Main navigation

WRI-101: Voice, Noise, Sound, Sense.

A section of Davidson College's Writing Program, exploring the intersections of sound-studies and writing instruction.

by

The Southern Sound of Then and Now

OutKast was instrumental to the rap scene of the late 90s and early 2000s and changed the national dynamic of hip hop. By finding success they proved that good hip hop didn’t have to come from New York or L.A. but that it could come from anywhere. Their unique sound helped give the South a new musical identity in a way that they hadn’t had before. In a way they were the first to usher in the Atlanta rap scene, now one of the most well respected in the business. While it may not be their most intense song or their most lyrically active, “Hey Ya” is without a doubt their most recognizable track. The upbeat tempo and energy helped to cement its place as one of the most iconic songs of the last 20 years. Despite the lively sound that the song emits, the lyrics are shockingly depressing and discuss the artists’ troubles with commitment and relationships. This meaning is hidden beneath the beat and rhythm, but in Avriel and the Sequoia’s folksy cover of the song, the song becomes more focused on the vocal talent of the lead singer Avi Kaplan and the meaning behind the lyrics. With a slowed down and acoustic version of the song, the audience can more clearly understand the emotional pain of the artists, but this defeats the original purpose of the song. Andre 3000 meant for the lyrics to be buried underneath he beat and rhythm. The lyrics say that they are “in denial when we know we’re not happy” which is echoed by the happy sound of the song. The song itself is a representation of being in denial about the painful truth that is hidden in plain sight. While the bluegrass cover is a beautifully sung and has a unique take on the song, it fails to deliver the same meaning as the original song. In most cases this would constitute an ignorant and daft cover of a song, but what saves this version from butchering the original song is the cultural identity of the music found in both renditions. The bluegrass cover of “Hey Ya” works because it culturally appropriate to the South.

           To understand how cultural identity, or the lack thereof, can make or break a cover consider last year when Taylor Swift released a cover of “September” by Earth Wind and Fire, an iconic song that has more energy and joy than almost any record in history. Unfortunately, this energy and joy that are integral to the song’s continued success is exactly what Taylor Swift left out. In her rendition of the song, she drastically slows the tempo down, plays a banjo, and gives the song a more somber message about looking back on old times with remorse rather than nostalgia. She delivers a great vocal performance, and the banjo playing is a nice throwback to her southern roots, but she still failed to do the song justice by eliminated what the song stood for. For many people, Swift’s cover was not only insultingly inconsistent with the original, but it also represented a white artist making monetary gains off a black anthem. On top of this, the groove that made the original so widely loved, and was part of what made the song a black anthem, was removed entirely. By doing so she lost the cultural identity that song had. While there is more than one problem with her cover, it was this that put the nail in coffin. 

            Clearly, the cultural identity in a song can help the song to find success, but it can make doing a cover of such a song tricky, especially for a song by Outkast, a group who’s cultural identity was different than anything both hip hop and the South had seen before. During the 80s and early 90s the rap scene was dominated by East Coast (New York) and West Coast (California) rappers. Icons like Tupac and Biggie lead the charge and turned hip hop in America into a very divided culture that didn’t allow for other styles to be welcomed. For rappers in the South this meant they must identify with one or the other, and they did. Despite roots in places like Tennessee, Houston, and New Orleans, rappers would often emulate the ganster rap of the West Coast or the sexually charged story telling of the East Coast. This same phenomenon happened in Atlanta where groups would ignore their southern identity in favor of commercial success across the country. This is where Outkast differed. Their style embraced the culture of Atlanta and the South as a whole as was reflected in their lyrics and sound. In “ATLiens” the group displays their southern roots in their chorus by saying “Throw yo hands in the ay-ur / And wave ’em like you just don’t cay-ur / And if you like fish ’n’ grits and all that pimp shit / Everybody let me hear you say oh-yay-yur!” The use of two syllables instead of one and the mention of fish ‘n’ grits show both how the lyrics themselves are changed, as well as the manner in which they are performed. In their song “Rosa Parks” Andre 3000 recruited his step father, Rev. Robert Hoda, to play harmonica on a mid-song breakdown giving the song the feeling of a hoe down that welcomed all to come to the party. The cultural differences of the South are also seen through songs talking about Cadillacs instead of Mercedes and chicken wings instead of hot dogs.

Not only was Outkast appealing to the South, they were appealing to the true working class of the South. Modern rap from Atlanta has plenty of big names but so much of what they say is about the money and fame they’ve acquired. Even once Outkast reached this level of notoriety, they kept telling stories of poverty and struggle, crime and regret, relationships, tragedy, and more. These melancholy themes may not have been understood by all, but they were deeply respected by the working class of the South, both urban and rural. Using this formula Outkast was able to find major success in the early 2000s, winning 6 Grammys and many other awards, but they started off with a lot of backlash. Because they were different, it was almost as though they were fighting against the rest of the country for not only success but respect. This culminated at the 1995 Source Awards where Outkast accepted the award for best new artist. After receiving jeers and boos from the crowd when walking up, Andre 3000 summed up what all of the South was thinking when he said “The South got something to say.”

Outkast showed the country what true southern identity was through their use of music, and while they were some of the first people to do this through hip hop, Bluegrass had provided the South with a musical cultural identity decades before in a similar way. In the early 1900s, the South was a melting pot of cultures from the people who had settled there in the centuries prior. There were many Irish and Scottish immigrants living in the hills of Southern Appalachia, along with the ancestors of slaves from the many plantations in the coastal plains of the South. These cultures each brought music along with them. From the British Isles, immigrants brought fiddles and step dancing and from Africa slaves brought banjos. What resulted was a type of music that hadn’t before been seen. Over time locals brought in other instruments. The Italian mandolin was brought in to add a percussive off beat. The guitar was introduced to add a fuller sound. And the upright bass was added to provide a deep thumbing rhythm. This unique mix of instruments created a sound that was uniquely southern. In time this traditional music shifted and changed until it became what is now known as Bluegrass. This new genre found commercial success thanks to Bill Monroe. Before him, nearly all bluegrass was played in barns and living rooms across the South, but it hadn’t yet reached the radio. This wasn’t to say that there was a lack of talent in the genre. In fact many performers during the pre-Monroe era found success after Monroe broke the mold. What helped Bill Monroe was his access to get on a national stage. He was integral, not only in establishing the new style, but also in introducing the country to this southern sound. The southern accents and references to southern landmarks had not been heard on a national stage yet. Just like Outkast, Bluegrass was finding national success without abandoning its roots.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcTjv4i-mak

In the same way that Outkast had appealed to the working class of the South, so too did Bluegrass. The common themes throughout hip hop and bluegrass are very similar. By talking about things like crime and regret, relationships and their pitfalls, tragedy, and more, bluegrass appealed to the poor rural family of the South. We see these same things in rap. Whether it be a song about the regret one feels even years after committing a crime and seeing the consequences like we see in “Rounder” by Mandolin Orange and “Crown” by Run the Jewels, or being in denial about a failing relationship like we see in “Hey Ya!” by Outkast and “Redeye to Raleigh” by Mipso, there are many correlations amongst the topics these genres revolve around. This is part of what links bluegrass and southern rap of the late 90s through their cultural identity. Both genres have a distinctly southern sound that is expressed through lyrics and diction, both genres were born from and appeal to the working class and their struggle, and both genres were an expression of a community that was ignored on a national stage until a champion came along to help break the mold. Although Avriel and the Sequoias’ rendition of “Hey Ya” might be missing the groove and energy of Outkast’s original song, because it keeps the cultural identity of the South the cover works as a southern anthem in the same way that the initial recording does.  

Citations

  • Carmicheal, Rodney. “The Making of OutKast’s Aquemini: Andre 3000, Big Boi and Cast Look Back on a Classic.” CreativeLoafing, 24 June 2010, creativeloafing.com/content-168326-The-Making-of-OutKast’s-Aquemini. Accessed 24 Mar. 2019.
  • Fire, Earth Wind &. “Earth, Wind & Fire – September (Official Music Video).” YouTube, YouTube, 11 Jan. 2013, www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gs069dndIYk.
  •  “Former Pentatonix Singer Avi Kaplan Delivers Cooler Than Cool Bluegrass Cover of Outkast’s ‘Hey Ya!’.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 21 July 2017, www.imdb.com/news/ni61328218.
  • Grem, Darren E. “‘The South Got Something to Say’: Atlantas Dirty South and the Southernization of Hip-Hop America.” Southern Cultures, vol. 12, no. 4, 2006, pp. 55–73., doi:10.1353/scu.2006.0045.
  • Mipso. “Red Eye to Raleigh.” YouTube, YouTube, 17 July 2014, www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcTjv4i-mak.
  • Orange, Mandolin. “Mandolin Orange – ‘Rounder’ (Official Audio).” YouTube, YouTube, 5 May 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCFzqWcVuZg.
  • OutKastVideoVault. “OutKast – ATliens (Video).” YouTube, YouTube, 30 July 2013, www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktc9hsSfUck.
  • RunTheJewels. “Run The Jewels – Crown (Official VR 360 Music Video).” YouTube, YouTube, 4 May 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCNzOQ2Ok8s.
  • Scoggins, Michael C. The Scotch Irish Influence on Country Music in the Carolinas: Border Ballads, Fiddle Tunes and Sacred Songs. History Press, 2013.
  • Wanshel, Elyse. “Taylor Swift’s Cover Of An Earth, Wind & Fire Classic Is Pissing People Off.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 14 Apr. 2018, www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/taylor-swifts-cover-of-an-earth-wind-and-fire-classic-is-pissing-people-off_us_5ad0f015e4b016a07e9c2d10.

by

The Times Are Still A-Changin’

How a song released over five decades ago is still the anthem of a movement
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZ9drv78dCQ
Uploaded to YouTube February 5, 2018

On a February episode of the Tonight Show, Jimmy Fallon emerged from behind his curtain dressed in a convincing Bob Dylan outfit and wig and provided just as convincing vocal impression of the legendary singer-songwriter.  Fallon, known for playing games and conducting more surface-level interviews with celebrities, turned what had potential for a quick comedy sketch into a deeper rewriting of Dylan’s iconic song, The Times Are A-Changing.

Fallon uses Dylan’s familiar song to sing about issues currently facing the United States, including the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements, national anthem protests, and attacks on journalism.  Though Dylan’s original song did little to specify certain political and social movements like Fallon’s version, it was certainly the music of these moments back then, and Fallon’s use of Dylan’s likeness and song demonstrate their cultural significance in today’s society, over fifty years after Dylan its debut.

Dylan’s Lasting Legacy

Bob Dylan is highly regarded as one of the most important and influential artists of all time.  His signature nasally voice, acoustic guitar, and frequent use of a harmonica have become musical icons, making Dylan an instantly recognizable musical star, though it is Dylan’s powerful lyrics that are a large reason he is considered one of the most influential songwriters of all time, ranking number 2 on Rolling Stone’s “100 Greatest Artists of All-Time” (second only to the Beatles).

Dylan performs the song in 1964

Dylan has written and released numerous classic songs, including “Like a Rolling Stone” and “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall.” However, many of Dylan’s songs attained much more commercial success than Dylan’s original release, including versions of “All Along the Watchtower” by Jimi Hendrix, “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” by Guns N’ Roses, and “Make You Feel My Love” by Adele. These few examples are just a small portion of what made Bob Dylan the second-most covered artist or group of all time, again second to the Beatles, which speaks a great deal to his songwriting prowess.

Dylan’s voice is far from what is considered traditionally “good” for a singer, being described by Vanity Fair digital director Mike Hogan as “on a good day, [sounding] like a chain-smoking bluesman celebrating his 100th birthday. On a bad day, [sounding] like a bullfrog gargling broken glass,” (ironically, Woody Guthrie said of Dylan after hearing him perform “that boy’s got a voice. Maybe he won’t make it with his writing.”) Dylan never had Very little does Dylan stray away from the acoustic guitar and harmonica in his music, which opens up the possibilities for covers of his songs to explore many different styles and instrumentation. take the song from a more simple folk song to a more epic delivery as, or a seemingly more. This reaction may simply be Dylan’s voice.

Though Dylan released thirty-eight studio albums and ninety-one singles, few have reached the cultural and political depth achieved by “The Times They Are A-Changing,” released on his 1964 album of the same name. “The Times They Are A-Changing” became the voice of a movement, and Dylan spoke of the purpose of the song and his inspiration behind it, stating “I wanted to write a big song, with short concise verses that piled up on each other in a hypnotic way. The civil rights movement and the folk music movement were pretty close for a while and allied together at that time.” Over fifty years after its original release, it is providing a different meaning to those who hear it today.

