Music and Us: Our New Playlist

I've said this in most of my other posts and I will say it again, this was one of the hardest decisions that I had to make. As I was trying to narrow down which places I wanted to focus on I started to realize that most of the places that I was interested in talking about were mostly in the continent of Asia so I had to make some tough decisions. Though in narrowing down new places to look into and learn about their music I was able to learn so much about music in other places of the world that I wouldn’t normally go out of my way to look into. So grab your passport and relax as I bring you music from all over the world!

I thought that I would go ahead and start us off in Greenland which is a part of the North American continent. I had no interest in looking into the music of Greenland but I wanted to include as many different places as I could so I said why not! I am mainly going to focus on their modern day music, more specifically the pop/rock band named Nanook. They are widely considered the most popular band in Greenland, they blend pop-rock with soft, melodic indie sounds and lyrics with their native Greenlandic. Something really interesting that I learned about them while I was doing some research about them was that they refused an offer to work with Sony because they wanted them to sing in English and they refused saying that they wanted to maintain their cultural identity. They have released 5 main studio albums since 2009, all of which are gold-certified in Greenland. Just to show a little bit of their popularity, in 2012 they sold 5,000 albums. They have won the “Best Album” prize at the Greenlandic Music Awards twice since their start in releasing music. The founders of the group are brothers named Christian and Frederick and they come from southern Greenland but moved to Nuuk in 2001. And this is the last fun little fact about them but their name actually has a meaning as well. They named themselves in reference to the mythological Greenlandic bear which is known in Inuit religion as the “master of bears” meaning that he decided if hunters deserved success in finding and hunting bears and punished violations of taboos. I honestly thought that I wasn’t going to like listening to their music since their style includes indie but as I listened to their music I started to really like it. I honestly wouldn’t mind listening to a lot of  their stuff while I read or relax. Even though I don’t understand a word of what they are singing about, their melodies and aesthetics are very calming and just an overall joy to listen to, especially when you can hear the acoustic guitar. That being said, that made it really hard to choose just one or two of their songs to share with you all. The first song is called “Nanook”. Something about it just brings me great joy when I listen to it. And the second song I included is called “Inuinnaagavit”. The use of the acoustic guitar and the beautiful vocals are just so calming and I feel like this would be something that I would listen to while I am reading or something that I can just jam to when I am winding down at night. I hope you enjoy it!

Nanook

Inuinnaagavit

Boarding our flight we are heading north to the great and festive Brazil. I bet you all know what kind of music I will be talking about here lol. Brazil is a part of South America and I will be talking about their most festive time of year, CARNIVAL! The Carnival of Brazil is an annual festival held the Friday afternoon before Ash Wednesday at noon, which marks the beginning of Lent, the 40 day period before Easter. Carnival is the most popular holiday in Brazil and has become an event of huge proportions. The country unifies completely for almost a week and festivities are intense, day and night, and mainly in coastal cities. Just to get an idea of how big this is in 2018 the festivities held in Rio de Janeiro alone drew in 6 million people. The origins of Carnival is a synthesis of European, Native American, and Afro-Brazilian cultural influences, each group has played an important role in the development of the structure and aesthetic of the Brazilian carnival of today. I’ll briefly talk about how each of these cultures contribute to this large holiday/festival! The main rhymes used in the music are mostly developed by Afro-Brazilian cultures and they make use of European instruments. The costumes of Carnival borrow concepts of the clothing seen in Indigenous peoples of South America. It is also worth pointing out that Carnival looks different depending on what region you go to, so much diversity!!! Some of the more notable types of music used are samba, Frevo, and Axé just to name a few. I really wanted to learn more about this culture of music because I know I am not the only one who has seen Rio that came out in 2011  that mainly focused on this time period of Brazil. All of the colors and the music that they included in that movie was so infectious so when we had to think up places to look into and talk about I immediately knew that Brazil was going to be one of them. While I know that this doesn’t necessarily reflect Brazilian music as a whole I thought it was fun learning more about this musical culture that they have and celebrate. Instead of just choosing one song to include, I am going to put a playlist that I found on YouTube here that has a whole bunch of different kinds of songs on it. I think my favorite one that I listened to was no 4 “El Caraval- Salsaloco De Cuba”, it had a really fun rhythm and I could see why people would want to dance to something like this!

