Response to Sarah

This is in response to Sarah’s question, do you feel like musical theatre and the movies have a lot in common?
As soon as I read this post and looked at the question I immediately thought of my professor and advisor, Ed Curtin, and his course on Contemporary Issues through Film. Among the many things we have done in that course, the idea of people watching things like movies, TV, and even theatrical production has been at the heart of the course. So with the knowledge that I have garnered from this course I feel confident in saying that yes, musical theatre, and other types of theatre, do have some key elements in common with each other.
One of the most common elements, even if it does seem rather simple, is the fact that people go to them for entertainment. We are a nation of people who want enjoyment and want people to provide it to us on a regular basis. The sheer number of movie theatres, video stores, online retail, and Broadway itself is a testament to this countries desire to be entertained for a few hours. There is an enormous industry in this country that prays on our desires, there is even a cable channel called E (for entertainment. So since both musical theatre and movies are among the more popular forms of entertainment, it is not hard to see the connection between the two spheres of the attempt to defeat boredom.
Another way that the two are similar can be found in the fact that many movies and made into a theatrical performance, and plays are at times made into movies. Look at movies such as Grease, or Sweeney Todd, both pieces of work were performed in both arenas and they were done so because of the fact that they can, with little difficulty, be adapted to the other form of media.
The final way in which I think that the two are similar lies in the fact that both mediums imitate real life. There is no play, musical, or movie that does not try to emulate real life in some way or another. The lives may be extreme, fantastic, or down right out of this world but the emotions, problems, and the feelings of the characters within the medium are dealing with everyday human issues that are basic and natural. When people go to see these imitations of life they have to suspend their disbelief for a period of time. To get the full entertainment value of any piece of work, one has to, at some level; believe that what is happening before them is not only possible but probable as well. The connection between the two is that people seek out these forms of entertainment to lose them self in a non-existent reality that is not their own. So I do think that these two forms are similar and are similar in many different ways.


Question: Do you think that entertainment has become more beneficial or more harmful to the lives of people in today's society?

Response to Kelsey

This is in response to Kelsey’s question, how does the vocabulary an artist uses in his song affect the general message of it?

I think that since most people try to listen to the lyrics of a song that is lyrical in form then the lyrics themselves greatly affect the message of the song. So artists are charged with a great task when creating lyrical songs, in order for them to convey the intended message that they are trying to create, they have to choose their words wisely.
I once had a professor who greatly valued our technical writing ability and place a large amount of emphasis, and our grade, on how well we write. After someone in the class mentioned that the course was not an English class and suggested that he might ease up a bit on the grammar, he responded with something that has stuck with me to this day. He said that whenever we put our thoughts onto paper (or in the lyrics in the song) we are asking others to judge us. The only tool we are giving them to assess who we are as people is in our words so why be so careless with them. By reading what we have created people will judge whether or not we are intelligent, serious, or if we could give a crap. I think that this rings true for lyrics as well. We categorize music and in a way stereotype those who are creating it. We hear a song and we can conjure up an image of who we think they are as a person.
I also feel like the vocabulary has to be appropriate, it is a song after all. What would be the point in singing a song that was either so complex in the vocabulary that the general audience did not understand it, or having a song that was so elementary that is quickly becomes boring and repetitive. One of my favorite songwriters had an interesting point when it come to word choice in a song, he felt that not only did the words themselves have to be well chosen and fit into the desired feel of the song, but the words, the very syntax behind it was more important. To him, it was ok, if at times the words themselves did not make clear sense as long as the feel of the vocal vibrations caused by the words fit the words around it.
We as people look for the meaning of the song within the lyrics, so f course the lyrics are going to influence the feeling and the message of the song. Whether or not we should judge music based on the lyrics is another question.

Question: How much do you think a well developed vocabulary is necessary in the creation of a good song?

Response to Amy

This is in response to Amy’s question, how much influence does family have over one’s life?

After reading this question, I reverted back to the fall semester of my freshmen year of college and Sue Birns. The course that I took with her, Families did a small unit on parental determinism and the effects that this determinism has on the child throughout its life span. Since I have a great deal of respect for Sue, and trust her judgment in terms of book choice for the class, I have to say that they so have some influence, yet they are not the only source, and are at times not the most compelling source either.
To say specifically that your parents or familial upbringing has resulted in say, your choice in musical genre is going to be a stretch and very difficult to prove. However it is not that difficult to say that certain characteristics of our upbringing do influence us in other ways. Those little customs that we never think about but follow us through our life, they can be things like favorite types of food, or even things like how we eat meals themselves that is a habit formed from our familial past.
There are, of course, exceptions to every rule when it comes to societal structure and people themselves. There will always be that one case where someone did deviate from the average or the norm. So while I say that family influence is minimal, there will be people in this very class who say that their family influenced them directly and in numerous aspects of their life. When considering things like personal preferences, I really think that the majority of them are influenced in a greater extent by our peers and those that we choose to spend our free time with.

