camillelmp

[camillelmp]

For today's post I wanted to talk about a song that I listened over and over few years ago; green day's American Idiot. And I want to connect this song with one of the notion we saw in class: politics in music. When I first here it, I did not really thought about politics, I was too young. But when I hear it now I cannot dissociate the fact that it has a lot to say.

This song follows the story of Jesus of Suburbia, a lower middle class anti-hero.

This song was written when George W. Bush was president, the one who led America into war with Irak, after the 9/11 terrorist attack. But the lead singer mentions this song wasn't only about this president specifically.

He also connected it in 2016 with Trump's election.

This single talks about different themes, as fear and xenophobia. It accused the mass media of using propaganda to create hysteria, paranoia. Just as we can see with those lyrics "Don't wanna be an American idiot

Don't want a nation under the new media

And can you hear the sound of hysteria?

The subliminal mind-f**k America"

This is not the only political single they made, there's some more such a "Holiday".

Green Day is a political band, this is not a secret, and it did not prevent them from being one of the biggest punk band.

[camillelmp]

For today's post I wanted to talk about lil nas x assension in music, and how I think his image and message is important.

Firstly, his career can be summed up with one tweet he posted “life is so crazy. 5 years ago i used to just sit on twitter in my room all day but now i’m rich and i sit on twitter in my room all day.” At first, in 2015, he was just a funny guy on Twitter, he picked his name lil nas x, "nas" referring to the rapper Nasir Jones. He dropped out college to focus on music. And four years later, he released his first project containing "Old time road" which was a worldwide success. I think his career is really inspiring, he started from nothing, he did not took singing classes, he only played trompet a bit. He worked hard to obtain what he had now and it worked.

After his success, he made his coming out, becoming one of the few openly gay rappers. For a long time, it wasn't something easy to do. The Hip-hop world being for a long time the least LGBT friendly style of music, with song containing openly homophobic lyrics. The fact that he assumes his homosexuality, and plays with it to create content, music, or clips, or even tweets and funny jokes is something I think really benefitial. He does not care about critics, and just be himself. And this message is important I think for the whole LGBT community; they need to go through critics and just live their lives the way they want.

[camillelmp]

My secondary sources

Last week's post was about the primary sources I will use for my project about Elvis Presley's influence on American popular music. Today I will mention my secondary sources. Firstly I'm going to use a book from Bertrand, M. T. entitled "Race, Rock, and Elvis". Then an article from David Anderson named "How Elvis permanently changed American pop culture". I also will use the Wikipedia page "Cultural impact of Elvis Presley", and the article "Elvis Everywhere: Musicology and Popular Music Studies at the Twilight of the Canon" from Robert Fink. Also the article "Elvis Presley: A Revolutionist" by Marcie Wallace.

-Bertrand, M. T. (2009). Race, Rock, and Elvis. University of Illinois Press.

https://books.google.fr/books?id=keafptPvxYcC&printsec=frontcover&dq=isbn:9780252025860&hl=fr&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false

- "Elvis Everywhere: Musicology and Popular Music Studies at the Twilight of the Canon"

Robert Fink : https://www.jstor.org/stable/3052563

Wikipedia page: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_impact_of_Elvis_Presley

David Anderson's article: https://theconversation.com/how-elvis-permanently-changed-american-pop-culture-81917

-"Elvis Presley: A Revolutionist" Marcie Wallace: https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.lagrange.edu/resources/pdf/citations/2012/11_Wallace_History.pdf&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwjc-bW6yJP0AhUH4YUKHX_OD1wQFXoECAYQBQ&usg=AOvVaw24_xDjsFmWy2qYuwHN7DOE

[camillelmp]

For today’s post I will talk about the primary sources I will use to make my final project. And I decided to talk about Elvis Presley and its influence on American popular music. I chose this subject because I really like Elvis songs, I listen to him since a while. Moreover, we can see him so many films, series, we can hear him everywhere and don’t know one person who cannot recognized him. That is why I wanted to do my research on him, and its impact, to understand how and why he impacted American popular music, and to a certain extend the whole world with his presence and his songs.

To do so, as primary sources a chose his first appearance on television, on January the 28th, 1956, on The Dorsey Brothers Stage Show. And I also chose to use his first album entitled “Elvis Presley”, released in 1956.

Here is the link to see his first appearance on tv:

[camillelmp]

Kurt Cobain’s death and it’s mysteries

A huge number of fans were devastated by Learning the death of Kurt Cobain, on April 8, 1994. He was the lead guitarist of the band “Nirvana”, a grunge band. He apparently shot himself in the head, but later, the autopsy revealed a death-lethal dose of heroin in his system.

