The Dance!

For my song analysis, I chose The Dance by Charlotte Martin. I first heard this song when GnD did a dance to it and now it's one of my favorite songs. I never really paid attention to the lyrics except the chorus but when we had to do this assignment, I realized how much of the songs I truly don't understand. Hopefully, I can get somewhere with this blog.
The first verse of the song is:
Inside my mouth I can hear all the voices say,
"Do not lean over the ledge"
I shouldn't look down and I shouldn't have found
That your lips I still taste in my headFirst off, I think it's weird how the artist uses opposite senses to describe opposite senses. Inside my mouth I can hear and your lips I still taste  in my head. If the voice were inside of her mouth, I can sort of assume that it might be herself telling her no. The ledge could be anything at this point but since the artist mentions the term lips, I am going to assume that this is a relationship of some sort. So the ledge that she is referring to could flashbacks or her reminiscing on her past, hence "STILL taste in my head", as if she can't get rid of it.
The next verse goes:
Raising my glass to the head of the class
As she powers out steps one through ten
I think I'll be fine if I'm covered in wine
I still hate you and love you again
And see you again
And see you againThis verse has me really confused. She is raising her class to the head of the class. Who is the head of the class and she's powering out steps one through ten for what? Is the artist in school? Is she graduating?
She goes on to say "I think I'll be fine if I'm covered in wine." So as long as she is intoxicated or drunk she won't remember anything that invovles the "ledge." The last line is pretty self-explanatory. Pretty much, she has mixed emotions. She still sees this person again. I don't know if it's against her will or not. The verse all in all sounds like she might be at a party and she sees this guy again and her emotions start to come back.
The next verse:
Weary and worn
Little monster is born
Tell me lies and I'll justify them
I'm desperate today and it's making me pay
For that night, for that kiss, for your bed
Okay so just by reading this verse it kind of sounds like she might of had a child and she regrets but I don't think that fits into this setting. The the little monster could be rumors going around about her and this guy which is why she might be regretting "that night, that kiss, that bed." She also says she'll justify the lies. To justify means to clarify so whatever happened apparently is true.
Next:
Whoever dared to love someone not there
I don't need a balloon and a pin
The name of the game is outrunning the blame
So I hate and love you
We're friends
we'll be friends
I guess we'll be friendsSo maybe this person she was in a relationship with didn't feel the same about her. The balloon and the pin could've been the fact that she gave it her all and when she found out this person wasn't, it ruined her relationship or in other words "popped the balloon." Once again, we get this feel that something bad happened between her and this person as she says "The name of the game is outrunning the blame." Something happened and neither one of them want to be the blame for that something. She again says that she hates and loves this person and all they can be is friends.
Next is the chorus:
Oh why (why)
Can't (can't)
You take me in your arms now?
Why (why)
Can't (can't)
You take me?
Why (why)
Can't (can't)
You take me in your arms now?
Why (why)
Can't (can't)
You take me?
She's wondering why their relationship won't work and why they can only be friends. The act of taking her in his arms relates to the title "The Dance" where in dance the male escorts the female and they often are intwined.
The finally verse is:
Better stop crying, hello and goodbying
Go on through me, slip on through my hands
You get your time and the other half's mine
It's okay, this love weighs fifty men
It's okay, this love weighs fifty men
It's okay, this love weighs fifty menSo we have another opposite comparison here. At first it was love and hate and now its hello and goodbye. This verse is kind of like her acceptance to the relationship and how imperfect it is. She tells her partner to slip through her hands. When something slips through your hands, it's like you couldn't grab it becasue you weren't quick enough. So perhaps she didn't take chances she was given. "You get your time and the other half's mine" basically is saying here I am, what do you want. She's saying you know, I have to slowly slip away from this. We can chill for a little while but then I have to do. But you'll be fine because our love is strong, it weighs fifty men so me not being with you all the time shouldn't hurt you.
The song then goes back into the chorus twice more and then it ends with an
Ahh Ahh Amen
Ahh Ahh Amen
Ahh Ahh Amen
Amen.
I don't think the song was meant to be religious. This could just be a prayer or it could a plead for a change or a release from this struggle.
All in all, I believe the song is about a relationship that has this girl confused on how she feels about this guy. The confusion she goes through is considered a dance because when you dance, you're constantly moving, just like her heart.

