Home » Blog 8

Category Archives: Blog 8

Ahmed blog 8

The presentation I chose today to discuss is music and addiction. The connection between music and addiction is that people can reflect or speak about their addiction issues through the use and projection of music. In both songs, the lyrics spoke about the addictions of the singers and their feelings about it. If i wrote about this topic, 2 songs I would pick are sober by demi Lavato because she speaks on her addiction issues and lets us know the hardships, she went through and is going through. Another song i would choose is withdrawals by tom MacDonalds because he discusses the aftermath of addiction and how it isn’t so easy to just stop being addicted to something. It takes time and patience and is a very long process that is stuck with you.

Lam Blog 8

In my opinion good music is music that is catchy. Something that I could listen to for months on end and never get tired of. A song that I’ve been listening to for over a year is B.Y.S by Keshi. B.Y.S also known as By Your Side portrays the story of a one sided love. Throughout the song Keshi shows what it’s like staying by the side of their love interest even when they don’t do the same for you. Something that I found interesting in the song was the fact that it had a very upbeat tempo even though the lyrics represented the feelings of lovesickness. With the way Keshi played the guitar and unique choices of minor chords and catchy beat it became a song that I loved for years on.

I have looked through the Units we’ve gone through this semester and I feel that this song could fit in “Listening at Home and Court.” Relating to what we discussed in that unit I feel that this is a song that I would enjoy listening to alone rather than in public with a group of people. Similar to the troubadours we discussed in the unite Keshi is also an artist who makes the theme of most of his songs revolve around love as shown in B.Y.S.

Blog 8, Caba

“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.  

Blog #8 Sunny

The song I’m using is Tim Hughes’s ” Here I am To Worship” . Tim Hughes had written this gospel ballad after he read the book of Philippians 2. He wrote the song quickly and added the melody using his guitar. However, Hughes didn’t end it there, he continued to rewrite the chorus until  he was satisfied with the final product. His song had been covered by many artists in the Christian community. Hughes also was inspired by a Stephen King movie called substitution where the character takes on a punishment that wasn’t meant to be his.  This song would fit into the Music and Religion category since this was a song meant to be sung for Christian people. The song is meant to be sung a little slower with a 75 bpm and in a E major key. In most churches, the congregation sings along with the worship songs so it can be considered a congregational song. It fits in as we were discussing christian worship and this song has been sung it almost every church. It encourages a lot of syllabic and homorythmic singing. The song also follows a verse-chorus form just like many other christian songs.  

Limo Blog 8

The way I see it, “good” music is anything that creates a connection to the listener’s emotions. The piece of “good” music that I choose to talk about today is “All Too Well” by Taylor Swift. This song was originally written and released in 2012 as a 5-minute song. But this year Taylor Swift rerecorded the song as a 10-minute version. The purpose of this music is to connect to the listener’s emotions of going through a breakup by Swift sharing her detailed personal experiences. The original song had such a significant impact on her fans that they requested Swift to release the 10-minute version she’s been keeping in the vault for 10 years. This piece of music has the expectation to tell a story in detail, and that’s why the music video for the 10-minute version has won a handful of awards already due to meeting those expectations. This song is “good” because of how personal it is. Swift talks about her own personal experiences about her breakup with Jake Gyllenhaal, while making the poem she also made it original. Her poetic lyrics and ensuring everything ties in together make her a skillful composer and all of her lyrics have a big impact on her fanbase and new artists today who write personal songs like her. This song would fit best under Unit 2: What is Music? and the unit we are in right now Unit: 13 What is Good Music? This song would help people understand how to judge good music since it targets all 5 questions a person asks when grading what a good song is like. This would also help a student understand how to categorize music in Unit 2.

Blog 8 Sun

The song “光亮 (Guang Liang),” directly translated into “Brightness,” is the theme song for the documentary “The Forbidden City,” and is sung by the Chinese singer, Zhou Shen. Chinese contemporary lyricist Gou Lin and composer Qian Lei incorporated parts into the song that originated from a poem written by Northern Song Dynasty poet Su Shi. What makes this song special is the way Zhou Shen sang it. Zhou Shen is able to switch flawlessly between a wide range of pitches, which allows him to freely arrange the harmony at different parts of the song. In the second part of the song, there is the incorporation of the chants and arias of the Peking Opera at 3:25. With the incorporation of this traditional Chinese culture, the lyrics of the song contain a message that expresses an open-minded and optimistic attitude towards life. The homophonic texture of this song also makes it special as one of the instrumental accompaniments used is the ancient Xun (古埙), which is a globular, vessel flute, and is one of the oldest musical instruments in China with its use dating back to approximately seven thousand years ago.

