As I tutor on the Art of English course, I am always interested by the topic of creativity. A few incidents in the "Muscle Shoals" film struck me.
One was that Aretha Franklin had been recognised as a talented singer for some time before she was successful but she seemed to work in an inappropriate genre for a long time before she really found the type of music that enabled her to really create. There was an incident in the film where many musicians were trying things out and getting nowhere until the keyboard player made a breakthrough. I suppose this was the creative spark that the others needed. So, it was a cognitive spark but needed to be done in a social setting.
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Hi Patrick, i have not seen the film you mention, so I am curious to know, when you say inappropriate genre. Do you mean her church choir singing, you know God and all that sort of thing?New comment
No. She was shown as singing rather slushy ballads. I do not know much about this but it seems that her earlier records were not the gospel type and presumably the gospel influence would have been important in her later records.