Shower Epiphany: "Songversation", a lesson in pretentiousness.

Watching India.Arie perform yesterday, I've come to realize something that is always found interesting: Musicians are dumb fuckers and musicians with hooky causes are worse. I have never heard of you before outside of some small songs clips and I have to give you your due, you are talented. You sing very well. You have amazing talent in your craft and I am more than certain that you will do well in this industry, if we can ignore Lauren Hill for a moment. Because raw talent is always going to make you viable in the music industry. 

In a matter of 20 minutes, you have not only put me off on your music, insulted my intelligence, made blanketed comments on the value of what men should be instead of stating what your ideal man is, but you have done something that not only shows that your ego is huge, but that you actually believe you are a voice of a generation. This "songversation" you wanted to have with me is not a new thing. I'll mention Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, every blues man and woman, Jerry Garcia, Chuck D, Curt Cobain, B. B. King, Bono and Billy Holiday, even though I'm a die hard Ella man. The difference between the FEW mentioned legends and yourself is not the fact that they have more talent or that their causes that they have chosen for themselves are greater than yours. Each of these people reached out in their words and lyrics to express a feeling that each of their respective fan base felt as the Great Truth, but they have also reached out to others whose fight not only was not theirs, but who were moved by the expression of their voices into to compassion and a mutual feeling that we are all interconnected. 

I know, I'm not your fan base. You did not have me in mind when you wrote your songs and in fact don't give a rats ass how I feel. I get you. Then again, I'm not Irish, but Bono moved me to question a governments power over dividing a people. He even had me care about Africans dying for the lack of medication from a plague that cost us many people. In all truth, I'm not African, HIV infected, nor does it in any way affect me. And yet, I am moved. Dylan, Loan, and Jerry have shown me the value of raising a voice and not a fist. They shown me the value of unity, love, and in the end if we are all accord that we want a change we will cause it even if the act of revolution is simply having children and continuing that important dialogue. Chuck D and Curt described of the Beast in their ways, not in any way belittling ones struggle over anothers, but well away that the Beast's reach is far and wide and that it affect others in different way from struggle to express the suppression of something bigger and meaner than you to calling people to raise up in unified revolution of the mind that still weighs on me today. From the Jazz and Blues greats, I understand that their song of woe and joy is the parent of many mediums that I enjoy today and have deep roots from white boys who used the genre to make their wealth to expanding understanding of what pain is and that music is the universal vessel to express it even if you never walked a Mississippi summer day. Their songs are rich with meaning and lyrical wealth, even if they speak of a woman leaving them or strange fruit grown on trees that have no business of having them.

Every one of them have conveyed that root of their music to people who have a direct connection to it to people from a long ways around the world. And so, my question is this, must you belittle me and lecture me on the importance of your purpose? DO you feel that your songs are not conveying the proper amount of catalytic impulse to cause the change you want to see? Do you feel that I I am not aware that you have something to express or that I am automatically not "aware" or "awake" to recieve this "songversation"? I think I understood the songs of others, even if they were simplistic as "Fuck da Police", "Children of tomorrow", "The Heroes of the Day" or even "Children of a Future Past". Their messages may be short or even lacking of, but they have even caused me to understand and to search why someone would say something so intellectually offensive as telling the law enforcement officials to fornicate themselves. And yet, that is simply me. I take that extra step to listen and try to understand what is being said even though my head is nodding and it looks like I'm a million miles away.

And yet, you have made assumptions in your music and perhaps you have reached your target marketing group and even made them feel well. Perhaps I am not a woman, or black, or a believer in a personal Antediluvian Deity or mayhaps my skin is not brown enough. That's ok. I never held it against an artist before that I am not who they had in mind when they created their craft and yet music is universal. So if the lyrics are not making me feel that I am in the group the beat should be enough to make me look inward as good music does. And yet, your "songversation" is a "lecturevation" and I have to say that listening it all through out is roughly the equivalent of Jenny McCarthy speaking about Homeopathic immunity and against vaccines. "Talking aloud, saying nothing".

You see, I've discovered another band today and I'm all over their music page. Their culture is not only not mine, but their culture is responsible in ending the indigenous people in the Americas and their ways of life. They are responsible in the suffering of my blood line and the blood lines of others. Their culture has been compared to the other European conquistadors as the most savage and cruel, yet when listening to them play I felt their woe and sadness since they also connected to my own. Their music not only expressed a hurt, a pain that I carry today, but their music eased that pain. It eased that pain and brought a joy to me that I rarely get from music today. I downloaded their music today. They have a fan.

So I apologize that I do not know how to wrap my hair or subscribe to your personal ideals or even matter. I wish you the best. I know that you will do well. If I need to start a "songveration" I'll keep you in mind.