I found it very eyeopening realizing that the illiterate could have such a wide musical literacy. In realizing this, it made me think of how you could have written 100 books in your lifetime, yet have no knowledge about musical processes, instruments, or sound. Music spans through racial  categories, which is why we discussed how hard it is to realize authenticity. While authenticity is hard to understand and grasp, we are still able to see that music has the ability to cross racial boundaries. My question is,  does music also establish and force racial boundaries? There are certainly music types and genres that are attributed to ethnicities and races, and in the more extreme cases, the crossing of these boundaries can cause others to question your belongingness to their group.  For example, I remember an African American girl in middle school who enjoyed alternative and screamo music. All of the black kids called her white, therefore her own race went into question for the mere boundary crossing of musical taste.

I also found it interesting hearing that the practice of music is integrated, but the selling of music is segregated. For example selling African American styles and concepts about the south to white Americans; further representing displacement. This concept is applicable to more than the early years of musical rebranding. For example, rappers rapping about gangs, hoods, and slums; rebranding their “old lives,” as they live in the hills somewhere reaping the benefits from their album sales. They have rebranded and sold a life they no longer live (or maybe never lived) to mostly white producers, who then sell it back to African Americans who buy the albums.