A unit in which this piece of music can be featured could be Unit 7: Sung and Danced Drama. In this unit, we mentioned upon Beijing Opera, and this song “光亮” contains elements of this traditional art. Important concepts this song would help teach include how composers and artists today are able to incorporate traditional forms of music into more modern styles, which in this case, is electrical music. It can act as a modern example of how the Beijing opera tradition is being kept and delivered to the listeners of the song.

光亮 (Guang Liang) sung by Zhou Shen

Kuku blog 8

the question “what is a good music” keeps popping up. for me, never ever should music generally be categorized good or bad. as a matter of fact, there are different type of music. some music are for fun, while some are to send a message.

I will be discussing about this music titled Mariamo. the music is used to send a message and to appreciate the creator grandmother. the history and content of the music includes the artist Qdot speaking about his grandmother raising him in poverty until the day she died. I perticulaly love this type of music that connect send a message of appreciation to people. the music lyrics is in Yoruba so therefore some native Yoruba instruments was used. I can hear shaker, bata, piano. all the instruments was recorded into electronic beat then added to lyrics Socrates the music outcome.

the music piece connect to instruments and music technology. the instruments used are not too popular. the use of bat, shekere, gangan are interesting instruments that that the west aren’t familiar with. this instrument will teach other instruments other than the ones the western people use.

Zhuoyao Blog*8

The music I chose is You Belong With Me by Taylor Swift. Taylor is an American singer-songwriter whose songs come in many different styles. Each of her songs is like a little story, creating a picture in my mind when I listen to it.

This is country-pop music, with banjos and electric guitars. The song is adapted by Taylor Swift based on the experience of a friend. It tells the story of the girl‘s unrequited love for the boy. Finally, the boy leaves the girlfriend who doesn’t love him and gets together with the girl. The song opens with a banjo melody, followed by catchy lyrics from Taylor Swift. The lyrics “But she wears short skirts/I wear shirts” show how she sees the difference between herself and the man’s girlfriend. “If you could see that I’m the one/Who understands you/Been here all along/So, why can’t you see? /You belong with me. “It can show a girl’s unrequited feelings of insecurity. At 2:25, the melody of the electric guitar solo takes over, along with the drums.

I think the song is related to American popular music and the influence of this song is huge. The song has been played 1.3 billion times on youtube, and the story in this song can resonate with many people. It is a representative pop and country music in the United States, and it also adds the innovation of electric guitar on this basis.

Cerullo Blog 8

A Piece of music that I am familiar with and find good is the song “buffalo soldier” by bob marley. I grew up listening to Bob Marley on the beach with my family. I live on long island by the water, so all my summers were spent by the ocean, on my grandparents boat, or in fire island with all my cousins. The go to genre of music my mom and aunts would put on was always reggae. It’s the perfect music to listen to in the sun on a beach day. Reggae originated in a small Caribbean island in Jamaica hence the tropical feel of the music. By the 1970’s it became popular around the globe.  In the song Buffalo soldier, the term “Buffalo Soldier” was used to describe a group of black American soldiers who were used to fight Native Americans during the border wars. In other words, they were slaves, that is, “stolen from Africa,” as Bob himself put it.” The song has a laid back tempo as most reggae songs do, and a syncopated bass line. 

The unit this song would fit into is Unit twelve “Music and political expression”. In this unit we learned how reggae is connected to politics. Another one of Bob Marley’s songs was used as an example in this unit, so this song would fit perfectly in the unit. A concept this song would teach is one we already learned about. That would be that reggae was used to stand up for beliefs and fight for your rights as learned in this unit by the song “get up stand up”. 

Viola Blog 8

A song that I believe is good music is “I’m Good (Blue)” by David Guetta and Bebe Rexha. It uses the same melody as “I’m Blue” by Eiffel 65 making it a remix/cover of the original song. The dynamics change throughout the song. It starts a little soft then it reached a crescendo because it got louder, she started singing higher pitches, and more instruments were added in the background. The song also has a consistent piano melody in the background of the whole song. Furthermore, it’s electronic music which I believe makes it different compared to other pop songs. It can be a part of the “US Popular Music” unit because it can demonstrate how different genres are popular in the US. It could also be a part of the “Instruments and Music Technology” unit because this song has electronic music embedded into it. It can show how electronic music can sound different.

Library OneSearch

Enter your search term and click Search to find an item in the CUNY catalog.

March 2024
M T W T F S S
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031

This course includes Open Educational Resources (OER), which are entirely cost-free and accessible online. Developed in the Open Knowledge Fellowship at The Graduate Center's Mina Rees Library, this work is made possible by state grant funding through the Office of Library Services.



Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International

Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.