For me, I would have to say that my turning point in the class came when we discussed about Gothic country, ambient country, and EDM country, which opened my eyes to some of the limits of country music. And, this discussion caused me to have a great appreciation for gothic country and the overall sound and way that they approach country. It's definitely a less commercialized and less conformist type of country music. And, it has many similarities to some types of folk music, with raspy voices and really fast and loud intros. It reminds me a lot of the band Onward Etc., which my brother was a part of for some time. And, the regions that it is in almost matches that of folk (out west (Denver)) and regions out west vs country music which is popular in the south. In a sense, I think that the appeal for folk music in the American West comes from the more rugged and out on the range kind of attitude that isn't seen as much in the South (South is in a sense made up of more populated areas). And, in a sense, the South almost takes the identity of country music moreso than the West takes on the identity of Gothic country. To be honest, I can't really tell if the West has a very distinct music personality like the South seems to have. And, it makes me wonder whether the West has less of a closer personality, which is what I'd assume, since the West has such a diverse demographic in terms of economic and social makeup.
And, as someone from the North, I guess I see less of a distinction of regional differences in the South than I do from people in the West. That's of course not to say that there aren't huge regional differences in the south, but the expanse and size of the western US in my mind is a huge factor in the way in which musical communities and identities have developed. Even along the West Coast, the personalities of cities are totally different from each other, which would create that unease and discomfort around the town, city, or state over. It reminds me a lot of the joke about Irish people in a town hating the people from a town a few kilometers over. I'm not from the South, but I could imagine that there are conflicts between people in one county to another county or one town to another town. For example, a town that is not that far away from me has been stereotyped as a town that has toxic men, while other towns don't have toxic men, which creates an environment that causes
In my group, I held the position of writing some lyrics for one of the songs that we were
working on, giving suggestions on how it sounded, and combining individual song tracks into a
single song. I’d say that my personal strength of verbal collaboration with other people really
helped with my ability to go smoothly along with what was needed in the project and the group.
I’d have to say that when initially looking at this project, it seemed like we had more time than
we actually had, but when getting down to it, we had to be sure to get everything that the other
teams needed from us, in order to do some of their things. I’d have to say that one of the turning
points for this project was when the other groups raised some concern regarding the timeline of
us getting our songs into them. And, I’d have to say that another turning point of the process
was when we were at the end needing to get everything in for the other groups. It can be very
upsetting when other groups are trying to rush us, and not understand how long the creative
process and recording process takes. I understand where they’re coming from, but I just think
that they needed to understand that we can’t just plop out new songs for them to use for their
parts of the project.
I definitely think that the marketing team could’ve used Hey Good Lookin’ for the TikTok
song instead of one of the ones we are working on. I wish that some of the other teams were
more engaged with our process so that they could understand the many hours of hardwork and
dedication that went into the songs. So, for example, it would’ve been cool for some people from
other groups to look at what we were doing, so that all of the groups could be on the same
page. I think that so much conflict between groups in class projects comes from a sense of lack
of information about what each group is doing. I think that that’s one of the problems with a lot of
group assignments, and is a very important skill for both classroom projects and the adult world.
I think that the lack of communication caused our team to develop a lot more disconnection and
unclearness of the plan with the other groups, thereby causing people to think that not as much
work was being done. I felt bad about not being able to contribute more in the creative team, but
me not being talented at singing or playing the ukulele, piano, or guitar restricted my ability to
help in the creation realm, and instead required me to do side activities like giving
recommendations and advice. I overall though really enjoyed working in such a collaborative
and positive working environment, and I thought that working with my group was a really
positive experience for everyone.
I definitely learned a lot about the recording process through working in the creative
team. I had done some recording with my brother in 9th grade for an internship (my brother is a
professional musician), and had created a song with him. The song was a joke song, but that
song is a very cool memory to look back on, and an amazing example of how important
collaboration and a positive environment is key to having a piece that you can be proud of and
enjoy in the far future. I know that in a couple of years, I’ll look back at these songs and be very
happy and nostalgic about them. I ultimately think that much of the music we like stems from a
desire to relive the past and escape the present and future. It was very cool to see how we
analyzed our previous musical aesthetic preferences in class, which allowed for us to analyze
our previously held musical assumptions, as well as the prejudices that we had around that
music (ex. Country music is all for hicks, classical music is the pinnacle). I really like how you
included funny comments about the arrogance that pervades the music departments and music
schools, and I think that it gave a lot of depth to the conversations we were having, and made
us think about whether our views of music and art were causing us to view certain types of art
forms as objectively beautiful, instead of recognizing that we all have different aesthetic
preferences, which I think is ultimately the goal of the Aesthetic Inquiry class. A liberal arts
education is ultimately about “having multiple viewpoints in our head” (Dr. Hedman). I think that
this course is one of the most integral to the student development of students in the Honors
Program.
I think that from the first half of the class, we were able to create a specific
feeling/aesthetic of music that we wanted to explore based on what we thought would be the
most popular/representative of the High Point students, while also making sure that we explore
our own musical preferences. It wasn’t very surprising that we created songs that had a very
pop country feel to them, since that’s what our generation prefers. Some of the best parts of
recording were when we could see those individual markers in the music and the overall sound
that we wanted out of it to almost jump out and speak itself to us. Ultimately, I think that this
project allowed for us to be able to bring the concepts of building a personality around a project,
as well as the important skill of being able to collaborate in groups in which we all have different
musical preferences, but all generally agree with one vision for the musical piece or project. It
was really fascinating to see how many elements could be included into the pieces, and the
ability for us to embellish or create songs with aspects of other genres, which we have heard in
songs we’ve heard in our everyday lives. It was very hard to include many aspects of early and
non-pop inspired country because of the audience we were marketing to.
I think that this project has taught me that you can have a lot of creative freedom, even in
restrictive jobs. It was really cool to create for a specific audience, and it also taught me about
how to collaborate when my specialty isn’t necessarily in that area, but that I can still contribute
by using the things I’m good at (planning ideas and collaboration around ideas for songs and
how the songs should sound). In terms of bringing things from this course into future studies or
my professional life, I’ll definitely take the collaboration skills into my future studies and my
professional life.