... Revengeful, and Rebelliousness are just a few of the feelings that music can create. Music within my life has made a full circle. My childhood was filled with old country classics. As I began to grow into my teenage years, I experienced a different sort of music which included, but was not limited to, rock and rap. Now, as an adult, I place all of the music that I have listened to over the years into my own album with the addition of a few. There are some songs that I have listened to, that no matter what mood I am in bring comfort and joy. Others that I listen to make me want to get up and do something. Music can fulfill a lifetime of stories into one word. My childhood was like that of many Caucasian males in the early eighties. My dad played the guitar while we sat around and sang the old country classics from the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s. I still stand by this music today. The lyrics during this time told stories, many of heartache and pain, but nonetheless true and solid stories. At the time I was just singing them with everyone else but as time grew on I started to really pay attention to what was being said. I have taken many of these stories with me through the years. One of my favorites that still sit with me today is Lost Highway by Hank Williams Sr. It speaks of a man who soul is lost and when I would get in harrowing situations I would listen to it and the lyrics would remind me that it that there is always a light at the end of the tunnel. Music from ones childhood...
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...half drive from Grand Junction to Aspen in order to experience Snoop Dogg's concert. Since Snoop Dogg had musically influenced all three of us throughout our lives, the anticipation to experience his presence in an outdoor complex was overwhelming. Speed walking to the entrance of the concert because we were late, we could hear the enormous base of the speakers trying to compete with the screaming roar of the crowd. Hundreds of young individuals who were all bundled in snowboarding attire to protect their skin from the frigid weather. They were jumping, vibing, and dancing to the fluent beat of two M.C.s lyrics. The energy of the concert was seen through the faces of the fans who we're enjoying every minute of the music. The lighting effects coming from the stage were insane. They were synchronized with all of the music and DJ's instruments while also changing from multiple colors shooting through the crowd. The bass from the speakers blared through the crowd, creating an loud atmosphere. The treble was loud enough for us listeners to understand the lyrics and allow the two performers to be heard from a ways away. My mind was in awe once we finally made it to only five rows back of the front. With a clear view of the idolized superstar Snoop Dogg, it was evident why is stature is respected among the music entertainment business. He was spot on with his rap lyrics, his movement was smooth and remarkable, and he interacted the the fans in ways I had...
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...like “Grenade”, “Natalie” and “When I Was Your Man” are some good example of which it shows Bruno’s relationship problems with woman. Bruno Mars expresses the consequences of his decisions throughout different concepts such as broken hearth, regrets and betrayal; also they are represented by using symbolism, irony and metaphor, in order to show his depressive mental state. Firstly “Grenade” by Mars, generalizing about the lyrics of this song, it is about a broken heart guy just got dumped by a girl, who did not love him and made him suffer a lot. The lyrics expressed show that the speaker is very sad and depressed, which are the same to a failure stage in a relationship like every other unhappy couples. The first sentence of this song, which says “Easy come, easy go/That's just how you live oohh” (1-2), makes you immediately think that this is the type of girl who doesn’t view relationship as anything serious, which causes a lot pain and stress for Bruno when he tries to save their failing relationship. The artist says he willingly gave the other person his all in the relationship, he treated her with respect but she instead took advantage of his love. She treated Bruno’s undying love and devotion like a piece of rubbish and threw it away without thinking. This person that Bruno was really into must have been really something to him...
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... thanks to you, Professor; the bad news was that I didn’t know what to expect from this concert. Because it was a charity concert with world music, I bought a ticket and went in. The music hall was antique, with many pictures of classical singers on the wall. Inside the hall was large chandeliers. The seating arrangement was poor, with very little leg space. Everyone in the hall was so serious—I was telling them in my thoughts, “Smile, for God’s sake. It’s a concert, after all.” The presenter came out and talked a bit about Garrison Institute, before calling out the first performer: the Pomerium Vocal Ensemble. I was very excited since I liked [Sylvie] so much, which is a cappella. This a cappella ensemble consisted of fourteen people: Director Alexander Blanchly, sopranos Elizabeth Baber, Martha Cluver, Melissa Fogarty, and Dominique Surh, mezzo soprano Luthien Bracket, countertenor Robert Isaacs, tenors Thom Baker, Neil Farrell, and Michael Steinberger, baritones Jeffrey Johnson and Thomas McCargeras, and basses Kurt-Owen Richards and Peter Stewart. All the singers were dressed in black. The first song they played was “O vos omnes.” I was impressed by...
