Kids Speak Their Mind About Race/ Music

Kids Speak Their Mind About Race/Music

 

 

The video we had to watch was a report of how kids at the age of 6 and at the age of 13 thought of a picture where it was a white kid standing over a black kid with books all over the ground and they would state their opinion. Then they showed them the same picture but with a black kid standing over a white kid with books on the ground and asked if they are friends. The point of it was just to portray how different kids would respond to an image with race involved in it.

 

Race is a huge part of the music industry as well, there are very successful artists that are all different races. But most of the time people would portray rap music with black people even though there are just as many white rappers that are just as popular. In fact in an article that me and some of my group members found, they point out that white musicians actually profit from mocking hip hop. They give Lorde's song "Royals" as a good example, because at the time her song was No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for 7 weeks and her song was specifically mocking the tropes of hip-hop when she sings about rejecting “Cristal, Maybach, diamonds on your timepiece / Jet planes, islands, tigers on a gold leash.”(D'Addario). so it is very ironic that with her successful hip hop song where she is mocking hip hop she made millions of dollars.

My group had a long discussion about this topic because the answers that these kids provided were pretty much directly related to their parents thoughts on race or where they grew up. The video also went on to ask kids if it would be ok for a black female to bring a white kid home to their parents and of it was ok for a white boy to bring a black girl home as well. There seemed to be a double standard on the matter which isn't fair to the kids who have this mindset that is drilled into their brains by their parents. For me personally I don't think it would matter too much if I brought a black female over to my house or had dated one but that's just because I wasn't raised in that racist of a household. For the music industry I think it is a little different, like my parents didn't like me listening to rap when I was a kid and that was pretty much the same for all my friends at the time. In an article I found it talks about the positive and negative side of letting kids listen to rap. The negative side obviously had more to say like there is "profanity, violence and references to sex. At times it objectifies women to a very degrading degree. And it can glamorize the “gangster” lifestyle of glitz, sex and drugs"(Kiplinger). Which is probably the reason my parents didn't want me listening to it when I was little.

To sum it all up, kids perspective on race is based mostly upon what household they grew up in or how their parents view racism. it showed in the video that the black kids didn't think anything of what they saw in the picture but the white kids figured the black standing over the white kid was being bullied. It is just how they were raised and racism is still a huge part of today's society and it starts with the kids. If parents can train their kids to think and do the right thing about race it will make this world a much better place to live in.

Works Cited

D'Addario, Daniel. "Pop Music’s Race Problem: How White Artists Profit from Mocking Hip-hop." Saloncom RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Nov. 2014.


Kiplinger, Anne. "Should You Let Your Kids Listen to Rap Music?" Latest and Greatest from Chicagoans. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Nov. 2014.

Mind Over Mass Media/Music

The essay we looked at this week focused on the change in technology but specifically social media. The author, Steven Pinker, argued that the the easy access to various media outlets in order to gain various information has developed our minds to focus on what may be important or focal. He asserts the idea that mass media has morphed things to make it easier for people to retain more information than before. The essay Pinker presented formulates the statement that new technology, specifically mass media, has made information gathering more efficient.
Our group had a very long discussion on this essay and how it pertained to music. We looked at how technology has changed over time just as music has. Just as how mass media has made it easier to gain or implement facts, thoughts and ideas out to others globally like music has done to people of different genre or even background. Don’t get me wrong, it was pretty difficult at first to develop some ideas on what to write about for our blog post but we came up with the idea of change in music and mass media as a good thing. I wanted to add a twist to this blog post while keeping the topic about music and mass media, so my main focus will be the stereotypes that follow both ideas.

First of all, let's start off with the definition of stereotype. For those of you who don't know, a stereotype is a fixated idea of a person or thing. Let's start off with an easy example, if I met a guy with a colorful Mohawk, I would most likely believe he may be a fan of heavy metal. Another example would be that if I noticed someone likes to take a lot of selfies or food pictures, I would assume they would be more into the app Instagram than Twitter. Cadwallader states that "[w]e use social media to communicate with each other in greater ways today" (Cadwallader 1) than we ever did before. The old timers don't really understand that because of their perception in taste whether it's music or technology. Jeff Balke summarizes this perfectly in his article about music and stereotypes by saying "If you think country music is bad, you may never hear a great country song and you’ll likely pass that belief onto others – your children, your friends, your family – despite the fact that your belief is likely inherently flawed simply because of your perception rather than your actual study of the genre" (Balke 1). So go on Facebook, go on Twitter, go on Snapchat or +Google and express yourself while watching others express themselves. You might break a stereotype or two by the end of the night. You might find yourself agreeing with Pinker or Cadwallader or Balke or my composition group that change may be a good thing.

Works Cited

Cadwallader, Sunny. "Study Looks at Music and Stereotypes." Broken Record. Linkedin.com, 6 May 2014. Web. 13 Nov. 2014.

Balke, Jeff. "Study Looks at Music and Stereotypes." Broken Record. Broken Record, 25 Feb. 2008. Web. 13 Nov. 2014.

