8 — Friday, April 10, 2015
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

UMix is right idea, 

wrong place for 
controversial film

By JAMIE BIRCOLL

Senior Arts Editor

I honestly never thought 

there would be cause to write 
about “American Sniper” again. 
I never thought discussions of 
rape on campus and serious 
allegations against the Univer-
sity for failure to adequately 
help victims of rape and sex-
ual assault would be not only 
supplanted, 
but 
completely 

drowned out by movies. Mov-
ies, in the grand scheme of 
things, are not important — use-
ful, helpful, but not important. 
Human health and well-being 
are important. But the people 
have spoken.

This Friday at UMix, you 

have the option of seeing one 
of two films: “American Snip-
er” and “Paddington.” One of 
these films is entirely appropri-
ate for UMix Late Night, one is 
not. UMix is about inclusivity, 
fun, social gathering where you 
don’t worry about the political 
and social implications of, well, 
anything — these are all things 
that “American Sniper” does 
not promote. It doesn’t belong 
at some alternative to Friday 
night shenanigans; it’s a serious 
film with serious repercussions 
and truly disturbing content. It 
shouldn’t have been shown in 
the first place.

But it will be, so it’s only fair 

we discuss it.

The decision to pull the 

showing of the film was a wise 
one. As stated above, it doesn’t 
belong 
at 
UMix. 
However, 

having seen the film and having 
commented on it extensively 
already (and having discussed 
it with multiple people with 
multiple 
viewpoints), 
I 

understand the argument for 
showing the film.

I admit “American Sniper” 

is a one-sided portrayal of 
one 
white 
American 
male 

who’s tasked with the job of 
killing Muslim people, who 
are presented in an incredibly 
one-sided fashion, but that is 
not the point of the film, and 
it isn’t a verbatim recreation 
of the words Chris Kyle wrote 
in his book. This is a complex 
character with multiple motives 
and values. It’s a character 
study, not an overt attempt to 
promote American pride or 
violence. So stop associating 
“proud to be an American” 
with 
“American 
Sniper,” 

stop putting this character 
on a pedestal. Chris Kyle as 
portrayed in “American Sniper” 
is 
a 
disturbed, 
conflicted 

individual. The viewer needs to 
separate the book and the film: 
these are two different media, 
from two different writers, 
with two different goals and 
two different results.

But even if appeals to the 

artistic intent of the work 
fall on deaf ears, perhaps 
a 
call 
for 
reason 
reaches 

you. Disagreement does not 
permit censorship. If you are 
uncomfortable with the film, 
then do not see it. Your dislike 
of some media should not 
permit others from partaking, 
and your opinion about that 
media does not supersede those 
of others; you are not infallible, 
yours is not the only opinion on 
this campus.

If you are truly unsettled 

by “American Sniper,” then 
you need to open a dialogue. 
In fact, the University should 
open a dialogue by hosting a 
speaker, following the film, 
to discuss at length both sides 
of the argument (somewhere 
other than UMix). That is how 
we exchange ideas; that is how 
we 
achieve 
understanding. 

Sweeping the film under the 
rug and pretending it never 
happened accomplishes nothing 
and, in a way, proves a little 
cowardly. How do you expect to 
actually foster discussion and 
understanding if you only wish 
to shut down the conversation 
before it even begins?

Whatever your thoughts on 

“American Sniper,” it’s impor-
tant to recognize that film and 
art are meant to foster debate 
and ideas, not to succumb to 
your individual, preconceived 
notions of right and wrong. 
Director Michael Haneke said, 
“The ideal film scene should 
force the spectator to look away 
… if you want to talk about a 
problematic topic, the film itself 
should do it justice.”

That we continue to have 

this debate proves that Clint 
Eastwood did at least some-
thing right in crafting his film. 
We can spout all this rhetoric 
about sensitivity or free speech 
or tolerance, but neither side 
can rightfully claim to represent 
those tenets without shutting up 
and listening to what the other 
has to say. And in fact, the major-
ity, even more than the minority, 
has an obligation to do so.

This is one of the best and 

brightest campuses in America 
— it’s about time we, the 
students, the administration, 
the teachers, all of us, start 
acting like it.

Open dialogue on 
‘Sniper’ needed

WARNER BROS

“I’ve got the talking bear in my sights.”

