Week 9

As the "melting pot" of the world, America has integrated numerous traditions and ideas from vastly different regions into its culture. Bringing with them their unique ideas and ways of life, the immigrants, who attempted to maintain an essence of their culture while also adapting to their new life styles, should be credited with transforming and ultimately creating our current American culture. Yet what is our current American culture? Is there one specific type of food, dance, and music that everybody enjoys and believes to be a part of their culture? As I can not think of anything, whether food item or type of music, that is uniformily enjoyed and accepted as a part of everybody's culture, I believe that the best way to represent the American culture is to say just that - that in order to understand it one needs to understand all its different sides and dimensions. Ethnomusicology is not simply the study of music as a sound that we find appealing, but an approach to music that looks at the political, historical, and social contexts.
As this is a very large task to perform for all American music, I would examine Country, Rock, and Hip Hop music as separate genres which I believe to be well represented in American homes and culture. I would provide a brief overview of the genre's history as well as a discussion on contemporary music.

With its roots in old-time music, folk music, Celtic music, gospel music and the blues, Country music is truly the "peoples' music." As gospel music usually has lyrics of a religious nature and the blues was originally brought by slaves to Southern United States where they used it to voice their struggles, Country music is full of emotion and essential in order to understand American culture. I would also play them "Flosom Prison Blues" from Johnny Cash as it reached so much popularity when it came out and is still widely recognized. Johnny Cash sold over 50 million albums in his nearly 50 year career and a movie covering his life actually just came out not too long ago.

Rock and Roll includes several subgenres and its influence has been so far-reaching that it has had a significant impact worldwide on fashion, film, styles, and attitudes toward sex and drugs. It has impacted numerous individuals to such an extent that Rock and Roll is actually often considered a lifestyle. I would play "You ain't nothing but a hound dog" by Elvis Presley or the "king of rock 'n' roll" and "Teenage Wasteland" by The Who. While "You ain't nothing but a hound dog" is known by people of all ages and is repeatedly featured in the media, it is not as heavy or loud as many of the rock songs that make up rock music today and it has a noticeably different sound as well. Because of this I would also include "Teenage Wasteland" which is one of my personal favorite songs and with its focus on the electric guitar and its lyrics that comment on society and life today, it proves to be a good representation of rock music.

Hip Hop was developed in urban communities starting in the 1970s predominantly by African Americans. Today however, hip hop is enjoyed by a large and diverse public. Because of its popularity and its effect on thousands of people, I believe it necessary to talk about hip hop in my presentation. The importance of hip hop in the lives of many individuals can be detected by the countless movies that have come out featuring dance and dance competitions. As shown in these movies, such as "In the Mix" which is solely about Usher and his music, hip hop is often times not just something that is performed and forgotten once off the stage, it too can often be considered a lifestyle. I believe I would play "Yea" for them by Usher because it employs repetition in its beats, similar sound in verses, and employs a catchy tune which people find easy to dance to which greatly characterizes hip hop music.

My overall outline would look like:

I. Introduction
America's history and how it has been greatly influenced by other cultures

II. Country Music
1. Background
2. Contemporary music
ex- Johnny Cash- "Folsom Prison Blues"

III. Rock and Roll Music
1. Backround
2. Contemporary music
ex- Elvis Presley's "You ain't nothing but a hound dog" and The Who's "Teenage Wasteland"

