Wrap up blog

During our final presentations, I found the group that did Brazil to be particularly interesting. For instance, I was not aware of the political atmosphere in Brazil so when they talked about the dictatorship, I was fascinated to learn that they were scared by the tropicália music of the people. It was awful that they banned the people who played it and it just goes to show just how powerful music can truly be.

When we studied blues music, I learned that the immigrants and the slaves had a lot more in common than I ever thought. I did not realize that they actually switched instruments with the banjo and the guitar because before this class, I was not aware of the origins of the banjo. Blues music was some of my personal favorite music that has come out of the United States and I think it is a staple for learning about our American culture.

I really enjoyed being able to watch and hear people play music from all around the world; I was introduced to so much cultural music that I may never have gotten to know if I did not take this class. I also appreciated when we would have guest speakers come in, such as Dr. Weeks, and either teach or talk about their own experiences traveling the world and exploring the cultures of many countries. I was not the biggest fan of the textbook solely because I know a lot of people had trouble with it, particularly at the beginning of the semester. Also, I know that since we are in JanTerm, we have to have longer classes to meet all of our hours, but I found it hard to be completely awake because it was just so early and so long. I am not sure how much control you have over that, but I feel that this class might be a lot easier to sit through in the afternoon rather than in the morning.

I think that doing the blogs was an excellent way to really expand our knowledge of cultures that we may not have discussed in class. I loved diving deeper into the music of places such as Mexico and India in my blogs, and have found a lot of new songs that I enjoy wholeheartedly.

Cool Stuff Blog IV: Cambodia, Malaysia, and Vietnam

A lot of the traditional music of Cambodia has been lost over the last century or so do to war, so there is not much in terms of written music. This is also due to the fact that most of their music was passed down and taught by rote, similar to Native American music. Since the elders died by the Khmer Rouge(communist party in the 1970s), it has been scientific research that has been unlocking much of Cambodia's musical past. What they have found is that, much like in other places of the world, Cambodian music has heavy ties to religion as well as social events. There are two main types of ensembles, Pinpeat and Mahori. The Pinpeat ensemble is the oldest Cambodian ensemble and it was used very heavily in social events. This ensemble would be seen accompanying dances, shadow theatre, and many folk festivals. The other ensemble is the Mahori was also used for entertainment in places such as the royal courts.

For Malaysian music, I wanted to learn more about what type of instruments they had and before I get into those, I would like to share the fact that I found out their instruments came from very artistic portrayals of humanities such as history and religion, but also of love. The kompang is a percussive instrument that is usually played in an ensemble at weddings or to accompany choirs. The gamelan is not an instrument, but rather an ensemble consisting of instruments such as metallophones, xylophones, flutes, gongs, voices, as well as bowed and plucked strings. The gendang are types of drums that differ depending on whether you are one of the royal people or the common people of Malaysia. The seruling is a flute made out of bamboo that had been debated on being the oldest instrument that was played by indigenous tribes in Malaysia. Lastly, the serunai is another wind instrument that is made out of wood that is often used in shadow plays and even martial arts performances.

The last type of music that I would like to talk about is Vietnamese music, specifically the three types which include the Hue style, northern professional style, and southern amateur style. Hue music is often used in the court and in many cases, for religious purposes. One of the religious ceremonies it was used for was sacrificial to both Heaven and Earth. Hue music was also used in the royal classical opera called Tuong. Much folk music comes from Northern Vietnam such as Quan Ho singing. In this, the people who are singing are not considered entertainers but are all just considered to be part of the performance. Ba'c Ninh folk songs include 400 lyrics and their main topics include longing, sadness about being separated from loved ones, and the happiness of meeting their lovers. Southern Vietnamese voices were known for being very soft, therefore they were able to sing folk music like Cai Luong very romantically. Cai Luong is known for having performances that not only included this southern amateur music, but also dances.

Music and Family

I decided to interview my aunt because I felt that she would have some interesting stories that she would love to share.

