Stuff from another class

I thought y'all would find this interesting. Ghostwriter are both taking (were both taking :) ) Sociology of Popular Music and our final project was probably more applicable to this particular Senior Seminar class, since we tackled the issue of authorship.

Along with a Pitzer student who's a singer, the three of us decided to perform three different versions of the same song - Jose Gonzalez's "Crosses". I don't know if you all are familiar with the song, but it's a pretty good slow acoustic number. Really folky. So Ghostwriter did a slow, keyboard-based soulful ballad. I did an uptempo, punk-ish version on my acoustic guitar, and the Pitzer student, who is Latin-American, sang it poppier and included a verse in Spanish. We were looking at how the song's meanings and style were altered in the mind of the audience when singers with different ethnic backgrounds sang it in a style more closely associated with their ethnicity. It was a great song to choose for that project also because Gonzalez is Swedish, born of Argentinian parents, playing a style that isn't really associated with either of those countries - at least in "Crosses".

It was a lot of fun to think about how the lyrics changed in each performers' hands (or voice...teehee). We talked about how song lyrics are sometimes written so broadly (as in not specific to the artist or their background) that they could almost be sung by anyone. But this is also part of their appeal. Another observation was how each genre carries with it a certain subtextual meaning (as with punk and anger or dissatisfaction) that alters how a listener will perceive any given set of lyrics. And thus meaning is created through the relationship of the words and the music, not just one or the other. It was a pretty fun project to do, and I wish that more of you could have seen it. I don't know if you have any thoughts or reactions, but I just thought I'd share. Something to think about, I guess.