Answer: Because the hip-hop and rap has taken over
One day, I decided to google “the biggest spoken word event” and the results amazed me. It didn’t surprise me to see that mainly urban communities recognized this art. Russell Simmons created the idea with DefPoetry Jam and it became a success, where many popular artist had the opportunity to perform on the stage. Spoken word on the big stage was uncommon at the time. Why does it seem so difficult to get the elements of the art such as poetry on big film? It seems as if America is completely not interested in hearing poetry in movies. You see dance movies all the time. Classical music is imported into romantic or horror films, yet poetry is left in the dark. Although the art of spoken word is not supported on the big screen, mainly because citizens are more focused on hip-hop, the urban community has embraced it. As a result of it spoken word lounges are widely supported throughout the urban communities, utilizing different venues such as coffee houses and small clubs since that’s the market of the urban audience.
I believe it has a lot to do with the similarity and popularity of hip hop. It’s almost like Cotemporary America doesn’t appreciate the foundation of the arts. Once poetry gets to a certain level of popularity, it’s turned into hip-hop. Poetry or spoken word has been left out of mainstream entertainment while women imagery as sex items has continually increased. I don’t think the art of poetry is really advertised on the big screen because it’s hidden in hip-hop.
Poetry is seen as a way to sequence words to relay a specific message to the audience. A lot of these spoken word pieces are words of wisdom, hope and relevant knowledge that the audience love. For example: P4CM is growing to be the largest spoken word event in the Christian arena. So why wouldn’t the entertainment industry adapt this form of art. It appears that American citizens are only interested in drama television or reality shows and popular music. But I wonder what will happen to entertainment if spoken word was to reach the box office. How would America relate to the arts on that level of entertainment? I might be the one with that genius idea.
Overall, I believe that this type of art isn’t advertised in the big screen because hip-hop is the primary focus of the entertainment industry.
Good luck!
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