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...in 2008. These songs influenced the generation of hip-hop in such big ways that people that never listened to hip-hop started to stray away from country and rock to come into this genre. Hip-hop also changed after this album because the style of rap in this album went backwards to when famous rappers like Biggie used to rap same style and it made other rappers resort to go back to this style. Tha Carter Three also accomplished the feat of becoming the fastest album to sell one million copies people from age groups of teenagers to young adults in college were listening to this album and listening to what most reviews of this album are calling it a master piece. One point people try to make about this album is the meaning behind the lyrics these lyrics in these songs mean a lot more then just words. This album also changed the way people viewed music because this album introduced songs that did not talk about killing people or just being rich or how many drugs or girls the artist Lil Wayne gets it talks about his life and talks about how he is the greatest rapper alive and does not let the people deny him of that. The style of music in those days was which rapper gets the most girls, which rapper has the most money, which rapper has the biggest house, and best cars. Lil Wayne when writing Tha Carter Three wanted to change that and write about his life and real problems he faced and why he is the best rapper alive. For instance in the song “3 Peat” he says “they can not stop me...
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...Dope, Dope, or Dope? This will likely be the most dope paper ever written. Unless of course, the author is a complete dope and does not know how to write. Maybe it will be so bad that the reader will want to use dope to recover from the reading. So which one is it? Dope, dope, or dope? Over the years, many words go through transitions in their usage and meaning. The adjective dope serves as an excellent example of one of these such words. Who really even knows what it means anymore having gone through change after change depending on the era, user and situation as well as many other factors. Based off these various reasons, the word dope has taken on many different meanings over the years ranging from gravy, to stupid, to drugs, and the most recent definition being cool or awesome. As the time period shapes the word and redefines it, users should strive to use the most recent definition to prevent miscommunication. In this specific case, Dope should be redefined as a word to be used synonymously with awesome or cool to describe something as being really neat or impressive. Dope originally held the meaning in 1807 of describing a gravy or other viscous liquid coming from the Dutch word doopen, meaning “to dip.” The first ever official recording of the word in any form of dictionary or written ledger however was not until 1851 and carried a whole new meaning. At this time it was utilized as a form of American slang describing a silly or stupid person according to the Oxford...
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...created this rigid definition of commercial music. That fallacy is often perpetuated by music artists who or either unwilling or incapable of creating commercially viable songs. The truth is, the public dictates what is commercial, and for decades they have gravitated towards, embraced, and purchased records that adhere to a commercial music format. If commercial music is the rule for success and sales in the music industry, there are inevitably going to be some exceptions to it, but unfortunately, the tendency is for music artists to try and become the exception, instead of observing the rules and why they exist. Simply put: the rules of commercial music success have not, and will not change. Not in your life time or your children’s lifetime. They exist because it's human nature to reject the unfamiliar; in the music industry, similarity is the cornerstone of acceptance. This is why so many popular songs sound similar and contain familiar elements. It’s a rule that is prevalent...
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...type of behavior? A perfect example of this is my friend Chad. He is your stereotypical play-boy. In his mind he is God's gift to women. One day we were at the bar. He was doing his usually "surveillance" as he called it. Looking around trying to find out which girl would be most likely to go home with him just by their physical appearance. I thought of it more as his predatorily stalking like a hyena looking for a wounded calf in a herd of buffalo. (No objectification meant) His eyes fixated on a women in her mid twenties with red hair and a super model body. It wasn't an hour later that he left the bar with her, leaving me in the company of a sweating Heineken and a $53 tab. Two days later we met up and lounged on his porch in the late afternoon enjoying the cool weather. He began to brag about the red haired woman he took home. He nicknamed her "Lips" for reasons I prefer not to get into but spoke of her actions during their little sexual escapade. He spoke in graphic detail about things I just didn't care to hear. After a few minutes of this assault Chad asked me what I had done after he left. I don't know if it was anger that compelled me but something motivated me to do something I have avoided doing in a long time. I began to speak of an explicit encounter with a woman that I made up. I gave her dirty blonde hair blue eyes and body tighter then shrink wrap on Texas summer day. I regurgitated facts about Chad's episode but in my own words and in different chronological order...
