This is in response to Amy’s question, “If you were soundtrack for your life, what songs would be on it and why?” After some much thought and consideration, I have come up with a quasi soundtrack of my life; with some songs being more genres’s or types of song.
Track 1: Anything you can do, I can do Better. Early on in my life I was very self centered and bratty, for lack of a better word. I was the youngest of six and also one of only two girls. Being the baby and a little girl almost predestined me for spoiled rotten behavior. It did not help that most of my siblings were considerably older that I was; the second youngest is nine years older than me with the oldest being 24 years older than me. I feel that this song, which is sung in a very girly and childlike voice, and being all around annoying in almost all aspects of musical composition, encapsulates the way that I behaved at that point in my life.
Track 2: Glory Days by Bruce Springsteen. This song is on my list for two reasons, one of the reasons being my second oldest brother Ron. His favorite artist in the late 80’s was The Boss and so I was introduced to this type of music early on. It also fits due to the very lyrical base of the song itself. Being that I grew up in a family lead by older parents with siblings already in adulthood, I grew up listening to stories of the good ol’ days. The lyrical base of the song is about reflecting on better times and that is what I experienced a lot in my youth, parents talking about their prime, and siblings reflecting on life before I came along.
Track 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7: The next stage does not have one particular song but rather the ideas behind the music are what are important. From the age of I would say 12 -15 I was a follower, at least a follower of what my friends listened to. All of my life I had listened to what other people in my life listened to and what they liked. Why else at the age of three would I be listening to Bruce Springsteen and Prince? SO when I started to care more about what my friends thought of me, then I started listening to what they liked. This is my, I shudder to admit this, Backstreet Boys, Christina Aguilera, and Britney Spears period. That is what my friends listened to so that is what I listened to as well.
Track 8: What Shall we Do Now? Pink Floyd. This next period is when I started to listen to things that I wanted to listen to. The very first band that I liked that none of my friends cared for was Pink Floyd. I used to hang out with a very innocent crowd who felt that Pink Floyd was something only druggie’s listened to Pink Floyd. Now many of the friends who looked at me oddly when I mentioned the band now listen to them as well, I guess for once I was ahead of the curve in my own little circle of friends.
Track 9: Angry Music Period: Early on in my college experience I had large amount of issues with both friends and family, and I was in a very angry place. At the time my most played CD’s were my Godsmack ones. Anyone who listens to Godsmack knows that they are a good band to go to when you are angry and need to listen to angry music. The music and lyrics on their albums create both a sad and pissed off about it feel to the music. With tracks like Stay Away, The Enemy, and I F%$king Hate You, it is not surprising that this is what music I associate with that period of my life.
Track 10: This last period, the one that I am currently in at this moment is what I call my grunge period, Nirvana, Alice in Chains, and Soundgarden being the leading musical forces behind this period of my life. What is important about this music to me now is the amount of interpretation that the bands leave up to the audience. For a song with vague lyrics listen to anything by Nirvana, and that is what I like at this point in my life. The songs tend to be angry and sad at times but not in an in your face kind of way.
So that is my soundtrack of my life…so far.
Question: What are five songs that you do not like in anyway, what is it about them that you dislike so much?
Friday, March 6, 2009
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Backtracking and Subliminal Messages
The idea of Pink Floyd’s, The Wall, syncing up with The Wizard of Oz made me think about the idea of backtracking and the colorful history that this phenomena has. The idea that artists are putting messages in reverse on their CD’s in order to get the listener to complete a desired action is debatable and a very heated argument to this day. No one denies that backtracking exists, the fact that some musicians have come out and said that they did put messages embedded within their music proves that it does exist, what makes me wonder if people can be “brainwashed” into doing things due to subliminal messages on a record.
An example of musicians being held culpable for the actions of others occurred in the 1990’s with the band Judas Priest. The band was charged and put on trial for the death of a young man supposedly suicidal from hidden messages within the music. One website had this to say about the trial and the proceedings, Judas Priest was a British heavy metal rock band-one of the first of that genre. Their popularity peaked in the mid-70s. The album in question (Stained Class) was produced in 1978; the shootings took place in December 1985. It was alleged that a particular subliminal phrase in one of their songs ("Better by You Better than me") on the album triggered a suicidal impulse.” http://www.csicop.org/si/9611/judas_priest.html .
Though the lawsuit was eventually dismissed, the question remains as to whether or not someone’s actions can be influenced by subliminal messages hidden within pieces of music. I personally feel that they do not, though I am not denying that some artists do backtrack I feel that they reasoning behind the act is not as sinister as the plaintiffs at the Vance V. Judas Priest trial believed them to be. If such things were true, and people could be so easily influenced by hidden messages that more fans of Judas Priest would have done it, whatever it is.
We live in a society that needs to find someone to blame, it is to heartbreaking for those parents of the boy who killed himself to believe that he did it of his own free will. It is much easier to place the blame on the shoulders of someone else. For example, Weird Al did his own backtracking on a song in which he says that Satan loves cheese, or something along those lines. After hearing the song repeatedly (before knowing of the backtracking) I had no idea of Lucifer’s chose in dairy products, for all I knew he could have been lactose intolerant. My point is that I think backtracking is merely something fun for musicians to do, yet does not act as a tool of mass mind control. Now that being said I am going to go and listen to Judas Priest and try not to “do it” whatever it might be.
Question: Do you think subliminal messages embedded within a musical composition can influence them to do some specific action, like kill themselves?
An example of musicians being held culpable for the actions of others occurred in the 1990’s with the band Judas Priest. The band was charged and put on trial for the death of a young man supposedly suicidal from hidden messages within the music. One website had this to say about the trial and the proceedings, Judas Priest was a British heavy metal rock band-one of the first of that genre. Their popularity peaked in the mid-70s. The album in question (Stained Class) was produced in 1978; the shootings took place in December 1985. It was alleged that a particular subliminal phrase in one of their songs ("Better by You Better than me") on the album triggered a suicidal impulse.” http://www.csicop.org/si/9611/judas_priest.html .
Though the lawsuit was eventually dismissed, the question remains as to whether or not someone’s actions can be influenced by subliminal messages hidden within pieces of music. I personally feel that they do not, though I am not denying that some artists do backtrack I feel that they reasoning behind the act is not as sinister as the plaintiffs at the Vance V. Judas Priest trial believed them to be. If such things were true, and people could be so easily influenced by hidden messages that more fans of Judas Priest would have done it, whatever it is.
We live in a society that needs to find someone to blame, it is to heartbreaking for those parents of the boy who killed himself to believe that he did it of his own free will. It is much easier to place the blame on the shoulders of someone else. For example, Weird Al did his own backtracking on a song in which he says that Satan loves cheese, or something along those lines. After hearing the song repeatedly (before knowing of the backtracking) I had no idea of Lucifer’s chose in dairy products, for all I knew he could have been lactose intolerant. My point is that I think backtracking is merely something fun for musicians to do, yet does not act as a tool of mass mind control. Now that being said I am going to go and listen to Judas Priest and try not to “do it” whatever it might be.
Question: Do you think subliminal messages embedded within a musical composition can influence them to do some specific action, like kill themselves?
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