New Era, Same Song

Photo from March For Our Lives

On February 14, 2018, seventeen students and faculty of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School lost their lives after a gunman opened fire on the school.  The event was devastating to the town of Parkland, Florida and received an outpouring of support from people around the entire United States of America.  The event sparked a renewed outcry for gun safety, especially in schools.  Survivors of the Parkland attack spearheaded the movement, organizing events such as a nationwide walkout of school, which thousands of high schools around the country participated in.  These students also organized the event March for Our Lives, hosted in Washington D.C. thirty-eight days after the attack, on March 24, 2018. The event was organized completely by the students, and no one who was not a student was permitted to give a speech at the event, while A-List performers such as Miley Cyrus, Demi Lovato, and Lin-Manuel Miranda sung powerful and meaningful songs to the crowd. Hundreds of thousands of protesters gathered in D.C. to form the largest protest since the time of the Vietnam War. Millions of Americans across the country joined those marching in D.C. in their home cities as well.

Emma Gonzalez, one of the most outspoken leaders of the movement, made the final speech of the event, concluding her remarks by stating “fight for your lives before it’s someone else’s job.” At the conclusion of Emma’s speech, two-time Grammy winner and Academy Award Winner Jennifer Hudson took the stage with the D.C. choir to perform an iconic protest song.

Hudson’s incredibly powerful performance encapsulated the movement, as she sung surrounded by a mass of people ready and excited to change.   After singing, Hudson was joined on stage by the student organizers, as she continued to riff the lyrics of change, along with the crowd’s chants of “we want change.”  Hudson also made a subtle change to the lyrics, saying “please heed their call” instead of “please heed the call,” ensuring the focus remained on the work that the students were doing.  The main stage for the march was perfectly situated in front of the United States Capitol Building, making the lyrics calling out senators and congressmen that much more powerful.

Few artists have achieved or ever will achieve the cultural impact made by Bob Dylan. In October of 2016, Dylan became the first songwriter to be awarded a Nobel Prize in literature for his songwriting contributions. Though the decision was met with mixed enthusiasm, including a disappointed op-ed published in the New York Times, the continued use and covers of his songs prove his lasting cultural importance, and fifty years from now, The Times Are A-Chanin’ will likely lead a new generation in a movement for cultural change.

(Fallon’s Times Are A Changin’ video wasn’t the first time he used his Bob Dylan impression on his show. For additional viewing enjoyment, see the below video)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gc40zIaCw6U

by

“Rocket Man” and “Sounds of Silence”

When one hears a specific song, it is the vocals that produce the meaning of the song. This is what amplifies the meaning because the tone of the artists voice brings to light the emotions that coincide with the song. The instrumentals of the song also play a role as they produce the beat, altering the listeners to not just whether this is an upbeat or slower song, but also whether this song is lighthearted or heavier in its meaning. A specific cover of Elton John’s “Rocket Man” completely altered the meaning of this song for me.

William Shatner’s performance of his cover of “Rocket Man” is especially unique. What intrigued me most was how this song that I have been listening to since I can remember, was given a whole new meaning. This is something that happens with other songs too, one can gather new meanings and theories of what the song is saying when someone sings it differently. Though the lyrics are the same, certain aspects of the lyrics can be amplified or tuned down to make specific elements stand out. Different aspects, such as how a song is presented, or who sings a song, can completely alter or provide additional meaning to a song.

This music video was not published until 2017 – after Shatner’s
performance, and after the song had existed for over 30 years.

Elton John’s 1972 “Rocket Man” is inspired by a short story that follows of the themes of David Bowie’s 1969 “Space Oddity”. The song is about a man who is having mixed feelings about leaving his family behind as he goes to space for his job. During this time period space was a prominent topic in the United States as the nation was in a space race with Russia, and in 1969 the United States won the race by having the first man walk on the moon. Listening to the song as the audience, Elton John provides an upbeat catchy tune that leaves the audience humming the tune. Shatner’s rendition is not meant to be as much of a song as it is a reading, and this is evident when he treats the lyrics like he’s reading a poem or thinking out loud. His version is evidently more somber, and I found that this slower song allowed me to truly understand and see what the lyrics meant. Shatner barley has any instrumentals, but with Elton John and his heavier use of them, these instrumentals can take over leaving you knowing the tune and rhythm, but not entirely understanding the gravitas of the song’s lyrics. I think that in that sense Elton John’s vocal quality is overshadowed bu the significant instrumental sounds, and though it serves its purpose to provide the lyrics for the song, the lyrics are not given the same importance as the rhythm of the song is. William Shatner allows the lyrics to be the focal of this performance, and through this one pays more attention to what the lyrics are saying rather than to their tune and rhythms. Song lyrics are made to produce any emotion based on the facial expressions and inflections of the person performing it. The pace of Elton John’s version provides an inclination that the tone of the song is happier rather than William Shatner’s version in which the slower pace makes the audience believe the man is sadder and scared about his journey to space. Both versions of the song are effective in being distinct and memorable, the only difference is the meaning that one takes away from the experience.

Another aspect of Shatner’s performance that I found helped in bringing the meaning to life, was the specific visual performance of the song. Being able to see the performers face, the expressions, hand gestures, and overall demeanor, in my opinion was key as it provided another level of context for the emotion of the piece. The effect of music videos is their ability to capture a greater essence of the song, including the emotion behind the song. This is because of how there is a trend these days in which many have found that being able to visit visualize what the audio is discussing helps us better understand the audio. This is what companies like Spotify have realized and have started producing video content with their songs on Spotify, so there is a movement towards wanting to incorporate video with the music we are hearing, (Pulse, 2016).

Elton John’s songs always have a way of making one feel happier or more joyful, no matter what the words are saying. When people then do cover songs, their sole purpose is to find another meaning in the song, or to find a way to simply bring more meaning to the song. Through this some cover songs are more somber than the original. When listening to the 1A podcast on cover songs I was surprised to find that cover songs were the main thing to do back before artists like the Beatles started writing their own songs. This surprised me because my generation has always found cover songs to be a rip off, but through researching cover songs, I have found that certain ones truly do change the course of the song for the better, or they can incorporate parts of the song into a new song bringing new life to the lyrics. “…during the 1980s and 1990s … music was undergoing a qualitative change, and the lines between creativity and imitation, borrowing and artistic larceny, grew increasingly blur…” (Plasketes, 1). This showed that music changed to incorporate cover songs, as cover songs were seen and known to bring in new meanings to the songs.

“The Sounds of Silence” by Simon and Garfunkel is one of my favorite songs, and recently I found a cover done by the band Disturbed. I actually came across this song as it played through a pivotal and emotional scene in a TV show “The Blacklist”. The scene was of a husband and wife who were badly injured and were being rushed to the hospital with all their family and friends rushing with them. As Distrubed’s cover of “The Sound of Silence” played I was racked with how different the song felt in this context, and with the artists unique touches to the song. The artist voice is a lot raspier than that of Simon and Garfunkel and this makes the song more painful almost, especially has gradually through the song his voice has louder, and he starts holding notes for longer periods of time. It is almost as if while singing he is feeling the sadness more and more. Simon and Garfunkel’s voices never reach the intensity that Distrubed’s does, their voice remains quieter. Watching the scene unfold in that TV series and hearing the song play definitely brought more of the emotion to light more me. This is an example of how visualizing something helps the audio gain more depth. The combination of the song and the video was entrancing, I think that while both on their own would be emotional, together they show us another experience, almost as if one is in the scene at the time. The effect of music videos or some visual representation with music is inevitable these days.

There is a unique difference between the two covers mentioned. “The Sound of Silence” cover, unlike the “Rocket Man” cover, maintains the main structure of the song sung by the original artist. Shatner however, comes in and completely alters the song’s structure, beat and tone. Plasketes discusses how artists either come in and do a rendition of the song where they retain the structure of the song, or where artists come in and completely alter the entire song along with the emotional outtake. “… Covering songs allows artists to explore and expose their musical roots, pay homage to influences, or perhaps stretch out with uncharacteristic materials,” (Plasketes, 10). What is significant of this discussion in Plasketes paper is that he also questions the merit and integrity of the song when an artist maintains the entire structure of the original song. However, here I agree with Plasketes when he says that,

“With music, the song undergoes a recontextualization; it remains in the same medium, with the artist translating the material into his or her own musical style. Measuring the interpreter’s skill, in part, lies in how well the artist uncovers and conveys the spirit or essence of the original, and enhances the nuances of its melody, rhythm, phrasing, or structure. In the process, the interpretation might offer a fresh insight into the song, its composer, or a particular period,” (Plasketes, 11).

A cover song that can effectively produce a meaning that is believable through the artist’s voice can become a hit and be accepted by a population skeptical about cover songs. Conversely, a cover song like Taylor Swift’s “September”, an attempt to completely alter the song, was poorly received because of how it was felt that “she has morphed one of our culture’s greatest songs into one of them acoustic covers white women who frequent coffee shops love so much,” (Craven, 2018). The significance of this example is that Taylor Swift, as some have said, failed to see the main point and purpose of the song. Here cultural appropriation comes into play as it part of what the song means, and in altering this, Swift was not respecting the specific element of the song that made the song a hit. If a cover song is respectful of the general meaning of the song and its intended impact is retained, then the song can become a hit.

Cover songs and music videos do one main thing for a song, they provide deeper meaning to a song, either watching it or hearing it sung by another artist, opens the song to being interpreted in different ways. With Elton John and William Shatner, watching Shatner’s performance in comparison to Elton John’s shows two completely different desired outcomes for the song. Shatner is reciting the piece as a poem while Elton John recites the piece as the hit song it is. What Shatner was able to do to the song is similar to what Disturbed was able to do with “The Sound of Silence”, they intensified the meaning, held different notes, and emphasized specific tones. Initially thinking about cover songs, I had always found myself hating them, assuming them to a be rip offs, but now I have found that while they are using another artists song, they add their own theories, elements, into the song.

Citations :

Craven, Julia. “I Listened To Taylor Swift’s ‘September’ Cover So Y’all Wouldn’t Have To.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 13 Apr. 2018, www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/i-listened-to-taylor-swifts-september-cover-so-yall-wouldnt-have-to_us_5ad0ff15e4b016a07e9c4d82.

Garfunkel, Simon &. “Simon & Garfunkel – The Sounds of Silence (Audio).” YouTube, YouTube, 26 Mar. 2013, www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fWyzwo1xg0.

John, Elton. “Elton John – Rocket Man (Official Music Video).” YouTube, YouTube, 22 May 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtVBCG6ThDk.

Johnson, Joshua. “Take Me On: The Art Of The Cover Song.” 1A, American University Radio, 18 Jan. 2018.

Kajal. “Taylor Swift – September Cover (Earth, Wind & Fire).” YouTube, YouTube, 14 Apr. 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnDnphYTb0Q.

Pictures, Paramount. Rocket Man. YouTube, YouTube, 1 Oct. 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpOGT3GTO84.

Plasketes, George. “Like A Version: Cover Songs and the Tribute Trend in Popular Music.” Studies in Popular Culture, vol. 15, no. 1, 1992, pp. 1–18. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/23414475.

Pulse. “Why Music Videos Are Still So Important: Views from inside the Industry.” Medium, Medium, 4 Feb. 2016, medium.com/@pulsefilms/why-music-videos-are-still-so-important-views-from-inside-the-industry-ebaa7d4758d2.

“The Blacklist – Stay with Me (Episode Highlight).” YouTube, 16 Nov. 2017, youtu.be/9KQDOiwhA60.

The Museum of Classic Chicago Television (www.FuzzyMemories.TV), director. William Shatner “Sings” ‘Rocket Man’ (1978). YouTube, YouTube, 2 Jan. 2008, www.youtube.com/watch?v=lul-Y8vSr0I.

by

Iggy Azalea, Mac Miller, and the dubious term that is cultural appropriation

Landon Schabes

Dr. Rippeon

Voice, Noise, Sound, Sense

24 March 2019

Hip-hop music has a storied origin; it has been a vehicle used to draw attention to injustices perpetrated on African-Americans for as long as it has existed. The Sonic Color Line and the Listening Ear, by Jennifer Lynn Stoever, outlines some of those injustices with a particular focus on the contrasts in sonic expectations between Americans with differing racial backgrounds. Stoever opens a dialogue on the differences in listening spaces and vocal habits of black and white Americans. These sonic expectations often intersect with hip-hop culture, as hip-hop music is often dubbed raucous and disruptive by many white Americans. The Sonic Color Line has altered hip-hop culture since its beginnings in the Bronx in the late ‘70s. Due to the fact that the Sonic Color Line has affected African-American music and artists since the advent of hip-hop, cultural appropriation is a particularly sensitive and heinous crime within the hip-hop community, yet the term cultural appropriation is poorly drawn out and defined; some artists prompt the accusation more than others. Despite the fact that they are both white, Iggy Azalea incites more accusations of cultural appropriation than Mac Miller, primarily because she uses other artists’ voices in ways that change the way their voice is interpreted, and she manipulates her voice in an attempt to copy African-American sound. She encroaches upon African-American sound and culture more than Mac Miller because of her careless use of vocal appropriation, or embezzlement of African-American vocal quotations and properties. While the term cultural appropriation is beneficial in calling out artists with little to no respect for the culture they are borrowing from, such as Azalea, it does little else to help the hip-hop music industry. Indeed, the definition is so loosely agreed upon that artists can dodge the accusation simply by donning an apologetic public persona. Additionally, the term does not apply in both directions. There is no uproar, for example, when African-American artists appropriate a comparable minority culture.  

