Robert Fryar
Prof. Santos
1stYearSem
April 26
The process of making my Poster
Making my poster for the STARS symposium was a pleasure. Although I did procrastinated I still had a lot of fun with it. I put in about 4 or so hours in total creating the poster however, I did restart. The original poster was about 20 % done when I decided to retry and put about an hours worth of work in to it. It was a good idea to restart as the final product came out nicely but if I stuck with the original the final product would have come out with many more flaws.
I started by beginning my research. I found a good amount of information on BBC.Com where I was able to do most of the paper from there. I did find some sources via the Library search engine but I did not find anything I could really use for this project. After I obtained this information I then began to write little blurbs about what i read. The facts that I were writing down mostly pertained to the history and the background of music and movies. After I got all the information written out that is when I started designing the poster. I decided to segment the poster in to three parts as I felt that . After all this I just adjusted the colors and fonts so the Poster was essentially done at this point.
In conclusion this poster taught me a lot about music and movies while also allowing me to display to the public. It will give me more experience at presenting my work. The project was relatively easy but a lot of effort was put forth.

country music

This week we learned about country music. Before this class, I only looked at country music as songs about beer, girls, summer, and love. Being a person of color and coming from a predominately white town, I would listen to only the basic fun songs to sing along to. I never really had an interest in it but I listened to some and found them catchy. "Wagon Wheel" by Darius Rucker was the first country song I've ever listened to and I thought it was weird that a person of color was writing country music. After this class, I learned that there is a lot more to country music. There is a story behind a good majority of songs, but country artist tend to get deep and in their feelings about their songs because they are singing about things they love. There is a good mix of love songs and songs that get pretty political.

Country

Personally, country is my favorite genre of music to listen to. After this week’s classes I realized that as much as I listen to country songs, I hadn’t noticed the social issues of today’s society that are discussed in them. After looking into it I noticed that many of the songs created by my favorite artists within the past few years touch upon controversial topics. I found a few examples of songs that discussed homosexuality. In Little Big Town’s song “Girl Crush”, the female artists state “I gotta a girl crush. Hate to admit it”. This conveys the point that people who are gay or lesbian often hide their sexual orientation and feel too ashamed to come out to their family and friends due to the lack of acceptance from some people in today’s world. In “Most People Are Good”, Luke Bryan says “I believe you love who you love, ain't nothing you should ever be ashamed of”. He explains that you can’t control who you love and there is nothing wrong with being attracted to people of the same gender as you. For this reason, you shouldn’t feel embarrassed and instead should embrace who you are. He also alludes to the fact that everyone should be accepting and create a safe environment in which people can feel confident coming out. Kacey Musgraves expresses in her song, “Follow Your Arrow”, “Kiss lots of boys, or kiss lots of girls, if that’s what you’re into”. She showed that it is okay to be attracted to people of the same gender as yourself and that no matter what anyone says, you should love the person of your choosing. 

Country songs also discuss the treatment of women. In the song “Girl in a Country Song”, by Maddie and Tae, the girls state “We used to get a little respect. Now we’re lucky if we even get to climb up in your truck, keep out mouth shut and ride along”. These two female artists call attention to the way women are objectified and how they are portrayed negatively in many country songs. Keith Urban sent a similar message in his song “Female”. In the song he describes women in powerful, positive ways. Urban says “When somebody laughs and implies that she asked for it just ‘cause she was wearing a skirt, oh is that how it works? When somebody talks about how it was Adam first, does that make you second best? Or did he save the best for last?”. These lyrics discuss today’s issue of rape and how no matter what a woman is wearing, her consent is needed. It also talks about how some men may think they’re superior to women which Urban believes is not right, having nothing but respect for females.

Johnny Cash

This week in class we talked about a famous artist by the name of Johnny Cash. This musician was very unique in many ways. For one, he played concerts for people in maximum security prisons. No other artist did this which just further helped his fame. I personally think this is very clever because he is bringing music to people who don't usually get any sort of entertainment which is understandable because they are criminals. Another reason he stood out is because of his unique voice. It was very deep and distinct. To be a great musician you need something like this which helps you excel past the other artists. I personally didn't know much about Cash nor did I listen to his music but from what I've read and what i've listened to he seems like a one of a kind artist.

Country Music

This week in class we learned about country music. We discussed the stereotypes and tendencies of it's listeners. When thinking of country music, words come into my head like patriotism and "redneck." But these aren't things to be ashamed of. People act the way they want to act and express themselves through music. We listened to a few country songs with outdated views on our country. These are thing that are tough to look back on, but just because one person does something, it doesn't mean it is the opinions or actions of a whole group. The songs discussed show how far we've come as country.

Country Music

This week in class we briefly talked about country music. Country music may all sound the same to people who don’t particularly like it, but if you take the time to listen to it, you would realize that is not the case. Although they mainly all sing about the same thing, they all say it from their point of view and in different ways. For example, we listened to “Girl in a Country Song” by Maddie and Tae. The song talks about all the ways guys have viewed or stereotyped girls, which is something different than most country artist. Every artist is different and sings about their own personal experiences. In a way it is a lot like pop music. They both have a wide variety of artist that sing about mainly the same things but in their own ways. Country artist however express themselves without the explicit context and is not sexualized as pop music. That is also why some country artist are also considered pop artist, because they are similar and depending what the song is about and how upbeat it is makes it pop or not. Some country-pop artists are Carrie Underwood, Sam Hunt, Dolly Parton, (who we also discussed in class this week) Florida Georgia Line, Johnny Cash (also someone we talked about) and many more. In class we discussed how country artist try to stay out of politics and sing about “country” things instead. However, from listening to country a lot when I was younger and still now today, I can say that a few artist and songs are definitely not just country and discuss things going on in the world. For example after 9/11, a majority of songs that came out about the attacks were by country artists. Although they may not sing about politics, there messages tend to say more than what some pop songs or other political artists have. I feel like country is the genre of music where you can listen to some songs and find a way to relate them either to your life or something you know about. My mother always loved Kenny Chesney and Carrie Underwood, both of which are very amazing and talented artists. There are a few songs that come to mind when I think of what they have written that are relatable for many people. I think country artists tend to stick to the country image, but there is some who strain away from that and do their own type of country. It sounds the same but has more of a message. Maybe even all artists do it just with a song or two. Country music is the kind of music you can turn on in the background and sing along to and enjoy. Even if you don’t particularly like country music, if you listen to it enough, (by choice or not) you will end up humming or singing along without even realizing it. It’s like pop music in that way, even if you hate the song playing you may find yourself humming along because of how catchy it is.

Country Music

This week's blog post is about Country music. When I was younger, I never really was into Country music. I always depicted Country as slow and depressing. As I grew older, I grew more attached to genre. Although some songs seem sad and depressing, I learned that not all Country music is played that way.

Country music seems to have different themes depending on the artist. Country music mainly talks about the American south and west. Country music displays patriotism in many forms, themes about relationships, partying, staying loose, and anything the artist wants to write and sing about. All music can be interpreted the way that the artists writes it and can also be interpreted the way the listener listens to it.