I recently went to a Bullet for my Valentine concert about a week ago. Bullet is a metal core band that actually does some singing instead of screaming the whole time. All of the members of the band had extremely long hair, wore tight pants, and displayed black shirts of other metal bands of the past (Metallica, Iron Maiden, etc.). Both of the guitar players had black flying v Jackson guitars, and the bassist was playing a standard black fender jazz bass. While they were playing they would shake their heads back and forth, causing their hair to go forwards and backwards, but only when they weren't singing or screaming. All of these descriptions fit the image that most metal bands strive to achieve. Each band puts its own spin on the metal aesthetic, but they are all very similar. Their "dark" image reflects the nature of the music that they have chosen to pursue. Bullet's music consists of loud distorted guitars with melodic harmonized interruptions, fast guitar solos, repeating guitar riffs, screaming during verses, and then singing during choruses. Drums have a lot of double bass and are very uptempo and the singing has raspy quality that nicely complements the screaming. Songs are all in minor keys, and some may start out soft and then increase in volume. The nature of metal as a genre of music that is loud, sad, and testosterone driven probably leads to the need for bands to dress in black, wear eyeliner and look like they are at a funeral except with more normal clothes. Ironically, this testosterone driven music leads to feminine qualities of dress as well that become "metal" in the context of the music: tight pants, long hair, eyeliner, etc. In a way, the image that Bullet tries to convey seems to be partially about sexual ambiguity. Their music stretches social confines to fit a testosterone driven image with feminine qualities, all adhering to the nature of the music. Metal may be fast, loud, and raucous, but it has a lot of sad emotion as well. Emotion is often correlated with femininity, so these traits manifest themselves in Bullet's visual image. Image of a band is important in the context of music, just as dance ceremony is important in most of the music that we study. Music isn't just about sound, it is about culture. This can be applied to a metal show or an indigenous tribal performance and everything in between.

This next segment of the movie I found extremely interesting because it showed how other cultures have taken familiar western instruments and put their own spin on how to use them in music. The most noticeable of these instruments was the violin, which seemed to be a main instrument of Eastern Europe. It was interesting how one of the men who was singing and playing the violin used one strand of the bow to make a very grating, and almost displeasing sound to add to the sorrow of the song he was singing. The scales used were very different on the violin of Eastern Europe as opposed to Western classical music. The movie cleverly transitioned from culture to culture, using the similar instruments as a type of thread to unify Eastern Europe. Another instrument that was a prominent part of many of the cultures was the accordion. This instrument gave the music of Eastern Europe a playful, dance-like quality that seemed to inspire village unity and community togetherness. Despite the use of an upbeat instruments, many of the lyrics of the songs that were translated were sad and depressing. Many talked about being condemned to wandering, which reminded me of the gypsy Romas that we watched in the beginning of the video. This tied the movie back to the beginning, bringing the cultural experience full circle and displaying the cyclic nature of music and its influences.

This film featured many instruments that have similarities to those we have already studied. Several of the cultures depicted had instruments that were similar to the Chinese Erhu and used a bow to derive sound. There were also several lute instruments that resonated sound through a gourd, much like a sitar. These instruments also sound similar to the Japanese Samisen and the Chinese Pipa. The gypsy percussion even used gourds as percussion, by blowing into them and then putting them down and hitting the side, giving the music an exotic rhythm. A western violin was found in one of the middle eastern cultures, but it was used much differently in the music than in the West. It is clear that dance is a big part of the musical culture as well. The director depicted the gypsies as a culture that absorbed other styles of music by flashing back to the other cultures through the day dreams of a little girl in one scene, and also through the depiction of their travels and similar instruments. I thought this film was very well edited and cleverly constructed to show a variety of cultures of music in an area. It accented the similarities through smooth transitions from place to place, leaving the viewer wondering where the movie will go next.