C: I am here with my aunt, Amy. Hi Amy, I have some questions for you about how music has affected your life.
A: Hi
C: What kind of music did you grow up with?
A: Well my parents only really let me listen to the oldies, like the Beatles and Christian music.
C: When and where did you listen to it?
A: We would listen to this thing called the radio in the car.
C: Was the kind of music you listened to growing up popular at the time, either in general or within your friend group?
A: Since I was only allowed to listen to Christian music and the oldies, I didn’t really know what was popular at the time, until Middle School when my friends introduced me to new music.
C: How did you listen to music? What kind of technology did you have, besides the radio?
A: Well first it was cassettes, then we would burn things onto CD’s because my parents would never have gotten me the actual CDs. They didn’t know what I listened to in High School.
C: What was the first concert you went to?
A: You know Finlay Park in Columbia? They used to have a lot of concerts there where they would play a lot of local bands, and occasionally some bigger acts and I went to my first concert when I was in 9th grade.
C: Speaking of concerts, didn’t you meet your husband at one of his concerts?
A: Yeah I did, actually. I was actually on a blind date that my friend set me up on and it was not going well; there was no romantic connection. I noticed Mike(her husband) now a while ago because my friend really got me into his band. After that terrible blind date, I decided to go up to him and introduce myself and that was how I ended up meeting him.
C: Oh cool! I don’t think that I have ever heard the full story. So, what was your favorite concert that you’ve been to?
A: The Lady Gaga Artpop concert in Denver at the Pepsi Center. It was such a magical experience. Everyone was so dressed up and I got to meet a lot of cool people. I also got to go with some of my favorite people.
C: Has any musician inspired you? I have a bit of a guess.
A: I would have to say that the one who really inspired me was Lady Gaga. A lot of her albums really connected with me at certain times of my life. Her first album, The Fame was a club dance album and at the time, that was how I was having the most fun in my life. When she released Born This Way, I was just starting cosmetology school at Paul Mitchel and I was starting to really change my life for the better and explore my own interests. When Artpop came out, I was being super creative with my friends with lots of projects. When her western-inspired album, Joanne, came out, I was about to move across the country from South Carolina to Colorado.
C: It’s wild that so many of her albums connected with your life! I mean, I’m sure that you didn’t move just because the album came out.
A: Yeah, no I didn’t, but it was pretty cool that it did come out around that time.
C: Definitely. So, how did your parents influence what you listened to?
A: Because of the fact that they wouldn’t let me listen to what I wanted, I would listen to the music that they didn’t like. By pushing me away from alternative and pop music, I was drawn more to it.
C: Do you still listen to the same kind of music you listened to growing up?
A: Yes and no. I still listen to a lot of early 2000’s music, especially at work. I always turn on that playlist. I mainly listen to pop music now, including Lady Gaga and some of what is on the radio.
C: How has your relationship with music changed over the course of your life?
A: Well, the fact that I am able to listen to whatever I want now has definitely made it more enjoyable than it used to.
C:  What sort of music do you listen to now?
A: I have recently started listening to some of the music that I have found on this app called Tik Tok, and like I said earlier, a lot of Lady Gaga and 2000’s pop music.
C: Do you like the music of any other sort of culture? Have you been exposed to any other music culture?
A: I haven’t really been exposed to much other cultural music, but I really do enjoy Bollywood movies and musicals, so I guess that.
C: Do you like any type of music that might be surprising?
A: I’m not really sure that I have, what would be surprising?
C: Well the idea of you listening to any rap music would surprise me. You have never talked about it before.
A: Well you know Lil Nas X?
C: The guy that made Old Town Road? Yeah.
A: After I heard that song, I played the rest of the album and made Mike(her husband) listen to it.
C: Oh really? I would have never expected that. Are there any special songs in your life?
A: Probably Born This Way by Lady Gaga. It’s the song I listen to every day on my way to work. It’s a really good song that pumps me up.
C: I can totally see that. If you had to describe your life in one song, what would you choose?
A: It would also have to be Born this Way. It really feels like one of those songs that tells you that it’s okay to be yourself.
C: I’m guessing that it has some importance regarding how you feel about your parents.
A: Yeah, definitely. This song makes me feel like there is no judgment for whatever I do or listen to.
C: Well thank you very much for letting me interview you! I really appreciate it.
A: No problem!

