CI 5150 Blog

SONG REVIEW

Pink has long been known for her punk-rock attitude and in your face lyrics. Her short, pink hairdo has become a staple in her career. Her uncensored thoughts on love and loss have created controversy and parental advisories. Pink's new single, "Glitter in the Air," has a style all its own. It is completely opposite of her past music style, mood, and lyrics and showcases her vocal ability.
The beginning sets the tone of the song. It makes the listener reflect on the questions being asked regarding being in love before the transition to the middle of the song. At about the one minute 20 second mark in the song, Pink starts addressing the feelings of loneliness and desire for companionship. The middle gets a little repetitive with the questions and piano, but still offers insight into the message of the song, the message being a reflection into being selflessly and truly in love. The end of the song is a tranquil unwinding of the louder vocals and faster beat that can be heard in the middle. All three of these sections have extremely smooth transitions. They flow seamlessly together and are appropriately placed in the song. They are so smooth, in fact, that the transitions are not obvious to someone not listening to them.
The beginning, middle, and end are all very similar, which tends to get boring as the song goes on. There is little differentiation throughout the ballad, which offers room for improvement. Variation would give the song more personality and catchiness. There is plenty of differentiation between "Glitter in the Air" and Pink's previous songs, which were all about heartbreak and love going wrong. It is nice to hear a different message in her music. This different message got me interested in her music again, which I was bored with. I would buy this song for it's beautiful instrumentals, vocals, and heart-warming message. I believe this song will stimulate sales of both the single and Pink's entire album, Funhouse. The song has already swept through popular culture and is heavily played on radio stations. It has seen positive response, both in the U.S. and internationally. Three Grammy nominations and a number one spot on the charts are a sign of the good fit within popular culture. In concert, the song would enthrall those in attendance, and the performance of it would be a sombering point in the concert.

Student Assignments:

1. Choose a song that is very different than the artist's previous work. Analyze the differences in style and composition between this song and the artist's typical songs.

2. Research past events in the singer's life that could have influenced his or her music and analyze the artist's songs for similarities to these life events.

I found the article, "The Promotion of presentation of the Self: Celebrity as Marker of Presentational Media," to be interesting and entertaining. It was nice to read a different viewpoint of celebrity. The author, P. David Marshall, had some unique points. Britney Spears is one of the biggest celebrities out there. She has been in the spotlight for over a decade. Some of my favorite thoughts from the article follow. I have also included my reaction to the topic and its relation to Britney Spears.

• "It is ever-present and helps to maintain the duality with which we hold the overwhelming production of celebrity: collectively, we disdain the public focus on celebrity at the same time as we continue to watch, discuss and participate and thereby ensure the maintenance of a celebrity industry (2)."
o My reaction: It is so true that many people put down what celebrities are doing, yet continue to purchase magazines and tabloids, watch television shows about celebrities, and discuss them amongst friends. This seems hypocritical to me. When Britney Spears was going through her controversial, tough time, people continued to watch her every move as they spoke about how they did not care about what she was doing. The attention she created for herself made it hard for even her critics to turn away and ignore what she was doing.

• "Celebrity has been and is increasingly a pedagogical tool and specifically a pedagogical aid in the discourse of the self. For much of the twentieth century, celebrities served as beacons of the public world. They helped define the Zeitgeist of any particular moment - 'a structure of feeling' that relied in part on its mediation through film, radio, popular music and television (3)."
o My reaction: Many celebrities take advantage of this by creating their own clothing, makeup, or hair products line. They target fans that want to look or be like the celebrity. These products are marketed to fans as a way to become like their idol. Britney Spears used this marketing tool. She created a line of perfumes and marketed them using her sex appeal to suggest wearers of her perfume would have the same power over men as she had in the television commercials.

• "De Backer, for instance, divides gossip into two functions: reputation gossip, where the status of a person is redrawn based on the information circulated in a community, and strategy learning gossip, where one learns social cues and preferred behaviour through the information gleaned about others (4)."
o My reaction: Very valid point. I can see how there are two distinct functions of gossip. Both are spread in different ways. Britney Spears suffered from a damaged reputation as a result of reputation gossip. She was no longer viewed as a role model and became known for her crazy antics. She may have had an impact on the behavior of young female fans who learned social cues from her exploited behavior.

• "(About) celebrity gossip throughout the twentieth century is that it has operated on two levels:
• first, there has been the reportage that has appeared as a form of information for readers in tabloids, newspapers, television programmes and magazines - in other words, it is structured and highly mediated; and
• secondly, there has been the deployment of celebrity gossip through personal conversation and evaluation that constantly moves the highly mediated into the interpersonal dimensions of everyday interchange. The movement of this kind of celebrity gossip information into the interpersonal is accentuated precisely because of the often personal nature of the information presented about celebrities.
o My reaction: I think personal conversation spreads gossip faster than the different forms of media. While Britney Spears was experiencing her identity crisis, I often found myself in the middle of a conversation relating to the latest crazy thing Britney had done. This is an example of celebrity gossip through personal conversation and evaluation. These behaviors were made known through media, such as magazines and television. This is an example of structured gossip.

