Final

What does it mean to be a citizen? What does it mean to be part of a whole, what does being in a community require from the individual? These questions depend greatly on where you grew up and the cultural formations that you were brought up in.  The factors are different wherever you come from; whether you are from Indonesia, Brazil, the US or even Morocco. All of these places have different values, however I believe that to be a citizen globally there must be certain similarities between the cultural formations. Another trait that a global citizen must have is to recognize what is wrong with the world and fight to change those wrongs. 

            The most effective way to change a groups perceptions and prejudices is to create cultural cohorts from other cultures into the cultures normal formation. A fantastic example of this is the cohort of hip-hop in Morocco. All of these musicians are good Muslim people who are faithful to their culture and religion. These people love hip-hop in a place where western culture is frowned upon; these people still pursue what they love despite these boundaries. The reason why they love this music so much is because it gives them the power to express themselves and also it provides a voice that, without hip-hop, they would never have. This group of Moroccan rappers is a tremendous example of a cohort becoming a cultural formation; they use this western music, but they make it their own.  They also use this music to try to change the current situation of Moroccan life. An example is how when Fati went on stage she was boo’d for being a woman in a predominately male art form, this did not bother her, and at the end of the show everyone in the audience loved her, thus changing the popular opinion towards women. Another example is the I Love Hip-Hop in Morocco festival; this festival reached thousands of Moroccans, ore importantly the messages reached thousands of Moroccans. The most prominent message was to make morocco for the people and to fight against terrorism.  These messages were brought to the people on a budget of only ten thousand dollars; while the military is using billions of dollars and taking thousands of lives to spread the same message. I believe that by utilizing music for good can have a far greater effect on the world rather than military action.

            I think that the passive globalization through music is another awesome way to connect the people of the world. An example of this is how a punk band from Canada can inspire a punk band in Brazil and then inspire a factory worker in Indonesia. I love this path that was shown to me through the film the punks are alright; it is the perfect example to illustrate the potential of globalization. Although everyone in that film were totally against globalization, they all found punk through a non-forceful way to globalize. Henrik, the lead singer of Blind Pigs is a great example of how a cohort can change into a formation. Most people in Brazil use punk as a cohort, but Henrike lives punk; he sees no other way of life, he met his wife through punk, he has children because of punk this is totally his life. On the other side of the spectrum punk rock changes lives, such as the life of Dolly, a factory worker in Indonesia. Dolly uses punk as an escape mechanism from his life of hard work and oppression, he is an example of a punk cohort, in that he does not have the same values of a punk in all aspects of life, such as Henrike does.

              We are literally killing people to persuade them to think the way we do, but instead of blowing up towers, were wearing uniforms and using the latest military technology. Passive globalization such as hip-hop in Morocco and punk in Brazil and Indonesia is the most effective way to be connected globally. No fighting, just peace and music.

            I’m not expecting change immediately; that would be ridiculous to even imagine such a naïve theory. The only way for us to change what is wrong is to take baby steps through cultural cohorts in order to change a collective thinking. An example would be to start utilizing American green automobiles; this little cohort will remind people that we do not have an unlimited amount of oil and some day it will run out, so this will cause people to start being more environmentally aware. Another way that would work is by buying American cars the economy with be stimulated through the purchasing of American cars and also the greenness of the cars will lessen the need for foreign oil.  These little cultural cohorts are the way to strengthen the bonds that we have with other countries, and it can all be done without killing anyone; it would be very punk rock.

Irish music at The Soon

            Sitting in the Runcible Spoon there are only two things on my mind, that delicious salmon that I ordered, and sudden urge to learn how to play the mandolin, Irish flute and/or the accordion. The air is filled with the scent of great food and the sounds of traditional Irish tunes. In the Runcible Spoon there are eight musicians crammed tight into this little nook of the restaurant, despite the tightness everyone still comfortably performs epically and extremely Irish. It was an awesome experience. 

