Music Mondays, and why hearing Black is Beautiful shouldn't scare you...

This song is for all of my black girls (and women). If you want to read the lyrics, you can click here.



Originally, I was just going to leave it that. But then I remembered this post, where I learned that it's important to explain to avoid ambiguity. And if you don't learn from your life experiences and change your behavior accordingly, what the heck are you doing with yourself?!

First, something non race-related: It's actually not a good idea to tell your children that if someone ever hurt them, that you would kill that person. Because God forbid someone was harming your children, the fear that you would go to jail for seeking revenge could actually keep your child from telling you about it. And we don't want that.

Okay, moving on...

I really like this song. It's got a great beat, and a positive, uplifting message. I hesitated a bit to post it here, because I don't want to give the impression to my white readers that being a black woman is just a giant bag of suck. I mean, the song is called Black Girl Pain for Pete's sake. But the reality is that black and brown girl's do face unique challenges that other people don't (if you need some examples, click here or here.) I'm sure this part of why Talib Kweli and Jean Grae chose to write what someone on Rap Genius called An Ode to Black Women.

I also know that some people might be put off by me saying, "This is for all of my black girls (and women)." Saying it's for one group of people implies that it's not for others. So...if you are not a black woman, but identify with any of the themes in the song--then it is for you as well.


But...why do I have to say that? Why are some people uncomfortable with hearing pro-black messages? Why are such messages sometimes perceived as Reverse Racism?

It's true, whenever you hear someone expressing a pro-white message, they usually have shaved head and a swastika and/or confederate flag on their jacket. So if pro-white is racist, then wouldn't pro-black be racist too?

No, and here's why: Being pro-black is more like being pro-Irish than it is being pro-white. When a white identity is discussed, it is usually in reference to white people being better than other people. The only people you hear talk about being proud to be white are white supremacists. But there are lots of Irish (and Italian and Polish and other,) Americans that are proud of their heritage, difficulties that they've overcome, distinct parts of their culture, etc. The reality is that white is way too big of a category for people to have legit sources of pride or connection. And it doesn't help that the whole concept of white only came to exist to justify the subjugation of people that weren't white. So it's kind of a flawed grouping to begin with. (I'm not saying white people are flawed, I'm saying the categorization of people as white has problems.)

But when you hear that someone is a proud Irish-American, people don't immediately become fearful, or think those Irish-Americans need to get over themselves or anything like that. You just think we're talking about a group that is proud of a unique part of their identity. And if you know anything about the history of white people in this country, you know that these white ethnics were pressured to give up their identities and assimilate (i.e. become more like the white immigrants from Western and Northern Europe that had arrived before them.) Many did, which is part of why you hear so many white people referring to themselves as mutts, or thinking that they don't have a distinctive culture. But some resisted, and held on to the traditions of the countries they were emigrating from. [Granted, these white ethnics don't have centuries of being enslaved and then targeted by the U.S. government for various forms of maltreatment--but other than that, it's pretty similar. :p] They held on to things that were important to them, and made this country more interesting and dynamic as a result.

So, white people, the next time you hear a black person say something pro-black, don't be scurred. Unless they're advocating physical violence towards you, I don't think you've got anything to be worried about.

And to all my black girls out there, when the world starts to get you down, remember:

Please hold your head up high
Don't be ashamed of yourself, no I
carry you forth until the day I die

belee' 'dat. (:

What do you think? Let me know by leaving me a comment.




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The best music monday song ever in the history of everything.

I'm slightly obsessed with this song. Though technically, you can't be slightly obsessed with anything. But I've been listening to it much of the weekend on repeat, and I think you need to experience it. Make sure you actually watch the video and not just listen to the song while you do other stuff on the computer. And you should either watch it full screen, or click through to watch it on youtube to get the complete experience.



Damn. If that doesn't want to make you go have sexytime with your partner, I think you need to check your pulse. But this isn't hotttvideos.com, it's myblackfriendsays.com. This means I have to write some stuff about race and inequality. Luckily for all of us, I did notice some things. In a particular order:

--This song continues the tradition of white guys who sound black that I wrote about here. What's interesting is that Sam Smith is from England and Sam Sparro is from Australia. I wonder if there is something about those two accents that makes it easier for white people to get that kind of sound? Or maybe they're just more in touch with their soulful sides. Can you think of any white male singers from the U.S. that sound black? Jon B. is the only one that comes to mind for me.

