#not to out myself as a smooth jazz bro on main BUT

[fuckmeyer]

I’m losing my mind Edward really brought Bella into his room for the first time and was like “how should I set the mood?” And he put on. Soft jazz.

[rcrawfordjournal-blog]

Journal 10

“Where Is the Love” – 2003 – Black Eyed Peas

I’m not going to lie, I kind of hate this song. I think I’m bitter because I want to jam to it because it throws me back to my childhood, and I really like the beat, with I think bass guitar, wavy electric guitar sound, keyboard, high-pitched synthesized strings, and other electronic sounds with a very distinct drum beat; it’s just super danceable. But the lyrics ruin it and it makes me upset. It’s too close to that all-lives-matter, love-trumps-hate political message that has thrived in recent months and just makes me cringe. I just feel like “Let’s end inequality by spreading love!” is the worst idea ever, not to mention the whitest idea ever. There are four voices and they’re all very different; a singy-rap voice, a more traditional rap voice that’s more high pitched, Fergie of course who has a higher-pitched feminine voice but only really throws in some vocalizations throughout, and a deeper male singing voice who I guess is will.i.am. They all work very well together…to create a song that promotes shutting down black resistance to inequality. Maybe I am reading these lyrics all wrong, but how about this line: “If you only have love for your own race, then you only leave space to discriminate. And to discriminate only generates hate, and when you hate then you’re bound to get irate.” Okay maybe that’s aimed against white people, but to me, it sounds like it could at least additionally be turned against black people, who in my opinion deserve to harbor at least some resentment to white people. Even worse is this line: “Can you practice what you preach? Would you turn the other cheek?” There’s NO way this isn’t about black people. I don’t even know what this would mean if it was about white people, but if it was turned against the black community, it would involve accusations about “black on black crime” and “get over slavery, it was so long ago, oh my God,” which are just all too familiar. Finally, the line, “Whatever happened to the values of humanity? Whatever happened to the fairness and equality? Instead of spreading love, we’re spreading animosity, lack of understanding leading us away from unity” is SO problematic to me because it implies that society has somehow declined from a previous state of unity and equality, which at least in American history has never happened! In all, maybe I am wrong and it’s about hate against black people but the fact that they’re not explicit about it means at the very least it can be weaponized against black people especially those with any sort of negative feelings about white people, and I just have a problem with that potential that is left there.

“Don’t Give Hate a Chance” – 2005 – Jamiroquai

I don’t really know how to describe this style of music other than electronic funk. Wikipedia categorizes this band as “acid jazz,” which seems accurate. The song features a very driving beat, prominent bass guitar that basically acts alongside the drumbeat but becomes more complicated and melodic as the song progresses, and some confusing electronic noises interspersed throughout. The vocal is basically as if a less growly James Brown had been autotuned (plus lots of background vocals like “oooh” and “we’ve got all this love to give”). The main vocal is a little hazy so my attention is really drawn to the overall beat and vibe of the song, but the lyrics are very similar to “where is the love” with the message of hate. However, this song seems to be more clearly directed towards white people. I was concerned at first with the lines like “Why can’t we be together?” and “There’s a cold streak living inside us, there’s no rainbows just bullets and bombs.” But then the message became more racially specific: “why do we see these colors, it’s only skin deep…can’t you see it’s killing us…trigger happy fantasy…you’ve been taking our dignity for too long…” I think that is a very specifically Black message, directed towards white people. However, after looking into Jamiroquai, the band is British, and the lead singer looks very white? Maybe he’s speaking through another voice for the purposes of the song, but I am just so confused.

“Accidental Racist” – 2013 – Brad Paisley

I am so not ready to talk about this song. First of all, country music is so difficult to describe. The instruments include a violin or something, and then this noise that is maybe a string but I absolutely can’t pinpoint it; it makes this awful wailing noise and it’s in every country song ever. The drumbeat is kind of muted, but it’s there. As for the voice, there is again a very distinctive sound for a country singer’s voice but it’s so hard to describe. Other than obviously the southern accent, I guess it involves being kind of deep and very smooth. (I was surprised by how well LL Cool J’s voice as a New Yorker rapper blended into the song at the end, though. It was kind of jarring, but I guess it fits into the kind of country music as of 2013 leading up to today’s bro-country which often features kind of pseudo-rap, I guess.) More importantly, the message of this song is kind of nice, I guess, and it’s a start, but I think it misses the point and maybe even does more harm than good. Maybe I am impossible to please with a racial message, but I really have a problem with our friend Brad calling himself “just a proud rebel son with an old can of worms” walking around in his Confederate flag shirt as if that’s just fine. “Just like you, I’m more than what you see,” Brad sings to his imagined black audience, who is presumably oppressing him for his racist shirt. He continues, “I try to put myself in your shoes and that’s a good place to begin, but it ain’t like I can walk a mile in someone else’s skin.” What does that even mean, Brad? Are you saying your capabilities for empathy run out at a certain point? …And then LL Cool J comes in and makes everything so much worse. I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt; I really did. When he said, “you should try to get to know me, I really wish you would,” and when he talked about “dodgin invisible white hoods,” I was really with him. However, then he dropped the bomb, “I guess we’re both guilty of judgin the cover not the book.” As if him making judgments about a man who could literally be a threat to his life as a black man is an equal injustice against humanity as a white man being racist. As if there’s no such thing as racial power dynamics. He goes on to say, “I’d love to buy you a beer, conversate and clear the air,” as if it’s on him, of all people, to make the move and literally make the payment in order to fix race relations. Okay, that’s fine, but the worst part is probably, “if you don’t judge my do-rag, i won’t judge your red flag,” followed by, “If you don’t judge my gold chains I’ll forget the iron chains.” I lied, the worst part is, “RIP Robert E Lee, but I’ve gotta thank Abraham Lincoln for freeing me, namean?” No, just kidding, the worst part of this whole thing is the YouTube comments, including this gem: “FANTASTIC SONG, BOTH OF YOU SHOULD BE PROUD. TIME TO LIVE IN THE FUTURE. FUCK OBAMA, HOLDER, JACKSON, AND OLD GUTTER SLIME RACIST SHARPTON. AMEN.” I disagree with everything this YouTube commenter has to say and I hate this song with my whole heart forever.