Cool Stuff: Music of the Americas
A number of our blog posts this semester are going to fall under the heading of "Cool Stuff!" For all of these blog posts, you're going to research further into the music-cultures that we're studying. Your job is to think of three things that you'd like to know more about concerning that music-culture---perhaps you want to know more about one of the instruments, or a different instrument, or you'd like to delve further into some of the dances, or into a particular musical genre, or there's a certain performer that you've liked and you'd like to know more about that performer, or find another performer in that same vein. Or perhaps you just have a question that you'd like to explore. Roam the web and find out more about those three things, and then post what you find here. As with all of your blogs, you'll want to post your findings in such a way that we can explore them fully: videos are great, as are links to whole websites. Pictures can also be quite useful, especially when exploring instruments or costumes. And do make sure that both you and your sources treat the material in a respectful matter. (Hint: if your source seems to be treating the music-culture in a less-than-respectful way, it's probably not a good source.)
A bit about length and content:
Length: You'll want to make sure that your three things are three different things. Three videos by the same performer = one thing. Many of your three things will essentially be videos, but you'll you need to type up a hefty paragraph (minimum) about each video--100 words is a bare minimum, but you'll probably need to go over that to explain how you got from your idea to that video. Obviously, if you're not including a video, you'll need to type more.
Content: At least two of your three things need to be musical topics, or to at least touch on music in some way--for instance, a costume isn't "music," but perhaps it's worn during a specific dance that is danced to a specific type of music. Or perhaps you're curious about a type of story-telling that includes music in it. Your third item can be something about the culture at play in general, though, of course, it can be about a musical topic as well. And please make liberal use of the vocabulary and concepts that we're learning in class. Feel free to reference your notes and the Seven Elements prezi for vocabulary and concept ideas. Also, at least one of your three things should be about Native Americans and one should have something to do with South America.
Also, before you get started go back to the syllabus and read the bit about Blogs and Fair Use--you'll need to let us know where you're getting your information from, though you needn't cite it formally (like with parenthetical references or a bibliography). A great way to informally cite a source in a blog is to provide a link--for instance, like this (just click on the link icon at the top of the typing window and follow the directions). You can also include an actual bibliography if you like.
This first Cool Stuff blog is about the first two cultures we're studying--Native American and South American. Because we're sticking to a fairly small area of South America, I'll let you venture out into other parts of that continent if you wish. For North America, though, stick with Native American music of some sort--we'll get into other musics of North America (like The Blues) later.
To give you an idea of what I'm looking for, here is one thing from Native America and one from South America (remember, you're doing three things total):
1. I’ve long been fascinated by societies that are Matrilineal rather than Patrilineal, such as the Navajo Nation. Thus, as I was looking for new material a few years ago for our Native American section I found myself googling “Navajo Women,” and I came across information on the Miss Navajo Nation pageant, which then led me to Youtube. I was most fascinated by this video, which is a TED talk featuring Jolyana Bitsui, Miss Navajo Nation 2001/02. She speaks both English and Navajo during her talk. I think you’ll find that she touches on many of the themes of community and heritage that we’ve discussed in class. Towards the end of the talk, she sings a song in her native Navajo that includes several of these same themes and makes use of vocables.
2. As you'll learn when we get to our study of the music of South Africa, I'm a die-hard, life-long Paul Simon fan. His first foray into the music of other cultures was his seminal album Graceland, for which he traveled (famously and controversially) to South Africa to work with musicians there. The follow up album to Graceland was Rhythm of the Saints, for which he travelled to South America and worked with a variety of musicians there. He mostly worked with musicians from Brazil (this was in 1990). The first song from the album, "Obvious Child," was conceived of by Paul Simon after hearing an Afro-Brazilian drum group, Olodum, that specialized in a heavy drumming style suitable for the samba. Paul Simon wrote the lyrics of the song to match the rhythms of these drummers and then recorded the song and subsequent video with them. Their music is sort of analogous to "Me Gusta la Leche," an Afro-Ecuadorian sanjuan that we'll hear in class this week, in that it has obvious rhythmic ties to Africa.
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