Happy New Year Bloggers! Here is Part II of the music blog:
Music can alter, change, and otherwise mold someone’s opinions and beliefs. The joy of any piece of music is its originality, catchiness, and ability to challenge the listener. When I first hear a piece of music if it sounds dull or unoriginal I give it less credence than if it uniquely portrays itself (I know, it’s an epiphany.). The same is true with a song’s catchiness; the initial impression is drawn from aspects that uniquely catch attention. After the initial listening(s) though, the song can take a couple paths for people, each of these paths define how the song is perceived as well as who listens to that song. The first two examples describe popular music, and show the differences between pop songs:
Fad song: This is your basic pop song. Current examples are Britney Spears’ “Womenizer,” Lady Gaga’s “Just Dance,” or anything by Sean Kingston. These songs are rarely good, often replicated, and are usually taken from someone else’s original piece. These are also the songs that people use on the dance floor (“…it’s gonna be me, you, and the dance floor.” –Chris Brown). The importance of this segment of song type is the lifecycle. The song is initially only known by true partiers (or music diggers), then hits a growth phase, until it finally only stays with that segment of people who either love it. These songs eventually become the butt of jokes by everyone else (Eiffel 65 – Blue), and those who truly love those songs sulk in the corner quietly.
Lasting Pop: These songs align directly with “Fad Songs” except for one major difference - the songs become pop culture icons. Great examples of these are “Don’t Stop Believin’” by Journey, “YMCA” by the Village People, “Yeah” by Lil’ Jon, or “Baby Got Back” by Sir Mixalot. What is interesting about these songs is not their quality, but rather their ability to connect people. Irrelevant of the situation, if “Sweet Caroline” were played by Neil Diamond anyone in my age demographic would at least acquiesce its transcendental qualities (and would probably sing the chorus).
So there my two major feelings about pop songs and their lifecycles. Yet pop songs are not the only ones out there. There is actually music that is both listenable and intellectually stimulating. When listening to the lyrics “God is a concept, by which we measure our pain.” (John Lennon) a listener is instantly challenged. This challenge can push the listener to agree, disagree, or ponder deep questions about their personal beliefs. That, I feel, is the deepest impact music can have on a person - the ability to push a listener’s to change and expand their worldview. Let’s examine this quality of music and show the difference between a poor song and a good one (these categories extend past popular songs, into all genres):
Good Songs: For lack of a better title, these songs are ones that are catchy, unique, and challenging (or at least unique and challenging). While I have been using these terms throughout this blog series, the one I want to focus on again is the challenging aspect of song (mainly because it is the true difference between a good song and a bad one). Once the catchiness of a song wears off what truly creates a great musical piece is how it affects listeners, both individually and as a culture, and how that effect betters the world. The sixties and seventies are littered with these types of songs. Whether it was the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, or the Who, (etc) it was these bands who created songs that helped individuals challenge themselves, challenge culture as it was viewed, and change themselves because of it. And this is the true catalyst of a “good song;” a song has to have the ability to challenge and change individuals and norms and through this ability hopefully change society for the better. Because of this aspect of music, I feel, it is critical for an individual’s mental growth to experience as much music as possible.
Bad Songs: Now let’s look at the lesser side of music. These songs can be catchy and even unique, but they are not challenging and they do spur growth, but rather breed status quo listeners. These are songs that do not hold the necessary ability to change an individual’s opinion or belief, but rather strengthen stereotypes. Though there are many examples of these songs (and genres pursuing these qualities), my personal favorite example is the James A. Garfield class of 2007’s (my senior year) song. This song is none other than Kenny Chesney’s “Young.” This song is catchy (if you enjoy country) and somewhat unique in its portrayal of life as a youth. What it is not is its not good. It lacks all forms of the challenging quality of music (both musically and lyrically) and really just plays on the listeners wanton to reminisce. My personal favorite line is “We were wanna be rebels who didn't have a clue” because it reinforces the idea that youth cannot make a difference, nor understand what is happening in their world. But not too go too in depth, let me end with “I hate our class song.”
While music can help individuals grow throughout life, there is never a time that one is more exposed to new music than in the four years of undergraduate study. Like so many other aspects of college, the amount of music available increases dramatically because there are literally thousands of people, with lots of time, who are making, looking up, and sharing music with each other. As such, it is important to take advantage of that and try to expand one’s musical scope and cultural taste.
Having discussed why music is important to a college student identity and experience, I will conclude this dual blog with a few final remarks concerning music sharing, storing, and accessibility. With the advent of the digital age, there has never been a time when music was easier to transfer and trade with others connoisseurs. This is a great thing! At the same time, it is important not to bog down your personal computer or laptop with too many tunes. My recommendation is to find a good external hard drive and split your library between music listened to often and those that are not. This can save space and reduce computer lag time. Finally, because music is easy transferable, there many free or cheap resources to access a multitude of different genres and songs. Here at Miami we have a music library, not to mention all of the other easy ways to transfer music (including flash drives, CDs, and the Internet). All of these resources can and be accessed to expand your scope of the world, challenge yourself, enhance your personal experience, or at least here some bangin’ tunes.
This concludes the musical aspect of my Miami culture series of blogs. Next (which I hope to get up this week) is a discussion of trips (which is definitely an important part of collegiate culture). This is mostly created from my recent New Years trip! So again, happy new years!
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