Sunday, February 22, 2009

About Madonna

Here I don't hold any view filled with hostility to critisize Madonna. I know that Artists enrich people's spiritual life and evoke people's feeling. All the three question of my views are all established on respectful and objective to Madonna.

1 The music can be set off and presented at range of form and structure,the lyrics also can be papered with all kinds of contents from society.In my opinion it is actually true in that period of time has happened something triggering the singer like to sing the music coverd with virginity,pregnancy, and money.
These songs are reflectd some negative phenomenon and potential threat between material and spirit.The form of lyrics might be over frank and the voice of Madonna might be over showing off. It doesn't matter that where is the music from but whether it can be accepted or not.In fact Madonna gained more benefits from her songs.
In spite that I'm confused about the lyrics ,I tried to understand and compare the music between Madonna ,Bob Dylan and Waters.Living in the different time,what they sing has different form.The lyrics for Dylan are just like poems fulling of melody,making people relax.As for Waters,the song may be a little simple but from his lifetime,he just tried to write his song digesting some elements from his life.Madonna seems like singing songs as way to descibe a real story.
2 I believe that it is truth everyone who holding a passion like to be a super star with some style of dressing and changing.Once the different elements is rooted in a song,the influences will be spreaed.People will get a impression of the singer.It is a mean that Madonna has been used and never give it up.To some extent ,what she has done has made her under the highlight focus all over the world.
I'm appreciat that Madonna dare to show off her passion in different kind of styles.Maybe her openess sometimes easy to be misunderstood and critisized as an evil behavior.We can gain more positive attibute from her voice to the music itself.We can also tell some thing from her song whether to be accepted or not.
3 I'm noy sure what I founded are right for the topic .I think Madonna has experienced a hard cource of her life.
After her mother passd away she began to be tough.She has played the piano.She aldo has learned the ballet and honoured the scholarship by University of Michigan.In 1978,she had given up her sdudy beore she went to New York opening her own career.
"That consciousness is everything and that all things begin with a thought.That we are responsible for our own fate,we reap what we sow,we get what we give,we pull in what we put out."I really admire this sentence because it is the perfect answer that can be representative for the whole life of Madonna.
It can not be found from her music that her story has been written in her songs.That is a hard time during 60s and 70s.She put all experiece from that time into the album showing off her lengency.

Friday, February 13, 2009

At that time people would like to do the way only they had appreciated.It is that time music entered a new phase of form and many singers had sprung up ,Dylan was included.

Bob Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman on May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter, author, poet, and painter, who has been a major figure in popular music for five decades. Much of Dylan's most celebrated work dates from the 1960s, when he became an informal chronicler and a reluctant figurehead of American unrest. A number of his songs, such as "Blowin' in the Wind" and "The Times They Are a-Changin'", became anthems of both the civil rights movements and of those opposed to the Vietnam War. His most recent studio album, Modern Times, released on August 29, 2006, entered the U.S. album chart at number one, and that same year was named Album of the Year by Rolling Stone magazine. Dylan's early lyrics incorporated political, social, philosophical, and literary influences, defying existing pop music conventions and appealing widely to the counterculture. While expanding and personalizing musical styles, he has explored many traditions of American song, from folk, blues and country to gospel, rock and roll and rockabilly to English, Scottish and Irish folk music, and even jazz and swing. Dylan performs with the guitar, piano and harmonica. Backed by a changing line-up of musicians, he has toured steadily since the late 1980s on what has been dubbed the "Never Ending Tour". Although his accomplishments as performer and recording artist have been central to his career, his songwriting is generally regarded as his greatest contribution

Dylan dropped out of college at the end of his freshman year. In January 1961, he moved to New York City, hoping to perform there and visit his musical idol Woody Guthrie, who was seriously ill with Huntington's Disease in Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital.] Guthrie had been a revelation to Dylan and was the biggest influence on his early performances. Dylan would later say of Guthrie's work, "You could listen to his songs and actually learn how to live." As well as visiting Guthrie in the hospital, Dylan befriended Guthrie's acolyte Ramblin' Jack Elliott. Much of Guthrie's repertoire was actually channeled through Elliott, and Dylan paid tribute to Elliott in Chronicles

