Songs for "Pleasure" Aim -
"Excuses" - The Morning Benders - Indie - 2010
"Sunlight" - Tune-Yards - Indie - 2009
"Sun Was High (So Was I)" - Best Coast - Indie - 2010
"Ghost Pressure" - Wolf Parade - Indie - 2010
Give Us A Little Love - Fallulah (See Video Below) - Indie - 2010
Songs for "Community Service" Aim -
Cannibal Resource - Dirty Projectors - Indie - 2009
Noah's Ark - CocoRosie - Experimental - 2005
Redemption Song - Bob Marley - Reggae - 1980
The World Is Yours - Nas - Rap - 1994
After The Rain - Little Dragon (See Video Below) - Indie - 2009
The following assignment examines the roots of American culture and whether the culture’s music reflects any of Hinduism’s four aims, particularly the “pleasure” and “community service” aims. Unsurprisingly, the “pleasure” aim is much more prevalent than the “community service aim” in American culture and consequently, American music. The songs that I chose are just a few among many I could have selected as themes of romance, recreational drug use, and sex are widely used in American song lyrics. I believe these themes are so prevalent in American music because our contemporary culture has been so deeply shaken and shaped by pleasure—the constant desire to be pleased or gratified. In Hinduism, there is an emphasis on pursuing pleasure intelligently and within the moral confines of the religion. Pleasure is naturally embraced however it will never truly satisfy one's true nature on their path towards moksha. American culture reflects an entirely different approach to pleasure, as one simply has to turn on their television and witness the unremitting commercials advertising products for the clearest skin, diets for the most weight loss, or the most mouth-watering beer. Despite American culture's affinity with pleasure, I do feel as though the disproportion of the “pleasure” and “community service” aims will change over the course of the next decade. Ultimately, the themes that characterize "American" music currently—sex, drugs and money—will become less prevalent with the growing concern for basic human rights and presence of spiritual values—values that are evident in Hinduism's teachings.
Ultimately, I’m professing that this concern for basic human rights will spill over onto the production of music and the gap between the “pleasure” aim and the “community service” aim in American music will be much less significant. For example, a number of popular movements in the 1960s arose advocating for equal rights for African Americans and an end to the Vietnam War. Ultimately, the concern for basic human rights influenced the music being created during the era as well. The Beatles first became popular in the United States during 1964, a band that introduced many altruistic themes and ideas in their songs that parallel many of the notions that encompass the Hindu “community service” aim. In the songs that I selected for my blog regarding the “community service” aim, I did my best to incorporate songs that were produced more recently but still accurately depicted a value on the community as opposed to the self—a value that is rarely seen in American lyrics because of the unremitting focus on the self or individual. In conclusion, although there are a number of lasting cultural differences that have created a disproportion between Hindu's "pleasure" and "community service" aims in American music, a growing concern for basic human rights could create less of a focus on the individual and instead concentrate on the community.
That is interesting that you think American culture is more likely to take on the characteristics of Hindu ideology within the immediate future. I would actually argue the opposite. I think that the changes brought on by globalization are actually more likely to have a greater impact on Indian/eastern cultures in that they become more secular. For example, watch any recent Bollywood film(they're awful ha!!!) You also made a lot of good points in this post. & I saw tune-yards last year at the canal club they are sweet!
ReplyDelete