http://www.reclaimthemedia.org/media_justice/hop_hop_mass_media_and_21st_ce%3d5070

This article stood out in the list of articles I viewed mostly because I felt it was the most relavent to the topics we've discussed in class, and also because I agreed with the article's message. It's talking about how the music industry, particularly the Hip-Hop industry determines what music becomes popular based on its own interests. The industry is controlled by a group of people who don't understand what the music is supposed to be about and they filter out all music that doesn't lend itself to their vision. This ends up causing artists to either not produce or have to conform to someone else's vision. The music is then taken out of context and the it becomes impure. I just feel like a lot of us talk about how awful Hip-Hop has gotten but we have to realize that a lot of what we hear isn't what artists initially wanted. It's been filtered, and dumbed down to serve the higher-ups' agenda which is the primary concern in their minds. The article talks about a kind of conspiracy that middle-aged white men in charge of all of America have where they feed young blacks dumbed down music with stupid messages to "keep us down," and how black Americans have been kept seperate from others in an "internal colony" and artists have to conform or they won't be heard. I'm not really going to speak on my views concerning that, but the gist of the article is to that effect. It's an interesting article however you choose to look at it.

Of all the changes in music in the 21st century, from the sounds, to the message, to the boldness of the lyrics, etc., the aspect of its evolution that stands out the most to me is music's availability. I know it's a topic we've touched on in almost every class, but ultimately it's the most drastic change that music has undergone in the past decade. In the past, it was buy the album or more recently, wait for the radio to play a song and hope you can catch it to record it. Now you don't even have to go out to a record store for an album. You don't even have to buy a single just to hear a certain song. Your computer is your record store...and you don't HAVE to even buy the music. you can download it for free. You've got to know that this newly created accessibility is one of the biggest issues in music today because of all the fuss it's created in the media and also in the courts. At least that's my opinion...

So who's seen the Disney Jonas Brother's episode of Southpark. If you haven't, it was on last night and it was AWESOME. Of course it's satire and there's a lot of the stupid kind of comedy in it and tons of exaggerations about the way the music business operates, but the general concept is clear. The episode focuses on the way the music industry controls the artists and forces them to do what's profitable for the company rather than what the artists want to create. The music in this episode is used to make a couple of points. First, that the Jonas Brothers and other disney artists sound ridiculous, and secondly that the big fish in the industry such as Disney and others aren't concerned about producing good quality music, just music that they can convince people is good enough to buy so that they can make as much money as possible. I loved the episode because of the humor, but the music is the driving force behind the episode and that's why I think the music was important to the show.

When I think of a place where the music played really has a direct influence on my mood and my actions, I think about sporting events. When I sit in the crowd at a game, I watch the game like everyone else and I enjoy seeing what's going on. But when that music starts playing and i just know that its purpose is to get me to your feet to cheer for my team, I cant help but go with it. I join the rest of the crowd and I shout and I stand up and cheer. The music has a job and it's to get you to support the team. It's something like a call-to-arms for the fans. When those speakers start booming, we have to run to the aid of our team and give them as much support as we can offer through our cheers. Even when it's not "foreground" music as it was talked about in the article, and instead it's just a little song composed of two or three notes repeated that plays at every basketball or baseball or football game that just gets associated with that sport, when it plays you know what to do or say. like between the notes, you just know to clap twice or you know to insert your team name at a certain point in the song. It directs the fans without actually telling them to do anything.