            The whole experience was extremely laid back, both the ambiance of the restaurant and the musicians themselves. The way they were all set up was that there were eight musicians sitting roughly in a semicircle, at the vertex of this semicircle was Grey Larsen, probably the most experienced of the bunch. The instruments that were played in this band included the concertina, accordion, Irish flute, guitar, flute, goatskin drum and a variation of a mandolin. All of the musicians were comfortable in this participatory style of music, although one did say he was nervous to be around such a great Irish flautist, and although he had his own flute he was more comfortable playing the drum.

            This type of music playing is laid back but at the same time very organized. While everyone was playing simple nods or even just eye contact was used in order to say that they were going to change something up or switch into an entirely new song all together. Something that I loved about that was how they got songs started, sometimes they would say to the woman in the corner “hey how about you sing us a song.” she agrees and sings a beautiful Irish song, or they say “hey lets play a happy one.” What I like most is how they will just start playing and one at a time everyone else joins in, that is incredible to me.  In total I believe they played about four or five songs, mostly in six/eight time signature. What I find beautiful about this session is that no one really chooses a song to play beforehand; they don’t have a set list, they just play for themselves.

            From what I observed, I believe that these gatherings were not meant to perform, but instead to connect on a musical level with friends, also they do it to just catch up on old times. These weekly meetings were never meant to show off musical abilities, but rather play with each other for each other, there was no one to impress. I believe that the values that they place on these gatherings are very similar to their lives; especially Larsen, this is especially valued to him because he grew up playing this music; he is a part of this cultural formation. Some of the newcomers have a different view on the sessions, someone who doesn’t live with this music day by day uses this as a cohort, or an escape from their reality temporarily.  As a mirror of society the values that are shared in this Irish music is that of DIY, local, uncompetitive and made just for the enjoyment of others. These aspects can be directly connected with the cultural formation of those who play in this band. They are all aspects of a DIY friendly Irish band, who plays solely for the enjoyment of playing music.

 

the punks are allright

Last night I was reading a book by Chuck Klosterman called Sex Drugs and Cocoa Puffs. At one point in this book, Klosterman talks about how he despises people who love punk rock, he said that “There has never been a genre of anything that has made more people confused about what art is capable of doing, they all refuse to shut up about it.” Klosterman goes on to ridicule the people he had met who claim that punk rock saved their lives.  This viewpoint can properly represent the consensus feeling on punk rock music; it’s just noisy, violent, trashy throwaway music that serves no purpose in the realm of music and society. This way of thinking is the main problem surrounding the world of punk music; no one ever thinks that it can have an important role in people’s lives.  This viewpoint is not true in places like Brazil and Indonesia, where the youth of the areas are exposed to violence, religious intolerance and drug wars. In the Documentary The Punks are allright, a light is shown on the people who needed punk rock. In the words of the Minutemen, “punk rock changed our lives,” but can punk rock really change lives?

            Before I watched The Punks are allright the only Brazilian music that I was exposed to was a metal band called Sepultura and Stan Getz’s album Getz/Gilberto. I had no Idea that there was a punk culture in the favelas of Brazil. I however did know that the favelas of Brazil were full of crime, but I assumed that this problem was under control by the police. After watching the film, however, I found out that the police are constantly under attack in these favelas.  These towns not only are riddled with crime, but they are also rather impoverished. The children of these towns have no future; they most likely will either cling to the catholic religion or become drug dealers. The only thing that pulls children from dealing drugs or from becoming a fundamentalist is punk rock.

Blind Pigs are a band in Brazil who are a main topic of the punk documentary. The lead singer Henrike believes that punk rock is life; he met his wife at one of his shows and now has two children with her, if it wasn’t for punk. Henrike believes that punk rock can bring purpose to the children of the favela. He particularly want the children to start bands of any genre, he believes that its still punk because it is DIY. Music fulfils this need that the children have in these towns; it fills the children's need to belong and to actually aspire to do something with their life. Henrike had gotten a letter from someone in Indonesia who wanted to listen to Blind Pigs music but has no means to buy it, Henrike sent him a CD of his and in return this Indonesian man made them Blind Pigs patches that he made himself.  

