Look, I love the fae jokes. Hozier looks like he was pulled from a bog after a 1,500 year nap. His lyrics are poetic and morbid and romantic in a very other worldly way.
BUT
He’s right. Hozier has talked A LOT about how his music could not, would not exist without decades of innovation and creativity by Black artists. His entire style is based on soul and gospel and blues, WHICH ARE GENRES CREATED BY BLACK PEOPLE.
“My first introduction to music [was] Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Howlin’ Wolf, the music that my dad used to play in the house. From there, I just fell in love with the music coming out of black America. A lot of my folk influences would be coming from Ireland. There is absolutely no rock and roll without blues music. There is no blues music without one of the most horrendous atrocities of human trafficking in the last few centuries. It is, of course, a really difficult subject. Everything that’s popular music swings off the work and the achievements and the legacy of black artistry…”
So while I love the fae bog man jokes, we have to acknowledge the tremendous influence of Black artists. There’s no Hozier without Black music.
🗣🗣🗣🗣🗣🗣🗣🗣🗣🗣🗣🗣
If yall couldn’t hear this in Work Song idk what to tell you. I really wish people could see past their imposed aesthetics of him and join the conversation he’s using his privileged to start.
Work Song is literally named after another song notably sang by Nina Simone
In fact, Hozier’s song Nina Cried Power (the title of which mainly refers to her singing “Power!” in the bridge of Sinnerman, I think) straight up lists several of his musical influences in the lyrics [link], and he says so himself [link].
And y’all should really listen to any and all artists Hozier mentions, they are excellent.
