Tunes & Jams

In Hollander's Elevate my mind: Identities for women in hip hop love songs, he talked about influenced feelings of R&B. The songs in that particular genre is very imitate, and talks about love in a very meaningful aspect. He mentions some idols that sounded familiar, but who I thought most of was Nicki Minaj. Her songs were very explicit on the idea of love, the display of love, sexuality and she had no shame in it. That led people to call her inappropriate names and such. But now, the media sees her music as empowering women instead. That is another thing Hollander talked about. R&B has also become a sort of feminist movement for music. I think of idols like Beyonce, MIA, and some of the other idols he mentions because every time their song shows up in my car, I JAM IT OUT. I feel like the most powerful and energetic person out there because the songs make me feel so good. That is some of the effect that their songs have to the audience, especially women.

In Anderson's Seduced by 'perfect' pitch: How autotune conquered pop music, Anderson discusses how music artists are using autotune on their voices more and more. He uses Kesha as an example using her song Animal. Although I am not entirely sure which side he was rooting on (either hating or supporting autotune), my opinion is that artists prefer it more maybe because it is more their style or it actually does make them sound better. Regardless or not it is considered "cheating" in the music industry, it is still a preference for many people. Also, it might just be music slowly evolving. Trending songs nowadays are purely techno and beats, barely lyrics alone. EDM, which stands for Electric Dance Music, is a trending genre that is mainly dependent on instrumental aspect than voice. The social shift in the music industry where people learn to use new technology produces new beats, ideas, vibes, etc. Would the music sound better? I personally would say yes because the beat helps tie the voice and background together to create a new style. Maybe that's just a new genre now? Auto tune