Editor’s note:Arachnophonia (“Arachno” = spider / “-phonia” = sound) is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from the Parsons Music Library‘s collection.
Guillaume Du Fay (left), with Gilles Binchois (right) in a c. 1440 Illuminated manuscript copy of Martin le Franc’s Le champion des dames (source: Wikipedia)
One of the most fascinating aspects of music history to me is the way that musical notation and writing has evolved. A prime example of this is the madrigal. A madrigal is a part-song for several voices most commonly found in the Renaissance period. While this style of music was most popular in Italy and England, there are several noteworthy French composers who wrote madrigals.
One such composer is Guillaume Dufay. The music library is lucky to have a score of a selection of 45 of his pieces, all in original notation. Flipping through the pages shows a style of notation that has since lost popularity, but it is still incredibly interesting to look at.
Learning to transpose such music is a vast field of study that is very active to this day. I find it to be a sort of puzzle, as there are some notes and articulations that were assumed to be inferred by performers in the period it was written, but that are generally explicitly written out in modern music. Finding these hidden clues and listening to your transcription is a rewarding and fun experience. If you get a chance, be sure to check out this music!
Editor’s note:Arachnophonia (“Arachno” = spider / “-phonia” = sound) is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from the Parsons Music Library‘s collection.
Beyoncé in Formation offers a deep-dive into the lyrics and meaning of Beyoncé’s 2016 album Lemonade through a Black feminist and LGBTQ+ lens, creating a deeply nuanced and complex view of the Billboard #1 album.
Tinsley effectively combines her personal life, renowned Black feminist and LGBTQ+ artists, and Beyoncé’s album into one cohesive story wherein she breaks down the ways in which Beyoncé’s album is not only a Black-empowerment album, but an album that introduces complex feminist and LGBTQ+ ideas rarely seen in mainstream music.
I originally picked up this book because I love picking apart lyrics and delving into hidden messages in songs and music videos, however I quickly realized that it would be about much more than song inspection. I appreciate the way in which Tinsley was able to integrate her life into the greater story of Black feminism in a way that felt raw and real, much like the rest of the book. She doesn’t dance around any subject, and no subject matter is too grandiose to take on. Whether it’s gender and sexuality, racism, or the history of music, Tinsley covers it all.
Of course, this book would be nothing without the album Lemonade itself. The CD is also available at Parsons Music Library — feel free to check out both the CD and the book to heighten your experience!
Picture of the author (Eliana class of 2024) at a Beyonce concert in 2016
Editor’s note:Arachnophonia is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from the Parsons Music Library‘s collection.
Today’s installment of Arachnophonia is by student worker Emma R. (class of 2021) and features a study score edition of Mozart’s Requiem. Thanks, Emma!
What does it mean to compose a piece of music? Is it writing the notes on the page? Is it dictating the general musical idea? Writing the lyrics? What about the problem of orchestrations? If the composition is in the musical idea, can we know what a composer intended the piece to sound like? These kinds of questions can apply to many pieces by composers who do not work completely alone – both contemporary and long-dead. However, when considering a piece such as Mozart’s Requiem, these questions clearly take on greater than typical importance. As is commonly known, Mozart’s Requiem was left unfinished at the time of the composer’s death – a tale highly dramatized throughout the centuries since. But dramatization aside, this leaves serious questions for modern historically aware performers and listeners – questions which are not present when considering most other works. Who really wrote what parts of the Requiem? What did Mozart imagine when he conceived of the work?
Due to the unfinished nature of the work, the autograph does not contain all the answers. Portions of the autograph – the original handwritten version of the piece – are in Mozart’s hand and other portions are not. Significant portions were not completed at all. Orchestrations and – some scholars argue – entire sections, such as a hypothesized intended fugue – are missing. This doesn’t even begin to consider the lack of answers to many performance questions which impact the sound of the piece – articulation markings, dynamics, tempos, and more.
1st page of Mozart’s autograph manuscript of the Requiem Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=853665
Currently, the version completed by Mozart’s student Süßmayr is considered somewhat the standard. However, this is still a decision that must be made prior to every performance of the work, as other versions – completed by Mozart scholars – do exist. I myself am not informed enough about Mozart’s style nor his compositional process to make normative statements about the potential distance between the composer’s likeliest intentions and the accepted completed version today, however scholars such as Friedrich Blume and Nathan Broder have. In their article, “Requiem but No Peace,” these scholars argue, for example, “that flutes, oboes, clarinets, and horns are wholly absent in the complete Requiem is entirely unMozartean and must weaken Süssmeyer’s (sic) credit…” (Blume and Broder 1961, 161). Furthermore, these authors argue that since Mozart tended to compose orchestrations in three rounds – the above mentioned winds in the last round – that the lack of these instruments is more likely due to the unfortunate death of the composer than due to his intentions to leave them out (160).
