chivublog

[chivublog]

Blog Post #19

Jackson’s podcast

Jackson impressed me as a listener for the very first seconds. His opening music and his introduction intertwined so well and so professional that they brought me a feeling as I was listening to a professional podcaster. The background music that he chose also got well with his voice and his topic. He seemed to apply relaxing music for athletes in his podcast. One of his standing out points was his introduction as a member of the football team which reinforced the reason why the audience should listen to his podcast. His story about Covid-19 and recently updated information constituted in constructing a comfortable moment and made the audience feel related to his story. I have never worked out or had any interest in sports, but listening to how Jackson, with his passion and sincerity in his voice, discussed how music and athletic success correlates made me surprise and interest in, for example, working out while listening to music helped us burn more calories. It was interesting to know that music had a positive effect on hormones of athletes’ bodies such as making them feel good or more focused. The conversation with Will Newlin was effective and practical as it was intriguing to hear from an experienced person in this aspect, especially Will’s story about his routine and his favorite songs that he listened to when he worked out. Jackson also did a great job detailedly concluding all his main points in the conclusion. My recommendation for his future podcast is how music encourages non-sporty people to play sports or do exercise.

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Jake’s podcast

Jake’s podcast topic about intellectual growth and entertainment is my favorite topic ever. Some significant points in his podcast were his clear transitions and really great background music. I could easily keep up with all his main points and thoroughly visualize what he mentioned thanks to his transitions and interlude music. His small questions as a tool of communication helped connect him and his audience so well. He also mentioned the same topic about athletes’ better performances as Jackson’s podcast, which helped me with diverse perspectives on that topic. I also agreed with lots of his examples such as the discussion on music and Fornite game and how the music made players feel more excited. His example of music in a horror dark movie and his analytics were extremely impressive, for instance, how music can truly describe the moment when the protagonist reached the destination and killed his target. I also listened to the soundtrack for the first time when Jake suggested the audience to listen to it, and it was bizarrely interesting to me that the music could well characterize a person’s horrific side. Listening to his podcast, I could learn more great words to describe my feeling for music and analyze music in general. My recommendation for his next podcast is about how music affects the popularity and boost the effect of games. I took a course about video games and cultures and also learned about how music constituted in the success of a game, and it would be great if I can hear from someone’s perspectives on that topic.

[chivublog]

Part 3

1. What song did Joan Baez steal from Dylan?

Joan Baez Steals Bob Dylan's “Four Letter Word”

2. What genre was "Maggie's Farm?"

Its genre is Rock ‘n Roll

3. What did Pete Seeger think of Bob's use of distortion?

He thought it was terrible. He reckoned that it was so hard to understand even a word that if he “has an axe I’d chop the mic cable right now”.

4. What song went number 1?

The “Like a rolling stone” went number 1

5. How did Dylan label himself?

He labeled himself as well under 30, and his role was to stay as long as he could.

6. Did he participate in demonstrations?

He did not seem to participate in the demonstrations and seem so distored.

7. What was the most absurd interview scene you saw?

The most absurd interview scene I saw was when the first interviewer tried to ask Dylan about the philosophical meaning of his T-shirt and tried to force Bob Dylan to answer that interview’s question following his hypothesis, not Bob Dylan’s. Another absurd interview was the one when a man asked him to suck his glasses. Bob Dylan seemed so confused with that question.

8. How long did Dylan take off of touring?

It was about 8 years.

[chivublog]

Part 2

1. Who was one of Pete Seeger’s biggest influences?

Woody Guthrie was his biggest influence. Pete admired Woody’s performance style and the meanings behind his songs.

2. As he is discovering song writing, what were some of the influences making the lyrics possible?

Dylan took the poetic English and instilled it into the lyrics. His inspiration came from the world and biggest events around him. Woody Guthrie, Dylan Thomas, Arthur Rimbaud also influenced on his lyrics making.

3. When Dylan says he wasn’t a “topical song writer” what does he mean? This will be important later.

I think he would like to emphasize that his songs were not temporary, and he wrote songs just to show the ups and downs in life without the relevance of politics.

4. What would they do with a song to make more money during this time?

They released studio albums and continued long music tour. Their financial success comes from the willingness to jump on new opportunities to make money, from popularizing themselves, live performances to endorsement deals.

5. Why were musician’s blacklisted?

Because they were thought to support the pacifism, internationalism and pro-labor sympathies of the Communist Party during the 1930s. Their songs were also involved in political issues.

6. What are his songs about?

His songs are about politics and civil rights movements, as well as various subjects in life.

7. So he is a protest song writer?

Yes he is. He told that all of his songs were protest songs

8. According to the movie, what was the mark of success for an artist during this time?

The number of people who liked that artist’s songs marked the success of an artist. 

[chivublog]

No Direction Home Response

What kind of sources does this documentary use?

Souces came from interviewing people in music business including poet Allen Ginsberg and folk musician Dave Van Ronk, Dylan's friends, and associates. Another source was recorded films or videos.

Describe Bob Dylan’s background.

Bob Dylan, American folksinger and songwriter with the intellectualism of classic literature and poetry. He was inspired by folk music and usually performed with his guitar and harmonica.

He played guitar at 10 years old

He did not go to classes as he felt like he did not have time for music.

He was thought to be a political person, but he was actually not. He just wrote songs that reflected the politics and civil rights.

What were some of his Musical influences?

Woody Guthrie,Elvis Presley, Joan Baez, Arthur Rimbaud were some of his musical influences.

What were some of the reactions to his music?

People in the documentary said that his music was so attractive, powerful, genius. His songs made people to think a lot. They thought his songs contained a desire to change the world. There was the faint resonance in his music. However, there were some people who did not ike his music

How did Dylan approach University?

He did not go to classes as he did not like them and would like to spend more time on music.

What genre of music did he fall in love with? that spoke to him?

He fell in love with folk music and rock music in the later period of time. 

How was Dylan musically talented? What are your thoughts about his music so far?

He was so talented that his lyrics reflected the real life and issues but also so romantic and inspirational. I really like his music so far becasue his songs are so simple but also complicated in the lyrics, which made me think a lot.

[chivublog]

#Blog Post 17/18

Turn to the appendix and complete the interview questions for yourself and post them here.

Social responsibility is an ethical framework which suggests that an entity, be it an organization or individual, has an obligation to act for the benefit of society at large.

1) The main factor that influences my purchase is the need of the stuff. It is important to know the reasons why I have to spend my money on that stuff.

