American Popular Music: The Final Chapter

            For our final listening journal entry, we have one song to reflect on. That is Radiohead’s “Bodysnatchers”:

            I am familiar with some Radiohead music, but this one was new to me. I enjoy the musical stylings of Radiohead and this song did not disappoint. I like the distortion you hear on the guitar and how it works with the repeated bass line. With the interesting subject matter of the song, the listener is instantly sucked in. “The song’s lyric describes the alienation of a person incarcerated within his own body. Like an etherized yet conscious patent, the first-person subject of the song is confined within the limitations of his physical body, unable to connect directly to the world around him” (Starr & Waterman, 2014, p. 558).

            I really enjoy the fact that the album that “Bodysnatchers” is recorded on was available to fans for the amount they were willing to pay for it. This gave the fans and listeners more of a responsibility to really think about the value of music and the work put behind it. Though I am sure some only paid pennies, it still gave the musicians a profit by not going through a big record label. This idea was utilized by other artists since then, many doing Kickstarter projects. Even comedians like Louis C.K. started doing direct to fan sales of his shows.

            As a final thought, I enjoyed the way this book summed up this song. “Although the emotional angst of rock superstars and the melodrama of the music business may not seem the most lofty or compelling subject matter, it can be argued that the subtext of “Bodysnatchers”—that is, the role of free will and creativity in a business traditionally dominated by corporate concerns—is both an essential theme in the history of rock music and a key component of the ideology of contemporary alternative rock” (Starr & Waterman, 2014, p. 559). This would be a great topic of discussion within a classroom that has studied rock music and the evolution of the music industry.

Reference:

Starr, L., Waterman, C. (2014). American popular music: From minstrelsy to MP3. New York: Oxford University Press.

That 80s Sound!

            Getting into the music of the 80s is also getting into the time where I can start to remember music becoming important. The new digital sound gave us genres that continued to develop over the years to come. TV took on a new meaning with MTV and music videos. Before there was the Internet, this is where majority of us found new music and new artists.

            “Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)” by the Eurythmics gives us that opening synth sound we come to associate with 80s pop. “With its heavy reliance on electronically synthesized sounds, sequenced loops, and what has been described as a cool or austere emotional tone, “Sweet Dreams” points the way toward later technology centered music styles such as techno” (Starr & Waterman, 2014, p. 458). Though this song is very repetitious, it has a very catchy beat and simple melody that makes it easy to understand and sing along to. The loops mentioned in the text are easy to identify and really support that “technology” sound. You can hear the same synth sound in Madonna’s “Like A Virgin.” This song is a staple when thinking of music from the 80s. Not only does this music emulate what was popular in the 80s, but the music video became well known as well. You can also start to hear the importance of having music with a strong and independent woman singer. See the music video to “Like A Virgin” below:

            We also started to get more classic songs being remade. One of the most well know released songs is “Walk This Way,” originally released by Aerosmith and performed by Run-D.M.C. What makes this work so well is that the original guitar licks. It is still recognizable as the Aerosmith version, but because the verses were sung by Steven Tyler in a fast pace, converting it to a Hip-Hop song was relatively easy. It also lead to a very creative music video to accompany the popularity of this mix “The video version of “Walk This Way” – the first rap video to be put into heavy rotation by MTV—gives visual substance to the musical image of a tense conversation between the worlds of hard rock and rap, unified by the sizzling textures of hip-hop scratching and hard rock guitar, the contrasting but similarly aggressive vocal timbers of Run-D.M.C. and Steven Tyler, and the over-the-top male braggadocio of the song’s text” (Starr & Waterman, 2014, p/ 496).

            “Holidays in Cambodia” by the Dead Kennedys was not a piece I was familiar with, nor one that I particularly liked. Though I usually like punk music, this was a little edgier than I normally like. It seemed very rough around the edges, which seems to be an important part of their music. This music was clearly written to be more than just a song to play on the radio, but for it’s political importance as well. We also get “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” the most recognizable song from the group Nirvana. The opening guitar lick is all one needs to hear in order to know what song this is. This song also leads us into the grunge rock movement in the early 90s. “One of the most striking aspects of “Teen Spirit” is its combination of heavy metal instrumental textures and pop songwriting techniques, including a number of memorable verbal and melodic hooks” (Starr & Waterman, 2014, p. 518).

            Lauryn Hill became a well-known artist in the 90s, especially with her big hit, “Doo Wop (That Think).” There are many musical elements found in this song. You can hear the hip-hop elements with the rapping sections combined with the four-part vocal harmonies. “The mixture of sweet soul singing and assertive rapping, R&B horns and a digital groove, moral seriousness and playful humor not only announced the arrival of a new and distinctive voice but also made the single “Doo Wop” a unique and important contribution to the hip-hop repertoire” (Starr & Waterman, 2014, p. 524). This, just like the Madonna song back in the 80s, showed the independent potential of lead female artists and how they understand culture and reality within their music.

Resource:

Starr, L., Waterman, C. (2014). American popular music: From minstrelsy to MP3. New York: Oxford University Press.