Take Control of Your Culture - American Studies - Blog

B.I.G. promotes Jim crow stereotype

Tim M.

Notorious B.I.G. shows the present-day Jim Crow sterotype  in his song  "Party and Bullshit" :

Verse II:
Honey want to chat 
but all we wanna know is where the party at 
and can I bring my gat?  If not, I hope I don't get shot

The Jim crow stereotype is a black person only wanting to have fun all the time  and live life like a joke.  This song does indeed perpetuate this stereotype.  It shows this because that's all notorious wants to know is where the parties at.  Nothing else matters, not even a girl thats trying to talk with him.   

Chorus:
and party and bullshit and party and bullshit X 5
and party and bullshit and X 1

The chorus also betrays this stereotype.  The chorus is basically the Jim crow steroype itself  but in the words of Notorious.  Even though the Jim crow sterotype was more popular in the past it's still  brought up in the present day.   Not just in music but the news and in  books.   B.I.G. is not the only person who perpetuates the Jim crow stereotype in a song and  he certainly will not be the last.  It seems like the only way for black rappers to succeed in the rap industry is if they use the Jim crow sterotype in there music.      

 

Old Vs. New Music

I recently bought tickets to go see Bob Dylan on the 27^th and 28^TH at The Chicago Theater. This made me start to wonder, Is older music more meaningful than new music? If you listen to some of the lyrics in today’s hits they are all basically about the same things. I’m not saying all new music is bad, but most of it isn’t really digging very deep any more lyrics wise. If you listen to older music from the 50’s it’s mostly about cars and girls. When you listen to music from the 60’s it’s mostly about protesting the government, loving one another, music, weather and drugs. Now it seems like everything on the radio is talking about “ getting with “ so and so, or “ going to this club “.

People should actually think of something meaningful to say in a song before making one, Instead of just putting anything on the radio. If you write a song, and it doesn’t have any meaning or the meaning is degrading than what’s the point of writing a song at all? Depending on the person, listening to a good song for the first time could change your entire life. Can you think of anything on the radio right now that could even come close to changing your life? Sure – some of the music today is catchy and fun to sing along too but music is much more than that.

Newly Revised Cultural Analysis

A major hit in the mainstream American’s eye is the new iphone. We have all seen the commercial, were a man shows us how convenient it is. He demonstrates the phone by first calling it a device, showing its video streaming and online capabilities. Then at the end reveals that it is also a phone, which is apparently supposed to be a big deal. They made this commercial to make the product feel like a technological break through. It was the first time people were able to view the product, after guessing how apple can make a better phone. Yet there are products just like it that have been out on the market up to a year before it. It is the whole Apple I-life hype that swept the nation when the ipod was released.

Apple feels that if they can create a basic mp3 player and sell so many, they can tap into the phone market and sell more. The commercial does make it look appealing, but it is just to get buyers attention. They don’t want you to find out about its flaws, only its amazing capabilities and awesome style. It makes it seem practical and easy to use, but after trying out the product, the touch screen is more trouble then its worth. All there is to say is Apple did a good job making the product to attract a bigger crowd, and the commercial had a major part in selling the iphone.

Revised Cultural Analysis: Today's Music

    Are you tired of today’s hit music being mostly focused on material items or the artist promotion of themselves?  Today’s hit music is mostly focused on two things, material objects, or how “great” the artist tells you they are. Almost every song played on MTV has lyrics on these two subjects. For example, Fergie has a hit song called “Fergalicious”. This song is completely about how sexy she tells us she is, and how her sex appeal makes men go crazy. The whole song is focused on promoting her image to the world, not about musical expression.  A lot of popular hip/hop that comes out today is totally focused on these subjects as well. A lot of the time the chorus lines in these song will be totally about how wealthy or great the artist is. I am speaking of chorus lines such  as, “I’m so fly”, or “ Bet you can’t do it like me”. Music is not about materialism or promoting how “cool” you are. I believe that these artist have very low self esteem and need to reassure themselves on how great they are or how wealthy they are. Music should be about true feelings or subjects, that have interest or make you think. Today’s music is going to lead to a very superficial generation to come. A generation that believes that money and nice cars are what leads to true happiness, or a successful life. What happened to songs having real, raw emotion, or having the subject matter be on a real, important issue. Now a days most music will be the artist telling the audience that he’s a hardcore criminal or gangster, which they usually turn out not to be. Popular music these days will also be about a dance move, or useless shallow information that just shows the audience tons of low self esteem. The audience usually doesn’t use their brain and just conforms to what is popular, not really taking time to think about what the level of originality the music is. The big issue is besides the fact that the music is giving the youth of America not only immoral and very ignorant messages, it is also developing an attitude towards their generation’s music. It happened to the kids that grew up in the 1980’s and it is going to happen to this generation. We don’t want another generation like the 80’s where people look back at the music and consider it a joke full of poppy, ignorant, poor quality music. Music that is driving the use of the human brain, musically, into the ground.

