J. Cole, "In the Morning", Hip-Hop, 2010(R-rated)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_e37zRkmZys
Rolling Stones "(I can get no)Satisfaction" Rock, 1965
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3a7cHPy04s8
Drake "Show me a Good Time" 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6q5RlduNLg
Led Zepplin "Whole lotta love" Rock, 1969
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_-k8A9aAlE&feature=related
Miguel "Sure Thing" Hip-Hop, 2010
Duty/Community Service
Bob Marley"One Love" 1977
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdB-8eLEW8g
Black Eyed Peas,"Where is the Love" Hip Hop, 2003
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpYeekQkAdcJohn Lennon, "Imagine" Rock, 1971
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoC86l3SQL4
Michael Jackson, "Earth Song" Pop, 1995.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAi3VTSdTxU
Rebelution "Bright side of Life" Reggae, 2009
Rebelution "Bright side of Life" Reggae, 2009
This first blog assignment is about the two Hindu aims: Pleasure and Duty/Community Service. As I began looking into the two, I realized that Duty/Community is the most desirable by Hindus. Although both aims are very important, not only does your “duty” take more effort but it also shows your community that you are willing to time off your day to help others. On the other hand, pleasure is much easier to achieve and more enjoyable. It just takes more will to achieve your duty and some people even spend their whole life serving their community knowing that in the end, they are doing what’s most important.
Even when I began searching for songs regarding the two aims, pleasure was the easiest to the find. I believe there are more songs about pleasure because it is the easiest to achieve. I also think there are fewer things (songs, items, etc.) regarding duty/community service because it requires a person to take his or her time off to help someone else thus making it undesirable for many people.
What surprised me the most was how much harder it was to find a song regarding duty/community service compared to songs about pleasure. I never realized how pleasure oriented this country’s music was. In Hinduism, they ask Hindus to seek their pleasure intelligently unlike the message many pop artists do today. What I also found interesting was that many pleasure songs talked about achieving his or her pleasure by whatever means regardless of what other people think. It’s as if they sing about what they desire without thinking of the consequences that can lie due to over-pleasuring oneself.
In American Pop Music, pleasure is the number one emphasis for artists today. Not only is it easier to talk about in this culture but it is also what the American public tends to want. I also believe that in this country, we tend to be more selfish than other people thus explaining why Americans might be uninterested in songs regarding duty/community service. While on the other hand, pleasure is something that will always be looked for, requested, and desirable by the American public.
I have to agree with you that pleasure is the number one emphasis for American Pop Music artists today. We like to listen to things that we can relate to, and pretty much everyone aims to do things that are pleasurable to them.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with your point of Americans tending to be more selfish in situations. I think it's hard for a lot of people to focus on the underprivileged when they have trivial things happening in their lives. The desire to help others or concern oneself in providing some sort of aid to those in the community is not typically thought of on a daily basis. I'd also like to agree that in order to help others, it is necessary to look for it and put forth some sort of effort to do so.
ReplyDeleteI really think your song choice about community service really represents the most important messages about the topic. They are all the most popular of the different genres so they signify the overall concept of community service.