What We Eat/Music

"What We Eat" About Music

                  "What We Eat" is a short article arguing that the fast food industry has altered what Americans eat, and that its methods and values have become the country's chief export (Schlosser). Schlosser states "fast food has infiltrated every nook and cranny of American society" (Schlosser). Anything we eat is affecting us as a person and becomes a part of us; no other industry offers that (Schlosser). So what is it that makes us determine what to eat.
                 I thought of a few things that can help answer this. What affects the things that we eat? After some long research I finally found a topic that I can work with. So I ask these questions: How does music alter what we eat? How can music affect the speed that we eat? My goal is to show you all just how deeply things can change what you consume.
                An article from the Cornell University Food and Brand Lab states that not only does the food differentiate a fast food place and a fine dining restaurant, but the music and lighting make a big difference (O'Sullivan). "If a restaurant is playing heavy metal on repeat you may want to eat your food quickly," O'Sullivan stated in the article (O'Sullivan). To prove all this, they conducted a study to see if they were to change the lighting and music, what kinds of things would change. Consumers were randomly put into either a normal fast food setting or the altered setting. They were then asked some questions and had data collected on the time they were there and what they had all ordered. They found out that by changing the atmosphere, it can increase food intake and the rating of the food (O'Sullivan). So I feel that companies would benefit if they dimmed their lights and played some softer music.
                This wasn't the only article that had stated these same facts about the atmosphere of restaurants, they all lead to the same conclusion. What we eat can be changed very quickly by the setting of the restaurant. After all, food becomes a part of us and who we are so shouldn't we enjoy it while we can.

 O'Sullivan, Christina, and Sandra Cuellar-Healey. "Music and Light." Music and Light. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Nov. 2014.

Schlosser, Eric. "What We Eat." 2001. Back to the Lake. Ed. Thomas Cooley. 2nd ed. New York: Norton, 2012. 667-74. Print.

What We Eat and Listen to Makes Us Who We Are

Halloween is over and we all had our fair share of mini size snicker bars and recess butter cups. But with November comes even colder weather, the sun setting at 6 pm, and my favorite, Thanksgiving. I can deal with the chills and darkness all month for one day of warm sweet smells of succulent food cooking up in my home. I’m sure we can all relate this to our relationship within music. Every other day I wake up early for my 8 a.m. class, forget my snack, and no time to take a breather all day, but I can deal with it as long as I have two things, my music and headphones.

In Eric Scholsser’s What We Eat, he evaluates how fast food industries can be located anywhere in the world. Not only is it everywhere, it’s a constant in American society. Eric explains how American’s have grown accustomed to “a plastic tray full of food wrapped in colored paper and cardboard” (668). Mcdonalds is the number one fast food chain out there.  Many people question the kind of things they put in their food, if it’s healthy, and even blame it for America's obesity. Have you ever heard the phrase, “you are what you eat”? Well Eric’s way of saying that is: “A nation’s diet can be more revealing than it’s art or literature” (688). Someone could tell a lot about a person if they went through their playlist contained with emotional songs like Green Day’s Good Riddance or Coldplay’s Yellow. We can assume if one listens to sad loves songs all day that maybe they’re heart broken and that maybe eating fast food is bad for you.

Countless of times I’ve heard that the pop music playing on the radio is trash, screamo music makes you a bad person, and/or rap is a bad influence on a person’s character. If I order a Juicy Quarter Pounder with cheese and a chilly Reese's Butter Cup Blizzard for dessert is that bad for me? It may not be my healthiest meal, but who is to say we all can’t indulge in our favorite foods. When I listen to my favorite tunes to sleep or to work out I get into a trance and it brings me into a whole other world. Doesn’t matter what kind of genre I’m listening to. It’s the lyrics, beat, and melody that makes the experience. Just like eating a Krispy Kreme, i’m not thinking about the calories and statistics. I’m thinking about how something so simple can be so sweet and with every bite is a step closer to finishing the donut. Afterwards, I am left with sugary glaze on my fingertips to lick off for my ending enjoyment.

The next time you see someone rocking out to screamo music or eating a Big Mac ask yourself, can we really make the same judgement that different genres of  music is bad for us like fast food industries?

By Sheng Vang 

Works Cited

Colombo, Gary, Robert Cullen, and Bonnie Lisle. Rereading America: Cultural Contexts for Critical Thinking and Writing. Boston: Bedford  of St. Martin's, 1992. 667-74. Print.

"Top 10 Global Fast-Food Brands." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, n.d. Web. 06 Nov. 2014. <http://www.forbes.com/pictures/feji45ihfj/top-10-global-fast-food-brands-3/>.

Vincent, Alice. "Lady Gaga: 'pop Music Is like Junk Food'" The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, 29 May 0014. Web. 06 Nov. 2014. <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/rockandpopmusic/10447619/Lady-Gaga-pop-music-is-like-junk-food.html>.