This information made doubt a lot of people, such as the private investigator Tom Grant, who thought that Kurt wasn’t alone that night. And many people thought just like him, that there was someone with him, who covered his murder into a suicide. But on the other hand, people from police department deny this version.

But Grant continued his research, and found some incoherent information. For example, Kurt’s credit card was used after his death. Also, there was, according to the autopsy, enough heroin in his blood to kill three times over. But again, it could be possible for someone who’s used to those drugs to still be capable of commit suicide.

There is also his letter which raise some question, according to Grant it was more a retirement letter, but the four last lines really indicate suicide as it says “Please keep going, Courtney. For Frances, for her life which will be so much happier without me. I love you, I love you.”

In my opinion, this man was such an idol, a myth, that people cannot accept the fact that he felt so bad and cannot accept his death. This may explain why so many people are convinced that he did not commit suicide but was murdered, they cannot accept the fact that he did not want to be alive anymore.

And his death also made so much noise, because Kurt Cobain, and his band Nirvana, changed the course of rock music forever, especially since the release of their album “Nevermind” in 1991. But I’ll talk about it’s impact another day, focusing especially on this topic.

[camillelmp]

For this week’s post, I wanted to talk about the influence that have American popular music through the world.

Indeed, we all knows all the classics of popular music from our generation, and even the generation before. Through generations, American popular music has become the leader of modern music. It can be heard everywhere; no nation ever had such an impact on music. But how had it reach such a level?

One answer at that question is that American popular music was a combination of various genre, a mix of very diverse culture and mixed with a large-scale economic background. A lot of genres have folk roots, such as ragtime, jazz, and even punk. And as we saw in class, for example ragtime is a mix between African American music, and European music, so it may explain why it was also successful in Europe. American popular music even breaks the language-barrier. Indeed, American popular music is in the top charts in various country, such as France, Germany, and other countries.

Another answer can be justified by its industry development. During the 1980s, we saw the explosion of CD’s, and cheaper form music, before that it was quite expensive to obtain music and listen it whenever you wanted. But with this arrival, the music market expended fast and wide. It was also a period when appeared some TV channels only reserved to music, such as MTV, which showed exclusively American artists.

And what I find interesting, is the references to American popular music in works from all around the world. I want to use as example one of my favourite manga/anime; JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. It is written by a Japanese Mangaka Hirohiko Araki, and combines a lot of American popular music references. In this story you can find some “characters” named after American music such as “Killer Queen”, reference to a song from the band Queen, a character named “Esidisi” in reference to AC/DC, and a lot more, so much that I cannot even name them all.

American popular music had such an impact that it travels all around the world, and is used as reference in today’s popular culture, in movie, series and even some documentaries. It shows the impact and the importance of this genre.

[camillelmp]

About this week’s subject of the link between the clip and the lyrics of popular songs, I decided to take a look at the iconic Thriller’s clip, from Michael Jackson.

Firstly, what I find interesting in this clip is its length. It lasts thirteen minutes! Michael Jackson attempted here to produce a kind of “episode”, sort of a movie. He wanted to put a décor around his song. To set up a story, a prequel of the song, a background. The beginning of the clip explains the song. In the beginning it seems to be a love story, but progressively, as we approach to the beginning of the song, it become a horror movie. He makes up a plot around his song.

This clip is of the ones who represents exactly the meaning of the lyrics, which in the same mood, here we have the appearance of zombies and supernatural creatures during a thriller night. But the moment when those creatures appear is during a break between the first part of the song and the second one. Again, it makes the story evolve. And when this new set is put in place, the song starts again. It is dispatched as a movie, with an initial situation, a couple watching a movie, then the evolution of the tension, when they go out of the movie theatre, and then led to a climax, when we see Michael as a zombie, surrounded by supernatural creatures.

This clip was extremely audacious at that time, and remain one the most iconic music video ever. This clip is full of cinema references such as “Night of the Living Dead” by Romero, or Hitchcock’s “Vertigo”. At that point should we still consider it as clip or as a short film?

This clip is different from the one we see in class, here the lyrics are perfectly represented on the screen, with this wish to make up a whole story, with a beginning and an end.

