Sunday, February 13, 2011
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Pleasure/Community Service Assignment
Pleasure songs:
J. Geils Band, "Centerfold," Rock, 1981
Sir Mix-A-Lot, "Baby Got Back", Pop, 1992
TJ Arnall, "Cocaine Blues," Folk, 1947 (Johnny Cash version)
No Author, "Drunken Scottsman," Irish Drinking Song, No Date (Oral tradition makes accurate dates and names impossible to find.)
Dirty Heads "Lay Me Down," Alternative, 2010
Community Service:
John Lennon, "Imagine," Rock, 1971
The Beatles "Let it Be," Rock, 1970
Styx, "Mr. Roboto," Electronic Rock, 1983
Band Aid, "Do They Know It's Christmas," Pop, 1984
USA For Africa, "We Are The World," Pop, 1985
In completing this assignment, I found that pleasure, as a theme, was overwhelmingly the most prevalent idea. For community service, I had a very hard time finding any acceptable songs that I did not have to "stretch" to meet the definition of the assignment, so much so that I had to resort to Christmas music. This is because in American society, pleasure isn't a transitory concept that one grows weary of with time: it is the embodiment of success, the ultimate goal in life. Also, music is generally something you listen to when you're having fun, and pleasure is a big part of fun. This difference also shows a difference between American and Hindu culture: while most Americans are individualistic, always looking out for themselves first, many Eastern traditions expect people to be of a group mentality: be part of the group, and sacrifice for the whole to achieve.
I was surprised while doing this assignment by how many songs that I tried to pin as community service were more self-centered "help me" songs or "nobody's helping them" songs, rather than "help others" songs. Examples of this would be Metallica's Welcome Home Sanitarium and Black Sabbath's Iron Man, both of which point out a sad situation but make no suggestions on resolving it. The only song I found that clearly advocated doing good things was "Mr. Roboto," who does the jobs no one wants to do and works thanklessly (except for the song in his tribute) to help others. The Beatles and John Lennon songs more revolved around the theme of coming together than necessarily doing good, but the implication is that the former will lead to the latter. In the end, though, I had to resort to cheesy Christmastime songs to finish out my five, because that is the one time of year that Americans are receptive to the idea of giving toward others.
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