Real life influences film and theatre on many levels. Many plays and movies are based on historical events that are dramatized for entertainment purposes. One example I can think of off the top of my head is the movie Schindler's List, directed by Stephen Spielberg. This movie has many stylistic elements that produce dramatic effects, such as the whole movie being in black and white except for the color red in a little girl's dress, but it is based on a true story of a man who was in charge of a work camp during the holocaust and actually tried to help the Jews. When the word holocaust enters an American's mind, many incomprehensible thoughts run through our heads. How could someone have done something so terrible? Do these people have no feelings? Why were the Jews so hated? We automatically stereotype any German of the time as a Nazi, and any Nazi as having a hand in killing the Jews. This movie shows that there was at least one influential person that had the morality to stand up to these atrocities and sacrifice himself for people that were supposed to be at the bottom of the food chain in Nazi society. It is a moving movie that causes Americans to think about the moral question of the Holocaust in a different light and show how the blame goes beyond just one person. It was not only a moving story, but also and educational experience. I think it is important for film, theatre, and music to realate to reality because they have the power to influence people in meaningful ways. All of these artistic mediums try to mimick reality in one sense or another, providing important ways for us to relate what is going on in our personal lives to our cultural experience.

Presentation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59YAniteUb0



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erLZ-zW9Ti4

South Asian music had a major influence on Rock and Roll in the sixties starting with the guitar player of the Beatles, George Harrison. When he went to India to retreat from his popularity around the globe, he learned this instrument and it was used in many Beatles songs afterwords such as "Norwegian Wood" and "Tomorrow Never Knows." The Rolling Stones used it in their song "Paint it Black" to provide an outside element to their rock music. Often musicians are looking for a sound to set their music apart, and this instrument provides a way for bands to sound more exotic and cultured. Many bands have done this since the 60's including Metallica who used an electric Sitar in the beginning of their song "Wherever I May Roam" in the 1990's.

Rees accuses these Chinese concerts of not being authentic because they do not follow the ancient tradition from which they were derived. The musicians are playing simplified versions of ritualistic songs from the Han Chinese that are very secularized to fit a tourist audience. The music is not as intricate, and the purpose of the music is entertainment instead of ritual value. She talks about the cultural revolution, where music was stifled for a period of ten years in China, causing tradition to slightly falter. If this music was not played for ten years and then it was picked up again, how can it truly be authentic? The music serves its purpose to impress tourists, but does not give an accurate representation of Chinese tradition.
The Chinese ensemble that we observed in class was probably considered "fake" because of the virtuosic performance of these musicians. They all seemed extremely skilled in their instruments and therefore put their own spin on playing style. The setting in which the orchestra was filmed was a white room, making it seem fake and uninteresting. They are also trained musicians who went to music school, so they have probably been influenced by new techniques in instrumentation that have been developed over the years, making their performance seem extravagant and inauthentic.

These two Gamelan performances are very different. In fact, If I did not know that they were both Gamelans, I would think they were from entirely different cultures.
The "Ratna Ayu" Gamelan starts off loudly, with many metallic instruments and then quiets down to focus on a group of dancers dressed in extravagant cultural costume. The dancers' movements are very fluid and their headdresses are extremely ornate and beautiful. The song eventually picks up again, and so does the movement of the dancers. The instrument players are arranged in two rows on either side of the dancers, and they are also dressed in bright robes. The blues and purples of their dress create a serene, yet intense scene of dancing and music.
In "Bali Nyepi" the song starts out soft with no percussion, only a solo by a metallic gong-like instrument. The players are also arranged facing each other, but there are no dancers and they are all dressed in white with white headbands. It seems more authentic in the way that the players do not seem to be dressed in extravagant costumes. The song seems to be much more percussion based with a less harmonious melody, at times seeming very busy to the ears. Their performance seems to be focused on the instrumentation and not the cultural dancing like "Ratna Ayu." Both of these videos were extremely interesting and I would like to learn more of the background of these performances.