American Contemporary Music - Final Essay

Americans love to stereotype. Whether is it social class, gender, music, we love to do it. We want to have a basic definition of everyone and everything, and we begin to live the stereotype that is connected to each of us. But what happens when we let that hit the music? Can we really put basic definitions on people based on their music tastes?

Much of the generalizations of music genres derives from its origins and communal values. Listeners may assume that the genre, rap resonates to the majority of people from poor, urban communities who desire to rise above their impoverished state and become successful. It might be no surprise that the type of culture and meaning rap has created is rooted back thousands of years ago in Africa. Through those thousands of years, a copious number of Africans were taken to the United States as slaves. To cope with their hardship, they African community gathered together, telling stories of their families or present events along with simple handmade instruments (Mize, History of Rap-The True Origins of Rap Music, 2014). This style of music and its similar values and messages are still present in the rapping world. Rappers such as 50 Cent, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, Young Jeezy and many more, grew up in poor living conditions and talked about their rough lives and how they achieved their desires through rap (Sanderson, My Favorite# Winning Rappers Who Started At The Bottom, 2014). 50 Cent’s If I Can’t is a perfect example of this theme, in which he informs listeners of his need to fight to the top since residing in Queens has nothing good to provide for him and he doesn’t want settle for that life of poverty (PopularusicDJ, If I Can’t [HD] [Lyrics on Screen], YouTube). With rap’s roots, musicians backgrounds, and meanings in their music, it definitely shows why many people assimilate rap music to a specific group of people, since they resided in urban areas of poor conditions and the traditional function of rap throughout history. The issue with this is that listeners only receive a glimpse of rap as an art itself and how it can function in any person’s walk of life. Therefore, is it possible music, such as rap, has a bigger influence and function than in just one type of community?  

There’s an album that was released recently titled ‘The Chopin Project’ with its aim to record Chopin’s music in some new way, and the result is incredible. Here is a video trailer for the album, where Olafur Arnalds & Alice Sara Ott talk a little bit about it. Here is a short sampler video of some of the pieces on the album. This classical music is reimagined in a sense, for a contemporary audience. One would not typically imagine classical music has a music video to go with it, as with many pop songs, rock songs, etc., but here is one. Styles and tastes change with time, and often music needs to adapt to fit the likes of every new generation. Whether that means creating a new genre, like Dubstep, or to simply record and showcase the music of days long ago in a way that appeals to the modern audience.

In America we also love to throw the phrase “Think of the children”, especially when we look at famous people. Kids area assumed to always copy what they see because they think they will also become as well known as some people are, such as music stars. But when discussion comes up, we assumed poorer kids are the ones “damaged” by pop musician’s actions. There is almost an air around that we honestly believe a 14 year old boy that has money is going to understand that a pop star's actions are wrong whereas the 14 year old boy that doesn’t have a penny to his name isn’t going to understand moral values. Why does this happen? There is often associated music to different economic classes. Middle class is associated with the top 40 hits, usually pop/electronic dance songs, with about every genre mixed around as well. When we think of upper class, usually Mozart and other symphonic works comes to mind. Lower class? Either country or rap are the main two thought of. This could be due to racial stereotypes due to prejudice of race (ex. “African Americans that are poor and are thugs” and “White Americans are rednecks and racist”) and what race ends up making those

But remember: It doesn’t matter what class you are in, you can like any type of music. Music is there for the consumption of all, for political protest, for easing the pain, for making someone smile. When we want to think of the children, we should think of making sure they get to freely express their love of a type of music, no matter which type it should be. People make music useful and meaningful in their lives, so let them choose their own definitions of how to achieve that.

Citations:

Mize, Cole. “History of Rap - The True Origins of Rap Music”. 23 Sep. 2014. Retrieved from: http://colemizestudios.com/how-did-rap-start/

Sanderson, Phil. “My Favorite# Winning Rappers Who Started At The Bottom”. SanFranciscoVC. 5 Jun. 2014. Retrieved from: http://sfvc.com/2014/06/05/6-winning-raps-for-pursuing-the-big-dream/

PopularmusicDJ. “50Cent- If I Can’t [HD Sound] [Lyrics on Screen]”. YouTube. 17 Mar. 2014. Retrieved from: https://youtu.be/W5jyHY65M_0