On a completely separate and unrelated sidenote, the first thing I thought about after reading this journal was Brad Paisley. He has a song entitled "Celebrity." The song has to do with celebrities setting bad examples, like cheating spouses and lack of responsibility, for the general population. Analyzing this song and comparing it to the journal would be an interesting assignment!

2 Assignments:

1) Analyze the song, "Celebrity," by Brad Paisley and compare his lyrics to the message of P. David Marshall's journal.
2) Scan the tabloids, magazines, and television for gossip that could be considered "reputation gossip". Write an opinion paper on the effects of this gossip in the various media outlets on the celebrities reputation.

Censorship Mini-Unit:

Assignment 1: "Intro to Censorship": During class time, ask students to define censorship on a sheet of paper. Have them turn the papers in anonymously. Students should include questions they may have regarding censorship. I address those questions in the class. As a class, we come up with one, recurring definition of censorship then compare it to dictionary's definition.

Assignment 2: Have students find a newspaper or magazine article on censorship in popular music. Then, have them write a 2 page opinion paper on how and if censorship impacts their favorite music, political decisions, and freedom of speech.

Assignment 3: Have students find 5 songs that have been censored within the last 5-8 years. Have them analyze the reasons behind the censorship, the appropriateness of the censorship, and the effects of the music if left uncensored.

After searching for online teaching resources, I found a large variety of information. A lot of websites I found were related to pop culture in general. These sites included information on poetry, music, movies, and television. This information was too general to apply to teaching pop music/culture specifically. I searched further and found some sites specifically focused on teaching pop music and culture to a variety of school-aged children. It offered suggestions on how to teach the topic to children of all ages. Some of the sites offered information on how to plan lessons relating to the topic. I found one site very helpful. It offered suggestions on teaching to all different age groups, income levels, and geographic areas. The following are sites that I found especially helpful.
http://www.blackwell-compass.com/subject/sociology/article_view?article_id=soco_tr_bpl236
http://www.rapidintellect.com/AEQweb/cho3023l5.htm
http://www.jstor.org/pss/1318834
http://www.cengage.com/aushed/instructor.do?product_isbn=9781428231016
http://www.nclrc.org/teachers_corner/classroom_solutions_yana/teaching_culture.html#popular_culture
The following is a lesson plan created specifically for teaching pop music and culture in classrooms.

Introduction:
Pass out lyrics to We Didn't Start the Fire.
Play We Didn't Start the Fire by Billy Joel.
Ask the following:
What is the song about?
What issues and ideas are presented?
Why does the song begin and end when it does?
Place students in groups of approximately 4.
Tell students that they are going to update the song.
Have students individually brainstorm events and issues from 1990 - present.
Have group members share.
Create a group stanza.
Pass out transparency and have groups write new stanza.
Each group will share / sing new stanza.
Following the sharing have groups discuss rationale for events / issues included.
Have groups research and investigate original song's events and issues.

Groups:
Individuals in groups brainstorm themes in history and music examples for integration.
Brainstorm application ideas. Share.

Modeling:
Have examples of music for groups to investigate.
Examples include Say It Loud, Long Road to Freedom, 200 Years of American Heritage in Song, We Sing America, Celebrate Women, The Civil War, Soundtrack for a Century
Discuss the examples and choose specific examples of music for classroom integration.

Examples:
Have lyrics and music for songs such as Yankee Doodle, Follow the Drinking Gourd, This is Your Land, Blowin' in the Wind, and Where is the Love
Groups should brainstorm integration ideas.

