Future of Music: Mary J. Blige

Technology has changed a lot in the way people can get music now. Do you think that changes the way people experience music?
It changes the organic-ness of how we experienced and how we got introduced to music. You don't have a personal moment to listen to the music and look at the album cover and really sit through it. Everything moves so fast now, people don't have time. With all the iPods and the computers, everything is so fast, so you don't have a moment to just really suck it in for what it's really, really worth — you're just on to the next one. "Okay, let's download this song, let's get this song." We used to listen to whole albums, and that's no more.

Do you feel like music has a social responsibility?
I think it's a responsibility to those who want it. You can't just say to a person, automatically, once children see you on television and they start singing your songs, you do have a responsibility. I know I have a responsibility.From day one, I've been singing songs about women. It's my responsibility to walk what I'm talking about and say, "Okay, if I'm screaming about confidence, then I've got to be confident," because it's a different job for me, it's a different thing. People come up to me and they say, "Mary, you're helping me." Now, I've got a responsibility to not hurt them.

Are you generally optimistic or pessimistic about the future?
I'm optimistic. I have to think optimistic, because I believe what we think becomes a living thing. If we think pessimistic, then imagine the whole world thinking pessimistic about the future — because then that's what we're gonna have. We've got that much power. I have to think optimistic to put that in the universe so things will change. I can change things with just that thought.

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Song Stories

“Help Me”

Joni Mitchell | 1974

Joni Mitchell wrote and recorded this song for her album Court and Spark, but she had to switch from her regular band to make the song sound exactly the way she wanted. "I had attempted to play my music with rock & roll players," she told Rolling Stone. "They’d laugh, 'Awww, isn't that cute? She's trying to teach us how to play.'" Mitchell switched to a jazz band, Tom Scott’s L.A. Express, and scored the biggest hit of her career in the process.

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