Indonesia, another country in poverty, this country has the highest population of Muslims in the world (a fact that I did not know).  The documentary follows Dolly, a factory worker and punk rock enthusiast. Dolly was the one who sent Henrike  I can relate to how he feels about this music.

            In America, Punk (specifically Hardcore punk) has been created and listened to since the early 1980’s.  Like in Brazil and Indonesia, Punk has been a huge influence on the young; this is mostly because it’s created and listened to by mostly young people. In Indonesia and Brazil the punk that is being created is made by mostly the poor for impoverished people; in America, however, the Hardcore Punk movement was primarily made by middle class young people for middle class young people; I think that is why I was (and still am) attracted to this particular type of music. I am the first to admit that I am a lucky person; I went to a great high school in a great district and grew up in a loving household. That being said, my school district was extremely competitive. Because of the schools competitiveness, I was pressured by the school, my peers and especially by my parents to get good grades and to be a perfect, well-rounded citizen. This way of life always got to me, this pressure of pleasing everyone. My only venting was to go up to my room and play Black Flag, Suicidal Tendencies and Nofx records until I could barely hear. Although I don’t connect with Henrike or Dolly on a class level, we meet perfectly at the line of loving punk.

“Punk rock changed our lives.” Is it possible for this statement to be true? Can Punk rock really change people’s lives? This term will always mean something to someone, somewhere.  When someone says that punk rock is meaningless and can’t change anything; just remember the story of Dolly and how, without punk, he would be a crushed individual. Also remember how punk music changed the lives of the people in Brazil, it made Henrike the man he is today and it also give hop to those who need it most. Punk rock can change lives.

Farmers Market Map

I love HIp Hop in the Morocco

            In the film I Love Hip Hop in Morocco a filmmaker went to Morocco to film the areas predominant rap and hip-hop stars as well as to put on a concert with these artists. Morocco is a Kingdom with a high population of Muslims. In this documentary the filmmaker meets several hip-hop groups who all have different views on how rap and hip-hop formed their lives. In the lives of these particular people, hip-hop is used as an outlet for their feelings of free speech, womens rights and how to better Morocco for the people.

            The first artist we were introduced to was DJ Key. DJ key is extraordinarily talented; he does exacty what he wants with life although he does not make mch money by doing so. In fact he made most of his money as a dance DJ, although he really loved to create his own songs.  Another obstacle that he had to overcome was the fact that he was Muslim and how the religion forbids music because it leads to temptation. DJ key overcame this because he knows that he is a good practicing Muslim, he knows that his love of this artform will never interfere with his religious praactices. DJ Key was not the only hip-hop artist who had problems expressing what he loved.

            In the Muslim world women expected to do certain things like get an education and to start a family, that’s good enough for some womenbut not Fati. Fati of the hip-hop group Mot de Passe is one of the only women rappers in the Middle East. She is regularly verbally abused fro dressing like a western rapper and for rapping in general. Even the men within the hip-hop community do not take her seriously. She knows these facts but she still does what she loves and her parents even support her dreams. Fati’s father and mother still make her focus on her studies, but because she does well in school and keeps her faith, her parents let her llive her dream. Another example of this type of parental support was from Brownfingaz father, this man supported his sons dream and message that he wanted to bring to the people.

            During the three concert dates thousands of Moroccans were in attendance. The rappers in these shows all performed to their best abilities and won the crowd, these shows loved every single act, until Fati got on stage. When Fati first came on the stage, the entire crowd booed her, they said things such as “shame on you” and to get off the stage, and her only response to these attacks was” how are you tonight?” and “whatever you say is fine, it doesn’t hurt me.” Then she started to rap, the crowd was won over instantly. This is a great example of the change of an indexical cluster, at first everyone thought that Fati had no place being on stage, and then they changed their minds once she started rapping.  Another group that got the people to think differently was H-kayne. They released a song calle Keep your hands off my country; this was a message to Osama Bin Laden after he bombed Casablanca saying, “return to Islam.” The people of the audience sang along to this song, this shows that these people would never join Bin Laden’s cause.

