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Spanish Flamenco Music Culture

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The Spanish music culture is spoken heavily through its fiery and emotive musical genre. Flamenco has been the root of Spanish music, being around since the beginning of history and traditions. Flamenco is a form of song, dance, and instrumental music that is associated with the Andalusian region of Spain. The first founders of Flamenco were migrants, coming to Spain from Rajasthan (northwest India), with musical instruments such as tambourines, bells, and wooden castanets. Castanets are percussion instruments that are usually made of hardwood, ivory, or other substances hinged together by a cord of some sort. Castanets are also idiophones, and are played in different pitches by dancers. Flamenco is also known as cante, or song. Flamenco songs fall into three categories of whether the song is profound, intermediate, or light. It is also characterized by emotion and deals with the themes of death, anguish, despair, or religious doubt.  The historical roots of Flamenco comes from the...
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Music with Family

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 For this blog I interviewed by Grandfather. He is 74 years old and has lots of experience with music, being the biggest fan of The Beatles and Jimmy Buffet. Music was very important to him because it got him through hard times at home, but also got him through rough times in Vietnam. His earliest memory with music was the come up of the Beatles. My grandad was able to get a hold of every copy of The Beatles records that were recorded at the time. Living in South Florida at the time, during his teenage years, him and his friends would listen to beach music. He said that they would listen to the rock band named "The Beach Boys" whenever they'd go surfing. My grandpa was never musically inclined, never played an instrument or sang much, but in his later years he was the owner of his own shrimp boat in the Florida Keys. He claims and also has a photograph of him and Jimmy Buffet shrimping together in the Keys. Current day my grandpa listens to Taylor Swift on repeat. Even ov...
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80s Heavy Metal Rock

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        Guns n Roses, Van Halen, Metallica, Def Leppard, Motley Crue are all great examples of heavy metal rock from the 1980s. Heavy metal rock was born in 1970s, giving a taste of blues and rock music together, creating the hard rock we now know today. These bands create their instrumentals through heavy, thick guitar playing along with drums. Heavy metal in the 1980s wasn't as lyrical extreme as in the 70s, having violence outbreaks spark more often in the 70s with bands like Black Sabbath and MegaDeth. The band Black Sabbath lead by Ozzy Osbourne was a music sensation in the 1980s, coming out with hits left and right. Songs like Lady Evil  and Heaven and Hell .  In the 1980s we are introduced to a different, more socially conscious era of heavy metal bands. Taking a step into our first band that will be talked about is in the rock hall of fame, Guns n Roses . Guns n Roses  came about in 1985, born in Los Angeles by Rose and Stradlin (Rose was ...
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Music and Gender

In music gender norms are shown across varieties of music. If you take a look at different genres you will start to notice that depending on what genre of music it is, gender will be talked about in a particular manner. If we take modern day hip hop for example it isn't the most clean, proper way to speak about gender depending on who you listen to, but it is just an example. Or another example could be country music with a majority of their songs being break up songs between couples, or going on to show the love and affection that they have for each other. These are just two examples off the top of my head. When I think deeper into it, going back to high school, I believe that in our band/orchestra at Wando High School mostly girls played strings instruments such as the violin or the viola while there were more guys playing the bigger strings instruments such as the cello. One huge thing I noticed in high school was that there was a significant amount of girls compared to boys in ...
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Wedding Ceremonial Music

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Throughout my lifetime I have been to four different Americanized weddings. At every American wedding I have been to, it has started off as a calm, happy setting music, mostly with a piano of some sort playing while the bride walks the stage or carpet. At my mom and step dad's wedding it was just like this, but as soon as the ceremony was over and we went back to the house they had rented in Downtown Charleston there was all sorts of music being played with all types of food as well. Having anything from your modern day country music to the 90s throwbacks that they had listened to growing up. Another wedding I have been to was my best friend's mom back in middle school. The wedding was held in a Church, a very Christian oriented wedding. Having everyone sitting in rows, just how they are shown in the movies, with a piano playing while the bride walked the aisle, having her dad walk beside her to hand her off to the groom. Afterwards, we were taken to an aquarium where the after...
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Coldplay - Viva La Vida

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    My name is Parker Davis and I am a sophomore here at Converse. I play on the mens tennis team here and I have enjoyed my time here as a student athlete. I am taking this class not only to explore the diversity in music, but to learn and see other peoples views on it as well. I am looking forward to a great semester and getting to learn what my peers listen to in their free time.      For the past few years my go to song has been Viva La Vida by Coldplay. I have been constantly listening to this song because of its upbeat instrumental with the relatable lyrics behind the song. The song was also one of my dads favorites along with Coldplay being one of his favorite bands. My Dad has been out of my life for about three years now and whenever I listen to the music he used to play around the house it makes me feel somewhat closer to him. This song has a place in both my mind and soul because of tragic events, but it helped me get out of that dark place I was once...
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