Music During the 1960s and 1970s, music paralleled black identity and culture. The early 1960s consisted of freedom music, a direct descendant of
gospel music. This genre was aimed at building strong relationships during difficult times by connecting people.
Sam Cooke and
Freedom Singers are an example of these artists. The late 1960s to early 1970s consisted of
soul music which tied in with historical macro events such as:
Middle Civil Rights Movement,
Great Society,
Vietnam War, and
Black Power. Soul music encourages everyone to be happy. Some influential artists during this time were
James Brown,
the Supremes,
Aretha Franklin,
Marvin Gaye, and
Stevie Wonder. Next, the mid-1970s consisted of
funk music. These songs were political and group focused. Some of these artists include
Earth Wind and Fire,
Sly and the Family Stone,
Parliament Funkadelic,
Kool & The Gang,
Labelle, and
Chaka Khan. Finally, the middle to late 1970s consisted of
disco which was essentially peppy
dance music. Stand out artists include
Gloria Gaynor,
Sister Sledge,
Diana Ross, and
Donna Summer. Within these genres, there are themes of
self-determination, racial pride, and having fun.
Sparkle captured all these themes as it spans musical genres and all the songs were adapted to the sound of the times.
Aretha Franklin had a large role with the music that was featured in the film and recorded the hit soundtrack album
Sparkle. The other songs in the film were written by Curtis Mayfield.
Gender and sexuality While analyzing gender and sexuality, the black female protagonists in this film can easily be compared to the women in
Cleopatra Jones and
Coffy. Unlike these films, however,
Sparkle's protagonists do not come out on top in the same way as Cleopatra Jones (
Tamara Dobson) and Coffy Coffin (
Pam Grier) do. Compared to Coffy and Cleo, these women are much more conservative in their looks and manner. Regarding female empowerment, their physical appearance is the only major attribute they have, and they use it as a tool and their only weapon. Both Coffy and Cleo had men and actual weapons at their disposal to use alongside their physical appearance. Going off of this, the sisters are much weaker when looking at female empowerment, especially when compared to Coffy and Cleo. Jacquie Jones' essay,
Construction of Black Sexuality, points out how "the Black male character, as defined through his sexual behavior, is not able to overcome the problematic [sic] of domination, which begins with a denial of dependency. Instead, the Black male character can only define himself through violent separateness" (250). One very disturbing scene in the film is when Sister Williams (McKee) and her boyfriend Satin Struthers (
Tony King) are lying together on a bed. To keep a coat she hasn't satisfactorily been thankful enough for, Sister is ordered by Satin to crawl. Sister does not think he is serious. Satin begins to punch Sister brutally. When Sister goes to her next performance, her other sisters Sparkle (Cara) and Delores (Smith) realize that she has been beaten (again) by Satin. They encourage her to leave him but she just brushes off the violence as no big deal; she believes she can just cover up the bruises with makeup and all will be better.
Darlene Clark Hine's
A Shining Thread of Hope brought up the fact that after women joined the Black Power movements, men felt less of themselves, as they could not protect and support their families as forcefully. Hine states that "the Black Power movement reacted to this reality with an extreme emphasis on masculinity and an expectation that women would assume traditional female roles as a way of supporting black manhood. And yet, women in these organizations actually managed to make greater progress in some ways than they had in more traditional civil rights groups" (298). The reading also addresses 1976 as a time when things started to change in regard to sexual harassment as a crime. This all relates to black women and their position of power. "The terrible reality of their oppression by men of their own color […] was personal and political dynamite" (302). Bringing this all together, Satin might have felt dominated by Sister and her success/potential success. It is unfortunate that Sister decides to brush it off but this goes with how she did not want to "light the fuse" of oppression by black men on black women. Complicating this reasoning is the fact that Satin had previously brutalized a woman ("Taylor") he'd been seeing who posed no enduring threat to his masculinity. "Blaxploitation films are notable for the ways they frequently situate "normative" black male identity amongst a variety of ideological "others" (women, homosexuals, other ethnicities) whose presence cannot simply be seen to solidify black manhood."
Black Power / blaxploitation The 1970s and the
Women's Movement provide context for Black films like
Sparkle. During this time,
Title IX was instated and provided scholarships for female college athletes. In addition, the
Equal Rights Amendment of 1972 was a victory for women's suffrage that helped build a dialogue for black women and black women in films. Drugs, the
Mafia, self-determination, and the ghetto are all apparent themes in
Sparkle.
Black Power in
Sparkle is interesting in that there are no positive black male figures in the film. Every man is using women for things like sex, success, and their own selfish reasons. At one point, Jones even addresses black male sexuality and how they assume the role of a white man to achieve power over women. Going off of this, whites in this film are on the periphery and the focus is on the inner struggle between blacks. An example of this is the relationship between Sister and her boyfriend. Satin is an abusive man towards Sister who is involved with drugs and the Mafia. He is the source for all of Sister's struggles as he pushes her into doing drugs and making her feel helpless as he beats her time and time again. Delores is an example of self-determination as she sees her sister Sister struggling, which makes her realize that she needs to leave town and do things for herself. She is strong and independent enough to pick everything up and leave town, striving for a decent future. According to the Senior Vice President of Programming for
IFC and
Bravo Frances Berwick, "
Blaxploitation films were some of the most experimental and daring films to come out of both the independent film scene and the studio system, [and] is one of the most ignored and under-appreciated." Blaxploitation includes several sub-types, musical being one of them, and where
Sparkle fits in. ==Reception==