Cool Stuff Blog III: Hagage Masaed, Carnatic Music, and System of a Down

Hagage Masaed is a rapper an American Yemeni rapper who is the face of Yemeni rap. His songs include topics such as the traditions and values of Yemen, as well as superstitions. Besides hip hop, he is also influenced by American funk and reggae. He is a huge promoter of the idea that rap music is a means of change and not just something for people who do not initially like the genre to necessarily overlook. He raps in both English and Arabic and the main feature of his rapping involves political issues, such as combating terrorism. He released his first album in 1999, yet he has been singing since the 1970s. I am going to display a video that is on his youtube channel in which he discusses the effects of war in Yemen. While he wasn't born there, he made several trips before moving to Yemen to take care of his father.

Carnatic music is the classical music of Southern India that began in the late 1400s/ early 1500s with Purandardas, who is considered the father of Carnatic music. While he was considered the father of this music, the most famous theorist of this music was Venkat Mukhi Swami, who also is credited with developing the Melankara system. This system classified South Indian ragas, which is their seven-note scale and is the basis of improvisation. Carnatic music is very much theory-based, in which there is a complex system of Ragam and Thalem, which is known as their rhythmic foundation. There are 72 melas or modes that the Ragams are classified under. That is really different than how in Western music, we only have 7 modes. Below is a video of Jayanthi Kumaresh, Raga Shanmukhapriya, and Saraswati Veena displaying Carnatic music, but a more modernized version.

System of a Down is an Armenian American nu-metal band from California. Like Hagage Masaed, System of a Down mixes two different musical cultures to create their own unique sound. They are heavily influenced to make music by politics of not only the United States but also of the tragedies that have been happening in the Middle East for years. Through their music, they demand your attention be drawn to the injustices around the world including genocide, war, and corrupt prison systems. The height of their popularity was in the early 2000s with their release of the songs, "Chop Suey" and "Toxicity", and a few years later with "B.Y.O.B". Many songs that they have made include harsh descriptive language that reflects the issues that they find important. In many cases, this will come with tons of metaphors, but then other times they will be blatantly obvious about what they are trying to get across. This song below is called "Deer Dance" and it is their social commentary on how governments react to political protest.

Cool Stuff Blog II: Cab Calloway, Carlos Chávez, and Lead Belly

Cab Calloway was one of the most well-known entertainers in the blues and jazz industry in the 1930s. He started off singing in nightclubs after being in college for law, but he went the route of being a musician. In 1928, he started to direct his own bands, later becoming a band-leader in the Cotton Club in 1931. He released "Minnie the Moocher" and it became one of his most well-known pieces that showed off not only the talent of the band but also of his scat singing. Scat singing is improvised vocables that use the voice as an instrument. His band from 1937 through 1942 was considered to be the best out of any bands that he directed, but they ended up disbanding when there was a decline in popularity regarding big bands. One of my favorite pieces that he has done is "St. James Infirmary Blues", in which the music matches perfectly with the Betty Boop animation. A lot of music that was paired with animation in the 1930s did an amazing job of harmonizing with the music.

Carlos Chávez is a composer from Mexico who is also well known for his conducting and his work as a music critic. He became very proficient in composing without the instruction of teachers. He grew up around the time of the Mexican Revolution, in which nationalism was a huge focus. This definitely influenced the pieces that he composed and shaped him as an artist. He researched the culture and folk elements of indigenous music around him and embedded it into his music. Some of the elements were what we heard in class with the music of Ecuador which included syncopation, polyrhythms, and irregular meter. "Cantos de Mexico" is an excellent example of how he incorporated the music of the native culture into his music, which you can hear specifically with the drum in the background that acts as the heartbeat of the music. In this, the drum is not constantly playing; there is a solo for the flute that plays in the middle before the drums come back in, followed by the rest of the instruments.

