Terry Funk

Each Band or Artist has a way of getting there message across to their intended audience. The band Nirvana used metaphors in their song “Rape Me” to show how the media and friends use and abuse their fame. While the song “The Way I am” by Eminem, can be heard as a diary entry into the life of a celebrity trying to live and be a normal person with the media. The song “The Way I am” is very clear with its use of imagism contrary to “Rape Me”, which could keep listeners guessing on who the aslant…

Peace, war and rebellion. These three words that can sum up rock and roll in a whole. Starting in the 1950’s, rock has been known to break all the rules. Challenging racial barriers, family values, and teen rebellions, transitioning the decades and shaping society. From the beginning and its creation to its influence in America through the decades, shows how important rock and roll was important to history. Singing out their pain and suffering, or just to make the time fly by, blues was said…

The term “jazz” is freely used by many people around the world to describe a particular category of music. Every person will have their own definition of such a broad category of music. However, attempting to set boundaries and limit the definition of jazz to a simple “Google-like” definition is not only an injustice to the art of jazz, but also to listeners’ ability to appreciate the vast meanings and interpretations of jazz music. Prior to taking a semester long course on understanding jazz, I…

I agree with the author of Hip Hop Fashion, Masculine Anxiety, and the discourse of Americana, Nicole R. Fleetwood. Although I don’t regularly listen to hip-hop, it’s evident to even me that within the community there are several unspoken rules that must be followed to make it in the industry. In regards to fashion, the author discusses the way in which style and aesthetics are presented in hip-hop. The author goes on to write how an obsession to keep up this aesthetic is then brought forth, so…

West African musical influences can be found throughout the rest of Africa and across the globe. These influences can be found throughout various genres of music, including jazz, blues, and electronic music. A modern example I discovered that demonstrates West African musical styles was M83’s Midnight City, an electronic song. Firstly, and prominently featured throughout the song is the synth pattern, or ostinato that is repeated through a large majority of the song. It is a simple four note…

Hip-hop history, especially that of gangsta-rap, falls prey to repetition; and only through repetition, may the reemergence of the novelty appear in the what has already been said. The what has already been said in the history of Hip-hop will appear anew merely by exhausting out of what has previously been said. It is imitation’s quality of wearing out words of the previously said that presents us with new histories. Once those words have been worn out, the what has already been said becomes…

Cultural Destruction In Imani Perry's article, " The Venus Hip Hop and the Pink Ghetto Negotiating Spaces for Women", Perry criticizes the way black woman's are dressing in inappropriate attire, such as bathing suits or clothing that expose their body parts in music videos. She explains how hip hop culture is attacking black women identity and making them look like a commodity buying, and sell just for the pleasure of men. However black women body language on the videos are saying that they are…

Shelby Willis 000376048 46982 Essay #1 Performer: Little Richard Career Span: 1951-present Location: Born on December 5, 1932 in Macon, Georgia. Band Members: Little Richard was considered a solo artist; however, he intertwined with multiple well-known groups such as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. Bio: Richard Wayne Penniman, also known as Little Richard, is known to be one of the craziest, most entertaining leaders of the 1950s. He topped billboards early on and was able to maintain…

As a substantial influence on today’s modern culture, crime is depicted in many forms of media. I chose to discuss a perhaps less widely discussed form of media: music. There are two genres of music that tend to discuss crime specifically, rap and hip hop. Writers and performers of these types of songs typically come from disadvantaged neighborhoods, and grew up with limited resources to develop successful careers and lifestyles. When one thinks of crime in entertainment, the first thoughts that…

Everyone believes that everything has to belong to one person or one group of people but that is not true. For hip hop people are always arguing about who it belongs to what race what person and what group of people. Many people believe that hip hop can only belong to one person or race but hip hop belongs to anyone who enjoys the art form of hip hop. Hip hop is not just about the music, hip hop is an art form that is a style of life. Some of the biggest hip hop artist focus on their music but…