2) My last music-related purchase was an album produced by a Korean artist.

3) The main reason behind that purchase was that I would like to support my favorite singer by buying her album.

4) I usually listen to music via Youtube or free streams on the Internet. I only purchase an album from my most favorite artist.

5) There are some differences between 70-90′s music and nowadays music. In my perspective, music is now an industry, and its value is quite comtemporary compared to legendary songs in the past, for example, “Yesterday” of The Beatles or songs made by ABBA.

6) My favorite musicians have a huge impact on me. For example, Adrew Llod Webber’s musicals teach me to love and have compassion for other people. Meanwhile, I.U’s music (a renowned Korean singer) brings me peacefulness and happiness between the hustle and bustle of life.

7) It is reasonable for me to purchase my favorite musicians’ albums or CD if I am affordable for those stuff.

8) Yes. I think that making a purchase of music products shows the support and encouragement to musicians, as well as shows the agreement to meanings of their products.

9) One of the most common ways that musicians/ bands engage in social responsibility is producing songs that reflect the harsh or unfair reality in daily life.

10) An example of socially responsible ehavior that comes to my mind is that producers/bands spend their money made from tour performances or albums on the poor or the disadvatage.

11) Yes, I have. The social resonsibility that I have made in live music events is behaving in a good manner and politely support my musicians instead of screaming and pushing other people in line.

12) In my view, a socially responsible musician is the one who produce “clean” music and respects his/her fans. “Clean” music means the production has no bad or harsh meanings that made other feel depressed and down.

13) I think it is important for musicians/producers/bands to behave in a socially responsible way because that will affect how fans will support them in a long term and how they are respected as a musician. It will help create a better and informative society if artists act socially responsibly.

14) I would be more likely to buy albums or attend love music events of artists who are socially responsible because I feel proud of their manners as well as their music products.

15) I attended a concert that spread the meaning of love for the poor.

16) Music can have a powerful and tremendous influence on humans for a long time, so it is more difficult to think of or make socially responsible decisions in music than do that in daily life. It is also challenging to make up an idea for the social responsibility in music.

Read the article, focusing on the results section (skim the beginning).

Discuss how authenticity is important to an artist’s efficacy in promoting a social or political: Artists who show their authenticity have a high level of success compared to those who produced mainstream music or appear to be more commercial because the audience are in favor of the authetic, genuine and ingenuous purpose that artists bring into their music products (p.238-239)

Cite an example from the text: On page 238-239, there is a fan who was willing to pay money for a cardboard covered CD because from what the artist presented, the cover is biodegradable.

Can you think of an example you have witnessed of either an artist promoting something that didn’t seem authentic and one promoting that did? Post a link or video if you can: Lots of Korean band groups are involved in charity promotions which are orderly arranged by their managements, and it is so hard to recognize whether those groups actually know exact locations or people that they will raise fund for.

https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/bts-rm-donated-to-music-education-students.html/

https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/all-the-times-bts-donated-to-causes-they-care-about.html/

Read this piece on what makes a good protest song, at least historically, and how that may be changing today.

1. Write a paragraph on what you think makes a good protest song. Reference the article and choose to agree or disagree with something they said.

A good protest song represents for a currently important matter in the daily life. In other words, it is “a strong performance about an urgent topic with a specific audience in mind”. In the piece, Kim Ode reckoned that protest songs “are pointedly about a single topic, while others address the broader human condition” and reflect the matter asthetically. In addition, a good protest song is “the ideal form to practice rhetoric as a songwriter” (Kim Ode).

2. Look up a favorite artist (keep going until you find something) and find some ways in which they are trying to make a positive impact. This can be either charities, benefit concerts, lyrical messages, etc. Share you findings.

There is a Vietnamese song produced by an underground band group called SpaceSpeakers. The song helps change the conventional perspectives of patriarchy. The song described how stereotypes of the role of women put stress on modern young women in daily life. It clearly showed the bad side in the society that women have to abort because men never take responsibility for their actions and regard women as stuff for their euphoria. Although the video contains some colloquial words, it received lots of positive feedback from listeners.

Here is a part of English lyrics translated by me (the English caption in the video is incorrect:

“Asking yourself: “Where was my innocent beautiful smile?”

Among the immensity of this world, love words are now blank and meaningless

Wishing to fall in the state of dormancy rather than being immersed in liars

You (the woman) neglect your body, just to free your soul (a metaphor for commiting suicide)”

3. Discuss if you think they are effective, why or why not.

They are effective because the music elements were well-considered. The background music is added with the water sound, which shows the powerful desire of freedom of those women. Meanwhile, the water sound also shows the gentleness and beauty of women. In addition, according to the article of Todd Green, on page 238, “ musicians who appeared to have less commercial success were considered to be more genuine in their messages regarding charitable causes or sustainability”. That makes sense because this underground group is renowned for their authentic love for music and their frank perspectives on modern society. Hence, their songs are always supported and highly aprreciated.

[chivublog]

Blog Post #16

1. Watch this first radio interview. Who is Frank Waln? What is his message? How did he start writing music? Why is indigenous land valuable and thus taken from different tribes? What is a better name for Columbus Day that some local governments are using?

Frank Waln is a Sicangu Lakota hip-hop artist/ rapper/ producer/ performer, from Rosebud Indian Reservation-South Dakota. He got a degree in Audio Arts and Acoustics in Columbia Chicago College. 

He travels around the world to share his music with people and understands that he will write music about the Native History just to become a positive representation. He does not want to fall into trap of stereotypes created by outside people but would like to be an artist that he would like to become. His main message is to encourage Native Americans to be proud of being Native Americans.

He started to compose in 2015 when he found a Peter Pan soundtrack on vynil in a vinyl store, then he started to sample vinyl and made his first song “What makes a red man red”.

Indegenous people are all black and brown people in the world. All of them were colonized throughout the world, but they had hard relationships with the land they lived on. According to what Frank Waln said, the Indegenous have been living in the United States for the longest, and their naitons and cultures existed before the U.S existed. They are the ones who first taught the settlers how to survive in a new land where the Indegenous lived on that place before. 

A better name for Columbus Day that some local government are using is “Indegenous peoples day”.

“Aboriginal,” “Good Way,” “Oil 4 Blood,” and “Home”

The next four videos are all music videos produced by Frank Waln. For each video please discuss 5 musical elements - melody, harmony, rhythm, instrumentation, timbre, silence, rhythm, meter, etc. Then discuss what the song is about. Last, was the messaging effective? Why or why not?