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...1371 words (3.9 double-spaced pages) Rating: Red (FREE) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Emily Dickinson was born on December 10, 1830 in Amherst, Massachusetts. She died in the same place on May 15, 1886. Today people know her as a fascinating, talented writer. Most of the pieces Emily wrote were poems. Emily was a very isolated individual. She rarely ever got out or had any contact with anybody outside of her home. Along with writing her poems she wrote letters to the people that she did have contact with. In the letters that she would write there would be poems somewhere within them. Emily wrote a total of 1,775 poems in her lifetime. Even though she wrote these poems she never let it be known that she had the capability to write poems with such elegance. All of the poems that she would write she kept hidden somewhere in her room. She would hide the poems in places like her window, under her bed, in corners of the room, and lots of other places. After Emily’s death the truth would be told about her secret talent. Emily’s sister, Lavinia Dickinson found around 900 of the poems Emily had hidden in her room. Her sister decided that the poems were good enough to be published. She went to a friend of the family where she would get help in editing and publishing the poems. Lavinia’s friend, Mabel Loomis Todd and a friend of hers, Thomas Wentworth Higginson began to put a lot of Said 2 effort of getting the...
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...worth at nearly $520 million.[6][7] He is one of the world's best-selling artists of all time, having sold more than 100 million records, while receiving 21 Grammy Awards for his musical work, and numerous additional nominations.[8][9][10] Consistently ranked as one of the greatest rappers ever, he was ranked number one by MTV in their list of The Greatest MCs of All-Time in 2006.[11] Three of his albums, Reasonable Doubt (1996), The Blueprint (2001), and The Black Album (2003), are considered landmarks in the genre with all of them featured in Rolling Stone 's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.[12][13][14] As an entrepreneur and investor, Jay Z co-owns the 40/40 Club, and is the co-creator of the clothing line Rocawear.[15] He is the former president of Def Jam Recordings, co-founder of Roc-A-Fella Records, and the founder of Roc Nation. He also founded the sports agency Roc Nation Sports and is a certified NBAand MLB sports agent.[16] As an artist, he holds the record for most number one albums by a solo artist on the Billboard 200 with 13.[17][18] Jay Z also has had four number ones on the Billboard Hot 100, one as lead artist. On December 11, 2009, Jay Z was ranked as the tenth-most successful artist of the 2000s by Billboard as well as the fifth top solo male artist and fourth top rapper behind Eminem, Nelly, and 50 Cent.[19] He was also ranked the 88th greatest artist of all time by Rolling Stone.[20] Jay Z married American R&B singer Beyoncé in 2008.[21] They...
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...Who Wants Cherry Pie? Sexism in Today’s Music Lyrics Mark Boehler Diversity in Contemporary Society Abstract There is a problem in society today, but it goes largely unnoticed. The problem that I am referring to is that of sexism, specifically sexism in the American music institution. The most likely reason that sexism goes unnoticed in this country is because as an American, each of us has been surrounded by sexual inequalities since birth. From the color of clothing most parents dressed their babies in, pink for girls and blue for boys, to the types of toys children are given, trucks for boys and dolls for girls, we are continually and constantly exposed to one form of sexism or another. Thus, we tend to overlook all but the most blatant forms of it. It comes as no surprise that the innuendoes and sometimes blatantly explicit lyrics in music today get overlooked or construed as being harmless. It is most definitely not harmless; something needs to be done about it. For my action/research project, I chose to assess the lyrics and album covers of popular music artists and to discuss the ways in which women are portrayed. It is extremely easy to find music CDs containing sexism. Look in your own collection; that is what I did. Lorde (1995) states that, “Sexism is the belief in the inherent superiority of one sex over all others and thereby the right to dominance” (cited in Gollnick & Chinn, 1998, p. 130). Two of the most outstanding examples of albums of this...
