1. Kid Cudi, "My World", Hip-Hop, 2009
2. Chris Brown, "Look At Me Now", Rap, 2010 (EXPLICIT!)
3. Darius Rucker, "Alright", Country, 2009
4. Joe Walsh "Life's Been Good", Rock, 1978
5. Regina Spektor, "Making Records", Alternative, 2003
Liberation:
1. Eddie Vedder, "Far Behind", Rock, 2007
2. Eddie Vedder, "Society", Rock, 2007
3. Fastball, "The Way", Alternative, 1997
4. Cat Stevens, "If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out", Folk, 1971
5. Old Crow Medicine Show, "Take Em' Away", Bluegrass, 2004
My Thoughts:
Songs about success are more abundant than songs about liberation, but it's sort of genre specific. I had a hard time finding songs about success in my iTunes than liberation songs and had to look elsewhere. America, being an individualistic culture values both success and liberation. In fact, the two often go hand-in-hand; oftentimes in the entertainment industry, people rise up out of disadvantaged situations and are liberated from those negative environments into a life of success. "Liberation" in pop culture is not the same concept as liberation in the Hindu aim, however. The Hindu aim is liberation from Samsara and the cycle of rebirth, this seperation is known as moksha and usually takes many, many lifetimes to achieve. Liberation in the entertainment industry is usually from smaller, personal confines and takes usually less than one lifetime. This latter form of liberation is often accompanied by success. This success is also different than that of the Hindu aim. While they both can mean being wealthy, the Hindu aim is usually centered on making money to support a family/household. The pop culture success is individual wealth and supporting oneself and one's hobbies, desires, and sometimes their families too. The scope of these terms is quite different depending on the cultural context.
Moving on…
In my list of songs about success, I tried to include songs that approach the idea of success in different ways. “Look At Me Now” glorifies wealth and fame; “My World” addresses the fact that people doubted his success was possible; “Life’s Been Good” illustrates a kind of nonchalance about success; “Alright” puts success on a less grandeur platform and makes it more simple; and finally, “Making Records” shows that personal success can be really lonely and unsatisfying. I used that song in particular to represent the disconnect between the Hindu aim and the aim of the American entertainment industry; there is something to be said for sharing your success with others. The songs in the liberation list are all pretty straight forward except for the last song. I chose “Take em’ Away” for similar reasons as I did the Regina Spektor song. This song is a plea to the lord for liberation, which is very similar to that of the Hindu aim. The end.
I agree with your whole idea of liberation being success. When I was writing my analysis, I talked about how liberation from something that is holding someone back personally can give them fulfillment like seeking pleasure and success cannot. But then when I thought about it, in a way, liberating oneself from these things is like a personal success in itself, and should be just as important as the other definitions of success.
ReplyDeleteYou make a very good point with you view of liberation and how it is usually accompanied by success. I did not even think about it like that, but its true.
ReplyDeleteI like how you point out that liberation in the American and Hindu cultures differ in two main aspects: length of time it takes to achieve liberation and the scale at which liberation occurs. I also really enjoyed how each of your songs about the second aim highlighted different perspectives of worldly success.
ReplyDeleteI liked your idea about liberation being achieved only on a small personal scale, restricted to one life cycle. I felt like this has a lot to do with the lack of presence of songs about liberation overall in today's society. I also agree that it is genre specific. For example, I tried to focus on the hip hop/r&b genre, and there was an overwhelming abundance of songs about success and power. However, there were comparatively much fewer songs about liberation, and perhaps if I had looked in another genre I would have been able to find more.
ReplyDeleteI really love that you chose a few Eddie Vedder songs for your liberation aim, he definitely has some songs that hint towards Hindu belief. Also, You made a very good point in that the pop culture feel on success can be different from the Hindu idea on worldly success. Very good posts so far!
ReplyDeleteThose Eddie Vedder songs were from the Into the Wild soundtrack. That movie itself explores a lot of Hindu themes through the journey of Chris. He seperates himself from society in search of a sort of natural enlightenment. It wa a personal liberation, but it seemed to transcend his individual self and live.
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