--We've got the two chicks kissing, which is kind of a big deal. What I think is interesting is that I didn't have the same reaction to that that I probably would have 20 years ago. It's definitely the first time I've seen two people of the same sex kiss in a music video, but it wasn't shocking. I think in large part because of seeing Britney and Madonna kiss at the VMA's in 2003 and then having the news media show it repeatedly for weeks afterward. It's like when you say a word over and over and it starts to lose its meaning. You show two women kiss, and the first time it's like "Whoa!" and then the 75th time it's like "meh."

--You'll notice that they didn't show the two guys that lock eyes kissing. It's like Slow your roll, folks. The only time I've seen two guys kiss in a sexual way was Brokeback Mountain. And maybe an indie film I saw a long time ago that I can't remember the name of. Men kissing does happen in pop culture, but it's always played for laughs, like Will Ferrell and some other dude. Perhaps that will change in the future.

--I think that if they hadn't had the same sex couple featured, they would have had a couple of color. Remember the rule of threes? It's just that nowadays gay people are the we're open minded indicator. This brings up some of the issues around intersectionality that I posted about Friday on myblackfriendays.com's facebook page.

--We've got the interracial (maybe?) couple also featured. I say maybe because the woman is racially ambiguous. She looks to me like she could be half white and half black, or half white and half latina or a light-skinned black person or or any number of other combinations. What's interesting about her is that she is the most scantily clad and obviously sexual of all of the characters in the story. Reinforcing the exotic non-white temptress narrative.

--Another thing about the interracial couple: when's the last time you saw a black guy hooking up with a white woman on screen? But nowadays it is becoming increasingly common to see black and Asian women getting it on with white men. Oooooh weeee, what's up with that? what's up with that?

--Finally, if you check the youtube comments, you'll see they fall into three general categories: 1) This song is awesome 2) some positive comment about the light-eyed, blonde-ish couple in the elevator 3) some statement of disgust about the inclusion of the gay couples. So even though the second couple is supposed to be the most relateable and common, they are largely ignored and the blondies get the favor. Is that because they are in an elevator, and many people have fantasies about getting it on in an elevator? Quite possibly. But maybe it's because that couple most closely represents the white ideal.

That's all. Truly, I originally wanted to post this because I just like the song so much. But then they added the visuals, which clearly gave me a lot more to say. If you have something to say, you should leave me a comment.

My reaction to Brad Paisley and LL Cool J's song Accidental Racist.

So this song is being talked about a lot on different shows I watch and different blogs I read. I haven't read the blog posts, because I didn't want my own opinions to be influenced by what other people were saying. But from what I've heard on my shows, the song is not getting a very positive response. How about you all just listen to it, and then we can go from there. [Edited to add: it looks like the song keeps getting taken off of youtube. Which doesn't make any sense because if we're supposed to listen for ourselves to make up our minds, we need to be able to hear the song, amirite? Anyhow, if you want to read the lyrics, you can click here.]




Ok, it's not the best song I've ever heard. But let's start with the good stuff. [Pro tip: whenever you're giving constructive criticism, always start with the stuff the person has done right.]


--This song is an example of what I was talking about in my last post, about how white people need more truth and black people need more reconciliation. LL definitely goes for the reconciliation (R.I.P. Robert E. Lee) and Brad does acknowledge that the South has a troubled history (not as much as I would like, but we'll get to that in the next section.)

--Both guys make good points that they are guilty of judging people based on how they look. This is something that people of all races are guilty of, and the world would be a better place if everyone made a conscious effort to do it less.

--I appreciate Brad saying that he wears the confederate flag, but does not intend for it to be racist. I still don't fully understand this, but maybe I understand it a little better after listening to this song. Apparently he and LL are actually friends, and if you asked me before if someone who wore a confederate flag would have a black friend, I would have said No.

--I think they both deserve some credit for even putting the song out. Race is a topic that seems to be spoken about in bursts by the larger society (examples: here, here and here.) There is usually a big brouhaha, a lot of criticism, and then the incident in question just fades away. Brad Paisley felt the issue was important and so he decided to make a song about it. This is not something that many white artists do. Can you name another song put out by a well-known white artist that has to do with racism? Let's say in the last five years or so.


Okay, let's move on to the opportunities for improvement [Pro tip#2: call stuff that isn't that great Opportunities for Improvement]

--I heard Brad say in an interview something like, "Our country is still in its adolescence when it comes to dealing with issues of race." So, it would make sense then that a song written about it would be something of an oversimplification of the issues.

