Music

"Folk songs didn’t require expert musical accompaniment or trained voices. They were likely to be handed down from generation to generation and changed every time they were sung." (p.155)

I really like folk songs because I would hear them all the time growing up in the country.

Its also interesting to me as a historian how people would use them as a way of communicating knowledge but also how they change over time. Its also sad as a historian to think about folk songs who's meaning has been altered or completely disappeared over the years. Its nice to think thought that even though someone might have not been a professional singer that they could still sing a folk song to their grandchildren."

"A Sinatra classic is “One for My Baby,” in which the narrator is sitting at a bar very late at night with no one around except a bartender who may be, but is probably not, listening, having heard the story so often. Nonetheless, the narrator pours out his heart. He has been abandoned by his one true love, though he does not deny having been responsible for the breakup; now there is only the effort to escape the pain through drink." (p.164)

I actually really like this song and have it downloaded on my phone and still listen to it from time to time. I really liked this era of music as it is the beginning of that modern songwriting has become. Many songs nowadays don't tell the story of a hero or an inspirational figure like old folk songs might have. This is good in my opinion though because it allows artists to express themselves however they want even if its not always a happy story. Often these songs are popular because they represent true story's that many people have been through, in this instance cheatings and a breakup. This emotional connection is what makes people always remember these songs and find their own meaning in the words being sung.

"Singers such as Taylor Swift and Beyoncé wield astonishing control over their creative output and their financial lives, control that early artists such as Little Richard, Chuck Berry and even Elvis Presley never came close to achieving." (p.169)

I think that artist independence is one of the best things to happen to the music industry.

It has allowed for the creation of new forms of music that might have been silenced if record company's decided to not release it simply because they didn't enjoy it. One thing I really hated in recent history happened with one of my favorite artists named Lil Uzi Vert who had a record deal with a certain company who refused to let him release an album because they wanted to change it and make him do what they wanted. Unfortunately this ended in him leaving the record label, but, because it was recorded in their studio they retained the rights to the album so it was never released and probably will never be released.

Janaro & Altshuler, The Art of Being Human - The Humanities as a Technique for Living 11th Edition, Pearson 2016