1) “Aboriginal”: 

Melody: disjunct melody with sonorus, strong and drastic shade

Harmony: The harmony is a little bit dissonant but chromatic with different verse in the background. The chord progression is so new and hooky.

Rhythm: forte, bouncy, fast, powerful, and the drop in the song is so catchy

Instrumentation: Drum, Flute, Bass, Electronic sounds, Electric guitars. There are a variety of combination of instruments which made the song drastic and inspirational.

Silence: The long silence before the first verse of the song made me feel so impressed and a little bit overwhelming due to the strong beat at the beginning of the verse. Besides, the silence at the end of the video after the rapid intense drumming pushed listeners to a hole of resonance that the heart still pumps to the rhythm.

The message is effective because it made the story of Native Americans get out the misunderstandings of people, which encourages and inspires the Indegenous to support and become proud of their community. The song also successfully acknoledged listeners about stereotypes of Native Americans.

2) “Good way”

Melody: conjunct melody which is so emotional, slow, harmonic and mild.

Harmony: consonant and the chord progession is familiar which brings listeners the feeling of warmness

Rhythm: slow, cardiac with strong beats on the background like heart rates.

Instrumentation: Piano, Electronic sounds, Electric guitar.

Timbre: bright, pure, but also strained. There are lots of vocal differences in the songs. 

The message is effective because the melody is harmonic and rhythmic enough for listeners to immerse themselves into the lyrics as well as the beat of the song.

3) “Oild 4 Blood”

Dynamics: forte and lots of emphasis in singing, for instance, important words falling on the strong beat.

Melody: disjunct melody with repeatitous vocal backgrounds. Although the range is narrow, but the musical effect is still effective.

Rhythm: the short silence/ sudden ceasing at the beginning of the song brought a strong sense of power and drastic. The claping and the bouncy parts strongly relates to the heart rate.

Texture: Polyphnic texture with various independent melodies/ voices sounding at the same time. 

Instrumentation: strong drumbeats, hand-clapping, percussions, and repeatitous electronic sounds.

This video is effective in spreading the message because the short silence and the hand-clapping effects brought listeners a sense of rights and pride from the Indegenous.

4) “Home”

Melody: the musical sound is mild and bright, bringing the sense of warmness and freedom.

Rhythm: soft and slow at the beginning and turns forte at the end of the piece.

Texture: monophic texture. There are also trill and vibrato in the sound coming from the flute, which makes the piece natural dreamlike but still majectic and powerful.

Harmony: consonant. Although there is no joint of other sounds, the connection and smoothing between each note are harmonic.

Instrumentation: there is only a flute instrument, but the sound is so resonant and pleasant.

This video is not effective enough to people with the limited interest in monophic texture. However, to people who like instrumental sound, this piece can give listeners strong and powerful feelings as what Frank Waln would like to convey.

[chivublog]

#Blog Post 16

Since we can’t go to the Frank Waln Concert at Augustana anymore, I decided to put together some videos from him for you to experience his voice and his music.

1. Watch this first radio interview. Who is Frank Waln? What is his message? How did he start writing music? Why is indigenous land valuable and thus taken from different tribes? What is a better name for Columbus Day that some local governments are using?

“Aboriginal,” “Good Way,” “Oil 4 Blood,” and “Home”

The next four videos are all music videos produced by Frank Waln. For each video please discuss 5 musical elements - melody, harmony, rhythm, instrumentation, timbre, silence, rhythm, meter, etc. Then discuss what the song is about. Last, was the messaging effective? Why or why not?

1 note

[chivublog]

#Blog Post 15

1. Nasser writes:

“Not surprisingly, decades of hostility and fighting have resulted in monolithic readings of the problem, whereby each group is uncompromising and unwilling to listen to the other side's point of view.”

What does this mean? Can you think of something in your life or American politics that is similar?

According to my understanding, that means monolithic readings and propaganda from one country are against those of the other. Each country defames or tries to ruin the other country’s reputation in order to reinforce its viewpoints, values, and rights without an effort to listen or resolve the problem, which results in misunderstandings and hostility between the two groups. 

2. How do each of the three religions claim Jerusalem as a central part of their religious traditions?

The article mentioned that each country had its own history and reasons to claim Jerusalem as a central part of its religious traditions. On page 42, Nasser showed readers that “for Jews, Jerusalem is the site of the Western Wall or Wailing Wall, of remains of the Second Temple built by Jews following their exile in Babylon, and the holiest site to the Jewish people. To Christians, it was the scene of Jesus' death, burial and resurrection, and the birthplace of the Christian faith. As for Muslims, Jerusalem (known in Arabic as al-Quds, 'the holy') is the home of Haram al-Sharif, or the 'Noble Sanctuary', which includes the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aqsa Mosque, from which the Prophet Muhammad ascended to Heaven”. 

3. Read the lyrics of the prayer sung by Fairuz and discuss how they change over the course of the stanzas.

Nasser gave the readers an insight perspective towards the change in lyrics of the prayer. The first theme was about the tragic situation in Jerusalem (p.44) with lots of punctuations and repetitive phrases such as “To you” and “I pray”, showing the severe struggle and instability within that location.  The second theme dug deeper into that struggle by the indication of war, terror, destructions, and the lack of peace in the “Land of Peace” (p. 44). The third theme was about prayers and aspiration for peace, which created a smooth transition to the fourth theme about the Christian Bible (Christianity’s biggest events). After that, “the lyrics shift

 to a narration of the historic events from the 1967 war, voicing criticism of the

 Israeli army as the violators of peace: Jerusalem became a warzone, giving way to injustice, intolerance, and terror” (p.44). The prayers ended by the confirmation that “Jerusalem is ours” (p.44) to call for peace, responsibility, and unity.

4. What elements of music should we listen for in Palestinian popular music and Israeli popular music? They will sound very different, but also very different from our popular music.

The volume and timbre, as well as the musical form, should be noticed when we listen to Palestinian popular and Israeli popular music. The volume is changing from time to time, for instance, the additional louder sound of brass or strings instruments and harmonic voices. There are also lots of different voices or the heroic chant with the changes in the pitch to create the vow and to show the strength of prayers (“the higher level of intensity” (p.47)). The form of music is also changed a lot within a song (“melodic flexibility” (p.47)). For example, it may slow and soft at the beginning, but it gets louder and faster with heavy instrumental background and drumbeats.