Yes, race issues are about slavery, but they're not completely about slavery. It's also about all the other things that are related to slavery that have happened since then. It's about the fact that there was an opportunity immediately after the war to rectify the situation, and it wasn't taken--by the same men that Brad seems to be celebrating when he wears the Confederate flag on his chest.

--The chorus talks about being caught between Southern pride and Southern blame.

While I was making our oatmeal this morning I thought, Why doesn't he say Southern shame instead of Southern blame? It would still rhyme.

And then I thought, Can you be ashamed of something that you didn't actually do? Then I realized if you can be proud of something you didn't do, then it would follow that you could also be ashamed of things you didn't do.

I understand that the blame comes in because he is talking about the black/white dynamic, and he's saying that black people blame white people for things that white people had no control over.

But I think the reason that I would have liked him to use the word shame is because I think on some level, I just need to know that he really understands the enormity of the situation.

If you're going to be proud of the good things about the South, then you need to be ashamed and embarrassed about the bad things about the South. Because if you just try to gloss over the bad things, it makes me think that you don't really think they were that bad. And if you don't think the things from the past were that bad, you're definitely not going to think that things now are bad, because things now are better than they were then.

Like he says, It ain't like you and me can rewrite history and then later, we're still payin' for the mistakes that a bunch of folks made long before we came. Both of these are true sentences. But the first line, he's talking to me as a black person, like we have to work together to move forward. I get it, I'm down.

But then when he talks about the bunch of folks line it's like, No Brad, it wasn't a bunch of folks, it was a bunch of white folks. Why can't you just say that?

A bunch of white folks did some stuff to a bunch of black folks and now a hundred plus years later, white folks as a whole are in a much better position than black folks, even though it's not legal to do that bad stuff anymore. What's up with that?

I don't think I've said this before here, but I think a parallel can be made between how white people in the United States feel about slavery and about how non-Jewish Germans feel about the Holocaust. Of course they are not completely the same, because the Holocaust was more recent, and people were being killed, not enslaved.

But I would imagine it's similar because you have these ancestors, that you want to honor and look up to. But at the same time you have to reconcile that they did some really f-d up things (or just stood by while f-d up things happened.) Why did they do that? Were they just going with the flow? Were they evil? Were they preoccupied with stuff in their own lives? Did they just not think critically about all the things that they had been taught about why it was okay to treat their fellow human beings in such an inhumane way?

I'm just speculating here. Because I haven't lived a long time with this label of oppressor, I don't really know what it's like. But I do know that when/if you apologize for something, you can't at the same time minimize what you're apologizing for.

So, I'm not really willing to say RIP Robert E. Lee just yet. But I am willing to give props to Brad Paisley, and to tell him that I truly believe that his intentions are good. If he is really interested in talking more and thinking more about race, I would invite him to read this post--I think it's an excellent place to start.

So what do you think, readers? Let me know in the comments.

Taylor Swift's Revenge: Part I

Here's a Music Monday for you, even though it's Friday. It's Taylor Swift's Mean.

People who are IRL friends with me on Facebook may know that I am not what you might call a fan of Taylor Swift. Well, it's weird. I like many of her songs, but I don't like the that she is such a huge star because while she is a very talented songwriter, she is an average singer at best. So why is she making a living as a singer? I don't get it.

Well that's not true. I do get it--she has a very marketable image, she has some talent, she works hard, and she enjoys being famous--that's why she's making a living as a singer.

Yeah, that's probably mean and maybe I've been sippin' on too much haterade, and whatever else you might like to say. But it is my opinion, and I live in the great country that is the United States where I can say things like that, without fear of the Secret Police coming to get me.

Okay, you can listen to the song now. In case you are not familiar with it, you should know that she wrote this song in response to a critic who wrote a scathing review of her Grammy performance a few years ago.




When I first thought of writing this post, I was only going to focus on the part from 2:54 on. Where she starts to call the guy pathetic and a liar . But I had to listen to the song before I put it up, and realized there is more juicy stuff at the beginning. The very first verse, she talks about how words can be like swords and knives and then she says at 1:39 that the cycle ends right now, 'cause you can't lead me down that road

So...I guess he can't lead her down that road, after she calls him pathetic? But once she does that then she's going to be the bigger person? She's going to be big and important in a city, and he is going to be the loser that no one listens to.

