Sun Ra pioneered the light-show that white rock groups later monetized

Evidence

Thereafter, according to Jones, Sun Ra was always on the scene, giving regular midweek performances that “introduced the light-show concept that white rock groups later found out about and got rich from.” — J. Hoberman, Everything Is Now, 893

Categorization

• XREF: This is the black-origin/white-monetization pattern that recurs throughout this chapter (Electric Circus, downtown venues) — squarely in the reader’s countercultural-to-market thesis.
• QUESTION: Worth chasing: how directly did psychedelic rock light-shows descend from Sun Ra’s Arkestra performances? Is Jones’s claim hyperbolic or documented?
• SEED: A tangible example of black avant-garde practice being absorbed and monetized by white rock — load-bearing for any essay on cultural appropriation as infrastructure.