Performance Report 2 - Side Show the Musical

Time and Space
During the first weekend that Side Show was available for the public eye at the University of Texas at Dallas, that first Saturday night (April 10th) was not a full house. Not even half of the theatre was filled by the time the show officially started. At this time, the first three rows of the theatre seating were completely filled while the fourth and fifth rows had a few people here and there. The show started in a very timely manner, with more people (mostly students) slowly coming in late as the show went on. I found it very interesting that the first row of the audience was on the same level as the stage and the university theatre was smaller than I had imagined.

Music
I have been to live musicals before, but I noticed that in Side Show, the orchestra rarely ever stopped playing. Maybe I had never realized it before because I have never had to analyze a musical or maybe it did not play as often as this one, but the orchestra was playing during scene changes and times where I would normally think it to be a dead time in a play. Though most of the time the orchestra was playing during scene changes, occasionally the singers would sing along as well, while moving objects for the next scene. The music that played in between these scenes normally set the tone for the upcoming scene. For example, it was quick and upbeat right before a lively and fun scene, but it was slower and had less ornamentation when the next scene was on the serious side. The music had a very westernized sound to it. Clarinets, flute, bass, guitar, trumpet, horn, saxophones, tuba, drums, percussion, and oboes made up the orchestra, along with the director, piano, and assistant director. The music was definitely a pulsatile homophony and contained each classification of instruments – chordophones, aerophones, membranophones, idiophones, and electrophones.

Audience
Much of the attendees seemed to be family of those in the performance because I saw many older couples, adults, many family-looking groups with kids that were probably brother and sisters of the performers. There were some students there as well, probably to support their friends, but the families far out-numbered the students. Part of the reason could be that it was on a Saturday night, a student’s prime night for going out. The first three rowed were completely packed with people, with the first row being on the same level as the stage. It was obvious to me that those first few rows were more attentive to the show. I was in the third row and I could see those who were in front of me were absorbed in the play, but when I glanced behind me, many were texting and whispering amongst themselves. Having the first row of seats on the same level as the stage allowed the performers to interact with the crowd on another level that I have never seen before. Because of this, the first couple of rows didn’t really have a choice but to pay attention, because you wouldn’t want to be caught off guard by the performers. In the beginning, it was obvious that the audience was not too sure of when the appropriate time was to clap. They tried to clap after long song, especially by the girls, but many times they were interrupted by another actor who began their line. As the night went on, the timing for applause improved greatly.

Performers
It was difficult to analyze much about the performers because they were put behind the entire scene, almost out of sight from the audience. At the very beginning, I could see about six of the musicians, but soon, even they were covered up and the only players I was able to see consistently was the drummer and the electric guitarist. I realize this is a musical, but I was surprised to see that even simple dialogue, many times, was sung instead of plainly being stated. The interaction with the audience made the atmosphere of the crowd much different than it would have been without it. When the “Cannibal King” came into the crowd when he was introduced, it was as if this musical was daring to be different, and grabbed the audience’s attention very quickly. I also noticed that the actors and actresses seemed to make a lot of eye contact with the audience, which is normally a bad thing when performing in a show, but in my opinion, it just added to the interaction that they had with the audience.

Overall, this musical had many different aspects and a unique atmosphere that I had never experienced before. From the interaction of the performers with the audience to the constant playing of the orchestra, the show was a type of folk performance – it was put on for the enjoyment of their own community. Though the theatre was smaller than imagined, it allowed for a special bond for the audience to take part in.