After reading the chapters on Rock in the 1970s and 1980s, things that I already knew regarding those eras were reiterated. For example, I knew that Blondie was influential to the punk scene with her contributions influenced by disco and rap. I also knew that punk music drew strong reactions. The genre used controversial lyrics, symbols, and dress.
In addition to reading about things I already knew, I also read about very interesting events and trends that I was not aware of. One of those movements was "Rock Against Racism." Rock Against Racism was a broadly based movement whose main purpose was to oppose the National Front. The group used pop music to push political movements to the vast majority of young people in language they could understand. I found it interesting to note that the RAR group was an orthodox, anti-racist group that challenged record companies, advertising agencies, and galleries. This topic would make a good learning unit for students. It is both historical and interesting. Students should enjoy learning about something that they are not aware in the least, unlike other historical events. When teaching about racism in our country's history, it would be interesting to include the RAR. In order to combat the racism often linked to the band, Sham, RAR booked a reggae band called Misty. This forced the followers of Sham, mostly skinheads, to attend an antiracist concert to see the band. Rock Against Racism could be a great example to students on peaceful and insightful ways to combat racism.
In the 1980s chapter on Rock, music on television is discussed. In the 1950s, American Bandstand featured rock music. Since then, rock music has remained a part of television. In 1981, MTV was created. This opened up the opportunity for artists to create music videos that reflected their personal style and persona. It is interesting to read how MTV started out as purely a television channel with music videos. When I was in high school and watching the station, there were only one or two shows on the channel lineup that played music videos. The rest were reality shows and sitcoms. Now, 6 years later and almost 30 years after the channel's inception, there are no shows that play music videos. The entire lineup is reality television shows. I find it interesting that a channel whose sole purpose of creation was to air and promote music videos now has almost nothing to do with music. Its closest ties to music are the musicians that star on MTV's realty television shows. I understand that people, businesses, and products evolve over time as a response to their environment, but I think MTV should have stayed true to their purpose and created a sister network if they wanted a channel with reality shows.
I think a lot of people have lost respect for MTV as they have steered away from music, but they continue to watch it for entertainment. I definitely fit into this category. I don't think MTV is as great of a pioneer as it once was. I think the channel sinks to new lows every year as they create trashy television they know people will watch, even if they despise it. I continue to watch MTV regularly. Although my opinion on the channel has not affected my viewing of its shows, I am still dissatisfied with the direction they have taken the channel over the course of its lifetime.
I believe the transition MTV has made over the past 30 years would be a good topic for high school students to analyze in an opinion paper. They could discuss whether they believe MTV has sold out and gone awry from its sole purpose of airing music videos for entertainment and promotion.

After viewing the following videos: Leslie Gore: It's My Party, Fiona Apple: Criminal, and Lil' Kim : How Many Licks, it seems that sexuality has become more prevalent in music as time goes on. In Leslie Gore's music video, she is conservatively dressed, with a shirt that covers her entire chest. Similarly dressed women dance in the background. In the 1960's, this song was considered to push limits with its lyrics and women dancing in the back of the stage.
In the 1990's Fiona Apple broke into a new realm of sexuality with her single, "Criminal." Her lyrics were very suggestive and somewhat explicit. She didn't hold back when it came to expressing her happiness and sexuality, which earned a lot of criticism. While she was dressed conservatively in her video, the scenes are suggestive.
In the late 2000's, Lil Kim came out with her single, "How Many Licks." The lyrics were extremely explicit, describing sexual relations with many partners. She describes sexual acts vividly. Her video is also very explicit. She is dressed in almost nothing with her female assets highly emphasized. She portrayed women as naked, sexual dolls.
These three videos are consistent with the trend of increasing sexuality in music throughout time. As time goes on, artists become more explicit and uncensored and their wardrobes become more revealing. It will be interesting to see what videos are like ten years from now at this rate.

In my opinion, there are many reasons to teach popular music in schools. Ideally, I want my students' interests in history to be stimulated. I want them to get excited to dig back in time and discover interesting trends in our nation's pop culture. I want them to be able to analyze these pop culture trends and compare them to economic, cultural, and political situations from the era.
In this course, I want to learn ways to get my students excited about learning about popular music and underlying trends from the time period. If I get excited about it, the enthusiasm will transfer to my students. I also want to gain a deeper understanding between the connections of popular music and economic, cultural, and political trends for two reasons. The first being that I find these connections very interesting personally. The second reason is if I have a deeper understanding of this material, I will be more prepared to teach it.
In regards to the situation given concerning a revised curriculum related to the language arts and social sciences programs, I would voice my concerns and state my case to keep the pop culture/music class to the principal via a letter to the principal. The letter would look like the following:

Principal XXXX,
It has come to my attention that the school district has decided to revise its entire overall language arts/social sciences curriculum as a result of pressure to go "back to the basics" of education. I understand the reasoning behind this push is to improve test scores in both reading and writing. My class, "The History of Popular Music," reinforces and builds these skills. Please consider the following points before you revise any curriculum.
My class, "The History of Popular Music," does not take away from students learning basic skills, such as reading and writing. In fact, it gives them an exciting and unique opportunity to enhance them. The skills learned in my class are complimentary to ones learned in fundamental classes. Students in my class read a large amount of material throughout the course, more so than in most currents courses offered. In addition to the heavy reading, students hone their writing skills through multiple analytical essays. The class serves as an application opportunity for students to apply the basic skills of reading and writing learned in fundamental classes.
My class teaches students to analyze given information, not just to recite it back. This skill is extremely important as many of our students at this school have collegiate plans. More specifically, my students read about popular music in varying time periods and are then asked to analyze historic cultural, economic, and political trends in that time period. This exercise teaches students about the history of our nation and cultural fads throughout its history. As history tends to repeat itself, I am giving students the tools they needs to analyze current trends and predict outcomes.
Please share this letter with the school board at your next meeting on Monday May 31, 2010.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Lindsey Adelman
May 27, 2010