Music of Carnival

Seatbelts everyone! We are headinging to Japan! Japan is a part of the Asia continent and considered to be an archipelago consisting of 14,125 islands. While there are thousands of islands, the country is primarily formed into four main islands: Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, and Shikoku. But enough about the geography and onto the music of this beautiful place. I chose to go the route of their traditional Japanese music which is called Hōgaku. Translated this means “Japanese music” but this is a blanket term that is used to sum up all of the subgenres of traditional Japanese music. I don’t know what it is but for some reason I have always been drawn to the traditional music of Japan. It is so calming and peaceful that sometimes I will put some on in the background while I am working. There are four main instruments used when it comes to the traditional japanese style and they are: the koto, the shamisen, the shakuhachi, and the taiko drums.

Kota

Shamisen

Shakuhachi

Taiko Drums

As I said before, there are many different kinds of traditional music in Japan. In my research I found that there are really 3 kinds of traditional music in japan and they are: theatrical, court music, and instrumental. There are many theatrical forms of drama that music plays a significant role in. Things like larger ensembles, highly stylized dancing and singing, and acting are all different ways that music plays a role in their theatrics. Court music is the oldest traditional music in Japan. It was used in the Imperial Court and shrines and temples. This music included songs, dances, and a mixture of other Asian music. There were usually two styles, instrumental and vocal. This music was also used by Buddhist monks in a few different ways. One of the ways that I read about was a kind of chanting that was inspired by the music of India. It is called Shōmyō and is usually sung a capella by one or more Buddhist monks. So as you can see there is a lot of different kinds of traditional music in Japan so for my musical example I am going to choose just one kind. I am going to stick with the instrumental side of their traditional music and it is also going to be a longer playlist. I am putting two different ones on there to give a little bit of contrast. I hope you enjoy listening to this music as much as I did. I would highly recommend going out there and listening to other kinds of traditional Japanese music because there is a lot out there and it is always just so beautiful. 

Traditional Japanese music

Dark Japanese Instrumental

Now we board our plane for the last time and land ourselves in Russia. Russia is a very large country, as I'm sure we all know, and thus it is part of both Europe and Asia. I am planning on focusing on the folk music of Russia so let's do a quick little dive into authentic folk music. Folk music is closely tied in with village life and traditions. It was not usually performed by professional musicians. Because of the Central Committee’s resolution of 1932 they prescribed that music literacy was important, this was because of the drive to industrialize the Soviet Union. In doing so there has been a decline in authentic folk performance practice. Festivals, competitions and the work of ethnomusicologists have made attempts at preserving what has survived. Not only the festivals but believe it or not YouTube has further amplified the revival allowing people from all over the world to easily access Russian folk music with groups like Yat-Kha and NARECHIE (I will provide an example from each of these artists). Folkloric music includes music by groups led by music professionals, past and present, who have taken authentic musical material, and then arranged and performed it in a manner formulated by Vasily Andreyev and subsequently refined under Stalin’s regime, yet it is widely accepted as “Authentic Russian” by western audiences. During Stalin’s rule, music in the Soviet Union was controlled by the government. Leaders believed music should support their political ideas and help shape the way people thought. They wanted music to be easy to understand, positive, and supportive of the country. Music that was too experimental or influenced by the West was seen as dangerous. Folk music was also affected. The government said it supported folk traditions, but only the parts that matched its message. Real, old folk songs were often changed. Regional styles and religious parts were removed, and songs were rewritten to make them sound more patriotic or simple. Folk groups performed these new versions at events and on radio, but they no longer sounded like the original music from villages. Many folk musicians continued to perform by adjusting to the new system and they started to add classical instruments, change lyrics, and worked with government-approved groups. In this time, folk music became something new–a mix of true cultural history and state-approved performance. While it lost some of its original character, it also showed how music could survive and adapt, even in hard times. I’m not really sure what made me want to take a closer look into the traditional folk music of Russia but I am so glad I did! I had a great time going through different playlists and songs and I feel like I learned so much. I hope you liked these selections as much as I did!

traditional folk music

Yat-Kha (rock with throat singing)

Narechie (Russian Folk Rock from Belgorod)

Well that concludes this very long journey around the world. I hope you enjoy reading just as much as I did learning about and listening to all of this new music. I know for a fact that some of the stuff that I have talked about will even end up on my personal playlist! Thank you to everyone who has read blog blog(s) up to this point. Signing off for the last time!