III. Hip Hop
1. Background
2. Contemporary music
ex- Usher's "Yea"

Week 8

Looking through my iTunes for an artist whose music/style I felt I could analyze, I came across Phil Collins and realized that I had found what I was looking for. I'm going to focus on his song "You'll Be In My Heart" because there is so much to say about this song alone. This song is greatly known because it was in the Disney movie "Tarzan" and; thus, it has a very mellow and calming overall sound, uses an extremely wide variety of instruments, and even employs call and response, which is especially discernable at the end of the song when Collins sings "just look over your shoulder" and the trumpet appears to repeat this same phrase after him. Singing "you'll be in my heart from this day on now and forever more," Collins earns a place for himself in the hearts of the public who are not only touched by these sweet lyrics but who are also swayed by the relaxing sound of his voice and the many instruments that combine and become one. The wide variety of instrumention present in this song also allows for a very diverse population to identify with his music as voice, drums, trumpets, guitars, a piano and rattles are all employed. In "Tarzan" this song was used to show that despite how different Tarzan was to his adoptive mother gorilla and the rest of the population he found himself growing up with, in the end he still had hands and most importantly a heart like all of them; thus, they were ultimately all the same. By including all of these different instruments whose roles vary so drastically from culture to culture, I think this song by itself communicates the idea that we are all united despite our differences.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3n1zFwyj8FE

Week 7

On Monday we finished watching Latcho Drom and since I better understood what was going on in the film, I enjoyed watching this second half more than I had enjoyed watching the first part. The first scene we watched on Monday had two men singing and playing a song under a tree. One man was playing a violin with a bow and occasionally pulling one of the strings to make a very distinct sound which I found to be very interesting because it wasn't like anything I had heard before. The other man was playing a santur. After this we went to the village where a man playing a violin came out of his house with a couple of people following him. After that another man came out of his house playing a flute and an accordion player followed not far behind. The street was full in no time and everybody was enjoying the music, whether it was by clapping and dancing to it, or simply by listening. I felt as if this scene greatly demonstrated how music could bring people together.
The second scene took place in a train station where a young boy sitting on the bench with his mother gazed over to the Roma people who were also waiting on the other side of the tracks and gave one of them 3 coins so that they would perform for him and his mother as it was customary to do at that time. The man gave the boy his money back and began to play without hesitation. I really enjoyed watching this scene because it was so lively and joyous. Here they used a violin with a bow, a vase-like instrument which was used as a drum and spoons placed back to back. That was not all however as much of their music was created by their bodies as they snapped, clapped, and jumped continuously. The boy really enjoyed this music and began to dance right away. This was my favorite part of the movie because even though the scene had appeared so solemn at the beginning with the young boy and his mother quietly waiting on one side of the tracks and the Roma people keeping to themselves on the other side, the boy, with no other thought than that of listening to good music united the two distant groups under one common song - under one common music culture.

Week 6

In class we watched the film "Latcho Drom" which depicts the journey of the nomadic people who traveled from the northern part of South Asia into the Middle East and Europe. As they traveled, they experienced different cultures and consequently different types of music, all of which the "gypsies" quickly picked up. In the celebration they had under the full moon, the women played small finger cymbals while they sang. These finger cymbals were also used in the dance that was performed in Egypt, however, they appeared to play a larger role in this dance than in the other one. The drum was also played in all three of the celebrations, though the way in which it was played was by no means identical. While the drum was played with sticks in Egypt, in their celebration under the moon and in the teahouse in Istanbul the drum was played rapidly with their fingertips. The instrument that stands out most in my mind resembles the Chinese erhu or two-stringed silk chordophone. Even though it differed greatly with the change of location, the Rebaba was prominent in the celebration under the moon as well as in Egypt. In Egypt, the head of this instrument was relatively small and both the older men and the small boy were continuously playing it. The takht ensemble that played in the teahouse in Istanbul, Turkey, featured many Western instruments as well as the 'Ud, Qanun, and Riqq. The director Tony Gatlif used the children to demonstrate how the "gypsies" absorbed the different music cultures they encountered into their music. The children were always watching and imitating what was going on around them and by doing so they learned about the different people's culture and integrated it into their own. I really enjoyed this video because it demonstrated how an individual's culture and identity is shaped by all of their experiences and is not specifically bound or determined.

