THE LAST STEP

There are several things I would like to say in this last submission like the knowledge learned through these sixteen weeks. This was a great experience that if is the case, I might take it again. I can say a lot of things about the course, the classmates, and the homework and so on. To start, I would say that I have learned and done things that I did not think I would be able to do. Not at the beginning of the class. Nowadays, I can say now that I know a little bit more about singers and musical styles that I did not know before. It is most easy for me now to understand the musical tastes of people no matter the age and at the same time, understand why some singer or style is the preferred of the young adults. At the beginning I was a little scared because it was the first time for me to take an online course and because of I thought it might overwhelm me, however, while the days were passing by, with the practice acquired with homework, the readings and writings, and with the comments of the classmates and the peer review activities, I started to feel more confident. Sometimes I was feeling really tired because it was not the only course in this semester that I was enrolled in, and the house tasks, my son’s swimming practices, and all the things related with the house, collaborated to have less time that the one I would like to dedicate to the course. In fact, I used to write my blog, the Music and Culture and They Say I Say homework at the Marie Kerr Pool while my son was practicing at Frogs Aquatic Swimming Team. I remember being reading and answering the questions asked in those books and writing a draft of the essays. However, while the days were passing by, I accommodated my times and was easier for me to achieve the goals in the due dates of each assignment. Perhaps the essays were the hardest part of the course. Actually, I am still in a struggle with the last one, it is kind of hard in trying to expose the argument, but despite all my concerns and doubts, I am pretty sure that what I am doing now it is much better than what I used to do.

Overall, I can say that I have learned a lot of things in this class. I learned how to analyze a behavior through music and their exponents. This was a different class for me but I think it was one of the best classes I have ever taken. I know the things learned will help me in my next courses since I already know how to use some tools for writing and to describe and expose an idea. I am really grateful to the teacher because she spent some value time with us and because her instructions were really helpful. I would like to thank also to the classmates that with their comments helped me to analyze an exposed situation or to agree with any idea I proposed.

FROM THE BEGINNING

It has been really exciting to have taken this course online. It is the first time and honestly I had no idea how it was going to be. You know, I think the new things always scare a little. After these fourteen weeks I can say it has been a great experience, full of new challenges and new things. There is a quote that I have always heard: the practice makes the master and I am totally agree that is true. Even though I know I have grammar mistakes but I think there is a big difference between my first essay and the last one. I feel more confident when I start writing. I liked “They Say I Say” lessons, especially those in which the templates show the different ways how to write something. At the beginning I felt overwhelmed but with the passing of days, I realized that I was having more practice in writing and reading and the time it took me to read an essay each time was shortened due to the practice.

When I read the blogs of other classmates I have the same feeling, I can see that everyone has grown a lot and every time the topics are more developed. At starting the blog I did not have any previous experience and the beginning of this seemed to me very difficult to concentrate and focus on the issue. I was not sure if I was doing well but I gradually noticed that I was grabbing more experience and confidence. Definitely, when you finish this course I'm staying with a nice experience, with the satisfaction of having participated in the file exchange in supporting even a little bit with my comments in the trials of my classmates.

I should also say that the teacher is a person who had the pleasure to know of and think is a nice person with a willingness to help their students.

 I also like to read and respond to other classmates blogs. It was very interesting to know the different points of view, experiences and something of the life of my classmates. Although we are virtual peers, these tasks allowed us perhaps to know more than you can know in a face to face classes

Group work was also very helpful to communicate and make decisions. It was very nice to receive comments and advice of all the companions of the Topaz group. It was a virtual interaction in which I could practice my writing and reading and I know that I have learned a lot. These practices of writing and reading gave me even some keys to have patience. Believe me at the beginning it was really hard for me, even more it is not my first language and in some occasions I felt discouraged and mad, that is why I say I got patience and I am very thankful to my classmates for the responses to my blog and the comments to my essays. Those were really helpful.

IS SAMPLING CREATIVE?

In musical terms, sampling refers to take a simple of a recorder sound to reused it like an musical instrument. The sampling was used specially with the hip-hop beginnings in New York in the decade of 70’s. It is made through a sampler that form with a part of a song a different one.

I think that in some ways it is something creative because it is an innovation in terms of finding new ways to make music ,even when they are using parts from other songs . However, one could say it lacks originality because it is the work of someone else. Although the music shows in the greater part of the song a different pace and even better the second part, we can say that is a copy. Really an expression of art as a song should have originality in their various components, such as music and rhythm.