Can we really say that the Requiem as we hear it performed – perhaps Mozart’s most well-known work today is really written by Mozart? Is the Requiem we know actually what the Mozart Requiem would have sounded like had the composer lived long enough to see it completed?
This study score at the Music Library shows all parts of the accepted Süßmayr completion – including markings which denote portions from the manuscript judged to be in Mozart’s vs Süßmayr’s handwriting. (It’s a miniature score – so it isn’t large and bulky). Take a listen and read along. No matter who wrote it, it really is a marvelous work.
Detail of a portrait of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart by Johann Nepomuk della Croce – Unknown, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=449108
Editor’s note:Arachnophonia is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from the Parsons Music Library‘s collection.
This special edition of Arachnophonia features contributions from students in Dr. Joanna Love‘s MUS 235 class: “I Want My MTV: Music Video and the Transformation of the Music Industry.”
The cover of The Low End Theory (1991), the second album from A Tribe Called Quest
In this post, I will be analyzing The Low End Theory (Album, CD) by A Tribe Called Quest as an academic source. The Low End Theory was the second album released by ATCQ, through Jive Records and Zomba Recording company on September 24th, 1991, and is frequently listed as one of the greatest Hip Hop albums of all time by critics. Considering that Hip Hop was still relatively young at the time, the album was fairly commercially successful. It peaked at number 45 on the U.S. Billboard charts and was certified gold within four months and platinum three years later. Much more important than its commercial success and its critical acclaim however, was its influence on the future direction of Hip Hop. Because of ATCQ’s heavy use of jazz sampling and their playful and funny yet socially conscious lyricism, The Low End Theory is an essential source for researchers examining the relationship between Jazz and Hip Hop and the rise of the popular subgenre of Conscious Rap today, including the music of Kendrick Lamar and J Cole.
An image from the inside of the booklet in The Low End Theory CD featuring the group members. Q-Tip is on the left, Ali Shaheed Muhammad is on the right, and Phife Dawg is front and center
The fourth member, Jarobi White, left the group after their first album, so he was not included on this album, but returned to contribute to the groups final album, We Got It From Here… Thank You 4 Your Service, after Phife Dawg passed away in 2016. On The Low End Theory, Ali Shaheed Muhammad was a DJ/producer, Phife Dawg was an MC, and Q-Tip was both a producer and MC. Their sophomore album, which consists of 14 tracks and is 48 minutes in length, gets its name from both the bass, or low-end, focused instrumentals and is also a clever reference to their lowered status as black men in America. Alongside the album, ATCQ also released a music video for the track “Scenario” and another combined video, which I will be analyzing in my final research paper for this class, for “Jazz (We’ve Got)” and “Buggin’ Out.”
As the title of track 11, which is part 1 of the previous video, suggests, the music on The Low End Theory is heavily inspired by Jazz and wears that influence on its sleeve. In the first verse of “Excursions”, the opening song of the album, Q-Tip references this influence by comparing Hip Hop to Bebop Jazz in the lines, “You could find the Abstract listenin’ to hip-hop/My pops used to say, it reminded him of Bebop/I said, Well, Daddy, don’t you know that things go in cycles?/Way that Bobby Brown is just amping like Michael”. The most obvious musical influence is in the samples found within the instrumentals. Though not all of the samples on the album are credited, some of the more prominent ones were cleared and are listed at the end of the CD booklet and most originate from jazz or funk records. “Vibes and Stuff” uses a sample from jazz guitarist Grant Green and “Check the Rhime” uses a horn sample from Average White Band’s song “Love Your Life”. Though it isn’t credited on the album, a bit of digging on whosampled.com shows that the song “Jazz (We’ve Got)” uses a sample from the piece “Green Dolphin Street” by Jazz/Blues Pianist Jimmy McGriff. ATCQ even goes beyond sampling and recruits famous Jazz Double Bassist, Ron Carter, to play the bass line on the Q-Tip solo track, “Verses from the Abstract”.
Though The Low End Theory was far from the first Hip Hop album to make use of jazz sampling, ATCQ was able to fuse jazz and funk instrumentation with hard hitting but laid back drum loops in a unique way that resonated with their audience. ATCQ’s previous album, People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm, also used many jazz samples but did not receive the same kind of acclaim. At that point, the group was still perfecting their sound. The lyricism was similar, but the instrumentals were not quite as sparse and focused on the low-end, an attribute of The Low End Theory and its successor, Midnight Marauders, that made them stand out.
