Music ethnography essay

My music culture will be covering the hip-hop culture here in Dallas. Hip-hop originated around the late 60’s and stormed the nation with its catchy beats and the ability creates new dances with it. Hip hop originated because of the popularity of block parties in New York people needed some music to listen which filled in the void.

Through my research about this certain music culture I used many things to conduct my research. I first of all attended a concert performed by my good friend Caleb Mak which was performed at the Door Plano. After that later on I interviewed him by phone about different things related to his view of his music and to hip-hop in general.

The ideas about this culture is that there music is a source of entertainment because people can dance to the beat, but then some hip hop songs tell meaningful stories about the people who sing them. Whatever inspires a artist to sing about then that is what they lay down. For example Caleb Mak has a song called “hands up” which is considered a party song because though the song doesn’t really have a meaning it a great song to dance to and get excited about. When I attended his concert he performed this song and got very interactive with the audience even telling them to put their hands up in the air and start dancing with the beat. Then he has other songs that that have meaning to him like his song “Outerspace” which you can listen to at http://www.myspace.com/calebmak and in this song he his talking about one of his best friend Clarissa who passed away from an overdose at a hospital back in 2008. He dedicated the song to her and his passion about her is evident in the song. Usually this music culture can be played whenever people feel like.

This type of music can basically be found anywhere you can look it up on Itunes, or you can go to live concerts or you can probably hear it playing in someone ‘s car the possibilities are endless. Performers can play both professionally or as a hobby. Caleb Mak right now does it as a hobby but would like to get more serious with his music and even wrote a couple of new songs in the past months. Caleb believes that race, gender, and religion does factor into who performs in the music culture. He believes that it easier for black people to succeed in this culture because they are more familiar with it. It is also shown that Hispanics also play a role in this type of music and they contribute their own style. For gender he believes that males still have a easier time getting there music recognized but that women are very close and are making strides to make the music more popular. Caleb says that since he is Christian then it helps with his music because America is mostly a Christianized country. However he acknowledges the fact that he is familiar with the other religions and tries to better understand their culture in regards to their music, he further goes on to say that he is also familiar with other singers that are of different religion but also sing hip-hop and enjoys listening to it. The audience contains a wide variety of people. the music is not just targeted to one kind of audience, that is why it is widely popular because it can entertain all sorts of people. even though the main artists that participate are African American it is still open to basically anyone that wants to give it a try and some are even famous such as singer Jay Sean.

The most important part of this music culture is the lyrics. Lyrics are used to express the artist’s emotions and struggles. Everybody has their own story, just as an author would write a story about it, a hip hop artist would sing about it. some artists even try to send out messages trough their songs such as Lupe fiasco and Immortal Technique. Whatever they try to do with their songs the lyrics are the most important part to their music. Caleb exclaimed that in his songs that he talks about all aspects of love as well as trying to spread the message that people can do whatever they want and that they should never let anyone stop them. This message is evident in his song called “Blow My Mind,” in which he talks about the different things he would do different from the usually routine day and he challenges you to think of what would you do if it was not the usually routine day. There are many ways that this music is transmitted one of the man ways is by cd’s even though ipods are eliminating the need for cd’s they are still popular among transmitting new music. Other ways are radio, clubs, and concerts in which people can listen to the new song that an artist made.

In this music culture one of the main materials that you need is a microphone but then after that it just depends on what the artist needs to create his music. Caleb said that he needed his DJ along with a guitar, sometimes saxophone player, and a piano. He also says that he has to buy an outfit from forever XXI before each show to give himself a sort off skateboard look that usually consisted of a checkered polo/dress shirt with some jeans and sometimes a hat. Every artist has their own materials that they require as well as their own preparation before their show. Caleb likes to practice singing in front of a mirror before a show, and on his way to the show he likes to listen to his own songs in his car while he is on the way to the show, he doesn’t like to eat anything before the show for fear that he will throw up but usually has a big meal after the show.

This music culture of hip-hop also influences other cultures as well as being influenced by those cultures as well. That is why artists from hip-hop tend to collaborate with musicians from other music cultures. Caleb told me that Kanye West was his biggest influence because not only does he like his music in general but he also like the fact that he collaborates with so many people that are not in his music Genre. Caleb tries to emulate him as well by collaborating with people outside his genre and has even started singing acoustic and electronica, both forms of music he says will be in his next album. Hip-hop with its catchy beats and meaningful lyrics is one of the more popular genre’s in the country.