Listening to these class lectures and going over the notes for them is kind of like listening to music. There’s a certain flow to them, the content goes to places that are unexpected, and if you listen to similar styles you start to pick up patterns that you didn’t notice before.

We started class with an intro of Rare Essence, an NPR Music Tiny desk concert. Once class was mostly settled, Professor O’Malley discussed beats a little more, mostly showing a visual of four blue circles with a red circle in the center. He then showed us examples of songs that have the beat trail behind the actual pulse, such as the aforementioned Rare Essence and Al Green’s love and happiness.

We then trailed off to migration, and once again discussed how migration has more influences on genres of music than we think. While we previously discussed how African Americans had migrated from the rural south to the urban north, it was interesting to hear about how whites had a similar experience, mainly how Country music had mainly been a way for white people who migrated to reminisce over the life that they had left behind, much like how African Americans did with their own music.

Professor O’Malley also called back with a quote. “Political culture is segregated, popular culture is something else, more complicated.” It’s something that he tied into the current lecture by showing us Jimmy Rodgers. A country singer, he appealed to both white and black listeners, but his work was marketed to white people. It’s an interesting situation, one that Professor O’Malley expanded on by talking about Louis Armstrong, who would sing a Minstrel Song called “Dinah” and had some similarities to Minstrel Shows, to the embarrassment of fellow black musicians. We also discussed other singers like Charlie Christian and Buck Owens, both of whom showed how music, particularly country music, had more influences from other cultures than people would expect at this time. We also talked about Elvis, which is always an interesting topic, along with listening to songs and dissecting them, such as Honky Tonkin’, which the class had mixed feelings about because of its racist and sexist implications.

It’s almost as if we’re going back in time, listening to these songs and discussing how they developed. For my part, while I think they are a curious piece of history, I can’t really bring myself to enjoy or listen to them, and I’m more interested in hearing about what effects these songs had in the culture of America at the time than the contents of the songs themselves. Only time will tell if I change my feelings on the matter, but so far, I can confidently say that it’s the historic elements of these songs that interest me more than actually hearing them.