The instrumental style of The Low End Theory was not just critically acclaimed, but turned out to be a major influence on the future of Hip Hop production. Even today, its influence can clearly be heard in the music of some of the most popular artists in modern Hip Hop. The closing songs on both J Cole’s 4 Your Eyez Only and Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly employ soft jazz instrumentation over prominent bass lines and hard-hitting but laid-back drums and sound like they could have easily fit into A Tribe Called Quest album. The two artists even collaborated on an homage to ATCQ called “Forbidden Fruit” in 2013, in which the two used the same sample that ATCQ used for “Electric Relaxation”. The vocal style of ATCQ has also proven to be very influential. To use another J. Cole example, his song “Wet Dreamz” has many similarities to the Phife Dawg focused song, “Butter”, from The Low End Theory. Both songs deal with various girl problems the two have gone through. They are clearly fairly serious and relatable topics, however both rappers tell the stories using clever and sometimes funny rhymes. Instead of focusing on catchy lyrics like groups like Run D.M.C, or the more serious tones of contemporaries like N.W.A or Public Enemy, Q-Tip and Phife Dawg found a conscious yet light and palatable rap style that many later rappers wanted to emulate.
The Low End Theory is essential to my research for this course since I am using the video “Jazz (We’ve Got) Buggin’ Out” in order to examine the relationship between Jazz and Hip Hop. That video, and by extension The Low End Theory, is not the only place to start when searching for the critical point connecting the genres, but it is certainly one of the most significant. In the time since The Low End Theory was released, Jazz and Hip Hop have become increasingly intertwined, to the point that they have become indistinguishable from one another at times. Albums like Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly and Madlib’s Shades of Blue, as well as many of The Roots’ projects explore the explore the shared musical and cultural lineage of the genres and all of those artists would cite A Tribe Called Quest and The Low End Theory as one of their influences.
Editor’s note:Arachnophonia is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from the Parsons Music Library‘s collection.
This special edition of Arachnophonia features contributions from students in Dr. Joanna Love‘s MUS 235 class: “I Want My MTV: Music Video and the Transformation of the Music Industry.”
Although most of us students at the University of Richmond aren’t as familiar with music from the 80s as we are with modern top tracks, special collections of older hits allow us to become familiar with timeless tunes, cranking up our headphone volume to the sounds of guitar riffs and boisterous snare drums, just as our parents must have done with their cassette tapes.
Sounds of the Eighties: 1983 is a CD collection of just that: 18 different pop “hits” from the year 1983. It was manufactured for Time-Life Music by Warner Special Products, a Time Warner Company in 1994. It features hit songs from Quiet Riot, The Fixx, Stray Cats, Dexys Midnight Runners, Daryl Hall and John Oates, Thomas Dolby, David Bowie, Culture Club, Marvin Gaye, Michael Sembello, Naked Eyes, Madness, Toto, Stevie Nicks, Greg Kihn Band, The Kinks, Kajagoogoo, and Spandau Ballet. Billy Altman, a Pop music writer for People and The New York Times, former editor of Creem, and executive producer of the award-winning Heritage Series, detailed the inside cover with short, catchy blubs about each band and the music of 1983 in general. Although this blog post will not be focusing in detail on all of the songs, it is important to analyze how the songs work together as a collection, how Altman portrayed each band and the overall music culture of the 80s, and how this CD can help further future academic research.
The cover photo of “Sounds of the Eighties: 1983,” courtesy of Michael Ochs Archives, Venice, CA and London Features International, Ltd.
While the CD features 18 different songs and bands from the year 1983, they are strikingly similar music-wise. The choice of tracks can be divided into two categories, with each song fitting into either category. The first category features upbeat tunes with a fast tempo, strong guitar or synth riff, loud straining vocals and thick musical texture, such as “Cum On Feel The Noise” or “Maniac.” Most of these songs are about a relationship with a woman, sung by a male singer. Upbeat, catchy, and dance-worthy, these hits all focus on a similar backing beat that remains constant. The other category contains slower, more soulful tunes, with a crooning singer, such as “Sexual Healing” and “Time (Clock of the Heart).” All of them focus on the object of a romantic desire, as the lyrics demonstrate a sense of longing and passion. Despite having the opportunity to portray a wide variety of music, the tracks are very homogeneous, as most feature a white male singer with similar styles of singing. Many follow the same form with an opening riff, short verses, catchy chorus repetition, and some sort of bridge or guitar solo. In essence, each song seems to be a slightly different version of the others, demonstrating a clear Pop sound of 1983’s music.
