I thought that the Native American culture was extremely interesting. I never thought that something that was here long before we were could be so different. I learned that my own culture has been the basis of so many other types of music. I knew that African music has influenced Latin and Middle Eastern music, but I never dreamed of it influencing Native American and Asian music. I am really glad that my group decided to do Jamaica, because even though I knew a lot about Jamaican music because of my family, I didn't realize how much of an impact Rasta culture has had on Jamaica. There was a lot of killing during that time, and I'm really glad that my grandmother's parents left there before it got too bad. Here in America, we take for granted so much, and never think about it. We never stop to think about how the rest of the world is affected by our actions. But honestly, that's such a Western thing to do. All of the cultural music that we have learned about, has been influenced by the West because all of the dominant countries in the West invaded everywhere. I know that imperialism was the main reason behind this, but that was something else I didn't know. The Europeans affected every continent on this planet, and while I wish they hadn't invaded everywhere and killed off all of the native people, where would the music of the world be today if they hadn't? It's definitely something to think about. I want to learn more about the popular music of these cultures today. Of course, I already know about American and African popular music, and a little bit of Asian and Latin popular music but I want to know more. I want to know more about the different types of popular Native American music and how it's different from traditional Native American music. I want to learn the differences between K-pop and J-pop, aside from them originating in two different countries. Is English and Australian popular music similar, or is it basically the same as American popular music? Does classical Latin music have an influence on today's reggaetone? I've always had a fascination for popular music, because it's not just cookie-cutter pop. I think that a lot goes into making today's music and I really feel like people don't give it the credit it deserves. Maybe if people knew how popular music has formed through the years, pop would be appreciated more. I will definitely be looking into that more. They say that learning from the past always provides a better future. I see no reason why that wouldn't apply to music as well.

This is a video from the Prince of Egypt.The last minute and 30 seconds, the song is in Hebrew, and after class on the Middle East, I can really hear all the instruments and appreciate their differences.

Even though we didn't get to Korea, this still represents how far music has traveled. Underneath the first singer's voice, you can hear the hollow drums that sound as if they are coming from native instruments. Later, the electronic elements come in, and it is evident how Western influences have changed Asian music.

This is an example of Indian music. The 3rd Cheetah Girls movie, set in India, and this last song has the most examples of classic Bollywood style music. From the intro to the dance style to the clothes, it's clear to see how much their culture is represented in the States.

I interviewed my dad about the music that he listened to when he grew up. Even though my parents grew up in Liberia (as I'm sure everybody has heard by now), they were exposed to a lot of American music. A lot of countries in Africa are developed and have similar customs to the ones that people here are accustomed to. In the following interview between the two of us, I hope that some light is shed on the customs of countries that we didn't discuss during class. 

What kind of music did you listen to as a child?

R&B, African and Jazz

Which one would u say u listened to more, or were they equal?

R&B

How did you listen to music, i.e. what technology did you use?

Radio, Tape Player, Record Player

Was there any dancing involved? Why or why not?

Oh Yeah. All kind of dancing everything you could think about. Celebration for whatever occasion, party, wedding, for fun

What sort of environment did you listen to music in?

In the house, social gatherings, on the dorm

How did your parents or teachers feel about your music of choice?

Acceptable

What happened once you became the parent or teacher?

Listen to Jazz mostly, I don’t like music today kids music ya’ll are crazy I don’t like hip hop, not too much of country western not too much of African no rap I don’t like rap

Did you play an instrument or sing yourself? How was that for you?

No. In retrospect I wish I could. I had an opportunity to learn but I didn't

What was your musical environment like?

Rich. All the music and instruments were there

Why did you listen to music? Were there any situations that caused you to turn to certain kinds of music?

Yeah in the mission (boarding school) we listened to gospel. Listened to religious music on holy occasions and sad on occasions on festive occasions we listened to r&b as an adult I usually listen to jazz

Were you ever exposed to music outside of your own culture? How so, and what was it like?

R&b. How were u exposed to it was it just because Liberia was little America? It was out music too. African and International music too but our culture was more American than anything.

Do you feel like any types of music should have been present more when you were growing up? No I was content with what I had.

How did music in gender affect the way u listen or experience music today? 

Well, I think it gave me a keen sense as to what kind of music relaxes me, what kind of music I’m attuned to. I can easily like what I was brought up with that’s what I was accustomed to. And I guess I have a good ear for music because that’s how I was brought up even though I don’t mention it.

If you had to pick a song to describe you, what song would it be? I did it my way –Frank Sinatra. Is that song choice relevant to the way you grew up?  Very. How? Cause it expresses independence. Gave me an appreciation for who I am.

