The Visible Man By. Raquel Cepeda

Raquel Cepeda is a reporter for Hip-Hop magazine, The Village Voice.

Raquel did not realize how excited she would be while she interviewed the notorious underground rapper. “..She is ecstatic to not be stuck in another boring chat with another boring rapper.”

Cepeda was interviewing Immortal Technique. Technique, born Felipe Coronel in a military hospital in Lima, has turned into the perfect combination of activism and hip-hop. He uses his gift and knowledge from both the hip-hop and the political world to spread a message and start a change for the betterment of society. The first step in his agenda is taking down the people on top. Those elite few who own the majority of the riches of the world and the world itself. She made it a point to let him do the talking throughout their meeting in Mi Floridita, a small Cuban eatery in Harlem, New York. She had café con leche and a real rapper before her, what more could she want? Cepeda was supposed to interview Immortal Technique, but Cepeda could not help but bask in his freshness. She comments that when “she recall’s hip-hop’s versatile landscape and soundscape during the 90’s, she sighs.” I bet she was sighing then, too.

Cepeda talks about how passionate, heartfelt and “freaking intense” this rapper is with his music and his purpose. So much that he radiates it to all the people around him. One comment I particularly liked, came from DJ Green Lantern, whom he made a successful collaboration with, “Tech provides that other side of the coin to rappers who just rap about making coins, which helps me keep my sanity.” This quote does not only apply to him, but I think I can say for his fans as well. To me Immortal Technique is a breath of fresh air in a world, neighborhood and home of hypocrisy. I feel Cepeda and her admiration of Immortal Technique. What more can I say, except I heart Immortal Technique.

Key Concepts in Multicultural Music Education By. David J. Elliot

This is a scholarly article from the International Journal of Music Education.

Music is present everywhere that culture is present. Often times it brings people together. Right?

Well according to David J. Elliot in his article “Key Concepts in Multicultural Music Education”, music is not a universal language. He does acknowledge that this statement can shock many because enough people believe it, it is “contrary to popular relief”. The reason for Elliot’s claim is his observation on people’s first reactions or ultimate understanding of the music from other cultures. Nobody, Elliot states, “immediately understands, appreciates, or enjoys the musics of other cultures.” Elliot point out how even within the culture people have “their music” or “our music” concepts about each others music preferences. Often times people go further to identify themselves part of their music, part of that style. This way they separate themselves even further from their general culture. Elliot goes on to say that we have the “tendency to separate ourselves from one another”.

“So”, I think, “People within cultures separate themselves from others? That, actually, sounds reasonable.”

I don’t think there is one music genre that can define a whole culture because we are all different. We all have different likes and dislikes within our culture. Call them subdivisions. Nobody wants to be considered anything less than unique. I think that is why we have this “tendency” Elliot speaks about. I guess that after reading this article I realized that overall, music is not a universal language. I agree with Elliot. There are certain things that we can never understand, not only if we are not part of the culture but also, if we are not part of the fan group of that genre.

Output levels of commercially available portable compact disc players and the potential risk to hearing.

This article just kept on talking about the different hazardous household appliances out there and about how dangerous it is for our ears. I still don’t understand why they did not put it in simpler words. Then it started talking about other everyday appliances that can hurt your too. I think we wont ever be able to protect our ears completely from everything. We don’t all carry around ear protectors or something. There is of course a lot of truth behind this article. I understand there is potential danger to lose one’s hearing through listening to loud music, noises or just sounds over a long period of time. But how often does that happen? They are not talking about this argument without nay proof, but I think they are talking about extremes. Sure I like loud music, that does not mean I am going to be blasting it 24/7. I guess what I am trying to say is that I don’t disagree with the article. I just think that they are exaggerating a tad bit with the household appliances. Are they trying to tell me to watch out with the lawn mower or that I should definitely stay clear of those damn leaf blowers? Alert the neighbors! Alert the children! Cover your ears because the leaf-blowers are coming, the leaf-blowers are coming! Nope. I don’t think it’s that serious. At least not yet.