[camillelmp]

To be honest, I learned about Britney's situation only one year ago I think, and I was totally shook. I'm not a huge fan so I don't know about her personal life and what she has done. Maybe she needed help at a time (who hadn't?) but I think I was done terribly. Her father, and the whole industry around her took benefit of her situation, instead of really help her. This is so sad to see how money impact people, and how the industry "take care" of the artists they are supposed to support. I think this whole story says a lot about the music industry nowadays..

Britney Spears’s Conservatorship

On September 29th, 2021, Britney’s father has been suspended from her conservatorship. Since 2008, it is the first time that Britney Spears will be without the control of her father, Jamie Spears. He has been suspended from his position as conservator of her estate as it is no longer in her best interest, and it is, for now, a significant development. 

After her public breakdown in 2008, she was hospitalized for a mental health evaluation. What started as a temporary psychiatric hold, became a temporary conservatorship and then a permanent conservatorship in October 2008, for exactly 13 years now. 

This conservatorship supposedly served as a way to help Britney ‘’get through a major life crisis, rehabilitate and advance her career, and put her finances and her affairs in order’’ but for her, this conservatorship is not only ‘’abusive’’ but has done ‘’way more harm than good’’.

Jamie had control over her personal decisions, communications, and how she spent her money. She needed permission to leave her house and spend her money, moreover, her credit card was held by a security team or assistant, she was tested for drugs multiple times weekly, and she was forced to perform events though she was sick; to resume she had no control of her life whatsoever. 

Even though she expressed her disagreement years ago, it is the first time that Britney can speak for herself and choose her lawyer.

It raises the question of how does mental health is handled in the music industry?   

[camillelmp]

I totally agree about what you said! And I think celebrities need to be careful on what they promote because of the people that listen to them. For example, some younger persons are easily influenced by the celebrities they follow. And it is so easy to brainwash some children's mind with some ideas, sometimes it happens for the good but it can also be bad. So yes, celebrities, especially those followed by younger people should be careful about what they promote

Can celebrities influence our everyday life?

I wanted to talk about this topic because we had mentioned it very quickly in class with the example of Travis Scott and his special menu at Mcdo

We could see a lot of artists collaborating with other brands not related to music in order to boost the buzz around them and I think that for some it worked very well. (mcdonald menus, commercials, appearance in series etc)

But these collaboration are maybe not as « nice » at what we can imagine. For instance, with the Mcdonald menu it was I think, a great event but at the same time it encouraged people to buy more and more mcdonald menu only to post it on Twitter etc. We all know that in American health system is not the best and for this reason, encouraging and influencing people to eat junk food is a really bad idea.

We can see that there’s 2 sides, good and bad. I think I already talk about the bad one haha. For the good one I think that when celebrities raise awareness on really serious topic and help people to understand more this specific topic is a really great asset. (global warming, animal cause etc)

To conclude, I don’t think celebrities will have an effect on my personal life ( i’m not the type of person that will listen to someone just because he has 3 million followers, and will not change my habits or opinions on topics just because Beyoncé says something) but for some other I think it can be a great thing if it helps them become better persons.

[camillelmp]

For today's post I wanted to talk about an artist I discovered few years ago thanks to a friend. And this singer is David Allan Coe. He's an American country musician, with a pretty dark past. He was once sentenced to death, then prison for life and thanks to his good attitude and his application in music he could one day get out of prison.

And I wanted to talk about him because at first, his music was judged too brutal to fit into the category of country. It echoes the previous course we had about how labels etc control music industry, and when you are judge to be too brutale, or anything else they don't like, they can decide whether or not you can fit in some music categories.

Moreover, while I was reader his story (that I wasn't really aware before doing my researches for this post), one question that we frequently hear came to my mind : should the artist be separated from their art/music?

Personally I don't have the answer, because I will never listen to some artists because of what they did, but on the other hand I listen to music from some artists who did things pretty controversial, or even really bad things.

So I let you discuss about this in the comments, maybe it will help me, or somebody else, to answer this question!

[camillelmp]

I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one whose Playlist is full of "Tiktok songs" 😂 it's crazy how a song can go through the world in only few days thanks to this app, and I was able to discover sooo much artists and songs, even old songs I never heard before and that are now a must have in my Playlist!

The Impact of TikTok on the Music Industry (and my playlist)

I read on the Business insider that “Songs that trend on TikTok often end up charting on the Billboard 100 or Spotify Viral 100″. Isn’t it crazy how an app can have such an impact on popular music?! 