Way to rise above it all, Tay tay.

I say all this not to pick on Taylor, but because this song helps to highlight the tendency we have as humans to lash out at people that hurt us, in an attempt to protect ourselves. Like, when I would get in fights in college with my boyfriend (now husband,) I would try to convince myself that he had all these bad qualities and I was better off without him, yada yada yada. But it never worked, because I knew that I really cared about him and that there was no one else in the whole wide world that I would rather hang out with. So it was really just a not-very-effective defense mechanism.

I said in the title that this post is Part I, because in Part II, I want to bring this all back around to race and inequality. Oh, and if you want to watch another Taylor Swift video that might make you cry (especially if you're a mom,) click here.

Happy Frida. Leave me a comment if you want.

ha ha, that was supposed to say Friday, but sometimes I like to leave my funny typos.

Bye!

The song of my people...

Here's a song for Music Thursdays. I love this song. I am going to post it twice, but the first time you only need to listen to it for about a minute and a half, so you can hear him singing. But it's such a great song, you may just want to listen to it the whole way through twice.



I first heard this song on one of my Pandora stations. I then went to youtube and found the official music video that you can watch below:



At about 23 seconds is when I yelled to my husband, "Wait, this is a white guy?!"

Did you have the same reaction? Sam Sparro sounds like a black guy to me.

So, what does it mean to sound like a black guy (or a black person?) I've been thinking about this quite a bit in preparation for writing this post, and I've narrowed it down to two things.

You can sound like a black person if you talk like our friend Antoine, meaning you pronounce your words a certain way or have a distinctive (usually Southern sounding) drawl. Click the link if you don't know who Antoine is. You can also sound like a black person if you structure your sentences in a distinctive way (think Ebonics.)

But, you can also sound like a black person even if you enunciate the endings of your words, and structure your sentences in the way that we are taught to in school. Black people's voices seem to be generally deeper than white people's. Or maybe they just have a different timbre. Maybe black people's vocal cords are longer or looser or something. I have a theory that some white women artificially increase the pitch of their voice in order to seem happy, non-threatening or something similar. Not basing that last statement on anything other than my own personal experiences; not trying to piss anyone off.

So, is it bad/racist/racish to think that you can tell a someone's race just from hearing their voice? Is it bad/racist/racish to say someone sounds black or sounds white?

Well, I wouldn't have a problem with someone telling me that I sounded black if it were for reasons related to the quality of my voice. And I don't think that anyone would ever say that I sounded black because I don't pronounce the endings of my words. As I wrote here before, I'm sure there are many people who think that I probably talk like a white person.

But this is the problem: a white person telling me that I sound like a white person is not a compliment, and a black person telling me I sound like a white person is not an insult (even though that is how each comment is intended.)

I talk the way that I talk. And since I am black, I would say that means I talk like a black person. Antoine talks the way that he talks, and since he's black, that means that he talks like a black person too.

Do more black people talk like Antoine than talk like me? I don't know. But I do know that Antoine's manner of speaking is much more commonly accepted as the black way of speaking than mine is. That is troublesome to me because it serves to create division among black people about who is truly black. Time spent on that is time not spent on changing the things in that documentary I shared my last post.

Are Antoine's professional opportunities limited by the way that he speaks? Probably.

And who shoulders the responsibility for that--Antoine? Or the person doing the hiring? Should he change the way he speaks (something that is a big part of a person's identity,) if he wants to get a job at State Farm? (that was just the first corporation that came to mind.) Or should corporations embrace a wider range of ways to speak, in an effort to celebrate diversity?

All right, I feel like I am kind of rambling now. But I wanted to leave you with a few more questions.

Do you feel like you can tell a person's race just from hearing their voice? Like, if two people read Mary had a Little Lamb, could you tell who was white and who was black?

If you're not white or black, can you tell if other people are the same race as you, even if they don't have a stereotypical accent? If so, how?

Have you ever thought someone was one race, and then met them in person, and found out they were another? What happened? How did you handle it?

Feel free to answer any, all, or none of my questions in the comments. You can even ask some of your own.

Laters.

What Nas and Newt Gingrich have in common.

This week's Music Monday post is Nas' I Can. They play this song often on the Back in the Day Cafe on my local hip-hop station. We won't get into the fact that a song that came out when I was a full-flegded adult is now considered a back in the day jam :p

The lyrics are pretty easy to follow, but if you'd like to read them, you can do so here.




