Song

Blog Post #2

Success

Rich Girl- Hall and Oates

Baby You Can Drive My Car- The Beatles

Power Windows - John Berry

Juicy- The Notorious BIG

Black and Yellow- Wiz Khalifa

Liberation

Crossroads – Bone Thugs-n-Harmony

Ridin' Solo- Jason Derulo

Black Bird – The Beatles

Revolution- The Beatles

Peace Train- Cat Stevens

After finding and reviewing more songs which I felt fall into this category I have found that this blog assignment to be easier than the last. Community service, which I have said in my last blog, was the hardest for me to do because of the fact that most artists do not fall into the Hindu aim of community service. The songs I have chosen directly and indirectly state the aim of the assignment, and while some may be cheesy, nonetheless state the aim. On the indirect approach, Blackbird by the Beatles has had some analysis taken on the song, one of the major points being about the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. The Song is an exposure to the movement through indirect means since there is no real outward spoken point, just metaphors. On the other hand the point is clearly made in the success songs. Juicy by BIG is a classic example of someone ridden into poverty, utilizing his talent, and becoming severely rich and famous, and the rich and successful aspect is stated in the second half of the song Black and Yellow by Wiz Khalifa is even more apparent in the success category because a story of how he came is non-existent, yet the whole song is about his success, but with some background knowledge, is a success story being this is his first single and CD after his demo tapes.  The two categories relate to the Hindu aims much better than the last, yet there is a downfall at a time. Success in the Hindu culture is not expressed upon the fact of making a a lot of money and indulging in worldly pleasures, on the contrary, the Gita expresses that one who falls into this will not move on to the next life and the possessions that they strive and hurt for in their life is all that they can obtain, and on a a grand scheme, really isn't a lot. Liberation falls a lot more into the Hindu aim because Liberation, from the above songs I chose as an example, is not about worldly pleasures but about making sure everyone can be free from oppression and be treated equally as human beings. The Hindu aim strives for this point because it feels it needs to be right and just to all, even though the caste system went astray from this point, but besides that, the songs fit perfectly.

First Blog Assignment : Pleasure and Community Servies

Community Service

One - U2

Black or White - Michael Jackson

Whats Going On - Marvin Gaye

Lean on Me - Bill Withers

Changes - Tupac Shakur

Pleasure

  

You Make My Dreams Come True - Hall and Oates

Cant Get Enough of Your Love - Barry White

You my best friend - Queen

Im In Love With My Car - Queen

Bernadette - Four Tops

I felt as if the community service aspect was more appealing based off the sole face that writing songs about pleasure are one of the first emotions that come to mind. Community Service is about helping others than your own self, and to have a certain degree of selflessness is something commendable, even though some artists just do it to gain a following from the fan base. Pleasure, as I addressed before, is easier because love or hate songs, the easiest way to vent your emotions is through writing, and if you have the talent to turn that into a song, it could be more appealing to yourself and also easily appealing to the fans. Emotions is one of the very first things many listeners, for lack of a batter term, listen for because even though it may not help out your situation, you can relate to someone through an artist's music. I found that looking through the music that I have, in the pleasure area, there was a lot of writing going on in the past few decades that hone in on love and romance, Barry White is notorious for this. Queen, I saw after further observation, has a lot of songs about pleasure but in a different and comical way, with “I'm In Love With My Car”. I never turned towards Queen for the pleasure aspect because their music, to me, has a lot of power and messages behind it, alongside with the internal struggle of Freddie Mercury and his orientation at that time. With analysis of the music alongside with the four Hindu Themes, I would have to say that pleasure can fall more into this category because even though music may have pleasure within it, some spirituality does come out and the basis of this theme hits right at home with American pop music. Community Service was a lot harder for me to line up because times have changed and American pop music is Western thinking, but in a stretch I could find some similarities. I feel as if the true nature of the Hindu theme of community service can not be compared to American pop music, but ones who follow in Hindu's footsteps are not generally Top-40 material.