Black innovations were continually absorbed into what we now know as country music, and continually whitewashed. By the time he began releasing singles, the artificial segregation of popular music along racial lines - initially divided into hillbilly and race records - had already been reinforced for four decades by those with the power and resources to categorize and market music. To sustain a country career beyond one or two hits, as Pride did, usually requires performers to establish credibility with the audience by accentuating their country roots. He left behind a complex legacy and rich body of work that deserves closer listening. He was a monumentally important symbol, ancestor and influence to be sure, but also an individual who made artistic choices, developed and applied profound performing abilities and navigated a genre, falsely presumed to be and too often ruled as the domain of whiteness, with phenomenal shrewdness and care. It could be argued, and has been by country music critic David Cantwell, that the foundational fact that Pride was the first Black country superstar is sometimes the only thing about him that receives attention.
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