In particular, there are several songs that I think the new version is much better than the first. I like a couple of songs that I think the second version is more beautiful and catchy than the first. One of those is Dilemma which is sung by Nelly and Kelly Rowland being the original Love, Need and Want You sung by Patti Labelle. Another one is Do not Worry Baby sung by The Beach Boys and then interpreted by BJ Thomas. I think in both songs the performers put their own style creating with pauses or intensity in parts, a better connection between artist and listener. I think the original style is quite nice and that in their times created an identification of the audience with his songs, however, in the first case, I think the combination of the two singers' voices created a very innovative and contagious effect.

In the second case, there is not a song I have heard because she was very young when both versions hit the market, however I used to listen when my older siblings listened to music and I always liked. I believe that the interpretation of the second version is super successful, I love the part where he emphasizes the bride comforting, something that I do not feel when I hear the first version with the Beach Boys. It is Definitely my taste. Not trying to be critical of music but it is my personal opinion.

I also like a song that is also mentioned in the M & C book, "You Can not Touch This" performed by MC Hammer, whose original version of Rick James' Superfreak. The second is a song for dancing and definitely think the videos also help to have a song stuck in the crowd.

 But you also have to be honest in mind that there are second parts that do not even deserve to be heard. Actually there are some songs in English that were traduced to Espanish and it does not have the charm of the original one. It is even worse when the song is a romantic style and is sung in a vernacular version.

AMY WINEHOUSE

Since this essay is the most important of all we have done, I think all of us are having special attention in doing this. Besides, is much longer than the others, thus we need to concentrate in the five or six points to be developed in the essay.

Particularly, I have some sources where to look for or research to get the information I need for the essay, however I think that EbscoHost is a great tool for doing researches and compile the information needed.

My research is about Amy Winehouse and her particularly lifestyle even though her fame and fortune.

I want to discover the core and the essence of her personality and try to figure out why she behaves in that way.

I learned that no matter what one has in life, I mean talking about material things, if someone does not have solid principles, those which one is raised with, the consequences could be devastating. I am a little bit confused about the causes or the origins why this singer is so complicated. Apparently she was raised in a well formed family and it is kind of hard trying to figure out the way she thinks. I need to try to be on her shoes and pretend at least for a moment to know or understand what she wants to demonstrate. I know it is not an easy argument since the main reason for her behavior is unknown. I believe everything started like a try for asking some love and attention. Definitely, this is a complicated issue but I wanted to consider her dark and bright side. She is one of the best singers of soul and she projects a powerful sense of rebellion and each of her songs has a message. I want to decipher the bright side that she was born with, that side that reflexes a wonderful lyrics and an extraordinary rhythm that involves all her fans.

I need to check some information that friends, acquaintances, or relatives have told regarding her life. It is going to be interesting and important to know how she used to be and behaved and what the other people thought and perceived about her.

I am reading also about the relationship she had with her husband, because I think he is a cornerstone fundamental in her style of living. On the other hand, I need to confirm some information I got from a magazine, regarding her choice to self-hurt, because I am not sure whether it is a reliable source.

Besides all the material I have gathered, I know something about this singer. I like her style and I wonder why such a famous and talented artist can have so little self-esteem. Perhaps she is not aware that she is going to her self-destruction. It is sad to think she would not overcome her addictions. Hopefully all of her fans and her new fans like me could see a new Amy Winehouse transformed without losing her style casual.

THE INTERNET PIRACY

I am going to speak this week about the internet piracy. It is a kind of fraud, it is a new type of delinquency and it is a form of theft. What exactly is? Is to copy an unauthorized material or any kind of art, I mean any kind of expression that belongs to someone else. Overall, the creative works that are copied are music, movies, software, inventions, products, etc. Despite of all of these products supposedly are protected by law that would not let to reproduce or copy those materials, the reality is other. Piracy is a huge problem for the industries that are involved with entertainment and software. A big issue is when the people copy and sale an illegal form material such as CDs, videotapes, and DVDs. It is not a so complicated process that is why many people who spend time doing it are able to make much money with this illegal practice.

Sadly, I do not believe that music industry will be able to stop piracy. Despite it is a relative new activity, the efforts to fight it, the alternatives that are being offered and the tools to control this struggle are minimum. There are many users and people compromised with this activity and it is like an octopus which tentacles become bigger and bigger.

The parts involved have a big issue with this matter. All of them have the responsibility for making the rules obeyed; therefore it is a situation that apparently is out of control. The music industry, the musicians, and the consumers are the parts that suffer with this activity. Which one of them loses more? Who have the worst part? I think that all of them have

a negative part in all of this process because the music industry invests in a musician for making his/her material well know, thus the public can pay certain amount of money for enjoy his/her music. However, I believe the musician is the biggest factor who is more harmed. The music industry wins a lot of money with every single song, regardless the illegal download of the music. The last member of this chain is the consumer. This is the less damaged part of all of them. The consumer is able to get the music, the software or the video without any remorse because he/she is not related with this process. Many internet users do not have the knowledge about how dangerous and harmful is to continue with this practice. But we need to be honest, I am not sure how hard this situation here is, but if you go to my country, you can find everything you want such as video games, music, musical videos, and so on. There is a big place filled with all the things that you can imagine and that the piracy can obtain. The big problem is that the consumer already knows how harmful is to let this practice continue. With our purchases, we help this activity grows. We are responsible for it too.

