Stephen Witt’s How Music Got Free, I learned that with all of our technology today, its easy to share information, as well as steal it. There are many efforts to combat copyright infrindgement politically and legally, however with the growing technological field, the political and legal sphere cannot catch up. The music industry has also had its own efforts with leaders such as Doug Morris on the forefront of adapting to our growing music sharing technology. While we have the tools to roam the digital and music world, we don’t often think about the consequences on the music industry and artists, alike.

In class we discussed copyright sampling and hip hop. While I know that sampling has been one of the building blocks for hip hop, I didn’t realize how many songs really aren’t original. As mentioned, music is way less original than we think. We listened to the power puff girls, who sampled a James Brown song for their theme song, which I had no knowledge of. In this post sampling era, can we even expect originality anymore? This made me question some of my favorite artists. This also made me look on the other side of the coin; is it a talent to take a sample and create something entirely new?

We discussed the four freedoms of software as well as crowdsourcing via wikipedia. The fact that people who are experts in their field can edit an entire wikipedia page to reflect their studies and findings is amazing. Crowdsourcing allows a large amount of people who are most often unpaid to provide information to the masses. It allows people to capitalize on their own knowledge to educate the public. “Free” internet allows us to not only learn, but educate as well, which is powerful.

In class, we discussed the novice in archives and internet history. With this, we talked about archives detailing black confederates. While I knew there were black confederates, I was not aware there was such a large number. With this information, the theory that slaves were inferior would not hold up any longer. They fought along side confederate soldiers within the same capacity, so the archived letter proved that they were fully capable. Internet history has the capacity to educate and debunk any misconceptions.

In discussing frequency and sound waves, the analogy of ripples in a pond was helpful to better understand. We discussed the physical proportions embedded in the vibrations of a string. I used to play the violin when I was younger, and I always appreciated how the sound would vary depending on the amount of pressure you put on a single string. This made me think of what it takes to put into creating music, and also how I will manage our final project. Music has so many components that create endless possibilities of the sounds you can create.

While learning about the history of distribution, we learn how music can travel just as people do. Specifically, we discussed country music and how people in the city appreciated the nostalgia from their old life in the country. Although the people themselves were displaced, music allowed them to feel the comforts of home.

In Miller’s Segregating Sound, he discussed the musical color line in which the music industry has made certain sounds racialized. This is why when I think of Country music, I think of a white person. When I used to think about race being attached to a genre, I never questioned where these stereotypes came from. It was just a fact to me that African-American’s tended to listen to hip hop. But now knowing where this racialization has stemmed from, I believe its based on unfair stereotypes and prejudices.

I found it very eyeopening realizing that the illiterate could have such a wide musical literacy. In realizing this, it made me think of how you could have written 100 books in your lifetime, yet have no knowledge about musical processes, instruments, or sound. Music spans through racial  categories, which is why we discussed how hard it is to realize authenticity. While authenticity is hard to understand and grasp, we are still able to see that music has the ability to cross racial boundaries. My question is,  does music also establish and force racial boundaries? There are certainly music types and genres that are attributed to ethnicities and races, and in the more extreme cases, the crossing of these boundaries can cause others to question your belongingness to their group.  For example, I remember an African American girl in middle school who enjoyed alternative and screamo music. All of the black kids called her white, therefore her own race went into question for the mere boundary crossing of musical taste.

I also found it interesting hearing that the practice of music is integrated, but the selling of music is segregated. For example selling African American styles and concepts about the south to white Americans; further representing displacement. This concept is applicable to more than the early years of musical rebranding. For example, rappers rapping about gangs, hoods, and slums; rebranding their “old lives,” as they live in the hills somewhere reaping the benefits from their album sales. They have rebranded and sold a life they no longer live (or maybe never lived) to mostly white producers, who then sell it back to African Americans who buy the albums.

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.