George Clinton to Deliver 2019 Charles Seeger Lecture Features
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Volume 53, Number 2 Spring 2019 George Clinton to Deliver 2019 Charles Seeger Lecture Michael B. Bakan, Florida State University This year’s Seeger Lecture will be presented by George and Sly Stone) with freaky costumes and themes inspired Clinton on Saturday, November 9th, 2019, during the 64th by ’60s acid culture and science fiction” to deliver “the Annual Meeting of the Society for Ethnomusicology in most dazzling, extravagant live show in the business.” Bloomington, Indiana. Clinton, the longtime front man of And in “an era when Philly soul continued the slick sounds and mastermind behind two legend- of establishment-approved R&B, ary funk bands that transformed Parliament/Funkadelic scared off the landscape of modern music, more white listeners than it courted” Parliament and Funkadelic, ranks (https://georgeclinton.com/bio/). alongside James Brown as the most sampled musical artist of all time. Clinton’s was a revolutionary vision His funk innovations and carni- that twisted soul music into funk valesque theatricality have spawned under the influence of a plethora of a legacy of influence extending from artists ranging from Jimi Hendrix to Prince and De La Soul to Jay-Z and Frank Zappa. And that vision paid Kendrick Lamar. dividends as “the Parliament/Funk- adelic machine ruled black music Clinton was born in Kannapolis, during the 1970s” (ibid.), with more North Carolina, in 1941. He formed than forty R&B hit singles (including his first group, a doo-wop unit called three topping the charts at #1) and The Parliaments, during his early three platinum albums: One Nation teen years in Plainfield, New Jersey. Under a Groove, Funkentelechy vs. The group rehearsed in the back the Placebo Syndrome, and Uncle room of a local barbershop that Jam Wants You. young George worked at as a part- time hairdresser. In 1982, Clinton released the hit album Computer Games under By the mid-1960s Clinton had his own name on Capitol Records. moved on to Detroit, where he Photo Credit: William Thoren Photography The album yielded the iconic single became a staff songwriter and producer for Motown. “Atomic Dog.” He toured and recorded widely during the Motown’s “assembly line of sound” approach inspired his 1980s with the P-Funk All-Stars, but that decade’s disdain gradual formation of a collective of over fifty musicians, for all things identified with the 1970s (most especially with whom he collaborated in myriad configurations to cre- disco), combined with Clinton’s own legal troubles and ate the bedrock 1970s discographies and touring bands of widely publicized battles with drug addiction, dragged him both Parliament and Funkadelic. down together with his entire empire of funk. According to georgeclinton.com, the official website of Mr. The 1990s were kinder to Clinton, as he was lionized Clinton, “While Funkadelic pursued band-format psy- by the creators of the new funk-inspired rap styles of chedelic rock, Parliament engaged in a funk free-for-all, Digital Underground and Dr. Dre, as well as by funk rock blending influences from the godfathers (James Brown groups such as Primus and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. [continued on p.4]. 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University of Colorado Boulder ISSN 0036-1291 § Boulder, CO 80309 § 2 Finding Your Voice Being Allowed to Find Your Voice Gregory Barz, SEM President I think we all might have had similar experiences in our er SAM members by those with a presumed strength of academic careers when we have been encouraged to authority challenged the authority of their voices. These “find your voice.” I can still remember the strong nega- recent incidents in New Orleans prompted a statement tive reaction that I experienced when I was a still a young issued by the SAM Board in which they declare that their student and was admonished for not yet having found my “highest priority is the health of the Society for American voice. It took many years for me to figure Music, and that ethical, inclusive, and out that there were reasons—political and respectful participation is integral to the cultural—for the suppression of power and Society’s health.” authority in my own public voice. There are certainly times when an authority figure— When the privileging of voices denies the frequently an older and presumably wiser development of younger voices, voices individual—will believe in the promise of that are still being “found,” we threaten underscoring a straight and direct path to our ability to nurture and grow new ideas, achieving one’s revealed vocality. And yet, new theories, and new approaches. As many in our academic discipline have strug- fieldworkers, we also commit to nurtur- gled over time with “covering” and veiling ing the voices of those who need such the tone of our voices (see Yoshino 2015), strengthening and development. An in order to respond to the encouragement important response is the Women as to “find” a voice that ultimately displays Fieldworkers programming initiative by potency and individuality. the American Folklife Center (AFC) at the Library of Congress. This program Let me step back a bit and honor that I am promises to “expand and enhance our writing this column during Women’s History understanding of this topic and broaden Month (March). I am reminded of the central character discussion on the advantages, social and interpersonal in Zora Neale