5. How is this music disseminated? What sort of censorship has been in place?

According to the article, popular music in this country is promoted and defined as “national’s identity” (p.49). Besides, “the emergence of the cassette industry helped popularise the songs of resistance, mostly based on folk tradition and mixed with Arab popular music” (p.48). Censorship can be sending artists underground, confiscating the musical products or videotapes, controlled by “the Israeli media, who had total control over the broadcasting networks” (pp.50-51)

6. Take a listen to the king of Rai Khaled and Noa singing John Lennon’s “Imagine.” What musical elements do you notice? Does this song “work” for this purpose?

What stood out to me is the harmony and the structure. The version of Khaled and Noa was harmonized by other instruments, which was different from the original version. The intro, middle 8, and break parts were played differently too. 

The song works for the purpose well because “Khaled and Noa affirm their vision of peace and their wish for a world with no boundaries and divisions” (p.56). The song was sung in both their mother tongue and English with the meaningful lyrics to spread love and peace.

7. “The role of popular music is not limited to raising awareness of social and political tensions, but to actively participate in offering tools for understanding the shifting dynamics within a disputed territory. As music soars above the temporal crossroads, it enables people to come together and reach better understandings of one another despite their political differences. To this end, music not only reflects our vision and understanding of history, but also expands our appreciation for the present, illuminating conflicts and paving the way toward a better future. The challenge remains, however, for each party to accept the other side's views in a way that would ensure a just peace, equality, and reconciliation for all.”

Do you agree with or disagree with the author’s final words?

I agree with the author’s final words because humans can easily have intuitive and emotional reactions to music, meaning that music can touch humans’ souls and maybe change someone’s perspectives. Take the song “Imagine” sung by Khaled and Noa for an example, that song connected two artists from different regions and widespread the meanings of peace and reconciliation. While making music or listening to music, people have a chance to reflect and think about the lyrics as well as the purpose of the song. They can also learn different languages or cultures through songs by singing or searching for information about those pieces. Therefore, I agree that music can be a bridge to connect people together.

[chivublog]

Blog Post #14

1) In my perspective, music can be used for psychological warfare. Music could be applied to encourage the fighting spirits of soldiers or to torture and persuade opponents. Pieslak gave a paradigm in “Sound Targets” book that “ the beating of drums or trumpet calls might have once struck fear in the military opponents, but this music may also have been intended to inspire soldiers, to signals commands, and maneuver troops” (p.78) 

2) I think music can be used as torture because if someone plays heavy metal music or uncomfortable nonstop music for days, humans’ brains and thoughts will slow down and slide.

3) Music is a weapon in some ways, for instance, in torturing or persuading someone. In the newspaper of “The Newyorker”, music was described as the assistance of “acts of war since trumpets sounded at the walls of Jericho, but in recent decades it has been weaponized as never before—outfitted for the unreal landscape of modern battle”

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/07/04/when-music-is-violence

4) A historical reference to using music for psychological warfare is the instillation of German national music into prisoners’ minds to re-educate and spread the value and strength of Germans. (From “Music and the Holocaust”). Another example of that tactic which was mentioned in “Sound Targets” is “the battle of the Alamo during the Texas Revolution” (p.2)

http://holocaustmusic.ort.org/places/camps/music-early-camps/dachau/sonic-torture-dachau0/

5) The “Deguello” song is the most effective one to me because of the strong march style, fast tempo, and the repetition parts which made listeners want to fight and defend on the spot. “Shofar Calls” and “The Ride of the Valkyries” are also effective; however, the beating of drums or the rhythm is not as strong and persuasive as that of “Deguello”, and the meaning of the song was less obvious.

6) The sonic scenario at the notorious battle of Fallujah was about hard rock/ metal music which was described as “a smoke bomb” because the tactics were to confuse and discourage the opponents. Besides, Western music was not Iraqis’ favorite one, which means some Western songs could make Iraqis upset and disoriented (p.84). The author described that hard rock and metal music was played relentlessly in Fallujah, and then the mullahs defended by played out loud the chants, prayers, and Arabic music (p.85)

7) Techniques like waterboarding and music in interrogation were considered as torture. (p.91)

8) Torture is a problematic way to get information because it could result in stress, depression, paranoid, or trauma. In the book “Sound Targets”, the author mentioned that “No physical or mental torture, nor any other form of coercion, may be inflicted on prisoners of war to secure from them information of any kind whatever. Prisoners of war who refuse to answer may not be threatened, insulted or exposed to the unpleasant or disadvantageous treatment of any kind.” (pp.91-92).  That means there were rights and freedom not to expose the secret information. If torture joined in getting information part, there would be severe trauma and mental wounds in humans.

9) According to the online newspaper, the “Tipton Three” were taken to Guantanamo because of “a wrong journey” through Afghanistan, to Pakistan, and arrived in Guantanamo in 2002.

 10) They were forced to squat while their legs and hands were tied to the floor or the floor ring, which could easily result in cramping. Meanwhile, they had to listen to earsplittingly loud and uncomfortable Eminem music in a cold and dark with only flashing lights room. They were even not allowed to urinate during the time.

11)  I was shocked and scared of this torturing way. This torture was much more stressful and painful than the physical one, in my view.

12) In some severe cases such as murder or terrorist attacks, music can be used as torture or an interrogation device. However, generally, this method is quite stressful and depressing or even inhuman.

I watched an actual video about music interrogation on Youtube, and that was so overwhelming:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGaG5-VL9P8

 13) The risks for LRAD will outweigh the benefits because LRAD can cause earsplitting-like symptoms, or hearing problems, migraines, vertigo, and sinus pain to both protestors and police officers/ militaries

14)  Different Dachau’s loudspeakers were installed in the camp

 15) National German music/ Nazi party songs were played to instill the German value into prisoners’ brain and to create the nationalistic mood

 16) According to CNN newspaper, some music genres that music has been used to deter the homeless, teenagers, or drug users are annoying children songs, atonal music, classical music, or religious music.

 17) In my view, it is an effective method because different individuals have different tastes of music. Therefore, listening to unfavorite songs or annoying songs can make listeners feel tired, stressed, and uncomfortable, which means they have to move to another place to escape from those songs. Hence, it is effective to use this method to homeless, teenagers, or drug-users.