This homogeny directly contrasts what Altman writes about for his description of the 80s music scene. He highlights each band as distinctly unique, from Culture Club’s gender-bending persona, to the “nice guy’s band” of Greg Kihn, to Marvin Gaye’s “deep-cutting social commentary.” They joined the music industry in different ways and had diverse effects on the history of music in general. While Stevie Nicks had a long career with many top-chart hits, one hit wonders like Thomas Dolby are also featured. So why did artists from such diverse and different backgrounds end up creating hits so musically-similar, and what does this mean for academic study of 80s musical culture?
The answer is pretty simple: artists knew what the listeners wanted. The 80s ushered in an era of New Wave and synthetic instrumentation, forming a new Pop sound that teens could dance to. This homogeneity of sound and lyricism demonstrates that if one artist finds success with a musical concept, others will follow. Such is the case of the portrayal of a voyeuristic (or obsessive) gaze, for many hits over the decades feature an object of romantic obsession that the singer would like to “obtain.” This topic pertains to my specific research as a student studying the theme of voyeurism in popular music videos. I was drawn to Naked Eyes’ “Always Something There to Remind Me,” a track featured on this CD, as the epitome of a voyeuristic stalker: the main singer follows a famous woman, constantly vying for her attention and love, in a music video that was constantly featured on MTV.
Naked Eyes’ music video for “Always Something There to Remind Me,” released in 1982. Lead singer Pete Byrne is seen following a famous married woman to multiple public places and singing about her on the street.
However, through further research I found that the theme of voyeurism and unobtainable desire wasn’t unique to Naked Eyes but was prevalent in many songs from the 70s and 80s, from Rick Springfield’s “Jessie’s Girl” to Blondie’s “One Way or Another,” thus spanning genders and genres from Rock to New Wave Alternative. Obsessiveness as a lyrical and visual theme has continued to modern popular music, as artists such as Maroon 5 sing about “praying” on unsuspecting romantic interests.
Maroon 5’s music video for “Animals,” released in 2014. Lead singer Adam Levine is seen standing in the rain, gazing at a woman through her window. He continuously stalks her throughout the video.
At this point you’re probably asking, what does this have to do with Sounds of the Eighties: 1983? The key to understanding the connection is to look beyond the obvious. This collection of music from 1983 isn’t just the top tracks of that year but reveals how artists are compelled to use the successful ideas and themes of other artists, even if that idea does not necessarily represent their ideal musical sound. For instance, each artist on the CD ended up using the strong riff pattern and backbeat that arose in the 80s, despite coming from different musical backgrounds. Naked Eyes, a New Wave preppy British band is united with American Pop-Sugar sounding Maroon 5 with a voyeuristic male gaze, even though everything else about the bands is different. Thus, the takeaway from this CD isn’t the details of its musical soundtrack, but rather what is says about human nature’s drive to replicate what has come before. While ingenuity still remains idyllically, it is often much easier to copy what’s been deemed “successful” as opposed to risking it all on a novel idea. This insight therefore informs my research by demonstrating how the voyeuristic gaze spread throughout the decades of music, not because these singers were actually stalking unsuspecting romantic interests, but rather because it was a theme that proved interesting to listeners. Fascinated with the creepiness of The Police’s “Every Breath You Take,” or Coldplay’s “Shiver,” fans unknowingly told artists that this theme works, even though in real life, no one really likes a stalker.
An image from The Police’s creepy video for “Every Breath You Take,” featuring lead singer Sting in black and white, staring gloomily into the camera.
This takeaway of homogeny of sound and meaning in popular music can extend to many other scholarly inquiries. For instance, one can look at not only the homogeny of Pop music, but other genres as well, such as Classical, Rock, Rap, or Country. Why do artists from each genre try to replicate what has already been done, building off of one another to create something “new”? This inquiry can also extend to the fields of Anthropology and Sociology, as both fields engage in studying what people do creatively as related to one another. Therefore, if you are curious about some aspect of musical homogeny, the continuation of certain musical themes over time, or human nature’s desire to replicate, listen to and read the inside cover of Sounds of the Eighties:1983. Disguised by catchy Pop tunes and upbeat backing tracks, this CD actually highlights a group of diverse artists who came together to form the synthetic Pop sound of the 80s. This sound reveals an innate desire to recreate what has been deemed successful, whether it be musical style or lyrical themes such as a creepy voyeuristic gaze. For some reason, music fans across the decades have loved the idea of romantic stalking. Personally, I find it a bit unsettling.