Huddie Ledbetter, "Lead Belly", was a blues singer who was not only a musician, but was also a murderer. He was sent to prison in 1918 for murder, and found guilty, but was pardoned by the governor of Texas after singing a song. He was later arrested for attempted murder in 1930 and it was during this imprisonment that he got the name "Lead Belly", which was a play on his last name, "Ledbetter", and how tough he was. On the subject of music, he was a band kid, who later became a street musician that met and played with Blind Lemon Jefferson. He began to start playing his signature instrument at this time, the 12 string guitar. He later moved from Texas to New York to become a professional musician, but then in 1939, he was arrested yet again for stabbing someone. When he got out, he moved to LA where he signed to the label Capitol Records and began to really get some notoriety. He then got ALS, toured for a little while, then died in 1961. 

Music and Gender

I don't come from a particularly musical family, especially when it comes to women. The only familial musical influence that I had was my uncles that taught me the basic functions of playing guitar. I never really minded this as a kid; I was just excited to be taught and that ideology stuck with me for long afterward. Every time I have had any type of guitar lesson, it is always instructed by a man, except for when I was in my junior year of high school. We had a guest instructor in my group guitar class, Marina Alexandra, who was the first female guitarist that has ever taught me and though she was very strict, she was such an inspiration for me. I have never had any problems with only having male music teachers, yet there is something that is just incredibly inspiring to see such a talented guitarist that you can relate to, who pushes you, and who is very supportive of your musical growth as a woman. I wanted to share this video so that all of you can be able to hear her.

Coming to Converse was a wonderful experience because I have never been surrounded by so many insanely talented musical women in both the staff and the students. This is not to say that I have not ever been around female musicians; it's just that there are so many women around me that just help to create this calm atmosphere where we all have a chance to have a voice in class.

The majority of the choirs that I have been in had, like many other choirs in the world, primarily been made up of girls with only a few boys. In my senior year, we probably had the most mixed choir regarding men and women, which may have been because the choir was small. We only had about fifteen or sixteen people in the class and about nine of us were girls. This was definitely a good thing for us since we needed a nice full blend of voices and our only issue was really being able to hear some of the second sopranos. The guys in my class were, for the most part, able to carry their weight vocally, however, the girls in that second soprano section were just really quiet. I am very thankful that we did not have any problems in that class regarding gender; we all just felt like a family to each other.

Cool Stuff Blog I: Native American Flutes, the Kakaki, and the Bowl Lyre

After listening to some of the most relaxing music for the flute that I have ever heard in class, I decided that I wanted to look further into the origins of the Native American flute. There is a legend about the first flute that displays the power of music. A young man wanted to impress a girl that he had fallen for, yet she never showed any interest in him. Because of this, he walked into the forest and dwelled in his sadness. He then saw a woodpecker creating holes in a piece of wood, which then fell right beside him. He noticed music coming from the wood and found that he too, could make music, just as the wind did. As he played songs on the flute, the girl overheard him and the sound captured her heart. The legend then says that after you have found someone to be with, you needn't use your flute ever again so you will not attract another person.

After I researched Native American flutes, I started to research African aerophones to which I found the kakaki. The kakaki is trumpet played only by men for special events such as ceremonies. It is used primarily in West and Central Africa in places such as Chad, Ghana, Nigeria, and Burkina Faso. In Hausa societies, it is used when royalty is present such as a king. The Hausa society is a group of people from northern Nigeria and places surrounding it. This society has influenced many places surrounding it, which led to the spread of the kakaki to places such as the Fulani emirs empire.

Another instrument that piqued my interest is the bowl lyre. This chordophone can be found in the African countries of Uganda and Kenya. It is made from a gourd, much like the other instruments we talked about in class, along with antelope horns and bristles. They lack a bridge and the strings are vibrating against the sound table. You can use other objects besides the gourd to make the body such as a turtle shell, wood, or coconut shells. This instrument is used for many parts of life such as weddings, celebrations, mournings, and education. People learn how to play the bowl lyre from the elders, but this may not necessarily continue because it is now being looked at as old fashioned and the materials that are used for making the instrument are becoming endangered.