Reflections on Discussion Panel_Chris Remy
Music has much to say about society as well as these two presenters for our guest lecture have shown. The one man who teaches African American studies at the university and has published seven books tells us that rap music is not really a type of music but a way of life. While the other women who teaches a class hear and at Hamline tells us that rap music is divided into 4 separate parts. All together though the best part of their answer to what this music actually is was by their comments that music is a mainstream that brings people from all over. Whether it is during times of war or times of happiness there is always music. This makes so much sense and I have never really thought about it that way. I go to church and they play music, I go to see a movie and there is music in it, I go to a night club and there is music. No matter where I go, there is almost always music somewhere being involved. So it is more than a passive mainstream from what Jeff Chang said, it is an active mainstream for which people can access by going to a crowd of people.
A second good point that was outlined in this discussion was the notion of “picking a spot.� In other words musicians just pick a spot and than know something about that spot to write a song about it. There is nearly music about every spot that someone has been and this is a good example of how music travels with you and how it just bring people together it brings people to places they have never been. All in all, this discussion was a great idea that opened many new doors for me that I have never really thought about music. On top of all that I am going to look further in to classes taught by both of these professors, because they were very interesting.