This will be my last blog post of the semester. I have found these blogs to be very helpful in my learning experience of the history popular culture music. They have given me something to look back on and study for multiple exams. It is also nice and helpful to read other students blog posts, it is great to be able to see other peoples insight on varieties of different songs and genres. For my last post, I think it is appropriate to change direction and head toward my musical roots and interest. Todays final post will be covering Rap & Hip-Hop. There are a several different artists to choose from in this genre that I am familiar with and that have been presented in class for the final presentation’s but, I am going to cover Eminem. I choose to cover Eminem for a number of different reasons, but the main one because I personally feel that he is one of the most talented music artists of my generation.  has paved the way for a lot of current and future artists in a variety of different ways. His music is deep, and comes from a very personal part of his own experiences that almost everyone can relate to in one way or another. This genre of music was developed in my beloved country the United States by inner city African Americans in the 1970’s. The genre consists of stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted. Coming from Christian’s presentation it is said that Hip-Hop in the previous decade has had a relatively narrow focus. It would consistently cover problems such as drugs, violence and living in poverty. Something that is commonly seen in the inner cities of the United States. Old School Hip-Hop was very influential in the development of this genre, and was said to be very “raw and real” The basis of the music was meant to send a message of hope for change in the discrimination of African Americans and others suffering from the struggles in inner cities. Eminem is a very talented and misunderstood rapper. He had a very rough upbringing… His fat he left him at birth and his mother suffered from a mental illness. He was forced to live in poverty and had very little positive role models or influences in his life. He turned to music as a source of relief and to get away from the harsh reality. One of the main reasons he is so well respected is because he actually came from a rough upbringing and was able to his emotions into words and song that would eventually catch attention of Dr. Dre. The rest is history he became very successful and always keeps it real with his culture and background. He inspires a lot of musicians, and one thing that is sort of unique about him was that was he is white, and not many white rappers get a lot of respect from the predominately African American audience or other rappers in this genre.

In todays next blog post I will continue to cover my classmates final presentation project on a variety of different genres of popular music. This project as given us students the opportunity to present our a genre of music that we particularly like and enjoy listening too. It makes the process of learning different genres more enjoyable. It is also nice to learn from our peers for a change rather than the typically structured lecture class. This blog post will be covering a type of music that is difficult to describe and one that I have never been exposed to before the presentation done in class today. I will be talking about Heavy Metal/Progressive Rock. To start off I will talk about the song “Octavarium” by Dream Theater. Before I begin, this song is way out there… It is something that I personally have never heard or experienced in my entire life. It is a very long and complex song. I was impressed with the presenter TJ’s ability to diagnose it and break it down for the class, but with that being said I am still not completely sure I understand the genre or song. It seems to me that this genre and song choice is one that you would have to listen to a million times to get the full and true meaning from it. It also is one type of genre that is hard to relate to unless you are musically experienced/talented, which I am not. This genre is a combination of Heavy Metal and Progressive Rock. It has a tremendously aggressive guitar driven sound. It is a sound that you can not help to appreciate the difficulty in playing it. Some bands that fall into this unique category are Animals as Leaders and Trivium. The group Dream Theater was formed in 1985 is Boston, Massachusetts at the Berkley College of Music. They originally had the name of Majestic, because one of the head members of the band overheard someone say that in line for a club. The Dream Theater’s have thirteen studio albums and eight live albums. Their logo is unique and has subliminal meaning behind it, which actually spells out Dominici which was the name of the first singer in the band. They are known for very long, and complex songs. The intro to the song “Octavarium” sounds like guitar but is actually a weird, uncommon instrument called a fingerboard. The fingerboard produces a very unique sound which brings a different style into their music that sets them apart from many other bands. Overall, I found this genre to be very interesting and intriguing. It caused me to have a different opinion on Heavy Metal and Progressive Rock. I was so interested after hearing this artist and hearing that a lot of talented musicians have an appreciation for this type of music that I decided to look up and listen to a few more songs. I cannot say that I will listen to this genre a lot going forward, but at least I will be able to recognize it and appreciate the talent that is necessary to create and perform it.

Im back and more determined than ever, lets get this blog a roll’ n. Today during this particular blog session I will be blogging about a few of my classmates final music genre presentations. Overall, I find this final project to be different and interesting, fun way to end the semester. I look forward to listening to the remainder of the presentations and hear students inside on specific popular music genres as well as what their music tastes consist of. Today in class we listened to a few different presentations including artists such as Drake, Andrew W.K. and Dream Theater. Im choosing to discuss Andrew W.K. “Party-Hard”. This artist creates a music from a genre I would typically never listen to, that is why I choose to write this blog post about it. It was so different from what I normally listen to that I thought it would be good to focus in and take good notes on. This genre of music is described as Party Metal. This genre is obscure, and a sub genre of metal. It is very fast pace and has a fast tempo with flamboyant energy. This was pretty apparent during the music video displayed for the presentation. Lyrically this particular song was party focused, and posted a unusual uplifting message. This is common for a lot of Andrew W.K.’s songs, which is not commonly a theme in metal genres. The genre is said to be high tempo usually. The music video begins in a dirty bathroom, with oddly lit green lighting. The musician ties his shoes frantically and seems to be eager to perform. The video contained a lot of fast cuts and different color schemes that changed quickly. They were without a doubt rocking out so to say. The majority of the band was long haired and were not afraid to swing it around. It was definitely a party song and portrayed that type of atmosphere in the video. It is no surprise seeing as the title of the song is “Party Hard” haha. The lyrics in this song were also upbeat and had a feel good attitude to them. This song seemed to have a anti-authoritarian message in the chorus. It could be related to the punk genre but without the idc attitude so much, there was was a sense of caring. The audience for this genre is young adults, white, male focused, party goers, and high energy events such as sporting events etc. Andrew W.K.’s music has been featured in a few different commercials. One being a Kit Kat commercial “give me a break! repeated a few times, and then it cut to a news reporting in a studio, were they cut back to them and it became very calm. The description of this genre or song which made it unique was the use of a keyboard which is used in most of Andrew W.K.’s music. A few instruments that are commonly used in this genre are guitar, bass, drums and powerful vocals.

