Forgotten histories is a theme that helped me to connect the readings from this week. The reading Country Music Is Also Mexican Music by Lugwid Hurtado discusses the forgotten history of country music. Hurtado states that “ without Mexican culture, the beloved American genre might never have existed” (Hurtado). I find this statement extremely interesting because I would never have imagined that country music was influenced by Mexican music. Hurtado also mentions that country music was specifically influenced by Mexican ranchera music. I am quite shocked by this statement because I grew up listening to ranchera music and never made the connection between ranchera and country music. Another article from this week that brings up forgotten histories is the article FINALLY, FILMMAKERS TELL THE FORGOTTEN HISTORY OF SEATTLE DIY SELF-DEFENSE GROUP HOME ALIVE by Laina Dawes. This article about the non-profit organization called “Home Alive”. It was important to tell the history of this organization because it taught women physical self-defense by saying “no” when in an uncomfortable situation and “finding escape route techniques” (Dawes). This was important because many women that were in the “grunge scene’ in Seattle. Also this film was important because there was no information on the organization but know you are able to learn about “Home Alive” and its history.
Two songs that help me relate to these readings are La Bala by Los Tigres Del Norte and Momma Why by Heart Ann & Nancy Wilson. The first song La Bala helps me relate to the article by Hurtado. In the article Hurtado mentions the country band The Last Bandoleros, as I watch the music video attached to the article I began to notice the accordion and began to connect this song to tejano music. The accordion shows me the connection between country and mexican music. The other song Momma Why connects to the Dawes article specifically because it is part of the album released by the organization and it discusses the harsh reality of sexual violence in everyday society.
Artist: Julia Michaels Song: Anxiety EP: Inner Monologue Part 1 Song Length: 3 minutes and 31 seconds
Julia Michaels started her career in the music industry as a songwriter, writing hits for artists like Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber. Then in 2017 she started her solo singing career and has recently released her second EP (extended play) titled Inner Monologue Part 1. This EP features six songs and includes two collaborations with artists Selena Gomez and Niall Horan. Michaels’ EP is personal and honest. She shares her personal experiences about dealing with anxiety, depression, and relationships.
My favorite song from this EP is “Anxiety”, a collaboration with Selena Gomez. Micheals touches on her personal experiences dealing with mental illness in terms of depression and anxiety. This song describes the effect anxiety may have on relationships and mentions that a lot of people do not understand what it’s like to have anxiety. This song hits home to both Micheals and Gomez because they have both openly spoken about anxiety and depression during their careers.
This song reminds me of the way I felt throughout my past four years of college and continue to feel throughout my current fifth year in college. The lyrics “Oh, I try my best just to be social/I make all these plans with friends and hope they call and cancel” reminds me of the times I made plans with my friends but I end up canceling last minute because of my anxiety. In terms of school, this reminds me of all the times I have not registered for a class I really wanted to take because it requires an oral presentation, group work, and active participation. I also have constantly missed the first day of class throughout my college experience in fear that the professor will have an ice breaker where I will have to introduce myself to the class. In general, any type of social interaction causes my anxiety to kick in and makes me feel like my heart is going to jump out of my chest and my whole body starts to shake making it hard to speak.
Another memory that helps me relate to this song occurred in my senior year of high school. I was in my senior capstone class I had to do a practice presentation on a senior project I did on being a nail technician. My friend Gabby had just finished doing her practice presentation and I was next. Keep in mind that I had gone over my presentation many times in front of my family. So I started presenting my senior project to the class and it was going okay but then started getting shaky. At one point I was opening a bottle of nail polish specifically used for nail designs. I opened the bottle fine but when I was trying to close it my hands started to shake uncontrollably, which lead me to have to turn around in the middle of my presentation in order to calm down and close the bottle of nail polish. In the end, my practice presentation did not go well my teacher was worried about me and I had to do my practice presentation again but only in front of my teacher which went better but not great.
Overall, this song reminds me of all the times my anxiety has held me back from hanging out with my friends, taking classes I am interested in and in pursuing careers in my field of interest. But throughout the years I have learned to live with it and I believe that my anxiety has improved. I have been trying to be more social and tried to take more classes that have challenged me.
