Steveland Judkins Morris, more commonly known as Stevie Wonder, remains to this day one of the most talented and innovative people to have left his mark in the music industry. Wonder grew up in Saginaw, Michigan, and signed with Motown Records in 1961 at the age of eleven. He quickly became a Motown superstar – the combination of his novelty aesthetic, raw instrumental talent and upbeat stage presence brought him acclaim. Yet his music at Motown was derivative of that of other Motown artists, as Berry Gordy, Motown's CEO, was committed to strict respectability and quality control policies when it came to sound and image of its artists. As a result, Wonder's musical creativity was constantly neglected and stifled, as Gordy was unable to make creative leaps with his artists – continually falling back on the formula he had established. By the early '70s, Wonder was ready for more freedom. At the age of 21, he was released from his original contract with Motown and was able to renegotiate it, ensuring greater artistic freedom. By renegotiating his contract with Motown, Stevie Wonder set a precedent for other Motown artists to fight against the creative freedom of the restrictive company, the importance of which is demonstrated through the innovations in pop music that quickly came from Wonder and other Motown artists who reexamined their contracts. Say no to plagiarism. Get a custom essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essay Before Wonder made the bold decision to renegotiate his contract, he and other Motown artists were entirely under the control of Gordy, creatively and financially. Motown's overall priority was to create music that appealed to all races and moved from black radio to pop stations. In Mark Ribowsky's insightful biography of 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. » When it came to production, editing and performance, the artists and their music were strictly controlled by quality control systems. The music was first given to a company-appointed musical director, such as Gene Kees, who took it to Motown, where it was recorded and arranged. They would bring in the artist afterwards to record: giving them no creative control. And, once the music was created, it was sent to advisors who would critique or approve it. The music itself contained only light lyrics, usually in the form of love songs. Wonder's early Motown music exemplifies this. His first number one hit, "Fingertips, Part 2", is a pop call-and-response song, in which he asks the crowd to "clap their hands a little louder". The Holland-Dozier-Holland producing team produced the majority of Motown's music with the crossover specifications given by Gordy in mind. To meet the demands of crossover, many Motown artists underwent serious branding. The Supremes were "the Motown lovers" with their smooth, straight, polished looks, and Stevie Wonder was "Little Stevie Wonder": the cute "familiar kind of blind man" (1390) who could sing. Ribowsky described Wonder's branding as "cynical", saying that it "undersold Stevie's talent" (1390). Ribowsky's strong opinions certainly fit the treatmentreserved for Wonder at Motown. Even Motown producer and songwriter Clarence Paul was quoted as 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 “Little Stevie Wonder” persona. As an adult, he was just Stevie Wonder. As Wonder grew older, his desire for greater musical freedom increased, leading him to renegotiate his contract with Motown after he turned 21. In his initial contract, drawn up when he was just 11 years old, Wonder earned a 2% royalty on the street price of his recordings sold by Motown. Berry Gordy Jr. Enterprises took 25% of the total revenue and billed Wonder for the recording fee. What was even more upsetting for Wonder was that he had absolutely no creative control over his music. Critic Adam White noted that "Gordy's company was a start-up, looking for every income opportunity in an industry where capital was elusive and risks, especially for a black businessman , were high. » So, Gordy's practices made sense given the circumstances, but they didn't work for Wonder. On May 21, 1971, Motown was entitled to give him access to the royalties he had earned over the past ten years. While Wonder had sold approximately thirty-five million records, entitling him to at least $3.5 million on his birthday, only one million was in the trust fund in which Motown kept its royalties. greater creative freedom, led Wonder not to sign a new contract. He moved to New York and began working on new material. Despite offers from CBS Records, he ultimately decided to resign from Motown, but 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 agonizing." But the new 21-page contract was revolutionary for Wonder: It renewed his recording contract, increased his musician royalty rate to 14 percent, gave him full artistic control over his own music, gave him his own publishing company and granted him an advance of more than $900,000. These terms 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 that Wonder was now free to take and the success he found with them, namely Synthesized tropes, have had a major influence on pop music from the 70s to the present day. When releasing the first music synthesizer sold in stores, Wonder took full advantage of Moog and TONTO6 synths, but never used the synths to replace strings. This led to a new use of the synthesizer: enhancing and deepening the musical spatial field. His first album after the renegotiation was Music of My Mind in 1972. Unlike Motown, where usually the Funk Brothers or other session musicians were recorded on his tracks, Wonder played almost every instrument on Music of My Mind. In his album Inversions, Wonder explored political and social themes in his music, demonstrating a talent as a songwriter that he was unable to exploit at Motown. Looking at modern music, we can see these trends reflected. Artists are often the headhunters of their own careers. For many, the music they create is of utmost importance. In terms of specific elements of Wonder's music, the stylistic choices of his.