| korme |
05-14-2005 02:32 PM |
Quote:
Originally Posted by NoMyths
No harm intended, but my sense from your work around here is that a B+ is not that bad of a grade for you.
If you'd care to post the paper some of us might be able to give you a second opinion. :)
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when i post on fofc or any message board i tend to post loosely and careless, hence the no capitalizing. B+, not that bad of a grade.. no, i have high expectations in only one field, that is english/literature so i am unsatisfied with anything less than an A.
here's my paper, it's only 3 1/2 pages. we had to pick 8 songs that have made a mark on our young lives, and describe why they have stuck or make the list.
Quote:
To me, music is powerful in many ways. Music can be used as a means of reaching out to people about cultural happenings such as politics and war, while it can also be a means of emotional recreation, in where the music being played is music that correlates to your current mood. On a broader scale, music like hip-hop or rap can take people from the hood, the suburbs, the projects, or the city and put them all on a dance floor and all of those people will immediately be able to come together and dance. Music is something everyone can relate to, and there are so many types of music that there is always something new to hear. Therefore, music, constantly evolving, will never get tired or old. If you ask anyone in the world to name a song that they can associate with a memory, that question will be answered. In a way, everyone’s life is a soundtrack. The following eight songs, in chronological order, make up the soundtrack of my life.
Jimmy Buffett’s “Pencil Thin Mustache” comes in as the earliest song in my memory to stick. Growing up, from hearing him inside the house, hearing him while swimming in the pool, and getting a taste of Buffett even on road trips, Jimmy Buffett was a staple in the Kormelink household. My Dad loves Jimmy Buffett, I am almost positive he owns every one of his CD’s, and the reason he makes this prestigious list is because when I think of my Dad and music I think of Jimmy. I chose “Pencil Thin Mustache” because when I was little, 5 or 6 years old, I would hear this song and if my Dad’s face was in reaching distance, I would brush his ironically bushy mustache. In fact, it is the only song I can clearly remember sitting by the radio and copying it onto a cassette.
The second song cracking my soundtrack is “I Will Always Love You”, by Whitney Houston. I wish I was kidding. This song sticks with me from my elementary years with my Mom loving the pre-drug addicted Whitney Houston. I can just remembering riding in the car with her and being force-fed The Bodyguard Soundtrack, topped off by this song. Admittedly, I probably enjoyed the soothing sound of Whitney back in the day, but I like to forget these little stains on my musical timeline.
Bringing to the table the first hip-hop song, I chose Puff Daddy’s “I’ll Be Missing You”, his variation of Sting and The Police’s “I’ll be Watching You”, and personal tribute to his best friend, the late Notorious B.I.G. I place my growing appreciation for this song back when I saw the artist formerly known as Puffy on the MTV Music Awards with Sting as a guest as he performed this hit. Now, I had dipped and dabbled into rap with Coolio, Ma$e, Master P, Pac, and Biggie, but Puff Daddy and the Family’s “No Way Out” really put rap back onto the map for me. I remember laying on the floor of our new house in ’98 and trying to memorize the words of all of the songs off of that CD.
Sublime’s “Wrong Way” is the fourth song on tap. In ’98 or ’99, we took a road trip to Gatlinburg, Tennessee. It was just the four of us – Mom, Dad, my Brother Justin, and I, but being that it was a somewhat long trip for a bunch of young teens, Justin being 15 or 16, me being 12 or 13, we would pull the back couch of the van down into it’s bed position so we could lay down. So there we were on this trip, and I remember waking up to see my brother writing something on a piece of a paper, with his headphones to his Discman on. I curiously asked what he was doing, and he told me he was writing down the lyrics to this song “Wrong Way” by Sublime. I had heard the song before along with a few other songs from Sublime, though not very many times. But as it turns out he eventually lent me the headphones and the piece of paper and I soon was replaying the song over and over, trying to memorize it. Well, now I can say that I know all of the words to a song about a prostitute. Thanks, Justin.
The song “Tears in Heaven” by Eric Clapton is one where I can no longer play without a distinct memory coming into my head. When I was 15, my best friend’s neighbor Mike passed away in his sleep at the all too young age of 16. I had known Mike pretty well through my friend Nick, going all the way back to elementary school and playing basketball in Nick’s driveway. The night before the funeral, we all spent the night at a friend’s house, and this song was played once or twice. The next day, at the funeral, this song was again played. It was an emotional day, and I can no longer disassociate “Tears in Heaven” from Mike, not that I try to.
Next on the list is Lil’ Flip’s “7-1-3”, a song about representing his hometown of Houston, Texas. I chose this song because it got a lot of playtime in my room and at parties in my glorious High School days. Milford seemed to be a town that loved Lil’ Flip before he hit it big with his hit “Game Over”. I can still see myself and my friends cramped up in an Acura Integra driving down the road listening and physically vibrating to “7-1-3” behind two 10” subs and consequently playing his entire CD, “Undaground Legend”. Sometimes we would substitute 7-1-3 with 5-1-3, the area code of which Milford was in.
50 Cent makes his mark with “Disco Inferno” as my first college song. 50 Cent’s first CD, “Get Rich or Die Trying” has a lot of great songs. I love that CD. But by far my favorite song from 50 is off his new CD “The Massacre” with “Disco Inferno”. Not only do I love the beat, something that 50’s songs usually excel in, the lyrics are about dancing and girls shaking their asses, something I can support. In fact, a chick told me that whenever she hears the song, she immediately thinks of me. She said that I play it so much unintentionally that I have left my mark on it with her. It might be my favorite rap song of all-time, but the fact that it is new and fresh is probably making me a little biased there.
Bringing my soundtrack to the finish line is “Mr. Brightside” by The Killers. I remember a few months ago, my brother had called me and was telling me I would probably like their new CD, “Hot Fuss”. He asked if I had heard “Mr. Brightside”, and I said no, and he told me he knows I’d like it. Well it was one of those weird coincidences when only a few days later I heard it in another person’s room and thought, yea, I do in fact like this song. It has gotten to the point where “Mr. Brightside” gets multiple plays a day from me on the always reliable WSU-hookup of Napster. It’s funny, because “Mr. Brightside” is essentially a sad song due to the fact that it is about a guy watching as a girl he likes falls for another guy, but the tempo of the song just seems to put me in a good mood, so it always brightens my day.
In conclusion, these songs represent parts of my life that I can look back on and for the most part, cherish. These songs, like many more have affected me in a way that nothing else like music can. I can’t really watch a movie and draw a parallel to happenings in my life, like I oh so easily can with music.
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He told me I had a few small errors (apparently "CD" is supposed to be "cd"), and I needed a stronger beginning and finish - which I suppose I agree on.
by the way, my teacher is a pretty awesome guy. he has a great passion for music, but more importantly he lets me get away with things like me writing about girls shaking their asses, if you were wondering how i could put that in there. 
edited to fix stupid  stuff wrong word copy and pasting. |