Editor’s note:Arachnophonia is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from the Parsons Music Library‘s collection.
This special edition of Arachnophonia features contributions from students in Dr. Joanna Love‘s MUS 235 class: “I Want My MTV: Music Video and the Transformation of the Music Industry.”
“Nothing Compares 2 U” was intended for The Family, a band formed by Prince in 1984, and was released on their self-titled 1985 album. The song was not released as a single, and the album bobbed around on the Billboard R&B Chart. While The Family was a favorite of Prince fans, “Nothing Compares 2 U” received little recognition. The song was offered to a young Irish singer, Sinéad O’Connor, fresh off releasing her first album. O’Connor embraced “Nothing Compares 2 U” in her own style, and it would end up introducing the artist to a massive global audience.
The Parsons Music Library contains two parts of this story in its collection. In 1993, Prince released his own version of “Nothing Compares 2 U” on Hits/the B-Sides. While this album is easily accessible on Spotify, it’s worth a trip to the Library’s CD collection to take a glimpse at the album itself. Flip open the first few pages of the liner notes, and the throwing-fists-in-the-driveway story gains credulity.
Excerpt from liner notes to Prince’s Hits/the B Sides
“When Sinead O’Connor took Nothing Compares 2 U to the top of the charts in 1988, Prince was damn near obliged to perform it himself… leaving no doubt whose song it was.” Fair enough. On Hits/The B-Sides, the song feels completely Prince. The song is performed live, it’s sensuous, and it has gentle echoes of Purple Rain. There’s a trumpet solo. Rosie Gaines contributes her vocals, telling a story in a way that one person just can’t do alone.
Prince’s take on “Nothing Compares 2 U” speaks to a level of artistry that only Prince could embody. Everything about the song is lush and performative. While the vocals yearn for the personal, there is a feeling that the song is still far beyond its listener. The song belongs near the center of a concert, capturing a feeling both grand and ethereal. It’s hard for me to imagine this version being excerpted on the radio or in coaxed into a short music video.
The song belonged to Prince, but it was a song that Sinéad O’Connor would succeed at first. There’s one more part of this story, one which Marcy Rose Chvasta finds related to Sinéad O’Connor’s body. Political Rock, available in the Parsons Music Library, offers a collection of critical essays on politically linked recording artists from Peter Gabriel to Pearl Jam. While O’Connor has been rooted in the political since the beginning of her artistry, Chvasta’s chapter looks to probe a little deeper. For a singer so deeply connected to the authenticity of Bel Canto, how should we handle an O’Connor who no longer feels authentic to the work and person she began with?
As O’Connor has moved on from “seven hours and fifteen days,” Chvasta notes that O’Connor has sometimes defined her popularity in relative proximity to the song. It was “Nothing Compares 2 U” that was popular, not necessarily O’Connor. The song becomes a story of O’Connor’s body, in a certain place and time, a forcible societal imagination of O’Connor as a permanently androgynous 20-something wandering around Parc de Saint-Cloud. As O’Connor has aged, she has aged out of this song, “her” song, due to an unstable and unreliably political body.
The O’Connor of today can’t quite be pinned down, and that’s a good thing — it is not the place of a 1990 hit song to define a career. Chvasta notes that O’Connor’s body and artistry are dangerous because of what they are not: lacking in eroticism, narcissism, and self-indulgence, this duality could not be popularly sustained. As an unwieldy body, O’Connor moved in directions far from her youth, and far from a place “Nothing Compares 2 U” could ever relate to.
Editor’s note:Arachnophonia is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from the Parsons Music Library‘s collection.
This special edition of Arachnophonia features contributions from students in Dr. Joanna Love‘s MUS 235 class: “I Want My MTV: Music Video and the Transformation of the Music Industry.”
In Rap Music and Street Consciousness, Cheryl L. Keyes tracks the development of rap music in the United States from the early 1970s to 2000. Employing the perspectives of ethnomusicology, folklore, and cultural studies, Keyes brings in views from a variety of critics. The book is divided into two parts. Part 1 explores the sociocultural history and aesthetics of rap music. Part 2 provides critical perspectives of rap and explores the representation of rap in popular culture.
