TIME LINE NARRATIVE
The
exhibit opens with the turn of the century with the 1900’s highlighting James
Weldon Johnson composing the black national anthem “Lift Every Voice and Sing”
and finding Scott Joplin enjoying success with “Maple Leaf Rag.”
By 1904, we have Ferdinand “Jelly Roll” Morton with his “Jelly Roll Blues,” giving the grounds for Blues and Dixieland Jazz.
In 1906, Charles Albert Tindley’s “Stand By Me.” Tindley is honored as the father of modern Gospel Music.
During
1913, W.C. Handy’s “St. Louis Blues.” Handy would be recognized as the father
of the blues. Not only writing and performing his own materials but also going
into the lucrative field of publishing. By 1914, discs replace cylinders as the
popular form of recorded music. Records were 10 inches wide, two sided, and
played at 78 rpm The
exhibit tangibly display and illustrate for viewers a timeline showing the
steady evolution of black music from region to region and genre to genre.
Southern gospel, Delta Blues, Harlem/New York Jazz, Chicago's blues Jazz,
Detroit Jazz, etc. As African Americans migrated North,
their music came with them.
At each
point artistic luminaries literally carry the music torch and are recognized for
their contributions, achievements, and genius such as W.C. Handy, Louis
Armstrong Duke Ellington, Lionel Hampton, Ray Charles, Dizzy Gillespie, John
Coltrane, Miles Davis, Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson, etc.
Interwoven with the artistic and musical genre development presentation, the country’s social historical moments or eras are blended with the mood and tone of America, i.e. the emerging auto industry and subsequent Northern migration of blacks, World War I, the Harlem Renaissance, prohibition, the depression, World War II, the Korean conflict, the early civil rights era, the space age and onward.
Running
concurrent in the exhibit with the various developments of music and the social
history of the country, 100 Plus One™ highlights the technological and
musical instrument development from the megaphone to the microphone to the
electrified guitar and other various ways of recording and marketing music.
From Edison’s cylinders to vinyl pressings to audio tapes to current compact
discs and the cutting edge DAT incorporating the computer.
Before
Motown was a giant, jazz anchored Detroit, and then there was Vee Jay Records of
Chicago, a black independent record company headed by Vivian Carter and Jimmy
Bracken. Vee Jay Records was a mini conglomerate with a unique roster of talent
consisting of the Beatles, Four Seasons, The Impressions, Gene Chandler, Jerry
Butler, etc. Its demise was similar to other independent record companies that
produced the hits during the most intensive time period in America during the
50’s through the 70’s and is a part of the 100 Plus One™ years.
Decade by decade, as the music genre evolved into mass appeal with influence from Black Americans, the business of music also went through its redevelopment stages.
In the late 1950’s in the car capitol, city of Detroit, the music business gave birth to a determined visionary entrepreneur, innovator and facilitator Berry Gordy. Gordy’s vision served as the catalyst for a new sound that emerged as the Motown sound.
100
Plus One™ exhibit is anchored by original Motown artifacts, rare memorabilia
of Detroit’s independent record companies and Motown behind the scenes of one of
a kind items such as hand written songs before they were charted, original
studio lyrical sheets, artist itineraries, rare 45 record labels of Motown,
45’s, pressing plates, photographs, etc. The exhibit also provides an overall
view of the variables leading up to what started as a questionable engagement of
talent and economical desperation and became a mega billion dollar conglomerate
for Motown of recording, producing, training, publishing, distribution, movies,
and marketing.
Motown
capitalizes on the existing elements of a dynamic roster of local Jazz talent,
flourishing nightclubs and hall venues, competing independent labels, and local
teenage
talent making Gordy’s vision
of Motown a musical entity to be reckoned during the 60’s well into the 80’s.
Other
companies and artists that sought to survive and compete in other genres thrived
and excelled to stay in step with Motown e.g. Fortune, Groovesville, Philly
International, Stax, Golden World, Ric Tic, Invictus, etc. But one can easily
argue that the Motown sound in a historical context is as a strong component of
the history of American music as Jazz.
In regards to social history, the exhibit highlights the Motor City Revue tours into the South, the appearances of Motown acts on national television and international tours all point to an effort that went hand in hand with the social consciousness of the country from love ins to sit ins of the civil rights era to the war in Vietnam. Other artists and companies spoke to the same time period of Motown, but none had the broad and continuous fan base that Motown did during its heyday. The philosophy of Motown was “Music for a Young America.”
The 100 Plus One™ . . . Before Motown and Beyond exhibit highlights the music of Motown with the social context of the 60’s through the 70’s. By the mid 70’s, Motown had a string of television specials and had begun making movies. Thus again expanding its
mass appeal platform. The Harvard report completed in the 1970’s gives light to both the acceptance of major labels and the value of black music in the mainstream as well as the
fact that other companies sought to take over the economic space that they occupied. The report inevitably stimulated the death of black independent record companies such as the likes of Vee Jay Records, Stax, Philly International, etc. Motown survived this power move. However, black music lives on and we celebrate the music today.
100 Plus One™ sheds light on this time period as one of the most controversial moments in American music history. Video documentaries accompany the traveling exhibit that provide behind the musical scenes view of America’s mood and tone during this evolution.
And Beyond . . .
The exhibit addresses Pop Culture and whatever is hot for the moment. From yo-yo’s to hool-a-hoops to baggy pants and oversized shirts. Certain trends, inventions, innovations or movements capture the public’s fancy on a mass level and dominate their collective conscious.
“Raise your hands in the air . . .
And holler like you just don’t care”
Like the black genres before it, Rap/Hip Hop’s lineage is traced to whatever preceded it. The glorification of wine, women and the good life of the jazz/blues era is a mirror to the extreme in the lyrics of Snoop Doggy Dog’s “Gin and Juice” or Busta Rhymes’ “Pass the Couvosier.” A man’s mesmerizing effect on women and his own super human prowess to “60 Minute man” to “The Seventh Son.” Blues music alone is rife with comparisons.
Social commentary through the spoken word? Langston Hughes, James Baldwin, Amira Baraka, H. Rap Brown, Angela Davis, etc. Their words became a part of the black music.
Add music and you have the Last Poets, Jill Scott Heron. In the truest sense of the moment you get the likes of Curtis Mayfield, Nina Simone, and James Brown, “Say It Loud.” The African American music and its influences on the mainstream has impacted the world.
100 Plus One™ timeline exhibit leads us to the simplicity of the early rap from its street music to the basement turntable dual rivals to the vitality and rawness and sometimes crudeness of blues. Lyrically the best of rap can be compared to jazz in its complexity of tonal dexterity.
Rap impresarios such as Russell Simmons, Master P and others have taken notes of the likes of Berry Gordy’s success and tried to gain and maintain ever expanding control over their products tied into the music phenomena.
The 100 Plus One ™ traveling exhibit showcases the genres before it. Rap/Hip Hop has spawned its artistic heroes and legends. Both famous and infamous from Tupac to Biggie Smalls to Will Smith. And due to black music, economical might has generated imitation both as poseur (Vanilla Ice) to apparent sincere interpreter (Eminem).
Like the influences of the various forms of black music that Rap/Hip Hop preceded or coexisted with, the Rap/Hip Hop genre has demonstrated its ability to spread across the country and subsequently the world in influencing the youth culture beyond its’ African American urban origins. Today black music’s influence effects the bottom line in such diversely related entities and corporations i.e. McDonald’s, the N.B.A. etc.
The legacy of Hip Hop was galvanized by the Grammy awards and the American Music Awards over the past few years highlighting the works of Lauren Hill, Mary J. Blige, etc.
“Raise your hands in the air. . .
