Critical Review #8: Quebradita

In her writing Simonett covered the Quebradita dance "craze" that swept through in the nineties. This "craze" swept mainly through the parts of Southern California and affected mostly those who were of Mexican decent.  Simonett discussed the style of the dancers of this culture along with the music of it and how they connected with the dancing. Also through her writings Simonett illustrated the importance of heritage and the social issues that the people were dealing with through the analysis of the lyrics of the songs that that danced to. 

Discussion Question: Do you think that if you were living in Southern California at the time that the Quebradita swept through that you would be a part of this craze even if you are not of mexican? What do you think the people of the cultures reaction would be if someone (perhaps like yourself) was to just randomly join in the scene? 

Critical Review #7: Duany

Duany discusses the history and background of Salsa music to give the reader something to think about. He illustrates how the Salsa genre was established and created through a couple of different musical styles from both Hispanic and African Cultures throughout the Caribbean . This being said he went to further show how not only was Salsa a combination of things and cultures, but that its distinguished culture was in fact a combination and was not all about the same things. Duany also stated that this combination of cultures is present within the lyrics of Salsa songs (the good songs at least), and can be heard through the lyrics. 

Discussion Question: Do you think that Salsa is more mainstream or commercialized now? And does this mean  you are disagreeing or agreeing with Duany?  

Critical Review #6: Dudrah (British Bhangra Music)

Dundrah discusses the British Bhangra throughout her article.  In the article Dundrah states that the term 'British Bhangra' "captures the music's fusion of traditional folk bhangra lyrics and beats with urban black British and pop sounds into a new distance genre of British bhangra dance and music." Bhangra was labeled as the start of the second generation of artists and musicians to experiment and create their own sound. In order to achieve this status they took sounds from traditionally Punjabi music, reggae, and other previous post-war British sound s (urban black sounds and other technology as well). Dundrah also points out the similarities between political issues at the time and the lyrics of the bhangra music and black music that was being played. Along with this is the idea that all of this is part of a diaspora. 

Discussion Question: In the article Dundrah brings up Firth and the argument about how "music has a social value being a way of affirming personal identity, a form of communication and an expression and means of understanding lived experience." Do you believe that this is true for the British bhangra artists? Artists in general? Or do you think that artists make up a lot of what they are writing? 

Critical Review #5: Back (black music, autonomy and the cultural intermezzo)

In the chapter Back discusses the development of Black leisure spaces during the post-war times in London. Back argues that racism that was shown all throughout London was keeping African Americans out of everyday clubs, places to dance and other leisure institutions. This then forced African Americans to create their own clubs, own dance places, and at the same time enhance their own style of music. Back also stated that when the African American music started to grown in popularity that the various cultures within the Black community the music was not all the same and had different twist to it depending on where it came from. Although the music was different at the clubs and places that the music from the cultures was played it was more similar to everyone music and it wasn't a single style that was forced upon everyone. 

Discussion Question: Do you think that it was hard for people to generate original music back when they weren't sure what was to actually come of it or whether or not people would discriminate against it just because the artists were black? Or do you think that it is the same or similar fear that people have today when producing music?  

Critical Review #4: Schloss: B-Boy culture

In Schloss' article about B-Boy's and their culture he discussed the origin of how B-Boying came to be and he also stressed the music behind the dancing. 

 In the beginning Schloss mentioned two songs that have been used since the start of B-Boy's and throughout their culture can be heard in many any good hip-hop or rap songs of today. "Apache" by Michael Viners Incredible Bongo Band and "The Mexican" by Babe Ruth are those two songs and even though these songs are not in-fact Hip-Hop songs and rather a rock and funk style song they are good for B-Boying and breaking up the dance moves. 

When Schloss discussed the music he discussed the idea of breaks within certain songs and how DJ's (good DJ's) put together good mixes or play good songs for battles. Breaks in songs are great places for break-dancers to work with when doing their moves because they are strictly times at which certain instruments are suppressed than enable great times for break-dancers to show their moves. DJ's take advantage of these breaks when playing songs for battles because they work out songs that have many breaks, songs that have relatively fast tempos, use certain instruments to emphasize a percussion sound, tend to include Latin percussion, but mainly they include breaks. 

Discussion Question: Because B-Boy's are so rhythmically inclined and can perform under any song that has the general B-Boy qualities, do you believe that B-Boys can breakdance and in a sense choreograph a good dance to even a slow song or song not like the normal at all? How do you think people would react to this? 

