1. I chose the presentation: Music and Addiction. As addiction is the topic at hand, the lyrics and the social context have the most meaning, although I saw that for both the songs chosen the musical characteristics of the two had been shown to follow the lyrics. For instance, for the song, “Sober” by Demi Lovato, the person chose to write about the crescendo/decrescendo of the melody, which correlated with the occurring lyrics which could symbolize addiction’s path in her life. Lovato struggled with her addiction, and with fame came paparazzi, whom documented/described her check ins to rehab centers, and how she withdrew from the public eye to handle the situation. For the song “Master of Puppets” by Metallica, it also references how addicts’ lives are similar to how the song’s tempo moves relative to the chaotic emotions that encompass how addicts’ feel during the course of their highs and lows. I understood where the presenter was coming from, and agreed with them on their stance regarding the phases of addiction(as well as recovery/rehabilitation that come after) that show up in various parts of the songs. The presenter chose two songs that were able to showcase the difficulties of what addicts go through on a daily basis, and its additional aspects of how the song’s musical elements helped along that understanding for the listeners.
2. Had I chosen the topic : Addiction, I would have used the two songs: Painkiller by Three Days Grace, and Linkin Park’s: Breaking the Habit. My song choice is similar to the original presenter, as they too chose a rock song, however both my songs are in the genre, as compared to their one(from the two shown in the presentation). They’re both in the same genre which is rock, but Three Days Grace song is hard rock. “Painkiller” directly references it, with lyrics like, “You know you need a fix”, “the dose that you die on”, and the obvious, “painkiller”. The lyrics show the inherent desperation addicts feel when they miss a dose of their favorite high, and even if they die because of their addiction, they can’t stop themselves from reaching for the drugs that make their pain go away for a while. It’s exactly why they’re addicted, it’s because they stop feeling or opposite, feel more, by letting out their emotions. As with the lyrics, the singers of the group are able to fit those emotions into the song, the raw pain coming out from the way they’re able to not quite scream, and manage to keep it all together. For Linkin Park it’s alternative rock/alternative metal. Slight differences, but it’s clearly shown between the two as Linkin Park’s song doesn’t have the harsh grating of multiple voices rising in pitch, in tandem with the chords. Chester’s voice is at a steady, stable pitch, consonant rather than dissonant with the guitar and drums in the background. Although, he does raise his voice towards the end of the chorus, which signals the letting go of the habit that’s ruining the narrator’s life, even if there is the off chance that the person will come back to it, thus is an addiction over the course of life, it’s simply unpredictable, but it can be managed, and stored away where it can do no more harm than one would want. There is also the personal struggle that went unseen in this song at the time, the main singer, Chester Bennington had an addiction with drugs and alcohol, that went on for some years, until his suicide three years ago. It also relates with my topic: Life Transitions, which everyone goes through, even more so for addicts, whose lives may be upended by their inner turmoil. Although, if they do turn their lives around for the better, it also relates, because that’s a huge life decision they must make, in order to get clean and stay that way.

I think the main purpose of this song is to clear the confusion and give his take on the black and white diversity in America. There are multiple moments in the song where a black male and a white male express their emotions as if they were representing their races. The musical genre of this song is rap, the genre itself is derives politically from hip hop. It was developed in 1980s as a way of using rap to create a political activism.

In the song, they discussed their stories and the rebuttal from each side. The white male said

Yellin’ “nigga this” and “nigga that”
Call everybody “nigga” and get a nigga mad
As soon as I say “nigga” then everyone react
And wanna swing at me and call me racist ’cause I ain’t black

this basically means that why would black people complain about saying the n-word even though they use it themselves and then the black male responded later in the song with

We shouldn’t say it but we do, and that just what it is
But that don’t mean that you can say it just ’cause you got nigga friends
Nigga, that word was originated for you to keep us under”

He admitted that blacks shouldn’t be using the words as is, but they do and there is a double meaning under when white males say the word and that it was because whites used it originally to undermine blacks. There are also a lot more different situations that they exclaimed in the music relating the the divide between blacks and whites adding different political standpoints and different point of views in general. In the song, they used a beat to keep the music constant throughout the whole song to emphasize the lyrics more than the background.

The political protest music I picked is “Fuck tha Police” by N.W.A. I think that the artist created this piece of music because during the time they lived in there were a lot of racial tensions between law enforcement and minorities. This song’s purpose was to expose law enforcement for police brutality and racial profiling. The music genre that this piece is associated with is Hip-Hop. I think that Hip-Hop has always been political, rap was invented to highlight injustices that happen in communities in which people have felt neglected. From what I have noticed there are many political campaigns that have famous hip-hop artists involved so they can increase the fan base and the relationship between hip-hop and politics.