Blog 12 - New Wave Rock

New wave was known as a subgenre of rock of the early 1980s. This subgenre is a great example of rock because it contains all of the elements that rock is known for. The example band that I am going to use to display this subgenre of rock will be the Talking Heads singing the song that I would imagine that most everyone should recognize, called “Burning Down the House”. (I apologize, I couldn't get this particular video to show up on the blog, but here's a hyperlink to it.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNnAvTTaJjM

First, the guitar is a very important component to rock, whether it be the bass guitar, the electric guitar, or the acoustic guitar. However, most of the focus and emphasis of the music came from the electric guitar, as was common in rock. Next, there are only four players in this band. Each of them plays an instrument: the acoustic guitar, the electric guitar, the bass guitar, and the drums. However, three of them sing as well, the drummer being the exception. The size of this group is identified as a small ensemble. The fact that three of the four musicians sing as well proves the emphasis on singing that rock had. Though normally the lead singer may be the one that stands out in appearance in order to make a statement and stand out from the rest of the bands of the time, the whole band had the image, instead of just the head singer. In their music videos, as well as in the recording studio, they had a creative use of technology. If anything, their video should prove this, and also that it was not just blending in with other bands at the time, but it was an emotional, powerful style that no other band had tried quite like this before. They had an excitement and energy that couldn’t be ignored, which came through very loudly.

Blog 11 - The Gullah

The Gullah people are an African American people that came to the United States as slaves and were known for their cultivation of rice. They were very isolated and did not have as much interaction with whites as the north did, and were therefore able to keep a tighter grasp on their traditions and way of life. All of their customs have a deeper meaning than what may be realized. Their stories, arts and crafts, funerals, dance/music, and even their diet has reason(s) of why they perform them the way they do.

The Gullah dance and music in particular, is more than just entertainment. This is their way of expressing that they are not inferior to anyone, and their “resistance to slavery”. They believe and want the focus of the dance not to be any of the physical moves or physical sound, but the depth of expression and the meaning behind the expression to be what is understood by their folk performance. It’s about expressing their gratitude for their ancestors continued resistance to slavery and the freedom that they fought for and still have now. As simple as it may look and sound, the Gullah attack another whole world of their own to it that their community understands and is thankful for.



The majority of the music comes from the drums, but some of those who were dancing and some who were watching also had a type of shaker that made noise as well. Anyone in attendance was encouraged to dance, shout, or whatever you needed to “if the spirit moved you”.

Performance Report 1 - It's a Small World After All

Introduction/Time and Space
On April 2, 2010 Laura Thao and her assistant Kyle performed at Central Market in Fort Worth, Texas. The atmosphere was very laid back. The music wasn’t the main focus of this event, but more of a type of background sound. This event took place outside on a patio where people were eating, talking, and drinking while their kids played. There was a child’s playground right next to the stage, enabling the children to sit on the ledge right behind the performers, almost as if they were on stage themselves. This greatly showed how laid back it was. Though most of the patio was open to any type of bad weather that may occur, the stage is covered with a roof.

Audience
The majority of people were families. This event allowed the parents to drink and have a good time catching up with one another while their kids also got to play with other children. Not everyone was listening, but those that were sitting closer to the stage seemed more attentive. Right in front of the stage, little girls and boys were dancing to the music, causing the musicians on stage to smile at them occasionally. Most of the crowd would applaud after each song, especially those in the front. There were lots of kids, running around, dancing, screaming, but no one seemed to mind. It was a very chill environment. The adults could bring their own beer; some were even spilling it all over the place. It was interesting to me how though the people may not have seemed very attentive, I did get several looks from people, as I was by myself, carrying around a notebook and taking notes. I assume that they were just curious of what exactly I was doing there and taking notes about.

Performers
The musicians on stage, Laura Thao the guitar and Kyle on a drum, seemed very relaxed. They were not a popular type of music style, but more of a folk music To match the audience, the performers were also very relaxed and comfortable. The guitarist, who was also singing, asked at least a couple times, if the audience could hear her, and to my surprise, they crowd responded quite well. Laura was wearing jeans and a sleeveless shirt and Kyle was wearing a long sleeve, plaid shirt and white cargo shorts. It was neat to see the performers somewhat interact with the audience, whether it was asking them if they could hear well, or just responding to the children’s dancing, singing, and sometimes screaming in the space in front of them.