On The Reservation

Montana 1948...On the reservation. Without thinking of the book, the first thing I think about when I hear that phrase is pioneering. It reminds me of the beginning of a new town with tippees and such. I don't particularly think I'd enjoy living on a reservation only because I live in the century I'm living in now. It is definetely a downgrade. Sleeping on dirt, no indoor plumbing, and lots of hard work has been played out for a long time now. Of course if I lived there then I would find it rather cool that I am able to live on this new found land and start my own life there. It's interests me to know that almost every town now started off as a "reservation." With every year, we built more and more until we got here. So in a sense, my grandchildren might look back at my time and see my enviroment as a reservation.

Modern Day Propaganda

So first, what is Propaganda? My definition of it would be an organization/group trying to persuade the public with advertisement. Back in war times, there was propaganda for World War 1. There were ads made to try and get males to enlist in the war. They often made the males feel guilty by saying things like "Protect the women." There were also ads showing female soilders at work as if to say everyone can pitch in to help protect the country. The communication of propaganda has gone from ads to radio and TV. Nowadays, war isn't the big deal. I feel as though the big focus of propaganda now is on physical apperance like make-up, clothes, shoes, colognes, alcohol, and cigarettes. For make-up and cologne, there are often commercials that have both female and male in them using the product to try and make themselves more appealing to the opposite sex. There are celebrity influences in clothing and shoe advertisement, basically saying "If you want to be like so and so, wear these clothes." Alcohol and cigarettes have both a postive and negative propaganda to them. This meaning that there are advertisements out there persuading people that alcohol and drugs are bad like Live Above the Influence. Then there are the other ads that show these rich looking people sitting in clubs with females/males surrounding them smoking or drinking. Propaganda is also in the music that we listen to. Music about being rich, having cars, having females, being pretty, and partying all night. Teens and maybe even adults strive to be like these artists when reality, it's probably not even like that. Because of the way things are presented to us in the news, we automatically go off of that one view and critque that one view. News stations choose which perspective they want viewers to see a story, also propaganda because from there they persuade you that what they're saying is correct. I think that propaganda will never die. There's just too much competition and striving to be best in this world.

Hip-Hop!!

I love music. Majority of the music that I listen to now is influenced by hip-hop. You know, Run DMC, MC Hammer, Tupac, Dougie Fresh. All these people are the platform for today's music.There are four elements of hip-hop. They are: Graffiti, Rap, Break-dancing, and DJing. Graffiti is looked at in such a negative way and always has been that way. Its seen as vandlizing and territorizing when really its art. Just because its big, bold, and not in a museum does not mean that it should not be respected. People look forward to graffiti. For some, that may be as far in the art industry that they will get and who are we to under estimate them?
Rap. Hahaha. Rap is looked at as a stereotypical feature, meaning when most people hear or think rap, they think Black people. The reason being I would assume is because blacks are the founders of rap music. However, this does not restrict rapping to one race. A great example, Eminem. My favorite rap artist. Absolutely postively love him. Eminem is one of the last real rap artists today. His lyrics actually have meaning to them unlike some others whose names I won't mention. The evolution of rap is crazy. It has gone from the Sugarhill Gang's:
 have you ever went over a friends house to eat
and the food just aint no good
i mean the macaroni's soggy the peas are mushed
and the chicken tastes like wood
so you try to play it off like you think you can
by sayin that youre full
and then your friend says momma he's just being polite
he aint finished uh uh that's bull
so your heart starts pumpin and you think of a lie
and you say that you already ate
and your friend says man there's plenty of food
so you pile some more on your plate
while the stinky foods steamin your mind starts to dreamin
of the moment that it's time to leave
and then you look at your plate and your chickens slowly rottin
into something that looks like cheese to Lil Wayne's:
Shawty said the ____ that she with ain't s___
Shawty said the ____ that she with ain't this
Shawty said the ____ that she with can't hit
But shawty I'm a hit it hit it like I can't miss
And he can't do this
And he doesn't do that
Shawty need a a refund, need a bring that ____ back
Just like a refund I make her bring that a__ back
And she bring that a__ back
Because I like thatBIG DIFFERENCE!
Break-dancing is still here. It's still amazing and the evolution of break dance was not nearly as disappointing as the evolution of rap. Break dance now is just more modern but the concepts are still the same. I wonder how breaking managed to survive but rap couldn't...
Last but not least, DJing! Andddd...it has changed. DJing used to actually be scratching up records but not DJing has been modernize by technology. You can make whatever beat, sound, noise, remix, you want on a computer with the right material downloaded. I guess you can say the concept of DJing is still the same but the way it is delivered is different.
Hip-Hop is not alll the way dead, yet. Its just...modernized.

