Critical Review 8: Wald 2001

A product of old Spanish ballad forms (the romanza and the decima), corridos are Mexican/Mexican-American ballads that offer a realistic portrayal of life to its performers. In staying realistic, Wald noted, topics can be seedy or coarse and the most popular tended to be "violent romantic engagements." Moving forward, Wald mentions that corrido is more popular than most would think, with many of its artists being signed to major record labels. As might be expected, the genre that focuses on outlaws and bandits has been accused of leading youth astray. Still it is a popular genre that has as much power as the newspaper.

Discussion Question: What differences in ideology or opinion exist in people who get their news from music (corrido and other genres) versus those who primarily get news from sources with which we are more accustomed? How does drawing conclusions from corrido color the conclusions one draws?

Fieldnotes 2: iTunes Responses

So far I have interviewed a mashup scholar and rock fan in-depth to get opinions on various forms of combination music, but to increase the numbers of opinions I have, while working under the constraint of time, I have turned to iTunes reviews to get a feel for the differing responses to combination music.

A great example of what Sean and I would define as combination music is Nelly and Tim McGraw's crossover hit "Over and Over." This was also a prime song to look at because its reviews vary, expressing divergent opinions on the country/rap song.

Note: Snapshots of reviews will appear small because of formatting issues, but click on them and they will become large enough to read.
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Here somnambulist reveals one effect that combination music can have; it can open listeners of one genre up to a new one that they may embrace. This reviewer even uses the word "discovered." A takeaway from this review is that one need not necessarily be a fan of all genres that are combined in combination music before hearing it to enjoy it.
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In this review, Mikey the Great aptly points out that for an artist, the risk of dabbling in a new genre is not a fleeting one that fades away quickly. It can impact their image long past the time that a single is released. Mikey the Great doesn't explicitly say "image" here, but his mention of street cred can be used as a substitute. Another key point to denote here is that Mikey the Great was a fan of Nelly before this song came out. Certainly, there will always be listeners who write terrible reviews for artists they already disliked, but the true fans whose opinions change for the worse are really the ones with whom artists must be concerned when attempting to cross over genre lines.
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In comparing country and rap to peanutbutter and pickles, moonshine19's review shows that not all the animosity tied into disliking a form of combination music is placed on the shoulders of the artist or group.
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Here is another example of a reviewer who mentioned image.
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While the examples I provided here were mostly negative, eight out of 11 references to the song in the reviews were positive. There is clearly response bias involved (chances are those who didn't buy it/didn't like it were less likely to respond), but to be fair I included the breakdown.
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To touch on the mashup side of combination music, I looked at reviews of "Frontin' on Debra (DJ Reset Mash-Up)," a combination of Beck's "Debra" and Pharrell's "Frontin.'"


This one struck me because in it, juleshills actually refers to the song as a mashup (rare in these reviews) and outlines what a mashup should do.
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This review shows a major distinction between crossover songs and mashups. When it comes to mashups, artists are not held accountable because their music is fused with another's music often without consent.

Critical Review 7: Duany 1984

Jorge Duany opens his 1984 article by tracing salsa's roots back to a mix of racial culture found in Puerto Rico, more specifically, the rural lowlands. Moving on, Duany covers salsa's jump to New York City, a place not all too different from the place of its inception. Finally, through describing three songs, it is pointed out that salsa provides a platform for social commentary on the struggles of living the working-class life. After reading the article, it is clear that salsa place (despite being questioned) is a key part of Puerto Rican Culture.

Discussion Question: How do musical styles that come from a mostly homogeneous racial group (like bhangra) differ on any level from those that develop out of amalgamations of racial groups (like salsa)?

Critical Review 6: Back 1996 Part I

In chapter eight, "'Inglan, nice up!': black music, autonomy and the cultural intermezzo" Back begins by explaining the racism-based context from which black-owned clubs were born in London.  In the absence of places that would accept them, black's developed a space of their own where they played prerecorded music.  Lyrics denote political agenda, dance brings people of the diaspora together, and the decor ties the rest together.

Discussion Question:  "Would cultural segregation (by this I mean clubs meant for blacks) like this have existed in post-war London with the influx of Caribbean blacks if not for the racism they faced from whites?  Would there be more blending if not for this?

Critical Review 5: Walser 1993

In the introduction and first chapter of Walser's 1993 book, reasons for the history of neglect of heavy metal, and reasons that it is pertinent are explored.  Early on, and throughout the piece, comparisons to classical music are made in an effort to put the two on the same level rather than simply to legitimate heavy metal.  Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, and Metallica among many other were brought into the discussion as potential first heavy metal bands, while the rise of the genre was cataloged.  After sharing results from a survey aimed at getting inside the mind of a heavy metal fan, Walser concludes by returning to the conversation of why heavy metal has been either deserted or misinterpreted by scholars.

Discussion Question:  As an explanation for why blacks are not significantly represented in the heavy metal fan base, Walser notes, "If the motive for much white music making has been the imperative of reproducing black culture without black people in it, no comparable reason exists to draw black musicians and fans into traditionally white genres." Do we believe this is true? To me it seems that this explanation only covers why black music historians would not join in. Regardless of history, why aren't more blacks interested?