The music genre “Punk” has given women a voice to express themselves about important issues involving politics, race, and violence against women. Punk has given women the ability to fight back against issues like sexual harassment. An example of this involves the Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas sexual harassment case. Based on this case Ednie Kaeh Garrison states in her article titled U.S. FEMINISM-GRRRL STYLE! YOUTH (SUB)CULTURES AND THE TECHNOLOGICS OF THE THIRD WAVE, that it forced “many young women to “acknowledge that we live under siege.” But it also encouraged them to fight back” (Garrison, 147). Basically, cases like the Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas case made women acknowledge that women are surrounded by injustices which they need to fight against. One-way women did this was by using their voice and all their stored-up anger in creating punk music. Women are not the only ones that express important issues through punk music. In the article Its (Not) a White World: Looking for Race in Punk, Mimi Nguyen states that “You (and I mean everybody now) can be accountable to your social location. Interrogate and historicize your place in society, punk, whatever, and be aware of how you talk about race, gender, sexuality – it’s political… Recognize power in all its forms, how it operates” (Nguyen, 9). By making this statement Nguyen makes it clear that everyone has the power to about important issues like race in punk, but they must be aware of the way they talk about these issues because people are affected by issues differently.
Two songs that relate to these articles in terms of violence against women are GateKeeper by Jessie Reyes and Man Down by Rihanna. Though these songs don’t express that aggressive sound like that of punk music. The song Man Down expresses the harsh reality of what occurs when society continues to let violence against women go unrecognized which leads to women taking matters in their own hands. The song GateKeeper expresses the harsh reality some women in the music industry, movie industry, etc. Go through because they are told that if they are told to do, they will not progress in their industry.
The Columbian singer-songwriter Shakira debuted her first album in 1990, at the young age of thirteen. Over the years she has experimented with a variety of rhythms and genres influenced by her Arabic and Latin background. Shakira has also stated that she was heavily influenced by the music she listened to growing up. In my critical review, I will argue that Shakira’s latest album El Dorado, fuses a variety of rhythms and genres influenced by her cultural backgrounds and musical interests to express her personal experiences to her audience as well as redefining sexual norms in the track “Chantaje”.
Shakira has been known to fuse together a variety of rhythms throughout her musical career to shake up the pop industry since she is labeled as primarily a pop artist. The track “What We Said” featuring MAGIC! has a mixture of the Jamaican and Latin-influenced rhythm dem-bow and a bit of African guitar. This proves the point Larry Starr and Christopher Waterman made in the book American Popular Music that “musicians in Latin America developed a wide range of styles blending African music with the traditions of Europe. Caribbean, South American, and Mexican traditions have long influenced popular music” (Starr & Waterman, 10). Aside from “What We Said,” the track “Perro Fiel” also has the dem-bow rhythm with Latin pop. She also fuses the rhythms of R&B with Latin pop in the track “Trap”.
Shakira’s personal experiences with her partner Gerard Pique played as her main inspiration for this album. Pique encouraged Shakira to continue making music and to hold off retirement stating it was not her time to retire because she still has a lot to say. Piques support of Shakira’s career reminded me of Jennifer Lena’s article Banding Together: How Communities Create Genres in Popular Music in which she states, “In music scenes, the sources of practical support are the most diverse of across all genre forms: artists often rely on family members, friends, and non-musical employment to support their creative labor” (Lena, 2012). Shakira heavily relies on her personal experiences in life to influence her lyrics in her music. The track “Coconut Tree” is an example of this in which she describes a trip she took with Pique to a private island away from the public eye and she described the feeling of where she first fell in love with him. Another example is the track “Me Enamore” which is a song Shakira wrote about falling in love with her partner Pique. She describes that her life completely changed after she first met him and mentions they fell in love with each other and had a family. The track “Nada” is also about her partner Pique, but this song brings me back to the old Shakira the rocker with the red long hair. In this track, Shakira dives back into the genre of rock n roll to express how everything in her life means nothing to her including the money and fame if Pique is not by her side. “Nada” brings Shakira back to her roots to when she stated in the music industry with her earliest albums being heavily influenced by the music she listened to growing up referring to rock in which she stated Led Zeppelin as one of her favorite rock bands.
