Chuck Berry's hits sound a lot more like Bob Wills than Robert Johnson.

Elvis Presley had as much Dean Martin in him as Big Boy Crudup.

"Rock and roll" -- whatever else it might be -- is an American hybrid: black AND white, country AND rhythm & blues, music AND lyrics, dancing AND listening.

TV On the Radio seems to know this. Why don't you?

You're arguing from false principles, and a music writer should know better.

"Purple Rain" came out in 1984. Might want to let your fact checkers take a look before you post something. Of course, they probably weren't even born then, but still, it's called Google.

I am AWED by Living Colour's second album, Time's Up. That is one incredible (preposterous, really) record.

The songs are all over the map in terms of style, each one loaded with hooks and played in a distinctive manner, many of the songs interspersed with clever or interesting mini songs.

A few of the highlights out of many on the record: New Jack Theme still blows me away every time I hear it, with its anti gravity interplay of bass, drums and guitar, Information Overload speeds through its universe of pseudo electronic bleeps, album ending This Is the Life evokes the best of Zeppelin, down to its mystical elements, sharp, sarcastic humor feeds Elvis is Dead and Love Rears Its Ugly Head, and Solace of You could stand side by side with any of the best feel good songs by Jimmy Cliff or Bob Marley.

I miss them.

You mentioned Jimi Hedrix, but not in your "ruled rock & roll" rant. Jimi hendrix stil rules rock guitar. He doesn't count as Black? Because he had white English guys backing him up?

James Brown? Not "rock" enough for you?

So long since black musicians ruled rock? Easy answer: "Rock" is a limited genre now. American black musicians rule every genre, except classical, opera, and maybe rock. American black musicians are too good. They have transcended the limitations of rock.

Now (was not always true), rock is for people who aren't good enough to play jazz. Black American musicians are too good.

Salon, Joan, please!

In the very first paragraph Mr. Hannaham claims it was EIGHT years after 1981 that Prince achieved crossover success with 1999 and Purple Rain!!!

I complained openly about the uninformed questions Mr. Hannaham posed to Spike Lee last week. They were pathetic. Now this?!?

I have often complained of criticism that seems overly personal, but facts are facts. If one chooses to ignore facts, and if his/her superiors enable this habit--that is bullshit. I call bullshit! Are there no editors at Salon? Are there no fact-checkers? Hire me! I've got time and Wikipedia is free.

By the time Hannaham believes Prince finally gained crossover appeal, Living Colour (one of the greatest bands EVER!) were already on MTV, and not only had Prince released the two albums mentioned, but he had released "Around The World In A Day", "Parade", "Sign O' The Times" "The Black Album" and "Lovesexy".

I've only read the first paragraph, so far. Because I have recently developed a masochistic streak, I shall continue to read, and if pertinent will follow this up with a check-list of any and all evidence of Mr. Hannaham's cultural incompetence.

Jesus Christ, Salon

You guys forgot about Ice-T's heavy metal band BodyCount! Those are the guys Ice-T made the infamous "Cop Killer" song with, but there are other songs they made as well! Check out "Winner Looses" on YouTube, it's one of my favorite rock songs!

Metal wasn't the only genre stuck in the Great White North in the '80s.

I wish you'd elaborated. I had no idea that Canadian music dominated the 80's.

And I am a white American musician musician, but... I gotta say that Living Colour were self-indulgent, boring show-offs. Not so musical, not so artistic.

One Zack de la Rocca lecturing me is enough. One too many, actually. I'm pretty tired of bands with an agenda. Being successful and pissed off is weak.

to give them a listen.

Arthur Lee's Love were my favorite rock band back in 1966. There's a good documentary out about them, "Love Story".

Jazztao and Chillydog,

You are right, the Prince dates got garbled in the editing process. Thanks for noticing -- it has been corrected.

Living Colour was a great, great band.

There is so much wrong with this article (factually, historically, psychologically) that I really wonder why it was published.

TV on the Radio is an interesting band, but there is so much more to this question and the answers that it would never fit here.

By the way, Fishbone aside (they were always overlooked because there was only room for one "black rock" band at a time back then, and Living Color was it I guess), take a listen to the truly eclectic The Roots, a band which is, first and foremost, a band, a group of musicians, one which plays a good deal of hip hop (in ways that often boggle the mind), and also mixes it up with incindiary rock interludes (their cover of Bob Dylan's "Masters of War", live, has left me permanently insatiable where live rock music is concerned).

Someone astutely mentioned Body Count, too.

You've got to actually know what you're writing about before you can get any respect here. Thank god (or Jimi Hendrix) for that.

While I think the central point, that there hasn't been much in the way of African Americans in rock lately, I think Hannaham is playing with the boundaries of genres to make his point.

This may be the only time I have ever heard anyone refer to Living Colour as funk. There was a ton going on there, but they broke onto the scene as a hard rock band, and their second album, while somewhat overlooked, is an amazing mash up of genres. It actually did break quite a bit of new ground for many of us picking up instruments around the time, because it was so genre bending. You could mix up rock, funk, jazz, r&b and even a little bit of afro pop and get a great record.

On the other hand, Sly Stone is really a stretch as rock rather than funk (anything Larry Graham touches is funky), none of Prince's famous stuff is really rock, and Funkadelic defies easily categorization, but isn't straight up rock either.

The point stands, there isn't much black rock going on these days, but it died long before sly stone, but for a few notables.