- Birdman feat. Lil Wayne & Drake, "Money To Blow", Hip Hop, 2009
- Chris Brown, "Look At Me Now", Hip Hop, 2011
- Trey Songz & Drake, "Successful", R&B, 2010
- DJ. Khaled feat. Diddy, Nicki Minaj, T Pain, Rick Ross, Busta Rhymes, Fabolous, Jadakiss & Fat Joe, "All I Do is Win (Remix)", Hip Hop, 2010
- 50 Cent, "I Get Money", Hip Hop, 2007
- Destiny's Child, "Survivor", R&B, 2001
- Yolanda Adams, "Victory", Gospel, 2005
- R. Kelly, "The Storm is Over Now", R&B, 2000
- Mary J. Blige, "No More Drama", R&B, 2002
- Mary J. Blige, "Enough Cryin", R&B, 2006
I found this week’s blog assignment to be a lot easier than last week’s. The two aims for this week, Worldly success and Liberation, are both prevalent in today’s society. However, I found more songs that related to worldly success than liberation. The main themes for songs that are popular today are, Love, Sex, Money and Alcohol/Drugs. A person is considered successful if they have achieved some sort of status. For example, a person who lives in a mansion, drives in an expensive car, and has earned millions of dollars is considered “to have made it” and is successful. The Hindu understanding of worldly success is that it brings livelihood with dignity and self respect. Whereas, in the Hip Hop culture especially, you can see that the idea of success is different, and it is also glamorized and desired. R&B star, Trey Songz along with Hip Hop star, Drake, joined together to create the song, “Successful”. In the song, the two artists are singing about the benefits and their desire of being successful. The song begins with Trey Songz singing:
“The money, cars, the clothes, the hoes, I suppose….Yeuh! I want the money, money and the cars, cars and the clothes, the hoes, I suppose, I just wanna be, I just wanna be, Successful.”
In his eyes as well as in the eyes of other people, this is the type of success that people strive for.
When I think of the word Liberation, the first thing that comes to my mind is free; receiving freedom. This freedom can come from anything, whether a person may be freed from injustice, a job or a bad relationship. The Hindu belief of Liberation is that it is the highest goal of human life through which everything is accomplished. While looking for songs, I was able to find a variety of songs in which different artists sung about being liberated from various things. I think that artists nowadays are expressing their emotions more and therefore songs pertaining to liberation are also popular. A lot of female R&B artists base a lot of their songs on being liberated from painful relationships, because people across the world can relate to those songs. I noticed this especially while looking for songs for this blog assignment. Most of the liberation songs that I could find were sung by women.
Hey! I definitely agree that this week's blog assignment was far easier than the last. I was pretty surprised to find that songs for liberation were much easier to find than I had originally thought, and it's good to see that it wasn't just me. I can relate to you on your thoughts of liberation in that it is realized in many aspects in a very worldly way, rather than being spiritual or religious. I also thought it was interesting that most of the liberation songs you found were sung by women. Nice work, interesting read!
ReplyDelete"Money to Blow" and "Survivor" are both great choices for the two aims that we were supposed to tackle for this week's assignment. Money, cars, and the hoes..isuppose seem to be the epitome of success in hip hop culture and it's just not the same kind of success that is spoken of in Hinduism. I also thought of the word free and also peace when I thought of liberation. Very cool overall.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you and Mohammad... I thought this week's assignment was much easier than last week's. In American culture, liberation is not necessarily the highest goal to which people aspire. Like you said, liberation, or freedom, is found in every day, simple things. I think this is why songs on this subject are fairly abundant - everyone has felt that burning desire to get away from something at some point in their lives. I agree that financial success seems to be the most sought-after goal in America. We base much of our opinion of some one on their wealth, material possessions, and status. Unlike in Hinduism, I don't think that American "success" necessarily brings bout self-respect and dignity, as you mentioned. Great observations!
ReplyDeleteI agree that the success aim has a different meaning for American pop music and Hindu believe. You are considered successful if you look like a music video, having a nice car, house and lots of pleasures.FAr from the Hindu meaning of bringing livihood and self respect. It seems in American pop culture everything that equals success equals materialistic things.
ReplyDeleteIt is unfortunate that today's society measures success by how much money, cars, mansions, etc that an individual has without regard for how those were obtained. This is why people do everything possible to become rich, gain power, and or become famous in order to be labelled as successful. The success and liberation that Hinduism talks about is one that is achieved sincerely and without foul play.
ReplyDeleteYup this weeks post was definitely easier than last weeks! However allow me to play the Devil's Advocate really quick. The Hindu's interpretation of Success is suppose to bring "dignity and self respect" to one. These artists that sing about money, cars and hoes are definitely, sad to say receiving some sort of "self respect" from their peers. If not, I'm pretty sure they'd change the content of their music. So could we possibly say that both American Pop Culture Music and Hindu's interpretations are the same?
ReplyDeleteI agree with all of you that thought finding songs for liberation was easy. Basically liberation is being free of a situation, inmy opinion. One can be from love, parents, society, a lease,etc. One can be liberated from just about anything.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the idea that liberation can be from anything, and that made the assignment a lot easier. However, that doesn't mean that songs we might relate to liberation from a number of things fit the Hindu definition, which is fine, because it highlights the differences between the two.
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