Contemporary art and Def jam - Essay Example

Full Contemporary Artist (Smokey Robinson) 13 July Introduction The history of art form is very long, going back to prehistoric time. Man first learned to draw before a formal language was invented; these drawings were used to convey certain important messages to represent various ideas, thoughts, meanings, and the nature of things. It can be in different media using materials such as clay, metal, wood, or other things that helps the artist to convey his art work to a larger audience. Further, art can be shown in its various forms as visual art like drawings, paintings, sculptures, pictures, photographs, films, ensemble or collection of things; all of these are used to highlight creativity and expression by an artist. As civilization progressed, so did art as it branched out into other forms, such as the performance arts of song, dance, and theater. The objective is the same, which is to show an artist's ideas through his or her body of work, to highlight creativity and expression known as aesthetics. As language developed, so did the transmission of ideas through the printed word as in literary art works of short stories, epics, novels, and essays although some kinds of primitive art form still exist in the form of the verbal arts, like poem recitation or the telling of a story by a professional storyteller directly to audiences. There are practically no limits to the form an art can take, constrained perhaps only by the creative imagination of an artist. The two basic art forms are visual and performance art; both possess characteristics of being mimetic, meaning it mimics something found in the real world as its representation. Modern society has witnessed newer art forms due to an advent of advanced technologies like the ability to record sound and images through audio and visual techniques like in video disks. This paper discusses one such new art form, a variant of poetry reading known as def jam. Discussion Def jam is also known as def poetry jam or def poetry slam; it is a variant of poetry readings that were so popular in previous centuries, even as part of religious rites (Wolosky 188) in the form of prayers, hymns, and incantations. Poetry reading is rather sedate in that the audience is expected to stay silent during the entire reading performance, appreciative of the poet's actual physical presence. Like the other art forms of jazz, hip-hop and rap music, it derived primarily from the black American community as a subtle form of political protest. Many blacks still feel that the aims of the Civil Right Movement were not achieved despite an abolition of slavery after the end of Civil War; discrimination still exists in many forms, both overt and subvert in education, politics, housing, employment, health care, society, etc. Def jam is classified as performance art as it is an interactive form of poetry reading; the audience is not expected to stay silent, but rather try to show its appreciation by the intensity of audience reaction. It no longer considers poetry reading as private art (Novak 40) but rather as a public performance. The sing-song tone is similar to that of rap or hip-hop music, with rhyming insults, suggestive comments, and innuendos very common. This is the main attraction of def jam, because although its message is basically the same, that of a silent political protest and making a substantive statement, its continued popularity since its inception two or three decades ago is its unconventional way a message is delivered. Although def jam owes its provenance to the protest movement, the current versions delve on a variety of topics. No topic is sacred or off limits, as the saying, anything goes in it; the more controversial, challenging, or unusual the topic of the poem is, the more an audience shows its appreciation for the sheer talent exhibited by the artist-poet, complete with all props, actions, gestures, appropriate dress, tone of delivery, and volume of voice but the message is a constant attraction. It is the essence of def poetry slam, to relay creative ideas of an artist. Description (biography) - one of the most prominent performers in the def jam circuit is Mr. William “Smokey” Robinson, Jr. He was born in Detroit on February 19, 1940 and is still quite active in the music industry on some rare occasions, whenever warranted. He is a proponent of the R & B (or rhythm and blues) music genre producing a string of hits such as “Cruising,” “A Quite Storm” and “Just to See Her” as a singer-songwriter (Gulla 249). He then co-founded the most famous and iconic soul-music black American label the “Motown Records” together with Mr. Berry Gordy; he later on became a record producer himself, and a music label executive also, by serving as the vice-president of Motown Records until 1990. He once aspired to be an electrical engineer but very soon dropped out of college to focus on his first love, which is singing and songwriting that brought him to unprecedented heights. Smokey Robinson got the moniker “Smokey” because of his dark-brown skin; but in reality, he is actually lighter-skinned compared to other African-Americans of black descent. He got inducted into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame back in 1987, and produced an incredible 26 Top 40 hits during his most productive years in the music industry. He was the vocalist, front act, songwriter, and producer of “The Miracles” which was the first band to be signed by the Motown Label. He is presently primarily preoccupied with his newest show on television called as “Words” which is actually a poetry show and also a def jam show at times. Along this line, this paper discusses and highlights the work of