Keyes details the start of hip-hop and rap as a youth movement that evolved in the Bronx, New York, in the early 1970s. She defines rap music as a “musical form the makes use of rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular, which is recited or loosely chanted over a musical soundtrack” (1). In its beginnings, the movement was comprised of disc jockeys, emcees, break-dancers, graffiti writers, and style of urban street culture. In her research, Keyes focuses on disc jockeys and emcees. Hip-hop began with the mixing of pre-recorded hits on two turntables and as it became more competitive, artists started to hire MCs to do vocals over the tracks. The rhythmic aspects of hip-hop caught people’s attention and brought this new style into mainstream media. “Rapper’s Delight” (1979) by Sugarhill Gang became a commercial hit and catalyzed rap’s entry into the popular music industry. By the late 1980s, rap had become a billion dollar enterprise.
With commercial success came harsh criticism and controversy. Many critics often saw rap and violence as synonymous. The media and the right-wing politics of the 1980s amplified the perceived negativity surrounding rap and hip-hop. Ronald Reagan’s rhetoric and ideas spurred division between black and white communities and these sentiments were reflected in the media’s portrayal of African American and Latino youth communities as fraught with violence, crime, and drugs. Rap emerged to combat the negative narrative being placed unfairly upon these communities. Attacks on rap continued, as gangsta rap particularly came under censorship. Critics disputed the artistry of rap; some questioning the sampling of musical tracks rather than the creation of newly inspired works. In Keyes’ work, she situates rap and hip-hop within the context of urban street culture. She defines ‘streets’ as “a subculture of the urban milieu that operates by its own rules, economics, lifestyle, language, and aesthetics” (6). ( A deep understanding of street culture is needed, she states, to mold the discussion of rap and hip-hop.)
Chapter 8, “Visualizing Beats and Rhymes,” will prove most valuable for my individual research. Keyes briefly starts out the chapter discussing how music videos are used as marketing and advertising tools for artists. They serve as a platform for artists to re-envision their music. The first part of the chapter, which I will draw some useful information from, provides a model for analyzing how black youth culture is encoded in rap videos. The second part of the chapter details the video-making process from an interview with director and producer J. Kevin Swain.
In Chapter 8, Keyes introduces the idea of iconic memory, which she defines as “the referencing of place, historical events, and music familiar to hip-hop viewers” (211) and says is unique to rap. Key aspects of iconic memory include visualization of “illustration, amplification, and disjuncture” (212). She focuses some of her discussion on gangsta rap music videos in particular, which is useful since I will be analyzing N.W.A, whose music classifies as gangsta rap. Keyes notes how gangsta rap music videos tried to capture the reality of life in the hood, focusing heavily on the relationship between black youth and the police. Although some critics say N.W.A glorifies violence — which is the reason MTV actually refused to air the “Straight Outta Compton” music video initially — rappers argue that it simply depicts the harassment young black men experience in their everyday reality. She quotes Ice Cube, a member of N.W.A. saying “‘We deal with reality; violence is reality’” (216). “Fuck tha Police” and “100 Miles And Runnin’” were also direct references to police harassment and the repression in young black communities. An important point is how the ‘streets’ influence rap music videos. In the introduction, Keyes notes how video director Hype Williams said that urban street culture informs his directing. “‘The ‘streets’ reflect in all that I do; the camera [lens] is an extension of that’ (1995)” (5). This idea, along with her idea of iconic memory will help shape my discussion when analyzing “100 Miles And Runnin’” and other N.W.A. music videos.
Hype Williams, a prominent rap music video director
Although Chapter 8 aids in my specific analysis of N.W.A.’s music videos, other chapters in the book can provide me, and other researchers, with more contextual context and historical discussion. For example, in Chapter 4, “Expanding Frontiers: Rap Music, 1990-2000,” Keyes discusses censorship of gangsta rap and the wave of concern over First Amendment rights. Also, in Chapter 6, “Issues, Conflicts, and Conspiracies: The Hip-Hop Nation at the Crossroad,” Keyes’ discussion of how materialism plays a role in shaping hip-hop culture will be valuable in my analysis.
N.W.A.’s “100 Miles And Runnin'” music video
As Keyes describes herself, the “nature of this work” is “multifaceted” (13). She was a university student when she began her research and explored aspects of rap and hip-hop by bringing in the voices of critics and artists alike. While other works could perhaps provide a more detailed look at specific topics, Keyes offers a comprehensive base for further research into the musical, visual, cultural, and social aspects of rap and hip-hop. Further, the book contains a “Glossary of Common Rap Music Terms” toward the end. This tool can be helpful to anyone studying the genre.
Author of “Rap Music and Street Consciousness,” Cheryl Keyes
Keyes herself is a black, female researcher who is an outsider in the music industry. In the introduction to this book, she notes how her position as an outsider — and an insider because of her race and gender at times — helped frame her research and fieldwork. By disclosing the positive and negative ways her information gathering was affected by how she was perceived by those in the music industry, Keyes gives an honest account and recognizes her work’s strengths and limits.
