Back Review

Les Back credits the success of the White Power music scene to the internet and the information age. He provides a background of the skinhead movement in Britain, that of a society promoting the white proletariat working class as a backlash to the cultural upheaval. He brings up an interesting point that skinheads often danced to the music of black reggae artists. When he tells a skinhead that his music will go with the black people if they are thrown out of the country, the skinhead replies that he’ll still have the tapes. In continuing with present music, Back addresses the influences of modern white supremacist music, noting that it is dominated by rock and metal. In quoting Burdi, a founder of a white power record company, Burdi says, “You can go into dance clubs and you can hear these bastardised versions of these beautiful compositions which have been ruined by including rap lyrics.” Then Burdi goes on to say that a white power band is heavily influenced by Wagner, and often lifts chord progession straight out of Wagner’s compositions. How is this different then rapping over classical music? Is it because they trace their lineage back to these artists, and that blacks have no right to exploit their ancestors music?