Since its creation in 2016, it has become such an important platform for singers. Lots of small artists used it as a starting point for their musical career. Let’s take Lil Nas X as an exemple: I am sure we’ve all heard “Old Town Road” played at least once… Well it became famous because of a simple challenge called the “Yeehaw Challenge”, videos of that challenge were reposted everywhere making the song top 1 across the globe during summer 2019. Now he is leading the charts with his first album and already won several Grammys! 

Tiktok is not just a stepping-stone for young and new singers, it also brought back a lot of “old” songs back. What’s crazy is that a single video can have a song becoming popular again. That is what happened with Fleetwood’s Mac “Dreams.” The song made a comeback on the chart more than forty years after its release. That’s one song among so many others…

Seeing the impact that it had, it has now become a promotional tool for record labels and artists. A new way to promote popular music. 

I am a personal proof of the impact of TikTok on the music industry. I discovered so many artists and amazing songs while scrolling on this app!

[camillelmp]

Thank you for this post! I remember as a child when she appeared in this dress. In school, my teacher asked us to put a photo per week as wallpaper for the class computer and I remember choosing this picture, and the whole class was disgusted for the week😂 but I wasn't aware of the circumstances and the reasons why she wore. I'm glad to know because it's quite interesting!!

Lady Gaga and her meat dress political protest

When I think about popular music, the one artist that comes right to my mind is Lady Gaga. Of course, there is a lot of other singers that I literally love but I think she is the one that impressed me the most as a teenager. I liked her costumes, her hair, her songs, her originality and all the universe she created around her. Thinking about it, I would say that the first thing I noticed about her and that drew my attention was her style. I was impressed by her dresses because they were always so unique if I can say but of all the extravagant costumes that Lady gaga may have worn, I think the meat dress was one of the most striking. Honestly, can someone say that he does not remember all this fuss in 2010? I don’t think so.

If the famous meat dress left a lot of people shocked and some others totally amazed by this idea, there is a story behind this choice of outfit that I think merits further attention.

Let me first recontextualized this night: It’s 2010, we are at the MTV Video Music Awards in Los Angeles, and the pop culture icon, Lady Gaga, shows up wearing a meat dress to accept her Video of the Year trophy for “Bad Romance”.

At the time I was 9, and I remember asking myself why she wore this dress while watching the news, and obviously, I wasn’t the only one because following the VMA, media from everywhere attempted to find a signification to this dress ranging from anti-fashion to feminism, and even meat consummation. Described as “the most outrageous fashion moment of the evening”, the dress was also condemned by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) for animals’ torture (but I will not go into the details of this condemnation because it is not the subject I want to focus on for now).

Afterward, we will learn that Gaga wore this dress with the intention of making a political statement. Indeed, the former President of the United States, Bill Clinton, introduced the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) in 1994. It was a very controversial act that prohibited any homosexual or bisexual member of the armed forces from disclosing their sexual orientation and which was still in effect in 2010.

Lady Gaga presented herself at the awards ceremony surrounded by members of the military who had come out.

“I went to that awards show with service people who were discharged from the military because they were coming out or were found out,” she explained.

She later added the same interview with Allure Magazine that’s she wore the raw meat dress as a representation of the fact that we are all the same.

Finally, and only one year after the 2010 VMA’s, the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” act was at last repealed by former President Barack Obama, so Gaga’s protest really had an impact on politics.

However, can the popular music industry have a large influence on politics and political acts? We all know that celebrities have a big influence on society when they are shown in advertisements or in some TV shows. We do know that their presence arouses a lot of reactions by the audiences but is it a good idea to mix the popular music industry with politics? Could popular music stars use their popularity to make some good political changes?

(I didn’t really know how to express what I wanted to ask but if you have something to add feel free, the debates are open!)

[camillelmp]

Stop to popular music clichés!

Sadly, popular music is often critized and is related to some clichés.

I think this need to be banned, nowadays listen to a particular genre or artist has to stop being criticized.

There's many examples; the ones who listen to boybands always were criticized (I'm talking about personal experience). Some person like to say that this is not "real music". Ok, but what is real music in that case?

Moreover, listener of popular music are often qualified as "basic" or without taste. It happens that I'm a little ashamed to listen to certain popular songs because of what people think about it, and I find it pretty sad.

It should be totally okay to listen and appreciate those songs, and I don't think it is possible for someone not to appreciate at least one popular song, from a popular singer.

Moreover, popular music is made to enter and stuck in our brains, so you may listen to jazz, rock, or even classic but if you tell me that you never move your head to the rythme of a song from Lady gaga or Katy perry, I will not trust you.