Editor’s note:Arachnophonia is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from the Parsons Music Library‘s collection.
This special edition of Arachnophonia features contributions from students in Dr. Joanna Love‘s MUS 235 class: “I Want My MTV: Music Video and the Transformation of the Music Industry.”
When I hear the name Eminem, the first thing that comes to mind is a white rapper and that most likely is the same for most people as well. What most people don’t know is who he really is and where he came from until you listen to his music. The Eminem Show was the fourth studio album released by the Detroit MC and was released on May 26, 2002. His second album go Diamond in the United States would reach the number one spot in 19 different countries and was the best-selling album of 2002. The album would be nominated for a Grammy in 2003 and won the award for best Rap Album. Much has changed since then, but Eminem has always stayed true to one thing in his music which is telling a story.
Yet even though the album was a success, and critics saw this as a more mature Eminem who, according to Sal Cinquemani, “peels back some of the bullshit façade and reveals a little bit more of the real Marshall Mathers” his use of intense profanity in his lyrics had many parents concerned about his influence on so many young children who were listening to his music. To deal with this, Eminem released a clean version of the album where most of the profanity is edited out with a few exceptions on certain songs, but Eminem has stood strongly on his stance of using profanity. In an interview with 60 minutes in 2011, Eminem told Anderson Cooper that profanity was something he grew up with and that he didn’t invent saying offensive things. He actually felt that he was being singled out because of the color of his skin and when asked about why he doesn’t feel guilty about young children using profanity as a result of his music, he stated “I feel like it’s your job to parent them. If you’re the parent, be a parent.” Eminem has two daughters of his own and told Cooper that he does not use profanity at all in the house.
This album is helpful for my project because I am currently looking into hip hop and the influence it had on the world during the era of MTV and currently as it develops to a global stage. As one of the first successful white rappers who established legitimacy as a hip-hop MC, Eminem opened the gates in a way for other people from different cultures to enter the world of hip hop that was predominantly African American to begin with. Previous rappers like Vanilla Ice and the Beastie Boys were viewed more as white males excelling in a “black man’s” game. This was due to their sound which still had to appease to the mainstream “white” audience. Since Eminem worked closely with Dr. Dre, you would think that there would be a hint of the West Coast sound, but interestingly enough Eminem doesn’t fall under either “coast” of hip-hop. This is because Eminem focused heavily on his lyrics and the stories that he told within them.
Since Eminem grew up in Detroit in a predominantly black area, he grew up around the culture of hip hop. He attended many underground rap battles to gain legitimacy, but struggled to do so because of the color of his skin. This stayed with Eminem throughout his career until Dr. Dre gave him a chance when everyone was telling him not to. A reference to that can be found in the song “I Need a Doctor” featuring Dr. Dre.
It was you, who believed in me
When everyone was telling you don’t sign me
Everyone at the fucking label, lets tell the truth
You risked your career for me
I know it as well as you
Nobody wanted to fuck with the white boy
Dre, I’m crying in this booth.
An interesting aspect that is related to the topic of breaking culture barriers in hip hop is the movement going on in Asia and the hip-hop scene that is developing there. While some view it as being “culture vultures,” this can be viewed similarly to Eminem’s case. While Eminem became successful because of his intense, but relatable lyrics, Asian artists such as Rich Brian, Joji, Higher Brothers and Keith Ape have found success by incorporating Asian language in their lyrics. But with success does come some mishaps. One of the first songs that Rich Brian released called “Dat Stick” contains the n-word which created a lot of backlash and this has happened many times during the era of hip-hop. Artists like Post Malone have also had trouble with using the racially charged word in their songs.
The Higher Brothers are a Chinese hip hop group
This ties into Eminem’s career because even though his use of profanity was very generous in his songs, he never crossed that line by using language from a culture that he did not come from. If artists are able to incorporate their own special twist on genres of music from other cultures, then they will have a chance of succeeding because they can appeal to their own desired audiences while also still appealing the rest of the masses. For example, with the Higher Brothers, most of their songs use Chinese with bits of English here and there, but because the beat of the song is still hip-hip, there is still that comfort that the song is still under the umbrella of hip-hop.
Editor’s note:Arachnophonia is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from the Parsons Music Library‘s collection.
This special edition of Arachnophonia features contributions from students in Dr. Joanna Love‘s MUS 235 class: “I Want My MTV: Music Video and the Transformation of the Music Industry.”