This song is so pretty! I think it really demonstrates the idea of classical music, as well as showing the Spanish influences that helped to create Latin music. At the end, it says that the instruments used were the guitar, the charango, the large Mexican guitar, and percussion. This pretty much ties in with everything that we learned about Latin music today.

I thought this was so interesting because I actually really love this song. This song is called "Jai Ho" and it's from Slumdog Millionaire. To hear this type of interpretation fascinated me, so I had to put it here. 

I think that in this particular selection, the Afro influences are evident. Not only through the jazz elements, but also through the drumming. We've learned that these types of complex drumming styles come from Africa. This is the only example of Latin music that doesn't have any guitar, but this just strengthens the idea that Latin America is a big mix of a lot of different ethnicities.

  In each of my blog postings, I’ve talked about how my Liberian up-bringing has influenced my musical autobiography. In this post, I think that the best example of music and gender comes from American music. Particularly Hip-Hop, R&B, and Rap music. For years, it seemed as though the women all sang their hearts out in R&B or sang on a Hip-Hop or Rap track, while the men all rapped. Of course, men were allowed to sing too, but women? Rapping? Banish the thought! Back in the days of 2pac and Biggie, I don’t think female rapping was exactly smiled upon. It makes me wonder though. What exactly is so hard about rapping that a female couldn’t do it? Of course now, we have Missy Elliot, Lil’ Kim, Lauryn Hill, Eve and Nikki Minaj, but where were all these characters in the ‘80s?

   I find it fascinating that as we progress through the years, and we discover more that can be done in the music world, women are still put on the backburner until enough rise up to prove that, once again, we can do anything that men can do. I know that some rappers today, such as The Game, can be characterized as being violent, and female rappers typically aren’t violent at all. But if they wanted to be, they totally could. Some female rappers, like Mary J. Blige and Lauryn Hill, often rap about their lives and their own personal experiences; Of course, they are known as highly influential singers as well. Missy Elliot has primarily entertaining and somewhat humorous music, while Lil’ Kim has more of a gangsta-like influence. Lil’ Kim has an interesting back-story, though. Despite the lack of female rappers in the ‘80s, she worked undercover with the Notorious B.I.G. and became known as his “sidekick”, and later became famous.

   On the flipside, males rapping and then singing would never have happened 10 years ago either. Up until a few years ago, the idea of using auto-tune, or even just natural talent, to sing as the hook or chorus of a song, would never have happened. Rapping used to be about the streets and the hood, probably contributing to why the whole concept of female rapping was unheard of. Now rapping can be about anything from the gangsta life, to love, real love. Artists like Drake and Nikki Minaj have really taken the idea of singing and rapping on the same track to a brand new level, and for them as well as Soulja Boy, Lil’ Wayne, and Kanye West, it’s extremely unclear to find the thin line between rapping and singing. 

This song is called "One Way Ticket to Monrovia." It is quite a popular song because most of the Liberians in America want to return home. Sung by CC Barnard, it represents the lives of many Liberians, like my family, that came here because of the war. Liberia, although a part of Sub-Saharan Africa, is considered to be "Little America" because of the principles, morals, and ideas that the freed slaves from here took to their beloved land of liberty. The African drumming is present, demonstrating a common quality in African music.

  In my religion, music plays a huge part in our worship services. Although I was raised a Baptist, my mother was raised a Catholic and my dad was raised an Episcopal. When both of them went away to boarding school, they got introduced to gospel music and then converted to Baptist. Why? Because of the music. My mother often tells me that after being introduced to the joys of gospel music in a Baptist atmosphere, there was no way she could go back to a regular Catholic church service.

  In my church, we have specific times for singing. However, if the spirit hits someone on the choir, they start to sing and the whole church follows. Gospel music has come from times of slavery, when the slaves would pick cotton and sing songs of how the Lord would come and save them. In order to sing gospel, no particular voice type is required, but a particular style is definitely employed. The singing style is either dramatically loud or quiet and the enunciation of words puts more emphasis on the words themselves.

  I guess gospel is used to express how you really feel about your religion. It’s hard to put all of your emotion into something that you don’t have emotion for. At most of the Baptist churches that I have attended, during or after a song, screaming, shouting, crying, and speaking in tongues happens, and that seems to just be a result of how gospel music represents religion.

  In Charlotte, Christianity is definitely the prevailing religion. There seems to be an equal amount of Lutheran, Methodist, Baptist, and Episcopalian churches. Each church community seems to have a different idea of what is beautiful in their music. When I go to Liberian churches, the branch of Christianity is either Catholic or Episcopalian and the singing style is more Baptist, but I think that represents how we as Liberians interact with each other rather than the religion.   

