Music

Music



MYP2:

These are the questions that we looked at during our unit on protest music and immigration (the highlighted topics are the one that i focused on for my summative assesment) :

How does local culture influence the sound of music and the way it is used? •what instrumental groupings are more prominent in regions? • in various cultures who participates in creating and performing music? •in what setting is traditional music used in different parts of the world •what country produces the most internationally known artists •how does specific political and social events influence the growth and development of music? • what is protest music like? •how did WWII influence music •does immigration influence the development of music? • why is music used as a tool for protest

For this assesment my group looked at how the music of three different bands and how they use protest music. Throughout the project we looked at rise against, Bob Marley and the wailers adn pink floyd. Rise against is a modern rock band from chicago, for our study on them we looked at the song re-education through labor. In their work they focus mainly on the iraq war and refugee camps but have done musi relating to poaching and extinction. Bob Marley and the Wailers is most likely the most influential reggae group ever and is widely reognised for the leader of the band, Bob Marley. In our study on them we focussed mainly on their song no woman, no cry. Through their music they have spread hope for many people. One of their most famous messages is the hope of peace one day. When looking at Pink Floyd we looked at the song Another Brick in the Wall from their album the wall focussing on WWII germany. In this song the lyrics state on multiple occasions "we don't need no education" this is refering to the cruel and punishing educational system in which the majority of the members had to go through. The system in which they were raised in is no longer in effect as proof of their strong statement. Pink Floyd was very well known for their protest music and has had a great effect as well as get uch publicity through their music.

MYP3

I do not believe that the idea of placing bands into categories of eastern or western is black or white. There are many exceptions to the concept and often you cannot name it specifically by country but generally you can hear traces of the country or general area of which a band or singer is from. A great example of this idea is the band Chthonic from Taipei, Taiwan. They are a metal band and at first you would not guess their origin but once you notice the instrumentation uses some Asian instruments, you would be able to guess their origin (region of the world at least). An example of this is their use of the Erbu (a traditional Chinese instrument), which is used in almost all of their songs. This makes them recognizable as an Asian band however the use of an Erbu may lead the assumption that the band may be Chinese. This is proving that to guess the continent or general area of a band is quite simple in most cases, however to accurately guess the actual country of a band is far more difficult.

Another example of classification of music’s origin can depend on the ancestry of the band. An example of how this can affect music can be found while looking at the band System of a Down. The entire band is of Armenian descent and traces of this can be found in the majority of their music. The lyrical content of their music is often based off of the Armenian Genocide and in some songs you can hear details such as chords and scales which would lead you to believe that they based it off of Armenian music. A good example of this is their song Hypnotize, although the lyrics are not on the Armenian genocide the chords do remind you of music from the area.

A third point which I would like to bring up is that there is a constantly growing number of bands which reach out to other cultures and countries in order to find original inspiration for both music and lyrics. A good example of this is the band Trivium. In songs such as Down from the Sky or Kirisute Gomen you can find traces of different cultures. Many other artists such as Steve Vai are also using the same concept. In the case of Steve Vai he has used quite obscure music such as Bulgarian wedding music in order to inspire such songs as “freak show excess”.

Freak show excess by Steve Vai - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmtT6Q_VUlI

Hypnotize by system of a down - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoheCz4t2xc

Down from the Sky by trivium - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhsvPGucaBY

Takao by Chthonic - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_UkowmQs30

Artist: Steven Sharp Nelson and John Schmidt Song: Michael meets Mozart || Style: metal Artist: Trivium Song: torn between Charybdis and Scylla ||
 * Musical Element || Piece #1 || Piece #2 ||
 * || Style: cello percussion
 * Instrumentation || Cello, piano, kick drum || Guitars, Drums, Vocals, ||
 * Lyrics/Language || OOOWWWW!!! || Very loud, screaming, deep ||
 * Tempo || moderate || Moderately fast ||
 * Dynamics || Very dynamic, a lot of crescendos and diminuendos || Dynamics are only apparent near the beginning, the end and the solos ||
 * Melody || Quite variant, changes styles very often || Very diverse, fast in most cases, a lot of guitar ||
 * rhythm || Fairly steady kick, poly-rhythmic. || Very poly-rhythmic ||

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