            The United States spends trillions of dollars on the wars in the Middle East, and along with this massive spending comes death and violence of the militaries and civilians of the occupated areas. Basically we are a military force in the Middle East so that we can stop terrorist organizations from reaching the young people, and to also insight change of thought to these places. This one concert series reached thousands of Moroccans on a budget of only 10,000 dollars and still did what the military could not. I believe that there is no reason why the United States shouldn’t spend more money on arts in the Middle East with Middle Eastern musicians; this will connect America to the Middle East through a shared culture of music. Some people may nay say this plan because they believe that money should be pumped into the military. I believe that there needs to be more US funding in these concerts, because this will ultimately create peace amongst us without the need for military involvement.

Reel Bad Arabs

            In 1995 the Oklahoma federal building was bombed, this was the most destructive act of terrorism before the 9/11 attacks. During the news coverage of the story, a reporter said that the FBI had several Arab translators on call, while another reported, “this bombing has Middle Eastern written all over it.”  These statements are usual after an attack on the US, its obviously Middle Eastern terrorists right? Well actually in this instance it was a white, Irish Catholic man named Timothy McVeigh. Why is it that we always automatically assume that an attack on United States soil was caused by angry Arabs? This is always assumed because of the way Arabs are portrayed in the world of cinema and other media. In movies the Middle East is always depicted as a vast desert where only primitive beings who cut off the hands of thieves and kill each other for no reason, this depiction has been used ever since the invention of film. Not only has the depiction of the place been the same, but also the people have been depicted more or less the same way ever since the early European exploration of the Middle East. The identities of the Middle Eastern men in American movies are always either depicted as the angry terrorist, the sheik, the oppressor of women, or just a silly comic relief character. Women are no different, they are always depicted as either a terrorist, an oppressed woman under her oppressive husband, or even just background hooded figures. Hollywood has always vilified Arabs because they are an easy target, and the first people who come to mind when they think of bad guys.

            In the documentary Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People, there are several movies presented that show all of the stereotypes against the Arab people. For me the most shocking point of that documentary is that one of the most beloved movies of all time, from one of the most “politically correct” family companies in the history of Film released a completely racist movie in 1992! This film is Aladdin, a Disney film. The movie starts out with the song Arabian nights, which hits you full force with the racism with the lines “where they cut off your ear if they don’t like your face, it’s barbaric, but hey, it’s home.” Although this line was changed in later versions of the movie, it still shows the Middle East as a violent, barbaric place.

              Throughout the movie the audience is led to believe that these marines are evil and open fired on civilians; there is even a little girl who was a survivor of the massacre, this little girl is what we were supposed to empathise with. Later in the film it turns out that the crowd of people were actually firing at the marines, who had no other choice but to open fire on the people. The big twist was that even this little girl who we once felt sorry for was actually one of the shooters firing at the marines.  This example is amazing because of the fact that it depicts every single Arab (including children) are violent jihadists.

            These depictions of the Arab people are similar to the depictions that the Nazi’s gave to the Jews in WWII. These depictions showed racist depictions of the people’s appearance of the people where instead of having large noses that the Nazis chose for the Jewish people, the Arabs are that but with a turban and robes. The redundant dehumanization of Arabs in movies has made every American believe the false version of what life is like in the Middle East. In reality the Middle East is full of loving people such as fathers mothers and children.  But one may ask what about the oppression of women, aren't they forced to wear their Hijabs? Women in the Middle East wear their hijabs, not because they’re forced to, but simply because they choose to practice their religion; in fact, not all women in the Middle East wear the Hijabs, they wear them because they choose to.

