I had to submit some writing samples for a job I applied to last week. I had to scrounge around in my brain for it, but I finally came up with something at the last minute (always!). This was one of the questions.
Which artist (musical) would you most like to work with and why?
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From the time I saw the video for The Walk in 1983, I knew there was something afoot in music as I knew it. Each time I saw it played on the then somewhat new, fresh and exciting MTV station, I had failed to see both the opening and closing credits in which the artist’s name is displayed along with the album title and record label. I had no idea who it was that simultaneously disturbed and awed me, and left deep ripples of impressions on my brain until I watched MTV more and I started seeing Let's Go to Bed and The Love Cats as well. Thereafter, I was smitten and knew that I had to get my hands on all of The Cure's music up to that point.
If you ask me which artist I would like most to work with, then the answer would be as easy as saying Robert Smith. But it's exactly that: easy. I wouldn't have to think about it; no more than a second later and I'd have already said the name Robert Smith. But, I will change my mind and instead, if I were given the opportunity of choice, I would choose to leave Robert Smith and his brilliant mind alone and choose someone, say, like Marshall Mathers.
It would seem to follow that people who listened to The Cure in the eighties would most likely listen to The Smiths, The Style Council and The Sugarcubes, as well as Björk, Paul Weller and Morissey in the nineties. Perhaps there would be few if any that could accept The Cure and Eminem on the same CD shelf. I like to think that I could be one of these people and embrace the breadth of music, whatever genre. Despite my sunny New Wave past, I now fully embrace the dark world of rap and the culture of hip hop. Who couldn't love a Run DMC rhyme or a Snoop Dogg beat or learn a thing or two about urban/street culture from Queens to Long Beach ?
Choosing Eminem is neither rhyme nor reason and his controversial words would normally make me aghast then appalled. Eminem would be one person in the music industry that I feel I would have nothing much in common with. He brings to mind the word disparate. The world of hip hop is something foreign to me and my upbringing; as disparate as the taste of lemon and coffee. Growing up, consider my first experience with rap being Blondie's Rapture, a mere bridge, albeit possibly the bridge from underground to foreground. Fab Five Freddy's and Kurtis Blow's names were probably the closest I had ever gotten to knowing hip hop. Knowing hip hop solely by name and only on the surface, I most probably could not think of the first thing to say to Eminem were I to meet him face to face, at this very moment. I would be intimidated, threatened, panic stricken just to come up with an opening line. Thoughts like misogynist, criminal, and arrogant bastard would race through my head. I certainly would have to be struck dumb just to remain civil in the face of a challenge like that. But that, exactly, is what I like about the idea of working with Eminem.
Despite what I think of Eminem, despite what misgivings and misconceptions I might have on his personality, I think he has a true talent and possesses a passion for music and rhythm that seems meager in music these days. An on-the-spot lyricist, I think he has a great sense of critical parody, able to see clearly through the veneers and slick covers that music has acquired today. He seems raw, unforgiving, real, and opinionated in contrast to the legion of yes-women/men of popular music. Although I doubt he is infallible or untouchable, and I am by no means a rabid fan, I would like to work with him in hopes of being able to glimpse into a somewhat brilliant mind that is as far-fetched from my own as possible.
10:18 AM | |