top 5....or somethin' like it

Okay, so let me just go ahead and say this was a nearly impossible assignment. To pick a personal top five songs of all time is simply too much to ask...a top 500 maybe. The best I could do is pick what MAY be a top five of my college years, and not necessarily based on playcount or anything like that. These are just songs that I think got me through some difficult times. With that being said, let's go. In no particular order, Vapour Trail by Aqualung, Falling out of Love by Aqualung, Secrets by Alice Smith, Butterfly by Corinne Bailey Rae, and somewhere in there is a tie between Mr. Officer, and If There's Love by Citizen Cope. The first three songs are essential parts of my "relax" playlist that not only helps me to relax, but helps me to think clearly and gives me inspiration. That's the playlist that gets me through writing tough papers and taking tests, so clearly you can see how these songs are important to me. Of course, this description isn't going to be able to show you why I picked them as my most important songs, but that's because they are, and are not my most important at the same time. They're important to me, but there are tons of other songs along the same lines that do the same things for me...the assignment was jus to pick five and as painful as it was, I had to pick only five. Butterfly helped me soooooo much in making the move from Clinton, MS with my mom where the whole rest of my family was only 5-10 minutes away in either direction to Birmingham, AL where I was alone. None of my friends came here, no family was here...I was alone. That song always comforted me and just made me feel that security that I felt when i would just sit on the couch and listen to it with my mom. Lastly, I've recently discovered Citizen Cope and I just think they produce some of the most amazing music. That's pretty much all I can say about it. It's beautiful and I just love it, particularly Mr. Officer, and If there's Love. Again...I didn't even skim through my CDs, these are just a few selections from my digital library. Who knows what other treasures I've lost with time, but as of right now I'm going to go with these six songs as my top five spots.....or at least representatives of my top five lol.

negative feelings

I love Hip-hop/Rap/R&B! However there are some instances where the music just seems ridiculous. While there are still many great artists who produce high quality music, it seems like more and more people are willing to believe that anything that the industry produces is just the "best shit ever" when clearly it's not. The quality of the majority of trendy music is horrible. The problem i find with myself it that as much as i realize this music is garbage, at times i still can't help but find myself bobbing my head to it when i hear it or maybe even singing along. I can only imagine that it's the infectious beats that bring me to "feel" the music. I'm usually pretty good about changing the radio station or doing whatever it takes to not continue to listen to those songs when I hear them. Comedian Chris Rock said it best in my opinion when he said "I love Hip-Hop, but it's getting harder and harder to defend. How do you defend 'to the windoooooow to the wall. 'til the sweat drip down my balls. Aww skeet skeet skeet skeet skeet.'" Now that song in particular, I don't have much of a problem with because it's just a feel good happy club dance song. Songs now-adays just get ridiculous. There's solja boy (and those like him) and the "crank that" anything phase the nation went through about 2 years ago...and now, we're dealing with Gucci Mane who between every line of verse sounds like a retard trying to bite his own ear as he swallows hiw tongue and moans the word "yea." The problem ultimately lies with the people though. How on earth do we keep allowing artists like this to feed us this crap and let the industry tell us it's good so we just believe it and eat it up. A hot dog is a hot dog no matter who tells you it's filet mignon!

buying and selling

On buying and selling music:
This topic is really broad and pretty difficult to discuss in detail in 250 words or so. Well, let's talk about pirating music first. I'm going to say that music is an art, and different artist produce their work for different reasons. I don't necessarily believe that the intentions of the artist (art for arts sake, or art for money, etc.) really matters when you're experiencing the art for yourself. However, because there are artists that do it for a living, i don't think it's right of people to obtain that music without actually supporting that artist. I mean, we don't go to an art exhibition/sale and take pictures of the pictures we want so we can blow 'em up and put 'em on our walls, so why is it right for us to download music or buy bootleg CD's on the corner/at the barber shop, or wherever theyre being sold. That being said, I'm a broke college student with medical bills, a car note, cell phone bills...you get the picture. So when i want to hear some new music i'm going to download it. On the flip side, that kind of mentality can drive artists to produce better music. I say that because many people say "I download music unless i feel like the artist really deserves my support and my money." I'll leave that point at that and let you guys comment on ur thoughts about that. Now on to the industry side of buying and selling music. The Albini article talks about the big trench of shit people have to swim through to get a deal, and even then it's usually a shitty deal. I've never tried to get a deal, but i know people who have and from their stories, i can't dispute what albini says. Getting into the business is ridiculous and it's a sloppy system because the labels have all the power and strip much of the realness out of groups and individuals. Newly discovered hip-hop icon Drake says "Everybody want a deal, I did it without one." True, but drake also acted on tv for years and had the money to finance his own dream of becoming a part of main-stream hip-hop. Everybody else can't be so lucky and they have to jump through hoops and swim through shit and even then they still can't produce what they want. However, that same terrible system is what produced nearly all the music we enjoy today, so can we really say it's a bad thing?