Iggy Azalea’s “Kream” is an example of a song that expresses no respect for African-American culture; it stands as an egregious example of cultural appropriation because of the ways that she alters other artists’ voices and her own voice in it. Specifically, Azalea samples the vocals of Method Man, a member of Wu-Tang Clan, in the song “C.R.E.A.M.” and uses his voice in her song in a way that robs the original meaning behind his vocals. It is important to recognize each song’s context when considering the ways in which Azalea used the sample. The Wu-Tang song, just like so much hip-hop music from the early 1990s, centers around the inequalities that black citizens face in America. In particular, Inspectah Deck speaks on the troubles he faced in his experiences with the justice system as a young black man.

“The court played me short, now I face incarceration

Pacin’, goin’ upstate’s my destination

Handcuffed in the back of a bus, forty of us

Life as a shorty shouldn’t be so rough” (genius.com).

Deck’s lyrics communicate a strong message; black men are at a much greater risk of facing prison time in their lives. According to the NAACP’s website, African-Americans are incarcerated at more than five times the rate of white Americans (naacp.org). Iggy Azalea samples this song, with its societal critique and racially significant context, and inserts it into a song with a fraction of the meaning. The song “Kream”, which clearly takes inspiration from the song it sampled with its title, is a meaningless flex piece in which Azalea talks about nothing but her copious amounts of money, sex, and power. The sample in particular is the all-famous line from Method Man, “Cash rules everything around me C.R.E.A.M., get the money, dollar dollar bill, y’all” (genius.com). This fact is significant, as the sample is not just of the beat but the voice of a performer. The fact that Method Man’s voice is being used, rather than just the drum loop or the piano loop, makes the sample a less acceptable instance of cultural appropriation. Voice is often thought of as a part of one’s identity. Azalea’s use of Method Man’s voice affects the way those lyrics are viewed in pop and hip-hop culture. She robs Method Man of his individuality and expression by using his voice in her new, comparatively meaningless song. Thus, the controversiality of Azalea’s appropriation is only heightened by the fact Method Man’s voice is viewed differently in her sample. Vocal appropriation, whether the majority of people realize it or not, makes instances of cultural appropriation less acceptable.

Azalea’s appropriation is also inherently more offensive due to the blaccent she dons every time she raps. Azalea hails from Australia, but when she appears in her songs, she abandons her Australian accent and adopts an unmistakable southern African-American accent. She attempts to sound as black as possible in her songs and sell her gangster personality. Maeve Eberhardt and Kara Freeman, in their essay on Iggy Azalea’s hip-hop persona and linguistic appropriation, discuss white artists and what they do to appropriate African-American voice. “Linguistic minstrelsy is a form of ‘figurative blackface’, in which white users of African American English (AAE) do not literally darken their skin with make‐up as in turn‐of‐the‐century minstrel shows (Lott 2013), but in essence perform in blackface, drawing on linguistic and other symbolic elements that signify racialized ideologies to a wide U.S. audience” (Eberhardt and Freeman). The linguistic elements they mention, in particular, are put to use by Azalea. She sonically barges into the space that many African-American artists occupy in the hip-hop industry by copying their accent. Since voice is often considered proprietary, Azalea’s encroachment on the southern African-American accent is extremely offensive and forces her music into a less acceptable sphere of cultural appropriation.

While Iggy Azalea is the poster child for egregious cultural appropriation, Mac Miller is white artist that has earned the respect of the rap community due to his ability to avoid flagrant embezzlement. His song “Kool Aid and Frozen Pizza” is a much more tolerable example of cultural appropriation because he avoids vocal manipulation and appropriation. The song that Miller samples in it, “Hip 2 Da Game” by Lord Finesse, is an old hip-hop classic, but not one that gained mainstream success. As such, it was a sample that caught the attention of many hip-hop artists at the time that Miller released his album titled “K.I.D.S”. Though Miller avoided outrage because he does not alter Lord Finesse’s message or voice or his own voice. “Hip 2 Da Game” stands as a hip-hop classic, and Miller successfully borrows from the song without changing anything Finesse originally said. In a Rolling Stone article commemorating some of Miller’s greatest work after his death, Tirhakah Love and Brendan Klinkenberg comment on “Kool Aid and Frozen Pizza” in the same manner, “Flipping Lord Finesse’s seminal ‘Hip 2 Da Game’ without regurgitating the latter’s flow or topicality at the age of 18, Miller paid tribute to the genre while staying squarely in his own lane” (rollingstone.com). Importantly, the sample does not consist of any vocals from Lord Finesse. Miller simply borrows the beat of the song. The fact that he avoids sampling any of Finesse’s vocals makes his borrowing of African-American music more acceptable. Miller also avoids using a blaccent or altering his voice in any way to identify with a different persona. In fact, that is one of the trademarks of his character. Miller garnered sustained success over his career because he was never anyone or anything but emphatically his own self. Miller mastered the ability to borrow only the elements of hip-hop music and culture that he could make his own. His lack of vocal appropriation and alteration with this song and much of the rest of his work allows for his music to be placed into a more acceptable sector of cultural appropriation.

The term cultural appropriation is weakly defined, as evidenced by the fact that Mac Miller receives comparatively few accusations of appropriation when set side by side with Iggy Azalea. The term cultural appropriation has long been used in the hip-hop music industry (and in countless other areas of art and expression) as a way to discourage white artists from barging in and profiting from or reaping the benefits of a minority culture. Though its definition, or lack thereof, creates problems as artists can avoid the accusation with simple tweaks to their public persona and style of music. An article published in 2018 from The Economist verbalizes this fact, “… what is cultural appropriation? There is no agreed definition. Generally speaking, it’s the idea that a ‘dominant culture’ wearing or using things from a ‘minority culture’ … is inherently disrespectful because the objects are taken out of their native context” (economist.com). The solution to this issue is not to use the term more liberally, so as to flesh out its definition better. Rather, it should be to remove it from popular vocabulary and pick up the well-defined terms that already exist in order to describe people or artists who lack respect for minority cultures. The term also falls short in its equality of applicability. Artists who are already part of minority cultures never receive accusations of appropriation; 2 Chainz, an artist known for his rashness and unapologetic musical style, receives no accusations of cultural appropriation when he pilfers other cultures in his music. For example, in his song “Here We Go Again” Chainz uses a beat clearly inspired from an East Asian style of music.

The song holds absolutely no cultural significance, as Genius tells us, “On this song, the rapper talks about his riches and his extravagant lifestyle which includes wearing fancy clothes and jewelry” (genius.com). Yet 2 Chainz does not receive any pushback for such an affront. The term cultural appropriation fails to be applied to any demographic other than white people. This, along with its unclear definition, are reasons to eradicate the term, not cultivate it.

As evidenced by Iggy Azalea’s use of vocal appropriation and Mac Miller’s lack thereof, Azalea exhibits little to no respect for African-American culture, while Mac Miller shows a substantial sense of respec for the culture from which he borrows. The action of appropriating another artist’s vocals or altering one’s own voice is much more offensive than borrowing from the instrumental styles of a minority culture. As a result, Azalea receives more accusations of cultural appropriation than Miller even though both steal from African-American culture in their music. This fact lends to the idea that the term cultural appropriation is poorly defined. Jennifer Lynn Stoever’s The Sonic Color Line and the Listening Ear describes the audial inequalities that African-Americans encounter in their lives. In the hip-hop industry, the social stigma against cultural appropriation is a manifestation of the Sonic Color Line and the inequalities Stoever delves into in her dissertation. The term cultural appropriation and its strength seem to be bolstered by Stoever’s thesis, but the term breaks down when its effect on artists of all styles and demographics is examined. Thus, the term cultural appropriation is less useful than its commonality suggests and should be done away with.

Works Cited

“2 Chainz – Here We Go Again.” Genius, 28 Oct. 2016, https://genius.com/2-chainz-here-we-go-again-lyrics.

Anonymous. “When Respect for Diversity Is Taken to Crazy Extremes.” The Economist, The Economist Newspaper, 15 May 2018, www.economist.com/open-future/2018/05/15/when-respect-for-diversity-is-taken-to-crazy-extremes.

Azalea, Iggy. “Iggy Azalea – Kream Ft. Tyga (Official Music Video).” YouTube, YouTube, 6 July 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7lM7Bn16Zg.

Chainz, 2. “2 Chainz – Here We Go Again (Audio).” YouTube, YouTube, 27 Oct. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEA4XtsYB2A.

Clan, Wu-Tang. “Wu-Tang Clan – C.R.E.A.M. (Official Music Video).” YouTube, YouTube, 21 Jan. 2014, www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBwAxmrE194.

“Criminal Justice Fact Sheet.” Naacp.org, NAACP, www.naacp.org/criminal-justice-fact-sheet/.

Eberhardt, Maeve, and Kara Freeman. “‘First things first, I’m the realest’: Linguistic appropriation, white privilege, and the hip‐hop persona of Iggy Azalea.” Journal of Sociolinguistics 19.3 (2015): 303-327.

Klinkenberg, Brendan, and Tirhakah Love. “10 Essential Mac Miller Songs.” Rolling Stone, 9 Sept. 2018, www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/10-essential-mac-miller-songs-721709/.

Miller, Mac. “Mac Miller – Kool Aid & Frozen Pizza.” YouTube, YouTube, 26 July 2010, www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnAbszcy3bs.

TheVisiting, and Lord Finesse. “Lord Finesse – Hip 2 Da Game 1995 HQ.” YouTube, YouTube, 24 Jan. 2010, www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oQeg460wos.

“Wu-Tang Clan – C.R.E.A.M.” Genius, 31 Jan. 1994, https://genius.com/Wu-tang-clan-cream-lyrics.

by

White Freedom: Kanye West’s Refusal to give into Societal Notions on Race and Music

Josh Lodish

March 24, 2019

Professor Rippeon

Voice, Noise, Sound, Sense

Intro:

It may upend your perceptions of race and politics to hear a story of a white actor calling out a black artist for their endorsement and support of Donald Trump. You may be less surprised if you knew that black artist was Kanye West. In the season opener of Saturday Night Live (SNL), Kanye West finished his performance with a defense of his support for the President. Kanye claimed he doesn’t “agree with everything anyone does,” and that “we have the right to independent thought” (Corsarcelli). However controversial this claim may be, at its purest form, Kanye states that he has the right to support whomever he wants. He has the right for ‘independent thought’ regardless of circumstance. Nonetheless, Kanye immediately received criticism from the popular black artists Questlove and Swizz Beatz, who stated Trump was “blatantly hurting our people” (Corsarcelli). Furthermore, Kanye received intense pushback from Pete Davidson, a white actor on the SNL cast, who claimed “being mentally ill is not an excuse to act like a jackass,” calling out Kanye for his unethical stances on politics (Weekend Update). Davidson explained that Kanye’s actions offend people, for example, “every black person ever” (Weekend Update). As a white man, Davidson not only criticizes Kanye for his honesty and independent thought, but tells Kanye how he should act, in large part, due to his race.   

In his endorsement of Trump, Kanye West attempts to alter our expectations of black men and artists. Kanye forces us to ask what our expectations are, and knowingly challenges them. When describing the Veil, W.E.B DuBois focuses on a similar process. The Veil forces black individuals to see themselves “through the revelation of the other world,” by constantly processing their actions through the dominant white culture (Brodwin 307). Years later, Jennifer Lynn Stoever extended DuBois’ Veil claiming that “sound and listening enable racism’s evolving presence,” illustrating through her concept of the Sonic Color Line, that race is strongly connected to sound (Stoever 5). Both the Veil and the Sonic Color line rely upon expectations of obedience. These expectations only become visible when someone challenges them and is forcibly corrected. 

Yeezus, Kanye’s sixth studio album, challenges our expectations of obedience in terms of race and music, thus disregarding both the Sonic Color Line, and the Veil. Kanye has fielded criticism for his actions (by both black and white artists), and continues to stand for what he believes in. He does not accept a lifestyle in which he must alter his actions to fit the desires of dominant white culture. Instead Kanye acts genuinely, staying true to himself, and in the end of his speech on SNL, asks us one basic thing, “if you want the world to move forward- try love,” (Corsarcelli). In this essay I will demonstrate that Kanye West disregards the Veil and the Sonic Color Line both through three songs on Yeezusand his endorsement of Trump.

