Two artists

Mary J Blige, R&B star and rapper Eminem, are both from a music scene which we intellectuals sometimes call "at street level".

That is not true, of course, but it sounds good. But it also benefits the conversation because it suggests where the roots of the music lie.

This music is not so much my thing or my scene though I do listen to it when its around ... like a human being ... it doesnt matter if the music is good, but Blige though seems to have a broader appeal to older than, say, 18 yr olds.

Why they come across as major artists to perhaps anyone but not as products is because they have a moral background and a moral feel to their art and music. Sounds like a cliché, but interesting they are.

I hope Eminem is not going to do too much of that anti-war thing of his, the video prior to the elections in US, or his number at the MTV award. Its good, but I think propaganda doesn’t last when done by the same artist unless that was his artistic birth place, that is: politics.
People may see most of these music idols and breed them as entertainers, but if Eminem uses his fame and talent for good things then one can not ask for more, for that matter. But he would take the “Bono route” if he continues, get the message across without the music. His track, “Loose it”, is a masterpiece of a production: talent, flair, super management and a voice too.

What makes Mary J Blige the best R&B artist in this country is possible her deal with the Christian faith, a deal she may at first have done with herself, to stop bothering about wigs and lip sticks, and just get to the bottom of it and find her own voice through Jesus. Good girl.

The point is that mixing moral issues with art, making a political point with art, is tricky because art is at its best when it transforms a confusion around us into a one single and clear sense of a feeling, and as such gives us a space to breath among all the facts and the figures that build our world. Now, that’s something… but my admiration for Blige as somewhat a young soul-artist is very much her courage to admit to the faith she believes in and learned to appreciate when already a mature musician.

http://www.mjblige.com

http://www.eminem.com


But Chaplin …
When Charles Chaplin played with the planet-balloon on his office desk in the film “Dictator”, with a Hitler jacket on and so and so and so on … it was thought as a great stuff of propaganda comedy, but I think I am not alone when I say I always found that scene too long, and very boring. It had worked if he somewhat had hit that balloon only once on his way out of the office and that’s it, but all that “dancing” on the desk ... one of those scenes we are told to think of as great when they are actually boring. But make no mistake, Chaplin the great was just trying to get to grips with soundtracks on his films.