Carleen Anderson: The 2020 Music Blends
Last updated 27th Jan 2021
The health crisis of 2020 inspired a unique blending of the arts. The reaction to the worldwide daily rising death tolls created bonds between a variety of people searching for consolation from bereavement. As the global village exchanged sentiments of comfort with each other online during a once in a century pandemic, they could also witness the broadcast on their mobile screens of a policeman slowly squeezing the life out of a man he had pinned down on the ground for over eight minutes. As helpless onlookers stood by, the 21st century instant filming instinct stepped in and captured the nonchalant action of an authority figure crushing all the air out of this person. Even rose-tinted eyeglass wearers voiced how inhumane the response was from the officer. Some defended the horrific power play. And there were those to whom such happenings would have rarely fazed them but with limited distractions since being quarantined, empathy arose and compelled them to express their disgust at the terrorism on display. The ones who live with this threat to their lives every day mourned in defiance. With performance venues closed, livestreaming music to heal the masses became a huge demand.
For centuries artists have reflected the impact of plagues, wars and atrocities in their work. Modern technology has made it possible to blend the arts in ways that were unimaginable before now. Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Bartok, Ravel and Stravinsky composed music to mirror the social and political times they lived in. Their influence can be observed in the works of Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Miles Davies, Hazel Scott, Stevie Wonder, Gerri Allen and many more who blended their artistic cultures with styles that seeped into their insulated tribes. The music described as serious, traditionally labelled Classical, also surfaces in today’s Jazz musicians and composers like Ayanna Witter-Johnson, Camilla George and Renell Shaw. African roots are linked to contemporary music branches everywhere. From 10-year-old bassist Aron Hodek of Slovakia -with his nods to Black American music, to 8-year-old classical and jazz ballet dancer Holidai Frazier - and their predecessors - fusion bassist Jaco Pastorious and ballet dancer Misty Copeland, over several generations, artists have combined cultures to enhance art as a whole. Despite the divisional tactics designed to prevent artists from blending genres, the human heart instinctively connects beyond the rules set to keep them apart. People often vehemently disagree on politics yet enjoy the same music as each other.
Unlike the “us and them” divide where “Fine Arts” elitists describe music outside of their chosen discipline as a less principled “Folk” genre, Classical composer Michael Tippett, one of many inspirations for my Futuristic Opera, salutes Jazz in his music. This is a rare recognition heralded across the supremacy line. Equality is a tough sell, but like the tides of the ocean, music is a spirit leveller.
Many are discouraged from expanding their artistic experiences, yet they continue to explore. Some who had long been overlooked in the music industry were given a platform in the midst of the civil unrest resulting from the ongoing, frequent killings of blacks by white authorities, highlighted during the 2020 Spring/Summer lockdown season. Institutions known for their racially devised discriminatory practices were compelled to reprimand themselves. For a time, some corporations replaced their online icon images with little black squares to reflect their solidarity in acknowledgement of the global influence and cultural advancement Black music has brought to the art world.
As they shielded themselves from the viral infection, artists began to collaborate more online and were motivated to stretch themselves artistically. Survivors of the pandemic retreated to their creative woodsheds to exchange ideas with those who might have otherwise been off their music radar. Musicians were inspired en masse to create antidotes for the ongoing social poison humans too willingly consumed.
By the end of 2020, governments were replacing leaders with representatives who echoed the sentiments of a public majority that barely tipped the scales towards basic fair play. A refusal to accept this transition of power spilled over into 2021. A Reality Theatre spectacle instigated by the presiding administration was acted out in the government building where confirmation of the new leadership was taking place. That seditious event told the world there will be far more harrowing cases of social ills with longer-term effects than COVID-19.
In the face of such senselessness, art blending provides a generator of hopefulness. Its vaccine remedies dissonance with harmonies that even a mass choir singing unresolvedly out of tune and off tempo can find healing and humility, in all of it.
About Carleen Anderson:
Hailed as one of the most influential singer-songwriters of her generation, Carleen Anderson is highly respected within the music industry.
You can learn more about Carleen Anderson's music and work here.