Wright's Cravings

Is Richard Wright alone in his cravings? No not at all. I don't know if this is directed to anyone specific but I''ll just relate this to myself. I'm going to talk about the craving for attention. I wouldn't really call myself trying to be the center of attention but I guess at a younger age, I wanted people to know that I existed. Me being the oldest of three, I always had all the responsibility while the other two got the attention of being "cute." I never set a house on fire but I did always try to exceed my brothers. If somebody thought my brother was cute, I would do something cuter or I would just sit there and cry. After awhile I felt like the family only knew me as being the oldest and the only girl. Thus leading me to doing great in school. Everytime I did good in school, I got a "Great Job! Now you have to show your brothers!" And I would feel good because for once, I did something better than them. Another example is when the oldest of the boys and I entered an oratory contest every year. He would always get a place above me thus leading him to more praise and more criticism on what I could do to get there. This lead to me writing more and in 5th grade one of my poems were published. I'm pretty sure by 5th grade I wasn't so concerned about attention but it was still there. Now, I could care less. :) An 8th grader and a kindergartner no longer affect me. Now they're just annoying.

How It Feels to Be Colored Me

I loooove the writings of Zora Neale Hurston. Her style is so chill. It seems as if she's talking to me.
In this particular piece, I laughed alot. It was almost as if throughout the whole story she was confused on why all of sudden she became this person she didn't know existed within her. A line that made me laugh was "I am the only Negro in the United States whose grandfather on the mother's side was not an Indian chief."
Nowadays, people always say that Blacks always say they're mixed with Indian but for Zora to say this, it was almost as if she were cracking an inside joke. Something else that caught my attention was "the very day I became colored." Very important in this passage. Zora didn't realize nor notice any of the differences bewteen herself and whites (besides skin  color) until she moved. It was then that she became this so called colored. When she was put into society for real and saw how majority saw her. She wasn't just this little girl who played on the porch anymore. No, now she was colored. Interesting.

King still a King?

Mr. King has moved on but has left his legacy along with a 3 day weekend with us. Often times he's not recognized for what he's done but the first person you learn about during Black History month in elementary school is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Why? Because although he wasn't the only civil rights leader, he did put in alot ALOT of work to cease segregartion. And it happened didn't it? I guess people don't actually take the time to think about how different this world would've been if Dr. King hadn't done what he did. We might not all be sitting in the same classroom right now for all we know. I thank Dr. King and his companions for the determination to end segregation and I'm very happy that there is a holiday to celebrate this man.
Relevance to today, well although racism still exists ( I don't think it'll ever die) circumstances are made equal for people of all race and color. That relates to us because we're not all the same.
There's other issues going on now like Gay Rights and I feel as though there will be a Dr. King for this movement too.
Dr. King did not only just help Black people so please get that out of your mind if you were thinking it.
He helped everyone by setting a great example of what it meant to be a leader and equality for all.
We all have something to offer, no one person nor race knows it all.
Thankyou Dr. King.