Music
Laura stood and played an acoustic guitar while singing and Kyle sat on a cube-shaped drum that he would beat with his hands. The music had a very Western style to it. Each song had the same, single chorus, with two or three different verses in between. In the third song, she used a plucking technique. Together, they created a monophony, as the guitar just provided a single melody with the drum accompanying at certain pulses. She sang a pretty high pitch, probably more of a soprano tone. There were parts of several different songs where she would not sing certain words, but instead, emotional sounds. For example, in one song, she might “mmhmm” and another, she would “yahoaaa”. Laura swayed and moved to the music in a very smooth fashion, as if to get a better feel of the beat.

After the first three songs, she explained that they were more romantically inspired, while the next few she was about to sing were focused more on the Creator. The next few songs were either about the Lord’s love, how His grace wipes away our mistakes and sins, and the praise He deserves. Some of the song titles were “You are Made New” and “To Your Name be the Glory”.

Conclusion
I had originally planned to hear the Fort Worth All Stars play, but I happened to arrive in time for them to be on break (as I found out a couple songs in) while these two were performing. After she began talking about God’s love and correlating her songs towards her relationship with Christ, I decided I was going to talk to her after the performance, maybe as an interview or maybe as a Christian sister. Either way, I just felt the need to talk with her afterwards. As I walked near her, she said “I remember you!” as she looked at me. It turns out, I had met her last summer at a Baptist camp at UMHB in Belton, but because of her new haircut, I had failed to recognize her. I was shocked for the rest of the weekend that we had just happened to meet up at some random place. It’s a small world after all!

Blog 10 - Opera Composer Donizetti

This particular song is started by the singer, Sumi Jo, with a solo and the instruments join in very softly soon after and build their way up. As common in opera, the Sumi Jo uses the vibrato technique, where her voice continues to waver in pitch. To my surprise, there is a supporting choir in the background. Because they are not that loud (as they shouldn’t be because they are not intended to be the main focus of this opera) from what I can tell, they are not using the vibrato technique that Sumi Jo is using. They come in only at certain rare occasions.

I would definitely consider this a type of popular music because there is no possibility that this is a group of amateurs. These musicians are professionals that play for mass audiences. I also find it very interesting how at around 4:52, though the song is not over yet, the audience begins to clap. My initial reaction was that this audience was not educated enough in this type of music to know when to applaud. However, I soon realized that this couldn’t be the case. This is a very formal performance and it is highly unlikely that the entire audience would applaud at the wrong time. I believe their applause was due to their realization of Sumi Jo’s incredible singing talent, which could not help but to be recognized right then and there. It was also funny to see the violinists’ reactions to the unexpected applause in the middle of the performance, as they did not seem too pleased about the sudden interruption.

Blog 9 - Avatar vs. Na'vi

Though the music in the movie “Avatar” that is used as film score and the music known to the culture of Na’vi are very similar, there are differences that need to be noted. However, I must admit, these are not easily distinguished.

In order to see the difference, it is necessary to look deeper into the music than what is at the surface. For example, the reasoning behind the music of the Na’vi music opposes what the music in Avatar is used for. Na’vi music imitates natural noises that are heard, whether that may take place in the surrounding environment or in a person. The drums might mimic the beat of a heart, seeing as everyone living has a heartbeat. But as is seen in the music video below, it has a nature-feel to it, as if it might be played in the forest or outdoors somewhere.



In the case of this example of Na’vi music, there is a sort of drone that varies in pitch and is not as consistent as the type of drone that I am prone to think of when I think of a drone. However, it does exemplify how natural it is supposed to sound.



The music of the movie Avatar seems a bit more serious, and fittingly should, as it is centered around war and love. This song above does not seem as natural, but tends to have a bit more of what we know as classical music in it, at certain points, while still maintaining the natural feel as well.

Though the basis of the music in Avatar may have been from the Na’vi music culture, it is definitely still turned more towards its own purpose of having the serious-war feel, while the Na’vi keeps to the natural sounds of the world around them.