My favorite parts of the song are when he says, read more, learn more, change the globe and also when he sings/screeches Your man'll sing, "She's my Queeeen!" That line always makes me smile.


But what I really like about this song is the message: Work hard, and achieve your goals. Don't look to others to take care of you, do what you need to do to take care of yourself.


So here is the first of many of my questions: What is it that makes it okay for Nas to make a song like this, but when someone like Newt Gingrich (i.e. a white republican guy,) says something similar, he gets seriously criticized for it? I am thinking of Gingrich's idea about children working as janitors.

I mean, Nas doesn't say, "Blame the system for your problems." He says, "Make a goal, stay out of trouble, and you will be successful." And yes, I know that the janitor example is not a perfect one, but it does illustrate a number of conservative principles.

It is worth pointing out that in the entire 3rd verse, Nas gives the listener a brief lesson in African and African-American history. This is not something I would ever expect to see Newt doing in a stump speech. Is that the key difference in the two messages? Nas' acknowledgement that the white man was/is trying to keep the black man down? Is that why Nas' message is more palatable?

Even then, I still don't get it, because Nas is still saying "Yes, the white man was/is trying to keep you down--but work hard anyway." And while I don't know if Newt Gingrich would agree that the white man is currently trying to keep people of color down, I think he would concede that it happened in the past and his response would be, "Yeah that happened, and it was bad--but work hard anyway."

Actually, I think that Newt Gingrich might say that the white man is still trying to keep people of color down--by giving some of them welfare and free housing and making them totally dependent on the government.

Here's the thing: What makes it okay for a black liberal to say, Pull yourself up by your bootstraps, but not a white conservative? Or any conservative for that matter, because conservatives of color are not exactly celebrated for being voices of reason.

Is it because we think we know the intentions of these different groups? Black liberals like Nas are assumed to have good intentions, while conservatives of all colors are assumed to have bad ones? Some other reason that I haven't thought of?
Lots of question marks in this post, and they aren't rhetorical questions, neither.

Also, I'd like to remind you that with my new and improved commenting system, you can now get the instant gratification of putting your ideas into cyberspace, if you let me know what you think below. So...leave me a comment!

El lunes de musica

Today's music has kind of an interesting story. I was watching a video on youtube and I saw the video below in the sidebar. The reason that I clicked on it is because a couple of years ago, I got a Starbucks free download of the week by the same artist. That song didn't leave that much of an impression on me, but I remembered the artist's name. So I decided to press play, listened and realized it would be a great song to feature on my blog!

So that's a little lesson in how being open to new experiences can lead you to unexpected good things later on.

Ok, watch the video:

Pretty obvious why I picked it, yeah? Positive, uplifting and all that jazz.

If I had one critique of the video it would be this: I wish they would have left the main words from the first t-shirts and associated them with the words from the second t-shirts.

Like fat and fabulous,
black man and successful,
little and capable.

By leaving the main identifiers off of the second t-shirts, Ledisi is subtly reinforcing the idea that those identifiers are inherently bad. This is why people say things like, I don't see you as black and expect you to take it as a compliment. [Sidenote: I understand that people may also mean "This physical characteristic of yours is not the first thing that comes to mind when I think about you," so don't freak out if you have ever said the sentence above to someone--it's possible that they still like you. But the interpretation I offered is another way to perceive the statement, so if they gave you the side eye--that's probably why ;)]

So give yourself a round of applause for being you, and leave me a comment if you'd like. Happy Monday (:

Music Mondays

Yes, I am aware that it's Friday. I've had this song in my head for a few days now. It's safe for work, and if you'd like to read the lyrics, you can click here.



There are so many great lines in this song. I think my favorite is,

Lift your head up high, and rejoice for all you see without your eyes.

And then there's the bridge,

No life's worth more than any other, no sister worth less than any brother.

I wonder how the world would be different if we actually believed that? I know I try, but it's hard sometimes.

Rumer has it.

Here's some music for your faces. And your ears, too I suppose:



That's Rumer. She's got the voice of an angel. Karen Carpenter reincarnated maybe. She's probably sick of hearing both of those things. Oh well. And her name isn't really Rumer. I think it's Sarah. I agree with her that Rumer sounds much cooler. No offense intended to my readers named Sara(h).

myblackfriend, she's not black, so why are you talking about her on your blog?

