Saturday, April 17, 2010
Baartman and Beyoncé
I looked at some pictures on the internet of what Sara Baartman looked like, and I was more than surprised. The pictures I saw were drawings that showed her having an extremely large hindquarters. I do not know if this was exaggerated more because it was a drawing, or if she really looked like that. Even if she really did look like that, that is no reason to steal her freedom and parade her around to make money. In comparison to Beyonce, she is somewhat in the same boat. A rich, white, record company owner made her sign a contract guaranteeing a certain amount of songs be written and a certain number of albums be put out. Granted that it is not even close to the freedoms stolen from Baartman, but it is still stealing something. Whether it be Beyonce's freedom to take her own time and write meaningful songs, or stealing the money from the kids by putting out CD's that don't mean anything. By the latter part of my previous statement I mean that if you are required to make a certain amount of songs or albums in a certain amount of time, there are gonna be many songs that are just "filler songs" or songs to meet the record company's quota. These songs are usually rushed and contain very simple and superficial lyrics. It is like the quantity over quality debate that someone else posted. It reminds me of a door to door salesman selling worthless junk at an inflated price. This could be a reason why most people do not like some artists later works. The artist will get the record deal and take their time writing good, deep, meaningful music for the first couple albums, but then since they took so much time making sure the first couple were good, they have to rush the last few albums that are required to meet their quota. I do not believe this is why all artists later music is different; some may just develop that way. But I do believe my idea is at least a possibility for some artists.
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