Music and Family

 Music and Family

When we first started talking about this assignment in class I am not going to lie, I was not too happy about having to do it. I just think that having to interview someone in your family is awkward. In the beginning it was hard for me to choose who to interview because I was honestly just too embarrassed. I eventually ended up just sucking it up and decided that I would interview my mom! Just for some reference my mom was born in 1975 and was not born in South Carolina. She was actually born in Wisconsin, so a little over 1,000 miles from here. In high school she was a cheerleader so she didn’t really do anything with music. I am sorry in advance for how much writing there is in this blog post. I would highly recommend getting a snack for yourself and maybe a nice warm beverage for you while you read.

Question 1: How would you define music?

I thought that the best way to start out the interview would be to ask my mom what her definition of music was. To my surprise she went with the route of music being a sense of expression. To be more specific she said that there was a t-shirt that accurately describes what she thinks the definition is. The shirt says, “Where words fail, Music speaks.” It was interesting to hear that my mom was more connected to music in an emotional sense.

Question 2: What’s your earliest memory of music?

This second question seemed to really stump my mom. I thought that the defining music was going to be the hardest question in this interview but I was sorely mistaken. In the end my mom talked about her earliest memory being listening to music while she was at home with her mom. She more specifically said that she thinks of older country like Johnny Cash. She also wanted me to include her earliest memory of music with me. That being a little 1 year old me in my carseat listening to a song and absolutely headbanging to it in the back seat. Needless to say this wasn't the first time that I have heard of that story. 😅

Question 3: What’s your favorite memory of music?

My mom seemed to have two different directions when answering this question and I thought that it would just be nice to include both of them. Any of her favorite memories she said were those when me or my sister were playing in a band. Our mom is our biggest cheering section when it comes to any performances and she gets really offended when you don;t tell her about a small performance such as a student recital. Getting more specific to her and her childhood however she said that she remembers quite frequently going over to her grandma Grace’s house and they would listen to all kinds of 50’s and 60’s country. My mom was really close with her grandma Grace so I would understand any memory of music with her would be her favorite. Some of the songs that she gave me as an example were “Big Bad John” by Jimmie Dean and “The Happiest Girl in the Whole USA” by Donna Fargo.

Question 4: If you were able to erase one song from your memory what would it be and why?

She didn’t give me a specific answer like I was looking for but instead talked about songs that she said reminded her of people who are deceased. People like her dad and grandma Grace and even her best friend who just passed this previous year named Denis. After asking if there was one song in particular that she would want erased more than anything she said the song “Amazing Grace”. She said that any time she hears that song she becomes very sad and melancholic since it was played at both her fathers funeral and her favorite grandmother's funeral.

Question 5: Did you play an instrument/sing in choir while in school?

I am not going to lie, the answer to this question actually shocked me. Other than playing the recorder when it was required of her she didn’t play any sort of instrument in her childhood. She did however do choir from grade 6th-8th. I never knew that my mom did choir when she was in school, she even said that she was like the section leader for the Alto section which was even more interesting. She stopped after going into high school though because she opted to start taking more business classes instead of staying in the arts.

Question 6: Do you wish that you had played an instrument?

This was one of her more straight forward answers of the interview. Basically she said that if she could go back she wouldn’t change a thing and would not want to learn an instrument. Her reasoning behind this was the fact that her schedule wouldn’t allow her to since she basically had a job as soon as she turned 16 and because learning wasn’t really her thing while she was in high school/middle school. She knew that she would have the time needed to be able to practice so she didn’t continue with the arts.

Question 7: What is your favorite type of music?