Well, she is half-Pakistani, but that's not why I am blogging about her either. sometimes I like to blog about things that relate to different forms of inequality, not just things that stem from race. I almost said "related to race" but that wouldn't be accurate, because I do believe that all forms of inequality are related in some way.

Anyways, I'm writing about Rumer because she is a talented singer/songwriter who is also overweight. Sidenote: I thought a lot about just the right word to describe this particular woman's body. As it goes with women's bodies, there are many words to choose from. I finally decided on "overweight." It's not the best word, but if you don't like it, don't blame me--blame society.

I first heard about Rumer on CBS News Sunday Morning. She talked about how she worked all kinds of jobs while she was waiting for her big break. That's not that unusual of a story, but it got me thinking, "Hmm...I wonder why she's getting her big break now? She's got an amazing voice, much better than many people who are currently on the radio."

I decided that she is getting her big break now, because consumers have shown that they are willing to spend money on overweight, really talented, female singer/songwriters, as demonstrated by the massive success of another British artist, Adele. So a record executive decided that it might be a good bet to invest some money in Rumer, because she might make him and his bosses a lot of money, the same way Adele made her record company a lot of money. Because record companies (like most companies I know,) are intensely motivated by the amount of money they can make.

These two women illustrate a really important point. If people want change in society, one of the most powerful ways that they can push for that change is how they choose to spend their money. Adele is massively successful, and now corporations are responding by expanding their ideas of what a successful musician can look like. It's kind of like the explosion of all the New Jersey related shows, except much, much, better. If it makes corporations money, they'll do it. If it doesn't, they won't. So if we can show them how it's profitable not to be racist/sexist/lookist/homophobic/etc. they'll stop. Is that an oversimplification? I don't think so. It's true that it doesn't address how people without money to spend are supposed to make their voices heard, but I'm finished blogging for the day.

And even if you don't agree with anything I've written here, at least you got to hear a pretty song. And for that, you are welcome.

Comments? Leave them for me.

Music Mondays

I wanted to post this video several Mondays ago, but blah blah excuse blah--here it is. Be warned, it has a lot of profanity. If you'd like to follow along with the lyrics, you can click here.




Now, I know some of you don't like Kanye West.

I don't think he really cares.

I like this song for a number of reasons: the beat, the movie clips and of course, the rhymes. I haven't really liked anything Jay-Z has put out since he retired a few years ago and unretired three weeks later. But this song has made a believer out of me once again.

I also think Kanye's line, Prince Williams a'int do it right if you ask me, cause I was him I woulda married Kate and Ashley has got to go down as one of the top rap lyrics of all time. He name checks 4 people in one line, one of whom is the future King of England. I don't know that it gets much better than that.

Comments? Leave 'em for me. And is it too late to say Happy New Year? Probably...but Happy New Year anyway ;)

Music Mondays

I don't get to hear much new music these days. I am a stay-at-home mom now, and I always used to hear most of my new music driving in my car on my way to school or work. But now I don't go either of those places. So I probably first heard this song on my way to Target.

As usual, there is some language. If you 'd like to follow along with the lyrics, you can click here.



I like this song because it is another example of an uplifting rap song. You can't really have too many of those. I like how he talks to kids through so much of it, and the international focus. I have been lucky enough to see Lupe Fiasco in concert, and I am really glad that he makes such thought provoking, well-written and catchy music.

On a quasi-related note: My last post has elicited some varied and passionate reactions. I've enjoyed reading the comments, and am glad to see people taking the time to weigh in on what I had to say. I'm thinking I should probably get started on my responses soon if I want to be ready in time for follow-up fridays. If you would like to get in on the discussion, click here.

Music Mondays

Speaking of Animal Farm , This is the best rap song based on a George Orwell book I've ever heard. You can follow along with the lyrics here. Be warned that there is a fair amount of profanity:




Random fact: The clip at the beginning is from Planet of the Apes.

Music Mondays

I saw this video last week and thought I'd share it. It's a catchy song and has a flashmob in it, if you're still into that sort of thing ;) I am not going to link to the lyrics, because that's not why I'm posting it.



What is remarkable about this video is the diversity of the band. Three of the five members are people of color. When I was in high school, bands pretty much either looked like this:





or this:



There wasn't a whole lot of overlap.

Another thing: while it is a rock(?)/pop song, in order to get the full meaning of the chorus, you have to be familiar with a certain rap song. In general, I think there is a lot more fluidity with race and music than there was when I was younger. I wonder how/if this affects race relations among the youth of today.

