Music and Us

Hello everyone, I hope you all have enjoyed the snow days as much as me. For this assignment, I automatically knew what cultures I wanted to include. My first thoughts were that I knew I wanted to include something from my own culture, especially since we didn't talk about it, and I wanted to include one of my favorite Spanish songs. With those two cultures in mind, I knew that they were both from North America, so I needed something from a different continent. I thought that I would also include some J-pop and some Afrobeats. 

    It would only be right to start off with a part of my own culture. Jamaica is a place that is warm and welcoming. I have been on trips a few times, and I got to see the town where my ancestors lived. Jamaica has a blend of African traditions along with European traditions. One thing I think is very interesting is the language of Jamaica. The main language there is English, along with Patois, or Patwa (I call it Patwa), and it's like a mix of African pronunciation and grammar with English. At the surface level, it seems easy to understand, but the more you learn it, the harder it becomes, especially with older Jamaican people. For example, weh yuh a go (Where are you going?) or the one everyone knows, wah gwaan (How are you?). When it was time to pick a song, I looked into my Jamaican playlist and listened to a few songs, but none of them were appropriate enough for me to link here. So I decided to go the more traditional route with one that is an oldie but goodie. 

    Next up, we have Puerto Rico from the continent of North America. Honestly, I only picked this because I wanted to talk about Bad Bunny, nothing more, nothing less. Bad Bunny is one of the only Latino men I have on my playlist. I did a bit of research on Puerto Rico, and I learned that a lot of Americans don't recognize Puerto Rico as a part of the United States. I read a lot of uneducated responses to Bad Bunny doing the Super Bowl, and they made me raise my brow. I find it interesting how beautiful Puerto Rico looks. The clear water and the bright-colored houses make everything look so lively. My song of choice is one of my favorites from his most recent album. I went back and forth about what song I should choose, and it was obvious to go with this one. Honorable mentions: (Qué Pasaría), (Un Preview), and (Tití Me Preguntó) 

    Next, we have Japan, which is a part of the continent of Asia. In the beginning, I thought about including something from Korea, but as popular as K-Pop is right now, I thought it would be better to talk about something that is not as popular. By no means is Japan not popular, but music-wise, I would say they do tend to fall behind. The song I picked is the first J-Pop song I heard that made me want to give Japan a chance. To give everyone an idea about J-Pop, I will tell you how I feel about it from my own point of view. (Starting here, this is my own opinion; feel free to disagree.) I don't hate J-Pop, but it is harder to find songs that I like. I think that it's interesting that J-Pop has a tendency to have nasally voices, which I don't enjoy, and their chord progression is too similar. I can hear their chord progression and know that it's J-Pop without even hearing them sing. This song here showed me that there were amazing Japanese artists out there; I just needed to find the right one for me. The live version is just as good as the studio one, maybe even a little better. So, I linked the live one :) 

    Last but not least, we have Africa.  To be more specific, we have Nigeria, which is a part of the continent of Africa. I couldn't bear the fact that we didn't get to hear any modern African songs in class, so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to introduce you to one of my favorite African artists, Rema. He is around our age, maybe a bit older; he was born in 2000, and he is a talented artist. Most people will know of his song Calm Down, which Selena Gomez did a remix of. I thought that I would introduce you to something that hits a bit harder than Calm Down. For a bit of background, OZEBA means "troubled" or "problem." It is the title of a Nigerian horror movie, and the music video is based on it.  So when listening to the song, just think of Rema causing trouble at a party. Just listen and don't try too hard to understand what he is talking about. I promise you'll like the song more if you don't know what he is talking about. I didn't link the music video because it is a little scary and can take away from how good the song is. If this song is too much for you, he has a lot of other songs with a slower and softer vibe. 

You made it to the end; I hope it wasn't too much for you, considering that we bounced all over the place. I hope that this also gave everyone a quick glance into my playlist (hopefully you all don't think I'm crazy). On my first blog, I said something about myself, like that I like all kinds of music and that I will give everything a chance. I hope that this last blog has proven what I said to be true. I enjoy learning about different cultures as well as more about my own, and music is one of the quickest ways to start. 

💜 Thanks to everyone for reading, and I'll see you all in the spring term. 💜