Part 1: Yeezus

Blood on the Leaves:

To create the track Blood on the Leaves, Kanye sampled Strange Fruit– a song written by Billie Holiday about the murders of African Americans by lynching. This song undoubtedly carries an important and heavy weight in terms of race in America. Kanye chooses to take this intense song about murder and morph it into one about an unhealthy, oversexualized, and drug fueled relationship as demonstrated by his lines, “my second-string bitches,” and “when you tried your first molly” (Blood on the Leaves). By ignoring the historical context of the sample and completely redefining to himself what the song means, Kanye explicitly goes against the Veil, which limits black’s ability to “see themselves outside of what white America describes and prescribes for them” (UVA). In describing his music Kanye tells us he would, “rather piss a bunch of people off and make myself happy than make everyone else happy and be pissed off inside” (Dombal). Clearly, Kanye does not want to buy into how he should act in regard to artistry, fame, or race. Kanye lives by the terms he sets for himself. Through a disregard for societal expectations for his sampling choice in Blood on the Leaves, and his genuine opinions on the understanding of his music, Kanye denies the Sonic Color Line and the Veil. 

New Slaves:

Undoubtedly a song titled New Slaves is designed to be provocative. New Slaves follows along with Yeezus’ themes of confrontation and vanity with lines such as “You see there’s leaders and there’s followers, but I’d rather be a dick than a swallower” (New Slaves). Kanye references “Broke ni**a racism,” being told he shouldn’t touch anything in the store, and “rich ni**a racism,” when he’s profiled for what he wants to buy, being told “all you blacks want all the same things” (New Slaves). These lines demonstrate Kanye’s experience with the Sonic Color Line and the “imposed racial identities and structures of racist violence” thrust upon him as a black man (Stoever 4). Kanye connects contemporary racism to Jim Crow, “the era when clean water was only served to the fairer skin,” and to slavery, both in the song title, and lines such as ‘they wasn’t satisfied unless I picked the cotton myself’ (New Slaves).  He asks us (his audience) to re-evaluate our concepts of racism in America and he acknowledges, as the Sonic Color Line explains, that sound has been “ever present in the construction of race and the performance of racial oppression” (Stoever 4). In forcing us to re-evaluate their perceptions of racism, as opposed to reinforcing them, Kanye disregards the Veil and the Sonic Color Line. 

I am a God: 

I am a God is perhaps the song on Yeezus that most directly challenges our societal expectations of race and music, as exemplified through this short interview of Kanye describing the song. In the interview, Kanye makes clear that America expects black artists (especially rappers) to possess stereotypical characteristics such as ‘pimping,’ or being a ‘gangsta’ (Zane Low). He states that society does not expect black artists to be self-confident or articulate. And for a black man to claim he’s a god? Well society would find that blasphemous. Kanye chose I am a Godas the title for his track to cause a visceral reaction. Kanye understands how the Sonic Color Line operates “as an organ of racial discernment” (Stoever 4); that the Veil commands the black artist to “channel his natural abilities and personal aims into political and social arenas” (Browdwin 303). Nonetheless, Kanye challenges these expectations, and uses his music to alter society’s perception of what it means to be a black male rapper. Kanye does so by calling himself a literal God. 

Part 2: Endorsing Trump

            Not only does Kanye’s music on Yeezus exemplify his rejection of the Sonic Color Line and the Veil, but so does his endorsement of President Donald Trump. By supporting Trump, Kanye delivers the shock value that he went for on Yeezus. He is being genuine, and provocative, acting so they we think, why? Kanye challenges our expectations of race and does so intentionally. In his article, I’m not Black, I’m Kanye, Ta-Nehsi Coates writes about Kanye’s endorsement of Trump and claims that Kanye desires freedom in his actions. But not any kind of freedom- white freedom. Coates describes white freedom as, “freedom without consequence…criticism…to be proud and ignorant” (Coates).  Essentially, Coates claims Kanye simply wants to be freed from racial expectations and to function as an artist defined only by himself. When DuBois describes the Veil as something that, “yielded him no true self-consciousness, but only lets him see himself through the revelation of the other world,” he was describing the intense filtering of self through white culture that African-Americans are forced to do (UVA). In endorsing Trump, Kanye removes the idea that black men should filter themselves and their actions through the lens of race. In an interview with Jimmy Kimmel, Kanye states “everyone around me tried to pick my candidate for me,” further describing a worry that if he endorsed Trump, people would “kick him out of the black community because blacks are supposed to have a monolithic thought” (Jimmy Kimmel).  Kanye knows the expectations thrust upon him as a black man. He is perfectly aware of the veil society expects him to see himself through. This level of “true self-consciousness,” which DuBois claimed was impossible in a life with the Veil, is attainable for Kanye exactly because he refuses it. Kanye describes his endorsement of Trump as a representation of overcoming fear, and “doing what you felt no matter the consequences” (Jimmy Kimmel). Kanye refuses the Veil and the Sonic Color Line by dictating his own life, challenging societal perceptions of black men, and above all else- being true to himself, no matter the consequences.  

Conclusion: 

            Kanye West refuses the expectations thrust upon him by the Sonic Color Line and the Veil as demonstrated through his honest and unique work on Yeezus, and his endorsement of Trump. In his song Ye vs. The People, Kanye has a rap-argument with Atlanta rapper T.I, defending his endorsement of Trump. Kanye drops insightful lines such as, “Make America Great had a negative perception, I added empathy, care, love, and affection” and “is it better if I rap about crack, because its cultural?” (Ye vs. The People). In his rap, Kanye focuses in on one main point – Love. Kanye tells us that “yall be leading with hate,” but instead we should be leading with love, which he claims to have done by adding it to Trump’s slogan (Ye vs. The People). As he did in his SNL speech when he stated, “if you want the world to move forward- try love,” Kanye asks us in Ye vs. The Peoplenot to focus on perceptions or expectations of people, but instead to focus on being genuine and honest (Coscarelli). People like Pete Davidson may have a hard time accepting Kanye’s proud endorsement of Donald Trump, but throughout it all Kanye has made clear that he doesn’t care. Kanye, through his music and actions has consistently challenged societal expectations of race, as set out in the Sonic Color Line and the Veil and left us with his message of love. 

Works Cited:

  1. Stoever, Jennifer Lynn. The Sonic Color Line: Race and the Cultural Politics of Listening. NYU Press, 2016. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1bj4s55.
  2. Ta-Nehsi Coates. “I’m not Black, I’m Kanye”. Atlantic Magazine.7 May, 2018. https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2018/05/im-not-black-im-kanye/559763/.
  3. The Veil and Double Consciousness. University of Virginia Press (UVA). http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ug03/souls/defpg.html. 
  4. Ryan Dombal. Kanye West, Yeezus. Pitchfork Magazine. 18 June, 2013. https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/18172-kanye-west-yeezus/.
  5. Kanye West. Interview by Zane Low. “Kanye West Explains his Meaning behind “I Am A God” with Zane Low”. December 31, 2013.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ge33hrlN2Uc
  6. Kanye West. Interview with Jimmy Kimmel. “Jimmy Kimmel’s Full Interview with Kanye West”. April 10, 2018.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmZjaYdS3fA
  7. Joe Coscarelli. Kanye West Ends ‘S.N.L’ With Speech About Trump and Bullying. The New York Times. 30 September, 2018. 
  8. Weekend Update. Interview with Pete Davidson. “Weekend Update: Pete Davidson on Kanye West- SNL”. Youtube. Saturday Night Live. October 7, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=218&v=ASqnnZpsX1M
  9. Stanley Brodwin. The Veil Transcended: Form and Meaning in W.E.B DuBois’ “The Souls of Black Folk”. Sage Publications.https://www.jstor.org/stable/2783720 
  10. Kanye West. “Blood on the Leaves.” Yeezus, Def Jam Records, 2013. Youtube,  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nn0Pu2Qun-E
  11. Kanye West. “New Slaves.” Yeezus, Def Jam Records, 2013. Youtube,   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wcFyBPcSpM
  12. Kanye West. “Ye vs. The People.” Def Jam Records, 2018. Youtube,  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swQWUa5-9TM

by

The Importance of Race in Auto-Tune

Beginning in the late 2000s, the widespread use of Auto-Tune has revolutionized the popular music industry. As technology has improved, an influx of opportunity has emerged to help artists create the posthuman condition that exists in many of today’s R&B songs, through the use of Auto-Tune and synthesizers. Posthumanism occurs when the human voice transforms during an interaction with technology. Many believe that this transition interferes with modern rap music as Auto-Tune can serve as a means of diverting the listener’s attention from a lack of lyrical and performance ability. Also, most modern rap songs appear to be centered around the pursuit of acquiring wealth, disrespecting females, and the use of drugs and alcohol. As a result, Auto-Tune often carries a negative reputation, and is generally associated with African-American rappers who lack legitimate musical talent. In reality, artists have begun to use Auto-Tune as a new medium of expression, which ultimately helps them to voice their thoughts and messages in an improved fashion. According to Alexander Weheliye, a professor of African American Studies at Northwestern University, Auto-Tune can help to intensify an artist’s expression in “the representations of soul and subjectivity they [Auto-Tune and synthesizers] harbor,” (Weheliye 517.)  Combining emotional expression with technology, Weheliye firmly believes the topic of posthumanism needs to be viewed through a lens of race (Weheliye 516). The song “Modern Slavery” by Travis Scott and Quavo, and the works of Future serve as prime examples of using Auto-Tune as a tool for artistic expression in a way that challenges the negative public perception of this genre. Moreover, there are various uses for Auto-Tune as demonstrated in the differences between the joking nature of the song “I’m On a Boat” by The Lonely Island ft. T-Pain that parodies many clichés in rap songs (excessive wealth and drinking) and a deeper application in “Modern Slavery,” by Travis Scott and Quavo, which references historical racial injustices (Genius). In this essay, I will be examining how Auto-Tune, an emerging technology, intersects with race in twenty-first century rap music in its ability to both mask and reveal emotion.

Since the early 2000s, Auto-Tune has proven to be incredibly successful in its ability to allow new forms of personal expression for primarily African-American rap artists. The presence of speech synthesizing devices in rap, according to Weheliye, “imagines interpersonal relations and informational technologies as the mutually constitutive rather than antithetical foils,” and, “gives meditation to performance as opposed to just supporting it.” (Weheliye 516, 515). The artist Future is known for using Auto-Tune in nearly all of his music, exhibiting his understanding of the mutually constitutive relationship between Auto-Tune and message. Future has developed his own style with Auto-Tune, and many claim he has reinvented blues for the 21st century, by using Auto-Tune to repurpose music to express his feelings (Pitchfork).  This is proof that synthesizers do not represent a lack of vocal skills that may strip humanistic elements – the slightly off-pitch and expressive elements from natural singing – in favor of flawlessness. According to Future’s late sound engineer, Seth Firkins, Auto-Tune was always used from the start of any Future recording session because, “that’s how we get the emotion out of him,” (Pitchfork).  “My music – that’s pain,” says Future, and “I come from pain, so you gonna hear it in my music,” (Pitchfork). Future uses rap to talk about his childhood and growing up surrounded by the drug trade. Rodney Carmichael, NPR’s hip-hop writer, adds, “Between its bitter lines, Future reveals a heart victimized by the same emotional cesspool he’s drowning in, even as he gurgles his last Auto-Tuned breath,” (NPR). In other words, there is a much deeper meaning to Future’s disconnected lyrics, which are often expressed through issues of sex, hard drugs and a sense of general emptiness in his life. On the track “All Right,” Future raps, “I got money, fame, I got mini-mes/I can feel the pain of my enemies/ I been downin’ Percocets with Hennessy/ I can hear the hood sayin’ they proud of me,” (Pitchfork and Genius). Future clearly expresses a feeling of pain for those he has defeated on his rise to the top. Similar examples of emotion in Future’s work include: “WRLD on Drugs,” “First Off,” “Mask Off,” and “Stick Talk,” among others. Nonetheless, Future uses Auto-Tune as a means of emotional expression to an extent he would not be able to match otherwise.

Another example of using Auto-Tune to display emotion, while keeping racial issues at the center, is the song “Modern Slavery,” by Travis Scott and Quavo. The song begins with a sample from Otis Redding’s 1966 track, “Cigarettes and Coffee,” which has been featured previously in tracks by Kanye West and JAY-Z. Buddah Bless, the producer of the “Modern Slavery,” said, “it [the Otis track] was so epic, it gets you the head bob into the record like 15 seconds in [to the song]”(Genius). The rest of “Modern Slavery” features Travis and Quavo drawing parallels between the history of slavery in America and the rappers’ metaphorical enslavement to luxurious items, including expensive cars, jewelry, and drugs (Songfacts). What catches the listener’s attention is the heavily synthesized chorus that appears in the fifth line of the song when Travis raps, “All these damn chains, modern slavery (Ice) But this ain’t 1800 so they pay me (Cash)” with Quavo mumbling in the background. The use of Auto-Tune in this track allows the rappers to compare powerful historical racial events to their lives. They even reference the Middle Passage in saying, “never been food for sharks (nope) wrist like fins on dolphins (splash), (Genius). Here, they are referencing the slaves aboard ships in the Middle Passage that were thought to be too sick to recover and subsequently thrown overboard. Travis also makes a comparison of his wrists being fitted with enough expensive jewelry to be comparable to the silver of a dolphin’s fin. Using Auto-Tune helps the two rappers develop a smooth flow for the song that draws a large listening base that is able to understand the rappers’ racial comparisons. Weheliye even writes that “black cultural practices do not have the illusion of disembodiment, they stage the body of information and technology as opposed the the lack thereof.” (Weheliye 516). Auto-Tune and synthesizers clearly demonstrate a true command of lyrical and performing ability, which serves as proof that using Auto-Tune is a choice made by the artist, as opposed to a negative use from a lack of musical ability.

