Wednesday, October 14, 2015
R.R. 10/14
If music is in part a cultural practice, then songs function as cultural artifacts that tell us something about how an individual within a group creates, inhabits, and understands the world. In other words, any piece of music will engage with cultural values (with support and rebellion acting as the two extreme forms of engagement). Watch "Smash Your Head," a song from the mash-up artist Girl Talk and write a review of the song that discusses the songs relationship to cultural values.
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This track features layers of different artists ranging from rap to Elton John. This speaks to the different generations of music we have today. While they are all different, they can all come together to create a catchy mashup. Translating this into our culture, while we as a people may be vastly different 'genres,' we can come together to form one culture.
ReplyDeleteThis song reminds me of the 1990's. The mash-up between hip-hop, rock, funk, and little bit of a piano ballad was interesting but somewhat confusing much like the 90's. A lot of different ideas were being combined during this decade. For example, different fashion trends were melded together. And in my opinion these combinations were a bad idea, just like this song. I enjoy most music mashups with songs from the same genre, but the way that this particular mash-up blended genres did not work for me. I believe that if the artist stuck to mashing-up songs from the same genre or only two different genres, the song would have been much better. This song was just like the 90's, an epic fail.
ReplyDeleteI think that is interesting because there are so many different types of artists represented in the mash up. I would say from that I got the idea that we are all sort of related. We all have some of the similar ideals or unifying ideas. Money was referenced quite often and this says that we all value money, it does in fact make the world go around. No matter where you live or what you do or how different you are from another person you need money. It comes back to the unifying idea by using some really well known artists like Biggie Smalls and Beyonce which could be seen as staples of our culture. I would say that almost every single American could recognize Beyonce or Biggie Smalls (excluding old people like my grandma). Coming back again to how there are things that unite us all, or things in culture that we share.
ReplyDeleteThis song has a very interesting relationship to culture. It mashes up pieces from very different genres and cultures. Somehow, it all flows together and sounds great. This just goes to show how we as people can coexist in harmony, despite our differences. Each layer of the song has its own unique sonic elements that can be traced back to a certain culture, and somehow crossing these cultures and sounds creates something unique that has a culture of its own. Girl Talk does an interesting thing here, and that is show us that though these pieces and even the people that exist within these cultures may differ greatly, they can always come together and create something new and harmonious, whether sonically or socially.
ReplyDelete"Smash Your Head" is a testament to the variety of cultures and cultural values in America. Elton John, who represents 70s and 80s culture, is layered with the Notorious B.I.G, who represents early rap culture. This shows that culture is more fluid than it used to be, and isn't defined by such strict guidelines. Girl Talk isn't limited by one certain aspect of one culture, he incorporates many different cultural values into one song; this can be paralleled to to culture in today's society, as we're no longer bound into just one culture or group.
ReplyDeleteThis song blends in many cultural references into one mash up of lyrical and musical elements. To be entirely honest, the majority of the references were lost on me. I didn't recognize most of the artists, with the exception of the ones who are still prevalent today. Conceptually the idea was to make a modern song out of past popular music. This particular song relates more to a generation from the 80's-90's because that is what most of the references were to time-wise. The inclusion of the rappers gave it a modern vibe but adding Elton John made it seem older.
ReplyDeleteThrough the lyrics of this song, it was portrayed to me that money is most important value in our society. It is our "dream" to be wealthy and have everything we want. Girl Talk chose three popular songs, all including African American singers/rappers takling about the significance of money. Furthmore, there is a race contradiction. The video shows Biggie decked out in expensive clothes, rapping pool side, while also going back and forth to Elton John calmly singing and playing piano. This says something about the way we portray race in our society, as black men being much less serene and curteous than white men.
ReplyDeleteBy mashing-up a mix of all of the most popular influences on Western culture all over the span of the 90's, from Nirvana to Elton John to Biggie, Girl Talk pulls from all over the cultural span to create one generational sphere. This was the world for any person in that time period, regardless of what genre of music you listened to, the biggest figurehead of that brand was featured. The musical influences within the clips played obviously varied from artist to artist, but whether you're pounding your head to heavy guitar riffs or throwing bands on strippers, this was the lifestyle across the grid that the 21st century followed. The values are all over the place, but the culture is centralized by the time period that the layered tracks come from.
ReplyDeleteThis song is a blend of a ton of cultures. The sound is generally hip-hop, and the video delves into lots of hip-hop culture with the raps, the chains, the scenes. Then, there's also a rock culture aspect, with repeated images of a rock band playing. And then there's a very Elton John style old school piano player singing in a falsetto while the rapper is still doing his thing. I think the mash-up artist is trying to show that American culture is a really a mix of lots of cultures, from hip-hop to rock to vintage to oldies, and they all blend together to form our trail mix of a society.
ReplyDelete"Smash Your Head" is not a typical mash-up in the way that the songs featured are varied in the culture they represent. The most prominent example of this is rap music mashed with the vocals of Elton John. People that like rap or hip-hop probably wouldn't usually be listening to Elton John. However, this song combines all of these genres in a way that really works and provides something new and interesting. It shows that cultures can be blended and still retain their original intent.
