interview of my grandparents’ friends

This is an interview with my grandparents’ neighbors, an African American couple, the gentle man and his companion, aged 80 and 74, respectively. The interview is about the early 1900s world of art and culture and how it relates to new or contemporary art. I wanted to interview the pair because they demonstrated an especially strong and rare level of experience and interest in the arts and related fields. According to the couple’s knowledge, art in the early 1900s was mainly focused on expressionism with a touch of reservation. Paintings were done to strike or spark emotions in the viewer, and they were mostly reflecting on the major global situations or events, like the Nazi movement in Europe, gender and racial discrimination, economic and infrastructural development and the painter’s opinions or emotions towards personal or public issues.

The couple also followed up on the trends of African American artists of the time, the likes of Sargent Johnson and William H. Johnson. These were some of the men who helped induct art into the black community through their symbolic carvings and paintings that expressed the African American culture. In comparison to modern art, there is a slight difference from the early art of the 1900s. For starters, modern art is less reserved compared to the early art forms of representations, with numerous scenes of human nudity or grotesque images that may not be family friendly. The couple expressed their concerns that modern art is headed to radical lengths to gain attention and popularity, ignoring the aspect of authenticity, and expressionism of the fundamental societal events and the role that art plays.

Music is another aspect that we discussed with the old couple, and they have very few kind words about the modern industry of music. During their time music was the food to their souls; in the gentleman’s words, “music was a powerful object back then but nowadays, music is full of hate”. The couple were a diehard lovers of jazz music. They especially enjoyed the instrumentals saxophones, trombones and trumpets, which they recalled to listen to for hours to relax their nerves or when sipping a cold drink at the end of a hectic day. To the old couple, the modern form of music is full of epithet and it is too sour for their taste. They especially criticized, the parading of immoral values as being okay and modern, and dispelled the encouragement of gun violence and narcotics abuse among the youth. The lady also felt disturbed by the way women were being misused as sexual items in the videos and lyrics of many of the songs that are being produced in the present time.

They however praised how the present-day youths have become creative and innovative in dancing, being fans of break dance themselves, and they do feel like the new generation has left a mark in the field of dance. Dance back then mainly included the Cakewalk, Charleston, Lindy Hop, Jitterbug and the Twist. According to the couple, music without any form dance feels empty and so dance gives a sense of liveliness to music. However, they did not fail to mention the immorality that was also expressed in dancing. They have watched several videos online and have been impressed by how the new generation has been able to incorporate almost anything to make dance more entertaining, including light, colors, art and even acrobatics stating that dance back then majorly involved the contorting of the body and rarely involved the use of props or special dance music.

Religion during the early 1900s was made mandatory for the couple by their parents, given that they were Pentecostal Christians. The values and beliefs from the Bible was deeply imprinted on them which in return had a great impact on their decision making in their later lives. They were involved in various church activities and other acts of charity to assist the needy in their community, though they did little to actively spread Christianity. They also recall that back then religious principles were encouraged in schools, and reference to the Bible was not such a big rejected issue as it is today. It is no secret how the schools at the time of their youth and the modern day schools view the use of religious sentiments in class, an aspect that they find depressing. But there is little that can be done given that it is practically law for religious sentiments to be withheld from open expression. Also during Christmas celebrations back then it was okay to let it known openly mention the biblical origin of Christmas and the biblical significance of the day and the true reason for its celebration. The couple spoke ill of the current tradition that has neglected and ignored the true meaning and origin of Christmas, saying that we have forgotten what is celebrated on Christmas day and that the new generation has impeded the knowledge of Christmas and its value to Christians and created a mockery of it.

During the early days, people actually enjoyed attending theatre performances for example operas, musicals, concertos and orchestra performances by various composers. Unlike today, real and inborn art was much appreciated in the society and people took pride in their renowned composers and talents. Though the couple appreciates the music values and talents of today, including the manner in which technology has simplified the art of composing music, they still take pride in the complexity and originality of the music back then, including performances by art masters. They also note a difference in the films back then and now and how it has taken a big leap from what was respectable to a culture that is much more liberal and morally eroded. They note that there is need to produce films that represent our original values so that the future generation will be impacted with good morals and values.

They also touched on how today’s youths spend and much of their time indoors playing video games, while they spent much of their time at around this age mingling with their peers, sharing ideas and physically communicating, which has been replaced by the modern day social media and other forms of virtual communication. The couple implies that this may rise a problem of socialization among the young people.

Conclusion

From the interview, I arrived at the conclusion that the major difference between the modern arts and the early art is that the current art portrays a lot of content that is not family friendly including nudity, cursing and encouragement of criminal activities and drug abuse among the youth. Modern music seems to be misleading the youth into a life of crime and modern art seems to be employing unnecessary content that is composed of grotesque imagery and nudity, for the sole purpose of garnering profits and popularity for the artists, as opposed to the conventional expressionism that is associated to art and its representation of the persona of public emotions. When it comes to religion, the bottom-line is that the priorities have been misplaced by man’s fantasies and ideologies. For some reason the truth is being kept away from the kids and this will doom us, as knowledge is power. The bottom line is, art, music and other modern forms of entertainment differ from their earlier forms with the fact that the modern forms of entertainment sell the life of immorality and crime to their audience. This is the major factor that causes the elder people not to appreciate the modern art as they did the early art.