Rhapsody in Blue and White

George, Paul, John and Ringo. 

Now that's an all-star lineup and the stars lined up and voila Beatlemania began the end of the process of turning rock and roll into white man music.

Decades earlier, white man music took a giant step for white mankind when Paul Whiteman put his orchestra together, an orchestra that included at different times, Bing Crosby, Ferde Grof, Bix Beiderbecke and George Gershwin to name just four of the all stars in the Whiteman, white man constellation. 

In Beatle terms Paul Whiteman was more like a George George Martin/ Brian Epstein conglomerate. Whiteman was the most popular of jazz band leaders in his day. He was looking to expand the horizons of jazz. Whiteman knew that band member Gershwin also desired to move beyond Tin Pan alley so Whiteman announced that his upcoming Aeolian Hall concert would include an as yet to be written "jazz concerto" which he visualized as a synthesis of jazz and legitimate music....thus expaniding the horizons for both classifications simultaneously.

Gershwin had five weeks to come up with Rhapsody in Blue or somethng like it. George pounded out the themes on his piano and Grofe scored the piece not so much according to what was to be played but rather according to which member of the Whiteman band was to play the particular section. This method of collaboration assured a certain degree of spontaneity. 

The resulting Rhapsody in Blue was the Sgt Pepper's of the nineteen twenties. 

I don't remember how people felt when Rhapsody in Blue was first released but I do remember how I felt when Sgt Pepper's came out.

WTF

The members of Sgt Pepper's Band were also members of the Beatles, I had to hold on and trust that even though older folks were starting to appreciate the Livewrpool lads as artists, I knew we kids could still dance and smoke weed in Pepperland even as the surrounding world grew sadder and deadlier.
Gershwin's Rhapsody inspired other Rhapsodies and not just white rhapsodies as Duke Ellington, Fats Waller, Stokes Ward, and James Johnson would write rhapsodies of their own and preserve diversity in rhapsodic composition.

The Stones fashioned Satanic Majesties Request. Please allow me to introduce myself etc.

(Does Eminem, provide diversity in current rap psychotic composition?)

Jazz changed with Rhapsody and rock and roll changed with Pepper. Rock and roll headed into the studios and never really got out again even though the Ramones and Sex Pistols tried to break it out but by then all the black rock and rollers had left the building and rock had become the white guy industry that it remains today if it can be located at all.

Somehow Green Day doesn't remind me of either Chuck Berry or Carl Perkins.

American popular music since the British invasion has become segregated. As white man rock segregated, it stagnated. There hasn't been a break through in decades. Segregation works like that. Even in Congress and the Senate.

Black music on the other hand, not so anchored down by the acclaim and financial prosperity that allowed rock artists to stop worrying about their audience morphed into hip hop and rap and continues to transform popular styles around the world.

Even though only two beatles survive and both are over 64,
the Rhapsody continues as the reds and blues diverge.