The Science Of Hit Songs

Consumers might think their tastes in music are as impeccable as the next person. That’s just it; consumers according to this article choose their own music preferences by thinking about what others might choose. The proposed reason for this was the vast variety and amount of music available. The consumer cannot listen to all the music out there so the easiest thing to do is to listen to what their family, friends, and acquaintances listen to. It seems to provide a base for music choice, from there the consumer builds up their music libraries on that. That is just how we tend to choose. We take the time to stop and think “I wonder are they are gonna think about this”. If we don’t think others will like it we are less likely to choose it. If a song is popular it tends to stay that way, if it is unpopular that is how it will stay.

This experiment just showed the importance of not only of social influence on one another but also the importance of the teen audience in music. It demonstrated the power they have over the success of any artist. Their social pressure or choices make things happen in the music industry. Another thing in this study

that impressed me, at the very least, was that our music, like many other important aspects in teen life, are not all that original, at least as we would like to think. This makes me ponder about other things that I might think define me as me. Perhaps those things are also something I think other people might accept. It makes me think, maybe I have molded myself to fit society’s requirements and not my own.

Exposure to degrading vs. non-degrading music lyrics and sexual behavior among youth

Though music is a great influence in a young teen’s life, it is not the only sole influence. When it comes to sexual behavior there are many more factors put into play than simply music. The social acceptance of behavior must be acquired for a young individual to perceive it as something they must do to be accepted as well. In other words peer pressure is a huge factor. They think that perhaps because they have not engaged in sexual activity they are being left out. Music encourages its listeners to do so and does it deliberately (at times) by basically stating “Go out there and have sex”. But there is still one more factor stronger than the music and perhaps than that of society; this factor is a person’s will. If a person does not want to do anything they have the right and ability to not do it. A person has the right to have a different opinion and perspective to say NO. Music is music. It exists for us to hear, reflect and enjoy, not to rule over our lives.

In a study made on teenagers ages 12-17 the influence of music with or without degrading lyrics and their sexual activity were monitored. Surveys were administered over a period of two years. The results consisted of the teens listening to sexually lyrical music being more likely to engage in intercourse than those teens who did not listen to sexually explicit music. According to the study, the lyrics were not what enticed them to engage in sexual activity but their prior anticipations about it.

Perhaps curiosity really did affect the cat.

The iPod and the Fury: A Reality Check of the Recent Reports on Mobile Music and Hearing Loss

It was amazing to see how people of all age groups not just necessarily teens who use mp3s and use them fully. By fully I mean turn the dial up on the volume to the max. These actions, as any other extreme action, come with higher consequences: hearing loss. When facing this problem, it is easy for the consumer to blame the product. What is hard is accepting responsibility. It is the consumer who must accept that they were the ones who put the volume up until they turned temporarily deaf. Adults as well as teens are guilty for draining their ears’ noise capacity. This goes against the common belief that it is only teens who are “plugged in”. In fact, in this study, the group (adults and teens) stated that if they knew that the mp3 they were using was affecting their hearing they would not stop or adjust to a lower volume. This type of attitude is what has caused hearing loss cases to increase in the Unites States.

Though the statistics shown in this article were eye-opening, none of them surprised me more than the people’s reactions in the reports. The vast majority did not care enough for their own health, they would rather listen to their mp3s and “bump” their music.

WEEK 2 BLOG

“The Last Days of Brother Ray” by David Ritz

In David Ritz article “The Last Days of Brother Ray”, Ritz captures the human side to the notorious Ray Charles. Ray’s beliefs, standards, and values are clearly stated throughout Ritz’s piece. Ray loves music, women and life. There is no time for pondering only time to evolve, move on and stun the world with more wonderful music. Throughout Ritz’s journey learning about Ray and his ways, there is a sort of transformation that takes place in Ray while interviewing him for his autobiography. It was a type of reflection on life. For all of his life, Ray did what he knew how to do best and that was music. This type of attitude won him great success as well as a guilty conscience since he didn’t let anything or anybody stand in his way to immortality.

Gangster by blood.