            Why is it that these stereotypes still exist? Why does Hollywood continually vilify the Arab people? I believe that Hollywood may be afraid to show Arabs in a good way because they have been redundantly copied for all of these years that they don’t know any other way to portray them. Hopefully in the future film makers will portray people from the middle east in an equal way, rather than the backwards way that they are portrayed now. The only way that we can bring humanity back into the names of the Arab people is to stop the negative stereotypes we set upon them and to show them in a way where they are not angry Jihadists, but instead we need to portray them as human beings.

Music and Terrorism

“I kill you!” screams Achmed the dead terrorist; then the audience of the Jeff Dunham has a big laugh at the expence of this “perfect representation” of what a terrorist is. This is what a terrorist looks like right; he has everything a terrorist looks like, he has a turban, beard and his name suggests that he is a Muslim from the Middle East, a terrorist.  Ever since the world trade center fell, this is what the description of a terrorist is. This discourse of terrorists has painted a terrible picture for any person of Middle Eastern heritage.  Although the terrorists were Muslim, that does not mean that every Muslim is a terrorist, the attackers were the most radical sects of the religion.  A parallel situation is comparing the Westboro Baptist Church to all Christians.

An example of the racism towards the Muslim people is the whole fiasco involving the mosque a few blocks away from ground zero. In 2010 there was a big story in the news about a mosque being built “on ground zero,” well it wasn’t on ground zero so much as it was a few blocks away from it and it wasn’t a mosque but more of a muslim community center. The Community center was largely protested by people who believed that the terrorists were building it in order to disrespect those lost in 9/11; but in reality, it was built so the muslim people of New York could come together as a community outside of mass. This situation is a great example of the discourse that Americans have towards Muslims; even though these Muslims are American citizens, they were still scrutinized for even thinking of building a mosque near ground zero.  The language that the media used for this story was against the construction of the community center; for example, just the fact that they immediately came out and said that it was being built on ground zero and even how they just assumed that it was a mosque, which it wasn’t.

“So, we must ask ourselves, what is the dictionary definition of the word terrorism? The systematic use of terror especially as a means for coercion.  But what is terror? According to the dictionary I hold in my hand, terror, is violent or destructive acts, such as bombing commited by groups in order to intimidate a population or government into granting their demands. So whats a terrorist?” This quote from Lowkey’s song Terrorist proves a very good point on the subject of terrorism. Technically both sides are terrorists, in the sense that both the US and the Middle East used coercion through violence.  Along with the prior song, I also found a song by the band Lamb of God where they play a testimony from a staff seargent on his experience in Iraq; he said, “We killed a lot of innocent civilians… These Fedayeen are now in civilian clothes that make everybody free game,
but if they came in our perimeter, we lit 'em up. And when we would pull the body out, and when we would search the car, we would find nothing.
This took place time and time again. No harm, no foul, that's OK, don't worry about it.” This exemplifies the fact that even the US military can be terrorists, the staff seargent went on to say "I honestly feel we're committing genocide over here,
I don't believe in killing civilians, and I'm not going to kill civilians for the United States Marine Corp." The deaths in the Middle East were not and will never be justified.

The music used in the years after 9/11 was a double-edged sword, on one side there was the music that was used to bolster American spirits directly after the attacks such as where were you (when the world stopped turning), which asks about peoples feelings when they heard the news of the attack. That song did not call for war, but it still didn’t go against the war. Along with those types of songs there were songs that flat out wanted war, and wanted revenge for what happened; such as Toby Kieth’s song Courtesy Of The Red, White And Blue. Another pro war, get the terrorist song was that of Darryl Worley, Have you Forgotten? This song basically asks why some people don’t support the war by asking have they forgotten about 9/11 and who the enemy is.

Those two country songs are examples of how music can strengthen a discourse on terrorists. These songs provided Americans with a reminder of who the “bad guys” were, these gung ho war songs showed us a common enemy, this strengthened the discourse toward terrorists. On the other hand the Lowkey song, as well as the Lamb of God song, both cause questioning in regards to the steriotypes of terrorism. So really, in my oppinion, music can both bolster and destabalize the effects of the discourse on terrorism.