Pop Culture Music & Hinduism #2

Aim #2: SUCCESS
1. Jay-Z, "Big Pimpin'," Hip Hop, 2000 [warning!]
2. Kanye West, "Good Life," Hip Hop, 2007 [warning!]
3. Pink Floyd, "Money," Rock, 1973
4. Lady Gaga, "Money Honey," Pop, 2008
5. Drake ft. Trey Songz, "Successful," Hip Hop, 2009



Aim #4: LIBERATION
1. Augustana, "Boston," Rock, 2006
2. Agnes Carlsson, "Release Me," Dance-Pop, 2008
3. Far East Movement ft. Ryan Tedder, "Rocketeer," Electro Hop, 2010
4. La Roux, "Bulletproof," Electro Pop, 2009
5. Fefe Dobson, "Take Me Away," Rock, 2003

Along with the aim of pleasure, I thought the aim of worldly success was more prevalent than liberation. I had an easier time thinking up of songs that had to do with success because success and pleasure correlate. When I think of success, the first thing that comes to my mind is personal achievement or money. According to Hindu belief, success comes in three parts: wealth, fame and power.

The music video I liked the best out of the five success songs was “Big Pimpin’” by Jay-Z. I like how Jay and his entourage are on a huge, expensive yacht with the ladies showing off how much bling he has while he raps about his rise to fame. The video exemplifies success because he shows that he has all the money in the world as long as he keeps doing what he’s doing. He is, simply put, big pimpin’.

For the aim of liberation, I chose to embed the music video “Boston” by Augustana mainly because I love the song. However, the song does show a relation to liberation. It mostly talks about a guy who lost his love and wants to leave California and go to Boston to start his life over. He wants to be free because he doesn’t like how things are going for him so he gets up and moves, wanting to leave everything behind. I love the passion in this song, and the lead singer looks so truthful when he’s performing. And good-looking.

I wasn’t really surprised that I found it easier to find success songs than liberation songs, but I was surprised by how much I liked the songs about liberation more than the songs about success. The lyrics to the liberation songs seemed more honest and truthful. Although all ten songs have the tendency to be catchy, the songs of liberation gave me a lasting impression.

In Hindu belief, worldly success can have its limitations. Drive for success is insatiable when it is your chief desire because it is not really what you want. However, in American modern music, when success and fame is shown, listeners and fans are supposed to want the lavish lifestyles of these artists. Artists act as if they love everything about their fame and fortune. Another limitation is that achievements are temporary, but pop artists make it seem like their wealth is prolonged for the rest of their life.

Pop Culture Music & Hinduism #1

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.