Musical Influence

     I think sometimes music gets wrongly blamed for it's influence.  I remember after the Columbine shooting the media was discussing the kind of music the shooters had been "influenced" by, Marilyn Manson, heavy metal, etc.  While I can agree that music has an influence on us, on our mood or state of mind, I have a hard time putting the blame on the type of music.  I think first and foremost it's the person that is to blame. 
     I watched an interview of Radiohead's lead singer Thom Yorke, in which he talks about why it's important not to confuse the personality of the art with the personality of the artist.  I'm thinking back to our class discussion of "Pumped up Kicks" and how people are angry that the lyrics tell such a violent story.  But in my mind it's just that, a story.  Making the connection between the content of the song and the personality of the artists, or the idea that these types of lyrics are promoting the sort of action they are telling about, is missing the point entirely in my opinion.
     Having said that, I do think it's the responsibility of the person not to allow music or art that contains a negative message to influence their actions.  Just because I go to see an action film about violent bank robberies doesn't mean I'm going to go out the next day and rob a bank.  I think the overwhelming majority of people have the ability to make this distinction, which is why I think it's unfair to blame music when once in awhile someone with mental health issues decides to do the irrational thing.

People and Their Music

Music, it has been around for many, many moons. Everyone has their own individual tastes. For me I most listen to alternative rock. It puts me in a peaceful mood (for the most part) and keeps me motivated. I am not too fond of modern pop or rap music, mostly, because, I find it reparative, crude, disturbing and it isn't very appealing. But that is beside the point. Music allows people to find their own escape in many different varieties.

Music sets peoples moods, changes their appearance and develops them as a person. Growing up in Seattle there are many different types of music people listen to. Here in St. George, mostly the people who grew up here, it seems like most people listen to country and shapes them into more of a cowboy or cowgirl kind of style. Looking back to growing up in a different place, a lot of people listen to various styles of rock. Alternative seems to be the favorite. Looking at the style in  the Seattle area people tend to have their own sense of style called the "hipster" look. Another thing that is very popular is dub-step, which also is a pretty hipsterish style. If you look into other genera's such as; rap, people sag their pants, wear baggy clothes and looks like they are trying to be a gangster.

When listening to music, peoples moods seem to shift. Party music, such as; dubstep, electronica, pop; makes people want to jump up and start dancing and acting crazy. Heavy metal, screamo and other various types of rock make people rude and angry. There are some hybrid music styles that can make people feel upset, joyful and excited. Alternative, country, pop can be hyperactive or mellow. Causing people to want to jump up or making people just want to sit down and relax. Test this by listening to different styles of music within a 10-15 minute period, selecting from songs from a variety of genera's.

Wait? Wasn't I just listening to that song?

Lately i've been listening to a lot of country music. I recently went home which for me is four hours up north. For my drive I made three hours of country music to listen to. I was so surprised how similar the music was. Seriously. From the lyrics to rhythm the songs sounded so similar. Adorno stated, "Most listeners of popular music do not understand music... if they did it would be vastly difficult to explain how they could tolerate the incessant supply of largely undifferentiated material." After listening to all the mainstream country music for four and a half hours I had to laugh reading that because I felt like I was listening to the same song over and over again. I found this video put together of popular country music and even listening the music itself without the lyrics sounds familiar. 

After watching this video I was surprised how disrespectful country music can be to women referring to their bodies and how often they refer to women as "girls". Yeah the "girls" in your videos don't look like preadolescent female children. Just sayin! I can't remember if we showed this video in class but I liked this song.

music influence on the people

Music always has a funny way of influencing a mass of people. Pop culture is a big proponent of that fact in the sense that the word will always get out. It intrigues me the way that people will latch on to a catchy song and a nice melody. If a song has a catchy hook, society always finds a way to fit it in and get the word out. Music becomes what each generation is known for and big reason why pop culture even has a place in the world.

Everybody wants to be like that latest "big time artist". They will dress and act like them until that mental void is fulfilled. I don't know what it is, but as a mass, people always feel like somethings missing. The way that they can reconcile that void is by doing what everyone else is doing. What is everyone else doing you ask ? Acting like Miley Cirus, Justin Bieber, and Drake (at least in this time frame).

