Don't Let the Music Die

As promised form last post here is another genre of music:

Hip-Hop

Arguably one of the most influential types of music since 1960. From the Beatles to Kanye West. The range is unlimited. Now hip-hop is defined as a style of popular music of US black and Hispanic origin, featuring rap with an electronic backing. Although hip-hop is a youthful culture, it is a prime example of how history influences music. Modern hip-hop is closely associated with growing up in tougher situations and those situation were then turned into music as it us being used as an outlet.  

Understanding roots and origins of music, helps us to understand where music is going nest. Mixing genres and styles help us develop new ideas and feels. It helps to broaden our creativity abilities.

Music isn’t going anywhere. It’s something we can’t escape, it’s something that we don’t want to go away. But the way that funding is going, easily giving STEM $240 million and shrinking the budget for music, it’s making it harder to keep kids musically educated from a younger level. The earlier we begin to teach ourselves the history and beauty of music, the greater impact it will leave on us. Music is magical. Music is timeless. Of course music has a long history but someone will always be able to take a piece of music or song and be able to find a relation to it or feel a connection. It’s a wonderful way to communicate and to express our wants, needs, and desires.

Now often time’s younger musicians don’t want to stop playing but when they make it to college it is a hard choice. Many times, musicians stop when they get to high school. It’s often intimidating to think of spending thousands of dollars to go into a field that is full of uncertainty due to the amount of jobs and high skill levels you must obtain to even be considered. Sadly, they end up placing their instruments down and not picking them back up. I didn’t give it much thought and I didn’t understand how much music and performing was important to me, until this happened to me. After winning the highest award for orchestra in high school, after our last concert I put my instrument in its case and I haven’t played it since. Usually summer just meant a little break but didn’t quite hit me until later that I would not be picking my instrument back up at the end of the summer. I’ve now taken the time to understand and realize how important music is. Now after reading and finding out about more opportunities, I’m sure that in future semesters I will take classes and join groups that get me back involved with music. Another thing that we have to realize is that even if we don’t decide to dedicate our whole lives to one thing, if it provides you joy and keeps your creativity going, there’s always a way to continue it, you just have to find it.

For more personal stories and perspectives. Click here. 

Providing students with appropriate funding, knowledge, and encouragement will allow the world to be a happier place.

Hopefully, the movements that have already been started will continue to prosper and help save the knowledge of the art. As for me, to help with music education, I will get back involved in music by playing, offering advice, support, and maybe lessons.

Thanks for reading. :) 

Different Genres

Last week, I discussed the impact that music has on people’s lives on a personal and individual level. Later in the post I focused on how music impacts us in a cultural, emotional, and moral way. Although there are many reasons as to have music impacts us, I found that those we the most common ways. This week, I will discuss how music influences and impacts us on a larger level, on a cultural level. Different cultures have different styles of music that speak to them different. It’s important to recognize the music of different cultures to understand where they come and how they were formed. Understanding the roots of different types of music help us learn where certain types of music come from and how it was created. The deeper understanding of genres of music can help us to spread the various types and educate others further.

Reggae

Reggae is a style of Jamaican popular music blending blues, calypso, and rock-'n'-roll, characterized by a strong syncopated rhythm and lyrics of social protest as explained by dictionary.com. This style of music can be traced back to the late 1960’s in Jamaica. It is argued that this style of music evolved from earlier genres such as Ska and Rocksteady. Bob Marley is probably one of the easiest names to recognize from reggae music.

The Blues

The Blues according to dictionary.com is a song, originating with American blacks, that is marked by the frequent occurrence of blue notes, and that takes the basic form, customarily improvised upon in performance, of a 12-bar chorus consisting of a 3-line stanza with the second line repeating the first. The blues may be one of my favorite genres of music. It mimics the idea of a call and response style without common music features such as harmonies.  This genre of music comes with sadness, melancholy, regret, etc. Ray Charles and Willie Dixon are artist that can be tied with this genre.

Calypso

A few times I’ve heard of calypso music but I never gave it music attention. It is a musical style of West Indian origin, influenced by jazz,usually having topical, often improvised, lyrics (dictionary.com). This genre of music is tied back to Trinidad and Tobago. My aunt is from there, so I’m pretty sure she’s the reason that this genre sparks memories in my head. An easier place for us to identify this type of music would be in the hit movies Pirates of the Caribbean as it ties with Calypso the sea goddess in the movies.

Often times it is over looked that different genres of music influence places all over the world. They originated in certain origins of the world and the spread like a wildfire. It’s inevitable that music needs to stay around and be taught. It helps with the overall satisfaction of life and gives us some substance. Everyone has their own memories planted in each genre of music or even each type. It’s important for us to recognized and acknowledge the origins of different types of music so we know how they contribute and compliment the next genre. In my next post, I plan on explain three or four more different genres and how they come together to help create more types of music. 

Thanks for reading. :)