Blog Post #3

After attending "An Evening of Latin Music" Friday night I have chosen to write about the first song group, Suite. The music was written by a French composer with a Latin theme. It's function would be Art or Classical because it is more about the expression than trying to sell it commercially and it was created by a professional. The piano was mainly used as an accompaniment and for the harmony. The clarinet and violin took turns playing the melody. In different parts one took the melody and the other accompanied, other parts they both played the melody (homophony), they both played the same melody but at different times or with different ornamentation (heterophony) and in other places they each played different melodies(polyphony). The performers were teachers at the University of Texas at Dallas. They were less formal with their performance (ie interacting with the crowd, telling jokes, etc) than say a professional orchestra. The audience was made up of mostly UTD students, mostly from arts classes completing the requirements set forth by their teachers. There were several older audience members, presumably other teachers, family members and friends. I do not recall seeing any children attending the performance. It was a Friday night in a relatively small theatre and it was almost full. It was a suggested donation concert, and I believe if it would have been a "pay for admission" event then there would be a lot fewer students attending and perhaps more people from the community or the more dedicated music lovers.

Music Ethnography (Post #2)

For my music ethnography research, I am choosing to do Cowboys Red River. I would like to learn more about country music as I have never had a lot of exposure to it. I am very intrigued to learn about all the aspects of a "country bar". For example, do real cowboys actually go there? Is it all country all the time? How do they dance and interact there? Most of my club/bar experiences deal with pop, hip-hop and rap music and those associated cultures. I have my boots, my plaid, and my daisy dukes, now all I need is my hat and I think I'll be good to go! Cowgirl up!

A Music Culture That Influenced Me (#1)

A music culture that has influenced me greatly is "pop music". Even though I was brought up on listening to Rock music and went through my punk stage, there is still some strange attraction to pop music. Pop music (the genre not the type) are typically simple in nature, repetitive (therefore easy to catch on to), and are easy to relate too because they are emotional. http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Pop_music When I'm sad, angry or upset about a boy/life/school/work, I always hear a song that applies in someway to my situation and it makes me feel better knowing that I'm not the only person who has ever felt this way. I tend to think of pop music as feel good music. It makes me smile, singalong, and to dance (and who can be sad while they are dancing). I was a cheerleader back in my day and our performances included dance and stunt routines to pop music because they have danceable rythms. One of my former squads It's hard to get the crowd going when Mozart or polka is playing. Even though I've grown out of boy bands, to this day, hearing any Backstreet Boys song makes me smile and laugh. One of the interesting things about pop is that it combines many different genres and is nonspecific. A pop song can contain elements of rock, jazz, hip hop, rap, or any other type of music. This helps to create variety while listening because it is so diverse in nature. Even a specific artist typically doesn't produce the same song over and over again. There is a pressure to adapt and change so that people don't get bored with their music. Seeing as how "ADD" our society is, I think this helps people maintain one radio station in the car or at least be able to make it through an entire CD without switching continuously because pop music has become inherently ADD.