If you went through the playlists of people at Dixie State University that are in the same age group as a sample, at least half of their music would match up. That's the cool thing about music, everyone listens. Everyone follows, and everyone keeps up. That's what makes pop culture so important and apparent in this world. Pop culture is always right in front of us, and that's what makes it "popular". It's a certain sense of satisfaction that music can give you, and most people won't dig deeper and will only listen to what's in front of them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLOzNp4vmN8

Music and Emotion

       

            Something I find interesting is the way myself and others react to certain music. Our reading for Friday talks about the emotions people feel when they are listening to music. I remember really clearly the first time a song made me cry. I'm not totally sure how old I was but it was Thanksgiving and we were all playing on the Karaoke. One of the songs that came on was Concrete Angel by Martina McBride. 
            I had heard the song before but I had never listened to the words. As I was listening to the song I just started crying. For those of you who don't know the song is about an abused child and the adults in her life, like teachers and neighbors, ignoring the signs that she's being abused and she gets killed.
            In the reading "Hurts So Good" they talk about past concerns that were raised by people on how aggressive music can manipulate people's actions. I agree with this to a certain point.
             I believe Martina McBride wanted that kind of emotional reaction from her listeners, she wanted us to feel something when we listened to her song, did she maybe want us to start paying attention to the people around us more? Probably. I consider this a manipulation. But I think this song only influenced me slightly and not enough to change my beliefs and my morals. Not letting a child get abused was something that was already important to me, obviously. Listening to this song did not change everything I had ever thought, it just made me more aware. I also avoid this song like the plague because it makes me sad though.
             Saying that two young men committed suicide because they listened to metal music is similar to saying that I would only tell people that a child was being abused because I listened to Concrete Angel. I already have the capacity in myself to tell someone when I believe a child is being abused, I don't need a song to convince me to do that. I don't believe that people's actions are controlled or influenced so much by a song that they commit crimes, it's something that was already there.

African American Conservatives

Last week we talked about black culture and I found this video on YouTube where Stephan A. Smith gives some great points about what we discussed about in class with this subject.  He talks about how if you are a black conservative (republican) you are shunned in the community for not being "who you are supposed to be". Everyone has these beliefs about what black culture is supposed to be and if anyone steps out of this imaginary zone, they are seen as weird or different.  We learned in class that: "One of the arguments with the black culture industry is that what we popularly accept to be what black culture is, on closer inspection, a product of blacks' and whites' collaborative efforts."  So what this means is that not only are these black conservatives being shunned in their own communities but even people outside of their communities will see them as strange or different for stepping out of this black culture that has been created by both blacks and whites.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQEgKbwf_uM

 

 

After Stephen A. Smith came out and said this Kyle Kuwinski, a radio host, called him out and said that the only reason he defended the black conservatives is because he is one, now he couldn't provide much evidence, but he does make some good points and hints that show he may be a conservative.  I attached another video of Kyle Kuwinski making these remarks but the I also like the video because it argues against what we learned in class about how the black culture is constructed by blacks and whites through popular culture.  Kuwinski goes through many different reasons as to why majority of blacks are not conservative for reasons other than those that have just been constructed in our popular culture today.  I think it's a great way to look at how black culture was constructed through historical events and not just by popular culture.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwQWOonAkXc

 

 



 

 

 

The Distressing Cliche of Damsels in Films

Since we've been discussing both unoriginality and feminism in media, I'd like to bring these two topics together. Perhaps the most maddeningly cliche and repetitive plot devices in films is the role women usually play in the story. Even today, with all of our "progress" in feminism, female characters in films are most commonly portrayed as the helpless love interest in desperate need of rescuing.

I recently saw an article and brilliant video compilation of some of these famous "damsel in distress" movie moments. I loved the author's description of the video: "This new supercut features a whole lot of dudes pretty angry that some other dudes have stolen 'their' ladies."

The sad thing is that after watching this, there were about ten other examples I thought of that weren't even included in this video. It's utterly ridiculous. This portrayal of women is clearly outdated, yet it continues on in today's film industry because a) Hollywood is nostalgic and b) we continue to mindlessly consume the product.