IS MUSIC THE KEY?

Hi, welcome to my AP for “Music that Matters''. During the course, we talked about music and asked ourselves, is it important? We also learned how to break down a song and listen without objectively. We listened to many examples of various kinds of music from different artists. For our field experience, we had guests with musical backgrounds join us on Zoom. They all shared their experiences of music in different ways. They also shared either how music has helped them or benefited others around them. For our AP, we are creating proposals for My Block, My Hood, My City. The question that will guide us is, "How can music contribute to our neighborhood?"

For my musical installation, I decided to have my event take place virtually. It consists of various artists on a playlist broadcasted to the residents of my community's devices. The assorted songs all have the genre of Hip-Hop. I understand that in my neighborhood rap is mostly played and it could be beneficial if it was giving off positive messages. My installation will alert residents on their devices of the list of songs that are about to be played. They get the opportunity to opt-out after the first song, but it forces the listener to hear the powerful messages in the song. For optimizing the listener’s experience a pair of headphones would be crucial. The headphones would allow you to capture all the sounds happening and you can even feel the vibration of the rhythm. My installation resemblance is close to an Amber Alert. I did this intentionally to internally shock my black people in the hood. This route forces our self-consciousness to change our perception of certain topics that seem too difficult for us to talk about. It also seemed the best option due to COVID-19. What’s the location? Well, it’s going to vary depending on where the people are, hopefully, they are in their homes. The broadcaster transmission for the installation would only go to the people in my neighborhood and not all of Chicago residents.

Here I understand that in my area black people face many disadvantages and unequal opportunities. Often we are dismantled by drugs in our community and traumatized by violence from our own. One thing that I always hear playing around is rap music. Raps that are being soaked into the brains of the youth, which impacts the future generation and the world. My idea is to reverse toxic material into a positive and uplifting array of immersive affirmations for black listeners. It’s something they can go to when they need motivation. This would alter people's thinking and with luck their actions also. The installation itself will ignite people by exposing the truths that we deny. It will teach listeners by proving details of historical events they might not have known. Last it will inspire the adults in the community to change their ways and so the youth would follow.

Playlist- Positive Vibes

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLle6RRumSzVhft4pxNrDfP6kU9N_XPCE9

When analyzing the music from a Ratliff’s perspective I view the music as loud in the sense that it gets its point across and there are also changes in direction of the songs. Theres repetition in the choruses and also in some verses. As they repeat a rhyme the flow seems to stay the same for that moment, but it alters later in the song. For example, “just to get by” repeats multiple times.

All of the artists also are well known for their unique flavors of rhyme scheme and poetic touches. This is what we called having virtuosity. Basically meaning standing out in the ability of performance. While listening I hear lots of authority in the artist's voices. They displayed confidence and passion in the lyrics. So well that you can feel it. Here I also find exclusivity and I find that rap music isnt alot of peoples go to. Also, the messages in the music might not relate to what everyones accustomed to. I want to say that hiphop is what most blacks listen to and also black people invented it. Then last I can describe there way of freeforming words at random to make any track as special. Many of these artisit have been known to freestlye and use improvisation in their music. Improvasation meaning something done without a particular order.

Below are terms form Ratliffs Vocabulry

Loudness

Repetition
Virtuosity

Exclusivity

Improvisation

The songs I picked are from the early 1990's to 2000's. During this time I feel Hip-Hop was more powerful with its messages and impacted lots of people. During the 90's era and early 2000's there was of course gansta rap and trap music, which still plays a role in culture today. The meter of the playlist I belive is 4/4 and the tempo is around 90 to 115 bpm. I feel that at this pace of speed it allow people to take in whats being said. They also can enjoy the beat of the songs while learning and becoming enlightend of something new.

Overall my installation is meant to wake up black folk in my neighborhood and help promote some type of influence or change. The idea might go to far out of boundaries but I liked it so I stuck with it. From this course I have learned that music does matter. Music can be a tool and a weapon it has no right or wrong. Music can bring people together and it can help a cause.