RG: Share with me your feelings on the profound effect that the music of Motown has had on your life.
AW: There are a lot of eras that produced great music, great performers and great people. I think Motown is so profound for me because it was a part of the Civil Rights Movement. Motown turned out 100-plus hit songs right from the onset at a time when Blacks were virtually invisible on the radio. We had what they called 'race records.' We could be played in certain areas. Our films could be shown in certain theatres. Performers can perform in certain theatres where Whites did not perform or did not go, and that all led up to what Motown laid down. If Motown had not come, there's a possibility that Alyson Williams would not be where I am today. I am so thankful, and I'm glad that I came up in that era. I don't have anything against the 1970s and the 1980s....My records came out in the late 80s - early 90s, but thank God that I was born in the 1960s, and I was able to reap the benefits of having the music of Motown in my DNA!
RG: What are your thoughts on the current state of R&B/Soul music compared to years past?
AW: I don't know if we have enough music now that is going to stay with us the way the music of Motown has stayed. I personally think that if I knew that there was a group of people that thought to make it possible for me to be able to be heard on the radio, I'd be more careful of what I put on the radio. Right now, it's almost like I will turn on the radio one day and hear somebody just straight cussing! (Both laugh) I'm sure it's going to get to that point because we're so close to alluding to profanity as verbs, adverbs and nouns until it's only a matter of time before that's just going to be how we speak as a nation, and it's sad because there are a group of people that work hard to raise the standard in a positive and respectful manner, so that we would not be looked upon as 'savages,' 'niggers' and things with that negative conotation.
What we don't seem to realize is that because we're so busy 'keeping it real,' that when we open our mouths and those are the things that come out all the time, then we are 'low' and 'savage-like.' People who have an education of any kind - and I'm not saying you have to go get a whole bunch of Degrees - but people who have a certain decorum about themselves don't speak like that. We all cuss from time to time, and don't get me wrong, I do too (Both laugh), but we don't use it as my every other word. That is where I see a lot of today's R&B music going to, in my opinion. We just take so many chances, like 'We've got to have both an explicit version and a clean version; We've got to have someone on the record.' It's like everything fits where it fits. There's an audience who wants that, but it doesn't have to be everywhere just for you to sell some records. I think a lot of times that people say 'Oh I gotta have somebody who's doing that type of music or presentation because that's what is going to sell.' Your music should stand on it's own!
www.alysonwilliams.com
(Interview conducted Thursday, 2/9/2K12 at Carnegie Hall, New York City; Motown music tribute)
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