I might be remiss in my bloggy duties if I didn't mention that, as usual the lead singer (aka the person who gets the most attention in any band,) is white. And some might argue that their homage to 50 cent is actually ripping off his idea, furthering the long musical tradition of white people ripping off black people's mad musical skillz to make a buck.

However, today I choose to focus on the positive--this nice, United Colors of Benetton band singing their infectious song to their nice United Colors of Benetton audience.

Comments? You know what to do.

Music Mondays

I've been thinking that I should bring back Music Mondays. There weren't really many songs that were jumping out to me to play, but then I saw the video for this song and thought it would be a good candidate. Then I heard it again on the radio tonight, which I took as sort of a sign from the gods.



It's an Asian Rap group! I've never heard of an Asian Rap group before. There was an Asian guy that went to a bar I frequented in my college days who called himself DJ SARS. But he wasn't a rapper, he was a DJ.

But more importantly, it's a good song. I wouldn't just put them up here because of their sheer Asian-ness, they actually have to put out a good product. This is definitely a song that I would put on one of my legendary itunes mixes, for an imaginary dance party or something. It might be a good workout song too. The only thing I don't like about the song is that it talks about "sipping sizurp" which I think is referring to using cough syrup as a recreational drug. That's dangerous.

I first heard about this song through my husband. He was asking me what a G6 was. He knew it was a car by Pontiac, but he also knew rap groups don't typically make songs about Pontiacs. Through the magic of Google, we found out it was a plane.

So what have we learned today? Not only can Asian people be Scottish, they can drop hot rhymes too.

Comments? You know what to do.

I am running out of creative titles for Music Mondays.

This week's selection for Music Mondays is I Am Not My Hair by India.Arie. Great song, no profanity, easy to understand. If you'd like to read along with the lyrics, you can do so here.

(Youtube is doing this new thing called Vevo with a lot of their videos. Judging from the comments, they still have some kinks they need to work out. Just an FYI.)



Two things I want to share: One, I really identify with a lot of this song, I wonder if most black women could write a song about their history with their hair. Second, I did a very unscientific poll on a message board that I frequent, and found out that over 70% of the respondents said that they had dyed their hair blond or gotten blond highlights sometime in the past. This made me sad. Well, not sad...but not happy.

Comments? You know what to do.

Music Monday

So, originally I thought this was the first time that I was going to do a Music Monday with a song from a white artist. But then when I clicked on the tag, I realized that no, this time was the first time.

This week's selection is Mother, Mother by Tracy Bonham. The link to the video is below, and if you want to follow along with the lyrics you can do so here.



You might be wondering...What does this song have to do with race and inequality in America? Or, maybe you're not.

Comments? You know what to do.

Musicality.

This week's selection for Music Mondays is Amazing by George Michael. I picked this song because 1) I love it and 2) It is the first love song written by a man for another man that I've ever heard. Which I think is pretty sad since I'm 30 ( well, 28 when the song came out.) [ETA: This is probably not the first song that was by a man to another man that I've heard--it's just the first one where the singer explicitly said the song was about another dude.] I heard George perform this song on Oprah and I went right out and bought the CD ( a marketer's dream, no?) Amazing talks about the ups and downs of George's relationship with his partner, Kenny Goss. If you would like to read along with the lyrics, you can do so here.




I think there are a lot of themes in this song that anyone in a loving relationship can relate to, like when George sings, "I think it's amazing, the way that love can set you free." Love is awesome, it truly is what makes life worth living.

So those of you out there lucky enough to be in love, give your significant other a big kiss and a hug. Not tomorrow, today. And those of you still waiting: keep the faith, it'll happen soon enough.

Monday, Monday...

Do you have a case of the Mondays today? I hope not. If you do, I've got a fun song for you to listen to that might get you out of your funk.

This week's selection for our latest installment of Music Mondays is Country Girl by Rissi Palmer. I first became aware of this song when Starbucks had it featured as a Song of the week. The lyrics are pretty straightforward, but if you'd like to follow along with them, you can do so here. I am also happy to report that there is no cursing in this song, so pull your little one (or your boss,) up to the screen and you two can jam out together. As always, we'll have a little discussion at the end, so pay attention.



First off, Rissi has got Jamie Foxx beat for the "most white people in a black person's music video" award.