She said that her favorite genre of music right now is old jazz, think Benny Goodman, Ella Fitzgerald, and Louis Armstrong. That was something that I got her into because ever since I was in 8th grade and took a jazz class I have loved listening to jazz in my free time. Eventually I listened to it so much that she ended up falling in love with it too and listening to it more. When I asked her what her favorite song was from our favorite jazz station she ended up saying “In the Mood” by Benny Goodman. When I asked the reason she said it was because it reminded her so much of her dad.

Question 8: Who is your favorite artist? Why?

You can’t have a proper music interview without asking the person who their favorite artists is so that was the next question that I asked. She actually surprised me when she said Dwight Yolkam but thinking back on it it makes sense. Older country was very important to her during her childhood so since he was popular when she was school age I could see how he would have a special space in her heart for him.

Question 9: What was your music taste while you were in school? Was it different from kids your age?

During the time that my mom was in high school was the time of the “big hair bands” meaning that the genre of music that was widely popular was rock and roll. Thus that was a lot of what she listened to. Not only was she listening to rock and roll but when she went home she was listening to country since that was what her parents would listen to while they were home. Her taste in genre was a little different since at the time a lot of people her age were listening to bands like the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Nirvana. She said that she just couldn’t stand listening to music like that and that it was just unpleasurable to listen to but there is a big BUT to this. At the time these bands were so popular that she didn’t dare say anything because if you ever so much as hinted that you didn’t like these bands then you were bullied and shunned. At least that was what my mom said lol. 

 

Question 10: What genre of music do you like the least? Why?

This was a really easy question for her to answer that she practically screamed the answer as soon as I was done asking it. She absolutely does not like listening to ALTERNATIVE, which is really funny because I really love listening to all kinds of alt music. She didn’t really like the music of the 90’s and early 2000’s since the majority of it was alt. When I asked what she didn’t like about it she said EVERYTHING. The words, melodies, the voices of the performers, among other things were things that she didn’t like about the alt genre.

Question 11: Who introduced you to some of your favorite types of music?

Most of the people who introduced her to her favorite music was her parents and grandparents which was to be expected because whether you like it or not your music taste is in some way shaped by your parents and family. In a little bit of a deeper cut though she said that her oldest brother was  very important to her musical journey as well. She told me a story about how she was out on a camping trip with her brothers they were going to put music on and her oldest brother told them to put The Mamas and the Papas on. When my mom heard that she tried to fight against it and say that she didn’t like their music. When the first song came on it was “California Dreaming” and that’s when she realized that she did actually like them and their songs. So she says that even though her older brother doesn’t really influence her music taste, he still made her stop and think about what she really enjoyed listening to.

Question 12: How did you listen to your music?

She said that during her time of wanting to listen to music she mostly used a cassette player and a boombox. That and the radio were the two main ways that she listened to music. Along with the occasional 8-track.

Question 13: Do you like my taste in music?

She said that there are some things that she does like while there are other things that she really doesn’t. For example she really likes my jazz music that I listen to like I talked about briefly before but she isn’t the biggest fan of the band Sleep Token that I listen to, mainly since there are times where they start heavy metal screaming (example at timestamp 7:17).

Question 14: Did you have any restrictions in what you could listen to?

My mom didn’t have any sort of restrictions on what she could and couldn’t listen to as a kid. She said that the main reason that this was was because most of the time her parents were working so they didn’t really have time to dictate what she should listen to. She did say that even though she loved to listen to rock and roll that she was more considerate at home and most of the time listened to country music instead. 

Question 15: Do you think that music should be a core subject in school or at least more supported?

There was a whole long discussion about this and her viewpoints but I am going to try and sum it up as best as I can. Basically she doesn’t think that it should be a core subject but she thinks that it should be something that is a little more financially supported throughout schools. She said that if it were up to her that athletics and the arts should be funded in the same way and have the same opportunities.

Thank you all for reading this rather long blog entry and joining on this journey through my moms views on music. <3

Music and Memory

Music and Memory

I have said this before and I will say it again: music has been one of the most important things in my life. As I was thinking of songs that invoke some sort of memory however I honestly had a hard time coming up with anything. Music is just such a constant in my daily life that by now in my 21 years of living I have probably listened to at least a million hours worth of music. That being said, as I started to really think about different songs I started to realize that there are just so many songs that have many different meanings to me. So, I decided that I would pull out the music that has particularly strong memories with it. Funnily enough, each of the songs all make me think of a specific family member.

