“What is good music?” This is a question that many music listeners ask one another. A common response would be their preferred genre. But what should we be looking for when asked that question? The answer is “satisfaction.” I truly believe good music is music that can bring you satisfaction. When I want to listen to a sad song and it makes me sad, that music has done its job with my feelings. It brought me satisfaction because it did what I wanted it to do. 

Now, I’d love to be sad and listen to my sad songs when the time comes but I’d love it even more if I could stay happy longer. I recently have been enjoying “Nigerian Pop” or (a more general way to put it) “Afro Pop” because I feel like there are so many things that go into the songs that make them so addictive. A song I have had on repeat for about 2 weeks now is “Dumebi”. This hit Nigerian song blew up for its creativity and boldness. Rema, a 19-year-old kid from Benin City, Nigeria, felt like the “vibes” of the music should be the main part/concern of any jamming session. It is what helps you enjoy the music and dancing much more. When he asked some of his friends if they liked the background track, many disapproved. But, Rema really loved the sound and ended up recording with it anyway. The song was very upbeat so its tempo was fast. Rema understood that so he sings and tries to mimic the beat by matching the flow of the song to his lyrics. He had limited studio time so with words that he wrote for the song and words that he threw in there for filler got into the final mix. He himself has also said some of the words he says in the song don’t even make sense, but they sound good and people can vibe to it. When reviewing it with his producer he asked him if he thought there should be any changes to the song. He said no because the people would already like it and that is how Dumebi was made. 

If this song were to be in any of the listening examples, I think it would be Unit 5 with the syncopation. The beat hitting on random notes is so much better than normal 1-2-3 beats. I feel like it would show how much syncopation can do for a song aswell as singing that complements the lyrics of the song. One important concept it could teach is to enjoy the music that makes you feel good, even if you don’t understand it.  

Recently, Steve Lacy did his “Give You the World” tour. Many people were excited but to their dismay, it went south very quickly. With the tickets being SUPER expensive as well as almost immediately being sold out within the first 30 minutes to one hour, fans thought they were going to get the performance of a lifetime. That couldn’t have been farther from the truth.

With every seat and floor being filled with people, there wasn’t much room for anybody to move. The crowd started to get very annoying and the focus towards the show quickly turned to talk amongst themselves. This irritated Lacy especially since this is his music that he wants his fans to appreciate. Not only that but it’s basically a waste of his time. Since I never went to a concert, I just expected it to be fans singing along with the artist and once they finish performing, they receive a round of applause and exit the stage. But, in one of the performances, the crowd was singing one of Lacy’s most popular choruses and only managed to sing that small section of the entire song. This further upset him because he was expecting to have an audience that completely knew the lyrics to his songs. But there was one more thing that Steve Lacy did that shocked me. While he was performing, fans kept tossing their phones on stage so Lacy could record on them. Already at his limit with his aggravating fans, he decided to take one of their phones and throw it as hard as he could on the stage, resulting in the phone splitting into multiple pieces. He then proceeded to walk off stage and end the show for the night.

This did NOT match my expectations whatsoever. Even if the performers didn’t talk to the audience, compared to the concerts that were reviewed in Unit 7, I was expecting to see a much calmer/happier environment especially since most concerts nowadays have the artist interacting with their listeners frequently. For example, in the “You Are Dead” concert, there wasn’t anyone talking to each other or people singing along with the stage. There were just the performers doing their job with an audience that came to appreciate and soak up the music they came for. Not phones being destroyed on stage with the performers leaving the stage and ending the entire show.  

Amar Toor believes that the “Rite of Spring” performance was the cause of the riot. From a confused point of view, he tries to break the situation down to see if it was a publicity stunt, a mistake, or an honest attempt to please the viewers with something completely different. As well as being described as “mayhem and chaos,” a fight broke out between two audience factions which eventually turned into vegetables being thrown on the stage. Though it was already confusing determining what exactly was going on in this performance, one thing for sure is that it was NOT a success.  

According to Gleason, the Riot of the “Rite of Spring” never happened. It was actually a myth that was just exaggerated to its fullest potential. The performance was still “shocking to the audience” with its excessively loud music and unpremeditated acoustics where the balcony was, but there wasn’t anybody throwing anything on stage, let alone a fight breaking out. People might’ve felt upset or uneasy but it never got to the point where people were being “physically violent.”  One reason to prove that it never happened was that at the end of the performance, the dancers took five curtain calls and then in the evening there was another ballet. The next performance wouldn’t have been possible if there was a brawl between the factions. 

With all being said, the first time that I listened to it I honestly didn’t mind it. Did I enjoy it? I don’t know. Did I hate it? No. I was captivated by it because of its abnormality especially since it was the polar opposite of what was expected. I am used to these performances being easy going and maybe a little bit of loud every once in a while, but the performance was almost deafening (with respect to it being viewed by a laptop as well.) It was new though and at least was an attempt at something beyond the ordinary which was very much appreciable. If I was a person in the audience that night, I probably would’ve left because I wouldn’t be able to lower the music manually like how I am able to now. But, if the music was lower just a tad bit, I would consider staying.  

TikTok. No, not the sound of a clock. Nope, not the sound of your watch either. TikTok! The super popular social media and funny video app! If you haven’t heard of this app then you must be living under a rock. It is the #1 entertainment app out on the Appstore today! With over one billion users. Yes, one billion. TikTok originally was called “Musical.ly” and was more focused on creators (users) making videos that had music in the background which they would either dance to or lip sync to. Now, the new updated version of Musical.ly (TikTok) is more oriented towards anything mainly being funny videos. But there is one feature that everyone knows about yet it isn’t widely known for it. Its music streaming! Well, sorta. TikTok is able to play a brief portion of any song in a creator’s video. This feature on top of videos going viral for silly reasons has completely changed the way people find music! When a video is going viral and others make videos with the same “Sound” (song) it kind of starts to get stuck in your head which then makes you or anyone else search it up to hear it again! I have had my fair share of earworms because of TikTok, but one song in particular really helped jumpstart my favorite artists career, Jack Harlow. His first big song “Whats Poppin” gained a massive amount of listeners not only because he is so catchy but because of TikTok. After her received a great amount of attention, he continued to make more music as well as his other songs gaining traction which eventually got him in the top charts of Hip Hop/Rap.  

One of, if not the most important era in musical history is the Medieval Era also commonly known as the Middle Ages (450-1450). Why is this one in particular so important, you may be asking? Well, that is because it established a foundation for the music we know and listen to today.

Christianity was spreading rapidly through Western Europe. Proper education was not big or sought out which factors in for most of the population’s inability to read or write. Instead, “monasteries were centers of learning.” (¶2, Line 5). In these monasteries, the monks were able to practice their religion through manuscripts that were made by other Arabic and Greek scholars. Their sacred texts were sung and passed on. Although they tried singing it in a certain way it eventually would change as time went on. To prevent any further change, the monks created a system that “fixed the pitches of a melody” while allowing for the representation of multiple melodies to be playing “simultaneously.” (¶3, Line 9-12). An early example of this could be heard by “Leonin” through a piece called “Viderunt Omnes.”

I was honestly surprised when I heard this for the first time. It doesn’t sound as foreign and weird as I thought it would. If anything, it sounds more calming and comforting than a lot of the music that is produced today. It’s interesting how a big portion of the music made in the twentieth century is what I expected to hear in the Middle Ages, especially through the way the article made the creation of the system sound. Though it was made centuries ago, the art he made still shines brightly to this day.