Stevie Wonder and The Innovations He Brought in Pop Music

Steveland Judkins Morris, more commonly known as Stevie Wonder, to this day remains one of the most talented and innovative people to have made their mark upon the music industry. Wonder grew up in Saginaw, Michigan, and was signed to Motown Records in 1961 at eleven years old. He soon became a Motown superstar — the combination of his novelty act aesthetic, raw instrumental talent, and upbeat stage presence earned him acclaim. And yet, his music at Motown was derivative of other Motown artists, because Berry Gordy, CEO of Motown, engaged in strict respectability politics and quality control policies when it came to the sound and image of his artists. As a result, Wonder’s musical creativity was consistently overlooked and stifled, as Gordy was unable to take creative leaps with his artists — continually falling back on the formula he’d put in place. By the early 70’s, Wonder was ready for more freedom. When he turned 21, he was liberated from his original Motown contract and was able to renegotiate, securing more artistic freedom. Through the renegotiation of his contract with Motown, Stevie Wonder set the precedent for other Motown artists to wrestle creative freedom from the restrictive company, the importance of which is shown through the innovations in pop music that soon came from Wonder and the other Motown artists who re-addressed their contracts.

Before Wonder made the bold move to renegotiate his contract, he and other Motown artists were completely under Gordy’s control, creatively and financially. The overall Motown priority was to create music that appealed to all races and cross over from black radio to pop stations. In Mark Ribowsky’s opinionated biography on Stevie Wonder, Signed, Sealed, and Delivered, he reflects on these musical priorities, and recounts how Gordy once explained: “Motown never released a blues record… all Motown records were pop records.” In regards to production, publishing, and performance, artists and their music were strictly controlled through quality control systems. Music was first brought to a company assigned music director, like Gene Kees, who would take it to Motown, where it would be recorded and arranged. They would bring the artist in after to record: giving them no creative oversight. And, after music was made, it would be sent off to advisors who would critique or approve it. The music itself contained only light-hearted lyrics typically in the form of love songs. Wonder’s early music at Motown is indicative of this. His first Number One hit, “Fingertips, Part 2,” is a poppy call-and-response song, where he asks the crowd to “clap their hands just a little bit louder.” Producer team Holland-Dozier-Holland produced a majority of Motown’s music with crossover specifications given by Gordy in mind. To fulfill the crossover requirements, many Motown artists underwent serious branding. The Supremes were “Motown’s sweethearts” with their sweet, straight-laced, polished look, and Stevie Wonder was “Little Stevie Wonder”: the cute “familiar kind of blind act” (1390) who could sing. Ribowsky described Wonder’s branding as “cynical,” claiming it “undersold Stevie’s talent” (1390). Ribowsky’s strong opinions are certainly on target with Wonder’s treatment at Motown. Even Clarence Paul, Motown producer and song-writer, was quoted saying that Gordy’s manipulation of Wonder was excessive. In fact, Gordy wanted to drop Wonder from the label when he hit puberty. His changing voice no longer filled the persona of “Little Stevie Wonder.” As an adult, he was just Stevie Wonder.

As Wonder got older, his desire for greater musical freedom increased, leading him to renegotiate his Motown contract after turning 21. In his initial contract, drafted when he was just 11, Wonder was earning a 2% royalty on the retail price of his recordings sold by Motown. Berry Gordy Jr. Enterprises took 25% of total earnings, and billed Wonder for recording costs. More upsetting to Wonder was that he had absolutely no creative oversight of his music. Critic Adam White noted that “Gordy’s enterprise was a start-up, looking for every income opportunity in a sector where capital was elusive and risks, particularly for a black businessman, were high.” Thus, Gordy’s practices made sense given the circumstances but they didn’t work for Wonder. On Wonder’s 21st, May 13th, 1971, Motown was entitled to give him access to the royalties he’d earned for the past ten years. While Wonder had sold around thirty-five million records, entitling him to at least $3.5 million on his birthday, only one-million was in the trust-fund that Motown had been keeping his royalties in. This slight, along with the fervent desire for more creative freedom, led Wonder to hold off on signing a new contract. He moved to New York and began working on new material. Despite offers from CBS Records, he eventually decided to resign with Motown, however this time, he was represented by Jonathan Vigoda. An intelligent and determined lawyer, Vigoda played a major role in Wonder’s acquisition of artistic freedom. In his autobiography, Gordy described these negotiations as “grueling and nerve-wracking”. But the new 21-page contract was revolutionary for Wonder: renewing his recording deal, improving his musician royalty rate to 14%, granting him full artistic control over his own music, giving him his own publishing company, and allotting him an advance of over $900,000. These conditions were unheard of for a Motown contract at the time, and when other artists heard of what Wonder had accomplished, many were inspired to follow suit.

