Music in Jamaica Handout

This article has a lot of information in it about Jamaica and the major music that has impacted Jamaica.  Along with this it has the leading artists who were and still are very popular in Jamaica and even around the world.  The people who make the music are paid professionals who have a natural gift to be able to pull music from the hearts and spread it to the world.  The instruments that are played are records for Dj’s, guitar, drums, and other ordinary American instruments.  The idea components of the music is to spread news and views about different issues.  A lot of the time the music is about political point of views and trying to gain peace.  The only thing that is not talked about in the article are the activities that go along with the music.  Meaning the types of dances that go with the music and what type of etiquette is proper for this music. 

 

This was Due on Tuesday November 10.

Bob Marley Redemption Song

I chose the Bob Marley Redemption Song to talk about because it backs up what he says in the first video on the Blackboard page.  In the first video Bob Marley says that reggae music is now played with an American influence.  The redemption song shows just that, it is reggae but has an American feel to the music.  The redemption song has a duple meter with little contour to the shape of the melody.  The range of the notes, hit by Marley, do not range too much at all.  They stay on a straight and narrow line the whole entire song.  Throughout the song there are only two layers which are Bob Marley singing and his acoustic guitar.  He plays the guitar lightly to give a slight tune but not too much to take over his voice.  The speed of these layers is a slow speed to sound like a song of sorrow.  There is no type of swing in this song as compared to some of his other songs.  The tempo is slow to give a timbre of sadness through the good articulation.

 

This was Due on Monday November 9.

Carnival Music Track 11 Social Organization

The group that is performing this particular song sound like professionals.  The sound to the song seems like all of these people had a lot of training and a lot of experience with all types of instruments.  The people that would be listening to this type of music would be anyone with a radio.   This definitely sounds like popular music that is played at parties and on the radio.  This music can be listened by all and a certain social status is not required.

 

This was Due on Tuesday October 27.

Carnival Music Track 11

The contour of the melody stays around the same range for the whole entire song.  The only time that it moves is in the chorus when the singers singer with a slightly higher pitch than before.  The character of this song and the meaning of this song sounds like it is to get people together and to have a good time.  Whether this would be dancing or even just hanging out.  Throughout the song there were multiple layers that sounded like five layers.  This is not certain because the music was tied together very nicely and professionally.  In the song there were multiple horns that were being played to give that traditional feel to the music.  Also there were a definite two layers of singers.  The first layer was the response layer that said, what sounded like a, chorus.  The second singer sang the verses to lead the rest of the singers in the song.  All of the layers moved at the same speed to stay in line with each other.  This speed was a speed that was set at medium to make it sound pretty normal rather than a crazy fast song.  The articulation of the song was very clear and it did sound like it was recorded inside and professionally.  The timbre of all of the layers and the whole entire song was to get everyone together and have a good time.

 

This was Due on Monday October 26.

Chauffer Wanted Idea Components

The idea components of this song are a political issue.  The song is in English and is very clearly said.  The singer talks about people asking him what is wrong with Trinidad.  The issues that are talked about really do not match with the music.  This is because the singer says that Trinidad is in turmoil but the music seems to be about something happy in their lives.  If the lyrics were not in English then I would guess completely wrong about what they are trying to say about their country.  The social organization part of this culture is usually to have a song that sounds happy and can easily be danced to.  This song does exactly that until you listen to what the singer is really saying.

 

This was Due on Thursday October 22.

From Africa to the Caribbean

In a later time then now Africans were captured and brought to the New World.  In Africa these people made music with their voices, bodies, and found instruments.  The musical traits that have been brought along to the Caribbean are the found instruments.  These musical traits are the cultural traits that have stuck with African descendants.  Trinidadian music inherited different reasons to make music.  Africans made music to work to and to dance to.  This made more reasons for Trinidad to play their music when they heard it played in such a way.

 

This was Due on Tuesday October 20.

Common Traits of Carnival Music Tracks 1-4

All four songs are songs that sound inspirational and something that can be danced to.  When in to depth with the musical traits they still have things in common.  For starters, all of these songs are set and played at a duple meter.  Tracks 1-4 also all have syncopated rhythm leas by some type of drums.  The notes that are hit by the singers in all of the songs have the same range.  The range for the singers is a medium range making it not so hard to sing along to.  This gives the contour of each song the same characteristics and even with the same type of swing.  There is call and response in each one of the songs along with the same type of timbre.  With the same musical traits these songs all produce an inspirational song that can easily be performed and danced to.

 

This was Due on Monday October 19.

Good Sources

The sources for my project country that I have found to be the best are my book sources.  I have two book sources which are on different music genres of the Dominican Republic.  In each genre it shows how they came about and what they consist of.  Also the one book gives background information on the Dominican Republic’s history.  In order to write a full essay I will have to get in to some of my journal articles I have found.  These articles have little odd and end type of information that can be useful in just about any essay.  With all of these sources everything has been covered.

 

This was Due on Friday October 16.

Traditional to Popular

Other than the instrumentation there are many different traits in the traditional and popular music.  The traditional music has a much slower tempo and rhythm when compared to popular music.  Popular music is more up beat and is able to be danced to in what seems to be a fun way.   The traditional music can be danced to but only to show something or to tell a story through the dance.  The articulation of traditional music is very different compared to the popular music.  The traditional music is recorded outside when the popular music is recorded inside in a studio.  The popular music does not have a crowd to watch them perform, while being recorded, but the traditional musicians do.  After listening to the traditional and popular music I can see that the traditional music is very different from popular music.

Track 16 Cyar Take That

The traditional feel of this song is automatically felt at the beginning of the song with the playing of horns.  The modern part of the song is felt along with the horns by the electric bass guitar.  The meter of this song is a duple meter with the rhythm being held by the instruments along with the singers.  This song is able to be danced along to because the tempo is right along with the timbre creating a  slower tempo.  There are multiple layers that are difficult to pick out how many due to the amount that is being used.  There is some type of drum kit being used to hold the meter of the song.  The horns give the contour of the song with small ranges between each note.  The electric bass guitar is playing along with the percussion to help keep the rhythm but also to give more of a swing to the music.  There is little syncopation in this song created by the percussion.  The articulation of this song is very clear making it sound professionally recorded and produced.