Dear Mr. President

Some of you might be familiar with the song Dear Mr. President by Pink. In the song Pink is basically singing questions aimed  towards the president   asking him all sorts of things as to why he is doing some of the things he does. Such things like "How do you sleep while the rest of us cry."Another line that Pink sings is "Let me tell you 'bout hard work, you don't know nothing 'bout hard work." Now i know that the president may not be a lot of peoples favorite person but i think that Pink saying you don't know anything about hard work might be pushing it a little. I don't think that any president deserves to have said about them that they know nothing about hard work and they don't work hard when there life is there work and they are always living it.
Below is all the lyrics to the song Dear Mr. President by Pink
Dear Mr. President,
Come take a walk with me.
Let's pretend we're just two people and
You're not better than me.
I'd like to ask you some questions if we can speak honestly.
What do you feel when you see all the homeless on the street?
Who do you pray for at night before you go to sleep?
What do you feel when you look in the mirror?
Are you proud?
How do you sleep while the rest of us cry?
How do you dream when a mother has no chance to say goodbye?
How do you walk with your head held high?
Can you even look me in the eye
And tell me why?
Dear Mr. President,
Were you a lonely boy?
Are you a lonely boy?
Are you a lonely boy?
How can you say
No child is left behind?
We're not dumb and we're not blind.
They're all sitting in your cells
While you pave the road to hell.
What kind of father would take his own daughter's rights away?
And what kind of father might hate his own daughter if she were gay?
I can only imagine what the first lady has to say
You've come a long way from whiskey and cocaine.
How do you sleep while the rest of us cry?
How do you dream when a mother has no chance to say goodbye?
How do you walk with your head held high?
Can you even look me in the eye?
Let me tell you 'bout hard work
Minimum wage with a baby on the way
Let me tell you 'bout hard work
Rebuilding your house after the bombs took them away
Let me tell you 'bout hard work
Building a bed out of a cardboard box
Let me tell you 'bout hard work
Hard work,Hard work
You don't know nothing 'bout hard work
Hard work,Hard work
How do you sleep at night?
How do you walk with your head held high?
Dear Mr. President,
You'd never take a walk with me.
Would you?

Music Genre Favorites

Music has been apart of peoples lives since hundreds of years.  Whether its from funk to fuji, or jazz to zulu jive, theres no dought that there hasn't been music since time of man.  All I wanted to know and ask the class is if they have a favorite kind of music genre and why is it you like it?  Another question I wanted to all was, if you have a weird genre of music you listen to like yodeling or scream-o.  I've also been wondering if now days generation evolves around two known genres rock and hip-hop, and how that kinda puts us into groups and how people look at you.

Do You?

When did it become O.K. for today’s music to be so vulgar and degrading? It seems to be a fad in today’s society, for music to consist of lyrics that are either degrading towards women or contain swearing or other derogatory terms. It is downright embarrassing and disrespectful towards not only people songs talk about, but the artist as well. Neyo, on the other hand, seems to have taken a different approach. In his latest single, “Do You”, Neyo is singing to an ex-girlfriend, on a mature, friendly level, and wants to know if she’s at all still cares for him.    

I know what we have is dead and gone.

Too many times I made you cry.

And I don’t mean to interrupt your life.

I just wonder do I ever cross your mind.

