1) USA for Africa "We Are The World"--Charity song done by supergroup USA for Africa (1985)
2) Ben Harper "With My Own Two Hands"--Reggae (2003)
3) Bob Marley "One Love"--Reggae (1965)
4) John Lennon "Imagine"--Rock 'n Roll (1971)
5) Toby Keith "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue"--Country (2002)
Video for Community Service:
John Lennon's "Imagine" (1971)
5 Songs Related to Pleasure:
1) David Lee Roth "California Girls"--Rock n Roll (1985)
2) Prince "1999"--Rock n Roll (1976)
3) Notorious BIG "Party and Bullshit"--Rap (1993)*Explicit*
4) Rick Ross "Magnificent"-- Rap (2009)*Explicit*
5) Slim Thug "So High"--Rap (2010)*Explicit*
Video for Pleasure
David Lee Roth's "California Girls" (1985)
Of these two aims, the more prominent of the two was definitely pleasure. I noticed it was very easy to find songs that had to deal with pleasure and found myself having a hard time picking just because of too many choices. For community service, there were far less examples. I think the most obvious reason for this is peoples appeal to pleasure themselves than to perform community service. And in popular culture the saying goes "Sex Sells" and all 5 of my songs in the pleasure aim mention beautiful women. Also, drugs were very prevalent in the pleasure songs. I did find more songs for community service than I originally thought but most were made for some charity function. I was hoping to find artist that solely focused on social issues and community service and there was not much I found. I did learn about some of the work Bono of U2 has done but there are not many others like him. I also noticed with the songs dealing with pleasure they almost always-included sex, drugs and money. I think the prevalence of this in today’s music is not because people’s idea of what pleasure is has changed but that societies ability and willingness to publicly express this has changed. In the past, it was taboo to speak of sex in public but for some it’s a conversation visited daily and I think our music reflects this change. Based on what the Hindu believe about community service, I believe that all though there are not many songs in quantity they do represent what the Hindu believe which is commitment to help others. With pleasure however, I believe that American Pop culture does show how we seek pleasure it does not show how we do it intelligently. Most examples of pleasure I found in popular culture showed complete excess with no self-control in place. Although I think there are people out there that do not have self-control, many of us do know how to seek pleasure intelligently. I do feel though as America has earned the title of the nation of excess. Overall, I believe that there is just as much community service happening as pleasuring it is just popular culture focuses on what sells/entertains the best.
You know, I did not even think about the whole, "sex sells," idea that is rampant among Americans. Like you, I believe that is a very large reason why, it seems, everyone had an easier time finding songs regarding pleasure, than community service. I would like to agree with you and think that there is as much community service happening in the world, as there is pleasure. However, I speculate that is the opposite. We are an arrogant and selfish nation. I wonder if you searched for songs related to the AIDS and Red movement that is becoming more mainstream now, if that would lead to more results for songs of community service.
ReplyDeleteSex does sell! I had a hard time with finding pleasure songs just because there were so many too choose from. What did you look for when you were looking for songs about community service? I mainly looked for songs that were inspirational. I hope that's right...
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