Music and Us

 For me to not have taken a music class in a while and to be the only non music major in this class, I enjoyed the class. I enjoyed the music and the videos and just learning about different cultures. As a class I enjoyed it as well just being around a different group of people who are talented in other ways. Not only learning the different cultures of music but learning about the music from my classmates as well.

I really enjoy our days on the blues and the few artist we came across. I really had like that T-Bone Walker "Call it a stormy Monday". If we talking about blues the I have to bring up Ray Charles. Ray was born in the South, putting together music that ranged from different traditions. From the music i would hear, he was a vocalist and pianist with extreme talent. He had  the ability to combine the blues, you had gospel, it was the sound of jazz, and soul all into one vibrant sound. The fact that he was blind made the talent shine even more. One thing i love about the old music I've heard of Ray, they are song are about love, and surviving hard times. I loved this song by Ray Charles ( Traditional, American)

I wanted to move across the world and visit China. I came across some Mandarin music. It has a sound of a mix from like western pop into R&B. One of the genres that caught my eye was Mandopop. I think it really just caught my eye by the name and just saying it out loud. Like the sound of the artist Jay Chou. His music in it some Netflix shows that i have watched so why not bring him up. He is called the " King of Mandopop" and was born in Taiwan. Jay was extremely talented with playing the Pipa and he used to reach different audiences. He combined different genres into his Chinese sound and became a cultural icon and the face of Mandopop. One song I like by Jay is Rice Field. I love the beat and the flow of the song. The message in the video is was even deeper. I feel like I picked this just by how the video started off and i knew i would like it. (Modern, China)

After a good visit to China i want to travel to Jamaica and learn more about Dub music. Dub music is like a way of remixing. For instance if you wanted a instrumental then you would turn to dub music. Your simply taking a one version of a song and making a double out of it. I like it because its kind of what people are doing in todays time. Artist now are taking old songs from the past and mixing them and putting their own voice on the songs. Where as Jamaican Dub music is the mixing of Jamaican reggae music. One artist I like was Lee "Scratch' Perry. Most of all his song were mixed they all came from the Jamaican culture. This song here is called "Chase the Devil'. You can hear the Jamaican sound and the mix that he added to it. Now a days you need permission from the previous artist to mix the song, hey or you can do it and just get sued. ( Modern Jamaican)

Finally I want to travel to Russia and find a artist and genre that I may like. We came across Russian Folk music. I feel like folk music is more focused on the vocals and the sound being put out. One famous instrument used in Russian folk music is the balalaika. It has a triangular shape body with three strings to pluck. I love the way some of these instruments are shaped but playing them I don't know if i could even get the hang of it. A well know artist in Russia known by the name of Nadezhda Babkina was a Pop singer in the 90's. I could tell she reach a large group of people by how much of a impact she made with her music. I loved her outfits because you can tell she always repped her culture when she performed. I loved the impact she had on her crowd in this performance.  Everything about her outfit from her hat to the feet was all a symbol and was the color red. Everyone on stage had some type of red on with her. (Tradional, Russin)

Throughout this entire blog, I learned a lot about even more music and different cultures around the world. It allowed me to open my ears and listen to music that i normally wouldn't listen to.  All people have their own background of music and where they learned it from. You can learn so much about a person from music so why not be open to learn more about other peoples taste in music.

Music And Family

 From my previous blog i mention playing Michael Jackson the experience. Well my mom was a big fan of him and his music. My mom thinks he is one greatest musical artist of all time. The Thriller album was one of her favorite albums. To her it was like he brought the whole world together with just one song Thriller. I mean I like Thriller too, it was really the red jacket that I liked. When she was in the 6th grade, her class learned the dance from the Thriller music video and the performed it at school. She dressed up as one of the zombies.

Thriller By Michael Jackson.

I asked my mom how does she define music. She said , she defines music as the language of the world. Every language and culture has had music, has played music, made music and its apart of every ones life. She even said when a child is born the parents sings to it. The first lesson in school is the ABC song. 

Her first memory of music was her as a little girl. Her great grandmother sung to her as a child all the time. The line that she remembered from that song was, "Everything is beautiful in its own way." They would dance in front of the mirror together and sing the song. She couldn't think of the name but she most definitely just sung that line out.

