1. Tell me about something you learned about another culture this term that really surprised or intrigued you.
One culture that took me for a surprise is the Black America culture. On how women really lead the blues and people actually accepted. Women were the power house of the blues of that time, and I loved it.
2. Tell me about something that you realized about your own culture through our discussions.
Once again that women were the power house of the Black America era. It was just really cool to hear about all the women that lead that era and did so well.
3. Tell me about couple of things you really liked about this class, and a couple of things you wish could have been different.
I like the visual aid. I am a visual learner. So if you were to talk about the culture and did not show us music and videos I wouldn't be able to really learn. And I liked the breaks because I would not be able to focus without a break. I do not really have dislikes other then it being long but that's all jan. term classes.
4. Tell me about something that this course has inspired you to learn more about.
It inspired me to learn able other cultures period. Like listen to their music and how they do it. What instruments they use and how they use them. This class taught me in a whole to appreciate other peoples culture because your own culture could have possibly came from theirs and vice versa.
So this blog I want to go all modern. Modern music, dance, instruments that Indonesia and China are doing or using. The first thing I found is a gamelan played by all women and some tradition dance added to it done by women. The professor did say in this culture women did play in the gamelan, so its not rare. For dance it is mostly what the women do. But still always have to get the women in the building. Without further ado, here is the video...
This one is not modern or much of music related but I found a short video of how a gong is made. The video explains everything to how they make the gongs.
I was not here for the China section, so I will be doing what i said in the begin of the blog, doing something modern. So, the final thing I found is modern Chinese rap done by a women of course. The song is call "My New Swag" by Vava.
This experience allowed me to get to ask this particular person questions I never really asked. And I would first like to thank Professor Vaneman for giving us the assignment. I learned more about her and my family. So without further ado, I interviewed my beautiful mother. Her name is Patricia Hill at the age of 56 she has four children from the age range of 28 to 20 and is married to my father, Earnest Hill.
She was a militarily brat so she moved a lot but grew up in Boston, Massachusetts (10 years, between ages 3-13). She grew up in the music-culture of Dick Clark's Top 40s.
Therefore she grew up listening to Top 40s (light rock) which was popular at the time because her family lived in a white area; and that what her classmates listen to. She also listened to and jazz (Fat Domino) growing up. Her and her siblings listened to whatever their parents listened to. Her dad would listen to Shaft soundtrack by the artist Issac Hayes when they cleaned up the house on Sunday. Which was her first memory of music, listening to Shaft soundtrack while cleaning the house.
They would listen to these records on either the FM radio or on a record player. The music meant to her that she was listening to the memories of her parents. This is also how her parents influenced what she listened to, "They bough the records and only allowed us to listen to certain radio stations." With that being said, music was not a priority in her family because the records were expensive and they did not have much money and only one radio in the house.
In her life, she sung in the church choir and was in a band for one lesson as the trumpet player. She said it was fun singing in the choir. She regrets not learning the piano because she wish she knew how to play it. As I said earlier, she was a military brat and moved a lot, so with all her traveling she said some interesting music she heard along the way was German oomph music, Italian music, and country music. But her favorite culture music is Jamaican. She did not go to concerts until she dated my father. So her first concert was the jazz fest in Ohio. Some famous musicians she has met are the Troutman brother, Roger, Larry and Zapp from "Roger and Zapp".
Over time her relationship with music did not change. She enjoys all kinds of music and music helps with whatever mood she is in. She does occasionally listen to the same music she listened to growing up because she can still get to it. But it is different because she tends to listen to music that is popular at the time. At the same time, she thinks the music today has too much swearing in it. That there is not a lot of smooth mellow music and its a lot of "booty thumbing" music. As I said previously, she has four children. All of us played a instrument growing up and she was the one to push us to play them. She said it was part of having us being well rounded people and being cultural.
Some fun facts about her:
She said a special piece of music in her life is my parents wedding song, You are my lady by Freddy Jackson.
And her favorite piece of music is Lean on me by Bill Withers.
Her favorite artists are The Fugees.
To conclude the interview, I asked her two questions; If you had to describe your life in one song, what would you choose? and What does music mean to you? She said the song would be "Lean on me" because she is always here for the people she loves no matter what and that music means it can make you happy, give you energy but can also make you sad.