Question: Have you ever felt judged based on your choice in music? Have you ever judged others based on what music they listen to?

My Soundtrack of my Life

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?

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?

Response to Amy

This is in response to Amy’s question, is categorizing important in today’s society.

I think that the world that we live in revolves around and thrives off from the categorization of both things and people. This attribute, whether good or bad, is something that is engrained within us from infancy or earlier. We categorize everything from music and entertainment, and even to people themselves.
I truly feel that the need to categorize is instilled into us from an early age and with the most general of categories as well. Look at any infant, we group them into a group of masculine or feminine (not male or female, that is their physical gender). I feel that by placing more feminine attributes on girls and masculine characteristics on boys engenders the idea that both people and things must be either this or that and to deter from that path is to challenge the status quo. I challenge anyone to find a parent who buys a dress for their newborn son or to find someone who bought a baseball cap for a daughter. From this early age we are teaching people to separate themselves and to categorize.
We also tend to categorize entertainment as well. Anyone who has gone to FYE or Blockbuster knows that the items are separated by genre. Rock albums go with other rock albums and comedy movies go with comedy. In this situation categorizing things makes logical sense, it just makes it easier to find what you are looking for and keeps things neat and orderly, something that many people in our society crave desperately.
Like I mentioned earlier, we also categorize people. Any high school student will be able to give you a laundry list of all of the various clicks that exist in school, and the hierarchy of those clicks, and how desperate most people are to be a member of one. There are so many ways in which our society chooses to categorize people, by race, gender, socio economic standing (who has not heard someone say “oh they are welfare people”). It may not be right, in fact I do not think that it is, but we as a society categorize everything and that’s including people.
I feel that if tomorrow suddenly everything was not categorized, then we would be in a worse situation than many realize. Categories are hardwired into us; they help us make since of the world and help us keep our current world orderly and manageable. Though some categories need to be changed, it is going to have to take time; we are addicted to them after all.

Question: What categories of music do you like/ dislike and why.

Response to Abby

This is in response to Abby’s question: Is it preferable to have music or no music during a crucial scene in a film? If music is more desirable - is it better for the music to be internal or external to the film?

I think that it is very important to have not only music at crucial points in the film, but it is also important to have the right music at the right time. We, as people, connect music to emotion and use it as a vehicle to convey emotions to others and this is why music is such an important aspect of a movie production. However, music also acts as a form of foreshadowing for the viewer as well.
If you have ever watched a low budget independent film that has little to know musical backdrop, it may feel like it is missing something important, or is just not complete. This might be due to the fact that we have become so accustomed to having the musical backdrop but nonetheless the desire for music is there. The musical score is important to help get across the meaning of the film.
This may sound like an odd reference, but the 1978 film, Halloween, by John Carpenter is a good example of a musical score helping convey emotions in a song. Being a horror film fan, I obtained a copy of the 25th edition a few years ago that had quite extensive list of special features, one of them including a lengthy behind the scenes piece. While watching this special feature, the creator and director John Carpenter mentioned the first time he showed the film to a producer. He was told that the film was simply not that scary, the film, at this point, was also lacking a musical score. At this point they showed a rather famous clip of the movie without the musical addition, and it really wasn’t that scary. After this disappointing meeting, John Carpenter enlisted the aid of a composer, and with a limited knowledge of music himself, they created the famous and ominous score that has become the Halloween theme. This is the only change that Carpenter, and now the film was significantly scarier than before, and has gone down in history as a horror film classic. What made the difference for this movie, as well as others, was the addition of the music. It made the film complete, a whole package.
Adding music to a film also helps create anticipation within the movie, much like chord progressions can do in a song. The music picks up during action scenes, and is slow and melancholic during more depressing scenes. A simple piece of music can change a scene from a sad one to an uplifting one full of potential and hope. The same thing goes for scary movies, which are notorious for building up anticipation and suspense with music to increase the scare factor of the scene. All of these things would be impossible if the creators of the film did not take the time and effort to make sure that the movie not only has a musical score but also the right score.

Question: Which genre of film do you think best utilizes musical composition to increase the feeling of a movie?