Stan... Eminem's father figure.

According to the Eminem’s song “Stan” and its video there are many reasons I can understand now the context and the situation of the American youth. In the beginning the rap or hip-hop was considered as black music, but things change and this genre was not the exception. One of the main characteristic about rap or hip-hop music in African Americans is the lack of a father figure, most of the rap singers mention in their songs things related to that fact. Nevertheless, other reasons and facts influence hardly to the youth to take this musical preference and musical production. In some cases the teenagers don’t have someone who tells them what is correct or what not and in some way, they do what they want.

In the case of Eminem, who is one of the most important white rap singers nowadays, it’s very curious to understand or think about the reason why he is very popular and admired from many thousands of teenagers. He is called like “wigga”, what means nigga (African American word which is forbidden in the USA), but

with w to mean white. He seems to understand the logic of the themes which compose the lyrics of the rap songs. In his son “Stan” one of the main characteristic which was very clear was the absence of the father figure and it seems to be something which is passed from one generation to another; if like it was damnation. In the video, the teenager who wrote him a letter explaining him his situation and telling also the enormous love he had for him, we can see the importance of some artist can be to one fan. The fact Stan had many or lots of Eminem’s posters in his home shows something really interesting and it’s the way in which most American teenagers can see one artist as their father. The psychological pain in the American society about the lack of father is very important and one of the forms in which they can feel identified. In some part of the song, it’s mention the thing that Stan’s girlfriend is jealous from Eminem because all the time Stan is talking about him, and then we can think that exists a kind of love in a sexual way to Eminem from Stan. I think that happens is because Freud’s theory of Edipo’s complex, in which the children fall in love with their parents. I associated that Stan fan love to Eminem, he saw a father figure in Eminem and he again feels identified with the psychological problem of the absence of father figure.

Disco music...

Disco music was born about in the 70s in the USA; this genre was pretty influenced by the R&B, soul, funk and some latin musical genres. This genre started to be popular in bars and some radio stations. It’s important to take into account that some hits from the disco music, were first hits in the African American culture. Another important thing is the beginnings or the cultural fusion, mostly African American musicians that was played in the black gays’ bars (which demonstrate that the racism was pretty noted). Also the cultural minorities in New York City which dance in the underground; the influence of the latin music is quite important because it includes the salsa genre and some European influence. 

The figure of the DJs appeared with it, the disco music started to proliferate in the USA’s bars and discos, it’s important to say that at the beginning of this genre white people didn’t like it but later the popularity of the genre made its demand bigger and bigger. The need of more DJs was really big but as the disco music was made with some instruments, the fusion was expensive and money wasn’t enough to buy the instruments needed.  The disco’s music disappearance started with the economical problems, but the main reason was that disco made popular and known with the Saturday Nights Fever and for that popularity the audience was asking for this music. Other reason was the appearance of new dance tends (dance, techno, and some others). Some DJs started to look for new forms of make music and then appeared the technological synthesizer which was really economic than paying to the musicians and buy the instruments.

The Rolling Stone and Billboard magazine started to print some shirts with the message which said: disco sucks. As those magazines are pretty recognized and important for the pop culture, as soon as disco music got popularity in the same way its popularity started to reduce considerably. The disco music had an increment in popularity again in the 90’s but never is going to be the same; its gold era had already passed. Actually there are some subgenres that have as root the disco music, but don’t exist pure disco music nowadays.

African Americans through a video...

According to the video, there are many things I can relate with the African American Music class. The imagery is very explicit and easy to understand. Of course, the song is blues genre and the feelings the song transmits are very hard because the imagery helps to understand the African Americans’ situation. Many topics or facts that are related to this culture are very clear, at the beginning of the video, there was something I was really impressed for. It started like in one city like if it was Christmas and it was snowing, the video showed a sweet home with some comfortable furniture and all of those. But then the explanation about where the snow came from the sky was like directly the snow was cotton from the South part of the USA. The contrast of the social classes was really clear, while in the big cities there are well-formed homes and in the South the kids were the encharged of the cotton’s maintenance. I mean, it was like the poor African American Southern kids were working for giving a beautiful Christmas to the rich people in the North. 