Scattering Skating and Shivering: A Performance Ethnography Essay on the Brown Scatter Band

Walking into the rink for the Men’s Ice Hockey game against Dartmouth I got the chills, which were quickly followed by a wave of loud noises that struck me as walked to my seat. These loud noises however were not sounds coming from the game itself, but rather that of the sweet melodies of Brown Scatter Band. 

The Brown Scatter Band’s music, as usual, was an interesting performance and a treat for its listeners. At that particular game there was a larger amount of band members than there has been in the past. With the ice show to be performed after the game I am sure that more members were asked to come. Why wouldn’t they have wanted to come? All the members seemed to be enjoying them selves as they played an array of different songs through the three periods.

What makes this scatter band performance stand out from a normal marching band’s performance is the fact that it is so laid back. The loosely constructed outline of the night’s performance allowed for band members to mingle around the rink and sit with friends or family for a quick second, then head back before the next song. I noticed that many of the band members also goofed around and were joking around with their fellow band mates between songs. At one point I even saw a few members miss the cue for the beginning of the song then later join in after realizing their mistake. The band was directed by fellow students and seemed to be a collaborative effort between one girl student whom I unfortunately did not get the opportunity to interview because I had originally hoped to, and the band itself. You may ask how is a band supposed to direct itself? It seemed that through the interactions with the different members that they actually got to suggest songs to play at certain times or got to vote on what song they were to do next.

Although the band was a great addition to a somewhat sad game (Dartmouth was destroying our Bears at home), the crowd had mixed reviews from what they were hearing from the lower left hand side of the rink. In attendance that evening was a larger crowd than normal filled with about half parents and family half students and faculty. The Bears this year having a low winning percentage seemed to have less of an effect on the outcome of the fans that day than it normally did. Perhaps the attendance was larger because of the band and the advertising that it did ahead of time, pertaining to its end of the performance on the ice.

Looking up at the clock I noticed that it was towards the end of the third period, and with the Bears trialing the Big green by three, fans started to dwindle. Members of the band began to rustle things around and seemed to have been looking for certain things. I do not believe that anyone, but the members themselves new what exactly was going on and why there had been a halt to the music playing as well. All of the sudden I notice ice skates are being put on! It was finally time for the main performance to begin: the Brown Scatter Band on Ice!

The clock ran down in time and the crowd really began to thin out the only thing keeping the fans distracted at this point was the fact that the band was lining up in ice skates on the bottom of the stands getting ready to take the ice for their performance.  

The Brown Hockey Bears ended the game with their heads hung low and with little excitement left the ice.  When the last player walked off a man on the PA system announced the Band on to the Ice. As most fans were getting up from their seats many turned around to see the attempt for some of the band members to ice skate and perform at the same time. At the opposite end of the rink was now the Brown Scatter Band.

As the announcer began to speak again he told a story I believe, but it was hard to tell if it was in fact a story or just some random things that were being said to enhance the performance and crowds engagement.  What ever it was it sparked the movement of the scatter band across the ice. Throughout the audience there was laughter and confusion mixed in with a high level of interest as to what was going to come next. After skating around the band formed some sort of shape and began to play.  At this point in time I am not so sure the crowd was there to listen to the music or just watch in case something happens that they might be able to send into America’s Funniest Home Videos and win some money. The first song ended and the announcer led the band through another story session similar to the first. At this point I noticed that the fans faces did not seem too appealing and more people had started to leave the rink.

It was unfortunate that the people were not staying to listen to the music that was being played despite the fact that the band was quite humorous on the ice the music was still being performed and performed well for that matter. Katie Keady, a freshman at Brown University, being a member of the audience said, “I feel bad, but it is just so entertaining that the band is on Ice, I can barely stop giggling to pay attention to music!” A wide variety of thoughts were circling the crowd as the band continued on some similar to Keady and others just enjoying the overall performance.

With the crowd looking extremely thin I decide to do s general scan of the mood and it seems to be purely enjoyment from a little comical relief. Although the performance from the Scatter Band was more entertaining with all of the aspects of it put together and less of the strict music, I believe that is what the band was going for that evening. Therefore the band accomplished a successful and entertaining performance and was able to pull off everything that a typical band does in the same night. Certainly a crowd with a large gap in the age, parents to college students, is hard to entertain and meet all their needs to have a good night, but the band seemed to be a large success in this department. 

