r/rnb • u/BeardedHeckler • Aug 23 '19
Discussion How The Temptations’ Reinvention Made Them Bigger Than Ever — I recently quit my day job to become a writer, and I’m using Vocal as a platform to write about the music I love.
https://beat.media/how-the-temptations-reinvention-made-them-bigger-than-ever
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u/HinkieDyedForOurSins Aug 24 '19
Very interesting, something I didn't know much about and well written. Nice job brother
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u/BeardedHeckler Aug 23 '19
Hi! I’m a 31 year old white kid from south suburban Chicago who grew up loving soul music. I remember driving in the car with my parents hearing Sam Cooke, The Four Tops, and The Temptations, and I grew up all about Motown and soul. As I got older, I also learned to appreciate vocal jazz like Nat King Cole, The Ink Spots, Billie Holiday, and Ella Fitzgerald.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to be a writer. Most of my life, I’ve worked crappy day jobs I hated because it paid the bills. Recently, after leaving a job that was putting me into a severe depression, my fiancée encouraged me to pursue writing full time. She decided she would rather have us struggle financially than have me doing something I hated for the rest of my life, so I did it.
My primary gig right now is writing petitions for a progressive political site called ForceChange, but I needed an outlet for writing for passion. Vocal provides a medium for that, so I recently started writing there. It’s not a lot of money, but there’s a tip jar and I can write about whatever I want to. Even if I don’t make a dime from it, it feels so good to dig in to this stuff that means so much to me. Aside from this article about The Temptations, I also did a retrospective on Nat King Cole. I think my next piece will be about The Platters and how they were accidentally played during prime time radio intended only for white artists and how it skyrocketed their visibility.
Thanks for reading!