Bralen Trice
This week’s readings showed how important Latinx/African
cultured music is to our society and the cultures surrounding it. A key point from
one of this week’s readings that I wanted to talk about is from Martha
Gonzalez. She says, “The culmination of my experiences with dance and musical
traditions from around the world has given birth to a dance style that I call
Zapateado Afro-Chicana/o Fandanguero” (2008, Gonzalez). This quote from her writing
really stood out to me not only because of the importance of these cultures to
music but how two completely different cultures can come together and create an
entirely new genre or style of music/dance. This quote also made me think of
the style of dancing we learned about in the ofrenda workshop zoom meeting a
few days ago. I believe that this style of combining two cultures together can
be very beneficial to the music industry today. This reading from Gonzalez this
week ties to the reading from Quetzal imaginaries because they are both
advocating for different cultures within our society and the connection to
music that they have. “Quetzal is an ensemble of highly talented musicians,
joined for the goal of creating good music that tells the social, cultural,
political, and musical stories of Chicanas and Chicanos of East Los Angeles and
their kindred spirits, locally around the globe” (2011, Smithsonian Folkways
Pg. 5). We have focused on the importance of Latinx music within the music industry
for a long time now and these readings have taught me that a certain type of
music for example Chicano/a music can be connected and related with any type of
music and reach other groups of people within society.
The two songs I chose are:
This Land is Your Land- Performed by Chicano Batman
Keep Ya Head Up- Tupac Shakur
The connections between the readings and the songs I chose
is the message being sent to different cultures such as Chicano/a and African/African-Americans.
I really like these songs because they speak a message to these different cultures
within our society. Also, what we have been learning about in class recently
ties to both these two songs and the readings. I think it is important that
people take the time to listen to these songs but like really listen to the
words and understand the message behind them. The importance of these cultures
within music is greater than you may think.
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