music blog i guess 0_0

  As the end of the year closes in, I begin reflecting on my past memories. I remember in elementary and early middle school, all I did was read. My mom got angry because I’d stay up too late to finish a good book or wake up early full of nervous energy to one that I fell asleep reading. But 12AP has really brought me back to that time when all I ever thought about was reading. It’s really brought something that I used to love back, and I find myself reading more outside of class. Whether it’s the independent reading selection or just enjoying a short story, I’ve definitely begun to read more than I did in the beginning of high school. And as a result, I think I’m pretty satisfied with my writing too. Now, it’s not so hard to come up with words for me to describe the things I want to talk about. And by trying to make every blog post I have about music has really allowed me to grab the thinnest of branches to reach. I’m satisfied with the work I’ve done with past semester with my bl...

               The American Dream is a myth. And yet, though the majority who seek it are aware of its superficiality, they continue their pursuit, distracted by the smoke and mirror illusion of the successful few shrouding the millions who’ve failed. As Anne Marie Hacht eloquently points out, “Ironically, The Great Gatsby actually predated the term “American dream”...[and] marks the birth of a myth, one that shaped the definition of success for future American society” (Literary Themes for Students: The American Dream). Beginning to flourish in the same time period as the fast-paced atmosphere and ideals that birthed The Great Gatsby , the music industry has always banked on the flimsy belief of the American Dream. Commercial music in America has constantly embodied these corrupt ideals, tempting artists to sacrifice everything for stardom and wealth or condemn themselves to a life of dissatisfaction and violence. ACT 1 It’s the Faustian bar...

                                   After finishing Death of a Salesman, I thought it’d be interesting to listen to the soundtrack and take a look at what is conveyed musically in the soundtrack. I couldn’t find the music of the 1949 stage play, but I managed to find the OST of the 1951 film. This OST was written by Alex North, who also wrote the music for the Broadway production, so I’m pretty confident that it’s similar to the stage play’s soundtrack.  The soundtrack consists of six songs: Willy, Ben--Willy’s Symbol of Success, Linda, The Boys Meet Ben, Willy’s Affair in Boston, and Good-bye WIlly.  WILLY The first track, Willy, starts off with a lone flute, as expected. It’s a haunting melody that seems to be full of nostalgia and longing. It’s reminiscent of pioneers, a melody that carves itself out for the audience, full of long wavering notes and vibrato, almost seemin...

          Movements in the arts have always influenced one another, each cultural movement sending ripples felt in a variety of fields such as art, music, literature, and architecture. But curiously enough, there is no realism period in music. There’s the Romantic era, which comes before, and the Modernist era, which comes after, but no Realism (technically there’s verismo but that’s only opera). Romanticism in music extends from the early 1800s all the way to the early 1900s, where eventually it falls off in response to Modernism’s popularity. It’s not possible to say that music was simply not affected by the realism movement, because every single other movement, Baroque, classical and Romantic, were all influenced by movements in literature (they were probably actually more influenced by art but I’m trying to make a point here): the Baroque movement inspired the likes of Johann Sebastian Bach and Antonio Vivaldi, the Neoclassical/Enlightenment period infl...

Sampling has always been used in music, but it’s only in recent years when people began to name this practice as sampling. The earliest sample I can think of is Saint Saens’s famous suite “Carnival of the Animals IV. Tortoises,” which used Offenbach’s “Galop infernal” (also more widely known as the Can-can) melody for the basis of the entire song. It’s been around for a long time in classical music, seen in Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini or Casella’s Variations sur une Chaconne. Music has always been as much of a collaboration between other artists as it has been with the instruments and sounds that are used. Sampling is when a portion of a sound recording is reused in another recording. Elements like rhythm, melody, speech can be used and layered, equalized, sped up/slowed down, repitched, looped or manipulated. Sampling is especially popular in the hip hop industry but has influenced almost all genres of music, most notably electronic music, pop, and house music. Some...

In preparation for the POV power paragraph tomorrow, I thought I would take a second and analyze POV in a song. Yes, I guess this basically turned into a music blog where I desperately try to relate something in music to class. It looks like there’ll be a lot of stretches this year yikes. Anyways, the song in question I’m looking at is “For Free? (Interlude)” from To Pimp A Butterfly by Kendrick Lamar. Before you start reading this, go listen to “For Free? (Interlude) and appreciate that C minor scale from that saxophone, it’s gorgeous and bright. And the sustained C minor chord where the drums begin to move the beat along, wow! I may have chosen this song because I think everyone should appreciate the production (I’m looking at you Nate, I will make you relisten to Kendrick)      “For Free? (Interlude)” is primarily in 1st Person Subjective, though each of the characters utilizes many instances of “you” and “me”, seemingly talking both to the audience and the other char...

              Yesterday, we lost a beloved up and coming Chicago drill rapper, King Von, in a fatal shooting. Sadly, he’s not the only one fallen to petty crime. Nine months back, we lost Pop Smoke, a breakout Brooklyn drill star. Though drill has been gradually gaining traction in the mainstream through the unfortunate passings of these young stars, it’s always been a predominant part of the hip hop scene, splitting into regional subgenres such as Chicago drill, Brooklyn drill, and even UK drill. Three slices of Drill pie (Chief Keef and Lil Durk, Headie One and SL, Pop Smoke and Fivio Foreign) Drill is a subgenre of trap revolving predominantly around dark gritty beats and violent and nihilistic lyrics. It first grew popularity around the 2010s, when the most popular artists out of Chicago were poetic and reflective stars like Common, Lupe Fiasco, and Kanye West (AT THE TIME!). They didn’t reflect the city’s violent reality, full of crimina...