Stevie Wonder Prodigy in the Dark Term Paper

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Blind since birth, Stevie Wonder went on to become one of the world’s most renowned musicians. Steveland Hardaway Morris (nee Judkins) was born in 1950, and by the age of eleven had already signed with Motown Records. His fate sealed as a child prodigy and a budding soul, rhythm and blues star, the next several decades of his career brought “Little Stevie Wonder” increasingly into the mainstream spotlight. By the 1980s, Stevie Wonder had become a fully-fledged pop star, with more than twenty Grammy awards under his belt, an Academy Award, a Lifetime Achievement Award, and an induction into the Rock and Roll hall of fame (“Famous People with Visual Impairments,” n.d.). Being blind did not make Stevie Wonder any more famous than he would have been otherwise, just as being blind would never have prevented him from making his mark on the world.

Early Years

Stevie Wonder was born prematurely, causing the retinopathy that led to his blindness (Huey, n.d.). When little Stevie was four years old, his family moved from Saginaw, Michigan to Detroit and almost instantly Stevie began to show a predilection towards music. He became the junior deacon and sang solo in the Whitestone Baptist Church, and even harbored dreams of becoming a minister (Weisman, 1985). However, Wonder’s reach would be far broader than the ecclesiastical community. Wonder did infuse his music with the passion and power of gospel, though, never removing the deep spiritual dimension that ignites his songs.

Playing numerous instruments with panache, including harmonica, drums, and piano by the age of nine, Stevie started to play for secular crowds and thereby earned himself an instant reputation in the supportive musical community of Detroit (Huey, n.d.). Ronnie White of the Miracles takes credit for “discovering” the nine year-old prodigy, helping Stevie get an audition with Motown’s maestro Berry Gordy (Huey, n.d.). The rest was history; Gordy immediately signed Stevie under the name Little Stevie Wonder and his first albums were released on the Motown label in 1962.

Perhaps inevitably, Stevie Wonder admired Ray Charles. With an older and substantially famous blind African-American role model to remind him of the power of sound in a sightless world, Stevie was perhaps better equipped to overcome the type of self-doubt that might have otherwise plagued him. One of the first albums he released on Motown was in fact called A Tribute to Uncle Ray, in which Stevie Wonder performs cover songs of his idol. Stevie also released an orchestral arrangement of songs on the album The Jazz Soul of Little Stevie. Yet it was not until the 1963 live album The 12 Year Old Genius was released that the world took note of the prodigy in the dark. The album featured the song “Fingertips,” an instrumental harmonica song so infused with Wonder’s “irresistible, youthful exuberance” that it actually propelled Motown Records into new territory (Huey, n.d.

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). Then puberty hit, and with it, the inevitable change to vocal range. Motown nearly dropped Little Stevie from their roster but other artists believed in his staying power and committed to working with him even if it meant waiting a few years before his next hit record might come out…

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…to have a knack for writing songs that appealed as much to musicians as to a general audience. Being able to deftly transform musical prowess into popular songs might not give Stevie Wonder credit as an underground sensation, but as one who builds bridges between disparate worlds. What he cannot see with his eyes he understood with his heart. When on his 21st birthday he broke with Motown Records, Stevie Wonder “was no longer content to release albums composed of hit singles and assorted filler,” (Huey, n.d., p. 1). He knew that being a pop star would provide little satisfaction and no endurance, detracting from his core spiritual beliefs. His passion for making the medium the message fueled Wonder, who honed his personal style in a way that had mass appeal but without pandering.

The Double-Edged Sword

Stevie Wonder’s visual impairment seems to have had little bearing on how society viewed him, how musicians or producers treated him, and how he saw himself. If anything, being blind meant that Stevie Wonder was more capable of achieving his goals as a musician. His admirably positive attitude belies what Wonder must have actually gone through as a child and adolescent in Detroit, and even as an adult. It would have been impossible for Stevie Wonder to have never experienced hardship, but hardship never defined him. Stevie Wonder never focuses on his blindness as an impediment, inspiring both sighted and the visually impaired to see past their perceived limitations and fulfill their highest potential. If being blind does heighten other means of sensory perception, then for Stevie it also….....

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