Music Ethnography - Fellowship Church

Introduction
For my music culture, I was curious to see how another church conducted their worship in another fashion than I was accustomed to, so I visited Fellowship Church of Grapevine, Texas. I normally attend the First Baptist Church of Richardson, but Fellowship has a Saturday night service that is more directed towards the younger generation and sparked my interest.

Methodology
My friend from high school, Preston Patridge, introduced me to this church. I graduated high school with him and he attends UNT, making it easy for us to get together to go to this unique church. In order to further analyze this music-culture, I used several sources. The main one I used was attending the actual worship at Fellowship Church. I took notes during, but I also participated in the worship. The second best source of information that I received was from a personal interview from Preston who attends this church regularly. I also went online to find the website to Fellowship’s main band called Ragamuffin Soul.

First of all, it needs to be known that this church is directed towards the younger church-going generation. This service was on Saturday night at 6:00 p.m. in Grapevine, Texas. Due to the focus on this contemporary audience, the atmosphere is much more laid back. This is necessary to know before fully explaining how this church functions.

Ideas About Music
Keeping in mind the modernity of this culture, the origin of the music that Fellowship Church offers in its worship services has a combination of other music cultures, including mainly current ones. Overall, it has a western style because of the similar instruments they use, including the usual guitars, drums, and singers. There were four singers in the front of the stage, one of them leading. They switch off leading the service week by week. To use an example as to how laid back the nature of the performance is, on my visit, the lead singer of this service that introduced the church had a little trouble with her words and admitted to jumbling up her words often and saying “stupid stuff”. It is just that casual and easy-going. The genre it can be most closely associated with is rock. However, the keyboard also adds some of the traditional style of church worship that has been used for a much longer. This “worship” that is mentioned is the intent of their music in this time and space. Granted, there are many forms of worship, but this type of music is used for worship. Worship transcends the act of singing any song or playing any instrument. It’s a personal time between the person worshipping and the God they are worshipping, not caring what others may thing of them but focusing solely on the One who matters. Worship is a very important aspect of this church and is therefore performed at every service, whether that may mean on Saturday night or early on a Sunday morning. It can be performed as often as desired. Normally, they play three to four songs per service at least.

Activities Involving Music
Their main band is called Ragamuffin and has their own album, which can be found on iTunes (Preston Patridge). They can also be found online at http://www.ragamuffinsoul.com/. The pastor also keeps a blog, in which one of the subcategories is music, which can be found at http://www.edyoungblog.com/music/. However, the church’s music capabilities are not limited to stage performances by professionals. Members of the church play on their own as a hobby, worshipping Him on their own or with a group of people. Worship includes more than just singing, though. Some may dance and jump up and down; others may raise their hands, or just simply clap to the beat. Any and all of these are gladly welcomed to the performance, but are acted upon only with the intent of praising. Seeing how comfortable people are there makes the atmosphere very welcoming for visitors of any sort, no matter what race, ethnicity or gender you may be. Fellowship Church does have a central region in Dallas, though. Its main campus is in Grapevine, Texas, but it also has other smaller locations located Plano, downtown Dallas, Fort Worth, and another out of the area located in Miami.

Repertoires of Music
Because of this intimate time of worship they create, they compose the music according to what they believe this generation will relate better to and enjoy more. Therefore, composing in the current day is important in order that they may take more meaning away with the words than they would be able to in the fashion of traditional church music. Much more emphasis is placed on the lyrics than many other types of music where entertainment is the main purpose.

Material Culture of Music
However, the band on stage is set up like that of a secular band. The singers are in the very front holding microphones, behind them was the keyboard on stage-right; then moving from right to left was the electric guitar, the bass guitar, and the drums in the left corner. The nature of this church allows the dress to be as casual as desired, but is all prompted by personal choice, performers and audience alike (Preston Patridge). To ensure that everyone has the chance to sing, even though they may not know the song, the lyrics are displayed on a couple, large projectors in the front so that everyone can sing along, if they so desire. This is especially the case at Fellowship Church because much of their music they compose themselves. At least for the Saturday night service that I attended, they did not have music books or, as they are normally known in church, hymnals available for the audience to look at because the use of the screens replaced the need to stand and hold a book while trying to worship.