Credits

Holly Winter: 1st Body Paragraph, citations, editing, pictures, videos

Nick De Los Santos: 2nd Body Paragraph, editing, pictures, videos

Erika Query : Introduction, 3rd and 4th Body Paragraphs, Conclusion, editing

American Contemporary Music - Music, Memory and Food

Imagine eating a chocolate cake with dark, chocolate frosting smothering its surface. While eating this savory dessert, a mellifluous melody from a piano hums in the background. What flavors fill the mouth from these two combinations? Is it the sweetness of the cake itself or the bitterness of the frosting? It may be hard to believe that whatever tastes one receives, especially from a chocolate cake, that its flavors can actually be heightened and alter perceptions of what one consumes. Along with more sensitive senses to tasting and attitudes towards different dishes, music can also create a memorable experience, which leads to certain pitches that trigger certain tastes. This concept of music and its effects on the taste of food is known as “sonic seasoning”. If the piano’s melody gave off certain savory tastes and specific memories, one can exhibit how the imaginary chocolate cake fueled certain memories and moods through this idea of sonic seasoning.  

Most people find it surprising that music changes the perceptions and taste of the food they eat. Some believe that whatever their taste buds sense is the only definite true taste and that no other force can change it. However, a study conducted by the Crossmodal Laboratory at Oxford University caused quite a shock to the non-believers of sonic seasoning. In this experiment, volunteers were given cinder toffee, which has a bittersweet sapor, to consume while high and low pitches were being played. The results showed that the light notes caused participants to sense the pleasantness of the candy whereas the low frequencies emphasized the bitterness of the toffee (Fleming, How sound affects the taste of our food, 2014). Not only can sounds alter various flavors of a dish, but food can also be assimilated with certain sounds overtime. Typically, low sounds of a brass instrument are associated to acrid tastes like coffee, and high notes of perhaps a piano can be related to a sweet dessert (Music While Eating Changes How Food Tastes). The experiment and the clip above, reveal the role music has on the food people consume. Music can enhance the quality of the food and the person’s discovery of consuming it. Therefore, these moments can trigger particular, memorable responses to the food. Whatever connotations food may elicit in the presence of music, these two combinations heighten the human experience.  

Music not only can trigger memories with food, but with emotions and memory. We all have a type of music or even specific bands/songs that we hear that reminds us of when we were younger, whether it was sad moments or the happiest. It is believed that the human brain embeds our memories within the music because of the patterns within the score that is easier to store than the complicated images that our memories are comprised of. Oliver Sacks, a neurologist discussed on how music can even help Alzheimer's patients.  Even the patients who were rendered mute were able to start humming and even singing along with the music from their childhood. Through studies like this, music therapy has expanded to help patients with dementia and other memory affecting diseases. Music and Memory is a new organization that is making personalized music for dementia patients to help them remember their pasts and relieve their lives anew. While it can’t completely reconstruct the neural pathways that memory is created through, it can help to start connections between these pathways to access long forgotten long term memory.

There’s a term for adding music to a delicious dish of food: Musical Pairing. This term is coined by Barbara Werner who briefly explains and defines this term here. In essence it means eating food to the right kind of music in order to enhance the eating experience, and that music is subject to change based on the dish being consumed. A study was conducted a few years ago on the effect of background noise and how it alters the taste of the food. According to the article, “In noisier settings, foods were rated less salty or sweet than they were in the absence of background noise, but were rated to be more crunchy.” this is a fascinating find, because that means that music must also have some affect on taste. Jazz, blues or soft swing type music is often played at high class, fancy restaurants (as well as classical, but this essay is focused primarily on contemporary music), and this additional aural sense adds to the atmosphere of the establishment and elevates the experience. When people eat at a large barbeque gathering with a “country” band playing, it adds to the experience by having all five senses active in eating, more than likely creating a more stable memory than eating some succulent sauerkraut without structured sound in the background. According to this article published in 1991 “[listening to soothing music] might not only slacken your pace but also make you less likely to go for second helpings. Lively, fast-tempoed music, by contrast, may make you eat more. Researchers found that out by counting the bites of food people took at meals while listening to various songs.” Music is a powerful tool that affects us in many ways, from the evocation of emotions, to the formulations of memories, and even the very perception of how different food tastes based on what sounds are in the air at the time of consumption.

Citations:

Fleming, Amy. How sound affects the taste of our food. The Guardian. 11 Mar. 2014. Retrieved from: http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2014/mar/11/sound-affects-taste-food-sweet-bitter

News, GeoBeats. Music While Eating Changes How Food Tastes. YouTube. 17 Jun. 2014. Retrieved from: https://youtu.be/s6TtbBMSRUI

Credits:

Nick De Los Santos: 3rd paragraph

Erika Query: 2nd paragraph, pictures, editing

Holly Winter: Introduction, 1st paragraph, pictures, editing, citations