As a dynamic link to the past, music allows us to recall and revive our different cultural heritages through the performances we participate in now. Music as you already know is sectioned into certain genres. These genres help create and set the mood for the ones who are listening. The part of the culture that I celebrate is cooking out. The genre that applies to my culture is considered “oldies” or “slow jams.”

For instance, one of the songs that we play that is considered “oldies” or “slow jams” is “Before I Let Go” by Maze Ft. Frankie Beverly. My culture listens to this type of music because it brings back the past, when life was just about having fun and spending time with the family.

At a cookout, you wouldn’t play modern day music necessarily because the seniors wouldn’t like it. Some people would like it but not everyone. When you play “oldies” or “slow jams” the seniors love it as well as the younger ones. The younger ones technically speaking the parents like to see their parents (seniors) happy which makes them happy. When the parents are happy they make us (kids) happy by letting us get what we want. As result, it creates a healthy and fun family environment for everyone.

As you can see my culture, which is cooking out uses this selection of music because it basically creates a circle. That circle represents family being together as a one, having fun, and creating a positive environment.

The music that I chose to represent my culture is one of my favorite songs by V.Music. The name of this music video is “ Que huong toi” (my mother land). V.music band is a group of 4 Vietnamese boys. V.music band began at the end of 2009/beginning of 2010. The 4 Vietnamese boys are young and very active, who love music and dream to be stars one day. In two years working together they had produced 4 albums and 3 singles. During the year of 2011 V.music was one of the most popular bands in Vietnam.  They had success present “Vietnam ngay moi” album which make them become more popular. Vietnam Ngay Moi had brought V.music so many awards. They also went on tour in Thai Lan for a big night event. Album Vietnam Ngay Moi was a 12-song track about Vietnam from the north to the south and the changing in Vietnam of today and back then. The band put them in different endowment to record the music clip. It shows the beauty of Vietnam and their life growing up.

“Que Huong Toi” is one of the sound track in V.music album that I really like. It not just a regular music clip but also the clip remind me so much of my cultural, Vietnam is part of my culture it’s a place where my childhood memories are. It’s a place that makes me who I am today. The clip was about 4 boys, who go to a different country to get education. In their heart, no mater where they are in this world, the love for their motherland is still there. They never forget their homeland and are never ashamed of it. In the clip they also talk about the different states in the Vietnam. Like Ha Noi, Sai Gon and others. They also show a tradition Vietnamese dress Ao Dai. The clip speaks a lot about Vietnam culture. If you can understand the lyrics of the song you can actually be amazed. It feels like you’re in Vietnam at that moment.

Vietnam is my native land, I lived in Ho Chi Minh and I have so many memories of that place. I had to leave Vietnam for almost 6 years, but there will be nothing that can replace this motherland, even though I’m on the other side of the Earth, 12 hours different. I have friend who I grew up with, who I still talk to today. Memories of being in school, being around those friends. Like the lyrics of the song “ I’m proud to tell people that I'm from Vietnam” a country that will continue to grow and change everyday. People who live in different country will share the same the same culture as I’m.

I have a culture that I’ve formed through friendships and social interaction, in which an interest in Rock & Roll, as well as a particular band is shared. We all enjoy the music of The Black Keys, and have learned many of their songs on different instruments. We can come together at any time to enjoy each other’s company while playing their music. We all share a common value system that revolves around this type of music and band, and can all connect it to our own personalities and individual lives. Because of this, we can all connect with each other, and reconnect with our roots and how we were raised. Our environments were such that when we were growing up and developing, this type of music was all around us. We were already in the culture of Rock & Roll and Blues from a very young age, and through it have created a sub-culture that is specific to this band. There is a song that we all enjoy and have experienced with one another called Gold On The Ceiling. It is a very unanimously preferred song, and is very adaptable to any situation. Through the music comes an emotion that can only be felt by those in our particular culture, and is shared throughout. It is difficult to express those emotions by one’s self, alone and isolated. It is easy to come together in a culture or group and experience those emotions radiating and connecting you to each person through the music. This is true for many culture groups and communities, but there is a special aspect to music that really brings it out in each individual. The desire to have your views, opinions, emotions, and personal connections shared in a community is a natural human desire, and it drives us to find these people who are alike us in a social environment. This instinct is what influences us to make social connection, and through it expresses even more of these emotions. It is a never-ending cycle that thrives wholeheartedly in the culture of music, whatever your preference may be. Everyone has a personal story that can be told through a song, but the emotion that it expresses is one that can be shared and experienced throughout.

Music and Culture

Music is a very important part of my life. It’s always been there for me to pull me back on my feet. Dancing is a very big part of my life as well and it’s one of the very big cultures I am apart of. You can’t have dance with no music. I mean you can, but it’ll be difficult to count and appear to be graceful and flowing. The song that I chose to write about for this assignment is called, “Suspicious Minds” by Elvis Presley. Not only is my uncle a big fan, but I also find his music quite enjoyable. This song plays a very important role in my dancing life this year. It’s the song we are going to dance to at our annual dance recital. The music itself is slow and flowing. The beat of the music helps the dancers to stay on track and count their steps. In the world of dance we count our steps in 8. 1…2…3…4…5…6…7…8…and repeat.  It’s easy for the dancers to get into the song and actually feel it. Plus it’s really easy to choreograph a dance to this song because it’s not too fast nor is it slow and boring. It’s just the right speed for experienced dancers such as myself. 

Hello, my name is Temperance Moore. My culture is Christianity. Christians believe in God. We believe that there is only one God. As Christians we don’t really call it a “religion” but a lifestyle. The artist I chose was Sarah Kelly and the song I chose by her is called “Take me away”.  Sarah Kelly is a gospel rock artist. My history with this song goes back to when I was about 9 or 10. My aunt first introduced me to one of Sarah Kelly’s albums. She would play it out loud in the car and my two favorite songs on that album were “Matter of Time” and “Take me away”.

