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The story of the white boy who stole the blues is one of the central recurring folktales within hip’s history. It has featured many lead characters, going back to Twain, Dan Emmett, Irving Berlin, Elvis, and on up throug Keith Haring, Tom Waits and Eminem, to name just a few. The story -really a body of stories, some felicious, some shameful- bears ugly testimony to the discrimination faced by black artists, even from a white public with a jones for their art. As it is generally told, involves simply thievery, hapless imitation and a public too corrupt or ignorant to know the difference. The story assumes that popular culture begins with Platonic ideal forms, from which descend lesser knockoffs, the least of these being the white rip-off.
John Leland: Hip, the History.
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