ReplyDeleteMostly what I get from this piece is that a specific genre does not point to a specific culture, while there is hip hop and rock culture, the genres do not have to stay within those cultures. This is shown in this piece because many different genres are being mixed together, which says a lot about culture because many different cultures mix together in the world as well. The thing that stuck out to me most though wasn't anything about culture, it was the fact that when you put a different musical background to a set of lyrics the meaning changes completely. At the beginning the rap was very aggressive I didn't pay too much attention to the words because the rock music being played behind it enforced that idea, and the change to pop music made the rap seem so much more light hearted even though it was discussing similar things as the rap before it
ReplyDeleteSmash Your Head is a mash up of several pop culture songs. From Biggie to Elton John, the artist combines music that was popular at different time periods and creates one track out of it. The contrast between these genres and types of artists can be seen in the video, as it shows a crowded rock concert while also flipping back to a rap music video that contains clips of partying and money being thrown around. Although each separate track is from a different time with different values and different popular music genres, each track was popular in its time, showing how vast the area of pop culture really is.
ReplyDeleteThis song seems strange and has so many different images of so many different cultures merging on one another. It shows a rock concert, rap culture, and many other cultures. It shows the rebelliousness of culture as a whole right now. We have changed so much over the past 30 or so years and looking at the song, it is showing how much we have changed. While we still hold things like money up on a high horse, we have come to accept all forms of expression. One person may not like another form of expression, but to go against that makes that person the bad guy. We may feel that some opinions are better than others, but we are learning to listen to and at least hear everyone's opinions. This is how the song relates to cultural values and really shows how we, as an giant culture, have changed.
ReplyDeleteThe mash up song "Smash Your Head" seemed to be made up of several popular artists in American music culture with Elton John, Nirvana, and Biggie Smalls just to name a few. As the completely differing styles of pop, grunge, and hip hop were fused together to create a single, somewhat enjoyable song, a reflection of what is considered popular music in America is shown. The appreciation of different styles of music shows how drastically different music culture is, even if all the genres can be fused together to make one song.
ReplyDeleteThis song shows snapshots of various aspects of our culture through this mashup of multiple songs. The songs that compose the song come from different genres and time periods, making the song seem convoluted and very confusing for me to sort out. This track is overflowing with contrast and contradictions as the themes from the different songs show hardship and success, elite and lower classes, Elton John and hip hop. I think that it's trying to show how our culture is constantly evolving and molding as well as our values do.
ReplyDeleteThis song essentially combines the culture of hip-hop, rock and roll, and pop rock. About culture as a whole, this shows how the lines between one culture and another are often blurred and it is easy to cross that line without really knowing it. The rap lyrics were basically all about partying which relates to the rock and roll culture as the lyrics fit in with the "sex, drugs, and rock n roll" motif. The mix of music embodies the way that different cultures today can come together and share common characteristics because they really aren't all that different deep down.
ReplyDeleteThis song does something very interesting. It takes the two genres of hip-hop/rap and rock and mashes them together. It starts off in the "harshest" form of each as in hard rock and gangster rap and then quickly changed the beat from fast to slow by switching to a calmer tone through Big E rapping and Elton John which are more on the smoother, calmer side of the genre. I think how well it goes together really shows something about the music industry in general. Even though rock and rap have been seen as completely different genres they really are not as different as we may think. The hard rock and gangster rap artists both are seen as outlaws how don't follow the social norm. This goes in the same way for the Big E and elton John they are both seen as the faces of their genre for their talent and message. The genres can flow within the same culture.
ReplyDeleteThis mash up track touches on multiple popular genres that are contained under a cultural blanket that is reminiscent of a 90's feel. The OG hip-hop style of the 90's is brought back to life, seen through the music videos actually being on MTV and BETA, in a way that redefines the classic art forms of hip hop culture. The way these tracks cross over with the rock and roll theme brings a deeper understanding of the time period and spans the gap between different social groups, and even age groups, as Elton John makes an appearance towards the end. It's intriguing how these very different styles of music are assimilated to define an era, which says much about the power music has connecting and holding a culture together.
ReplyDeleteThis song is like a manifestation of the evolution of music, and it also represents the modern trend of mash-up, throwback songs that sort of recycle old music and sound. It seems to expose our 21st century pop music culture as one of experimentation, daring in its attempt to create the best mix instead of in its ingenuity and invention of new sound. It's like popular music culture in a song, a mosh-pit of techno, pop, hip hop collaborations.
ReplyDeleteThe song "Smash Your Head" by Girl Talk paints the picture of the our modern culture. The song begins with clips of parties, people throwing money around, and people dressed promiscuously. Then towards the end of the song Girl Talk includes clips of Elton John singing "Tiny Dancer" that completely contrast with the first part of the song. By doing this I think that Girl Talk is showing how our culture has changed, and I believe that Girl Talk is painting a negative picture of our modern culture. The clips of Elton John are lighthearted and have a laid back vibe, which contrast to the crazy feelings that the clips from the first part of the song give off.
ReplyDeleteI think this song talks about combining cultures. By layering different styles of songs, we have a clash of cultures. Rap music usually relates to youth from lower economic staus, and Elton John would have an audience of middle aged generation that live somewhere typical like the suburbs. By combining all of these cultures, we live in a unique society.
ReplyDelete"Smash Your Head" clearly exhibits the difference in music using racism. African-Americans are shown as thugs that get all the money and girls in the world, while white people are portrayed to be simple and safe. It is obvious this artist thinks there is a very distinct difference between the two races cultures. It is interesting to see the polar opposite characteristics and music style portrayed in the song.
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