Music Today Research Paper

The 1920s was a period of economic flourishing and massive shifts in social norms. However, some of the more radical changes that came with such an influential decade inevitably incited controversy, which created new tensions. Mainly, the aftermath of World War I got the United States in pursuit of a “return to normalcy”, which -while pleasant to some- only placed further emphasis on the division between Old and New America. Differences in religious beliefs, racial tensions, and opinions on the broadening of rights caused widespread tensions between old and new Americans. They were further manifested in disparities such as the clash between urban and rural populations, the polarizing reactions to new forms of art and literature, and arguments surrounding women’s rights and prohibition.

Music is a magnifying glass on society. Listeners get a glimpse of race, gender roles, wealth, love, and more from a specific time period. Take current rap songs streaming on the radio today. Behind the curse words and what seems like gibberish is actually insight on the current world and what issues the artist is going through. For example, Kendrick Lamar’s hit “DNA” may seem to many like a explicit waste of words, but when studying the lyrics, one sees that Lamar is actually reflecting on his black heritage and on the ecomonic and racial struggles he has had growing up in Compton.

The unfortunate aspect of the music industry today is that labels have become a sort of transformation mechanism for artists. Artists enter as the person they’ve always been and make their public debut as a fabricated alias with pink hair and bad publicity. In the early 2000’s when music piracy became a fad to be reckoned with, labels began thinking of ways to keep album sales up. Instead of enhancing the musical creativity of their artists, it became easier to dwell on the negative aspects of their personalities. While I’m not personally a fan of all of these artists, it’s important to give credit where it’s due.

I agree that music has come along way from what it used to be in the era of jazz and rock and roll. Silva stated that “South Africa’s Miriam Makeba and Nigeria’s Fela Kuti have largely been exchanged for party-hard, live-the-rich-life lyrics.” Most artists now relate more to partying, drugs, and the rich lifestyles and that is how today’s society is. Comparing music from

Prejudice is a large problem in today’s society. Prejudice is having a preconceived opinion not based on reason or fact. Prejudice is all around us and is extremely prevalent daily lives. Because of bias, people are often judged, mistreated, hurt, and abused unfairly. Prejudice is such a widespread problem in society that many people have accepted, and even encouraged it because of its many examples in history, literature, and current events.

Has the quality of Hip-Hop and RNB music diminished? “Coco” by OT Genasis has no impact on todays generation like “Changes” by Tupac had on its generation. It feels as if there is no quality in what the artist says in the songs.

The music of the new generation has a completely different meaning than music of past generations. Many publishers of music explain that music changes with culture and how it brings joy no matter which generation listens to it. Kanye West, a rapper of today made the following statement, “Right now it is a fight against the separation and constant dumbing down of culture.” It is time to speak of our beliefs. Also, to show our music is not just fond of being a new generation, anybody, and anyone can have affection to rap music that relates to your life in any sorts of way and that is the silver lining in this whole misconception.

I choose this question because I’ve been seeing a lot of negative stereotypes about Millennials, my generation according to some researchers. This enrages me because I know a lot of people my age who are complex individuals that sometimes act out those negative stereotypes, instead of embodying those stereotypes every second of every day. Additionally, very few of the media outlets that those stereotypes are perpetrated by state why or how some Millennials acquired those stereotypes. To me, it seems like the older populations’ are trying to pass all blame onto my age group without any justifiable reason, because the main reason seems to be that they didn’t want to have to claim responsibility because to do that means they have to try and fix it, and that’s too much work. Search TedTalks for Millennial(s) and you’ll find a lot of videos for people, within and

As much as, music is the food of the soul (Shakespeare, Twelfth Night), is also the virus that is spreading through a town. The profanity, unacceptable sexual nature and horrific thoughts that are evident in music are being heard by the young future generations of our country, our nation, our world. Is that right? Should it be deemed today’s normality? No. Many can agree that the content that music holds often isn’t the most appropriate for anyone to hear, on the contrary, there are people out who enjoy hearing these lyrics and also the words help convey the story or the emotion the artist is trying to convey; they can hear the artists thoughts and ideas. Who are we to stop people from telling their story and others from hearing

Charlotte Church speaks out about this issue saying “The culture of demeaning women in pop music is so ingrained as to become routine, from the way we are dealt with by management and labels, to the way we are presented the public” (Chase par. 9). This leads to questions, for example, must women be sexualized to gain greater earnings? Does sex truly sell? When we examine artists such as Julia Hotter, HAIM, or Polica, we perceive them as strong artists who are unrestricted in their art by their gender or sexuality. However, when comparing their success, sexualized women have dominated the music industry. Chase explains that women are allowed to fill three main roles in modern pop music: One of the Girls’ Girls, the Victim/ Torch Singer, and Unattainable Sexbot. Artists such as Beyoncé would be considered “One of the Girls’ Girls” who are for women power and are considered empowering. Adele is considered a “Victim/Torch Singer” even though she does not use sexuality to sell records, lyrically, she perceives the wronged women and creates a state of despair. An “Unattainable Sexbot” would be, without a doubt, Miley Cyrus, whose main goal is to be the most successful in the music industry by being hyper-sexualized and unrealistic. If an artist does not fit into one of these categories, they generally have a much harder time being one of the most successful in the music

Music is one of the most influencing media within our time and generation, especially Rap and hip-hop. Demoralizing women has

Music has played a vital role in human culture and evidence based on archaeological sites can date it back to prehistoric times. It can be traced through almost all civilizations in one form or another. As time has progressed so has the music and the influences it has on people. Music is an important part of popular culture throughout the world, but it is especially popular in the United States. The music industry here is, and has been, a multi-million dollar business that continues to play an important role in American popular culture. This is also a art form and business that is forever changing as the times and more importantly, technology changes. Technology has changed the way music is made as well as how it is produced,

A man who claims to channel the spirits of Jesus Christ, Socrates, Muhammad, Gautama Siddhartha, and many important people of history has a base follower of 12 million people. Ryuho Okawa, born Takashi Nakagawa, attained Great Enlightenment in 1981 and formed his religion, Happy Science, based upon his experience. Okawa went on to publish over 2000 books that contained his core teachings on truth, love, progress, wisdom, happiness, and self-reflection. Happy Science is one of the fastest growing new religions in Japan that is internationally a growing organization.

Popular music is often one of the best lenses we have through which to view our own cultural orientation. Many of the artistic and experimental shifts in popular music have mirrored changes in our own society. For instance, the emergence of Elvis Presley as a public figure would signal the start of a sexual revolution and the growth in visibility of a rebellious youth culture. Similarly, the folk and psychedelic music of the 1960s was closely entangled with the Civil Rights, anti-war and social protest movements. In this regard, we can view popular music as an artifact through which to better understand the time and place in which it is produced. In light of this, the state of popular music today may suggest troubling things about our society.

Music is a form of expression that delivers a message. However over the years, the message of music has changed. Hundreds of years ago, music started with slaves. The slaves would sing spiritual hymns to motivate them and help keep up their spirits. Later, R&B and Hip Hop formed and at first there were motivational songs and rappers even rapped about a better life. But over the last thirty years the motivational songs have ceased. R&B and Hip Hop now is degrading to women, less subtle, and influences bad behavior.