[chivublog]

Blog Post #13

*Grocery items: Caramel Corn, Coffee, Carbage, Kiwis, a loaf of French baguette bread, vanilla pudding, green beans, veggie burgers, naval oranges  Link for Google Docs: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Fypj-nBc2xGCovfuprmX8fUcWx0h7PD8aupgP14t5OA/edit?usp=sharing 1) I think Singapore is in Asia and is a small island. What I have known about Singapore is that it is one of the cleanest countries in the world, and there are heavy fines for those who throw trash improperly. Besides, the price of clean water there is extremely high, and the citizens have to drive near to the Malaysian border every weekend to buy cheaper water bottles. From what I heard from my Singaporean friends, almost all citizens there have the origin used to live in China. They speak lots of various languages, but mainly English. To be honest, I once joined a debate competition monitored by Singaporean coaches, and it was so hard to figure out the English Singaporean accent. As I learned Chinese at that time, I knew that the intonation of some Singaporean was the same as that of Chinese.  

2) Hegemony is the dominance or the leadership of one group over others or the whole country. According to page 449 in the book “Music and Cultural Politics: Ideology and Resistance in Singapore” by Lily Kong, the power and influence of PAP (People’s Action Party) on economic strategy and other policies have contributed to the flourishing of Singapore. Moreover, in my view, the reason why PAP fits into the hegemonic government is that “with the stranglehold on the government of the country, the PAP has actively sought to develop an “administrative state” in which the citizenry is depoliticized” (p.449). Because depoliticization’s outcome was about “social stability and economic growth”, which were absolutely beneficial to the whole country and the citizens. Hence, PAP can fit into the government. 

*As DR. Keehn said in the video, I totally agree about the benefits of hegemony that all things can be discussed and get done quickly, but there be some bad sides about hegemony such as dictatorship and bribery that citizens can not control or have rights in preventing those bad sides. Those benefits and disadvantages are the same as those in Vietnam. Vietnam is a communist country with one party and one government, which is sometimes hegemonic. Thanks to the government, the COVID-19 epidemic in Vietnam is being solved quickly and efficiently compared to lots of countries due to strict rules and regulations from the government bodies and “contact tracing” policy. However, there have been dark sides such as the lack of freedom of speech or even demonstration for human rights are strictly fined or banned in Vietnam.

*According to Lily Kong, in the 1980s, due to the scare of potential threats coming from PAP, Workers’ Party People gained back their power, which led to a decrease in voting for PAP. Hence, at least there is another party that can intervene in governmental work. If there is disappointment in the management of the government that can not be solved quickly and clearly, lots of riots will happen. However, I believe there is something different in the hegemony of Singapore compared to many other Southeast Asian countries that many citizens from, for example, China, Vietnam, Malaysia, or Indonesia have moved to Singapore for a better life.

3) The military presentation was absolutely impressive to me. I watched the same presentation as that one in Vietnam many times such as on Independence Day or Ho Chi Minh’s birthday celebration. I was extremely touched by the interview of citizens sharing about their immigration or struggling during the war (1:54:00). My Singaporean coach once told me that his father was killed by the Chinese government, and the rest of his family members had to flee to Singapore for a safe life. While fleeing, his family was caught by the Chinese government, and his mother had to sacrifice her life to save her kids and pave the way for the children to run. 

*The music in the video awakened my national identity, and I understand why lots of Singaporean sang songs with pride and chauvinism as they experienced lots of traumatic events in the past, and Singapore is their “life-saver” country. One woman in the interview told me about the brutality of the Japanese fascist which triggered my mind about the Vietnamese famine in 1945 caused by the old Japanese government. I was touched and actually burst into tears while listening to the songs performed after that interview.

4) My civil religion can be so different from that of Singaporean as Singapore is a country with diverse-background-and-nationality citizens, so the level of feelings is quite different. My civil religion is deeply for the gratitude, family relationships, respect between the old and the young, and the traditional culture in Vietnam such as hierarchy in the pronounce between the old and the young or gatherings in traditional events such as Tet (Lunar New Year). Lots of Vietnamese songs were written for the purpose of enhancing the chauvinism and unity within the community, which affects me a lot. 

*One of my hilarious stories was about the song “Biet On Chi Vo Thi Sau” ( can be translated as “Gratitude for Ms. Vo Thi Sau”. Vo Thi Sau, according to Vietnamese history, was a contact for a local guerilla group in the war, which tremendously helped the Vietnamese government in the First Indochina War. I cried a lot whenever I heard about that song as I felt the pain and the sacrifice of Vo Thi Sau in that song, but my relatives made a joke on me that why I cried for an unreal character that never existed in this world. Because due to new discovery of some historians (that are not a part of the official Vietnamese government (also called South Vietnam)), Vo Thi Sau is an imaginary story of the Vietnamese government for the purpose of polishing the dedication and devotion of Vietnamese party in the war. Nevertheless, national songs of Vietnam with a strong beat and well-written lyrics affect my civil religion a lot.

5) According to the book on page 450-451, music triggers past memories in humans’ minds and reflects the origins as well as humans’ struggle. The civil religion and the love or gratitude for a country can only be carved in mind when we speak them out loud, explain, and show them to other people, and music can help humans to do that job. On page 452, Kong also emphasized that the lyrics of national songs also played an essential in telling citizens achievements and the perfection of Singapore.

6) Musical elements: the gentle and moderate tempo and the structure (The difference between the piano accompaniment part and the second verse with drum in the background music, as well as the bridge). The music structure relates me to the structure of the song “Heal the world” of Michael Jackson. 

*Visual elements: the part that a father rode his daughter home after school (0:42) (indicated that Singapore is their home and their safe place)and the image of the flag and citizens’ smiles (1:47) (showed the happiness and pride for the country).

*Overall impression: This song gently touched my feelings and brought the unity sense to my soul.

7) Changes in the musical elements: there was a wide range of pitch and concentration on harmony in the 1986-1987 video while in the later video, the beat was faster and happier with different timbres from various voices. 

*Changes in the visual elements: In the 1986-1987 video, the visual elements were almost all nature or landscape-oriented scenes with the monochromatic color while the visual elements in the latter were about individuality intertwined with various colorful scenes.

8) Changes in musical elements: The 80s video had a slow tempo and concentration on harmony with loud dynamics at the end of the video while the latter had a strong pulse and diverse timbres and music structures (the difference in every verse that different singers performed). 

*Changes in visual elements: The 80s video’s visual elements indicated the better future of Singapore and featured activities of Singaporeans. Meanwhile, the latter showed the modernity and more colorful scenes of beautiful places in Singapore and the happy lives of Singaporeans.

