Contr-Dance

Coming from the south, I was not accustomed to contra-dancing. I'm used to going to social events that don't involve turning around and around until you can't see straight. At first I felt uncomfortable because I was not used  to the environment. But once I was warmly welcomed into the dance, my nerves started to settle down. I felt like the person instructing was very helpful to the new comers, including myself, because she started nice and slow and broke down the different steps. I also felt more comfortable once I saw how goofy the rest of the class was being thought the duration of the dance. It was helpful to know that I wasn't the only one making a fool of myself! To be completely honest....I would NOT attend this event again unfortunately. I got EXTREMELY too dizzy to a point where I felt like I was going to be sick. Don't get me wrong I LOVED the environment but the style of dance just wasn't my style. I also think that the reason I loved the environment so much is because of the participatory environment/social action. I loved how our whole entire class got to dance together at the same time! It's extremely rare to find a dance that incorporates a boatload of people at one time. The participatory music was also a helpful attribution to the environment! the music combined with the social aspect was a perfect participatory environment.

Punks Are Alright!

In the the film, The Punks are Alright, the punk music and the overall culture is presented in the communities of Brazil and Indonesia. One of the many interesting similarities of these two cultures out number the differences between the two. Henrike and Dolly do a very nice job in bringing similarities to the table in the long run as you can see by the end of the documentary. Even though their religious views differ between the two communities as well as Dolly and Henrike, both punk communities in the cultures share the similar values, making the 2 cultures come together on the same idea.

This documentary has changed my perception of the youth cultures in both countries. My perception of Brazil however has greatly changed more than any other. Henrike, a member of the Blind Pigs, shares with us the different ways the youth cultures are intertwined throughout the community of Brazil. He explains that the youth culture is a very tough, violent, and hostile environment clinging to drug traits as a main source, which causes the main source of youth corruption.  Because of Henrike's past experiences, he feels a sense of sympathy for these kids. As a result of his sympathy, he decides to teach a class to the youth to a small school in Brazil. We later learn that Henrike is fired from this job due to him cussing to much in front of the children. Henrike describes the school as a privately funded and publicly populated by the "Punk" phase. It is described as punk because of the contradicting do-it-yourself attitude that a normal punk people display. I think people really overlook how bad the situation with youth is in Brazil. however, my perception on Indonesia is a different story. Punk culture has been a contradicting issue with the Indonesia government for awhile. But in the youth community of Indonesia there is so much passion and vigor within the hearts of each youth the live the Punk lifestyle. I think it's interesting how Punk was loved by so many in a culture that's government is against punk.


To be totally honest none of us can relate to the people that participated in this documentary because i am neither poor nor disenfranchised, which makes me unable to relate to the different situations that occur in the documentary. however, my views on the the youth are exposed to the drugs and alcohol stay the same so I can relate to not agreeing to let the kids be around the alcohol. I also agreed that the religion aspect of Brazil are hypocritical  to the catholic religion. Henrike told the story of how he visited church with his family even though he is not much of a religious person. "as soon as we walked out of the church the nuns did the cross thing when they saw me....I felt judged." "I'm not religious, but I thank God for for my family."Indonesia has the most islamic population in the whole world.

The purchases that we make in America have an effect over the people overseas as well as the Americans. For example, Dolly from Indonesia works at the Nike company. He works for an hourly wage of $2.65. The common labor laws are changed by the government to help help increase their selling income. Because the US has labor laws, the Nike company has to move to Indonesia to be able to bypass these lass in order to up their income on shoe revenue.

Farmers Market

Being that this was my first farmers market, I had no idea what to expect. I was told that it was just a a big gathering where you can buy fresh food. But I though well, why not just go to Kroger and get your groceries there? There was huge difference between the farmers market and just an ordinary grocery store. The farmers market was much more than just a bunch of people selling fresh fruits and veggies. Not only was there the fresh products, but also live music and entertainment along with different hand made jewelry, soap, puppets, and community involvement booths. I noticed that the music that was being performed was very lively and participatory music. While the performers were performing the African music there was a dancer that came out into the audience and showed people how to do the dance that she was performing. You could see all age groups participating in this dance. I also noticed that the farmers market was a very safe environment. Parents were letting there children roam with no adult supervision. There were also many pets at the market as well which showed the laid back atmosphere of the farmers market.

There was so much to take in while first entering the farmers market. First you see the different age groups and people, then you see the fresh fruit and vegetables that farmers from all around came to share with the town of Bloomington. You also see the hand made jewelry, puppets, poetry, and live music that is there to accompany the fresh arrange of food. I also observed how open each booth owner to talking to us. The african musical talked with us for a good 30 minutes just simply explaining to us the love he had for playing and being able to entertain the different people and families that came to the farmers market. He continued to discuss how he feels peace when he plays the drums for the african melody. He said that most african drummers have to play for hours upon hours and barely change a beat. He explained that every couple of minutes he tries to change the beat or pace of the drums so that people can see the different sides of the song instead of the same monotonic sound that is played for hours upon hours.

In the end I drew the conclusion that the farmers market was not only an ordinary market, it was a place to go to get more involved with the community by listening to music, buying fresh food, and buy visiting the different booths. The booths that were set up at the market were a real help to the community because this information that was in these different booths were accessible to anyone that wanted to see them. The farmers market was just an overall relaxing and helpful environment.