For most popular rap songs, there is a disconnection where the American public has become used to partially ignoring the significance of lyrics as a result of the Auto-Tune age in an attempt to achieve social acceptance. This is a result of racial inequalities; however, some song lyrics are simply too powerful to go unheard. Reginia Bradley, a researcher of African American Life and Culture at Kennesaw State University, also believes that there is a “coolness” factor associated with black music (Bradley 57-58). She writes that this societal reputation “leans heavily upon stereotypical and often uncontested expectations of black masculinity,” (Bradley 57). In “Modern Slavery,” and other popular rap tracks, the artists are appealing to multiple crowds, both of which are attracted to Auto-Tune. One crowd is a smaller listening base that will take the time to dissect lyrical meaning of song. The other, however, is the, “young, white, middle-class male majority,” which has grown to ignore the meaning of some rap lyrics (Bradley 9). Bradley mentions that American youth are now fascinated by the “coolness, antiheroic, antiauthoritarian stances of bona-fide genius black musicians,” (Bradley 68). In these instances, Auto-Tune generally serves as a way to ensure flow for the song. But in “Modern Slavery,” Travis and Quavo are able to use rap as a medium of citing history and making racial comparisons to demonstrate their feelings in a way that both allows them to be the most expressive and to access a new audience. As an avid listener of primarily African-American rap artists, I do fall in the second category and don’t necessarily listen to this music for the meaning. By constantly referencing the 1800s and slavery; however, the expertly crafted song, “Modern Slavery,” forced me to confront the issue of racial injustices throughout history. The Auto-Tune here provides a circuit to the posthuman conditoin by forcing listeners, regardless of race, to at least consider racial issues (Weheliye 517). Moreover, Bradly writes that the coolness and catchy element that results from using Otis samplings in popular rap was originally meant to serve as a resistance to white privilege and oppression and is wrongly imitated by nonblack fans (Bradley 68). Travis and Quavo certainly must have known that they have an enormous white male fanbase that would also be nodding their heads to the Otis sample in a quest for social acceptance. Overall, “Modern Slavery” is unique in the rappers’ ability to manipulate Auto-Tune to intensify the political aspect of race, which is different from the normal use of synthesizing in the rap industry to appeal to a broader fan base.

Auto-Tune clearly has a wide variety of uses that led the technology to be used in polar opposite directions. Most of the general public believes that technology is used to cover up an artist’s lack of ability. In reality, Auto-Tune opens a new door for many artists in its ability to serve as a tool in expressing emotion in a way that wasn’t previously possible. Regardless, the topic of race is vital to this discussion. Due to the biases and racism that exists in our society – subconscious or not – Auto-Tune has developed a negative reputation. In the examples of Auto-Tune in the tracks of Future and “Modern Slavery” by Travis Scott and Quavo, synthesizers have the ability to express unique emotions while challenging our notions of race. Additional uses of Auto-Tune can be seen in “Heartless” by Kanye West, which features seemingly simple lyrics that feature Auto-Tune as a way of appealing to one crowd in the flow of the song. However, Auto-Tune also reveals a deeper meaning of the track, since Kanye intentionally uses this to make his voice difficult to understand as an expression of his confused feelings. Auto-Tune also reveals a societal problem since a group of white people may only consider racial issues through listening in unintentional instances in rap music. Nonetheless, given its ability of emotional expression and propulsion of racial conversation, Auto-Tune represents more for the rap industry than merely a cover-up for untalented African-American artists.

In the future, I hope to consider how race intersects in the work of Lil Wayne and Kendrick Lamar. Both rappers have a history of using voice synthesizers, and feel very ambivalently about race as shown in this first video of Lil Wayne and the second of Kendrick. Also, I would like to examine the role of Auto-Tune and race in the work of Migos, who have a societal reputation for sacrificing lyrical meaning in pursuit of ensuring flow for their songs. However, Quavo, one of the artists on “Modern Slavery” and one of the three members of Migos said the Migos album, Culture II,still represents “all the races,” (Newsweek).

Work Cited

Weheliye, Alexander, “Desiring Machines in Black Popular Music.” The Sound Studies Reader, edited by Jonathan Sterne, Routlidge, 2012, pp. 511-519.

The Lonely Island – I’m On a Boat (Explicit Version) ft. T-Pain. Youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avaSdC0QOUM.

Scott, Travis and Quavo. Travis Scott & Quavo – Modern Slavery [Huncho Jack, Jack Huncho]. Youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BlOuESUp5o.


“The Lonely Island (Ft. T-Pain) – I’m On a Boat.” Genius, 3 Feb. 2009, genius.com/The-lonely-island-im-on-a-boat-lyrics. Accessed 21 Mar. 2019.

“HUNCHO JACK – Modern Slavery.” Genius, 22 Dec. 2017, genius.com/Huncho-jack-modern-slavery-lyrics Accessed 19 Mar. 2019.

Reynolds, Simon. “How Auto-Tune Revolutionized the Sound of Popular Music.” Pitchfork, Pitchfork, 17 Sept. 2018, pitchfork.com/features/article/how-auto-tune-revolutionized-the-sound-of-popular-music/. Accessed 18 Mar. 2019

Carmichael, Rodney, et al. “21 Hip-Hop Albums That Reflected The Politics Of Race, Space And Place In 2017.” NPR, NPR, 28 Dec. 2017, www.npr.org/2017/12/28/573792051/21-hip-hop-albums-that-reflected-the-politics-of-race-space-and-place-in-2017. Accessed 18 Mar. 2019.

“Future – All Right.” Genius, 17 Jan. 2016, genius.com/Future-all-right-lyrics. Accessed 20 Mar. 2019.

Future, Juice World. WRLD on Drugs (Audio). Youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBeXjXUesO4.

Future ft. Travis Scott. First Off (Audio). Youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeYG-tboiOU.

Future. Mask Off. Youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMCwYdTJ_PE.

Future. Stick Talk. Youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuaXmo12hAc.

Redding, Otis. Otis Redding – Cigarettes and Coffee. Youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQww3HeL8M4.

Songfacts. “Modern Slavery by Huncho Jack.” Songfacts, www.songfacts.com/facts/huncho-jack/modern-slavery. Accessed 20 Mar. 2019.

Bradley, Regina. “Contextualizing Hip Hop Sonic Cool Pose in Late Twentieth- and Twenty-First-Century Rap Music.” ProQuest, Current Musicology, no. 93, 2012, pp. 57–72, 151. Accessed 20 Mar. 2019.

Stolworthy, Jacob.. “Kendrick Lamar Explains Why His White Fans Shouldn’t Rap the N-Word.” The Independent, Independent Digital News and Media, 29 June 2018, www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/kendrick-lamar-white-fan-rap-n-word-racism-concert-explained-a8423101.html. Accessed Mar 20 Mar. 2019.

Associated Press. Lil Wayne stands by his ‘no such thing as racism’ comment. Youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hxX5IlCjrs.

Williams, Janice. “Quavo Says of Making ‘Culture II’: ‘No Pressure, Baby! We the Greatest in the World.’.” Newsweek, 27 Jan. 2018, www.newsweek.com/migos-culture-ii-album-quavo-787266. Accessed 22 Mar. 2019.

by

In Defense of the Carroll School

All fifth graders in my school district have taken field trips to the Carroll School for over a decade now. We would see the preserved school building, learn about the lives of sharecroppers during the Great Depression, eat school lunches like they did, and then pick cotton and sing songs in the field. Only this year has someone made complaints about the field trip to the media, dragging it hazily from the archives of my now college-aged friends and my memories. I’ve had conversations about it with many of my former classmates, and for most of us, the initial dominant emotions are hurt and confusion. People are horrified that in my fifty percent African American town, ten- and eleven-year-olds were picking cotton and singing slave songs—and to us it was a fun game. Anyone who says this is wrong has a strong case. However, I believe that the situation is more complicated than it’s being made out to be, and the moral verdict here could be inconclusive. In the second chapter of his autobiography, Frederick Douglass talks about how northerners believed that because the southern slaves sang, they were happy. He says that any slave would know that was not the case. To those in the group, the truth was completely different than what it appeared to be on the outside. It’s easy to apply the phenomenon he describes to the polarizing picture painted by the media. The logical conclusion that comes from reading the Fox News or Atlanta Black Star articles is that the Rock Hill school District (RHSD) is comprised of evil racists who took pleasure in encouraging fifth graders to act like slaves. The actuality is more nuanced and while anger shouldn’t be ruled out, it should be informed. In this essay I intend to apply Douglass’s logic to my experience and temper the fury that comes from the one-sided media portrayal of the field trip.

When mother of one of the children, Jessica Blanchard’s, complaint broke, people reacted furiously to the Carroll School field trip. After getting over the initial shock of it, I was angry myself. None of us former students understood how we could’ve been so utterly misled and taken advantage of. That should have been our first hint that something was amiss, but it was difficult to see past the outrage being spread by most news articles. One example of such a news article is by the Atlanta Black Star and bears the headline: “‘I Like It When You Fill the Sack’: S.C. Elementary School Students Pick Cotton, Sing ‘Slave’ Songs as Part of Class Field Trip”. As if the title isn’t strongly worded enough, the first sentence is immediately biased.

“A South Carolina mother believes a school history lesson went a step too far after her 10-year-old son and his classmates were made to pick cotton and sing “slave songs” during a class field trip during Black History Month.”

Every part of this sentence enforces the narrative that the children were evilly taken advantage of. The use of the word “made” implies either that (1) the children didn’t want to pick cotton and sing, something easily disproven by the excited yells of the children featured in the five-minute video on the field trip, or that (2) they were completely ignorant to what they were doing—meaning they were taken advantage of. There is truth to that if these malleable children were faced with the same instructions to pick cotton today, many of them would say no. That doesn’t change that these news companies are sensationalizing the story to heighten audience reactions. They mention that the trip was during Black History Month to further stoke the flames of outrage they mean to incite. To someone who knows the field trip’s true goal, which is to pass on the oral history of these rural southern African American families, this would be poignant instead of a cause for anger. Newspapers feed off these “outrage politics”. It’s a phenomenon often demonstrated on the social media platform Twitter. Users often get angry just because other people are inciting witch hunts for reasons that may not be deserving. In fact, I first witnessed the half-narrative of this field trip on the website and fell for it myself. The truth is that the Carroll School is meant to preserve the oral history of the early 20th century African American community near my hometown. The many people calling for it to be shut down are actually working against what they should want—an opportunity for the stories of these folk to be preserved and heard.

The news articles sensationalizing the trips to the Carroll School focus only on the cotton-picking and slave song singing, whileignoring the complete picture. They usually neglect to mention what the school actually was and what the purpose of the trip was. They frame the school district’s response that the trip was about the Great Depression as a cop out for the readers to scoff at rather than the literal truth. None of the articles mention that the people who worked at the school were sharecroppers and that the school is preserved by the former students. Instead they use the phrase “slave song” and let their readers draw their own conclusions. Obviously, this leaves readers furious, wondering how the school district could traumatize and belittle their students in such a callous way. Further research reveals that things aren’t that terrible. Built in 1929, the Carroll School was part of Booker T. Washington’s Rosenwald Initiative to educate African Americans in the rural South (The Olde English District). The students who attended the school were the African American children of sharecroppers. Unsurprisingly these families continued to be extorted by unfair contracts and dirty business tactics. This is what they taught us on the field trip. They said that the end of slavery didn’t mean the end of oppression of black people. They didn’t glamorize slavery; slavery wasn’t even the heart of the conversation. They had us pick cotton to give us a glimpse into the lives of the Carroll School students. They couldn’t just force us to work so it was made into a game and we sang songs. No matter where you finally land in regard to the issue, anyone would have to admit that the trip has been made out to be something worse than it actually was. The way newspapers have portrayed it as an act of overt racism is misleading and unfair to the public.

The video about the Carroll School made by Rock Hill school district is heartwarming and tells of the true life of the students that attended the school from 1929-1954. It’s relatable to the fifth graders because many of the students at the school were even younger than them. Right from the beginning (at 0:28) the video shows one of the men who preserves the school leading a fifth-grade class through the slave song I remember singing myself when I was ten. They seem giddy and you can hear as they enthusiastically sing along and try to copy his accent. It’s worth noting that this “slave song” is one he wrote himself, as claimed in a statement by RHSD responding to the backlash towards the Carroll School. The video is interspersed with facts about the school, interviews of the now elderly students, and videos of the fifth-graders on the trip. The singing and cotton-picking don’t look so dark from this angle. You could even call it wholesome when seeing the kids cheer and treat the experience like a game. The preservation, interviews, and field trip all feature kind-looking black grandparents. In the video, they speak honestly about how hard life was for them. They’re telling an oral history of their past. That’s better than learning from a textbook, and it’s more authentic to the subject matter. The school itself serves as a vehicle for oral and physical history of a long-marginalized group. The video serves as a testament to the school’s mission and supports everything the school district restated a year later when faced with accusations of racism.

