Syncopation

With its shifting of melodic accents onto off beats thus creating intensification and rhythmic momentum of the music (Starr & Waterman: 2003, pg.37), Ragtime is said to attribute its feature of syncopation from the banjo, an instrument created by African American slave musicians in the early 1600’s. The first popular Ragtime piece ‘All Coons Look Alike to Me’ was released in 1896 by Ernest Hogan, and as can be identified in the title, was another…

Introduction When visualizing the Toronto soundscape, it is inevitable to picture it without considering the plethora of accents and languages of people from culturally dominated areas. I had the chance to attend a music and dance performance reflective of the diversity of the world’s traditions but also reflective of Toronto’s multiculturalism. The event took place at the Lula Lounge on March 5th, 2016, where I saw the band ‘Salsotika’ perform classic 80s and 90s salsa. In relation to the…

The 1950’s- 1960’s saw a big change in society, as well as in the constant growing music industry. In the States and the Uk, people were still holding onto many aspects of the past: -World War 2 for example, and the crisis that many people went through, which many artists in future decades used and were inspired by different social and cultural events which gave inspiration to make some of the most well known songs in classic rock in the 80’s: for example: the song “one” by Metallica- which is…

The Jazz Age: Prevailing Opportunities for African Americans During the Jazz Age, jazz music, primarily dominated by African Americans before 1920, began to gain popularity among whites and transformed into an important aspect of American culture. The increased popularity of jazz music led to a growing acceptance of African American culture and presented African Americans with the opportunity to gain social status. Music has always played an essential part in African American life and its…

In order to generate a ten-song playlist that typically assists me in achieving physical health while doing exercises, I started to select music from those I usually listened to while I was walking or doing exercises. I was struggling at first when I simply sat down and selected songs in my iPod, because there seemed to be a lot of songs that could be chosen as long as the beats were not too slow and the styles were lively, which made me confused about how to limit the playlist to only ten songs…

Dolly Rebecca Parton (b. 1946) is a pillar figure of the music industry with her career and her influence spanning nearly six decades and reaching across genres. Parton was born January 19, in a small town nestled in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee, she began performing from a young age, her first performance at age ten began her ascent into superstardom (Watson 2012). She has earned her place as the most renowned female country artist of all time with twenty-five number-one singles on…