If Stevie Wonder was white...?

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Wålshy
I'm not racist, but would stevie wonder have sold more albums, singles etc. if he was white? he was making music in times when black people were not accepted as much

botankus
No, because Ronnie Milsap already had the "white blind guy" base covered.

Tempe Brennan
Hard to say, I have never thought of it. Possibly he would have sold more, but I think he sold enough anyway, so it's not worth thinking about

Victor Von Doom
If so, I'm sure he'd rather those missing consumers didn't buy the album anyway.

StyleTime
If Stevie Wonder was white...

...he wouldn't be black.

tabby999
Careful Welshy, thats a very FOTN question, we don't want the place filled with "would Ray Charles have been more successful if he was white" "would you have liked Beyonce's album if she wasn't black" threads.

papabeard
Weird question but i reckon if Stevie were white, I guarantee you he would/could not have written Superstition stick out tongue

ragesRemorse
i dont think it would matter. Music appeal seems to be blind to race, for the most part.

ElectricBugaloo
He probably would not have sold as much. He would have probably never been a part of Motown Records, which was the only real rival to the Beatles in the 60s and the only real rival to the major labels in the 70s.

Remember, Motown as a whole (and their unrecognized musical backbone the Funk Brothers) had more number ones than The Beatles, Elvis Presley and the Beach Boys combined. Motown was a significant and an almost-wholly white force. Sure, there was the Rare Earth imprint (named for the band Rare Earth, who had several excellent songs), but for the most part, Motown was an all-black endeavor.

And Stevie Wonder benefited from this. Considering his race, his disability and the time when he first became popular... he was lucky to have the success he did. This is not to say he wasn't a brilliant musician. He had perhaps the greatest run of albums in a decade than any artist outside The Beatles.

In the 1970s, he released Music of My Mind (1972), Talking Book (1972), Innervisions (1973), Fulfillingness' First Finale (1974) and Songs in the Key of Life (1976). If he were not on Motown, he probably would not have not released these five albums. If he were not black, he would probably have never been on Motown Records. So, in my opinion, if Stevie Wonder were not black, he would have had less success.

Being blind was only an additional marketing tool for a musician as brilliant as Stevie Wonder.

shiv
if he were white his record label could only have released one or two albums throughout his carreer and he'd have been a popular club/underground musician.

on the other hand if Ronald Isley/Hendrix were white, they'd have been bigger than the Beatles.

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