My favorite type of music is Hip-hop, R&B, and rap. I listen to a lot of other things like rock and pop but as for the rock and pop genre of music, most of the time I don't know the artists are or the name of the song that I might be singing along to. I guess that's pretty stereotypical of a black person, but its just the music I connect with the most. I like the beats too because I can vibe to it, dance to it, party to it, chill to it, get intimate with it and many other things that I just couldn't do with rock and pop all the time. R&B originate with jazz and blues, so I also love that music along with many oldies. My parents put me onto jazz and they attend many jazz festivals; one going on right now in Florida called the Seabreeze Jazz Festival. We actually know one famous saxophone player, Paul Taylor, who is my mom's old college roommate's husband.
I like how old school hip-hop and rap has evolved to what it is now with all the music technology creating crazy beats! Sometimes the beats are just what I listen to because the lyrics can be crude, drug glorifying, and degrading to woman. I think what rap has evolved to has become a Southern representation of African Americans. People think that what is shown in rap and rap videos is what every black person was raised around and should be like, which isn't true. Most of the time when I listen to rap its so I can party and get hyped up for things like track meets or something that I need to get excited to do. One old school women rap group is Salt n Pepa.
I'd have to say that my hometown in San Antonio, TX. For the longest I did not want to claim it because I had lived in Ohio, Massachusetts, and Alabama before that. I used to never know where to claim when people would ask me "where are you from?" First I would say Cleveland Ohio because that's where I was born, but then I realized, I don't know anything about the city besides the fact that I was born there. Then, I would start saying I was born in Ohio, but I'm from Massachusetts because that is the first place I actually have a few memories from...but not many. Then I would say I was born in Ohio, lived in Massachusetts for a little, but I'm from Alabama because I had lived there the longest out of any other state that the military has made us move to. Then after a long time of saying that complicated answer and realizing that Alabama is where I wanted to be from, not where I was from, once I moved from Texas, I started claiming it as the place I was truly from. I finally realized that there's a totally different meaning to that question actually. Where you are from is where you were raised, where you grew up, matured, and went through the experiences of life. It's the place that molded you and made you who you are today. I figured that that place could only be San Antonio because as much as I didn't want to be from there, I've made my best friends here, made life changing decisions here, went to elementary, middle, and high school here so I can't act like this place has not had an influence on my life. Here is a map of my current home, after moving around the city a little before.
I find it very interesting how Michael doesn't want to claim the town he grew up in as his hometown, and i find no fault in that. The funny thing is that the environment he grew up in is not of the actual town he grew up, but rather a new environment that is an assimilation of everything from where he was born, to where his parents were born. And that is how i feel people grow up, as an assimilation of there surroundings, and their history. It sounds confusing but just like how in the Native Guard, the girl is describing who she is by describing where she came from, that is how people are. My parents are first generation immigrants, so i did not grow up in the same way as my neighbor even though we both went to the same school. My family history makes my experiences different, in turn making my view of my hometown different than anybody else's. And that is why growing up in the south doesn't make me like southern music more than someone from the North. I dont like traditional southern food, mainly because my indian history doesn't really include those thing, and this is why i feel its not hometown that helps influence your tastes but your history.
Music. All the potential that I see in that single word is hard to cover with words. As a musician myself I have a great appreciation for all styles of music. My personal favorites though are Metal, hard rock, and just anything I can jam out to. The style I feel like listening to though is primarily based off of the mood I happen to be in at the time.
Sometimes I really like to listen to classical music. The complexity and pure genius that went into composing some of those pieces is extraordinary. I would say that my favorite classical composer would be Beethoven.
I like listening to cultural music as well. A lot if communicated about a culture through it's music that can't be communicated through ordinary words. It's like food in some ways. You can describe the food all you want but until you eat it you won't be able to appreciate it. Until you listen to the music you won't really be able to fully appreciate where it came from. That's my opinion anyway.
I hate to refer to the place that I was primarily raised in as my hometown, because I never really viewed it as my home and never will.
But the place the I was raised near for the greater portion of my childhood was Verndale, Minnesota. You can already tell from the name that this place is about as hickish as you can find. Population of roughly 600 people. One school which taught K-12. I did not go to that school thankfully. I was home schooled. Which was an education at a level many times greater than that of most of my friends. No exaggeration here, the education system was geared towards the children of farmers, who were expected to become farmers. I knew several people in that area that never completed an education higher than 8th grade, because that was all they needed.
Farming was the primary economic basis for that area. My father decided that he wanted to farm, which is why we ended up there. I was actually born in Atlanta and lived in Acworth for the first half of my life. My Dad was a graduate from Georgia Tech with a Masters in Computer science, had worked for almost 20 years at the Georgia Tech Research Institute, and decided to raise his kids on a farm. Go figure.
In many ways the stereotypes that people commonly think of as "Southern" actually apply across the nation. The hick/redneck lifestyle applies to basically any society or settlement that is based off of an economic system not requiring a higher level of education. It's very clearly seen in MN not just the south.
Music has been a big part of my life for several years now. It hadn't really become an integral part until about middle school however, when a lot of my friends introduced me to Hip-Hop/ Rap. Where I come from, a lot of the middle school and high school- aged kids all try to be "gangsta" or "thug-nasty" or a whole list of other words for people that want to be street- tough. With that mindset, a lot of my friends introduced me to Rap because they identified with it a lot through their clothing, attitude, and sometimes lifestyle.
I would have to say my favorite artists are those from Atlanta because they speak about their hometown and bring a lot of attention (good or bad) to this city. Artists like T.I., Ludacris, and Young Jeezy are the most prominent in the area (warning: some content on the hyperlinks may be explicit). A lot of their lyrics talk about Atlanta and the South as being "Dirty" or tough and thick- skinned. Like country music, these rappers take a lot of pride in their hometowns for what they are, even if it means glorifying very illegal acts. I am not proud of the criminal activities that the rappers portray in their lyrics a lot of times, but I do appreciate that they love their city as much as I do.
Below is a video of a classic rap song by Jermaine Dupri, titled "Welcome to Atlanta" featuring Ludacris, both natives of Atlanta.
So i hope yall have recovered from writing that paper. So i wanted to ask yall what your favorite type of music is and was it influenced by where you came from?
My favorite kind of music is Country. I love both the oldies like Cash, Hank, and Haggard and the new like Clay Bryant, Alan Jackson, and Tim Mcgraw. As in Bastard out of Carolina, the oldies are about the outlaws and there mistakes with life and love. It touches the soul in a way that no other music can. This is one of my favorite Conway Twitty Song. The new age Country is about the pride in being southern and the place that you call home. People can appreciate even if they arent from a country town. This love for Country is because of where im from. I didnt start liking country till i was in 6th grade when my friends started me on it. My parents dont like country and never really have. so i was just wondering if yalls music taste was the same way.