In the second chapter of his autobiography, Frederick Douglass identifies a common issue among listeners by retelling the confusion he felt upon hearing Northerners interpretation of slave songs. He says, “I have often been utterly astonished, since I came to the north, to find persons who could speak of the singing, among slaves, as evidence of their contentment and happiness.” He goes on to vehemently deny this saying “Slaves sing most when they are most unhappy. The songs of the slave represent the sorrows of his heart; and he is relieved by them, only as an aching heart is relieved by its tears.” Singing only made things temporarily more bearable. It is obvious that people don’t have to be miserable all the time to be considered generally unwell. However, the Northerners missed this because they needed to be in the group to see the full picture and react appropriately. Knowing only half the story will lead to people drawing the wrong conclusions. This is especially true to things overheard. Our field trip seems deplorable if all you hear is that the kids picked cotton and sang slave songs. If you’re in the group that participated in it, you realize that it’s part of the learning activity and is respectful to the teacher’s history. It’s part of the continuation of the oral history of southern African Americans. The whole event celebrates a school that helped to lift disadvantaged, rural, southern black families out of poverty. The trip truly was about the Great Depression. Northern South Carolinians lived off the area’s textile industry and picking cotton was a symptom of that. Just like the way African American farmers were taken advantage of is a symptom of racism and slavery. People in the group know the truth more than outsiders. That’s why northerners that may care about this issue need to take a moment to try to understand the lived experiences of the southerners. Critics of the trip need to try to see the point of view held by the people who were actually on the trip. And lastly, people who went on the trip need to think deeply about the actual lives of the people who attended the Carroll School and how/if that legacy should be celebrated. People who were on the trip know the field trip is not as bad as it seems and could even truthfully be called respectful for the way it gives these families the power to share their story on their own terms, regardless of whether or not you believe the Carroll School was actually the most beneficial it could be to its students.

The side of the story I’ve shared suggests that people shouldn’t be so outraged. So why are they? In one part it is due to the narrative of half-truths pushed by media, but there must be more. However, as a white woman, I haven’t been affected by years of oppression in the same way as my black classmates have. The school’s creation by Booker T. Washington in 1929 crystallized the larger issues surrounding the path which African American social and economic advancement was to take. Washington was willing to sacrifice economic equality for social and economic independence. He wanted African Americans to work blue collar jobs and believed they would slowly gain the respect of white folk by pulling themselves up by their bootstraps. W. E. B. Du Bois, the first African American to earn a PhD from Harvard, disagreed. Du Bois believed that the key to advancement lay in education which would lead to economic advancement and political enfranchisement. The Carroll School taught trade skills to young black men and women, which allowed them to make a living in the areas where they were raised without obtaining higher education. Du Bois would argue that it benefitted industry at the expense of complete education. So, while the school is an important part of oral history and was better than nothing for the African American families in York County, people who favor Du Bois’s logic see it as a continuation of the systematic disfranchisement of African Americans. For this reason, they could place the value of moving away from such structures over the value of the oral history associated with it. Furthermore, the action of cotton-picking is a huge reminder to anyone not modernly associated with the cotton industry of the terrible things that happened to black people in the U.S. for decades during and after slavery. This would be especially true of black people. People must be in-group to be able to see the truth about certain issues. Despite growing up in a largely African American school district, I have white privilege that allows me to live differently and often more easily than my black classmates. I can’t sit here and firmly put down the anger of Jessica Blanchard, who is part of a group I am not and therefore sees and hears things differently than I do. In the interviews Blanchard has done, she seems truly devastated that her child participated in the field trip. If she were to explain, in the scope of the Carroll School being a way to pass on oral traditions, why the exercises done there were wrong, I would absolutely want to hear that. Because I was a student on the field trip, I can speak to my perspective, but I can’t speak to the perspective of a black student. Luckily, there are hundreds of black students who have been on the trip and wouldn’t be too difficult to contact if people truly want to know their experiences. With that being said, outrage is definitely permissible in this circumstance, but it should be informed. What is being circulated by the media right now is not informed and is, in fact, deliberately misleading.

Clearly there are other people who think that the Carroll School should be preserved.

The Carroll School won’t be shut down, and fifth-graders will continue to take field trips to it. However, there will be changes. RHSD has issued a statement saying, “In light of recent concerns regarding parts of the Carroll School field experience, Rock Hill Schools has made some changes to the program that will go into effect immediately. Students will no longer participate in picking cotton as part of the experience. Additionally, the song that was written and sung by an instructor based on his life experiences as an African American during the Great Depression era will no longer be performed.” Whether or not these changes are for the better or worse is up to individual interpretation, though I confess the image of these former Carroll School students being chastised for sharing the events that happened to their ancestors by people outraged about what happened to their ancestors makes me a little sad. However, I’m not part of every group that should get a say here, and my opinion shouldn’t be placed over the opinions of people more deeply affected. And as in Douglass’s story, I could be misinterpreting the events that I heard, even though I was participating in them during that one instance. We likely won’t ever reach a satisfying conclusion on the morality of the field trip I went on. Still, the doesn’t mean the conversation is pointless. In fact, the discomfort it raises indicates just how important it is. When we have these nuanced, cloudy discussions, we come closer to seeing each other’s point of view, which only brings us closer together.

Citations:

Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Clydesdale Press, 2018.

Grant, Matthew. “Rock Hill Schools Announce Changes to Controversial Field Trip.” WJZY, FOX 46, 4 Mar. 2019, www.fox46charlotte.com/news/local-news/rock-hill-schools-announce-changes-to-controversial-field-trip.

Kenney, Tanasia. “’I Like It When You Fill the Sack’: S.C. Elementary School Students Pick Cotton, Sing ‘Slave’ Songs as Part of Class Field Trip.” Atlanta Black Star, Atlanta Black Star, 22 Feb. 2019.

MsFluzo. Wade in the Water, YouTube, 19 July 2010, www.youtube.com/watch?v=vg_8L96E3eU.

Report, Palmetto. Rock Hill’s Carroll School Added to National Register of Historic Places, YouTube, 4 Dec. 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xTZx3prqJI.

Rock Hill Schools. YouTube, Rock Hill School District, 18 Apr. 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZBCPPDpCKg.

 “The Carroll (Rosenwald) School.” www.OldeEnglishDistrict.com, The Olde English District.

by

Truth Outside of Reality

“You’ve got a song you’re singing from your gut, you want that audience to feel it in their gut. And you’ve got to make them think that you’re one of them sitting out there with them too. They’ve got to be able to relate to what you’re doing.” Johnny Cash’s words on artistic integrity and authenticity regard music as a means to relate to others. Even when Johnny Cash sings about fictional events, he upholds this principle. Murder ballads, for example, are a genre of music that detail killings, and are most times sung from the perspective of the murderer. Often, the subject matter deals with vengeance for infidelity or unrequited love. A song that is archetypal of this genre is Johnny Cash’s rendition of Banks of the Ohio. The slow and rhythmic style is similar to folk music, and the song begins, as most in this genre do, as a song of longing for love, as the chorus of the song is:

In no others arms entwined.

“And only say that you’ll be mine

Down beside where the waters flow

Down by the banks of the Ohio.”

Other modes of media, such as scary stories use multiple sensory stimuli to provoke fear, using both vocal intonations and physical expressions to add suspense and shock. Other songs describing violent acts or murder such as death metal vocals use growling and screaming tones and frightening instrumental composition to create a uniform piece of dark, violent entertainment. Contrast the above murder ballad with $uicideboy$’s Carrollton, another a song exploring violence, in which the overall sound reflects the subject matter. The explicit lyrics, thumping bass, and violent pitch of the artists’ voices function to disconcert the listener. $uicideboy$ are remarkable manipulators of the aesthetic relationship between lyrics and composition.

When contrasted with Carrollton Johnny Cash’s Banks of the Ohio, does not strongly indicate the disturbing story being told apart from the lyrics. Murder ballads create sinister narratives without manipulating the musical notes or the artist’s vocal tone. While genres such as death metal and horrorcore reflect the lyrical meaning in the sound of the song, in murder ballads, the lyrics do all the work of telling the story. Murder ballads are soulfully performed in the same way as other songs, but do not employ dramatic expression as a performative element. Murder ballad artists are not necessarily drawing from true, first-hand experiences with murder, but are instead taking on roles and acting as performers. The artist’s voice and instrumental accompaniment translate a fictional narrative into an engrossing and tragic piece of art, devoid of grand performative flourishes and frightful musical arrangement. The compelling, narrative nature of the songs gives them value and authenticity, regardless of whether they are based in experiences in reality. Our ideas of authenticity are subverted; the distance grows between what is real, and what is true. Truth, or authenticity, can be achieved through the soul and emotion present in a piece of work. Poet Danez Smith treads this line expertly as they compose pieces surrounding their identity. Conceptually, performance seems to imply an act, but Smith is able to use performing as a means to authentically express their identity through the use of theatrical displays and passion in their voice.

Performative work allows the listener to engage with the experiences of the performer. Poetry is often considered a very personal and introspective art form and is therefore many times questioned regarding its authenticity. Poetry seeks to evoke feelings and engage readers through prose. One aspect of written poetry that seemingly cannot be repeated in spoken verse is the ability the reader has to connect or associate with the emotions, experiences, and memories evoked through literary prose or word choice. For example, in Danez Smith’s poem Self-Portrait as a 90s R&B Video, the long, rambling sentences and lack of capitalization convey the broader meaning behind the piece. Their detailed, twisting fantasy is full of rage, lust, and jealousy, but is also a vision of perfection. The imagery and prose create Smith’s new world. Author and critic Dan Chiasson claims that Danez Smith’s written poetry “forces you, the reader, to say aloud, to embody, the words, while leaving a gap for the inevitable differences of race or gender identity, of illness and health, that might sometimes seem unbridgeable”. However, I would argue that written poetry allows the reader to bring their individual experiences or identities to the work, rather than reading the poem strictly from Smith’s perspective. This poem is not read the same way by a black, genderqueer HIV-positive individual such as Smith as it would be for a straight white individual. Internalized privilege, bias, and experience create latitude for how the reader reads the piece, whether the reader wishes be totally enveloped in the poem, recall their own experiences or familiar aspects of the poem, or read as a detached observer.

However, Smith chooses to present this work through spoken verse. Here, Smith is enabled to set the scene on their own terms. Through vocalized poetry and Smith’s choice of emphasis, tone, volume, and expression, the reader is afforded a glimpse into Smith’s personal identity and motivation behind the poem. When Danez Smith is the reader, the listeners understand that the poem is about Smith’s experience, taking in the poem and applying it to themselves. This is is prone to happen when written poetry is detached from its author. Though it is a recollection of personal experiences and a manifestation of personal feelings and insecurities, Smith’s work is intentional, dramatic, and performative, as they display their identity to the viewer through differing vocal modes, dramatic expressions, and flourishes. This is an attempt for the viewers to try and glean some knowledge of the identity of a person who may come from a wildly different background. When Danez Smith chooses to perform their work, it is deeply authentic not only to their own identity but to the audience as well. The crowd does not make the performance less personal. The audience is invited to understand a part of their story, so Smith’s poetry clearly demonstrates how poetry can be a form of authentic, performative education through artistic expression. Danez Smith chooses different inflections, gestures, and emotional emphases dependent on their poems, but their recital of poetry reflects the performative nature of their work, retaining the aspects that give it authenticity throughout. Regarding the audience, Smith asserts, “I never want them to feel the same at the beginning of a poem as they do at the end”. The goal is to sway the reader and to evoke feelings in them. It is understandable, then, that Smith would use theatrical performance to draw the audience in.

Smith takes a different approach to performing the poem Undetectable. The only available mode of listening to Smith recite this poem is through a vocal recording. Undetectable uses symbolic imagery and attention-grabbing statements to explore the individual and societal consequences of Smith’s HIV-positive status. In this poem, Smith is speaking about their undetectable HIV, which is when the bloodstream is almost completely ridden of the virus but still contains trace amounts. Danez Smith recites the poem in an uncharacteristically non-dramatic way. They do not emphasize the powerful, dramatic lines, such as the consideration of a murdered boy who  “makes the whole forest a grave.” The meaning of the poem is undetectable in the way it is performed, echoing the “undetectable” nature of the virus. However, these lines that Smith practically whispers are laden with passion, emotion, and spirit. The poem sounds somber and subdued, but certainly not uninspired, and rather than being prosaic, the poem is deeply personal. Similar to the murder ballads, this authenticity stems from the way it is performed, and not from dramatic reading. Reading this poem, all sorts of emotions could be interpreted from the descriptive imagery. Listening to Smith read this poem, however, the reader can experience the poem the way the author intended it to be experienced. Even when stripped of dramatism in the voice and physical expression, the poem is still deeply authentic. That authenticity makes the poem vibrant, and that vibrancy lends itself to the performativity of the poem. In Danez Smith’s work, there is a reciprocal relationship between performativity and authenticity. Self-Portrait as a 90s R&B Video shows how Smith uses dramatic, performative flourishes to exhibit authenticity and genuine feeling in the poem, while Undetectable exhibits Smith’s ability to draw on aspects of their identity to create an authentic, engaging performance.

