Are Blackness and Whiteness useful concepts in the study of Popular music?

I feel blackness and whiteness would be beneficial concepts to study considering the fact that usually these terms are only associated with certain genres, with Blackness being allied with genres such as Rap and R&B and Whiteness being with genres as Rock. Though even nowadays you can see that is no the case with artists like Eminem and Jimmy Hendrix blurring the lines. Shank went on to state ‘There should be no argument that the transformation in popular music that we associate with the rise and development of rock were the result of white fascination with black music’ this relates to the fact that Rock n Roll drew inspiration from such music as blues. Overall though it could be stated that each concept has a particular rhythmical make up and vocal sound of its own as Hatch and Milward state ‘pop music has always depended upon the interaction between white and black traditions’ and due to music’s nature of being a universal language, pop music has developed with a range of traditions give rise to new sounds.