I think I am going to start us off strong by talking about the song "No Sleep Till Brooklyn" by the Beastie Boys. I have many fond memories of this song as well as other music from the Beastie Boys. This was a song that my dad (pictured on the left) introduced me to when I was probably around 12-13 years old. I remember that we were sitting on the couch and we were as a family just sitting there and watching tv and talking. Then we somehow got on the subject of the Bestie Boys and I sat there and told my dad, "Who are the Bestie Boys?" He proceeded to sit there and look at me like I had grown two heads and pull up the music video on his phone and show it to me. As we were sitting there listening to it I remember my dad singing along to the song, quite terribly might I add, and sort of head banging to the song. I thought my dad was weird at the time but as we started to listen to it more and more and he started to reference it more and more I started to really like it and now I can't hear the song without thinking about my dad.

Another quick thing about my dad. I am very much my fathers daughter in a lot of ways. I really love hanging out with my dad even though we can get on each other's nerves sometimes. I heavily associate music with my dad because he would always have one of the stations on the radio on in the mornings when he would drop me off at daycare. As I got older my music taste obviously started to change and I am one of those people who listen to music in phases. Well I started to listen to a lot more country music and unfortunately my mom is someone who absolutely hates "new country" as she likes to call it. So, whenever I was with my dad we would turn on a country music station and sing along to it in the car. It kind of felt like a secret that me and my dad shared and I will forever hold "new country" music dear to my heart.

I think I have said enough about my dad for now so I am going to move on to my mom (pictured on the right)! Me and my mom don't always see eye to eye on a lot of things but that doesn't mean that I love her any less. There was a time back when I was an early high schooler that I ended up having to attend many funerals for my mothers side of the family in relatively short times in between each of them. At that time we started to hang out a little bit more and we started listening to songs that were a little bit sadder. Eventually after her dads funeral we got on the subject of songs that she would want played at her funeral. At the time I was young and I really hated my mom for saying something like "when I die I want you to play this at my funeral." But that doesn't mean that I didn't pay attention when she pointed those things out. One of the songs that really stuck with me and makes me think back to those sad times is the song "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" by Israel "IZ" Kamakawiwo'ole. I will now bless you with this beautiful rendition of "Somewhere Over The Rainbow". 😊

And last but certainly not least is my little sister (pictured with me on the left). I am older than her by four and a half years making me the older sister. You can imagine the amount of fights and trouble that we got into because of each other, not one of my prouder moments 🤦‍♀️. Even though we didn't get along as we got older we started to be a little nicer to each other, key word a little. Because we were always fighting we never really just sat down and talked about our interests but I remember distinctly there was one day that we weren't at each other's throats or picking on each other and we started talking about music. At that time I was listening to more alternative and rock and I just so happened to walk past my sister's door and she was playing "We're Not Gonna Take It" by Twisted Sister on her tv. I stuck my head into her room and told her that I didn't think that she listened to that kind of music. We then got into a long winded conversation about why she liked this song and we sort of bonded over it. It made me feel like I had just that much more of a connection with my sister so anytime I hear this song I immediately think of her!

BONUS!!!

I know that we didn't need to include a bonus in our blog this time around but when I stumbled upon this while surfing the YouTube it really brought me back. And just what could have "brought me back" you might ask. I am talking about none other than the opening theme song of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic. I know it sounds a little childish but this show was one of the staple shows during my childhood. I remember that I would come home from school and do any homework that I needed to do then I would turn the tv on and I would start watching My Little Pony. Funny enough this was actually my sisters and I's show that we loved to watch together. Usually we would fight over who got to watch the tv in the afternoons but somehow or another we were able to settle on this show and the fighting stopped, or at least until My Little Pony was done airing for the day. Needless to say anytime that I hear this song or any of the other songs that are used in My Little Pony I immediately think back to the weekdays back when I was in late elementary school and even into my early middle school years when me and my sister used to sit on the couch and watch this until it was about time for dinner.

Thank you so much for reading all the way through my blog! I know that I can get a little long winded in my writing so thanks for holding out until the end!