The musical risks Wonder was now free to take, and the success he found with them, namely synth tropes, have had a major influence on pop music from the 70’s to the modern-day. As the first music synthesizer to be sold in stores was released, Wonder took full advantage of Moog and TONTO synths,6 but never used the synths to replace strings. This led to a new use for the synthesizer: to enhance and deepen the musical spatial field. His first release post-renegotiation was Music of My Mind in 1972. Unlike at Motown, where typically, the Funk Brothers or other studio musicians were recorded on his tracks, Wonder played nearly every instrument on Music of My Mind. In his album Inversions, Wonder explored political and social themes in his music, demonstrating a song-writing talent he was unable to exploit at Motown. Looking at modern music, one can see these trends reflected. Artists are quite often the headhunters of their own careers. For many, the music they make has significant importance to them. In terms of specific elements of Wonder’s music, stylistic choices in his 70’s work, including innovative synth tropes, have influenced future generations ranging to the present. John Legend has cited Wonder’s vocal phrasing and restraint as the basis for his 2010 album Wake Up! Erykah Badu’s chord changes and funk grooves have been attributed to Wonder as well. In terms of tropes, Kendrick Lamar used his rhodes and synth bass trope, Dr. Dre utilized synth leads, Paul McCartney used clavinet tropes, Prince used synth vamps, and Hiatus Kaiyote cited Wonder as the inspiration for the harmonic jazz tensions in much of their work. It is notable how, despite the clearly different genres of these artists, Wonder’s creative influence shines through. Wonder is also one of the most sampled artists of all time: artists including MJ, Donny Hathaway, Chaka Khan, Busta Rhymes, Beyonce, John Legend, George Michael, Will Smith, and more.

Wonder’s success in his renegotiations gave other artists the push they needed to think about their own creative freedom. Smokey Robinson, Diana Ross, The Jackson 5, The Temptations, and The Four Tops all left Motown in the early 70’s. Artists like Marvin Gaye and Michael Jackson had very similar associations with Motown leading into the 70’s. Marvin Gaye’s experience was very influential to Wonder. Gaye was feeling creatively stifled by Motown’s strict policies at the end of the 1960’s. He wanted to express important and meaningful issues in his lyrics. Gordy was admittedly afraid of this: in his autobiography, he recounted telling Gaye “you’ve got this great, sexy image, and you’ve got to protect it.” He didn’t want Gaye putting out anything that could be controversial. But Gaye managed to get his way, and went on to release some of the most profound protest music of the decade through Motown. Moving away from the hit-factory mentality, in his album “What’s Going On,” he sang of the pains of ghetto life, religion, the Vietnam war, and examined the harshness of reality and apprehension for the future. His music is a landmark of social commentary, leaving a legacy of the power of music to promote social change. Wonder saw this and went a step further fully renegotiating his contract, challenging the company that had controlled his career for a decade. The Jackson 5 were also motivated to acquire artistic freedom from Motown. Unlike Gaye and Wonder, however, they wound up leaving Motown. They signed with Epic, an imprint of CBS, and held a press conference to announce and explain their leaving Motown. Jackie Jackson explained how in trying to renegotiate terms, they couldn’t get the figures they deserved: “the figures, they was just Mickey Mouse.” With their newfound artistic freedom, the Jackson 5 went on to continue their commercial success, and later, Michael Jackson’s solo career made him a pop icon. His approach to music, dance, fashion, and charity were utterly unique and influential. Namely, the inclusive approach he took to music, combining soul, r&b, rock, and disco (among other elements) was unlike anything seen before. His stage persona pecifically his fashion and his dance moves gained him extensive adoration and resulted in exciting, entertaining music videos. One of which, “Billie Jean,” ended blatant racial discrimination by MTV in the 80’s.

While the renegotiation of a contract may not initially seem like a revolutionary occurrence, Wonder’s fight for creative freedom has had tremendous influence on many aspects of the music business. His musical and commercial success after leaving Motown showed other artists that it was possible to be both authentic and successful. While Gordy was always afraid of going outside-the-box, Wonder found success in the unique. Perhaps Wonder would not have found success without Motown, as Gordy’s focus on getting artists to the pop charts was effective. But Wonder’s unique talent and creative energy suggests this is not the case. And now, in the modern music industry, artists have far more control and knowledge regarding their creative and financial affairs. This may have been a trend that would have developed without Wonder, but he was certainly one of the catalysts for this movement in the 70’s. And perhaps, that’s why the music industry looks the way it does today.