In this quote from the song, Neyo breaks the stereotype that men always have to be hard and tough, by accepting his mistakes and apologizing to her for it. In most songs today, by male artists, we will either apologize without sincerity, or won’t apologize at all. As a young man, I think we should all accept our own responsibilities and actions and act as men with them.

" Flaws and All "

Beyonce has a song called  “flaws and all” on her newly released album B-Day. The song explains how mean she can be towards her boyfriend but yet he still loves her for who she is. This is reshaping the stereotype of men in a relationship who are  usually portrayed as lying, cheating, dogs.  In the song she says… “I’m a train wreck in the morning, imma b__ in the afternoon  every now and then without warning I can be really mean towards you, imma puzzle yes indeed every complex in every way and the pieces aren't even in the box but yet u see the picture clear as day."  She was saying that she was mean to him all day but he would be there at night because he loves her.  in this song i apperciate the dipiction of men because it is not based on the stereotype of a man.  If the media continues to potray them this way they will always have a negative image.

Changing The Business

On September 11^th 2007, arguably the most popular rapper, Kanye West will be releasing 'Graduation', his third installment of his school “trilogy” of albums. However, Kanye West has risen to fame completely going against the ideology of rap songs. He doesn't talk about guns, money, and women, instead he talks about people in poor countries working to get diamonds, how he lost his mom's respect, and waiting in the emergency room for a family member.

All of Kanye's songs are either something he has experienced or someone close to him has experienced. You get the feeling that he truly loves what he does, which you cannot say for the common ideology of rappers. On October 23^rd, 2002, Kanye was in a terrible car crash and while he was in the hospital he created “Through The Wire”, he even performed the song with his jaw still wired shut! Kanye has at least changed the perception, if not the ideology, that not all rappers talk about guns and drugs.

Derogatory Songs Towards Women By Women...

Why are women now singing derogatory songs about themselves, is that ok now? In this past year I have noticed an extreme amount of female singers putting female put downs in their own songs. Such as the song "My Humps" by The Black Eyed Peas verses such as "My love, my love me love, you love me lady lumps", the song "Promiscuous Girl" by Nelly Furtado. Putting themselves out there as sex objects towards men, when so many women have been trying to get these disgusting terms out of the music industry.

I really just don't think that theses types of songs that may be catchy and fun to dance too are appropriate for young teens. If you are really sitting down and listening to the lyrics they are pretty much saying that its ok to put your body out there like it is a sex object to men, and to get material objects in return. It seems as if it is a form of prostitution, when songs can be so ever influencing to anyone not to just girls. In this song it talks about fergie driving these guys crazy with her humps and in return they buy her all these nice things for example; " I drive these brothers crazy I do it on the daily, They treat me really nicely, They buy me all theses ices. Dolce & Gabbana, Fendi and NaDonna Karen, they be sharin'... " This seems to be the new trend at this time, but at the same time setting the worst example to young women.

Is America now making it ok for women to objectify themselves in songs? I think that we are giving it the o.k. to a new age of prostitution into music. It is almost making it ok for men to do the same to women in their songs. Now that women are writing objectifying things towards their body and self being in their songs how are people going to prevent male rappers, or singers to do the same? Women now a day want so much to justified (I do as well) as their own person, and have respect from others such as men, and be taken seriously in the business world (Don't we all?). But we have women writing songs putting themselves down into almost nothing at all, not even respecting themselves it seems, so how are others supposed to give respect in return to them? This is just not directing towards women who write these songs, or listen to this music but it is almost is branding women as all this type or that should do theses same things. Should young men be getting these thoughts into their head that all women are promiscuous or assuming so? No!

The Future Of Music...

The future of music, in my opinion is on shaky ground.  I feel that in some senses we have regressed in modern and current music.  There is a real problem with the content and lyric material in many of these new rap songs.  Don't get me wrong, i think that the true definition of music is expressing oneself with sound.  Rap definitely still meets that criteria, i just feel that we as a society need to sort out our priorities and clean up the content.

Music has gone through some shaky times in the past as well.  The 80's and the rise of disco was in my opinion a similar regression.  The fact that we began to turn it around in the 90's provides some comfort for the future.  I fear that the future of music will lead to techno and computer generated music, which, once you take out the human element wont be music at all.  For younger kids who are listening to this new music i think that it presents a major problem.