1971 there was a man by the name of
Marvin Gaye some of you might have heard
of him but he was a singer for Motown
he’d always been a sort of clean-cut and
upbeat kind of singer never really
diving into the craziness of the outside
world but that year he recorded an album
called what’s going on frustrated and
angry by everything happening around the
world and in the u.s. he sung about the
war in Vietnam poverty in his
neighborhoods his own struggle with drug
abuse and pollution in the environment
now interestingly Barry Gordy the
president of Motown was against the
album from the start he said what’s
going on was quote the worst thing I
ever heard in my entire life he was
terrified the album would sell now of
course Barry shouldn’t have worried too
much considering the album sold over 2
million units within the first few weeks
but more importantly it paved the way
for other Motown artists to embrace this
new change in creative direction now I
remember reading this story and thinking
about it quite a lot as I thought about
the music that I listened to and the
meaning behind some of it you see about
two years ago I had something of an
epiphany about the music around me it
started with this one song that just got
played over and over everywhere I went
on the radio at parties it was
everywhere
it sounds familiar right it was just
this one kind of generic pop song and
for the longest time it was eating at me
and I didn’t know why until it hit me
with a sudden chilling thought I
realized to myself that if this was all
that was out there was there even any
diversity anymore was there even any
variety in music now I couldn’t even
imagine the thought of just one generic
brand of music
overtaking everything but more
importantly I was terrified that the
music around me was becoming plagued by
just one generic brand so I realized
that someone had to do something and I
wanted to be that person so I started
with myself I explored multiple
different genres I explore different
styles I took in the lyrics the works
because I needed to know definitively if
my notion of diversity was truly missing
and I’m happy to say that in a lot of
aspects I was wrong
there is a lot of variety out there but
still I noticed that there was a problem
and that problem was growing so I
started to ask the people around me what
they thought about music today did they
feel there was enough diversity and did
they feel indulged to explore it do they
care at all about the lyrics and the
songs or did it not matter and for the
most part people agreed with me they
said that a lot of music today doesn’t
have meaning but to to them it didn’t
matter because at the end of the day if
it had a catchy beat or a catchy hook
that was all they needed they didn’t
need to be some deep and spiritual
message now I don’t disagree with that
but I think that music can and by
extension have a bit more to it than
that because to me music is most
powerful when it has a meaningful
message when it has a story that grabs
you and pulls you in when it has
something powerful to convey but
obviously not every song contains this
so I realized that while not every song
has this there had to be some deeper
message so I realized that while the
music around me might have been changing
there had to be something that I could
do about it
and while I had taken in genres and
taken in most
other sort of things it still wasn’t
really changing anything but more
importantly I realized something about
music see lyrically sky’s the limit you
can write about virtually anything I
mean you could go from writing I don’t
know say upbeat March song or a song
about what you did last night or say a
brutal roasts of one of your friends
some are more practical than others but
I digress but still I felt that music
should have a little bit more to it than
just that so from there I decided going
forward I would research more about
music in the past and in the present and
from there I was amazed to find that the
variety was great
I mean musicians have been incorporating
themes in their talks and in their songs
for years and years
take for example Marvin Gaye who
understood that while music can have
solely one meaning it can also have
another meaning because most importantly
music has two uses one for meaning and
two for pleasure see when an artist like
Marvin Gaye understood was that yes you
can have a deep and meaningful album
like what’s going on dedicated to
spreading social awareness but on the
other hand you could have an album like
sexual healing which as the title
implies is definitely more for pleasure
and Marvin wasn’t the first artist to do
this several other artists spanning
across multiple genres have infused this
technique in their songs Billie Holiday
a jazz singer had strange fruit a song
of outcry about lynching in the south
the birds a California rock band and
Curtis Mayfield a funk singer sung about
the draft in the Vietnam War in draft
mourning and back to the world
respectively even more contemporary
genres like rap and hip-hop have had
groups like NWA Public Enemy and Rage
Against the Machine
and even more recently with artists like
Kendrick Lamar and Joey badass speaking
on systemic injustice and racism within
black communities so at this point you
might be asking well why do you care if
it’s out there why don’t you just go and
enjoy it well the short answer is I can
but that doesn’t speak to our society as
a whole because with this widespread
array of music available to us it’s
whether we choose to utilize it that
makes the difference now don’t get me
wrong I would never think to judge
anyone based on their own musical
interests in fact I think it’s the best
way to get to know a person because I
can understand their unique preferences
but when we have these influx of generic
songs flooding the market it’s then when
we begin to realize that something must
change and so from there I realized that
I would have to start something so maybe
think about that the next time you pull
out your headphones thank you [Applause]