9) It would be a wonderful idea to produce a music video like “Together, we can” in the U.S. In my perspective, U.S culture puts stress on independence and individuality. However, in most Asian countries, the community spirit that the community’s benefits are put above the individualities’ ones is utterly essential. For example, one individual will be strongly and terribly criticized on the newspaper and tv shows due to the refusal of quarantine which can do harm to other people in society.

 *Hence, lots of songs about community spirit are being produced that if every citizen joins hands to fight against the COVID-19, better results and magic will happen. Therefore, if there are songs like the Singaporean song in the U.S, there will be enhancement and reinforcement in the awareness of each individual about the safety, responsibility, hope, and effort for COVID-19 fighting.

https://www.ft.com/content/0cc3c956-6cb2-11ea-89df-41bea055720b

10) The most interesting thing about the Singaporean government’s usage of music is how the government put stress on the value of independence, the sincerity, and the care of the government towards citizens in every element of music. All songs concentrated on the national identity that Singapore is the pride, is the homeland, is family, is a friend, and is the future. 

*My perception of the power of music has been tremendously reinforced by paradigms from Singaporean songs. A song can deeply awaken one’s national identity and his or her responsibility to a country.

[chivublog]

Research Proposal

You have been preparing for this assignment for weeks now. As we have been reading about where music comes from, how it works, and how it may have power, some topics have probably piqued your interest. Hopefully you are close to settling on one topic for your paper, but don’t worry if you’re still paring it down.

1. Title - Please provide a working title for your paper. Just try it out. Maybe more than one? (5 pts)

Human beings are hardwired for music by nature.

2. Thesis - What is your current working thesis statement? Remember it needs to arguable, clear, and tell us a little bit about how you’re going to defend it. (10 pts)

Music has an immense and undeniable influence on humans’ lives from personalities, languages and cultures, and especially healthcare, which shows that humans can not exist without music.

3. List 3-4 possible argument points. How does each of these relate to your thesis? Do you have a source already to support your claim? If so, list it here. Are there counter claims for each of your arguments? How would you respond to those? (5 pts each)

Though it is hard to reference an individual’s personality from what genres of music they listen to, it is obvious that music constructs our characteristics and also our compassion for other people based on different styles of music that each individual is interested in.

(Source will be used: “ Music Preferences, Personality Style, and Developmental Issues of Adolescents” https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1022547520656

“ From the functions of music to music preference” https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0305735608097247)

+ “ Listeners of rock music liked it especially because it expresses their identity and their values (see also Arnett, 1991), and they also appreciated it as artistic expression. Being energized by their music was rated highly by listeners of music with rap. Rock and rap music’s crucial capability of putting its fans in a good or ecstatic mood are consistent with other findings about the music’s mood-enhancing and arousal stimulating properties and its important potential to express its listeners’ identities (e.g., Hakanen, 1995). Furthermore, just like the listeners of electronic music, participants who listened to rap liked their music because it improves their understanding of their own thoughts and feelings. For pop music listeners, their preferences were most closely related to the music’s capability to express their values and to the fact that they could identify with artists and meet other people. Remarkably, mood, arousal and emotional functions seem to have no important effect on the preference for pop music. For participants who listened to beat, folk and country music, it was most import - ant that the music could put them in a good mood and improve their understanding of their own thoughts and feelings. This is probably related to the importance of dancing, especially as a means to meet other people and to reach emotional balance” (”From the function of music to music preference”, p.16)

Music represents each language and culture, which means culture’s music and linguistic prosody are strongly intertwined. 

(Source will be used “ The Relationship of Music to the Melody of Speech and to Syntactic Processing Disorders in Aphasia” https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/c058/9194cd45483f1d213ab032f659158cfd085d.pdf)

Music therapy plays a significantly essential role in medical treatment of various different diseases including aphasia, trauma or stress and can even replace the role of sedative drugs.

(Source will be used: Power of Music (Chapter 11),  “ Effective music therapy techniques in the treatment of nonfluent aphasia” https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Concetta_Tomaino/publication/224823067_Effective_music_therapy_techniques_in_the_treatment_of_nonfluent_aphasia/links/59e7534c4585152d5f04df14/Effective-music-therapy-techniques-in-the-treatment-of-nonfluent-aphasia.pdf, “Music and trauma: the relationship between music, personality, and coping style “https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00977/full”)

=> Humans can not exist without music due to its tremendous impact on every matter of humans’ life.

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Naysayer: 

1> Some people argue that patients can pronounce words due to their memory based on repetition, specifically, because of our brain function, not music. In fact, some patients can pronounce new words by creating their own new rhythm or by tapping. 

2> Humans can exist without the appearance of music: amusia >< In fact, it is important to consider how many percent that amusics account in the world’s population.  Moreover, amusics can somehow feel the impact of music in their lives:  https://europepmc.org/article/MED/26226563

+ “music and control participants judged the emotions expressed by unfamiliar musical clips intended to convey happiness, sadness, fear and peacefulness. Surprisingly, most amusic individuals showed normal recognition of the four emotions tested here. This preserved ability was not due to some peculiarities of the music, since the amusic individuals showed a typical deficit in perceiving pitch violations intentionally inserted in the same clips” 

+ “Amusics even showed sensitivity to key clarity and to large mean pitch differences in distinguishing happy from sad music.”

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4. Find 2-3 youtube videos that connect to your topic. Maybe it is the style of music used? Maybe it is interviews with people about the topic? Embed those in your post and provide a one paragraph description of each and how you could use them in your paper. (10 pts each)

1)https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=92&v=EK5qqYYxjn4&feature=emb_title

I will use it in the naysayer part to debate that music can actually help in aphasia treatment due to the brains’ reactions towards music, not because of the repetition of learned songs in the past. 

2)  “ A life without music... what does it mean? | Laura Ferreri | TEDxMilano”

I will use this speech to emphasize the evocative influence of music in life (Starting from 7:00 min)

*It is about how music relates to our memories, education, health treatment, hardship overcoming)

Example in the video: Some parkiston patients can not memorize events happening in their life in the past but still recognize songs (I will also support this argument by using your video in the powerpoint about Greg)*

=> I also use this video to prove that music is part of culture via the evidence of history and why music is so important to humans as well as its role in therapy

(some significant ideas: 2:50, 3:20, 4:00

3)  I use this video to show the connection between music and language.

