Aim #1: PLEASURE
1. Spice Girls, "2 Become 1," Pop, 1996
2. Al Green, "Let's Stay Together," R&B, 1971
3. Alicia Keys, "Teenage Love Affair," R&B, 2007
4. Boyz II Men, "I'll Make Love to You," R&B, 1994
5. 50 Cent, "Candy Shop," Hip Hop, 2005
Aim #3: COMMUNITY SERVICE
1. Kevin Michael ft. Wyclef Jean, "Don't Make Any Difference to Me," R&B, 2007
2. Dionne Warwick and Friends, "That's What Friends Are For," Pop, 1986
3. Jackson 5, "I'll be There," R&B, 1970
4. The Fray, "How to Save a Life," Rock, 2006
5. Bob Marley & The Wailers, "Get Up, Stand Up," Reggae, 1973
While searching for songs relating to the aims of pleasure and community service, I began to think that they were both prevalent when looking for pop culture music. However, after finishing my assignment and going through other students’ blogs and realizing we had many similar songs, I came to the conclusion that it was much easier to look for other songs relating to pleasure than community service. When you think of community service songs, lots of popular hits come to mind and I guess a good amount of students were thinking of the obvious ones.
I think it’s easier to look for songs relating to the Hindu aim of pleasure because artists tend to write lyrics about what pleases them and others. Pretty much all you hear during this generation of music involves love and sex. I can go through my iTunes and about 80% of my songs probably have a meaning of pleasure behind it. I think music listeners of this generation have grown into expecting and predicting to hear music hits that pertain to pleasure because we are so used to it. There are also references in a lot of pleasure songs that have hidden messages in them (i.e. 50 Cent’s Candy Shop, Lil’ Wayne’s Lollipop, 112’s Peaches and Cream) that obviously refer to sex.
Songs that refer to the aim of community service are a little harder to think of because in my opinion, most of them don’t get written until there is a natural or social disaster going on in our society. I feel like the aim of community service is much more narrow than the aim of pleasure. What surprised me during this assignment was the amount of songs I knew of pertaining to pleasure! Literally every other song I had on my iTunes was either about love or sex. The similar songs I had compared to other students beforehand also surprised me. Next time I’ll do the assignment way in advance.
I think the Hindu understanding of these two aims of life differ from what was expressed in American pop music in that Hindus have a more peaceful and simplified mindset of what pleasure and community service are. American pop music, on the other hand, finds different ways to associate pleasure into the meaning of songs.
I agree with you that pleasure is one-sided in the American culture, especially with music when compared to the Hindu culture. On researching songs for community service, 8tracks.com is a good website that can help you find music by certain tags and key words. I think a lot of people google'd the aims in music and picked the most popular. I like yours because I haven't seen any other blogs so far with your music. I'm glad you put some Boyz to Men on there, haha. You did a good job of keeping it pretty clean.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tip, definitely going to use 8tracks for the next assignment :)
ReplyDeleteI never thought of the idea that most songs about community improvement are not written until there is a natural or social disaster. I thought before that such songs could happen naturally because of our constant wish to improve ourselves. But after reading what you wrote I agree with you that, historically speaking, these songs are not nearly as prevalent until something happens to stir people up. (like a disaster of some kind) And, on another note, "How to Save a Life" is an awesome song and I can't believe I didn't think of that! The Fray is an amazing band!
ReplyDeleteToulaphone,
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing how prevalent pleasure seems to be in modern music. 80% of your Itunes! That's astounding... However, I think you did a great job of selecting tunes from the other 20% for community service. You also did a pretty good job of switching up the genres and decades of music. Also, very proud that your list included Boyz II Men. Wow.
Your commentary was good - I like how you mentioned that American culture can insert pleasure into just about any song or subject - so true.
Agreeing with Rachel that "How to Save a Life" is an awesome song, and as soon as I read that you'd included it about three more popped into my head that could have worked for this theme. You picked a lot of really good ones that I'm not sure how I didn't think of. I agree with you that we generally hear songs about pleasure and we've now become accustomed to the idea that it's what most music is about. I suppose music and pleasure just go hand in hand, or that's just what sells.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you a majority of the mmusic in pop culture today has explicit lyris refering to one or more forms of pleasure. I think as a whole culture the idea of pleasure has been intensified over the years.The videos today in American pop culture are starting to look more and more like a porno. I just couldnt see the content of pop music being acceptable in Hindu culture at all. Community service songs in American pop culture isnt a big seller unless it is for a natural disaster of part of a relief program. That to me says alot about American culture versus Hindu culture , it seems like money is the ultimate goal in America and liberation is the ultimate goal of Hindu.
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