VICTORIOUS VOICES

UnCommonly righteous.

By AMELIA ZAK

Daily Music Editor

A generalization, by definition, 

is a sweeping statement or 
concept obtained by inference 
from specific cases. It is a word 
that refers to the process of using 
several personal anecdotes, or the 
collected experiences of others, to 
create an overarching statement 
or idea. The music industry holds 
a number of these abstractions. 
There’s the notion that rock 
music is dead, or that Spotify and 
Pandora are killing the industry, 
or that traditional record stores 
have virtually disappeared; the 
list is fundamentally endless. 
Enshrouded 
within 
these 

generalizations, however, is a 
kernel of truth.

Next Friday, April 17 at Hill 

Auditorium, 
when 
Antwaun 

Stanley and Brendan Asante and 
his musical collective Video 7 
take the stage to open for R&B 
and hip-hop legend Common, a 
few more generalizations will 
be left tarnished — perhaps 
even destroyed. In fact, Stan-
ley and Asante, in tandem with 
Common’s 
inevitably 
moving 

performance, will trump mul-
tiple routine assumptions of our 
apparently ill-fated music indus-
try. At a fair price and with the 
most genuine of intentions, their 
opening set won’t orbit around 
preconceived notions regarding 
stardom, money or overinflated 
levels of hype. These more mate-
rial elements are pertinent for 
heavy 
hip-hop 
performances. 

But not this concert nor it’s open-
ing set; this performance is set 
to transcend the classic form. 
Bouncing off the acoustically 
unequaled walls of Hill Auditori-
um, the music of these University 
of Michigan graduates will create 
a musical mural of hip hop, trap 
jazz and Motown, all with the 
intention of actualizing an envi-
ronment of emotion, energy and 
inspiration with their audience.

Stanley’s early introduction 

and successes in the music 
industry are almost prodigal. 
Born 
and 
raised 
in 
Flint, 

Michigan, it was at the age of 
three 
that 
Stanley’s 
mother 

noticed his impeccable capacity 
to carry and create a tune.

“The story goes that I was in 

the kitchen with my mom, sitting 
at a little kids table with its per-
fectly yellow chairs, and while 
she was cooking she was hum-
ming ‘Amazing Grace.’ She slowly 
stopped and noticed me sitting 
there and that all the while she 
was singing, I had started to hum 
along and create my own version 
of the song.”

From then on it was only a mere 

matter of time before the word of 
this incident and Stanley’s irre-
futable skill was disseminated 
through the local neighborhoods 
and community. The infatua-
tion for the young Stanley and 
his incredible skill moved from 
local to larger followings. Sony 
and Dreamworks signed Stanley 
before he eventually transferred 
to a Michigan record label.

“I had a wonderful manage-

ment team and eventually, so 
many years later, I was led to an 
independent label titled Bajada 
Records in Detroit,” Stanley 
humbly explained.

With Bajada Records, Stanley 

released his first independent 
gospel project, I Can Do Any-

thing, for which he was nomi-
nated as “Best New Artist” and 
“Best Music Video” in the 2008 
Stellar Awards, gospel music’s 
highest honor. Simultaneous to 
those successes, Stanley was a 
student here at the University 
pursuing a degree in Sociology 
and Music. His scholarly under-
takings remained imperative, but 
Stanley’s artistry never strayed 
from his collegiate mural. Groove 
Spoon was a college funk band 
that Stanley and other musically-
inclined students formed during 
their time. The group experi-
enced great levels of appreciation 
and success across campus, from 
house parties to the coveted slot 
as openers to President Barack 
Obama’s 2012 commencement 
speech. After college, Stanley’s 
talent threaded itself into numer-
ous other musical endeavors, 
expanding to contemporary funk 
and soul bands like Ann Street 
Soul and Vulfpeck.

“I’m interested in anything 

that feeds your soul. And that 
could be jazz, that could be 
hip hop or that could be gospel 
music,” Stanley elaborated. “I 
find myself stepping back and 
saying, ‘What kind of creativity 
do I have today?’ and that could 
mean anything. Maybe that’ll 
mean I’ll try a little jazz or a little 
pop or country. However it comes 
out. It’s good to broaden your 
mind because, when you do, you 
are able to collaborate with folks 
who have a completely different 
background musically. And that 
could at times have you produc-
ing something that would have 
maybe never come to life.”

