Don’t Stop Believin’: Journey, Race, and the Making of a Rock Legend

Abstract

ABSTRACT The success of America’s one-time most-popular band had everything to do with race. While rock and roll briefly integrated popular music at mid century, after Woodstock the form resegregated into rock, performed almost exclusively by and for white audiences, and soul, performed almost exclusively by and for Black listeners. Capitalizing on a racial backlash to the achievements of the civil rights movement, by the mid 1970s country-inflected rock reached the height of popularity among white audiences. But white American audiences have always hungered for Black music. When Journey added a Motown-influenced lead singer, they turned in the opposite direction: cultural appropriation. In a modern twist on minstrelsy without blackface, Journey delivered a “safe” form of Black music to the white audiences who still craved it. This is not immediately evident listening to Journey’s hits. It is only through a look at the origins of their most important composers, a careful analysis of their “deep cuts,” and discussion of exceptions that proved the rule, that the importance of race in the development of Journey’s popularity—and its culmination with their megahit “Don’t Stop Believin’”—becomes clear.