To understand the importance of Prince’s CD album, or CDs in general, during the 1980s one must take a step back and look at the differences between our modes of listening to music today as opposed to the 1980s. In the 2000s CDs began to be phased out of popularity due to the improved technology that came about to form Itunes. This decade has seen an even bigger change transitioning from the Itunes format of music listening to streaming services such as Spotify, Apple Music, and Soundcloud. The concept of paying a monthly fee to gain access to a massive music library had not even come to fruition as a concept back in the 80s.
Created in 1982, CDs were the easiest method to listen to music to during that era. CDs were the most compact and easiest to transport at the time and as long as someone had a CD player or a car stereo then the stage was set. Getting a new CD in the 80s would be comparable to taking a kid to the candy store or getting a new video game in the modern era. I was never able to really experience the true atmosphere of a music store where shelves were lined with records and CDs as seen in movies like Wayne’s World but it appears to be very similar to going to the video store back in the 2000s to get the latest movie that had come out.
Music store in the 1980s
Since CDs were commonplace at the time and hundreds were displayed next to each other on shelves, it was also important that the cover art of the CD case and the design of the CD were eye-catching and could convince someone to purchase the album. Designed by art director Laura LiPuma and photographed by Ed Thrasher and Stuart Douglas Watson, Purple Rain’s album art has since become iconic and has been especially useful in defining an identity for the city of Minneapolis (where Prince was born and raised). The picture of Prince sitting on his purple motorcycle clad in his quintessential purple suit with smoke billowing out behind him is only further emphasized by the words “Purple Rain: Prince and the Revolution” in thick purple letters. This is also symbolic in the sense that this was the first time Prince included his band, “the Revolution,” in the album art. The photo is lined on both sides by beautiful flowers which can be tied back into the perception of androgyny in his music and fashion. The inside flap of the case is made up entirely of these flowers and their petals. The album art breathes mysteriousness and insinuates that seeing this movie will give you the full “Prince experience” in regard to his musical and acting abilities. The effects of this album art can still be felt in popular culture today with the city of Minneapolis “adopting” purple as their color and even blanketing the city in purple during the halftime performance at the Super Bowl last year after Prince passed away in 2016. In addition to this the basketball team located in the city, the Minnesota Timberwolves, have also created Purple Rain-inspired jerseys for this upcoming season.
The city of Minneapolis lit up in purple during the Super Bowl, Feb. 4, 2018
The album art of Purple Rain has also been differently portrayed by other artists using its major themes and elements. In 2016, hip-hop artist Future dropped an appropriately titled mixtape named Purple Reign, where the cover art to the album draws off of Prince’s style with the title of the mixtape in thick purple letters and a near dark background.
Future: Purple Reign mixtape art 2016
As far as relevance I wanted to research a topic for this assignment that was fascinating to me and the success of soundtrack albums in music especially piqued my interest after having watched the movie Purple Rain for class in early October. Overall, this CD album art was useful for the movie because it was an excellent marketing tool for Prince. As discussed previously, the compactness of CDs made it the most popular mode to listen to music with in the 1980s. With over 25 million copies sold worldwide, this can be translated as 25 million advertisements for a movie in marketing terms. The album art not only represented the contents (songs) inside the CD case but also signified the opportunity to see a good movie. The movie Purple Rain cost $7 million to make and achieved box office sales of $70.2 million while Prince took home the Academy Award for best original score. It was Prince’s entrance into the film industry and he went on to further direct, compose, and act in other classics such as Under the Cherry Moon and Graffiti Bridge.
The album art of Purple Rain also represents the precedent that Prince helped set that a soundtrack album can produce quality music. Until Purple Rain came out there was no real popularity in soundtrack albums besides other classic movies like Grease and Saturday Night Fever in the late 1970s. Since then there has been an explosion in popularity with soundtrack album especially within the last 20 years. Marshall Mathers, aka Eminem or The Real Slim Shady, put together a highly successful soundtrack album for his 2002 biopic 8 Mile. His song “Lose Yourself,” which is played in the ending scene as Eminem walks away down the street after winning the final battle, became a hit sensation and is often seen as one of his best pieces of work if not the best. Recently, “See You Again” by Wiz Khalifa featuring Charlie Puth from the movie Furious 7 (Fast and Furious movie franchise) set streaming records for most streams in a week and in a day in 2015.
In summation Purple Rain and its album art helped usher in the popularity of soundtrack albums, give an identity to the city of Minneapolis, and promote Prince’s now classic movie Purple Rain.