Once the inspiration is found, 

Stanley flourishes. By entering 
every musical experience and 
performance as an excavator 
of inspiration, the structure of 
genres and the music industry as 
a whole is belittled, and maybe 
even diminished. This ability to 
instantly broaden his talents in 
the name of creativity has manu-
factured a musical chameleon 
with a particular zest for live per-
formances.

“Any time I go to a live show 

I leave with something — a 
piece of you is taken. You leave 
uplifted or empowered or ready 
to make a change. With live per-
formances, and this one in par-
ticular, we’re creating a theme 
of trying to see things in a bet-
ter light – I think that is this 
concert and it’s mindset, all still 
under the umbrella of hip hop,” 
he said.

The music and voices of 

the opening performance will 
surely do just that. Entering 
with their own genres and 
creations, next Friday’s stage is 
set to be ensconced with various 
musicians, 
instruments, 
and 

even one beloved Robert Hurst 
when Stanley and Brendan 
Asante’s Detroit based musical 
collective, Video 7 envelope the 
auditorium.

Brendan Asante, an Auburn 

Hills native of Ghanian descent, 
is a more recent graduate of the 
University who aided in the 
creation of the Video 7 collec-
tive here on campus over the 
past two years. Operating under 
the axiom ‘we don’t see genre, 
we just hear sound,’ Video 7 and 
Asante don’t want their artistry 
to just be seen or heard, they 
want it to be felt. Under numer-
ous artistic mediums like film, 

music and even app design, the 
collective has begun to expand 
into a collaborative force of 
musicians focusing on the feel-
ings associated with the experi-
ence of receiving music.

It’s easy to argue that this 

goal, the desire to make their 
music noticed and effective, is 
a high stakes mission. They’re 
asking for more than just placid 
consumption, they are looking 
to make an individual feel some-
thing, whatever that may be. 
That is a difficult task, surely, 
but when a group incorporates a 
harp surrounded by synthesiz-
ers in their live performances, 
instilling and inciting emotion 
doesn’t appear as burdensome.

“Whether it be music, film, 

app design, whatever, we’re 
trying to be innovative and 
turning all of it into an overall 
experience,” explained Asante. 
“Instead of being just automati-
cally processed because ‘soci-
ety’ can already make you like 
that. Video 7 is doing things 
that, well we are just trying to 
rewire the brain patterns a bit 
and soak up just as much as we 
can because it all feels new.”

Stanley and Video 7’s perfor-

mance can’t be categorized or 
predicted. Drawing on influenc-
es from the music anthologies of 
J Dilla, Detroit’s Motown music 
and modern hip hop, the set 
will be defined by the audience. 
They’ll bounce from the presen-
tation of classics and modern 
pieces, then into a more experi-
ential set where, upon the audi-
ence’s request, any song, sample 
or beat that the onstage band 
presents can be instantly trans-
formed with Video 7’s beats, 
their pre-recorded tracks, or by 
the very musicians onstage.

“J Dilla was an expert at 

inserting a groove into what-
ever he did. Whether it was his 
beats or his music, the groove 
was always infectious and got 
your head knocking. In this 
same form we’re going to be 
using the foundation of all the 
original beats but then tak-
ing those classics and pulling 
the rug out from under them,” 
Asante said.

Generalizations derail and 

distract. They are powerful, so 
potent, in fact, that they can 
misinform any ductile audience. 
But buried within each, embed-
ded in some nook or cranny of 
the idea, lies some semblance of 
truth. There’s the issue of the 
ever-powerful genre, for exam-
ple, and our society’s desire to 
categorize and define all music. 
Or the notion that most, if not 
all, live music performances 
need a certain level of hype or 
stardom in order to be truly 
effective. Surely both are true 
in some concert landscapes. 
But next weekend a jack-of-all-
trades talent who bypasses the 
structure of the genre to find 
the inspiration, Stanley, is set 
to collaborate with an amalga-
mation of artistry focused on 
innovation within the musical 
experience, 
Brendan 
Asante 

and his Video 7 music collec-
tive. Before hip-hop legend 
Common engulfs Hill Audito-
rium on April 17, one of gospel 
music’s chameleon talents and 
Asante’s assemblage of millen-
nial talents will crawl through 
and melodiously destroy the 
generalizations.

Common’s openers 
break musical molds

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