Welcome back Blog fam, Im sure a lot of you have work to do this week and before finals week starts, but I hope you have the time to take a few moments and view a few of my new and upcoming blog posts! For this post I am going to be talking about my personal opinion on one of the megastars from the 1980’s. This specific prompt was appealing to me, but it is very difficult to choose which megastar from the 1980’s to cover. There a lot of megastars that came out of the 1980’s. There are also a lot artists during this time period that made a huge impact on future artists in the 1990’s to current. Being a 1990’s baby the 1980’s was as far back in pop music culture as I went previous to taking this class. I am going to give my opinion on Michael Jackson or as some people refer to him as “The King of Pop”. In my opinion, Michael Jackson is the “King of Pop” for a variety of different reasons. He came onto scene in a crazy, flashy, and unique way. He began his music career being the youngest member of the Jackson 5. The funny part about being the youngest member in the group was that he was the main focal point of their group and performances. Michael Jackson has a unique personality and voice that could never be replicated. I found it cool that Michael has been through a lot of adversity throughout his entire life and still was able to become successful and follow his dream. It shows everyone that you can overcome anything if you stay strong and put your mind to it. His father abused his as a young child, and while he was being abused he still was able to put on a happy face, go on stage and perform with a huge smile and special voice that crowds love. It was adversity like that which made Michael Jackson who was until the end of his life. One difficulty came after another during Michaels life but he wouldn’t let it get between his love for music, his fans and loved ones. He faced drug addiction over the years, which would eventually catch up with him and end his life. He faced scrutiny from fans and other people for his skin color changing, and several plastic surgeries. Quincy Jones once said ” He obviously didn’t want to be black…You see his kids?”, this is a terrible thing to say to someone. That statement had to hurt. Michael faced several other difficulties in life such as child abuse allegations, which all of which could have had detrimental effects on his musical career but MJ wouldn’t allow that to stop him from doing what he loved. That is one of the main reasons I believe he is the best megastar of his time and possibly ever. Other reasons were his tremendous ability to perform and evoke emotion out of the his fans and crowds. He was a great dancer and entertaining to watch, it is in a way funny to watch his moves now because of how performances and music videos have evolved throughout time. He is one of the main attributers to the success of music videos and MTV. Until Michael Jackson, MTV would only show white artists, but after his “Thriller” video came out MTV really had no choice but to allow African American artists to join the movement. Well, that is unless they wanted to fall behind in the times, and profits. Overall, I could talk about Michael Jackson and his life for hours, he is without a doubt one of the most successful artists of all time and paved the way for pop culture and African Americans in the music industry. There will never be another MJ.

Hello everyone! It has been a while since my last post, sorry for the wait! Wait no longer, in this post I am going to talk about Metal during the 80’s as well as the emergence of women pop stars. Metal in the 1980s the legacy is carried forward from the 1970’s. The Transgressive aspects are greatly emphasized during Metal in the 1980’s. The music is very virtuosic and driven by guitar. Some types of Metal are more serious, dark and committed to the “metal sound”. Bands such as Metallica are an example a more committed to metal sound and dark appeal. Hair Metal is the more pop oriented form of metal. Hair metal is more closely related to glam rock. It has a flamboyant feeling to the music and performance but without the homosexual stereotype. We watched a video in class that was new to the scene and out of the ordinary. “I Wanna Rock” by Twisted Sister hit the scene and became very popular. The music video takes place in school, where the mean teacher calls a young man out and asked him what he wants to do with his life. Of course he “wants to rock!” It represents teens being independent and rather being somewhere else other than school. The video was a little scary, the look, makeup and outfits of Twisted Sister took be my surprise. I have heard this song a lot throughout my life and had no clue that they looked like this! It did not change my mind about the song, just took me by surprise… I still think its a great song. The hair on these guys is hilarious, I found myself asking…Is that hair real or a wig? Next I will cover Madonna, who is without a doubt a women known for her sex appeal, but also for paving the way in pop culture for women. Madonna had a unique image in pop culture and she defined herself in her own image. She almost seemed to use it as a kind of political statement or something. One of her songs that really caught peoples eyes and caused a large amount of controversy was “Like a Prayer”. This video was very different and in a way weird and uncomfortable. The lyrics alone talk evoke sexual feelings and the video goes along with it. It is very unusual to mix sex, and religion. The next thing that is odd and created a lot of tension was the racial aspect. In the video Madonna is singing to a African American priest who was behind bars and seemed to be a statue that came to life. She seemed to start having sexual relations with the priest. The choir is also all black. The interesting thing about the video is that at the end of the song a curtain comes down. This was done to show people that it was just a video and not meant to be taken completely serious. There are a lot of syblinial messages and feelings that she was attempting to get across to viewers in this song/video. This is the case with a lot of her videos and songs. She still continues to be popular in todays modern pop music scene and with women all around. She has done a lot for women in the music industry and pop culture.