Another situation showed in the video was the Ku Kux Klan racism and the incineration of the African

Americans. The women’s participation in the African American musica is really important, because in the blues’ beginnings were just men who interpreted this music, it is really a principal fact because in some way the genre discrimination in African Americans started to reduce thanks to took into account the women.  I think that the video’s colors influence the message, for the rich people the colors are really brilliant instead of the African Americans are dark and like in sepia; that reflects the social class and the participation in the population. The churches in the African Americans that weren’t allowed but the spirit of these people were harder than the prohibitions. The condition of the creation of blues music is really punished and the “wings” of the imaginations were broken.

For the African American culture was really important the end of discrimination era in the USA, thanks to the Martin Luther King’s pronunciation in that theme. Another thing is the relation of the physical condition of African Americans, what everyone think about them; that they are strong and really good for sports. In the video appears Usain Bolt, I think the African Americans are really proud of him because their culture is being recognized as superior in some important events in the world. The blues bars are really important for African Americans because those were the places in which they played their music and they weren’t judged, in spite of some troubles with racist policemen. Is like if this special genre was a painful genre, like it had to “sufrir” a lot. “The man makes money to buy other men” it’s really interesting this quote because I think is a hard critic for the way rich people “tartan” to the others. Finally the tempos in the song are very characteristic and show the way the blues genres tempos are. 

 

http://vimeo.com/45052672 

You sing the blues but...

Once I saw the movie Cadillac Records, I can answer to the meaning the quote “You sing the blues, but you don’t live them” says. I think it never is the same to sing one singer’s song when I like it and the fact I

see the singer singing the song than understand why the song was written and the feelings the singer feels when he or she is recording it. I was really impressed when Etta James was singing in the record studio and in the same time she was crying because she really felt what she was singing; when I saw that part I was really rousing. That’s not the only example I found in the movie, I also realized what the memories influence hardly the way the singer sings. In the last part when one of the main characters remembered his beginnings in the south at the countryside singing only with his guitar and realized in the social position he was in the moment he went down from the airplane, obviously he never imagined it. I think one of the more special things the singers feel when they are singing is to bring to the mind all those flashbacks and feel them as if they were happening in the moment to show and communicate to the audience the strongest feelings they could.

I knew some things about the blues; one of the most important is that the proliferation of that musical genre helped to low in some level the racial discrimination in the USA. That the blues in some way “make happy” all the social classes, it doesn’t matter if you were black or white as Michal Jackson said. I proved that the blues was born in an improvisation way. And the tempos are the same for all the instruments, but one of the most beautiful things I saw in the movie was the form in which the musicians joined to the main musician and they don’t need to stop, they just had or felt the rhythm in their veins. It was like the blues was part of their lives, like something that was born with them; it was really amazing. Despite things couldn’t be perfect, the blues situation was pretty hard some singers or musicians lived difficult situations. They were also touched by the fame effect, in which alcohol, women, cigarettes and vices played role. One of the most important musicians’ addictions was the Cadillacs, maybe that’s the reason why the movie has its name. 

According to the lyrics of America’s current #1 song I could say that it’s very racist. One of the things the author hardly criticized is the African Americans’ life. One line that kept my attention was: “We don't care,

we're driving Cadillacs in our dreams”. I think it has a narrow relation with the situation or history of African Americans in the 50’s, time when they were fascinated with the Cadillacs. I think it’s a kind of hateful reference to the African Americans, not only they wanted to have those cars; that was the Cadillacs’ age. It was obvious that if you have money and you want to buy a car, you should buy the one you want; more if it’s a desire that exists in a long period and you wonder that. Another thing is that African Americans didn’t have the opportunity to buy even a home or other basic things, and if they have the money to buy a car obviously it’s going to be the Cadillac. Even Lorde doesn’t live the life “blacks” live, she refers to other people in that way but without context and for Americans that was offensive.