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"