Observation from 9.28
Today we listened to 4 completely different songs. The first one was my favorite, since I happen to be a Rage Against the Machine fan. The song was called "Ashes in the Fall," and we had to determine what genre the band was, whether the label they were under was a major label or an independent label, what the message of the song was, and whether or not it was effective. The remaining of the 3 songs were "Hopeless" by Ludacris, "I'm No Heroine" by Ani, and "Maoist Intellectual" by Momus. After listening to all 4 songs, we had to split of into groups of 4 to determine the criteria mentioned above. My group determined that Rage was a rock/alt. genre, that it was a major label (obviously), and that the song was tied to the government's timeless manipulation. It's effective as far as teenage angst and politics are concerned, but it doesn't reach out past a younger audience. Luda's "Hopeless" was rap, a major label, and a song about how he's so rich, yet still has problems. It's not very effective because in his lyrics, he's hiding behind this problems with weed and alcohol, and seems unmotivated to change what's wrong in his life. The Ani song was very much of the Indie genre, the cd was on her own independent label, the song was about feminism, and it wasn't very effective to me. Honestly, I had a hard time forcing her voice into my ears. The last song was Momus, who is an electro pop artist on an independent label. His song was about the irony of hypocrisy and protest. I didn't find it very effective because his songs are not well known, therefore they don't reach people very often.
I really enjoyed class that day, especially since Rage was involved : )
I really enjoyed class that day, especially since Rage was involved : )