I asked my mom who introduced her to different types of music and she said her brother. Her oldest brother Gary, introduced her to rap music in the early 80's. When he left to go into the army he asked to take care of his record collection. The collection had some of the original greatest songs of rap from that time. One song he had in his collection was Rappers Delight by The Sugarhill Gang. 

Rappers Delight by The Sugarhill Gang

After she played this song it came back to me. She would always play this song in the car on trips or to school. Its crazy because some of these songs are actually pretty good. She also added Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five "The Message". I never knew the name of this song but I know i heard it and once it came on i couldn't help but follow along with it. The part when he say, "Don't push me cause I'm close to the edge", I got no choice but to rap along even if i didn't want too.

 The Message by Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five 

Music And Memory

 Where do i start , music has played a big part in my life. From waking up early for school and mom playing song on the radio that plays everyday and every morning. You have the songs you play before games that you probably know word from word. Even the songs that you and your friend listen to that give yall that close connection. Till this day and my mom have not drove me to school in the past 10-15 years I don't know but its a song by Cameo called 'Candy'. Literally every single morning as a kid this song would come on to the radio before school. I always like the song because the one song and every time he say Candy you just say it too.

Candy By Cameo

There was also many Michael Jackson song as well that would come on. Growing up I used to have a Wii game system and i forgot what year it was but they came out with the game Michael Jackson The Experience. It was like Just Dance before Just dance and you only dance to his music. I would always beat my mom or really anybody in two songs. 'Rock with you' and ' Don't stop till you get enough' both by MJ and they both were like a cornerstone for me when i played the game as a kid.

Rock with You By Michael Jackson

Don't stop til' you get enough By Michael Jackson

Last I feel like I want to add this in here just because it pissed me off but it was funny at the same time. One night a couple of my friends were all staying the night at one of their houses. Its a great night we chillen and playing the game like normal people. Sometimes you have people who just like to sit there with their phone volume on blast and watch videos. In reality nobody eles wants to hear what you watch or playing on your phone. one of my friends decides to watch a video of a song that either was coming out or had just came out.  We all sitting there playing the game but me personally i hear the video just constantly playing in the background. No joking i heard his replay that video 20 plus times in maybe 5 minutes. It got to the point I even knew the song word for word without even seeing who it was. Eventually i was like bro turn that off, and he gone tell me he just like the snippet of the song. It was funny because I wasn't the only one thinking the same thing and on top of that he just kept replaying the video over and and over. I'm not a fan of YK Osiris never was but I know this song all the way down to the last word because of that night. Don't get me wrong its a great song but he just made me not like YK just from that night.

Worth It by YK Osiris

Jordan’s First Blog

  My name is Jordan Askew and I am from Spartanburg. I listen to a lot of music on my own time to simply lighten up the mood or just for background sound. I don't have a specific music type, or one of those people who play music for a specific, but I like what I like. Sometimes you want to rap , other times you want to sing so I just like to keep a mixture of the both in a playlist. I know soon as I hear the beat of a song, I will like the song just by the beat of it.

 I love to listen to the melody of a song and As of late I have been listening to a lot of loud fast pace music that give me energy as far as working out or just getting through the day. Maybe songs that make you get out of your comfort zone and sing along with because you feel the music. For instance there is an artist named Lil Uzi Vert and all of his music just allows you to move even when you don’t have that in you . He’s not my favorite artist but if I was to workout , then his music has to be in the playlists.

 My favorite artist is Juice Wrld by far. He recently passed away a couple years ago. Coming up through highschool and not being a social person allowed me to talk to my friends a certain way but not to other people. That was something I noticed and we as a group of friends knew too. I was never comfortable around other people but my friends. His music allowed me to feel mentally stronger and come out a shell that I was always in. His music isn't always the brightest music but his messages in his music was even bigger. Motivational in a sense where why give up on your self when the time could be right now in this moment. So that’s what really made me a fan of his music because it helped me keep going and the music just pushes me in basketball mentally. Also showed me its okay to feel different in unusual spaces but allows me to feel comfortable enough to know different is always good when you know I am in the right space.

3. There isn’t any music in particular that I dislike listening too. I know a lot of people don’t listen to the music I listen to on my own , so I tend to play certain music around people. I expand to different genres, because I’m around people who listen to different things so you tend to pick up that particular music or song . Everywhere you go , you tend to hear different music so I try to take it everything. If I really get out of my comfort zone then I would play a song like, "Keeping Your Head" by Birdy

To cap it off, I also like to listen to Kate Bush "Running up that"