Gary Tran
AFRAM 337
The two readings that I found very compelling, inspiring, and provocative was Ryan Moore’s “Nirvana” and Mimi Nguyen Its (Not) a White World-Looking for Race in Punk. Oddly in Ryan Moore’s “Nirvana” the description about Kurt Cobain’s voice style for his songs stood out to me more than the point of the actual reading. One of my favorite songs by Kurt Cobain’s band Nirvana “Smells Like Teen Spirit” was described as grainy due to Cobain wanting to give a dramatic feel and the voice changes. “Cobain’s voice would lurch between a range of emotional states, from the enraged screams of someone trying to articulate the source of his anger; to gentle, even fragile, whispers of someone desperate for some sign of honest: to the whining and wailing of someone who simply wants everyone to leave him alone; to the mumbles and murmurs of someone who has been defeated and demoralized. Indeed, Cobain believed this schizophrenia of affect characterized many people in his generation, and perhaps this too explained part of Nirvana’s widespread adoration” (Moore 116). These voice changes reminded me of some artists today that do the same in portraying their feelings and experiences with life, artists like Keshi and his song “Like I Need You” talks about how he’s regrets being with a girl who was never his, so he sings lyrics in a talking tone that describe him wishing he never met her and that he doesn’t need her, and then the other part of him truly cries out his true emotions that he really needs her, doesn’t want her to leave him, and drinks to make himself cope with the pain. Besides that description that stood out to me, the connection with Ryan Moore’s “Nirvana” and Mimi Nguyen’s “It’s (Not) a White World-Looking for Race in Punk is, how they bought talk about class and racial differences in punk rock. “Girls are generally discouraged from playing rock music instruments when they are young, and those who do perform are more likely to be judged for their sex appeal while their competence as musicians is subject to close scrutiny.” (Moore 129) connects to what Mimi said in her essay, “It reveals all kinds of assumptions we make about privilege and social mobility.” and “It’s never about how some people --white, heterosexual, middle-class, male--often travel in more comfort than others -nonwhite, queer, poor, female). (Nguyen 2) Mimi talks about how poor people don’t get the same comfort as others who are well off. She also talks about being white, straight, and male get more comfort compared to a nonwhite, queer, female. It connects with Ryan’s book because of how females get treated unfairly compared to males when it came to playing rock music. People judged females because of their sex appeal rather than their ACTUAL music.
Fugazi - Suggestion
I chose this song because it’s a man singing from a woman’s perspective, which it was very interesting at the time since it’s was tough to get accepted by the feminist punk community. The man rages about the objectification of women’s bodies.
Bikini Kill - Feels Blind
I chose thing song because it was like a signature anthem for its call for female solidarity. The lyrics talks about the topics of abuse, rape, and alienation that females had to go through in a patriarchal society.
No comments:
Post a Comment