Conclusion
Though this music culture may seem to have a very common style of today’s secular music that is used for the main purpose of entertainment, it really holds much deeper meaning to all the participants than it may seem to when initially seen, whether you’re engaged as a musician or as an attendant.

Blog 8 - Difficulties with Analyzing this Music Culture

While writing out my ethnography, I thought all the questions I had answered would be well over enough information to write 1,200 words, but as it turns out, much of it overlaps. Some of the different questions in separate aspects of music seem to have the same answer. The transitions they make are very smooth, but then I keep jumping from aspect to aspect with no direction. It flows really well, if the aspects weren’t taken into account, but that is one of the key points to organizing this paper. So now, I have two main paragraphs that include of the aspects each, and it needs to be organized better than that.

However, it was nice that the interview was able to go so smoothly. The person that I interviewed, Preston Patridge, is a friend from high school that is currently going to North Texas and is also the one who introduced me to this church. Other information that I searched for was easily found online as well.

But my main problem right now is that I need better organization and I need more words. I am at about 800, and though I do not feel completely stuck quite yet, I feel like it is quickly approaching and that more information is going to be needed.

Thankfully, with a little time and effort, these problems of organization and lack of words can be fixed by digging a bit more and really diving into this music culture. The culture deserves more depth than that anyway.

Blog 7 - Fellowship Church

For my music ethnography, I visited Fellowship Church in Grapevine for their worship service. I normally attend First Baptist Church of Richardson, but I wanted to analyze a different type of worship other than what I am normally accustomed to. As opposed to normal Sunday Church services, they have a service on Saturday night at 6:00 p.m.

Their songs are not the popular songs that are known in Christianity, but instead, they make their own songs. They have songs on I-tunes under the artist name of Fellowship church. They contain the same elements as most other Christian worship bands with a guitar, bass guitar, electric guitar, drums and singers. However, they do not have the same lead singer every service. They have a group of singers and they switch off in leading. Here is the link to their worship team.

http://www.ragamuffinsoul.com/tag/dex-alexander/

The time and space makes a difference in the audience because the Saturday service provides a way out for those who have a tougher time getting up in the morning and therefore, attracts many young people. Because of this, their service is much more upbeat and lively than what you would normally think a church service would be. Like many other music cultures we have studied, the audience here participates, if they choose, with the music. It is very common to see many of the front-row people dancing and jumping to the music, while people further back will raise their hands or close their eyes. Sometimes, people might even just shout out the words instead of singing, but a definition of singing does fluctuate.

Here is an example of their music style in the Fellowship Church culture.

Blog 6 - Japanese Noh

This was a Japanese Noh performance in Senedagaya, Tokyo on the Hatomori Shrine stage. They performed on September 8th, 2007 for the Autumn Festival. This is an example of the musical ensemble that normally goes along with noh dramas. These type of ensembles are called hayashi. This hayashi had a slow tempo, as is the tradition of Japanese music. However, keeping in mind ethnocentrism, their idea of slow may be different than theirs. If they are accustomed to slow tempos, then this could possibly be a faster tempo performance, but based on our Western music culture, this is very slow. Because of this decrease in tempo, they have more temporal spaces between notes, also known as ma. The sound varies throughout the performance and therefore the ma can be more noticeable at certain times than at others. Though much Japanese music may not be considered pulsatile because of the slow tempo, this piece is pulsatile. From what I could decipher, this was a homophony with the chants as part of the harmony.

Chants are very common in Japanese music, especially in these type ensembles. These exclamations are called kakegoe in hayashis. Though three-fourths of the instruments are drums, they each play their own specific part, none of them playing the same pattern at the same time. It has more of a layered effect that strays away from synchronization.

