NPR: Why Don Cornelius Matters

[OmahaBlueDog]

"Why Don Cornelius Matters" by Dan Charnas

Excerpt:

Cornelius' cultural impact, however, went beyond the confines of black business achievement. Soul Train became a Saturday morning staple for Americans of all colors and creeds (after Cornelius stared down a ham-handed copycat attempt by American Bandstand's Dick Clark called Soul Unlimited). The "Soul Train line," a regular feature of the show, popularized new dances and grew to become a real-life American tradition at weddings, celebrations and, yes, bar mitzvahs.

Don Cornelius proved a truism about America and race that so few people, even today, understand: Black culture, expressed in undiluted form and unapologetically, will by virtue become accepted by the American mainstream. It's something that future rap moguls like Russell Simmons and Jay-Z understood instinctively. So it's a tragic irony that Soul Train's decline came with the dawn of the hip-hop era. Even though Cornelius shared so much spiritually with hip-hop's entrepreneurs, he was not personally able to appreciate the new genre and make his franchise relevant to the hip-hop generation.

Read more at: http://www.npr.org/blogs/therecord/2012/02/01/146225653/why-don-cornelius-matters

[southernyankeebelle]

1. What a sad situation. I use to watch his show to see what was up in music. I use to love

watching the kids dance. They were having so much fun.