Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Today 10 students showed up. It was a lively group and one of the best discussions I have ever had in the class!

First an update to last week's class: The music used in the Goong soap opera from South Korea can be heard as the background music to this ice skating routine.

Some people in the class asked that I start each week's session with a song suggestion of my own. Perhaps I have gained their confidence that I have good taste in music? ;-) .

I started this week's class by playing a song by a group that I listen to a lot these days, especially as I drive around. The music is particularly well suited to driving around in the rain. The band is Zero 7 (bio). I played a video for the song "Somersault" (video, lyrics) knowing that the little dance-step at the end of the song is a crowd-pleaser. (Actually, I played this song in the class last quarter, too, but that was only for two students -- now I had a larger audience!).

I pointed out how sweet the lyrics are, about how she is saying all these nice things about this guy, like how he *encourages* eating ice cream rather than saying "you shouldn't do that". I explained what it means to "feed parking meters" and asked who knows what jelly beans are.

Today I was actually more in the mood to hear Zero 7's song "Futures" (video, lyrics), but opted to show the class Somersault instead because it has more visual appeal.

Kanako, remembered Modest Mouse (bio) from last week's class and asked to hear another song by them. I hesitated because the class didn't like the song last week. But I relented, playing their previous big song "Float On" (video, lyrics). I asked Kanako if she likes this song. "Yes!" was her answer. I asked why. "Because I want to be more of a Seattleite!" was her answer. I commend that attitude -- she is here now and wants to integrate into what it means to be a Seattleite! That gave me the idea to ask the class for the next session to tell me which songs they associate with Seattle.

However, only half of the class actually likes this song, so I think we've given Modest Mouse all the exposure in this group that we will do...

Casspina asked what the difference between R&B and Hip-Hop is. That's a tough question! It depends a lot on personal definition. On the spot I described the difference as saying that R&B is primarily about soul music while Hip-Hop combines soul music with rap and also includes a lot of fashion in it, too.

Here are the Wikipedia definitions of R&B and Hip-Hop Music.

As an example of a song that has both R&B and Hip-Hop in it I showed "Doo Wop (That Thing)" (video, lyrics) by Lauryn Hill (bio). This video shows old-school soul (R&B) on the left of the screen and modern hip-hop on the right. Lauryn Hill is an *awesome* singer and her album "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill" is one of my favorites!! Another song I like a lot from that record is "Lost Ones" (Sorry, I don't find any good video clips of that song).

At this point I told the class the origin of the term "rock n' roll": before it described music it was a term for "having sex". In the 50's people started making music which made people want to have sex" rock n' roll music. Here's the Wikipedia history of rock n roll.

Someone asked what the difference between Rap and Hip-Hop is. I said that in my view rap has less emphasis on singing, rather it started as a way for non-singers in the inner-cities of America to do social commentary over music. See the Wikipedia history of rapping. But I think rap has become something else now. It seems to be more braggadocio (word definition) about money, materialism and women as sex-objects. As an example we listened to 50 Cent's (bio) "Just a Lil' Bit" (video, lyrics).

We only made it through half of that song before the class said they want to hear some rap with quality. Someone asked what I think of Eminem (bio) and I said that I respect him as lyricist. One of the students asked to see his video "Mockingbird" (video, lyrics). I didn't know this song, but it's a good representation of what Eminem is about.

What my students didn't know is that Eminem is interpolating the traditional children's lullaby "Hush Little Baby" (video, lyrics) into this song. It's rather chilling how he mixes the sweet lullaby with lyrics of anguish. The class talked for a long time about whether Eminem is a good father for telling his daughter how much he hates her mother. The class said he is expressing his love for his daughter, but what about the vitriol (word definition) contained within those proclomations of love?


We lightened the mood of the class by listening to "Friday Night" (video with lyrics written in SMS form!) by Lily Allen (bio). (Here's a rough video of her
singing this song in Seattle a few weeks ago.)





The conversation in the class swung to the club scene in Seattle and abroad and we talked about that for a while.


We played a bit of a Taiwanese hip-hop artist, Jay Chou (bio). We played the song "Ting Ma Ma De Hua" (video). My students told me that his message is positive and that he is a good role model.






For the last song of the day one student asked to hear a song she had heard in an Abercrombie & Fitch store: "And She Said" (video, lyrics) by Lucas Prata (bio).






As I mentioned above, for this coming Wednesday I am going to ask the students to tell me which songs they relate to Seattle.