The video is about how we learn music as we learn language => connection between language and music

[chivublog]

Blog Post #12

For Chapter 11-12: 1. Find a music therapy example from the text that interests you the most. Go to Youtube and find a video so you can see it in action. Post the video and a one paragraph response as to why that specific music therapy interested you and what it was like watching it.

In chapter 11, a music therapy example from the text that interests me the most is the role of soothing music in reduce pain and sedative drugs (p.168,169). It is amazing to know that in some surgery cases that need the patient to be awakened, music can assist in relieving the pain. On page 168, research showed that music can replace tranquilizers for patients with cancer, sedative drugs, or even anesthesia. Classical music is also regarded as a significant therapy in surgery, for instance, Mozart’s sonatas (p.169). I found a video on Youtube about binaural music for pain relief, and it immensely helped me in my migraine headache symptom. This type of music leads me to a totally different living environment, which is more natural and peaceful. The comments below that video are also interesting to look through. Besides, I also found out an interesting article about the role of music in treatment using medicine: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3354373

In chapter 12, on page 199, it is intriguing to know that by changing the brain waves through the “exposure to external sound pulses”, humans can create “stages of relaxation, meditative states, dreaming sleep, or deep mediation” (p.200). As I used music therapy for deep meditation before, I am curious to know the reason why it could magically assist me with balancing my emotions and deep concentration, and chapter 12 helped me explain that thoroughly.

It sounds mild and peaceful to hear the sound of rain in accordance with piano music. My mind just concentrated on the present and forgot about my present surroundings.

2. Have you ever used music therapeutically? Have you ever seen music therapy in action first hand?

I have used the music therapeutically in the past to meditate, reduce the level of stress, and improve my concentration, and I experienced the bizarre moment when therapy music helped me focus on the present and dimishined all trivial thoughts in my mind. My personality also became gentle and less aggressive while listening to the therapy music. My free time is spent to listen to this type of music video:

For Chapter 13: 3. What is the main idea of this chapter?

Music consists of lots of philosophical and educational meaning. Music is for everyone and has a close-knit relationship with our society. 

4. List at least 6 different sources that she uses. What about that list is interesting? Why do you think she chose these types of sources?

The most intriguing thing is that the representatives come from different and various aspects and are renowned. Some references such as the Testament are so credible. She chose those types of sources because they are famous enough and credible enough to persuade readers to believe that music affects our lives and society.

5. What is it like to hear space sounds and see space images next to the human sounds and images of a string quartet?

The video gave me a strange emotion. First, I felt I was watching a live movie with live music and moving images. Then I felt I was lost in the midst of nature, and the sound from a string quartet was intertwined with the sound of nature. Listening to the whole video brought me to a lively view of some significant historic and simple points in humans’ life.

6. Based on this definition - what are some examples of using music therapeutically that would not classify as music therapy?

Examples of using music therapeutically that would not classify as music therapy is listening to music therapy while doing homework, jogging, or talking with friends or using music therapy as a background sound for some meeting or conversation.

7. What happened when Oliver Sacks took Greg to the concert? What about the next day?

.Greg was completely into the concert music and seemed all songs at that concert. It is interesting that when the band played other songs, Greg did not know any of those songs but felt familiar with the artists’ style.

 On the next day, he told Olivier Sacks he would never forget the concert night and he remembered all the songs; hence, the therapists decided to use that music to elicit Greg’s memories.

8. What techniques did you observe the music therapist doing with Peter? What did you think about his transformation?

The music therapist put words into the rhythm and helped Peter learn to speak through singing. 

It is so astonishing to witness the great transformation of Peter. Though Peter tried to put words in rhythm for easier articulation, his speaking process seemed more natural and smooth compared to his previous practice.

9. Watching the music therapist working with the child, what was yoru initial reaction? After listening to the music therapist discuss the process and techniques for getting the child to this point, were you surprised? Why or why not?

My initial reaction was excitement and curiosity. He tried to teach the child how to respond in communication by the easiest and simplest way. That process was teaching an infant how to read and write. Children can figure out how to respond to a matter themselves. They can come to a conclusion of different decisions they made results in different outcomes.

After watching the explanation, there were so many detailed tactics in the video that I had forgotten to observe, for example, the way music encouraged the child to react in order to continue listening to the piano in accordance with the application on the iPad. Music therapy strictly requires sophisticated and hard work in research for a better outcome.

10. Listen to this through headphones or earbuds for at least five minutes. Did anything happen?

I totally lost mind mind into the music and nearly fell asleep.

[chivublog]

Blog Post #1-Songs for Public Health

Harmony and rhythm are essential components that made “The Ebola song” renowned at that time. In regards to the rhythm, while the tempo is so fast and harmonic with the vocal part, the beat is also catchy and easy to listen to. Besides, the harmony, specifically the progression of the song, was composed in a hooky way, for example, the differently repetitive part of the word “Ebola”.

The compositional techniques that made the song effective were the texture, dynamics, and melody. Polyphony makes the song less simple and catchy with several types of ad-lib and different types of voices. Moreover, the dynamics in which crescendo and decrescendo are clearly illustrated to emphasize each verse is variable and colorful, especially the rap verse. In addition, the range is broad due to the combination of female and male vocal parts, which makes the song interesting to hear.

The message here is to criticize people who took advantage of the ebola epidemic to discriminate against people of color. I do not like this song so much though it is so creative and catchy because there are some components, for example, religion or famous people named in the song unnecessarily. 

I heard the clapping and percussion instruments in the video. This is an intriguing song that has a catchy rhythm, tunes, and funny actions, which easily encourage people to go and wash their hands on the spot.

It is what I expected from each, and the most effective songs are “Đẩy lùi Virus Corona” from Viet Nam and “Wash Yo Hands”. The song from Viet Nam has a catchy chorus and hooky drop that makes listeners want to dance and follow the instructions immediately. Thanks to the catchy drop and rhythm, lots of people making videos on social media to cover “dances while washing hands” from the original video. Besides, it also consists of interesting and attractive animation which helps non-Vietnamese citizens can well understand the main theme of the song. “Wash Yo Hands” has a friendly and close-to-life song construction that the lyrics are based on actual activities in life, and the video is humorous and funny to see. Above all, these two videos both have English translations that help successfully spread the message to many countries in the world.

In my point of view, the parodies are extremely effective in spreading the message about health protection as they have specific contents and truly reflect real situations.

I am using the Vietnamese song to wash my hands for 20 seconds with my friends every day as that song goes viral now on many social media platforms, and its origin is from a famous love song in Viet Nam sung by the same singers, so it is quite familiar to me. 