While Danez Smith’s work tends to be reflective of their identity, not all work requires experiential authenticity, only authentic feeling in the performance. This is the way in which poetry ought to be approached. In class, we set time discussing the unfortunate phenomenon of poet’s voice, and its relationship with sincerity in poetry. Poet’s voice, referred to by Cara Giamo as a “sonic uniform” donned by poets, is a facade of traditional artistry masking an insincere cultural norm. Poet’s voice is monotonous, with a distinctive, halting cadence and pattern, and an emotionless, lofty way of reciting poetry. Danez Smith’s style of reading poetry defies this artistic standard. Through genuine and powerful expression, Smith is able to attain truthfulness in fiction, and performativity in simplicity. Smith’s focus on passion and expression highlight a way in which performance can be transformed into personal introspection and exploration.

Works Cited:

Barker, Emily. The Wise Words Of Johnny Cash. nme.com, https://www.nme.com/photos/the-wise-words-of-johnny-cash-1428023. Accessed 20 March, 2019.

Rick Rubin. Banks of the Ohio, Johnny Cash. Genius, https://genius.com/Johnny-cash-banks-of-the-ohio-lyrics. Accessed 1 March, 2019.

User ricdmt101. Johnny Cash – Banks of the Ohio. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmwLUhejboo. Accessed 28 Feb., 2019.

G*59 Records. Carrollton. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOlVSngnC-o/. Accessed March 18, 2019.

Button Poetry. Danez Smith – Self-Portrait as a 90s R&B Video. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOE7O9pkczY. Accessed 22 Feb., 2019

Smith, Danez. DARK CHILD NAH NAH (OR SELF-PORTRAIT AS 90S R&B VIDEO). The Adroit Journal, https://theadroitjournal.org/issue-nineteen-danez-smith-the-adroit-journal/. Accessed 1 March, 2019.

Chiasson, Dan. Danez Smith’s Ecstatic Body Language. The New Yorker, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/02/danez-smiths-ecstatic-body-language. Accessed 10 March, 2019.

Staff, Harriet. The White Review Interviews Danez Smith. poetryfoundation.org, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2018/06/the-white-review-interviews-danez-smith. Accessed 12 March, 2019.

Smith, Danez. “Undetectable”. The New Yorker, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/10/08/undetectable. Accessed 22 Feb., 2019.

Giamo, Cara. An Algorithmic Investigation of the Highfalutin ‘Poet Voice’. Atlas Obscura, https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/cultural-analysis-poet-voice. Accessed 22 Feb., 2019.

by

Universality in Language

By James Shakow

People don’t talk about Ideophones because they can’t fully comprehend them. It can be scary to hear a word and feel something innate without knowing why. With all the connotations associated with language, people, especially English speakers have a hard time seeing a word for anything but the sense that we have ascribed to it. Most of the words in any language, and almost all the words in the English language, are not ideophones but instead simply arbitrary sounds that do not have any inherent meaning other than their defined sense. In his journal Armoskaite explores other languages, especially non-romantic languages such as Ewe from Ghana, Navajo from the American west, Japanese and Basque, that have evolved in a way more ideophonic and less abstract than the English language. Ideophones are words that carry objective significance to any given listener regardless of language, cultural background, or personal experience. Similar to onomatopoeic words, gestures, and some universal human noises, (i.e. crying or laughter), ideophonic words are comprehensible across language barriers. Ideophones push the limits of human communication by incorporating sound sensory into language; they enforce Stearns notion that words have more meaning behind them than their simple definitions.

Ideophones are inherently subconscious. Because each one is relatable on a visceral primordial level, they can be understood regardless of what language they’re spoken in. As Armoskaite describes it, “ideophones lead speakers to unconsciously endow particular sounds with specific sensory meanings”. In the way that a ‘K’ or ‘T’ sound could feel inherently sharp, the heaviness of a ‘G’ or a ‘B’ is palpable to the ear. He claims that ideophones “play a central role in very large theoretical questions about the parallels between verbal and nominal domains”. The line between verbal communication and non-lingual conversation is blurred. Ideophones carry an intuitive meaning that does not need to be auditory to be understood. While they do carry specific meanings in the language they are native to, a non-speaker could still comprehend the objective sense of an ideophone. Robson uses the Japanese examples of “wakuwaku” as an evocation of excitement, “nunurunu” as sliminess, and “gorogoro” as heaviness. Because of the different vowel and consonant sounds present in these words, on a subconscious level, we automatically comprehend them as something more ‘exciting’ or ‘slimy’ or ‘heavy’ rather than ‘dull’, ‘dry’ or ‘light’. The way we perceive the sounds in these words tricks our brain into giving them specific descriptive characteristics because of their ideophonic properties.

The easiest way to comprehend ideophones is to look at them in the context of another language. If we ignore the preconceived notions we have about English we are able to look at language in a solely vocal lens and gain more from the concept of the ideophone. The Basque language has more than 4,000 ideophones that follow the same vocal principals that Robson examines in his article. Similar vocal sounds connote similar meanings in Japanese and Basque, Ewe and English alike. This is not due to change. In his topical essay, Iraide Ibarretxe-antuñano claims that “recent research on this topic has shown that these elements are pervasive in all languages and that they might share some linguistic characteristics across languages.” Ideophones are universal communicators, and the English language doesn’t take as much advantage of them as many others do.

Ideophones can communicate feelings across languages, but famously they have been able to convey feeling through invented words. In Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky, he juxtaposes his own fantasy words with a story in English. Even though these words have never appeared anywhere else and we have no prior connotations with them, we are able to ascribe meaning to them through ideophonic notions.

Having never heard of a “Jabberwock”, we can assume from the hard ‘R’ and ‘K’ sounds it is something dangerous. To describe something as “mimsy” the light ‘I’ and ‘Y’ front vowel sounds would persuade us to think that it is a light, silly word. These words out of context continue to communicate their meaning through their ideophonic properties. The unfamiliarity of the words forces the audience to read them out loud in their minds and prescribe their own meaning to each one. They may draw some small features from context, but like a child learning a language for the first time, Robeson’s concept of “sound symbolism” can help an unfamiliar audience comprehend what is being said. From the Caimbridge University Journal, Lupyan and Casasanto explain that in the context of ideophones, “nonsense words function indistinguishably from conventional words” when considering their sound symbolism.

Though ideophones are primarily interpreted vocally, they are often developed into multi-sense scenes. Take the Ewe word for duck, “ɖaboɖabo” for example. Another word for duck in Ewe, “kpakpa” onomatopoetically imitates the sound of a quack, while “ɖaboɖabo” evokes a sensory scene to define duck by its waddling. In the speaking of the word a visible imitation of a duck’s waddle is essential to its communication (Westermann). Ideophones do not have to be imitations of sounds, but they can imitate entire “sensory scenes” as well (Robeson). While gestures have always been able to aid communication on some level, they are only considered to be ideophonic when they are paired with an existing ideophone. In Ndebele, a Zimbabwean language, “gesture almost always accompanies an ideophone”, and in many other languages around the world, pronounced ideophones are often related to visual or tactile gestures (Dingemanse).

One step beyond foreign language ideophones, performative ideophones  are words that are designed and used to make you feel a specific way. Performative ideophones can also be paired with iconic gestures. Jordan Scott notably uses idiophones in his live performance of blert, Stanley Kubrick and Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange coins almost an entire language of ideophones to portray a dystopian dialect, but Eddie Izzard’s ‘learning French’ comedy routine ties together gesture and language perfectly. (The applicable clip ranges from 1:45-2:42) (Warning, said clip may include profanity)

While Izzard addresses an English-speaking audience, the entire comedy of the routine is in French. By pairing an unfamiliar language with recognizable gestures, Izzard confirms the direct translation of his words are not essential to his comedy. There exists an innate comedy of noise and gestures and timing that is something universal. Like ideophones, his act transcends language barriers, and proves that words can have innate connotations regardless of their defined sense.

Research from Marcus Perlman’s experiment shows that ideophones are the connection between vocal sense and emotion. In his 2018 study, he concluded that the use of ideophonic ‘nonsense words’ could “enable interlocutors (subjects) to establish understanding in the absence of conventions.” Essentially, in an experiment where subjects created nonsense words to describe a simple emotion, action, or object, they were able to use ideophonic norms to effectively communicate their messages. A random chance rate for a subject to pick the right definition for the nonsense word was 5.6%. Perlman found that correct guesses were “highest for emotions (~60%), next for actions (~40%), and lowest for objects (~10%).” His research not only proves the existence of ideophones but introduces the notion that ideophonic words are more apt at conveying emotion than other forms of words. This remains true even if they are not part of any language at all. This is demonstrated aptly in the Four Horsemen’s “Emotional Poetry”. The concept that nonsensical words can convey deep feelings is essential to their work.

The guttural “ei ei ei” words add a sense of urgency, the rolled ‘r’s and deep throaty ‘ack’s in the evoke a sense of fear. While these made up noises do not communicate specific meanings, they are definitely able to conjure up certain emotions. Robeson claims that ‘ideophonic language is embodied’, something more physical and sensory than intelligent. The human physicality of “Emotional Poetry” is vibrantly visible. Robeson’s concept of “sensory scenes” has no better example of vocal and visual absurdity than this group of men standing around screaming into their microphones.

Ideophones are central to the idea that the words we speak have some greater meaning. That meaning may be artistic, it could be used intentionally by an author or vocal artist to make us feel in a certain way. The meaning may be practical, allowing basic human conversation to exist without a shared language. No matter what they are used for, Ideophones speak to us in ways that we cannot understand. They are one step above onomatopoeia or simple mimery, their innate meanings have “an effect on our brains even when we don’t fully understand their lexical or syntactic significance” and some scholars tend to shy away from addressing them because they are too hard to define (Lamb, McCormick – 54:15). In a modern context, when most words are arbitrary sounds that do not have inherent meanings, there is something comforting about the certainty of an ideophone. Though they are not perfect, they are the form of communication most instinctual and primordial to the human race. While one might not guess that “errinozeronte” means ‘Rhinoceros’ in Basque, they might catch on that it is heavy and dangerous and know to avoid it. Lovers of words should remember every once in a while to drop the conventions of their language, bypass their prior knowledge, and appreciate something as simple and idiosyncratic as an ideophone.

Bibliography:

Armoskaite, Solveiga. “Structuring sensory imagery: ideophones across languages and cultures.”Canadian Journal of Linguistics, vol. 62, no. 2, 6 Mar. 2017, pp. 149-53.

Robson, David. “Words as Feelings.” Edited by Sally Davies. Aeon.co, aeon.co/essays/in-the-beginning-was-the-word-and-the-word-was-embodied.

Ibarretxe-antuñano, Iraide. “Basque ideophones from a typological perspective.” The Canadien Journal of Linguistics, June 2017, pp. 196-220.

“Jabberwocky By Lewis Carroll – Read by Benedict Cumberbatch.” Youtube.com, 7 July 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_Um3787fSY&t=14s. Accessed 22 Mar. 2019.

Lupyan, Gary, and Daniel Casasanto. “Meaningless words promote meaningful categorization.”Language and Cognition, vol. 7, no. 2, 13 June 2014.

“Two classic papers on ideophones and iconicity by Westermann.” The Ideophone, 8 July 2017, ideophone.org/two-classic-papers-on-ideophones-and-iconicity-by-westermann-pdf/. Accessed 22 Mar. 2019.

Dingemanse, Mark. (2013). Ideophones and gesture in everyday speech. Gesture. 13. 10.1075/gest.13.2.02din.

“Eddie Izzard – Learning French.” Youtube, 12 Apr. 2006, www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1sQkEfAdfY. Accessed 22 Mar. 2019.

Lupyn, Gary, and Daniel Casasanto. People Can Create Iconic Vocalizations to Communicate Various Meanings to Naïve Listeners. 8 Feb. 2018.

“”The Four Horsemen’s” emotional poetry.” Youtube.com, 21 Nov. 2009, www.youtube.com/watch?v=843O0bTVKHQ. Accessed 22 Mar. 2019.

