Musical Event: The Grammys

Tonight, January 31 2010, the 52nd Grammy Awards took place at the Staples Center in L.A. This awards show is one of the main music awards shows in America. It was founded by a man named Pierre Cossette. This man thought that it was appropriate for all the music lovers and artists to come together and appreciate eachother and the ideas and music they bring to the world. This awards show is for popular music. All genres of popular music is mentioned and solo artists, duos, and groups are able to be nomiated for an awards and all genres are mentioned in some way. Either by mention, memorablia, or nomination. The main awards are: Best record of the year, album of the year, song of the year, and best new artist. Also, the people behind the scenes that make the artists' songs prefected are also mentioned in recognition. This is a way for all artist and the world to appreciate what music has brought to the world of entertainment.

"Grammy Awards". American history. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 31 Feb. 2010. http://www.americanhistory.abc-clio.com.

Popular Music: Jazz

The origin of jazz came from the African American Population. Th African American rhythms with the European instruments and melodies molded together. The Western construction of the songs had a 7 note scale was now played with the African American 5 note scale. The jazz vibe of the five note scale turned into the blues sound we hear today. Many elements contributed to jazz. One of these elements had to do with improvisation. With the "relaxed" feel of improvisation and the smooth sounding African rhythm, jazz was one of the most enjoyable genres of the time. When the tune picked up, people called it "swing". The birthplace of American jazz was nowhere other than New Orleans. American Jazz was made when African, European, Caribbean, and other exotic rhythms and melodies met and molded together in New Orleans. IN the 1900's, Jazz rapidly spread throughout America and continued to transform and add different instruments such as percussion and piano to the ensemble. African American jazz players like Louis Armstrong flooded the cities, making entertainment a major industry. Soon, white bands were playing jazz. A key reason that jazz rapidly grew in popularity was because of industrialization and transportation. Because of this increase in technology and transportation, there was more diffusion and meshing of ideas. Transportation and technology made it easier for ideas of others to connect and make new progress in the music industry. I thought it was really interesting that transportation was such a big part of growing popularity in music. I would have never put music and transportation in the same category but now I realize that, without transportation, there could be no communication. Without communication, there could be no collaboration or progress. Another important thing in the development of jazz was the phonograph and the radio. These objects were affordable to almost everyone and it was a major contributor to the progression of popularity of jazz. A new variation of jazz formed in New York, which is now the nation's center for jazz. This new branch of jazz was called "bebop". This new genre was mostly race based. African Americans were the founders of this and many composers used bebop during the civil rights revolution. Now, as the popular music progresses to fit the lives of the generations, jazz has become an art music. It is the origin of all popular music and remains one of the most taught music genres in music schools and universities.

"Jazz". American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 31 Jan. 2010. http://www.americanhistory.abc-clio.com

The Arts : Popular Music

Modern Music was marked with experimentation in the 1930's. With the modern music, the atonal works, harmonies, and rhythms increased complexity because more and more composers to began to experiment. These creations were made increasingly with non-western techniques. Electronic msuic became increasingly popular. In this era of music making,around the 2nd half of the 20th century, a man by the name of John Cage believed that there should not be order to music. Music should be an outlet for emotion and creative expressions. Cage helped develope a new way to creating music that had no specific order and rejected old composers' structured techniques. Most popular music wasnt written down till years after they were composed. In the popular music era, new genres were introduced. New ideas and sounds began to take form in the new century. By the 2nd half of the 20th century, there were many different genres to chose to listen to, including ragtime, blues, jazz. Eventually, those genres were altered and became the base of our new music that we listen to today.