Noh’s are known to tell stories, which is why it is considered a classical theatre of Japan, instead of plainly a type of music. This may not be factual, but supposedly in this video, the actress on stage is wearing her purple robes of her husband who passed away. After looking into the well, which is the box seen in the front, she sees her reflections and believes it to be her deceased husband. I wish I could better understand the message or story they were trying to give through this theatrical scenario.

Blog 5 - Hindustani Classical Music

Though at first this performance may seem like someone posting their music on YouTube just because they wanted to show off their musical talent to the online world, this is not the case. Ranjan Roy, better known as Maharaj meaning “The King”, is actually a popular musician whose music is played frequently on the All India Radio (A.I.R.). He is an Indian Classical star.

In this video, Maharaj is playing the sitar in a very pulsatile fashion. The sitar is a five-string chordophone that is plucked. There is a bit of ornamentation in this song with the addition of a chime or triangle of some type, but otherwise, all the sound was homophonic and came from the sitar. The song as a whole is of conjunct motion, though there are certain intervals that are not as small compared with the rest of the intervals in the song. In India, Raga is an important principle of guiding the melody that I believe Maharaj uses. Though it is common for Indian music to have a nonpulsatile introduction, also known as an alap, he does not begin this song this way. The beginning is pulsatile, but yet sets the tone for the rest of the song quite well.

In the description of this video, the publisher noted that the original music video of this particular song was three hours long, but had to be cut short for YouTube purposes. Improvisation is common to Indian music, so I am taking an educated guess that this song was improvisation. Also, raga is often over an hour long, and this video fits this description very well.

Chinese Cultural Exchange

On Thursday, February 4, 2010 at 8:30 a.m., students in the Student Art Troupe of the University of International Business and Economy from China met with our class of UTD students to have a discussion of our different musical cultures.

We began by asking the UIBE students more about their music. They showed us some of their folk music with some personal on-the-spot performances and also a couple songs from the computer. When a couple singers sang a common folk song for us, their pitch varied greatly, but not in the same way as we are accustomed to. The pitch varied within the same word, having very short increments of pitches. They sang from the top of their range to the bottom of their range very quickly, and it was very different from that of the West, or at least in my opinion. However, other songs sounded as if they could be popular here as well. One man played a song on his guitar and it sounded very similar to our culture’s style of music.

When we asked them to tell us about some of their popular music, they gave us a few names and songs. One that I looked up and really enjoyed was Liuhuan’s “You and Me” that was actually used during the Olympics. This is only one example of the popular music they suggested to us. It is common in their style of music to sing using their nose or singing through their nose and another student showed us briefly how it was done. In this video, when the woman begins to sing around the minute and a half mark, it is apparent that she isn’t singing the way most Americans would.



However, when we tried to tell them more about popular music here in the U.S., we focused more upon how diverse our people are and how it varies from one person to another. In my opinion, we never gave them clear examples of our popular music, though one of their students asked about Lady Gaga.

Overall, though our music cultures were very different, they were still more alike than I had originally thought. We seemed to have the same idea of Blues and many of the music sounded similar, with the exception of the language. This discussion with actual Chinese musicians gave me a better idea of what their music is like.

Blog 4 - Ay Mardom by Googoosh

I picked Ay Mardom because I was able to find the translation for the lyrics. Reading about Googoosh gave me an idea about her purpose, but knowing what her lyrics said gave me an all-around better understanding.

Ay Mardom has the style of Persian pop style that also contains some Western homophonic texture to it. It begins with basic chordophones that remain the predominant instrument throughout this obviously pulsatile song. About a fifth of the way through, the membranophones come into play, and the middle of the song is homophonic with aerophones as the supporting harmony with the melody still playing. But the majority blend of the string instruments and the percussion is what really makes the song superb. It has a simple duple meter with great accent on the first beat.