Smokey Robinson as a performance artist in the realm of def poetry slam, not as a singer or songwriter. He is the ultimate contemporary artist whose life and body of works spans two centuries (between the twentieth and twenty-first centuries) and is still remarkably active in his new artistic pursuits. Def jam was once considered part of low-culture, belonging to the same crass pop culture like jazz music before, or the newer hip-hop and rap music but it has slowly gained a measure of social acceptance as a legitimate art form, a performance art very similar to poetry readings. Media – the media used by Smokey Robinson is the poetry reading stage, but instead of reading his poetry, he sort of chants it much like in a hip-hop way to delight his audiences and adds another feature of excitement which is performing and by looking the part of a poet (Aptowicz 213). The usual way of reading poetry is the poet is sitting down in front of a seated audience also, everything is very quiet except for the voice of the poet and an audience is expected to show its appreciation only after the poem reading is finished. Much of modern poetry had lost its allure due to its staid and hushed surroundings, attracting only a few men and women who truly love poetry. But poetry slam has rescued poetry from its very imminent demise because in addition to reading, a poet does much more like lively hand gestures and facial expression, composure, body language, manner of dress, and posture all contribute to giving poetry reading another exciting dimension. In other words, poetry slam includes both a visual and audio component; the audience sees the poet acting out his or her feelings and then the audience also simultaneously hears the beauty of the poetry in the rhyme of its lyrics. Analysis – the visual elements used by Smokey Robinson are his actions while on stage to deliver his poem such as hand gestures, facial expression, lots of walking around, body language, and his manner of dress (Robinson 1) which are all designed to impress an audience and to maximize their impact. This adds a crucial element to poetry slam because the audience is to be encouraged to participate and join the judging as to who is the best poet-orator, because in most instances, a poetry slam is actually a contest between poets as to who brings an audience to its feet with intense clapping, shouting, and heckling. There is an immediate connection between a poet and his audience. With his own musical background and political struggle as a black American leader in the music industry, Robinson has an inherent advantage over other performers because he can deliver his political message in a satire but still retain the attraction and beauty of his poems by using rhyming lyrics. Interpretation – Smokey Robinson did a great job of writing and speaking in his own work of def poetry entitled as “A Black American” which traces the struggle of blacks in this country. He first sets the mood by citing the origins of black people to Africa, when they were abducted as slaves, then termed as negroes by the Spanish conquistadores, and right down to the Civil War when slavery was finally abolished, but the fight for equal rights continues to its present day because there is still lingering discrimination everywhere. At any rate, people are now aware of the great injustice committed on black people in America, and so this is shown by the great effort to try to be always politically-correct by calling these ethnic people now as black Americans, and now as African-Americans, to be on the safe side of things. His story makes me think how far the Civil Rights Movement had achieved, now with Pres. Obama. Judgement – the artist's goal was to emphasize how trivial it is to point out our minor differences with each other, when all people are the same; we all belong to the same race. It is interesting to note how black people are now proud of being black, unlike before when the color of their skin being black was a badge of shame for black Americans. In this regard, black is beautiful, and the artist's goal was largely achieved, as all people should be proud of their ethnicity and cultural background. Smokey Robinson did a good job at pointing out how humans originated in Africa, and so other people should instead give way to black people. But one thing that can be done differently is to tone down a bit its stringent political message. Conclusion Def poetry jam is probably here to stay for a long time as a new art form and it is gaining acceptance and legitimacy in its own right, similar to jazz music, rap, hip-hop, or reggae which had originally been looked down upon as low-culture similar to other popular culture icons like comic books, paperbacks, pocketbooks, and cheap television reality shows. Nobody can equal Robinson for his sheer audience impact because he is an industry stalwart. Works Cited Aptowicz, Cristin O'Keefe. Words in your Face: A Guided Tour through Twenty Years of the New York City Poetry Slam. New York, NY: Soft Skull Press, 2008. Print. Gulla, Bob. Icons of R&B and Soul: An encyclopedia of the artists who revolutionized rhythm. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2008. Print. Novak, Julia. Live Poetry: An integrated approach to poetry in performance. Amsterdam, the Netherlands: Rodopi, 2011. Print. A Black American. Perf. Smokey Robinson. YouTube, 19 May 2010. Video. Web. 13 July 2013. . Wolosky, Shira. The Art of Poetry: How to read a poem. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2001. Print. Spoken word poetry includes hand gestures. facial expression, composure, body language, and manner of dress (video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIkNsj6cDGc) Read More