Final Exam

Identify all of the artists and get an A.
(not really, but give it a try and see how many you can get)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VskbxuehP3I

Have a wonderful Christmas and break! I enjoyed our semester together very much.

Barry

Authenticity and the 'Definitive'

After listening to either the posted versions of 'All Along the Watchtower' or 'Try a Little Tenderness', post your opinion of which one can be considered the 'definitive' version upon which all others are compared. This is not necessarily a value judgement, but rather thinking about which is more likely to (or has already) become the standard.

More importantly, why do you think the way you do? What evidence in each version supports your opinion?

Fun weekend pop music discussion

"The Foo Fighters are to Nirvana as ______ is to _______."

Discuss who and why.

Go.

Fables of Faubus

Following our discussion of the Little Rock incident and Governor Faubus' role, what are your reactions to Charles Mingus' music? Feel free to comment on either the music or the text specifically. What meaning do you think the marriage of both conveys?

Interesting Reading

Here's a link to a great article that appeared in yesterday's Washington Post. It addresses many of the issues we discussed back before break and is definitely thought-provoking even if you disagree. Thanks to Kate for forwarding me the link.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/13/AR2006101301426.html

Dylan and Meaning

Since we're looking at Dylan this week, I thought the following quote from a recent interview was worth reading and considering.

"Words go by awfully quick," he says. "Maybe it's hard for a listener to comprehend them all. Maybe they don't want to. I couldn't say what these songs add up to, any more than I can say what the rest of my songs add up to. They mean what they say they mean. They strike you where you can feel it, and you can feel what they mean. With this kind of music, you want to move somebody, and you have to move yourself first."

Overcoming Hip Hop stereotypes

Provide at least one specific example of a hip-hop track that avoids the stereotypes we discussed in today's class.

My Mainstream Hip-Hop Rant

So when we were talking in class about the birth of the character "Jim Crow" and how it started out as a black effort to keep part of their culture while working around a law and became the most infamous example of whites manipulating black culture into sources of entertainment for the masses, and how that had become the source for many of the stereotypes that we talked abotu in class and i happened upon a final conclusion for my reasoning behind my extreme hatred for mainstream hip-hop. (wow... longest sentence ever...) So anyways. It seemed kind of reminisent. Particularly since we started out the semester listening to and reading the lyrics of a group like Public Enemy. It was plainly obvious what the hip-hop genre was intended to be. It was a call for action, a way of motivating black groups to be proud of their heritage and to fight against the racist insitutions in this country.... flash foward to 2006... where the mainstream, corporate powerhouse has taken hip hop "under its wing" and succeeded in making millions off of the albums sold... where not ONE SONG in the billboard top ten for the hip-hop genre has anything to with anything relatively intelligent or political or activist... where everyone seems to honestly believe that all hip hop music is somehow ingrained in the ideas of careless, pointless, loveless sex, rampant drug use, money, hypocrisy, and violence. Granted... their making a shit load of money.... and thats great... but honestly.... doesnt anyone have any effing values anymore? its a sign of the times when you go to a Soliloquists of Sound show (which remains the most amazing live hip hop show i've ever seen, with the close exception of sage francis when they opened for him a few years back) and they are laughing about how a record company approached them saying they could sound like Black Eyed Peas..... mainstream hip hop is a joke to most respectable hip hop artists. Its a joke and a disgrace. and it sucks that music can be used solely as a way to make money, solely as entertainment, solely as a method of slander for black culture, rather than an artform. and it makes me really mad.......... grr....


PS- SOLILLAQUISTS OF SOUND: http://myspace.com/solilla
pleease check them out they're amazing. they actually have a sense of community surrounding their music. there is meaning behind their music... and everyone could use a little bit of inspiration? maybe? eh?