Are blackness and Whiteness useful in the concepts in the study if popular music?

I believe that they are unimportant for several reasons;

In the 1920’s ‘The crazy’s blues’ sold 1 million copies and it was openly promoted by the fact it was a black artist. This was so unexpected and as a result of its success big record labels started to create subsidiary labels called ‘Race Records’ This shows that music was not considered just black or just white, A.Russel states that “It was undeniable that black musical forms had given birth to the biggest sales boom in the history of commercial recording, ... with images that evoked a world divided by stereotypes.”

Music is an un-pure form, has has inspiration from other types for genres, for example, Rock and Roll, got its inspiration form the Blues. Therefor we cannot class music is simply back or white. “ Pop music has always deepened upon the interaction between white and black tradition” (David Hatch).