The first thing I found was a women who plays the riq. Her name is Bahareh Moghtadaei. She is a music therapist. She was born in Tehran and started learning music at the age of four. She played the riq in the ULCA Middle Eastern Ensemble and SK Middle Eastern Ensemble. If you want to learn more about her, here is her offical website http://www.baharehmt.com/Biography.htm. But here is a video of her playing the riq.
The next thing I found was a Arab world artist. Her name is Nancy Ajram. She was born in Acrafieh, Beirut, Lebanon; and bring raised in a Christian family. She is known to be a Lebanese recording artist.
This song, Ah W Noss, was done in 2004 and was one of biggest songs.
The final thing I found and wanted to search is from the India world. As we discussed in class the Hindu trinity, Shiva. Shiva is the destroyer. This is said to be the most popular song of Lord Shiva ever.
When it comes to the blues, I love the sound of it. It is so smooth and something that you can just clean the house to or chilling riding a book. So I wanted to find modern blues music. I found artist named Rag'n'bone Man. This song is under the genre modern blues rock music. I actually like the song. It has a good meaning behind it. If you listen to it you can pick out all the blues musical structure.
We of course all go to Converse College and I love find things on women. So I searched Ecuador women artist and found many artist. The artist I founds name is Nicola' Cruz. She has a very modern way of the music and it is really ear pleasing. She mixes traditional music and fresh beats. She uses the traditional music to help with her inspiration.
We talked about many women of the blues that impacted/changed the blues. One of these women is Sister Rosetta Tharpe. She used Gospel and the electric guitar (she actually played) in her music. And was a inspiration to many famous artist such as, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, and Little Richard.
I was in the orchestra between the grades of 4th grade to 8th grade. I as a female, I played the violin. Not many boys played the violin but as the instruments got bigger, the more the boys played. I never really noticed until thinking about it now. But that is one of my music and gender experiences. Another experience is that my brother played the trumpet when he was middle school and I believe there was not one girl that played it.
Another one I can recently think about is the music industry now. The industry I am talking about is the rap industry. Females want to have the same respect and recognition as the guys. Because the guys can do and say whatever they want without anyone really doing or saying anything. But once a female does it, it is so wrong. One person that has kind of broken the stigma is, Megan the Stallion. She is one of the best female rappers out at the moment (I would put a video in but her music is very vulgar). She is doing and saying whatever she wants and people love her. I believe women can do anything and everything a man can do, and maybe even better.
Also another thing I see now and days, is what females are suppose to listen to compared what males listen to. People and mostly males believe females are suppose to listen to soft and in your feelings music by male or female, or hard music by female rappers. But now and days females listen to any kind of music. For example, there is a artist named, NBA young boy (once again I would put a video up but his music is very vulgar too), when a male hears a female listen to his music they are amazed. I personally listen to all kinds of music, if you look in my phone you would have music from the weekend (my favorite artist) to NBA young boy. I do not really fully discriminate against music, but there is a couple genres of music I do not listen to.
I do not really get involved with Converse College but when I do, I do hear a different music. Most of the music is really up to beat or slow. It is usually (close to 90%) music I do not listen to. But Being here has introduced me to a lot of different music from being at events to going to class (this class) to going to concerts held here.
The first thing that caught my attention in one of the Native American videos is the topic of the Native American Boarding school. In the Pow Wow trail video one of the old wise men, Floyd Red Crow Westerman, shared a part of a song he made about being in the school. He also talked about how he was in the boarding school, how they treated them, and the pain that was left with them. They could not speak their language, sing their songs, or dress in their culture. So the Holocaust happened before the Holocaust. (The Holocaust being way more extreme. Just the comparison of excluding a group of people and trying to "get rid of them.") What makes me mad is that it is not really talked about in the classroom. It is something that should be talked about. Here is a song about the impact of what the schools did to people. It is called "Residential School Song."
We talked in class about the instrument kora. We talked about how the Groit is the leader of the "band" and is traditionally a man. Well I have found a women who plays the kora and takes on all the objectives of a Groit. Her name is Sona Jobarteh. She is the first women kora player from a west African Groit family. She is known for her ability to blend musical styles. Here is her official website if you would like to learn more about her: http://www.sonajobarteh.com/ . And here is one of her songs named "Jarabi"done in 2011:
We talked about a lot of instruments used in music from the Sub Saharan. One instrument we did not talk about is called the Calabash. "It is an dried calabash bowl turned upside down and hit with the fist and fingers wearing rings. It is mostly used as accompaniment to melodic instruments." (from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sub-Saharan_African_music_traditions#Instruments) Here is a video of it being played.
