The "perfect" Musical Image

The "Perfect" Musical Image

What is the "perfect" image? Is there a specific category a good musician should fall under? In this research project I want to find the way musicians are perceived, opposed to being blind to the color of the musician's skin and only listening to the talent of that musician. My goal is to uncover the under laying stereotype people create for the ideal musician, does a musician have to fit a certain mold in order to be a "good" musician? Does the skin of the person have to be a certain color for it to be acceptable in the musical world? A professor here at the University of Texas at El Paso made a comment about discrimination, he did not understand how come many people could not live with the fact that a black person was very good at their instrument, he said "this man wasn't an acceptable musician, not because he didn't play well, but because he was black and many people find a problem with that." This is the truth for many people around the world, not just musicians. If a minority is successful what they pursue it may be unacceptable to some people in society, the dominant race is the only one who is supposed to be successful. A musician should be successful by their talent no matter the color of their skin or their ethnic background. I choose this topic because of its relevance to me, for years the west Texas region of bands had to follow the UIL rule in Texas known as the "eight hour rule" meaning the students of an organization must not practice for more than eight hours a week. It has been brought to my attention that those in east Texas do not necessarily follow this rule, my theory about this is somewhere along the lines of discrimination, that those who live in east Texas can easily disregard the rule in its entirety, not giving west Texas a chance to fairly compete with those who practice much more. Seeing some discrimination and some common misconception that those that aren't of the dominant race aren't nearly as talented has corrupt the image of a musicians and I want to find evidence that supports this very false perception of musicians that are of minority.