Mon. Feb. 27th Reading Activity

In his article "There Goes The Neighborhood: Hip Hop Creepin' on a Come up at the U", talks about the idea of being a white middle class freshmen student and the use of hip hop in freshmen composition.


5 sections

    1. Intro- The introduction talks about a rap video that displays a little of what the article is about in a song by P Diddy.

    2. Won't you be my neighbor- This section talks about the idea of being ghetto and how it became a real thing with an identity.

    3. Last paragraph 329- This section talks about the comparison of whiteness and blackness and how white kids use rap music.

    4. School- This section talks about how students should be taught in many different ways.

    5. Hip Hop in School- This section talks about how kids should be pushed to explore their interests  in school.

Playlist and Response

Brantley Gilbert- The Weekend

This song to me is almost in the form of a narrative that is repetitive. It talks about a country party over the weekend. It mentions living for the weekend which most country folks look forward to whether that means bass fishing or drinking beer. This song also gives me the ideas of many images popping into my head. I remember when I was in school waiting for the bell to ring like the lyrics mention. I also can picture and relate to the lyrics of a yeti full of good ideas as I just purchased a yeti. I also enjoy the vocal performance in this song. Brantley Gilbert has a very strong country accent which I enjoy as a southern small town country boy. I believe he did a good job of choosing lyrics.

Cole Swindell- Flatliner

This song gives many images to me as a listener. When I listen to this song I see a country bar with a big dance floor. I also see a pretty girl wearing daisy dukes and cowgirl boots dancing all over the dance floor. This song has a strong vocal performance from both Cole Swindell and Dierks Bentley. They both have a catchy country accent which is appealing to me because of my love for country music. This song uses the basic country song instruments. I hear a strong guitar sound, maybe even electric guitar. This songs also has a very upbeat catchy rhythm.

Tim McGraw- How I'll Always Be

This song has to be one of my all time favorite country songs. Tim McGraw is an awesome country artist. This song gives me strong images of my hometown and even takes me back. I can personally connect and see the church back row as well as the stray dogs. The vocal performance from Tim is a very great one. He has a strong country accent and background as do I. The lyric choice was great. This song has a great catchy country style rhythm. This country song is more of the laid back narrative style.

In class reading 2/23

What are the arguments?
hip hop has helped the civil rights movement for blacks
class and race




What are the questions?
how does hip hop influence class rooms?




Stylistic differences?
very descriptive

Playlist post 2/22

Ingredients(beat, images, references, etc.)

Did it for the Culture
-drinking and smoking
-hoes
-the hood
-shoot out
-heavy rap beat with soft sound
-narrative
-repetition

I Drive Your Truck
-piano
-soft beat
-truck
-country
-backroads
-104.1
-talking to his mom
-the death of his dad or brother
-guitar
-slow to fast beat rhythm
-so much imagery
-talks about his life after the loss of his dad or brother
-skoal can

Elements
-Narrative
-Beat
-Rhythm
-Connections
-Tone

Short Post 2/22

Worked Well:

I used the planning out process that we did in class to my advantage to get the groundwork for my paper.


Didn't Work:

I didn't find APA too easy considering it didn't have a title page so I will have to figure that out.

Brainstorming for 1st Short Essay

How do you listen to music?
-Words and beat at once
-listen to the song a few times
-if I really try to get the meaning of a song I listen to it while doing nothing else

Why do you listen to music?
-For entertainment
-To change my mood, get pumped up, fall asleep etc.
-For class
-For relaxation

What larger purpose does listening to music have for you?
-I listen to music to get away from the world and feel relaxed. Music can take my mind off of any other problems and allow me to jam out as loud as I want and maybe even sing.

Synoptic comprehension and immediate comprehension in first paragraph

3 variables in second paragraph
-Main activity
-performing musical activities
-listening to background music

Sick Day Activity 2/13 Playlist Songs

FGL- Sun Daze

This song has a very catchy beat with lots of different musical instruments and meaningful words. I think this song talks about having a relaxing day with friends. This song has the name Sun Daze and when I first listened to it I thought it was saying Sundays. I think this made me feel the idea of relaxation because usually Sundays are a day for relaxation and fun. It gives me the image of maybe a beach or pool day with a bunch of drinking and smoking. It also gives me the image of a place with multiple girls in bikinis. This is simply another song about a FGL country party.


Joe Nichols- Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off

This song seems like another country party song. It starts by Joe telling his grandma he will take care of the house while she goes out when in reality he is planning on throwing a big party. It talks about a girl having a good time with her friends. I see the girls getting sloppy drunk and losing her clothing items, one by one. It talks about the girl drinking multiple kinds of alcohol but puts emphasis on tequila and what it does. This song seems like a great pool party song or a song maybe you could listen to while relaxing on the beach with friends.