   I am a member of the Charlotte Chapter of a nationally renowned choir called the Gospel Music Workshop of America. When we have rehearsals and performances, we bring people to their feet because of the way that we sing. I know that in the black Baptist community, our music is especially touching because we have rhythms under our music but we have meaningful words as well. This type of style is considered beautiful and typical of a predominantly black, Baptist church.

Musical Autobiography

   Although Western Art Music is a big part of my life (obviously), I also have a big connection to African, Jamaican, and Hispanic music. My family is from Liberia, which is located in West Africa and my paternal grandmother is half Jamaican. All my life, I have been around African and Jamaican music. We have gospel music, popular music, and regular songs such as “Happy Birthday” with African and Jamaican influences. Listening to an example of a popular South African song “Body to Body”, I am able to hear that while there are definite American influences such as Auto-Tune, the music is inherently African. The beat sounds more complex and it seems like the rhythm and percussion aspect of the song is just as important as the singers are.  

    There seems to be a different quality of sound in this music. Playing the different genres of music in my iTunes library, I realized how much of my music sounds similar. I have spoken Spanish since I was four and through my academic career I have been involved with Hispanics and their culture. After all, it’s extremely difficult to speak a different language, and not involve yourself completely in the culture that provides the language. I have classical Spanish guitar music, Latino pop and hip-hop, and Hispanic reggaetone and this music sounds extremely similar to the African and Jamaican music that I grew up with. The biggest audible difference that I heard was between the African, Jamaican, and Latin music, and the American music. For some reason, there seems to be something that American artists include in their music that these other artists don’t. When my parents and their siblings were growing up in Liberia, they were introduced to American music such as Michael Jackson, Gladys Knight, Marvin Gaye and others. I would guess that the reasons that they liked American music so much were because it was different from what they were used to, but that it also has a type of easy, 1-2-3-4 beat that African music doesn’t.

   When pop arose and artists such as Britney Spears, *Nsync, and the Backstreet Boys became popular, I added that type of music to my growing music library. Of course I noticed the difference between that music and the music I was used to, but I liked it. And when hip-hop’s new generation featuring Chris Brown, T-Pain, and Drake grew, I heard how the African. Jamaican, and Hispanic influences were used underneath the melody, but also how they reached a happy medium with pop beats. Today, I realize that artists from other countries such as Rihanna, Bruckup, and Sean Paul use their home music as well as American music, just like artists from my countries and Spanish-speaking countries. The world is becoming one, big, melting pot for music, and I am glad that my culture can contribute to that.

Traditions

Traditions.... Well at my old school we had something called Spirit Week. We participated in Spirit Week the week of Homecoming and each day was a different theme. The first day was Character Day, the second Tacky Day, third Decades Day, fourth College Day, and the last was Spirit Day. On Character Day, we dressed up as different characters from movies. This past year, I dressed up as Mulan. Tacky Day is self-explanatory. My friends and I went all out for this day, planning our outfits weeks in advance and essentially matching the most outrageous parts of our wardrobes together. On Decades Day, we took different styles from the past like the 50's, 60's, 70's and dressed up as people would have then. On College Day, we wore attire from colleges that we had accumulated over the years. Spirit Day we dressed up in our school colors, green and white, and paraded our school pride. I know that at Converse we have 1889 week and while that was fun, I really missed having a Spirit Week. So I propose that one of our traditions be to have a Spirit Week and an 1889 week. That way we can parade our school spirit and pride in two different ways!  

Music..... My favorite music.... Well, first off let me say that I genuinely love every type of music. There are some songs in every genre that I feel the urge to roll my eyes at, but I can honestly say that I have every genre of music on my iPods. I have to say that yes, I do love Drake. Mr. Aubrey Drake Graham. I have every song that he has ever sung, rapped, collaborated on, or even wrote. While his genre is hip-hop/rap, I am not limited to liking just that genre. It really bothers me when someone assumes that I only listen to that particular genre just because of what I look like. What a stupid thing to judge about me. Because being a musician ensures that I must listen to classical as well. My favorite classical composer is none other than Mr. Ludwig van Beethoven. Once again this is kind of a cliche because he is one of the first composers thought of when the genre classical is brought up, but I really do like playing his music. I personally feel like his style of composing covers all aspects of my life, from the happy parts to the more dismal parts, to the dramatic parts and the energetic parts. I also really like artists like Colbie Caillat, Jesse McCartney (I also own every single song he's ever been a part of), and Jason Mraz. These particular artists fall into the genre I like to call "feel-good music". I can never be depressed when I get done dancing around my room listening to music like this. It just makes me feel good! These were just a few artists that I like but I really do have EVERY GENRE!!!!!!!!!! 

