Everybody gets the blues

Two summers ago, I fell head over heels for a 84 year old bachata genius named Puerto Plata. Until I met, heard and witnessed his concert I had written off the culture of my birthplace, the Dominican Republic. But Puerto Plata, born Jose Cobles, played music that resonated with me even more than my beloved American blues, which Ken Burns had convinced me was a purely American art form.
Now 86, Puerto Plata has released a second album, and distracted me again, this time from my sabbatical focus on Ethel Waters. If Waters is the mother of all great female popular singers, I want Puerto Plata to be their father. Like Waters, he started off playing "low life" music, bachata, in the melting pots of the local brothels. He described them to me as "entertainment halls". If I were to talk to him again, I'd know to ask him if he had had to "clean up" his music for the popular audience. I know Ethel Waters did.
Every generation has rules for what is "proper" or "decent". Every generation has musicians breaking those rules. In PP's day he had to play in the whore houses and streets. The streets were a battleground for troubadors carving out their corners and territories. Again this was on the streets of Santiago, not the streets of Chicago or New York.
When music is forbidden, I suspect it takes deeper root in its culture, not shallower. The implications for hip hop are obvious. In a time anything goes musically, there's nothing to rebel against, no one to challenge. I've been interested in the rise of Christian rock and pop music, but I shouldn 't be. How better to challenge the status quo?
The deeper the root, the more enduring the music. Music of the civil rights movement sunk its roots back to the chants, spirituals and gospel songs of African music in the U.S. What we often forget is that African roots are also present in Cuban, Dominican, Haitian, and even South American music.
I also wonder whether the deeper the root, the more endearing the music. The music of the 1920s has deep roots in its cultures, and seems to have found its way into our hearts (and feet to judge by the love of dance in that era). The whole world seemed to be dancing. Shallower roots don't provide the foundation for quantum leaps.

What happens when a music rooted in one culture crosses over into another? Waters left her suggestive double entendres behind; Puerto Plata's Spanish eases his crossover. Let's look at Elvis Presley, then for a clear example of a white artist singing black music.

sources:
http://www.colonialzone-dr.com/music-musica_tipica-bachata.html