Muisc

My preference of music has always been rap. As a kid growing up in Los Angeles, California I was trapped into listening to rap music. Outside of the jazz music my father listened to and the gospel music my mother listened to, it was rap music that my ears grew accustomed to. I thought rap music was the only thing out there for children. Every little kid I knew listened to rap music. If you didn’t know the latest Tupac Shakur or Snoop Dogg song you weren’t cool. I was unaware of the message that was actually being delivered in the songs due to the fact that the radios played the edited version of songs. Personally, if the song had a catchy hook and a nice flowing beat, it became one of my favorites. Sadly but truly Adorno is right when he describes popular music as being dominated by standardization and pseudo individualization. Growing up we based our opinions of our favorite music on whom the artist was and how cool or catchy the hook was.

Personally I think artist use the same formula of making music and differentiate it from others by using their own experiences in it. Indeed I do think that it standardized in a sense. People tend to listen to music that they can relate to, and growing up rap music was something the local kids in my neighborhood related to the most. As far as pseudo-individualization, people individuals are attracted to catchy things and the uniqueness of the hook to a song can typically dictate how popular the song is.

For this assignment I listened to music ranging from Kenny G to Rage Against the Machine. There was a little Brittany Spears and Tim McGraw in between. These songs differed so much. Personally I feel as if the artist of these songs new the formula that was necessary in making popular songs in their respective genre. Kenny G’s music dealt with a couple of words here and there but mainly featured instruments. It was kind of a soothing to the soul type song. Rage Against the Machine was completely opposite, it was more of a let’s rock and get the party started type thing. My apologies to those who may have a problem with my choice of wording but I have no other way of explaining the mood in which I was in listening to this music. I felt kind of bad listening to Britt Britt because I’m 22 years old and the song featured Brittney, just wrong in my eyes.

Throughout these songs the message differed. Rage Against the Machine, talked about rebelling against the government and issues going on in the world. Kenny G fount a way to deliver a soothing message by offering a mixture of lyrics and live instruments into his song. Britt was a fox, her song dealt with being seductive, and at this day and age I would agree that no one is turned on by Britt anymore. Tim McGraw had me feeling pretty good in his duet with Nelly. The message that was offered in this songs provided advice for individuals in which face re-occurring acts.

Adorno talks about the challenges of creating serious music and how it typically would make individuals think about what theyre listening to. I think out of the songs I listened to, the collaboration of Nelly and Tim McGraw stood out the most given that they are from two different world and they came together and made a great piece of work.