Research Short 2/13

The Effect of Country Music on Suicide
http://www.jstor.org/stable/2579974?Search=yes&resultItemClick=true&searchText=country&searchText=music&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3Fwc%3Don%26fc%3Doff%26group%3Dnone%26acc%3Don%26amp%3D%26amp%3D%26amp%3D%26amp%3D%26Query%3Dcountry%2Bmusic&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

1. This article is about the effects of listening to country music and its connections to suicide on white males.

2. The first section talks about who the study was conducted on and what causes the acts of suicide.
    The second section talks about how they conducted the study by breaking it down into certain areas of the United States.
    The third section talks about the results of the study on whites and blacks connected with suicide.
    The fourth section talks about the conclusion of the study with a chart.

3. Suicide
    Country
    White
    Low class
    Black

4. Why does music cause suicide?
     Does rap cause black suicide?
     Why commit suicide?

5. I don't believe that the music causes someone to commit suicide. People that wish to commit suicide have a bigger reason than the music that they listen to. Only a select number of country songs actually talk about suicide or killing in general. The problems mentioned are real things like alcohol addiction, but the music is not the reason that someone has problems with alcohol abuse. Suicide is a serious problem that should be investigated but I really find it hard to believe that country music has any relation to someone wanting to kill themselves. I don't agree with this article.

Notes on Country Music Poem

Story? He walks down the street, he drinks, he has sex, he slaps a girl, wants a fight, and someone gets stabbed at the mall.
Who is the narrator? Dickman
Ideas? The idea is that he has done bad things and no one can be perfect. The idea is that guys are always viewed as bad people. We don't live in a pretend world.
Feelings? This poem makes me feel like I never want to read again.
Images? In the first scene I think of the hood instead of a country scene. I also can see the girl getting undressed. I can see a guy hitting a girl.

Honestly this poem was possibly the worst or maybe just the weirdest piece of work I have ever read. I can't really tell if it's that bad or if it's just the weirdness that makes it so terrible. I'm not really sure what the author tried to accomplish by writing this. If he was trying to compare his words to the words of many country music songs then he did a pretty bad job. Sure some of his references sound somewhat like things sung about in country music but not a significant amount enough to name the title "Country Music". Maybe the author was just trying to make fun of country music by using a terrible poem I'm not really sure. The author could possibly also be making fun of the way that city people do things as well, like carrying groceries in a tote bag or having a book club. It seems like to me anyways that this author isn't perfectly clear on the point he is trying to get across to the readers. The poem strikes me as one that is meant to be funny but maybe the author is trying to convey a serious topic through his expressions.

Party People- Florida Georgia Line

The song Party People by Florida Georgia Line has a very up beat and intriguing tempo. Unlike many country songs Party People has multiple beat drops throughout and they range from small, barely noticeable ones to bigger intensive ones. The words flow very well with the beat of the song. Within the chorus, like many other songs, there are rhyming patterns that I believe to be AB-AB. Also in the song you can recognize that you hear only one voice throughout the whole song. Florida Georgia Line is composed of two male singers and it sounds like one of them sings the main parts but possibly both of them sing the chorus.

The song Party People by Florida Georgia Line is one of my favorite new country hits of the past couple years. Party People has no big life lesson meaning it is just simply about the idea of a country party. The song goes into major detail about the superstitions of a very country party with lyrics like "buck wild" and talking about a disco ball on a front porch which is usually connected with a "rednecks" house. The song tries to persuade you to make sure you live out your weekends and have a good time because it will soon be Monday and it will be back to work.


How Many Drinks Remix- Miguel ft. Kendrick Lamar

The song How Many Drinks has a remix version that features Kendrick Lamar and the lead singer is a nontraditional rapper by the name of Miguel. The song features many different beats that range from up beat to lower tempo. The song only has one beat drop in it and that is when Kendrick Lamar opens up the only traditional rap in the song. The song features softer than normal singing for a rap song along with a beat that features snapping noises. The song like most rap songs features only a small section of rhythm that is in the chorus.

The song How Many Drinks remix by Miguel featuring Kendrick Lamar talks about a guy at a club scene that possibly spots a certain girl and sings about the ways he feels about her and how we plans to get her to come home with him. He goes into the ways that he could persuade her to come home with him singing about How Many Drinks it would take for her to leave the club with him. The song is basically about his methods of flirting in order to get some girl to leave the club and come home to get in bed with him.