In this album, Shakira also redefines sexual norms in her song “Chantaje” expressing women as being dominant and in control of their sexuality. This song is a collaboration featuring Maluma a Latin pop heartthrob in which he describes Shakira as being a tease and being mean because she goes around teasing him by the way she goes on about her life and the way she moves her body in a sensual way. Shakira responds by saying that she is free to do what she wants and go out at night and that she is the one that carries the pants in the relationship. She also makes it clear that she does not belong to him or anyone else. Throughout the music video, Shakira is shown wearing a variety of risqué outfits and dancing in a sensual matter. This proves the statement Anna Powers made in her article A Spy in the House of Love that “women also seem more willing than ever to participate in their own objectification” (Powers, 43) which is clearly seen in the music video for “Chantaje”. Though it is also important to note that there is a difference in “self-abuse” and in “self-celebration” and Shakira is all about “self-celebration” which is proven with her “Chantaje” by expressing that women are free to do what when they want to and should not be confined to sexual norms about women.
Shakira’s latest album truly showed her audience what holds importance in her life and has opened her personal life to her audience by sharing personal experiences about her love life. She also experiments with a variety of musical genres composed of a variety of rhythms influenced by her musical interests as well as her Latin and Arabic cultural backgrounds to shake up popular music. Lastly, Shakira has also redefined sexual norms by expressing that women are free to do what they want by continuing to participate in her own objection as a form of “self-celebration” throughout a variety of her lyrics and music videos.
Hip-Hop has served as a source of expression for many individuals facing hard times in their life since the 1980s. According to Wikipedia, hip-hop “formed during the late 1970s in New York City” (wiki) but it did not truly develop until the late 1980s. During the 1970s, hip-hop served as a voice for those unrepresented and marginalized in America and as the years go on hip-hop continues to give people a voice to express the pressures they are facing in America. According to the article Still Fighting Power by Theresa Riley the author of Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation Jeff Chang expresses that if you were a fan of hip-hop “you could listen to artists from different cities and find out what was happening in those cities” (Riley,202). This shows that hip-hop artist used their music to express what was going on in the world in terms of what they were going through in their own life. For example, an artist by the name of Toddy Tee released a hip-hop song about police brutality in black neighborhoods of Los Angeles. Overall, hip-hop has given people the ability to express what they are experiencing in the world in terms of critical issues that people should be worried about like police brutality. Two examples of hip-hop songs that express critical issues people are facing like police brutality and racism are This is America by Childish Gambino and The story of O.J by Jay-Z.
Women of color played a major role in the evolution of rock n roll but did not receive the recognition they truly deserved. These women have often been ignored and pushed aside when speaking about the story of rock n roll and instead white males have been placed at the center. I find this extremely insensitive since most of the time famous songs like “Hound Dog” by Big Mamma Thornton were often remanufactured by white male artists for the white population. These remanufactured songs often receive more popularity and were often identified as being the original version. Though in recent years “race-conscious feminist scholars have examined the involvement of women in a range of musical endeavors and explored the ways factors like race, class, and sexuality shape their experiences” (Mahon, 2011). This is important to acknowledge because feminist scholars are putting in the effort to create narratives for these women artist to prove they were part of the creation and evolution of rock n roll and to give them credit for being the original creators of songs that were stolen from them and remanufactured. The organization “Women Who Rock” has also put in the effort in exploring the role of women in a variety of music like rock n roll. This organization has joined together “scholars, archivists, musicians, media makers, performers, artists, and activists” (Habel-Pallán, Macklin, and Retman, 2014), to investigate the role of women in music like rock n roll. Overall, I believe that it is important to investigate the role women of color played in the music industry specifically they deserve recognition in the creation and evolution of rock n roll.
Two examples of songs that I believe prove that fact that women of color played a role in the evolution of rock n roll music are Etta James and Donna summer. These two women are known as two of the greatest Black female rock singers. The songs I chose are “Hot Stuff” by Donna Summer and “I’d Rather Go Blind” by Etta James. I chose these two songs because these are popular songs that prove that women of color played a role in the music industry in terms of rock n roll and these women deserve recognition.
AFRAM337 