Project 2

When listening to our favorite songs, we never seem to think about how they came to be. There are a bunch of factors that go into making the music that we listen to unique. These include personal experiences, cultural movements, and deep roots that all go into giving music its sound. Your favorite artists not only are very talented but have also been inspired from previous ones and they take inspiration from their own life experiences as well, such as personal trauma and culture. Therefore, an artist’s music is not a result of their uniqueness and skill but instead a product from the world around them and its history. If you deem this to be unrealistic, then reflect upon yourself and think as to why you have chosen some of the hobbies that you have. Think as to how you even picked up these hobbies, mainly, because you were inspired to do so. There are a numerous number of reasons for as to why people choose to do things, and this especially applies to artists and their music. Many genres are responsible for inspiring and even creating others. Seeing as, African Americans in the south during the late 19th century developed Blues music which led to Jazz, which led to R&B, which has now resulted in hip-hop. This specific branch of music stems from both culture and personal lives, seeing as it stemmed from black slaves who utilized music to express their humanity. Even country music has its own origin, consisting of African immigrants and European musical styles. This all ties back to the artists themselves and how they were inspired back then from their hardships and how today’s artists inspiration dates back to them and current situations as well. This essay will focus on how culture and personal experiences influence musical creation, by referencing two artifacts: Tia DeNora’s “Music as a Technology of the Self” and Kendrick Lamar’s music video “Alright.” Both artifacts show and display how artists use music to form their identity and how they use their personal lives and cultural trauma to do so.

Tia DeNora’s “Music as a Technology of the Self” is crucial for understanding how music functions not only serve to entertain audiences, but also as a way for single artists and groups to form their own unique identities. DeNora argues that music “may be understood as a device for ordering the self” (DeNora 53). This is important because she is stating that people do not just listen to music for no reason but instead listen to it due to influence from their emotions and things going on around them. Therefore, DeNora’s idea gives us an idea as to how music genres are created. Such as discriminated communities, whom had to rely on music as a wat of fighting back and proving their value and humanity. Hip-hop is a great example of this, due to how the genre came to be. Hip-hop did not just pop up out of nowhere, but instead is a result of racism, social inequality, and unfair poverty invoked on African Americans. DeNora’s description of genres as “a resource for the constitution of agency” (54), serves to show how in the Bronx, young black people were able to distinguish themselves and express their humanity by using their rhythm and rhyme in the form of music. This shows how music served as a way to resist cultural abuse and racism. DeNora states that, “the structures of feeling, the embodied practices, and the self-conceptions that music affords are socially and historically located.” (56). This statement is important because it shows how powerful culture is that it continues to affect music and the way it sounds. This statement also implies the idea that every song and genre is the cause of many different cultural movements. Taking for example, the Blues appeared in America in the deep south and it reflected personal experiences and livelihoods of African American facing oppression and cruel treatment from whites after the emancipation. The themes of sadness and sorrow are a result of the emotions they were feeling as a result of what they had to go through on a daily basis. These sad and sorrowful themes can also be seen in several different genres all tying back to the blues, such as rap, R&B, hip-hop, soul, and even jazz. The cultural effects on music can stem from location. DeNora mainly references areas such as the Bronx, Compton, and Detroit, when talking about how music was formed through the toughness of the people facing struggles within their communities. DeNora points out how the Bronx went through huge cultural shifts during the 1970s, as a result of urban neglect and severe racism. This was the basis of a new genre of music, known to many as hip-hop. Hip-hop served as a way to empower the black community and to push out the idea of “black excellence.” This new genre of music served as a way for young African Americans to build up new positive identities that shot down any racist and untrue stereotypes put on them before. Other areas were seen taking this route as well, such as Compton where artists like Tupac used explicit language and aggressive beats in order to demand justice. This shows how music is not just made up of words but also the beat choice and rhyme scheme, and all of these play an important role in order to convey the song’s message and what the artist is trying to communicate. Culture also affects music in the form of technological advancements. DeNora argues that music is a “technology of the self.” With the emergence of new technology, many artists have had to shift their sound and some can not keep up with the recurring changes. Many artists have had to learn to deal with the shift from vinyl records to streaming platforms, such as Spotify, SoundCloud, and Apple Music. In conclusion, DeNora’s article shows how culture and personal experiences influence musical creation through the ways in which emotions and different social structures form music and how some genres gain a lot of success and relevancy from it.
Unlike DeNora’s article, Kendrick Lamar’s music video, “Alright” takes you on a journey and shows how personal experiences transform culture into an empowering song. The music video “Alright” came out during 2015, amidst the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. The song and video serve as a way for Kendrick Lamar to display his personal narrative alongside the ongoing cultural protest fighting racism against African Americans. Throughout the video, Lamar is shown flying in the air and looking down upon racism towards the black community and police brutality. However, Lamar seems calm throughout watching the things that happen below him. This is important because it showcases Lamar’s elevated strength over racism and his spirituality. Lamar is able to manipulate the state of America in 2015 and input his own voice by the lyrics, “We gon’ be alright,” and “Wouldn’t you know / We been hurt, been down before.” Culture is seen impacting his music as he never would have ended up writing his song if not inspired by the unfair situation in which black people were facing. He was able to make a song on this topic and ended gaining a bunch of rewards as a result because he knew how to work the music industry in his favor and benefit off the BLM movement. Lamar and his song “Alright” also show how they were impacted by culture in the sense that it appealed to Kairos. This refers to an opportune moment and Lamar released this song not just during the BLM movement but also during the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner. Therefore, this song served as a way to calm national unrest. Many protestors and non-protestors were using the phrase, “We gon be alright” and this serves to show how much of a success that the song managed to have and that catchy hook was able to be applied in a numerous amount of ways, not only concerning the betterment of Black lives.
Overall, both artifacts are two unique and great sources and work well together to indicate how culture and personal experiences influence musical creation. Although, one has a lot more recognition than the other, they both fulfill their purpose as the music video’s greatest strength is its popularity and the article does a great job at providing numerous real-life examples and backing them up. Kendrick Lamar’s music video, “Alright”, is a great general example that seemingly anyone in the modern era can understand as to why it serves as a great example relating back to the thesis. This is because of Lamar’s personal experience with racism against black people and his personal input on the situation being showcased. This is part of the reason as to why many musicians, including Lamar, continue making music relating to racism and other forms of discrimination, because for Lamar it proved to be such a great success and turned out to be a huge positive for his rap career. DeNora’s article is a great example because those who are eager to do research can find out how music is made and what goes into it. Many of the topics that she covers are very relevant as she goes over areas that went under huge musical transformations recently, like the Bronx and Compton.












Artifacts:
• https://global15.critstudies.calarts.edu/DeNora_MusicasaTechnologyoftheSelf.pdfLinks to an external site.
• https://youtu.be/Z-48u_uWMHY?si=1u1doeeLsMMoHeZeLinks to an external site.