I believe she is one of the exceptions to the functions of music that the textbooks points out. Though her songs are mainly known as popular music and she is trying to give hope to many people, by doing so, it becomes a form of art music in the fact that she is more concerned about her “depth of expression” than solely selling it to mass audiences. Her lyrics are far too sophisticated for just money purposes. In my opinion, these two cross because she a professional creating this beautiful music to a large number of people as her way of communicating to people the struggle of an Iranian, or an Iranian woman to be more specific.

Blog 3 - The N'Awlins Gumbo Kings

On the Friday night of January 22, 2010, the N’Awlins Gumbo Kings played their own art music of jazz at 8:00 p.m. in the Conference Center of UT Dallas. The performers each wore suits, but none completely matching each other. The man who played the clarinet and saxaphone, Mike Sizer, wore an awesome hat to top off the look. The crowd was composed mainly of seniors, who seemed to be somewhat familiar with each other as if this was a regular event to attend. However, there were also a few students in attendance as well, most of whom walked in late. The fact that the performance was on a late Friday night might account for the lack of students who came.

Their stage was set up to where the stationary instruments, such as the drums, bass, and keyboard were located near the back; whereas the mobile instruments, the trombone, trumpet, and saxophone, were found in the front. The pitch of their first song was very versatile. The high and low notes simultaneously created a flowing harmony. Like the rest of their songs, the first one was syncopated with duple and simple meter of a high frequency. The saxophone held the melody for the majority of the opener. Meanwhile, the trombone and the trumpet walked around stage casually, just enjoying the sound. All of their songs were obviously pulsatile. There was no doubt that their music wasn’t strophical because you never heard the same thing twice. It was easy to see that they all had good rhythm because they seemed to deeply enjoy their music, as their faces and body language showed it, which led me to believe they were a form of art music above anything else.

You can get more information about them at
http://www.gumbokings.com/default.htm

Blog 2 - Worship

I have grown up in church, but there are many different types of worship services. I currently attend the First Baptist Church of Richardson and I enjoy their Sunday morning worship. Last semester, I went to a church in Grapevine called Fellowship Church with a friend from UNT on a Saturday night. This service was a very different service than I am accustomed to on Sunday mornings. It was more like services at youth camp during the summer. I love that kind of worship.

I've attended a couple different churches growing up, and they all seem to sing a few the traditional songs that most people know, like this one for example. This is "Blessed Be Your Name".



Then, there are a couple ones that aren't as well know. What is neat about the song selection at the Fellowship Church is that though they do sing some of the regulars, they also sing songs that the musicians wrote themselves. To me, that can make the song a lot more personal, knowing that the person on stage singing it wrote it. Yes, many Christian artists do so too, but the fact that they are folk music instead of popular, brings them closer to my level, it seems. Not only that, but the worship is more interactive than the Sunday morning usual. The worship is more like this. This is one of my favorites, Jeff Johnson singing "Glorious Day".



Though I do think that the heart behind the worship is all that matters, I do think that different styles mean more to different people and I would like to go into deeper analysis of this unique church's style of worship.

Blog 1 - Music Culture Influence

Growing up, I was exposed to many different types of music, ranging from country to 80's rock to Christian music. I listened to each of those genres and liked them all. This explains why my music interest is so diverse today. I am into pop, techno, country, alternative, blues, rock, and Christian music. To put it simply, I like to listen to whatever I am feeling like at the moment. Although I do not like opera, classical, of jazz too much, they are tolerable because overall, I would say that I am not opposed to any type of music, or at least any type known in the U.S. However, I am opposed to certain lyrics. There are songs that I like because of the sound, but the words that are sung ruin it for me. I am a firm believer in Jesus Christ and I realize that there are many songs that are not glorifying to His name. Because of this, I know I would enjoy more popular songs of today if only the words were different. This is why I sometimes listen to Apologetix, a Christian parody band.



This is an example of one of their songs. It is called "The Real Sin Savior" instead of Eminem's "The Real Slim Shady". I know that many will see this as a lame alternative, but in my opinion, this is better than not listening to that song at all. It has lyrics that I completely agree with and to me, that's a win-win.