Mills Brothers Vs. Blue Man Group: A Popular Culture Study

Black and white teenagers listen alike to rock music on the radio and attended clubs to hear it, together. Rock ‘n’ Roll’s roots helped accustom white teens to black music through the lenses of white, male vocalists—a normalcy to ground these drastic changes in race relations. The stars, like Elvis Presley—know for his sexual and riveting performances—began to blur the line between different forms of music and more importantly, black and white music.3 Rock ‘n’ Roll music was a blend of these two different cultures, demonstrating the enormous consumer power of this emerging youth culture and giving it the power to unite an entire

Situated predominantly in urban areas, gangs are becoming a major problem in today's society. The youth and adults are turning into gang members often times to leave behind the current situation they are living now. Many people who aren't familiar or affiliated with gang members are known to be curious as to why it is that the youth and adults join a gang. Some answers might be the current situation, obtaining social status, sense of protection, amongst other personal reasons. Everyone who joins a gang has different situations about why they decide to associate with gang members. In the novel, G-Dog and the Homeboys by Celeste Fremon, focuses on the gang members about East Los Angeles. This book draws the attention on the youth residing within the East Los Angeles territory and a look at the East Los Angeles gang members and how they play a major role in the book as one of the Latino gangs in East Los Angeles.

However the arguments put forward on the notion that the social and political context of the 1950’s was the reason behind the emergence of rock n roll is undermined by Peterson who states that the birth of Rock n roll can not be purely based and credited to the individuals mentioned above. That is not to say he is undermining their talent but instead such talent can be found on a wider scale, however only a few make the forefront.

Rock ‘n’ roll music has widely influenced music and society and continues to do so today. Rock ‘n’ roll emerged in the 1950’s a time where whites and blacks were heavily segregated. Rock and roll music not only changed the nation’s current musical norms, but indicated the joy of the emerging youth culture of the generation. It influenced artists whether black or white to come into the mainstream music. Famous artists still remembered today also influenced rock and roll. Those pioneers helped change the musical norms and the overall history of music. White rock ‘n’ rollers helped build a ladder for black artists to come into the scene. It was certain that rock ‘n’ roll made it possible for greater acceptance, appreciation and a wider

Rock and roll was not just a new generation of music; it was music that created a new generation. Rock and roll had a transformative effect on American society because it encouraged younger people to break out of the more conservative American mold, increased the use of technology in daily life, as well as implemented civil rights movements that bolstered minority groups and races.

Popular culture is consumed through interaction in the social media that includes television programs, movie theaters and virtual social networks. From the media, interests lie in the political developments and discussion concerning governance. These media satisfy appetite for political information while guiding an understanding on the national issues and choices made.

When the majority of the population thinks of rock 'n ' roll, most tend to correlate the beginnings of the rock genre with Elvis Presley or The Beatles. However, the greater part of the start of rock 'n ' roll must be attributed to the influence of African American culture and music. The African American culture initiated and impacted so many of the first genres in music that stemmed off into be many of the genres we still listen to today. Due to racism and discrimination many “race” artists were not recognized for their artistic abilities. Most African American musicians have become discredited due to white musicians covering African American songs and making it more popular. Rock ‘n’ roll was a collective effort of white and black culture and musicians but little credit has gone to the African American side of the genre. To truly understand how “race” artists were the people to help mold rock ‘n’ roll, you must go back to the very beginning of the start of the music business.

When we think of pop culture, especially in movies we think of celebrities, fashion, and tag lines. While Do the Right Thing (DTRT) by Spike Lee has maybe one of those, but its powerful themes, characters and presentation turned it into one of the most notable films ever. It heavily employs the interactionist approach by showing different cultures interacting with one another, and making major points of their own stereotypical racial biases, bigotry and degrees of discrimination, as well as the initial signs of gentrification which culminate into series of ever intensifying events that forever change the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant (Bed-Sty). DTRT utilizes metaphor of heat and pop culture themes of music, fashion and racial conflict, to address real social, economic, institutional and political inequities that still plague our society today.

Rock 'n' roll reflects the values of the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s and helps the movement convey its message. The Civil Right Movement addressed three areas of discrimination: education, social segregation, and voting rights.

“The rise of rock ‘n’ roll and the reception of it, in fact, can tell us a lot about the culture and values of the United States in the 1950s. According to historians James Gilbert, there was a struggle throughout the decade ‘over the uses of popular culture to determine who would speak to what audience, and for what purpose”. At the center of that struggle, rock ‘n’ roll unsettled a nation had been “living in an ‘age of anxiety’” since 1945” (p.15). Altschuler talks about how music and race interlock with one another. Rock had become a “highly visible and contested arena for struggles over racial identity and cultural and economic empowerment in the United States” (p.35). Other chapters within the book state the battles involving sexuality, generational conflicts, as well as other social issues. The author states ideas that are somewhat problematic. For example, he states that there is a myth that rock ‘n’ roll went into a “lull” following the payola hearings (the practice of record promoters paying DJs or radio programmers to play their labels ' songs) of 1959 and did not come about again until the arrival of the Beatles in 1964.

In 1951, Alan Freed, a European American disc jockey for a Cleveland radio station, first coined the term rock’n roll. Fifty years later, if you were to poll the general public on which race would dominate that genre of music, the response would be overwhelmingly whites. But rock’n roll is not a white mans music. African American’s were and still are an essential cornerstone of the genre known as rock’n roll. But rock’n roll simply would not exist if it weren't for African Americans. Their presence is felt in almost every genre of music known to the United States. Early twentieth century black musicians helped shape, influence and create my favorite genre of music today.

The Funk Brothers were a group of soulful musicians who had a vastly unknown impact on music. If it was music back then or music today there impact is still in effect. They might not have looked like much but they could play any tune you wanted and put their own funky twist on it. The Funk Brothers were never really noticed for what they did until later in their careers, but were the backbone of most music during the 60s (At least the good music). The musicians themselves may have been concealed but there music had taken hold of the music industry.

The broadcasting and recording industries did not solely represent the conquering racial assumptions of the 1950's, they internalized them and helped to continue them. Racial conventions permeated the organization and structure of the music industry at every level. The very existence

Despite The Smiths sound often possessing a blues quality, they constantly refused the statements claiming early blues pioneers influenced them. Many critics and authors claim that they often denied this for commercial reasons, however Morrissey opening had stated that he believed contemporary black pop music was a conspiracy or organization created to keep white indie groups down. Morrissey clearly had a “stark dismissal of all ‘modern black music’,” however The Smiths occasionally covered artists such as Bessie

Nation is a broad term that could mean many things to different people. For instance, some people classify nation as the title that is placed on those that group themselves in this imagined community forged under patriotism. However, other groups of people like Filipinos have a complicated notion of nation. For those Filipinos that came to the United States, they do not know where “home” or “nation” is. To give a bit of background on the complicated understanding of nation for Filipinos it all comes down to their once political standing as a colony of the United States. Many Filipinos grew up with American movies and television shows and with the mentality that they were Filipino Americans. Their English teachers encouraged them to be educated and go to America, yet they never mentioned that once they went to the United States they would be treated as subhuman when they got there. For instance, 'the little brown brothers ' like small children in need of tutalige (Lecture, 9/29/15). Filipina nurses, in particular, struggled to determine whether or not they would return back to the Philippines once they got a taste of what it was like to live the American dream. Filipina nurses faced the struggle of loving the life they lived in American all the while facing exclusions in their work place. Not only did they face certain exclusion by their American counterparts they also endured exclusion from the Philippines. Due to the exclusion they had at work many nurses formed coalitions