Since music and film are a major form of expression, they can often disclose a lot about society and its stance on various issues. This is extremely evident in the outpour of songs that were dedicated or that touched on the 9/11 incident. This tragedy along with President Bush's decision to declare war on Iraq, truly affected the entire American population. The song that stands out the most in my mind is the song "When I'm Gone" by 3 Doors Down. This song was clearly supporting the troops that were in Iraq, as revealed by the lyrics and their video which features soldiers saying goodbye to their families as they were headed off to war. The impact that this song had on the people was greatly augmented as the radio version of this song included supporting words from some of the soldiers' family members and even included encouraging words from President Bush. This song was constantly on the radio and it truly united the American people as everybody felt proud of these men who were putting their lives in danger for their country. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Gq-n08nXqM
Another example of a song that was strongly influenced, if not completely a result of this event, is a less known song by the Bright Eyes. This song, "When the President Talks to God" is a result of the same event, the war in Iraq, yet as opposed to the loving support that the other song demonstrates, this song utters disgust with the war. It talks about how poor farm boys are sent off to die and how the war is ultimately about oil. Both of these songs illustrate how the population responded to this event. These songs influenced the population, though in very different ways. While one song dedicated to this event promoted unity and patriotism, the other strived to open the eyes of the public to what they believed were the real reasons and issues with the war.

Fourth Week

Professor Helen Reese believes "Ancient Naxi Music" is not as "ancient" or "authentic" as it is professed to be because it is performed in a completely different context. She describes "authenticity" as involving a "'complete and immaculate simulation,' one which would convince the 'traditional' musician as well as the 1990s visitor of its reality." If judged solely by this definition, the "Ancient Naxi Music" now heard could not be mistaken as "authentic" since it is produced solely as entertainment for foreign tourists while it was originally used to perform liturgical rituals. The musico-ritual organizations known as Dongjing associations met several times a year in solemn ceremonies to perform scriptures honoring Confucian, Taoist, and Buddhist dieties. Thus, how could the music played now, which is clearly catering to foreign tourists as demonstrated by the introduction given in fluent english, be considered an exact replica of the music that was once so important to the Naxi people's lives and religion? While only native instruments and devices are used and the mainly elder musicians are dressed in old-fashioned gowns, the performances that are currently being carried out are ultimately just copies of the original music and are therefore not "authentic" according to Reese's definition of it. Western scholars view this differently however since they greatly enjoy these performances and consider them to be "traditional." Thus, these scholars are greatly repelled by the modern Chinese orchestra since it does not resemble their idea of what traditional Chinese music ought to sound like. They claim that it just sounds like lightweight Western music and consider it to be trite. While Western scholars prefer the old "traditional" Chinese music, many Chinese teachers and students accuse the foreign students of wanting to arrest the development of Chinese music and insist on the need for it to change. In light of these opposing views, I believe that authenticity exists on a continuum because this idea means different things to different people.

Third Week

This assignment was extremely interesting because it made me realize that even though the sound of the music doesn't necessarily change in different contexts, the performance and how other people regard the music does. Both of these gamelan groups were Balinese and therefore had the same instruments and general harmonies, yet I can not help but feel overwhelmed by the differences between the two performances. The setting was the most obvious difference between the two. The "Ratna Ayu" piece was performed on a formal stage with the sole purpose of entertaining an audience, while the "Gamelan Bali Nyepi" piece was performed on the beach for the performers' own enjoyment. This affected everything about the performances, from the actual rhythm of the pieces to the clothes the performers wore. While the "Ratna Ayu" piece is clearly strictly structured since it is routinely performed for an audience, the "Gamelan Bali Nyepi" seemed to be more free since the people were not performing for anybody but themselves. The individuals that performed the latter piece were wearing a simple white outfit as they sat on the ground joyously playing their instruments, while the performance of the "Ratna Ayu" piece was anything but simple as all the performers wore elaborate costumes and even employed eloquent dancers that ultimately demanded all of the attention. The music seemed secondary to the dancing in this performance, while the "Gamelan Bali Nyepi" piece was performed with no dancing at all. Even the instruments used in the two performances were notably different from each other, rendering those used to create the "Ratna Ayu" piece more elegant and appealing. Even though I enjoyed both performances, it is not surprising that I found the "Ratna Ayu" piece to be more interesting since it was essentially performed to attract and engage an audience.