To summarize: I knew that white people didn’t have rhythm!

After hearing the emphasis on the 2 and 4, and then the displaced beat which is a mixture of both European and African Tradition, I can’t stop hearing it. It is literally the foundation of every song which is extremely interesting. All of the music today is ahead of the beat and very urgent in nature. I personally appreciate songs that are smooth and “sexy,” going behind the beat. Also, it was cool hearing GoGo since most people down here have never heard it (I am from DC/Maryland). I have heard a lot of people say they don’t like it because it just sounds like a bunch of noise. I couldn’t disagree more. I loved the video of the transition from jazz to hip hop.  I didn’t know that hip hop was so heavily influenced by Jazz, so much that you can literally go from a jazz song right into a hip hop song with a seamless transition of a beat of the drum.

In our discussion on the mixing and hybridization in American culture I was definitely frustrated. Its annoying to see so many examples of white people hating us, but loving what we do; so much that they’ll pretend to be us, just to be able to act and do the things they’ve always desired but were deemed unacceptable because they were white. I didn’t quite understand the societal appeal of role reversal, but I did once you referenced the parallel to powder puff games. But then, that confused me some more. Powder puff games are seen as funny, and would never be the real standard. So in this form of role reversal, are we as a society saying we want this to be the norm because we secretly wish we could act like this (as with minstrel shows), or are we making fun of the fact that it could never be a reality because it is so absurd? Nevertheless, this represents boundary transgression which we discussed heavily. People are always crossing boundaries in some weird hybrid of fascination, obsession, and disgust all in one.

This discussion was hard for me to wrap my mind around; not because it was shocking to learn about Minstrel shows, but it was uneasy learning that black people participated in these shows. The discussion turned to questioning whether there are minstrel show-esq behaviors in popular media today. Dave Chapelle was used as an example; making fun of African American stereotypes in comedy. In this sense, I believe black people have reclaimed what it means to be “black in America,” and used it to their benefit. For example, participating in Minstrel shows to further careers and making fun of stereotypes in comedy bits. With this logic, it can be said that the word Nigger has been reclaimed by African American and reinvented into Nigga; now used by African Americans in leisure. In addition, it was weird to learn about what the Texas state song originates from; a song about a mixed race lover. It plays into what we talked about with the fasination yet disgust of what was deemed other. It seems as though white people have always been fascinated with black people, so facisnated that they left a legacy of minstrelsy in American popular music culture today.

With this class I learned that the internet, which was thought to be the epitome of freedom of information, unstructured by authority, open access, and unstructured browsing, was essentially emerged from the military industrial complex of the Cold War. Because the internet was needed mostly for defense, they created a network that didn’t have a central network so that it couldn’t be wiped out. I thought this was very interesting how it evolved from being very military centric, to what it is now: non linear narratives, open access, and unstructured browsing for everyone.

It makes me question what other operations, institutions, or technology was intended for military use first before it became accessible to the every day person.

One point that stuck with me during our discussion was that about the expectation of quiet leisure. I never thought about what people during this time did for leisure, but it would make sense that they would want something more calm. With the hustle and bustle of the industrial society I would think that they would want to relax at home, or read a book as we discussed. However, this was not the case. We learned that they like roller coasters instead. We questioned whether this is because modern people have a taste for shock. I’d like to say that I think this is true in our society because for our leisure, we have amusement parks, traveling, skydiving, etc. things that wouldn’t be considered calm or quiet in the least.In class we attributed this to having two different selves; one created by industrial society. Another point that I thought was interesting was the opinion that the internet is a crutch that makes us weaker. This resonated with me because my mother, as an African immigrant, would always say that I have it easy compared to her. I do not necessarily believe this is true because, while we do have more access to technology and resources, more information is, in turn, expected of our generation. As was mentioned in class, our generations time has been commodified; we have to be more efficient with all of the information that is expected of us.

The movie that we watched at the beginning of class preserved reality, as early movies did. It kept the idea that you couldn’t be two people at once, and you couldn’t be in two places at once. We also discussed how modern people have a divided sense of self. I thought of this with my old retail job at the Baby Gap. There was the self that agreed to do the job, because I needed the money, and the self that was actually doing the job of folding small baby clothes for minimum wage. We briefly discussed the public and private self, and I had a hard time understanding what divides the public from the private. What about us makes this division?

I really enjoyed our conversation on the annihilation of time and space and also taylorism. I had never thought there was a science to effective production, but I guess that is a capitalist thing to do. It was interesting to hear that the annihilation of time and space has dislocated people and their relationship to others. For example, the railroad, telegraph, and even refrigerated rail cars.   At first I didn’t understand the effect of refrigerated rail cars on time and space but one we started to discussing seasonal vegetables I understood. Having seasonal vegetables year round has changed the meaning of time and space, for example February doesn’t mean what it used to when we can get vegetables from February in June. We also discussed how people’s lives have changed based on different priorities. I didn’t know that time has been reflecting industrialization, since time zones were established around cities with railroad lines.

I wonder what Taylor would think of me while I was working at the Baby Gap. I took so many bathroom/water/breathing breaks. Folding baby clothes was tiring!

When we discussed idealism vs realism I reflected on what I consider myself to be. I would say that I am a realist because I often search for the practical solution to problems. I also consider incentives and economical gains to involving myself into anything, which is a major characteristic of realists, especially in my studies of conflict resolution here at Mason. I have no previous knowledge of music and digital technology, so I wasn’t aware of the generational shift to compressed music. However, once I heard the difference in class, I couldn’t stop hearing it. I hear it now whenever i’m listening to music; I now notice the artist never actually getting louder.   I also reflected on whether there is a such thing as good music, or whether its just good at the time; in our current time. Or going even deeper, can “good music” be measured or is it all relative to our generational ties?  Although I don’t know the answer to these questions, I do believe that we have adapted to compressed music because the world forces convenience. We’re listening to music on our way to class, work, etc. so we aren’t as prompted to focus on one task at a time.

Sometimes when I really sit down and listen to the lyrics of half of the songs that I listen to in passing, I wonder what the hell they are really talking about. Especially in hip hop music today. Its definitely not music that I’d enjoy if i weren’t doing something in addition, like working out or driving. Im not sure if that is sad or not; still debating.