Part A:
The way Lester Bang analyzes the sound of each song and performance is by focusing on the many different ways Van Morrison uses words and emotions he puts in the songs. The emotions that Morrison and Bang have are sad and depressing feelings. They both experience these emotions. Bang only talks about a few of Morrison’s songs. He then talks about the people that each individual song is about, gives his own impressions, and also gives background information about the songs. Bangs method of analysis is about him asking his own questions and the meaning of Morrison’s songs in Morrisons’ point of view. Both Morrison and Bang share the same feelings of being lonely and that is something they have in common. Morrison then says that even though life can be hard and have struggles life always has that one happiness feeling. Bangs talks about this in the quote “But, when we’re alone, we can talk all we want about the universality of this abyss.” This is how these two people relate with each other by not dealing with loneliness by themselves but with other people. Due to Bangs correlating and connecting to this Morrison’s feelings, he is able to connect with style and the lyrics of his songs to critically analyze Morrison’s songs and performances.
Part B:
Jeff Chang and Ellen Willis albums have different strategy. Chang is trying to show that the genre of rap started in New Orleans as he shows the meaning of his album and in the other hand Willis is analyzing and reviewing the album and the meaning that it has on her. Willis states that velvet underground was the main founder of punk music in the US and England. He says this by showing artists like David Bowie, Mott and Roxy music. He says that these artists were the reason this kind of music was shown all throughout the world. The main point of velvet underground was that it includes mixing punk and rock. This was done so it can be liked by anybody who listens to it and not only specific people and social classes. Willis then states how this kind of music is so special due to the emotions that it makes you feel and the mood it has. Willis arguments also rely on quotes and song lyrics to show what rock is all about as well as the individual songs. He then finishes off explaining how velvet underground influence music today. Willis Chang talks more about the history of New Orleans than about the music itself. The technique that Chang uses is to mix band history, songs and city history to support his argument of what is music as of today. Chang explains how the American Slavery gave the affected the music in the US and in some way shaped it to what is today. He then argues why rap started in New Orleans. He states that the African culture was the main founder of hip-hop and rap. He says this due to the rhythms that this community had, for example their rhythms were; rumba, mambo, samba, reggae, calypso and junkanoo. He then argues that The Meters shows the influence that it played internationally due to their unique music sound. Chang quotes “You looked forward to see this, the pan drums, cow bells, bottles, and tambourines. It was like a tribe.” You can say that Willis’ and Chang’s reviews are similar in some ways but the difference is that Chang talks about more of the history part of it than explaining what the music genre is.
Part C:
Without Bitches Brew, Greg Tate would have never been able to find Burnt Sugar. This is why he contrast Bitches Brew to Burnt Sugar. Tate’s interest of Bitches Brew is the reason he found Burnt Sugar. Tate states: “It’s a record that possesses colt knowledge about the creative process made musically manifest in ways that don’t so much insist as swell, swim, smash the shore, retreat to the horizon, suck in like a tsunami, blow hard like a typhoon, pretend to go in like a lion, always come out like a lamb”. He then explains that the album has signs and runes, mysteries and prophecies, and cyphers and gestures. This is why he had a lot of respect and admiration for the track that then led him to Burnt Sugar which he calls ‘the love of his life”. At the end, Tate says how Bitches Brew helped him through his bad/sad nights and how the song got him up through the days where he felt lonely. This is how he connects to the song of Bitches Brew. This song was at his lowest moments and he has a lot of admiration and respect toward the song.
Part D:
My two albums in contention for my desert island are Teenage Dreams by Katy Perry and Encore by Eminem. I choose these two albums because they contradict each other. Encore is an album that has a slow beat and very meaningful lyrics by Eminem. It is the perfect album when you want to hear good lyrics with a slow beat. The songs in these albums make you reflect about your life and by listening to Eminem’s life you can compare your life with his life and he motivates me to never give up when life gets hard. When life gets hard and you do not know what is happening, I like to listen to his album and these types of songs because it resets my mind to what I need to do and what I have to let go. Encore helped me a lot while I was growing up and dealing with the teenager years. It was really smoothing for me to listen to it and it has a lot of emotional meaning to me.
Katy Perry’s Teenage Dreams is a very upbeat rap and dance music album. This album is about chill and party music. It is the music I put if I want to go out to a bar or if I want to go to a party. It is very relaxing sounds mixed with a lot of nice and beautiful lyrics. This album reminds me of all the fun memories I have since I was 13. This is my fun time music and it makes me happy. This album makes me want to forget about everything and just have fun and enjoy the moment I am with. One of the songs is called “ET” and it is about a girl who falls in love with an “alien” and that “alien” being Kanye West. This song reminds me of all the summer fun times I have had with my friends and all those “crazy” teenage nights. This song was the first rap/dance song I listen to when I moved from Mexico to the USA, so it has a lot of emotional meaning to me because this was a difficult/exciting time for me. This album has all my teenager fun memories.
These albums are the perfect balance to choose for a desert island. One resembles my deepest and hardest times as a teenage and the other one the fun times I had when I was younger. Both of these albums have a lot of emotional value to me, one being in the happy side and the other album being more on the hard/sad side of my life. But, at the end of the day these two albums mean a lot to and would make my desert island a fulfilled perfect balance place to be.
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