I chose this song today because it reminds me of a conversation that we had previously about what it means to be "a proud Southerner". Rissi appears to be singing about many/some/all of the things that we discussed in terms of what Southerners are proud of, but I'm wondering why the title of the song isn't Southern Girl ?

To all my Southerners out there, what are your thoughts about calling yourselves not proud Southerners, but instead proud country folk? It seems like this might assuage some fears of people thinking you mean "I wish the South had won the war," when you talk about being proud of being from the South. But at the same time, being willing to give up the Southerner label would just mean you were giving it over to the racists, instead of fighting for it. That's like letting the terrorists win. It's just all so complicated...

I want to get sidetracked for a second and say that "country people" do not have exclusive claim to being polite or raising well-behaved kids. I'm not from the South and I'd like to think my "home trainin'" is quite good, tyvm. But I guess that's why she says "Don't need no kin from West Virginia to have it in ya" (Sidenote within a sidenote: I actually do have kin from West Virginia--Beckley represent!) She says in the song "it's a state of mind no matter where you're from" which means that we can all go around calling ourselves country girls if we want to.

Back to all the white people in the video: I wrote a post last year about why you don't see more white people backing up black people in music videos and I would think that this video proves my theory--it's all about the street cred.

I did some research on Wikipedia and found out that before this song peaked at #54 on the country charts, another black woman hadn't charted with a country song since 1987. That's a long time, people. White people have been on the rap and r&b charts more often than once every 20 years--what's up with that?

Rissi says in her wikipedia article, that she was offered a record deal with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis but turned it down, because they were trying to morph her sound into something less country sounding. I also noticed that she has a new single out right now, and it's a cover of an R&B song by Chris Brown.

So her album came out in 2007. To my country music listening readers, have you ever heard this song before? I've never heard it (or anything about Rissi Palmer) other than the Song of the Week from Starbucks. I get that it is hard for any new artist to make it big in the music industry, but I am guessing that Ms. Palmer has a unique set of challenges that her white up and coming counterparts don't. And in the course of writing this post, I have been thinking about how black artists seem to be pigeonholed into certain genres, while white artists are found in pretty much every section of the record store. But black people are supposed to be the ones with all the crazy musical talent. That doesn't make any sense.

I'm gonna stop it here. As always, I welcome your comments.

I love music, any kind of music...

It's Monday, which means it's Music Monday time! Remember, if you've missed any of the other Music Monday offerings, you can click the little label at the end of this post and that will bring up all the previous videos.

This weeks selection is My Life by The Game featuring Lil Wayne. As my faithful readers know, I chose another song by The Game a couple of weeks ago. I really want us to compare and contrast the two songs, so if you haven't heard the other one, or you need a refresher, you can click here.

The lyrics to my life can be found here.

And the video is below. Be ready for profanity, references to violence and drug use.



So, what do you notice?




A couple of things that I notice:

In all the lyrics that I've found on the internet they say, "I need meditation so I can leave my people." I always thought it said, "I need meditation so I can lead my people. Those two words give the line very different meanings, so I wonder which one is right.

We learn more about his father, who was apparently an IV drug user. This reminds me of the line in the other song when 50 cent says, "Daddy a'int around, prolly out commitin' felonies..."
There are still references to violence, but the context has changed.
In both songs he talks about getting the female caretakers in his life expensive cars.
There are a lot more references to white artists (Kurt Cobain, John Lennon) in this song than his previous one. This reminds me of last week's music monday selection. I wonder if this is just a trend, or something that will continue long into the future.

When he says, "F*ck Jesse Jackson, cause it a'int about race now" what do you think he means? If it's not about race now, what is it about?

I don't think I need to tell you that I want you to leave me comments, do I?
Ok, I want you to leave me comments.

High School Musical

It's Monday time! Which means it's Music time! This week's selection is Blame it by Jaime Foxx featuring T-Pain. I actually picked this song for the video, not the lyrics so I'm not including those this week. So press that little triangle below, and watch closely.




What's different about this video? We've got the furry, which is somewhat cutting edge. But even more cutting edge are the two white guys: Ron Howard, and the delicious and nutritious Jake Gyllenhaal.

Now, we've all seen white guys in black guys' videos before. However, the white guys are usually doing some combination of the following : 1) playing golf 2) being the evil, money hungry record executive 3) Dancing poorly 4) Living in the suburbs 5) Generally being uncool.


This video is different because the white guys in it are doing none of those things. There just there, chillaxin' like everybody else.

I think we should have a lot more videos like this one. Don't you agree?