Word Count: 1,097

Critical Review #3: Hayes

Hayes' essay discussed how Hip hop has "emerged as an identifiable music form, it has been adopted—and adapted—by youth in communities around the world as a means to reflect the specificities of their localities." Also mentioned in the essay is the idea of the artists heritage and locality playing a role in identifying with the music and its historical background.
It was interesting to see that the culture of the kids in Scottsville view their interest in rap music as a portal so to speak out of their homogeneous world and into the world of the artist. The artists world is filled with "crime and poverty," all the things that they would not normally see or hear about in Scottsville, which intrigues them and makes them want to keep listening and read deeper into the hip hop/rap scene.
Through his studies Hayes proves how the hip hop/rap culture has spread among the nation and has made for many new fans, but within these fans he points out that majority of them do not know the real history behind the events that are discussed in the music or the true background of the artists or listeners (LA area rappers and community vs. southern rappers).


Discussion Question: Hayes discusses the peculiarity in the fact that white teens and people around that age took great interest in black hip hop artists music. These rappers then ran with this idea by creating music feeding off of their white fans. By doing this do you believe this is how Hip Hop fist started to become mainstream? And would you even consider this heading towards mainstream or no?

critical review #2: Rivera 2003 Hip Hop

Rivera's chapter entitled "Whose Hip Hop" discusses the beginning of the Hip Hop era and how it got the stigma that still lingers on today. This stigma is about how African Americans, along with everyone else, labeling hip hop and rap as "their" music. At this point in history during the 1980s Black Power was a strong ideal and so many groups like Run DMC and Public Enemy were coming to be popular. Their reasons for becoming popular were the fact that they were true African Americans rhyming about their political point of view along with just voicing their opinions about their lives.
Soon Latino Americans were creating Hip Hop Music, but were struggling to succeed in the media. Latinos could not get signed with recording labels because everyone thought that they were not "black" enough to sell good music let alone produce good music. This was frustrating to many Latinos because they had worked so hard and believed Hip Hop to be a musical style that they were very capable of producing a good song for, however most people at the time felt otherwise. At times Latinos were even criticized for their dancing not being suitable for the Hip Hop scene when at one point in time they were known for being "center Stage" when discussing dancing (essentially meaning they were some of the best dancers around). As more Latino artists came to be, people especially African American Hip Hop Artists and followers showed more interest in their versions of songs and such because they were finally coming around and not viewing their music as mainstream and more deep so to speak (discussion political views and so on). Rather just a different style of music showing more "passion and sex" and less "soul" like the original Hip Hop views were about.

Discussion Question: Why do you think that the Hip Hop scene, despite the fact of coming from such a strong historical background, produced this large stigma for the producers and composers of this type of music that still stands today?

Critical Review #1: Duncombe

Duncombe wrote about zines and the bohemian punk scene that is going through the world. This section of Duncombe's book is about the how the zines give the punks who are a part of bohemian diaspora a community to be a part of. Eventhough this comminunity is not in the outside world the people who take part in this created the underground for the community to spread. 

The underground is described as a "non-geographical sprawl,"  but is mainly a list of places that where the creators of the zines can get together such as concerts and coffee places like that. With this undergound the people are comming together and bonding on their individuality andtheir differences that bring them together.

DIscussion Question: We have talked about how the punk scene is so inviting and non discriminatory, with this idea do you think that if people who were not part of the zine scene tried to join would be welcome to converse about the different ideals? Also do you think that the zine scene if it were to head mainstream would the individuals who were part of the original creators would they leave and not stay true to the zine?

For my ethnography project Gianna and I will be collaborating to investigate the up and coming artists in greater Columbus specifically Kid Cudi. Other artistist include Young Milionairez and Fam Boyz. These artists are currently taking the hip hop scene in ohio and putting their own spin on it. At the same time they are embracing the ways of other hip hop artists from the area who have already become famous, such as John Legend, to learn and gain popularity as time continues.  

We will be looking deeper into the scene by investigating the underground hip hop websites, magazines and record that play a part in making these artist well known stars. Our study started from the 2008 Ohio Hip Hop Awards. Gianna and I will use this as a start along with websites like cleveland-underground-hip-hop.com, hiphopcolumbus.com, and more. Some of these songs have been placed on YouTube, so for your viewing pleasure we have a placed a link for a video clip from our main artist, Kid Cudi: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKD2EWLKcNU&feature=related.

Because the Ohio Hip Hop scene is continuing to develop we are hoping to catch these artists on their rise to fame and inquire knowledge from people from the scene in Ohio and followers of the scene other places such as locally here. Some questions coud include: have you heard of these artists? What do you think about them? Why do you think if at all that they can survive in the Hip Hop world today? Do you think they fit into the Hip Hop scene that is popularly known today?