In the first verse Ice Cube said, “A young nigga got it bad ’cause I’m brown..And not the other color, so police think..They have the authority to kill a minority.” Racial profiling and discrimination reached a high in the late 80’s after the appearance of crack in 1986. By Straight Out of Compton’s release in 1988, there were 762,718 yearly arrests for drug possession, almost twice as many as the 400,000 in 1981. The 1986 Anti-Drug Abuse Act, supposedly targeted the African American community because the percentage of crack cocaine users were African American. I think the musical characteristic that is useful for a political protest would be the song’s chorus, “Fuck tha police!”. The chorus highlights the purpose of this song and it isolates who they artists want the music to influence.

• Just a Girl- No Doubt was created to point out gender stereotypes and this carries a political meaning because it is said that she is a girl which makes her allowed to do certain things and certain things are restricted from her because it is trying to say how society is making her stand lower than men, but she knows her worth. She realizes that she is seen as vulnerable just because she is a girl. Also, one reason why this was sung was due to her being frustrated at her father being overprotective due to her gender. This song was a representation of a feminist anthem and noticing the power through your sexuality, mostly women. When she says, “I’m just a girl”, adding “just” shows how a girl is degrading. It is putting girls into a category to show that all girls all the same type and are seen the same way. Yes listeners, including me, added their own interpretation to the song, but even Gwen Stefani agrees with it. There was another lyric that said, “this world is forcing me to hold your hand,” trying to indicate that just because she is a girl, she cannot be fully independent. The chorus in the background was saying, “I’m just a girl, little ‘ol me/ Don’t let me out of your sight/ I’m just a girl, all pretty and petite/ So don’t let me have any rights.” It was from men and it is trying to mock the fact that they are lower and they can’t be left alone. They need assistance and support from others. Also this song is pointing out the dangers of the world and that women can not leave the house freely, they always have to stop or put into fear that something might happen to them.
• The genre of this piece of music is Alternative/Indie, Pop. Indie is a word that is short for independent. When people talk about indie in music, they mean music that is made by people independently from major record labels, but this genre of music is not necessarily political based, although some songs may be. Pop does not really have political based songs either. Guitar, bass, keyboard, drums, xylophone, violin, etc. I feel like the guitar and the drums were the most powerful because it helped to get a meaning ahead and it shows the anger through the way those instruments were played. It helped give a sense that all the fear was taken out through the use of the instruments.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHzOOQfhPFg

The song that I decided to write about is “Formation” by Beyoncé. This song was brought out in 2016 and with it, Beyoncé became the face of the Black Lives Matter movement. The song is tied to this movement due to the lyrics and the music video. The lyrics talk about how Beyoncé is proud of her diverse background and she is proud of who is as a human. The music video showed elements like paint on walls saying “Stop Killing Us” and her standing on top of a New Orleans police car, also bringing into light the effect of Hurricane Katrina. The article about Martin Luther King Jr. also correlates with the Black Lives Matter as it goes to further extend his preachings and ideology. The kid dancing in front of the police also goes to show this movement. This song is considered to be pop and bounce music, which is native to New Orleans. Pop and bounce music isn’t typically political. One musical tool that makes this a useful tool for political is the beat. It has a fast-paced beat, making it catchy and very energetic.  

For Blog  # 8 the prompt is to find an artist who has created music for a political purpose. A female artist that constantly creates music to bring awareness to Feminism as well as bringing awareness to sexuality is Zolita. Zolita or otherwise known as Zoe Montana Hoetzel is a 25-year old female singer/songwriter born in New York. When analyzing her lyrics in her pop-sing “Fight Like A Girl” it is clear she has a very distinctive message to those against feminism. The musical genre that she is associated with is Pop Music. There are many other artists within this genre that use it to express their emotions and discuss their political standpoints. Her lyrics state “If you didn’t know I fight like a girl I fight like a girl (x2)”. When she was asked the meaning if this lyrical line she states “To me fighting like a girl is a powerful magical women and men are so afraid of powerful women”. This line in itself represented both a positive and negative connotation of a women. Many times the word ‘power’ fits hand in hand with the word ‘evil’. And a woman can become spiteful and evil when she isn’t being acknowledges or if her rights aren’t being defended properly. She also states “Boy, I’ll make you see I got the power of Kali in me and everybody is about to believe It’s a woman’s world”.  In this line Zolita mentions Kali who is a powerful Hindu goddess of life and destructions.   This line can be seen as a women’s livelihood because she brings life into this world yet may times she isn’t viewed or valued as anything other than a women whose responsibilities are associated with the upkeep of a home and raising children. A musical characteristic is rhythm. In the background the listener can hear the beats which reminds me of marching.