Lamb, Robert, and Joe McCormick, producers. “Ideophones: How does this word feel?” Stuff to Blow Your Mind, 19 Feb. 2019, www.iheart.com/podcast/stuff-to-blow-your-mind-21123915/episode/ideophones-how-does-this-word-feel-30583496/. Accessed 22 Mar. 2019.

by

Respecting Cover Songs

“Franklin’s song gave many people what they longed for most: a voice.”

The year 1965 was a great year for music. The Rolling Stones went on their 1st American Tour, Frank Sinatra won four Grammys including Record of the Year, and the Temptations’ “My Girl” rose to the top of Billboard charts. Legendary R&B artist Otis Redding had another great year, releasing his third album Otis Redding Sings Soul. The album dazzled with four originals and six covers including a sensational rendition of “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”. This nearly perfect album had one major blemish: a tired, uninteresting track about his wife that Redding entitled “Respect”. Basic at best, this tune was forgotten amid the other successful songs on the album. Two years later, acclaimed soul artist Aretha Franklin unearthed Redding’s “Respect” and gave it a new life of its own. Franklin’s cover revived the once-dead song and turned it into a widely popular piece heard even today, 50 years later. Whether or not Franklin intended this, however, is up for debate. Contrary to popular belief, Franklin did not knowingly produce an anthem, but rather the song’s popularity was a result of the current political climate.

Aretha Franklin’s “Respect” differs greatly from Otis Redding’s original, not only in its sound but also in its lyrics. Redding’s 1965 original lacks any special vocal emphasis, it is not like the majority of his songs as it lacks all emotion. The original song is short, with the simple two-line chorus of “All I’m asking is for a little respect / When I come home”. The instrumentation is basic, with a five-note motif seen after each refrain. In this two-minute song, Redding implores his wife to treat him with more respect. He repeats that respect is what he needs, implying that because he is a man he deserves a certain standard of treatment. Franklin’s “Respect”, on the other hand, is packed with emotion. She uses her powerful, boisterous voice to deliver a song laced with frustration, tenacity, and demand. The entire instrumentational set-up, not just the lyrics, has semantic content. With two different kinds of saxophones, several drums and a keyboard Franklin creates music to accent the words she is singing. She also alters the lyrics slightly by adding in a new chorus, thus the birth of the infamous “R-E-S-P-E-C-T / Find out what it means to me”. Regardless of whether it was the changes Franklin made or the uniqueness of her voice that set this song on fire, there is no doubt that Franklin’s version caught major attention from critics worldwide.

It became clear very quickly that what Franklin did with “Respect” elevated the song to a new level of importance. While Redding’s version received little cultural merit, Franklin’s cover was highly popular, and was seen as an anthem for social activism. In Soul Covers: Rhythm and Blues Remakes and the Struggle for Artistic Identity, Michael Awkward discusses how artists used cover songs to debate racial, artistic, and personal authenticity. Particularly, he focuses the musical identities that artists were able to find in songs originally performed by different artists, including those of Aretha Franklin. To Awkward, “Respect was received as a racial anthem that brought a new era of meaningful music with groove to America”. As the civil rights movement raced its way through the country, Franklin’s song found a perfect home in the mouths of those who felt overlooked and mistreated. Regardless of her intentions, “Respect” became a source of hope and rebellion for many Americans. To her audience, “[Franklin] embodied the social and cultural change that was taking place in the country merely by being herself without pretense”. For perhaps the first time in history, a black female was on stage singing about black female issues. Rarely did a marginalized minority have the opportunity or platform to advocate for themselves, and here Franklin did it on a national scale. As she rose to fame, it quickly became clear that Franklin was more than just a singer, she was an activist. Awkward goes on to explain that “Franklin’s reign as Queen of Soul was burdened with the weight of sociopolitical significance none of her predecessors had to bear” (Awkward 56). The social climate in the 1960s, Franklin’s audience, and her talent as a singer all combined to create the unique opportunity for her work to foment a social movement, which happened with the release of “Respect”. Whether or not we can consider this fame to be entirely the result Franklin’s own merit, however, is up for debate.

 For many, cover songs should maintain the integrity of the original, as the performer is less important than the song’s composition. In the early stages of recording, song covers served as a way to further a song’s social reach. When looking into the history of the cover song, researchers Dr. Keir Keightley and Sean Dineley illuminated the cover’s origins and purpose in the mid 20th century. According to Dineley, “A successful product was one that sold well in multiple versions, speaking to the appeal of the composition rather than the composer”. In other words, a cover song was not in competition with the original, but was seen as a perpetuation of the composition. The success of a song sung by different artists in a myriad of circumstances spoke to the universality of the piece. Thus, if we apply this to Aretha Franklin’s “Respect”, her success with the song was not the sole result of her ability, but rather a combination of the right time, the right place, and a good song written by Redding. Dineley goes on to explain that “cover versions were not only released by competing record labels but multiple versions were often released on the same label to distribute a single composition to diverse markets” (Dineley 65). While occasionally other labels produced a cover version to compete with the original label’s piece, this was not always the case. Many times, the label produced cover renditions to make more money. If the song could sell in two versions rather than one, that created more opportunity for revenue. With this perspective on cover songs, Franklin did not create a new song that sold better than Redding’s. Instead, she sung Redding’s song is a way that made it more popular. This opinion, however, is not a common one.

It is perhaps more appropriate to view Franklin’s cover as one intending to greatly alter original, rather than a product of circumstance. Most people consider cover songs to be an opportunity for a new artist to add something more to an existing song, which is what many people understand Franklin to have done. On Hi-Phi Nation’s podcast “Cover Me Softly”, the success of a cover song is discussed extensively. According to guest author and cover-song expert Ray Padgett, “A version of a song could only be possible if there was something that covering itself could add creatively and aesthetically to an existing song” The creation of a cover song is not possible unless the covering artist has vision to add something more, to push the song into new arenas, to challenge its barriers. A cover can soar, but it also can flop. Do too little, and the audience will question as to why the song was covered in the first place, do too much, and the original will be lost completely. Pagett goes on to explain that “if you take your favorite Beatles recording and placed it side by side with an impeccable mimic cover of that recording, only one has the status of art” (Padgett). To create art, it must have originality, imagination, and purpose. A cover song that is too similar to the original lacks voice and creativity, and at that point it no longer has importance. If Franklin had kept Redding’s song entirely the same, it would lack any of the meaning we have attributed to it. If she had sung it at the same pitch, with the same words, emphasis, and instruments as Redding, it would be nothing but a copy. However, she adds her own flare, her own experiences, her own meaning, and it becomes something larger than herself.

            Whether or not Franklin intended to create an anthem when she produced the song, however, is up for discussion. It seems obvious that “Respect”, flush with anger and determination, was created to belong to activists. Franklin, though, has denied any intention to create an anthem by saying “what they hear and what I feel when I sing it can be very, very different”.  As Michael Awkward states in his book, “If Otis felt he lost his song to ‘that girl’, Franklin recognizes that she ‘lost’ it both to nationalist and feminist listeners who hear and continue to hear it as infused with authentic racial and gendered meanings she did not mean” (Awkward 56). In the excitement and chaos of the civil rights movement, the intention of Franklin’s song seems to be lost almost completely. Activist groups found solace in a song about social issues and blew Franklin into the poster-child for their movement. To Franklin, this was a personal song indicative of her struggle as a black female in the United States. This was Franklin taking back her power, a demand for a higher worth, a commitment to accountability. Though meant to be individual song, the black female struggle was a community struggle not unique to Franklin. The release of “Respect” situated in the social climate of the 1960s created a perfect outlet for the estranged and alienated Americans who needed representation. Franklin’s song gave many people that which they longed for most: a voice.

            Ultimately, Aretha Franklin’s cover of “Respect” fulfilled some people’s expectation of a cover, but also fulfilled others to the point where people began to cover Franklin’s version. In one sense, she turned a tired, quiet song into a belting diva tune. Her voice was considered an instrument that one could pick up and play, adding a new flare to Redding’s original. To others, Franklin took the piece and added her own meaning, turning it into an entirely different song. She transformed “Respect” from a song about a man imploring his wife to respect him to one demanding to be heard in a time where a black female’s voice was often silenced. Of her intention, however, we cannot be sure. Knowing that Franklin had not planned for this song to become an anthem creates an interesting dynamic between performer and consumer. Her audience misconstrued her voice to be a national billboard for activism without her consent. With the popularity of Franklin’s “Respect” came the understanding that no longer does the artist’s intention matter – music has become what the consumers make it. Thoughts and feelings of artists have no bearing on the way one appreciates the music, it is all up to those who listen.

Works Cited

Awkward, Michael. Soul Covers: Rhythm and Blues Remakes and the Struggle for Artistic

Identity. Duke University Press, 2007. Duke University Books.Web. 12 March 2019.

Dineley, Sean, “Covers Uncovered: A History of the “Cover Version,” from Bing Crosby to the

Flaming Lips” (2014). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 2119.

Franklin, Aretha. “Respect.” I Never Loved A Man The Way That I Love You. Atlantic Records,

1967, track 1. Spotify,  open.spotify.com/track/7s25THrKz86DM225dOYwnr?si=sn_JzQjYQ3e3rjLDvcLQQg

Redding, Otis. “Respect.” Otis Redding: Otis Redding Sings Soul. Stax Records, 1965, track 14.

Spotify, open.spotify.com/track/1NGGxERGytoBIGn7dtSzeu?si=sdBFw5ciRbevcySIIdF_JA

Padgett, Ray. Cover Me: The Stories behind the Greatest Cover Songs of All Time. Sterling, 2017.

by

Hiwa K Response

The Hiwa K exhibit was a lot to take in. Each piece was unique and used its own play on sound and visual elements. The piece that really stuck out to me though was Blind as the Mother Tongue. In this piece, the video shows him on the path he took as a refugee from his home to Europe. There is not sound in the video, so the focus is on his narration that was loud, but seemed distant. The meaning behind this piece was very hard for me to decipher and I am sure my ideas are different than what his intention was. To me, the meaning is that on his journey, he only had an unclear or distorted of where he was headed. This was the function of the mirrors. When he balanced it on his nose, his only view ahead was through the small mirrors. The absence of sound was another aspect to show uncertainty about the journey ahead because it stripped the viewer of one of their senses. Even through uncertainty, Blind as the Mother Tongue shows you can’t let it stop you from reaching your final destination.

by

Hiwa K Response

As we’ve begun to talk about soundscapes and what can be conveyed through sound without a voice, I focused on the audio aspects of Hiwa K’s pieces more so than their visual counterparts. The piece who’s audio stuck out to me the most was “This Lemon Tastes of Apple”, a video taken during a riot of some kind. In the video we see (and hear) two men playing a harmonica and a guitar through megaphones. This ominous sound that they play, combined with the screaming and chaos in the streets creates a very surreal scene. The screams and shout of men nearby on their own might be unsettling but the underlying tone of the song creates an overwhelming sense of dread in the listener. As though it were a background song in a movie, the tune adds depth to the piece in a way that helps it become accessible to the audience. Not everyone knows what a riot sounds like, and the majority of those who do have only ever heard it in the news, however everyone knows what long, low pitched, and intense music means. We’ve learned this through music, TV, movies, and more. Video games more than most forms of media with change music to indicate what the situation means. Hiwa K uses this same understanding from different forms of media in his piece in order to allow his audience, a group who is very removed from the violent riots, to better understand the intensity and chaos of the riot.

by

Hiwa K Response

While all of Hiwa K’s work was unique and thought-provoking, it was Pre-Image (Blind As The Mother Tongue) that really intrigued me. The movie is about Hiwa K attempting to get from Greece to Italy on his journey as a migrating refugee. Balancing a long pole with mirrors aimed in different directions on his face, he slowly walks through the countryside, through woods, through a train stop, and through a refugee camp. There is no sound but his narration of the events that happened to him as a refugee. While he walks he speaks about Narcissus. Given how much his mirrors impede his movement one could guess that the theme of the piece is how narcissism impedes people from moving through life. However, that lesson seems too trivial given the situation he is in. I can’t find a satisfying interpretation of the piece online anywhere and there were no descriptors about it in the exhibition. The best explanation I’ve found was by Ania Szremski in Art Agenda. She calls the piece an “aggravated effort for nothing”. The time and energy he spends balancing while walking so so slowly conveys the feeling of hopelessness Hiwa K experienced as a refugee. Even though every move he made felt useless and unacknowledged, he kept moving forward anyways.

by

Hiwa K Response

I spent the first 15 minutes or so of our visit to the gallery browsing through each of Hiwa K’s works, but soon I found myself to be captivated by The Bell Project, which stood out to me physically because of its size and position occupying 2 walls. In addition, this piece was the most ambient out of all the others because of the auditory and visual power of its display. I discovered that The Bell Project, not unlike Hiwa K’s other pieces, seemed to be rooted in the process by which it was created, rather than the final result. I was deeply intrigued by the nature of the production of the bell, which juxtaposed the opposing forces of destruction and creation. I believe that Hiwa K’s purpose is to instill a sense of optimism in his audience by showing that there can be beauty found in transforming objects and places that have been plagued by darkness.

css.php