- Music and Racism by Justin
The topic is how music and racism is connected and how music often talks about the topic. In terms of the songs he chose, “Black Man” by Stevie Wonder. The song talks about different attacks on people of color that have occured and brings light to these social issues. Many different instruments are used and the important point in the song shown in class was very interesting as the instrumentals behind it were unique.
If I were to do the topic I would choose “Riot” by XXXTentacion and “The Bigger Picture” by Lil Baby. Both songs speak about racism especially towards African Americans and how police brutality occurs in America even in the 21st century. Both songs came up due to the Black Lives Matter movement and show the major protests that were going on at the time.
2. Music and Death by Regina
The topic is how death and music are often tied together and how death is shown in different music types like composition and game OSTs. “Dies Irae” – Death Motif, is a composition apart of Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique. It explores death through a drug dream, they signify death through its score and an interesting moment would be the first four notes as they show death. The 2nd song they used is “The Strings and Keys” from the game Omori. The song signifies the final duet between Mari and Sunny, after Mari killed his sister without meaning to. A prevalent moment is at 4:15 in which it shows a piano fadeout to a singular violin note. It is a beautiful song that signifies the loss of a loved one.
If I wrote about the topic I would use the “Welcome to the Death Parade” by My Chemical Romance and “Veil” by Keina Suda. Both songs talk bout the loss of loved ones. However, MCR uses the Black Parade as a way to set a narrative of life and death and the song signifies the start of the end. Veil on the other side, talks about the loss of a close person and how it affects them. Both songs are amazing. Veil at 0:50 bursts into a new timbre and pitch making it amazing, while death parade the first 40 seconds just set the tone of the song through its instrumentals.
