First Blog post, by JC Spezeski

For my first blog post I am writing about the first few days of class and the interesting lessons that were taught. I found the comparisons of the star spangled banner fascinating, due to the different points of view that were described. I never thought of the notion that our national anthem could be used in different settings to describe emotional fulfillment. Our national anthem can be performed in many different ways to describe how the performer feels about a social movement, or governmental action.

Music is used to describe the feeling of a performer through lyrics and rhythm. As I have read in the chapters "Songs on the Immigrants and songs in American History and Politics" and "Protest songs: Music as a tool for social Change;" Songs can be used for protest, and political change. Music is used in the chapter to describe the struggles of a group of people, and is also used to show how groups of people can fight back. These first few classes have been fascinating.