What Is Grown Folks Music (Take One)
With the launch of the full Grown Folks Music site inching closer, we’re trying to come up with a working description of Grown Folks Music. I particularly like SoulBounce’s take on it, asking different people from the music community to give their two cents. Most of them highlighted elements that make up what we’re doing here at GFM: passion, engagement, a sense of nostalgia, meaning, and emotional depth.
On a general level, Grown Folks Music is soul, R&B, hip hop, and all the music in between that was crafted with love, and created as a connection between the artist and the listener.
1. Intimacy
Grown Folks Music is meant to be intimate. On one level, it is an intimate relationship between its songwriters — between the people who worked on it together, or one person and his own reflections. On another level, it’s a very personal relationship between the artist and his listener. There’s a sense of vulnerability in Grown Folks Music; it is never “safe.”
2. Resonance
Grown Folks Music has resonance — it’s about the engagement between an artist and listener, but it’s also music that’s meant to be shared, cultivated, and loved across generations and communities. It’s the music that can bring an audience to their feet at a KRS-One show, moving and responding together for the couple odd hours he’s on stage.
3. Soul
To me, this is the element that truly distinguishes Grown Folks Music. It has a soul. Grown folks music possesses emotional depth; it can stir up emotions, both good and bad, and it can respond to the emotions of its listeners. It matures over time, taking on new meaning and new value while remaining firm in its roots. It in many ways holds a sense of responsibility — over the people it touches, the people who love it, the people who performed it.
Tags: Grown Folks Music
January 3rd, 2009 at 2:00 am
[...] a sense of ownership, and accountability, for the songs and musicians we love. I mentioned in my What Is Grown Folks Music? post that I like to call these qualities that make that emotional connection to music as intimacy, [...]