"American Music." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 31 Jan. 2010 http://americanhistory.abc-clio.com

The Arts: Classical Music

The origin of American music came from European ancestors. When the Europeans settled in america they brought their psalms from protestent churches in the 1640's. Throughout the next 100 years, the american churches revised and put their own twists to the original music to make totally new songs. These songs however were lacking rhythm and pitch. As a result of this lacking knowledge, singing schools, choral societies, and chiors were built. This was the start of a new element of expression. All songs at this time were religious and secular. Since most of society was based off of religion at this time, the songs were based on the society's focuses, which was religion. By the 19th century, right after the revolutionary war, Europeans had a major influence on the moderation of the american music. Many people were still uneducated about music, and those who were wanted to imitate the foreign teachers becuase they had more experience and musical knowledge. Under the european influence, one of the most important musical organizations was founded, in 1815. This was called the Handel and Haydn Society of Boston. This organization encouraged the performance of choral and instrumental music. This was the foundation of american music. With the first organization in place, the ability of expression and imagination among the people sky rocketed because they were now able to have an outlet that was appropriate to the time. After a while of creating different sounds, African music became more influencial and started mizing with the already created, american music. This developed a new creative twist to the american music. Another foreign influence in the 19th century was Germany. Moving into the 20th century, however, French and Russian ideas took hold. All these ethnic ideas molded together to make a new american sound. The 3rd ethnic influence was Anglo-celtic. The educated musicians wanted to make a sound that would be recognized american. By the 1930's major experimentation took place and classical music was formed.

"American Music." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web 28 Jan. 2010. http://www.americanhistory.abc-clio.com/ .

My Initial Thoughts: The Arts

The arts are a major part of society's life. The different types of art include music, theatre, and art. These provide information about a person's life while providing entertainment. The arts are very interesting because it is a major way to express one's self. The expression in a one's artwork, song, or play, tells a story. This story provides insight on what the artist is thinking by showing bits in pieces of a his or her life in the artwork. For example, I am a song writer. My main reason for becoming apart of the arts is because it is a way to express my feelings towards a specific person or a specific time in my life. The emotions that are in me are revealed through the lyrics of my song. When I sing those songs to my friends and ask them the feelings they had while listening, they usually tell me about the same feelings that I had while writing it. This shows my friends and family a deeper part of myself. This is only one way the arts are used. They are also used in terms of imagination. Many plays and novels are based off of fiction. The fiction stories are made so their audience can be entertained. It is a way for the audience to get away from reality and their own issues and focus on something else. Being in plays is one of my favorite hobbies because it allows me to pretend and be someone I am not. It is a way that I can escape from my own reality and focus on an alter life, which would be through my character. There are many things that draw people to watching, or being apart of the arts. It is a main way of expression and release of emotions while letting others share in the alternative reality. While helping yourself by using the arts to cope with different emotions, he or she is also helping those who want to escape their own reality and become part of a new and exciting adventure.

Thoughts on the State of th Union Adress

Obama started his speech talking about how we as people were tested to become united and strong and that is how we succeeded. He is calling upon us as a nation to come back together and prevail against the economical struggles. He says that these problems and issues are nothing new. These problems of economic struggle have been here for years and change has not yet come. He believes that there is alot of hope coming from him because of the people in our nation have never given up. He also believes that the people need a government that is as strong as the people. He talks about how he has to do what is necessary instead of popular. He believs that his works are making the recession better, but not totally. I like how he did not take responsibility for what he did not do. His next goal he works on is the employment problem. he believes that by the end of this year, by putting the stimulus bill in affect, there will be more than 1 million more jobs by the end of the year. I am skeptical of what he says because he also said that the health care plan would work but it did not at all. He says that the recession is growing again so I do believe that we are coming out of the recession and that the new jobs bill is the government's main focus. I think that this is a good next step to recovering the economy because without jobs there will not be money to filter back into the system because businesses won't be able to sell anything if people don't have money to buy what they need. The new bill will give 30 billion dollars to the businesses to help start up the businesses which will eventually be stable enough to have more employees to pay. One thing i don't understand is why the government is taking away the money the banks earned back and using it again because I thought that the reason we were in a recession was that there was no money to get.., shouldn't we save instead of spend at this point? Or slowly spend instead of spending 30 billion dollars all at once? By the end of the address, Obama reminded me of Lincoln in his speech about the war and how the only way to progress is to unite. Lincoln said, " a house divided cannot stand." Now, Obama is saying the same thing because he says that the political parties have to settle their differences and stick together because thats the only way they can make definate decisions which will improve the health of our nation.

My first thoughts..

So I'm sitting here, thinking about what I should write because my teachers said that my class has to have a first post. While I was thinking about what i should write, a song popped into my head. I thought I would share this with you all...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkeAzqhlkNk