.

So to claim that Chapman was somehow repressed in the country music scene is absurd.  Is symphony music also being repressed on the country music scene?  By these complainers’ logic, it certainly is.

Hear how they complain:

On one hand, Luke Combs is an amazing artist, and it’s great to see that someone in country music is influenced by a Black queer woman — that’s really exciting,” said Holly G, founder of the Black Opry, an organization for Black country music singers and fans. “But at the same time, it’s hard to really lean into that excitement knowing that Tracy Chapman would not be celebrated in the industry without that kind of middleman being a White man.”

Middleman?  White guy.  What a red herring. 

Chapman in fact is best described as sui generis, with music so unique, so personal, so individual that it defies any musical category.  The closest genre is folk, except that her themes are generally urban, so various music critics have described it as folk-soul, which is fine.  But it’s not country.  So claiming that country music somehow racistly repressed her or her song is silly — the top country guy is out promoting it, and in so doing, bringing in many new fans for Chapman and her work, too.

Chapman herself threw ice-cold water on the matter, which should have ended the phony controversy right then and there.  She is very shy and doesn’t like the spotlight, but for all this screeching about it, she came out with a rare email statement.

I never expected to find myself on the country charts, but I’m honored to be there. I’m happy for Luke and his success and grateful that new fans have found and embraced ‘Fast Car.’

I just read the words “honored” and “grateful.”  Is someone out there ignoring Miss Chapman?

Chapman’s song, while not a country song, adapts very well to the personalized style of country music, and Combs, who sang the song in its recent incarnation, sticks very closely to the way Chapman originally sang it.  Even his voice has similarities to hers. 

Here is Combs’s rendition of Chapman’s 1988 song:

Here is Chapman herself in the original:

The latter, in my opinion, is superior.  But there is nothing wrong with what Combs did, and to make it controversial will only make artists such as Combs and others in country music hesitant to venture out to use black artists’ songs because of this kind of nonsense.

There is a process here, after all — Combs got permission from Chapman to use her song, and that included paying royalties to her for the use of it.  When the song took off like a bullet on the country charts, Chapman’s royalty check reportedly soared to about $500,000 as customers downloaded it on Spotify, Billboard reported, which is a nice payday for Chapman and completely right that she got it.

That makes the supposed controversy non-newsworthy, given that the Post’s story is largely built on just one person who claims to know what every other wokester thinks and, in any case, seems to be unhappy that she’s not as successful as Chapman.

What are these people saying?  That Chapman can’t use her music the way she’d like to use it?  That she needs to enter the country genre even though she doesn’t want to?  That she can’t rent her song out for royalties because a white guy might have a hit?  That if a symphony decided to orchestrate her song, it would be discrimination against black artists, too, because there aren’t many black symphony musicians?  You can see how ridiculous this is.

Chapman is the artist here, and what she says about her own work should be the last word.  There’s no controversy here.  She wrote a magnificent song, and it’s no surprise that other artists wanted to sing it, too, and pay her for that privilege.  That happens when white artists write good songs, and it’s certainly happening now with a black artist who wrote a good song.

All this is is a lot of whining from people with no standing here, and the Washington Post is just egging their wokesterly sense of victimhood on.

Image: Screen shot from Cruz07 video via YouTube.