5 students today. It is starting to be the same students each week, which is nice since we get to know each other and the conversations flow more easily between the students themselves.
We watched lots of videos today!! Starting with "Love... what is it?" (video ; note you can click the "cc" button to see an English translation of the song). After this song we discussed the philosophy of whether it is better to "have loved and lost or never to have loved at all." The class has mixed opinions/feelings on this subject.
The next video was definitely less philosophical: "Check It Out" (video, lyrics) by will.i.am (bio) featuring Nicki Minaj (bio). If I remember correctly, the student chose this song because the guy at the beginning of the video is Korean and there are Korean words in the background of the video.
To my surprise most of the students didn't know the will.i.am song is based on the song "Video Killed The Radio Star" (video, lyrics, song info) by The Buggles (bio). The Buggles song is significant because it was the very first song ever shown on MTV when it went on the air on 1 August 1981.
Now we were on the topic of songs which sample older songs. Next song was "The Time (Dirty Bit)" (video, lyrics, song info) by the Black Eyed Peas (bio).
That song is based on "Time Of My Life" (video, lyrics) from the movie "Dirty Dancing" (info). I told my students that this movie is a classic in American culture: every American who grew up in the 80's watched this movie.
One student said he is not familiar with the band Black Eyed Peas. I cannot imagine *anyone* on the planet right now is not familiar with at least this song by them: "I Gotta Feeling" (video, lyrics). Indeed, as soon as it started he said "Oh yeah, I know that song!".
We talked a bit about how simplistic the lyrics for Black Eyed Peas songs are. But most of the students said often the lyrics don't matter, they just want a beat to dance to.
Next up was Shakira (bio) "Waka Waka" (video, lyrics, song information), the official song for the 2010 World Cup. This song has lots of dancing and, in keeping with our theme for the day, it turns out it is not her original song -- it is originally a Cameroonian song (video)! It is a song soldiers sing to stay happy. In that sense it is like a Black Eyed Peas song: it's not deep, just creates a good mood.
Here's a video interview where Shakira takes full credit for writing the song, but if you listen to the original version above, she just took over an existing song! Apparently Shakira didn't have to pay anything to the original composers of the song because they didn't copyright it. Apparenly Shakira's not the first to steal the song: here's another Latin American version of it.
Now we moved off of songs which have their basis in other songs. One of the Korean students chose "Rocketeer" (video, lyrics) by Far East Movement (bio) featuring Ryan Tedder (bio).
Today there was a new student in the class and I asked her to choose a song. She chose "I have a dream" (video, lyrics) by Westlife (bio).
After this song another student chose "When You Say Nothing At All" (video, lyrics) by Ronan Keating (bio). The student who chose this one said it is the song he heard when he met his girlfriend at a cafe in Ho Chi Minh city.
Another student has a similar song: "No One Like You" (video, lyrics) by P Square (bio); she was listening to this song when she met her boyfriend (I think that's the right version of the story...). I pointed out that in the lyrics there are some African dialect phrases and words inserted, which are not used in American English.
By now we had watched lots of videos and had great conversations but it was time to go end this week's class. The last song of the day was "Separate Ways" (video, lyrics) by Journey (bio). I asked the student why he chose this old song and he said it was his father's favorite song and his father used to play it at home all the time.
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