THE BACHELOR

I will talk about the TV show: The Bachelor. The premise of this show is to get the best match for the bachelor who has to decide among the contestants through having dates and romances with each one. Each strives to show its best side to enable it to attract the attention of the bachelor since the one is chosen, will marry the bachelor.

The contestants live in a mansion in which they share the same tension of knowing that the bachelor is having a romantic date with any contestant, allegedly trying to know her better. Presumably the bachelor at the end of the season must make a choice between candidates who were runners. How a person may decide to marry if he has treated the contestant just for a few weeks?

This situation is in itself ridiculous because I think nobody knows a person in so few days and less having his romantic life exposed to thousands of viewers. What kind of people does risk their lives in that way before thousands of viewers? This show has a following because no morbidity in between, to see who is able to do or give more, or what is able to do each contestant. At the end he is the one who wins with all of the concursants.

This is a licensed infidelity and if you analyze it good, the bachelor is not someone so special; he is usually a common man. No woman can enjoy being with a man who has been with others while he is with one. This show teaches not to have dignity, besides it is a degradation  for women because the contestants know that the bachelor that "who supposedly they are already in love with" is having perhaps a romantic evening or even worse having sex with another woman. The other day I bought a magazine that interviewed the boyfriend and girlfriend who won the previous reality and asserting that there had had infidelity by one of the parties.

That novelty. Perhaps they thought they were going to have a life together, living a love story without end? Every time there are fewer values ​​between relationships. Sera that these girls do not care what others think or what the viewers are going to say if they are to be cover art for a magazine cover? Even though that is not enough, there was a television interview broadcast in which the winner girl came out crying because her bachelor was not the person she thought.

I think that everything is prepared, that the bachelor already knows who is going to be the winner and that each of the contestants has her contract established, with some guidelines to follow; I mean, if one of them will be the antagonist of the mansion or the favorite sweet contestant. This kind of shows should be cancelled, even more; I do not believe this show will last much. What can we expect next? Searching a boyfriend by catalog and as well as he arrived will go?

I STARTED TO UNDERSTAND

I was trying to find an American singer but since I am Peruvian, I really do not know where to start. I have always listened to American music but I am not related with it in the sense how to analyze lyrics or the trend of the singer. Actually, I started investigating everything related to music in this course. Thus, I asked a neighbor who is a passionate of rock and roll and told me about this singer: Robert Leroy Johnson. To be honest, I have never heard about this singer before, but as soon as he was talking about him, I was more interested in him. I investigated about his life and I learned that he was born on May 8, 1911 and died on August 16, 1938. He was an American blues singer and musician. His productions show a combination of several factors, among them his talent that was an influence for later generations of musicians. This musician while he was alive did not enjoy the fame from his work, not even earned much money through music. But it was in 1961 when the public recognized his talent as a master of the blues, after its recordings were reissue. That is when the musicians of that time realized the talent that was wasted all those years.

Many rock musicians like Eric Clapton, Keith Richards (Rolling Stones), have catalogued him as a very important influence that ever lived, since in his music they found the ingredient that was missing from blue music.

His father had to leave his hometown because of a danger of lynching by a white problem he had with Landowners. He started singing secular songs in That Time That Were Known as something suspicious, which makes it easier to devote a full-time blues musician and leave the life of farmer.

The song "Crossroads" by British psychedelic blues rock band Cream is a cover version of Johnson's "Cross Road Blues", about the legend of Johnson selling his soul to the Devil at the crossroads, although Johnson's original lyrics  suggest he was merely hitchhiking rather than signing away his soul to Lucifer in exchange for being a great blues musician.

Robert Johnson is today considered a master of the blues, particularly of the Delta blues style. His first recorded song, "Kind Hearted Woman Blues," a difference of the Delta style mentioned, it had a varied musical arrangement. Unusual for a Delta player of the time, a recording exhibits what Johnson could do entirely outside of a blues style. At that time, Johnson was respected for his skills in playing the guitar, since raw country to jazz and pop licks.

Johnson had a great voice through which he conveyed emotional verses that impact people nowadays. He had a great talent playing the guitar, being considered nowadays one of the best playing that instrument. He influenced and impacted contemporary musicians. He was one of the performers who used to play on street corners that helped the evolution on black music and the blending of white music with it.