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...Introduction The main objective of this research is to state the effects of pop music (and music videos) to overall well being of children and teens. This paper will focus on the negative side, on two major fields: Behavior (including health) and Interpersonal relations. I picked 10 current Pinoy music videos of varied genres. I formulated a mini questionnaire and let random children and teens answer it. It took me almost 3 weeks to gather information and make conclusions. I chose to do a research on the effects of listening and watching pop music/music videos because me, myself is an avid listener and viewer of pop music. It will be much easier for me to do a research if I choose a topic, which is very relatable/close to my heart and to my being. And also, the reading assigned to me in the class, which is an experiment to pop music video viewers and its effects to gender and sexuality of teenagers, influenced me to do this paper. Below is the actual survey questionnaire that I gave to 8-20 year old children and teens, to be followed by an explanation of why I chose those kinds of questions. Questionnaire 1. State your gender: _____M _____F 2. Age range: _____5-12 _____13-25 _____26-30 3. Do you watch music videos? _____Yes _____No 4. How often do you watch music videos? _________Hours 5. Where do you watch music videos? _____TV _____Phone/iPod _____Youtube 6. Do you like to see dance routines within a music video...
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...sanity and our dignity, but in an era where artist rap about drugs, sex, and guns, only so few discuss their most staggering experiences; while, highlighting the ways in which they have persevered through various obstacles. Three artist that most exemplify political, social, and cultural formations are the lyrical geniuses Erykah Badu, Chance the Rapper, and Kendrick Lamar. These artists combined have embodied what it means to be unique global trendsetters, working to rebuild and better their community. Reigning from the All-Star state of Dallas, Texas, this hip-hop singer, record producer, and social activist has been nominated for over 50+ awards and has received 16 out of that pool, such as Favorite Female Solo Album for Baduizm and Best R&B/ Soul or Rap Song of the Year for “On and On.” Erica Abi Wright, also known as Erykah Badu at the tender age of 16 decided that she wanted to change the spelling of her name after confronting her mother by saying “…this ain’t my name. This is a slave name” (Hartman, 2011). “Kah,” a word that denotes the inner-self or that which can do no wrong replaced “ca.” The “y” that...
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...Valerio Sanders Music Appreciation Final Exam My comparison will go between two periods that was classic vs. romantic classical music composers were satisfied to stay and work within a definite boundary of what made up the acceptable music. In this era the chord resolutions were at all times the identical, and furthermore the connection between keys, sections, and movements, maintained proportion. On the other hand the Romantic composers extended these boundaries or rather limitations, and in place they brought in new chords, atypical key changes and in numerous ways went in opposition to the way they were made in the classical period Romantic period dealt with more emotions. Ludwig Van Beethoven - Symphony No. 5 in C Minor which is my favorite piece from the classical period and Franz Liszt - Hungarian Rhapsody which consisted of great story telling through the music. Exoticism influenced by some ethnic groups music groups from the late 19th-century. This means when different ethnic cultures start to make a dramatic influence on the primary music at this time which led to a major change in music. Nationalism is the fact that various types of political evolution were achieved in each country that in turn affected musical nationalism refers to the various national schools that consciously tried to separate themselves from the standards set in the Classical period. Trying to remove themselves from the boundaries of which classical music set transcending music itself...
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...We thought her shy malaise was a shot reaction. The autopsy disclosed a rupture in her liver. As we teased her with play, blood was filling her skin And her heart was learning to lie down forever. 9 Monday morning, as the children were noisily fed And sent to school, she crawled beneath the youngest's bed. We found her twisted and limp but still alive. In the car to the vet's, on my lap, she tried 13 To bite my hand and died. I stroked her warm fur And my wife called in a voice imperious with tears. Though surrounded by love that would have upheld her, Nevertheless she sank and, stiffening, disappeared. 17 Back home, we found that in the night her frame, Drawing near to dissolution, had endured the shame Of diarrhea and had dragged across the floor To a newspaper carelessly left there. Good dog. Dog’s Death The death of a family pet is a traumatic event, leaving questions of our abilities as a pet owner. Personally, I could relate to “Dog’s Death” because as a person who lost a dog to a similar fashion as stated in this poem. John Updike’s poem “Dog’s Death” is about the loss of the family dog and the inability of being able to control the outcome. My essay will show three elements (elegy, imagery, and rhythm) that draw me to Updike’s poem and why these elements contribute to the attraction of his poem. The haunting phrase “good dog”, is that hole in the heart that feeds the hurt. I wandered why Updike did not title the poem “Good Dog”....
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