We loved Sarah Kelly and would listen to her all the time. The song “Take me away” is basically about how Sarah loves God a lot and she expresses how much he did for her. Also how she just wants him to take her away so she can just be with him. What moves me about Sarah are the lyrics in her music. To me they are so genuine and true. Just by listening to her music, I can tell she longs for that closeness to God, like that’s all she wants. Also there’s a story behind it all. To me it’s a story that I can relate to.

 What also moves me is the fact that she’s not doing it for show; she’s doing it because she truly loves God. That’s what I really admire about her. This song is an important part of Christianity because it’s a Gospel song so it promotes God. Sarah Kelly is also a Christian who loves God so that’s also why it’s an important part of Christianity. This song shows Christianity because it’s talking about God. Not only is the song based on God but also the person who sings it is a true Christian. The song “Take me away” represents the life a Christian, the life of Sarah Kelly. 

The song that I have picked to represent my culture is Basketball by Lil Bow Wow. I grew up with him, when he was younger. He had a lot of popular songs, Like bounce with me and puppy love. I think lil romie and him is one of the youngest rappers to rap.

He was in a movie called Like mike. That is where is song came out. This song kinda moved me to go out and play basketball. The thing that moves me about him is that he put different basketball terms in a song to show what they mean. The importance of the rapper to my culture is that he put basketball in a song.

            This song shows represent a big thing to my culture because he is very big.

Music is important to me for many reasons. It can explain how I feel at any moment in time. Also its just a way of life using music to put yourself Black Star is one of my favorite artists ever. I grow up with a mom who was really into old school hip-hop and a lot of R&B no matter what year it was. So growing up I listening to them, tribe called quest, Indi are, tweet, etc. the way I grew up would be totally different due to music.

In the song “children’s Story” by “Black Star” it’s basically the uncle Mos def telling his nephews a bedtime story. I grew up listening to a bedtime story from my mommy “goodnight moon” and that was like my favorite story of all times. I relate to the little kids at the beginning saying they want a story before they go to sleep. In the song it talks about real life issues and things that some people may go through. As a young teen and child it was important to me to hear stories about these things as long as it bettered me. I am apart of the bedtime specials culture. I read my little sisters, and cousin and sometimes myself.

                        "LOVE HIGH"

My culture is Chinese. I use Korean music to describe my culture because many people think of Chinese people as people who study and who don’t have much fun like other race. In my culture, friendship, family’s bond and dreams are the most important things. We believe that dream is the most important thing because it’s our first step toward a goal and succeeding on becoming something. Our culture is also very big on education. My culture believes that education is the first step in everything because we believe that education leads our future. Our parent always educated us to go forward with our dream. This song called “love high” has no artist because it came from a TV show called Dream High. I found this song important because it is important to express feeling toward one another to make a better and stronger friendship and bond. In my culture we also believe that music is another way to escape darkness. In my culture, we always say, “No matter what stand in the way, always move forward toward that goal.”  Love high is a song about dream and how to always fly up. I choose this song because it motivated other people to fly up to their dream like in my culture.

Through the show called dream high, the two girl who high five each other was rival, but through music like this, it pulled them back together in a inch closer on becoming friends again. And in my household, whenever something happen we use music like Love high to sing and enjoy the time and creating the bond of the family stronger. During Chinese New Year, our family always prays through our god saying something about leading our children into the right path with their dream and let them succeed with that dream. And using that dream to created their future. That’s why I choose this music called “Love high” because it talks about dream, and dream like a key into our future in our culture. 

The culture I am apart of is being a positive person, and not always trying to look at the negatives of everything and anything. I stutter very often, but you don’t see me walking around silent and not talking. Or always upset and angry at the world because of what my problem is. 

DJ Lil man demonstrated that perfectly. He’s makes party music to party to, and at party’s you are happy, excited, and ready to have fun. That’s the type of people who are apart of my culture. In his video flex, it’s a group of boys dancing and showing you how to do the dance, “Flex.” There’s flashing strobe lights in the back, and smiles on everyone’s faces. That screams Marcus. 

I can’t listen to the music that’s out now because it’s either talking about what new stuff, how much money, and how sex their artist is having. Personally, I don’t care about what you have because it won’t help me in any way. That’s also bragging as well, and I’m not one to brag. I let my actions do my talking. In the video “Flex,” DJ Lil man did a great job of showing that in his video, and he and the rest of the DJ’s out there are keeping music alive to me in my eyes. With out them I probably wouldn’t listen to much music.

Song: Flawed design

Artist: Stabilo

Culture: Family trust

Genre: Alternative

What moves me: Their voice, and the lyrics.

I’v been listening to Stabilo for 3 years so far. Flawed Design was my first song I heard by them, and I instantly loved their music. It’s got a really good beat, and the story behind the song is really interesting.

The lead singer describes the hardship of getting over imperfections and flaws, and making the best with what he had. He tells his girlfriend that even though he keeps lying, he’s trying the best he can to be faithful, and he’s still a good person at heart. In the video, it shows several different people lying about their flaws, including treason, cheating, bribery, trust, and temptation.

I feel this is a great song and is relevant to my culture because it talks about how hard it is to trust other people.  My family itself values trust a lot. This is the case because my Mom constantly thinks my sister and I are doing something bad behind her back; sometimes that’s true. But when everyone understands that we all make mistakes, we become a closer family.     

You have to take the time to become close to another person (and trust them) and even when they mess up, you have to learn to forgive. Every person’s imperfect, and once we realize that, a persons mistakes won’t seem as bad anymore. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2jwjmhJ2AE