The “Life inside the first US containment zone” music background has variable dynamics based on the volume of speakers in the video. Sometimes it is a crescendo and sometimes it is a decrescendo. Besides, the tempo also relates to my heart rate that it makes me feel so emotional to the story. Therefore, the music was appropriately added to the story that helps fill the blank silence in the video and makes listeners feel sympathetic to the story. Meanwhile the song in the video “Why COVID-19 may be less deadly than we think” has a more dramatic theme. Interestingly, the music background assisted me in better concentrating on the video’s information. It is important to have that music background in the video as it helps that video seem more important and worth being noticed. The fast tempo and dynamics are also essential components that make the video more informative.

[chivublog]

In-class notes

John Cage_silence in music research.

Music-space-different songs coming from different topics

Music-emotions

Tacet: don’t play

Classic FM: silence before playing the piano

Silence: musicians play the rests

fermata: lasts 1 and a half notes

Anechoic Chamber:  An anechoic chamber is a room designed to completely absorb reflections of either sound or electromagnetic waves

Anechoic: free from echo/ An anechoic chamber (an-echoic meaning "non-reflective, non-echoing, echo-free") 

Ear rumbling

[chivublog]

Blog Post #10

1. What do you think? Musical? Noise? Why or why not?

I think that is music rather than noise as I feel the rhythm by tapping my feet on the floor while I was listening to the video. The type of music can be considered as background music for any EDM or rock. Furthermore, in the book “Power of Music”, on page 145, Johannes Kepler also affirmed that “the movements of the planets are modulated according to harmonic proportions”. In addition, the author of that book also mentioned that “the cosmos is literally humming with the same tones that our brains translate into music-tones that may be as old as the universe itself” (Mannes, p.146). After listening to the video, I also have the same experience as what the book mentioned.

2. The chapter focused on silence being an important aspect of music. Listen to your favorite song again and notice the silence. Is there any? What did you notice about it? If you didn’t notice any silence, what about the silence before and after the song was played?

There is short silence in my song (it lies between the intro and the first verse and appears before every new verse starts). The silence makes me deeply fall in love with the song as it is a gentle and mild bridge to connect each verse of the song together. It is interesting that as I know the first silence that will appear before the verse starts beginning, The second or third silence in songs were all anticipated, and my brain seems to figure out the next note after the silence. It is the same case as what the book described on page 152 that “our brain “hears” it even if we consciously don’t” (Mannes). Moreover, listeners will also strongly react after the appearance of the silence that they “supplied their own answering pulse during the pause in response to the pattern” (p.155).

3. Please use our library resource guide created by Maria Emerson:

https://augustana.libguides.com/fyikeehn

A. Please research basic information on the Oxford Music Online on your topic that will help inform your further research. If your topic is “rap music increases the performance of football players and should be used as a pregame ritual for a team,” you would need to look up the genre of rap music here.

My topic is: “Aphasia and amusia are significant paradigms of the power of music that affects on human beings’ communication and cognition”

*Aphasia: loss of ability to understand or express speech caused by brain damage. (they know what they want to say in the brain, but just mumble, or hard to say out loud) 

*Page 89: “Some patients have lost the ability to speak, but not their musical ability. This is the condition called aphasia” => which makes me think of one of the therapy that encourages people to speak or to help them speak easily: translate all the “flat” words in “words with the rhyme”

*“A man who can sing everything” video source *Amusia: the inability to produce or comprehend music or musical sounds (can’t figure out music goes up or down) (tone-deaf/ to people who have tone-deafness: music is noise)

“It was Knoblauch who first discussed music as a cognitive system. In Knoblauch’s model, the perception and production of music is achieved through a complex network of interconnected centers and pathways” (August Knoblauch and amusia: A nineteenth-century cognitive model of music, Johnson et al.).

“In the last few years, there has been growing evidence that music and music therapy may improve communication skills (but not only) in different neurological disorders” (The role of music therapy in rehabilitation: improving aphasia and beyond, Simona et al.)

B. Use Academic Search Complete to find an article or book. Please list the keyword combinations you attempted and give a description of how the article contributes to your paper idea and how it might even change or angle your thesis. Use the citation feature to grab the MLA citation and insert that here.

My keywords: aphasia (first box), music (second box), cognition or cognitive function or brain function or cognitive function or memory or brain (third box).

The article strengthens my ideas about the power of music in helping people to communicate with others. To clarify, in the article, the research showed that aphasic participants (PWA) illustrated the perfect accuracy in the sung condition, which resulted in the latter part of the article that music can be utilized as a tool to help people with aphasia. 

Citation:  Kasdan, Anna, and Swathi Kiran. "Please Don’t Stop the Music: Song Completion in Patients with Aphasia." Journal of Communication Disorders, 75, (2018): 72-86. Web.

[chivublog]

Song definition:

“A series of notes, generally of more than 1 type, uttered in succession and so related or pattern in times a form of recognizable”

[chivublog]

Blog Post #9

1. Do you have an initial idea for your large paper we’ll be researching and writing? What interests you the most? Have you made any connections between our material and other aspects of your life?

I have ideas writing about aphasia and amusia symptoms connecting with how music affects the way humans communicate, learn, and cognize. I am so curious why lots of people play instruments so well, but they have tone-deafness while singing. In addition, how some people can not read words out loud but can still read lyrics to sing (aphasia). I also would like to do research on how people’s minds with no sense of music different from those of people who can enjoy music.

2. Put your Venn diagram into words here: (How do music, language, and dance overlap or not?)

Music, language, and dance overlap when they are regarded as communication tools. Music and language can overlap in the criterion of “music sentence” and “aphasia” symptom. I think aphasia is in the area where music meets language because, in the video that I saw in class, the man could not well communicate but can read the lyrics and sing well, which makes me think of using music as a language to communicate. Hence, it would be easier for people who have aphasia to communicate in daily life. 

3. Between these three animals which one did you think was the most musical? Put them in order 1-3. What criteria did you use?

Perfect pitch dogs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SZCMDlmO0c&app=desktop

Bonobo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MM9YTlF_ErY&app=desktop

Snowball

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7IZmRnAo6s&app=desktop

I choose “Perfect pitch dogs” as the most music video based on how dogs exactly reacted to the note and the rhythm they heard. I am not sure the parrot (in the Snowball video) was making musical sounds or just made the normal animal sound and danced following the music rhythm by habit.