Four Fields of Music Making

The main idea of participatory music making is that you and the rest of the audience participate in the event or activity that is occurring. In this video you can see that everyone that is involved in the video is contributing to the song, either by singing or creating the back-ground music behind the singing.  As you can see there is no distinction between the main artist and the audience in the room. EVERYONE is involved. The potentials of this music making is that no one is excluded in this form of music making. You can sing your heart out without getting shushed by the person next to you,but the limitation to this is that you attract all kinds of different people to this. so if you only wanted the good singers to sing you couldn't tell the bad people to stop sing because everyone is invited to be involved in the activity. some cultures are surrounded by participatory music to bring the culture closer together or because of a certain ritual. In some cultures it's also against culture to sing out of a group so it would be surrounded by participatory music. I feel that cultures in particular would value this music style because it brings people together as a culture.

Presentational music is another form of music making. This form of music making is my personal favorite, because you can go see an individual that you are found of up on stage and not be expected to join in. In the clip above Beyonce Knowles is performing infront of thousands on one of her many world tours. Now everyone know Beyonce is BEYONCE so know one would try and go up on stage and try to join in and perform with her. This is an advantage of this form of music making because you can enjoy the artist that you have payed you well earned money on. The only disadvantage is that you CAN NOT go up and perform with the performer. Of course, that would be a dream to be able to perform with Beyonce but I think it's better that we just stay in the audience! the cultural values of this music making is that each individual talent is allowed to get up on stage and allowed the chance to show their talent without any interruptions and that is very highly valued even in our own culture.

A High-Fidelty performance is usually someone listening to a recording of an artist. Musical sounds heard on recordings that index live performances. This music performance also represents what a performer actually does in a live performance. The potentials of this form is that you can listen to this form of music anywhere you go. It is considered a mobile form of music. The only disadvantage that I could possibly think of is that you can't experience the performance live.

A Studio Audio Art Music performance can't ACTUALLY be performed on a stage. The technology can't Physically bey played like instruments. The advantage to this is that you get to experience a different type of music.

Music of the Night

When I was little I used to listen to a wide range of music, varying from hip-hop all the way to disney tunes. Yes, these tunes were entertaining for the time being, but I soon realized that the songs I listened to had no depth to the whatsoever. Entering my early teen years I started listening to different Broadway tunes: CATS, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang...ect. However I had never seen The Phantom of the Opera. The sign that they used to portray the Phantom was frightening to me as a young teen. seeing this hideous face and wondering if he was real. One night I was in my room and i overheard my parents watching a movie from the other room. But there was something extremely different about this movie, instead of action scenes i herd music. Not just any music though....sweet, heart wrenching music. I went out to see what my parents were watching and I saw that they were watching The Phantom of the Opera. my initial instinct was to return to my room because i did NOT want to have nightmares that night, but the music that was being sung kept my feet planted where they were.  Now you may be asking yourself " what is this song?!?!" The song was Music of the Night. Te Phantom himself was sining the song, and like I explained above, I had always thought that the Phantom (sign) was a horrible/ nightmare wrenching figure. But in reality, he was an innocent soul longing for love. the object of this song was to show Christine that he truly loves her and to look past his face and just listen to the music f the night.The Interpret of this song for me was that I felt an overwhelming sense of music and the depth of music. My feelings all at once enhanced...i don't really know how describe it. But this song has forever more changed my life. Because of this song I now have my true love for musical theatre and have a true love and depth for music in my life.

"Hi I'm Brianna Milan"

When you first meet someone you usually introduce yourself with the normal introduction of your name, who you are, where your from, and some other interesting facts about yourself. What if you where asked to introduce yourself through music. Wait, what? It is a strange request, but if you really think about it you can see that through music, you can introduce yourself in a deeper way then you ever knew you could. Take me for example. If I were to come up to you and say "Hi, my name is Brianna Milan and I am from Alpharetta, Georgia." Now isn't that just the typical, boring way of introducing oneself? Instead, why not use a song:

This song not only tells where I am from, but it also gives my feeling about Georgia. In the first part of the song, Ray Charles expresses that Georgia is always on my mind:

Georgia, Georgia
The whole day through
(The whole day through)
Just an old sweet song
Keeps Georgia on my Mind

This shows that, not only am I from Georgia, but I am also keeping Georgia on my mind at all times. "Georgia is like a sweet song" Literally, this verse tells it all. Georgia has held such sweet memories for me and also holds my friends and family back home. This song just supports my feelings on how much I love and Miss Georgia.

Now see, you wouldn't have gotten any of that out of just saying I'm from Georgia. After you tell a person who you are, the person your conversing with might want to know a little bit more about you, so how would you communicate that through words?  I know I couldn't just tell someone who I was in a nutshell, It's too hard! but If you communicate through song.....that might be a better option.

If you can't tell bey this song, I am a HUGE Broadway nerd. I live, breath, and eat musical theatre...in short; musical theatre is life. Ever sense i was little i have dreamed of being one of the few that get their chance to perform on Broadway. This song describes my determination, the pressure, and the love that I put into making that big dream of mine come true. even though I may break, cry, or "go through crazy weather" to get to Broadway "I'm focused on the prize". This is who I am. The girl striving for Broadway no matter the crazy the weather I encounter one the way, because one day.... it will all pay off.
Other than being a GIGANTIC Musical theatre geek, I also lead a different life than just music. I also strive to be the best person I can be and help others along the way. I also try to lead a life fear-free. Even when obstacles arise, I try to overcome each one. I could try to explain this to the person I am conversing with, but sometimes it is difficult to tell someone your just meeting these things about yourself. so why not convey the life you lead into a song:

While I try to lead the life that is sung by Mariah Carey, there are also different values that I live by.

Respect is a HUGE value in my life. Without respect, I feel like people can't interact. Sure they can interact, but not on a level where anything will get accomplished or settled. Aretha Franklin's lyrics show that respect leads to showing others respect if you wish to receive the respect back.
So as you can see, you can covey things a lot clearer and in deeper in-depth with the use of music!

Brianna Milan