Reflection+on+the+Sounds+of+America

Music especially in todays world is a Universal Force. People all over the globe constantly listen to music, constantly adressing a wide variety of emotions, whether it be Love, Anger, Heartbreak, Joy, Sorrow, or issues of race, class, and gender. Nathaniel Hawthorne argued " Caresses, expressions of one sort or another, are necessary to the life of the affections as leaves are to the life of a tree. If they are wholly restrained, love will die at the roots." Such is the case with Music, a force that is so expressive in all forms. Hawthorne also argued the fact that Americans cannot act with their hearts but only their heads. In the case of American Music I think he falls terribly short, constantly Americans take their individual experiences and portray them in song. The artists I chose in my page, I feel best reflect the Charles Mingus quote at the very top in that they are exemplary in making complicated and distinct ideas and put them into music that is poignant, yet simple and minimal to give a certain message, which I think is so distinct in American Music. Alexis DeTocqueville also argues that in America "Vices which despotism engenders are precisely what equality fosters" (pg. 623), which once again fails to adjust to the force that is American music, which from the artists I have chosen historically bring people together under one roof. So whether to vent your frustrations of growing up, croon about desperate poverty, or rhyme about urban blight, people come under one roof and see that we aren't so different.

The Will and Capacity for Change