Gary Tran
AFRAM 337
AFRAM 337
The reading that I found very compelling and provocative was Ludwig Hurtado’s “Country Music is also Mexican music” article. Ludwig talks about how Donald Trump and the country doesn’t know that without Mexican culture, the “American” country genre would have never existed. “We take for granted that country music sounds white, looks white, in many ways, is white” (Hurtado 3). Ludwig says that “in the 1920’s, early forms of country music were born out of honky ton, which was adapted from ragtime but also heavily influence by Mexican ranchera music” (Hurtado 3)”. I myself now feel like a fool, as I didn’t know who was the real originator of these music genres were before reading this article. Although I only think of the genre and the artist when it comes to music, I don’t think too much about the origins. It’s like ragtime, blues, and jazz. Some people think whites created it when it was really the blacks. Someone should educate Donald Trump and see what his reaction would be when he finds out where the Country really came from.
Another reading that I found compelling is Laina Dawes’s “Finally, Filmmakers Tell the Forgotten History of Seattle DIY Self-Defense Group Home Alive”. The scene had Mia Zapata, someone who was known for capitalizing the grunge scene and being a big influence with her band to the West Coast musical community. How Mia’s friends decided to create Home Alive to promote women having the ability and skill to protect themselves. The UW students Leah Michaels and Rozz Therrien wanted to make Home Alive get noticed as they found it was super important and should get more attention. “The two of us talked about these interviews, how amazing these women were, and how they changed our lives in a way, and then we wondered what was going to happen with these interviews.” and “We want to do something with them now. We want to make a documentary about Home Alive” (Therrien) The students didn’t have any formal training in film but they were so inspired by the organization that they DIY’ed it all by themselves. I think it’s really dope and I hope I can find something that’ll make me feel compelled as Leah and Rozz to do great things for the community.
I chose Lil Nas X - Old Town Road ft. Billy Ray Cyrus because when this was on top of the billboards people complained that it wasn’t country and some even complained about the artist being black. But when Billy Ray Cyrus was featured people changed their mind and put it back up, which it’s really unfortunate that they had to do that only because of Billy Ray Cyrus’s appearance on the song. I feel like it’s relatable to Ludwig’s article because it’s like the unfairness with how people listen to a genre and only think it’s for white people and not other races and ethnicities. Music nowadays are very experimental and artists like to try to make a new sound by fusing other genres together or adding aspects and elements from a different genre.
I chose Rihanna - Man Down because Laina’s article reminded me of this song. This song talks about Rihanna surviving the domestic assault by her ex-boyfriend, singer Chris Brown. This song talks about rape and has a revenge kind of vibe. I felt like the song and the story of Mia Zapata’s death were similar experiences. Unfortunately, Mia got raped and didn’t survive the beating and murder.
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