Carolime Time

Spoken Word vs Radio vs Music vs Rap

Someone asked me today why I am so enamoured by spoken word, and what the difference is between spoken word and rap, or why I would listen to spoken word and not simply listen to music, which is in abundance, he asked me why I’m so into spoken word but not so into rap. He referred to this J. Ivy Def Poetry piece I once posted on my Facebook.

I responded at first saying that I love words. I do. I’m addicted to them. I added that rap is close to spoken word, that rap is an offspring of spoken word, that all rap is spoken word but not all spoken word is rap. Additionally, rap tends to go on a rhyme. Of course, not all rap needs rhyming, so maybe I’m wrong. In a way, I’m interested in all forms of spoken word. Perhaps that’s the reason I was so drawn to my radio classes in university, as opposed to TV and print. I find sound to be the least biased, least ruthless, most honest, least deceiving of all broadcast mediums.

Photos are chosen with the eye, they are captured by a lens that chooses what it sees. They are used alongside print, which can be as manipulative as spoken word. TV was always a joke for me, I found it very deceptive how images and clips could be laced together with interviews and faces, pictures, all of the sights and stinging images that could simultaneously desensitize and draw a tear. Leave it to fiction and film, I think.  Radio is a little bit harmless. Maybe if someone really dangerous got a hold of a mic, a la Eminem, then we’d be in trouble.

Spoken word can be monologues, speeches, it can be radio, a rant, storytelling. I’ve taken storytelling workshops, performance writing workshops, and have found that all of them find ways to narrow in on the styles of spoken performance that people use in their daily lives. Spoken word can be used on the streets in front of bars with disinterested club girls sitting on ledges in the background. It can taken place in my parents’  basement when my grandfather stands up and tells a story, revered as an elder, watery eyes, shaking hands, aching, animated voice. It finds its way into the classroom, onto the podium. Yeah, a speech is spoken word, it is. And yeah, I advertise the kind of spoken word that takes place on a stage. And I want to perform it. I do it in front of a camera sometimes, but I’m too shy to share it most of the time.

I told him that speeches aren’t the same as spoken word. In retrospect, speeches are far more structured, less personal…. I think the thing that sets spoken word apart from  rap and music is the lack of additional sound. After watching a show tonight and straining to hear the lyrics, I recognize that I’m very much a lyrics-focused person. Kidding, I knew this from the beginning. Seriously, if a song has good lyrics, I am likely to be all about it. But, if a song has just good music, it will take a few more elements of attractiveness to get me going.

I.e. Lyrics of Tom Waits, though I’m not a huge fan of his style (I must be losing major street cred by admitting this), make me wanna stay and listen a little long. But, a band like Placebo, who has fairly shitty lyrics but really good music/energy (possibly showmanship if I ever see them live) is enough to make me LIKE them. Please note that I do NOT LOVE Placebo, I merely like them:)

In terms of spoken word being laced on sound, I like that spoken word is raw, unmarred (if one can say such a thing about another layer of sound) by the distraction that is music (pbuM–peace be upon Music). Spoken word, the kind that I vibe off, is built purely from the voice, from intonations and breaths, from pauses and silences, from speed, no specific rhythm or metronome that needs to be followed, it is free flowing, you can aim it where you choose, but the words always have a direction. It seems like, luckily for me, all the spoken word I’ve been exposed to has been pretty meaningful in that it seems to come straight from experience, the soul. Saturday night, two acquaintances performed a small bit each, randomly. I wish I was sober enough at the time to quote them now. The night before, I read something I think this guy I know has performed or will perform at some point–it was about sex, what it feels like to hold back on sex to make sure his lover feels it. I knew a girl who used to perform about the Middle East (she is Palestinian). The first time I heard spoken word was in the basement of a building of lofts in Montreal. Otherwise claustrophobic, I managed to zero in on the girl talking politics and gender in a dark and dingy room. I couldn’t see her face.  I gotta say that I was really shy when I met my favourite spoken word artist– Suheir Hammad–and interviewed her. She was one of those calm people that you assume does yoga a lot and can feel your ‘aura’ from a mile away. I liked her but was too shy to try and contact her when I was in NYC.

So, I mean, I’d really like to perform it. Just as much as I like watching it. Hopefully I can get the balls to use my theatre background, singing experience, and journalism work to create something I can be proud of. But till then, I’ll keep text messaging myself shit that I’d like to share.