In October 2008, Columbia released Volume 8 of Dylan's Bootleg Series, Tell Tale Signs: Rare And Unreleased 1989-2006 as both a two-CD set and a three-CD version with a 150-page hardcover book. The set contains live performances and outtakes from selected studio albums from Oh Mercy to Modern Times, as well as soundtrack contributions and collaborations with David Bromberg and Ralph Stanley. The pricing of the album—the two-CD set went on sale for $18.99 and the three-CD version for $129.99—led to complaints about "rip-off packaging" from some fans and commentators.The release was widely acclaimed by critics. The plethora of alternative takes and unreleased material suggested to Uncut's reviewer: "Tell Tale Signs is awash with evidence of (Dylan's) staggering mercuriality, his evident determination even in the studio to repeat himself as little as possible."
During 2008, Dylan was reported to be curating a project to set some of Hank Williams' "lost" lyrics to music. Dylan is said to be overseeing contributions from Jack White, Willie Nelson, Lucinda Williams, and Norah Jones. An attorney for the Hank Williams estate stated that the project began when music publisher Acuff Rose entrusted to Dylan some of the so-called "Shoebox Songs", notebooks and drafts of songs that had been in the possession of Hank Williams' widow.


Before I search the information about Dylan only one things did I know before was that Dylan had written a songd named "Blowin' in the wind".Now I've tried to understand the songs witten by him.Maybe there is some story can be read through his song.I expect for his song!

music appreciation

As for the 5th question
From the form between Robert Johnson and Rolling Stones witn the song "Love in Vain" we can easily hear that the fomer one is as slowly as the latter one.The latter one is full of notes and melody so that the song are apprantly to be enthusiasm rather than the former one which is a little bit more sadness.But that is not important to define whether blues is enthusiasm or sadness.Meawhile,We have to know clearly that sometimes the music play a main role in songs.
Mostly songs are composed by two parts witch are relating to lyrics and music.However ,in my view that the latter one is more important than the formor one.Music is magic that can not only make lyrics which seems like common becoming activity but make the great lyrics can be kept in mind for good by generation to generation.
Frankly speaking,I think it doesn'y really matter of making sense of the lyrics sometimes.The most important one is the contents of music can be accepted by listeners from the music maker.Athough we don't rememeber full of the lyrics,we learn something about the melody.
Plenty of songs are played by musician without lyrics which enable music more meaningful .It is the melody of music itself that contains various feelings.
Just like the light music from Bandary and classical music named Chopin's Piano Concerto No.1.They were prefuing a natural peace and exicting life in mood and they made a lot of master pieces for music.
Thoughs can be understand by listeners and the way for learning can be in many form.
So we can learn music by ourselves let alone without lyrics,We eventually might be deep impressed by the music.

Monday, February 9, 2009

belief of my information

Hello,my name is Sheng Zhi,but you can call me Tony.I come from China which a place giving me more oppourtunities to study abroad.Now I'm a ESL sdudent of UMASS which is located in Boston where is the birthplace of democratic America history.

In UMASS,if passible ,I'll take half year to finish my ESL courses and spend time to familiar with people around my campus life.Meanwhile,I like to exercise my body instead of learning all day just like a bookworm .Besides,I will look around about famous Universitis in Boston for a reference which can be compared with my ideal major--finance.

With a deep impression of my parents ,I have a dream to be an administrator for finance department in the future that can devote myself to my homeland.

In fact the experience I came through from China to America was very simple.Before I came here,I'm a univercity student in Beijing and have major in economics.I didn't get the full scholarship with the qualification of 84.84 which is only 0.16 points behind the so-called A in my whole semestor ,so with the angry of the performance I gave up all the study from that school.I took a new phase of IELTS test and studying overabroad.

I want live my dream with the hardwork and making new friends who can help me in the future.Specifically,I will take 20 more words in mind and totally digest the further meaning from them .Then I will try my best to communicate with the native speaker frequently.

Now I have class named seminar which I will gain more benefits from music ,art and movie.I really enjoy the courses and I hope to be happy everyday in the class.