On experiencing music

Two concepts come to mind when I think on how to answer the question "How do you experience music in your daily life?" The simpler answer comes from the literal interpretation of the questions. I experience (hear/listen to) music every day in a countless number of situations. Whether I'm driving, walking, sitting in class, eating lunch, etc. I'm always connected. It may sound cliche' but there is certainly a "soundtrack" to my life and it's almost always playing whether its low in the background or if the music is the driving force behind the scene. The truth is when it's not playing around me, it's playing in me and that's something I just can't stop...and honestly I don't want to. My mind would explode if I didn't have music to think about, hum, or flat out sing at the top of my lungs (when i'm alone) in order to protect me from my thoughts sometimes. The more complex answer is the answer to the question how does the music you listen to affect and influence you on a mental, spiritual, and according to some studies even biological level. Under this interpretation, one must understand that listening to or hearing music is not the same as experiencing it. When you hear music and it begins to evoke strong emotions or when it takes you back to a time or a place or brings up the same emotions it did when you first heard it years ago, that's a musical experience. That's how certain music makes me feel and I love being able to understand the way the music touches me even when the feelings the music brings aren't pleasant. I still just love to know that I'm alive sometimes. I mean, I know i'm living, but sometimes you just get so distant from everything and u feel so unaffected that it's great to feel something that changes you...even if it's only temporary. That's what the music does to me. It feels amazing to be able to just hear something and have it move you in a way that people talking to you or other everyday interactions just can't. That's how I experience music :)

my music culture

Growing up, music was always a part of my life. Being the child of two young parents, i was exposed to popular music of the late eighties and early nineties from as early as I can remember. I remember my mother playing with me as a child while singing popular R&B tunes of the day or playing soothing music as she rocked me to sleep, so it's only natural that I enjoy those same types of music today. For me there is a connection between that type of music and the love and affection my mother showed me as a child and even when i don't make a conscious effort to remember those times every time I hear those old songs or newer songs like them, something in me always realizes that she's part of the reason behind my appreciation for the music. When my father, who was 23 at the time of my birth, would come to spend time with me, i can remember riding to tupac, bone-thugs, and other rap heavyweights of the time. I developed a deep appreciation for the struggle these rappers described in their lyrics as well as the luxurious party-life they rapped about. Also, my older cousin and my aunt were younger than my parents and picked up a lot of music from what they would play and the fun times we would all have listening to the radio and singing along or performing for the family. My musical beginnings were just that--beginnings. Eventually, neighborhood friends would introduce me to new artists that weren't in my father's collection of cassettes or being played on the radio and my taste in music changed drastically in my early teens mainly because of the predominant music culture of my peers at school. The easiest way to describe it is that I stopped watching BET and watched a lot more MTV lol. As the years went on tho I learned to appreciate and even to enjoy many types of music and also that liking one type doesn't exclude u from enjoying something else. I learned that it's not about what you're "supposed to" listen to because of where u grew up or what u look like. It's all about what makes u happy, and ultimately that realization shaped my music culture today. I can find SOME beauty in SO many types of music and I can appreciate artists for being artists and going through what they do to please their listeners. Of course, there are some songs and even some entire genres of music that I just can't feel. I don't relate to them, but i am able to understand that not everything is made FOR ME. I think of music as a buffet...I'm free to take as much as I want of the things that I want. I can try things I'm not sure about and if I don't like it, I don't have to eat it. It's my world and i'm free to do whatever makes me happy without consequence when it comes to music preferrence.