Drinking Age

  I, like many of my peers, have been affected by the use of alcohol from middle school. I am not the type of person to drink at all and I have never had a drink once before in my life. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same for everyone. Before I discuss my views on lowering the drinking age, I would like to tell a little story. There was this crazy party near the end of summer, and everyone who was anyone was there. There was drinking involved and one of the guys involved was going into the military. Well, this particular guy (let's call him Joe) got so drunk that he started throwing up uncontrollably. He passed out. No one knew if he was even still living because there seemed to be no chest motion. In the city that I live in, everyone knows everyone. Not because Charlotte, NC is small, but because everyone that lives in South Charlotte goes to school together and participates in societal events together. Imagine seeing someone that you've known since the 6th grade passed out and not moving on the floor. Maybe you should have stopped him from drinking so much. Maybe if you had tried, his eyes wouldn't be rolled back in his head. None of that even matters anymore though because the damage has been done. 
  I can see why some people would argue for the drinking age being lowered. It's true that at 18 we can register to vote and are not allowed to drink legally. It's true that in other cultures, alcohol is introduced at a young age not as something to abuse, but more as a sign of cultural respect. It's true that in America that type of culture is not present. But does the fact that we haven't been exposed to it mean that we are allowed to take drinking to an extreme just because we weren't gifted with the ability to limit ourselves with its use? 
   The answer is no. If the drinking age is lowered, some people will still take advantage of it and if we continue with this level of illegal drinking something will break. It seems to me that the drinking age will have to be lowered anyway, because jail time is a repercussion of underage drinking already and it doesn't seem to be having an effect. If we were all taught to drink responsibly instead of sneaking an excess of alcohol I believe that the level of illegal drinking will be lowered. Underage drinking won't be completely obliterated by lowering the drinking age, but perhaps America's youth will not take advantage of alcohol and situations like my first-hand account will not be a regular occurrence anymore.

Hmmmmm.... If I were to give advice to new students what would I say? I think I would start off by saying that while boys are nice to have around, it's actually easier to get work done when they aren't always there. Being a music student, whenever I have private practice time, I thank God that there are no boys here because they really throw me off my game. Instead of focusing on my music, I would focus on if looking good while playing my music and those two actions just don't mix. Girl drama is also something else that can be detrimental to focusing in school. At this point, I'm just witnessing all the drama around me and I'm wondering how on earth living with the drama and doing what I am supposed to do is going to work. Hopefully, I'll see my way through this and then I'll have something to advise my little sisters about. On the positive side however, going to an all-girls school definitely has it's upside! There's always someone to talk to and there's always someone to have a girl's night out with. Whether it's a spur-of-the-moment thing to order Chinese takeout and have it delivered to the dorms or a crazy midnight IHOP run, it's fun to know that because we are all girls, these types of things are the norm.

TIME MANAGEMENT!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY 2 ME!!!!!!!!! So this week's blog assignment is to discuss our biggest challenge with managing our time. I believe that my cell phone is definitely a huge hindrance when it comes to attempting to manage my time. However, my piano seems to be an even bigger one. Attending Converse College has given me a chance to make practicing the piano my homework instead of something solely extracurricular. Once I get involved with a piece and I really start to understand it, I always always want to practice. I never want to go to class or even to bed, and that can end up being one of the worst things because then I don't want to wake up the next morning! My computer can also be a huge distraction. At this present moment, I have about 6 or 7 tabs open to Facebook, Mickel Library, both of my AOL accounts, my Converse Email, this blogging website, and an open email. I also have iTunes and Microsoft Word open. This evening I was trying to get my work done so that I would have absolutely nothing to do on my birthday but then some of my friends wanted to go out to eat, I had to go to Zumba, there was a late night food run.... Basically my time management is impacted my cell phone, my laptop, my piano, my friends, and just my overall surroundings. And at this current moment, my time management is being impacted by my 18th birthday!

Response to SSS Questions

I decided to come to college because I didn't want to be the one to bring disappointment to my parents. I never really had an option but that's totally fine. I don't think I could experience life without trying to get the best education I am capable of. I don't even know what I would have done if I had chosen not to come to college. Instead of all this worrying and angst over my future, I suppose I took the easy way out and chose to come to college. I chose to attend Converse College because that it was the best choice for me. There is a wonderful music program and that definetely played a big part in my choosing to come here, but the atmosphere just feels a little like home for me. Of course my parents loved this school and I don't think I would have had the guts to go against their wishes. I decided to study music at Converse because I'm not really very good at anything else. I mean, there are things that I am good at but not at the level that I play piano. I was lucky enough to earn a scholarship just for playing the piano as well and I don't think I would have been rewarded with that scholarship if I had performed any of my other "talents". I am not actually a fan of bread. I will eat it if I have nothing else to eat, but I would most assuredly prefer to eat cereal for the rest of my life instead of sandwiches.