5 Songs Related to Success:
1) Drake Ft Trey Songz, "Successful," Rap (2010) *Explicit*
2) Pink Floyd, "Money," Rock N' Roll (1973) *Explixit*
3) Notorious B.I.G, "Mo' Money, Mo' Problems," Rap (1997) *Explicit*
4) Gang Starr, "Moment of Truth," Rap (1998)
5) Eric B. and Rakim, "Paid in Full," Rap (1987)
Video for Success:
5 Songs Related to Liberation:
1) The Beatles, "Revolution 1," Rock N' Roll (1968)
2) Bob Marley, "Redemption Songs," Reggae (1979)
3) Akon, "Freedom," R&B (2008)
4) Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, "I Won't Back Down," Rock N' Roll (1989)
5) Stevie Wonder, "Free," Pop (2009)
Video for Liberation:
Just like last weeks assignment one aim was considerably easier to find songs related to it and this week that aim was, success. I found myself thinking of songs off the top of my head that I wanted to use for success. Liberation, on the other hand, took a lot more time to find songs. I do not know if this is because there are so little of them or that my personal knowledge of music in general is more limited than most. It was challenging to find songs and artists you never heard of. I found several songs by thinking of groups of people that had been recently liberated from oppression and searched by topic rather trying to think of specific artist. There were a couple of things I noticed now that I can compare the two weeks against each other. I noticed that some of the same artist that I found singing songs for community service last week were some of the same artist that I found songs for liberation. An example of this is the two Bob Marley songs I chose. Also I noticed that the songs having to deal with liberation the artist spoke of liberation differently. Some spoke of literal meanings of being liberated or freed from some form of oppression and others spoke of liberation in more abstract ways. It just showed me that there are varying ideas of what liberation is. I believe that the biggest difference between the Hindus’ ideas of what success is is the materialistic aspect to American culture. A vast majority of the time that a songs deals with success in popular American culture it usually involves getting money, power, cars, houses, etc. This was exactly the case that I ran into when finding songs about success. I believe this is due the power we give these inanimate objects in todays culture. The current culture in America is that what we owe defines us and more importantly what we do not owe as a result drives us to fill a void that can never be filled. But thats just my take, let me know what you think.
I understand you're struggle regarding song selections that are more under the radar (unlike Money by Pink Floyd which I nearly chose before seeing your blog). On the other hand, however, I tend to listen to a genre that the general majority of the population doesn't (heavy metal/metalcore) so finding some songs no one would choose wasn't as hard a task as it would normally be. Regardless of the difficult in originality I absolutely love the songs you chose.
ReplyDeleteSongs can be a lot harder to find that you or I thought. I was clouded with the success songs that Liberation seemed like something impossible the find, and that transcends onto the message of the music. Liberation music can be two the point, but there is some liberation that is not what society wants, its what you want, to obtain your own level of liberation could mean anything.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the materialistic nature of our modern society has driven the modern thought of success to mean "enough money to buy a lot of stuff". It's interesting to note that the Hinduism aim focuses more on success as a means to provide for your family.
ReplyDeleteI think that the American yearning for success is greater than that of the Hindus because they seek liberation. I feel that some Americans try for success so hard, and some try even harder once they get it, because it is a void that can't be filled (as you said).
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