The artist Stevie Wonder said would last forever: “Much longer than we all will live”
Stevie Wonder is no stranger to writing timeless melodies.
Although there have been countless soul and R&B artists that have come before him, rarely has anyone’s music radiated pure joy whenever it comes on the radio like Wonder’s has, especially when working on his classic run with records like Songs in the Key of Life. Even if not everything that he made had the same impact that he hoped it would, he knew that he wanted to follow in the same tradition as the other legends that came before him.
But the world that Wonder was raised in had a lot more than simple pop music to offer. When looking at the kind of chords that he picked, he could have easily passed for one of the greatest jazz artists of his time if he had switched professions. In another life, he could have easily been the answer to Duke Ellington rather than the one writing songs about him, but the term ‘pop music’ wasn’t necessarily an offensive term by any metric, either.
The Beatles had shown everyone that pop could go in different directions, and even if the Motown formula wasn’t what clicked with Wonder, he could still manage to throw in something new that people hadn’t heard before. He knew it would have been a crime to stifle himself whenever he made his music, and in the same way that MArvin Gaye stood his ground when making What’s Goin’ On, so too did Wonder make sure to get his classics like Talking Book and Innervisions off the ground.
But outside of being one of the greatest R&B performers, the kids that grew up singing soul music around him were going to be geniuses right alongside him. Because despite The Jackson 5 having one of the most tragic beginnings that any famous pop band had ever faced, no one could deny that Michael Jackson was a force of nature when he hit the big time. If he had that natural charisma working with his brothers, though, Jackson was going to become a legend in his own right the minute he took control.
Wonder’s time in the sun may have been the 1970s, but by the time the 1980s rolled in, Jackson picked up where he left off when it came to pop-flavoured R&B. Off the Wall and Thriller are the definition of what timeless pop music should sound like, and even if the following decades saw Jackson becoming more and more secluded, Wonder knew the music world was dealt a body blow when he passed away.
Despite Wonder having his own agenda for a while, he knew that nothing could compare to what Jackson gave the music world while he was here, saying, “The closest I felt to this emotion was the loss of John Lennon. I thought, ‘I cannot believe it. It can’t be true.’ The only peace I have is that we have his voice and his music will last forever, much longer than we all will live. So let’s celebrate his life.”
And no matter what questionable stuff people have to say about his personal life and eccentric personality, it’s not like Wonder isn’t speaking a lot of truth there. A lot of Jackson’s melodies are bound to be timeless and show people a glimpse of what pop music was meant to be at its finest. Whether it’s listening to the old days of ‘I Want You Back’, the pure swagger of ‘Billie Jean’, or even his later tunes like ‘Black or White’, it was always about making the tunes that could get people dancing no matter what they were doing.
Even if Jackson’s reputation has had its fair share of ups and downs, Wonder prefers to look at the unobjectionable quality of the music. Because whenever someone listens to a tune like ‘Beat It’ or ‘The Way You Make Me Feel’, it’s not about the person who wrote it. It’s about the joy that comes with bringing beautiful music into the world.
