Hindu Aims 2 and 4

Liberation

1. Tracy Chapman "Fast Car", folk, 1988

2. Old Crow Medicine Show "Wagon Wheel", bluegrass, 2004

3. The National, "Baby We'll Be Fine", post-punk, 2005

4. Bob Dylan, "Beyond Here Lies Nothing" , folk, 2009

5. Queen, "I Want to Break Free", rock, 1984

Tracy Chapman starts the list because she talks about liberation from the life she was born into.  She clearly discusses the hardships she goes through on a daily basis and in the end, allows the fast car of her unlikeable boyfriend to take him away and let her live her life.  "Wagon Wheel" is a fun song about heading down the east coast and doing what he wants as he is put in various situations.  The National's song is about a couple finding happiness in life and just freeing themselves from the worries of the world around them.  Bob Dylan's song is also about him finding happiness with a woman and finding peace and liberation.  Queen's song is obvious about becoming free of a person and their lies; liberation from a relationship!

Success

1. The Clash "Death or Glory", punk, 1979

2. Animal Collective, "My Girls", experimental rock, 2009

3. The National, "All the Wine", post-punk, 2004

4. Dirty Projectors, "Stillness is the Move", experimental rock, 2009

5. Notorious B.I.G., "Big Poppa", hip-hop, 1995

Animal Collective "My Girls"

The Clash sings about glory in a revolution.  Animal Collective discusses success in life and it's represented by living in a plain house with wives and children.  The National sings about making it big and having "all the wine" and being amazing.  The Dirty Projectors also sing about success in life and everything working out in the end.  Notorious B.I.G. lists the fancy thing and notes living "In mansion and Benz's givin' ends to my friends and feeling stupendous".

Discussion

Attempting to think of songs pertaining to liberation and success seemed to be equally as difficult for me.  I honestly think that certain genres tend focus on a particular type of theme and it was difficult trying to find songs in a variety of genres.  For example, I think a lot of hip-hop and rap artists like to discuss success because for a lot of them, it is the opportunity to talk about changes in live and how they were able to overcome certain obstacles. Songs of liberation are composed by many folk artists because a lot of them have either had hardships or been a witness to struggle in areas around them.  The songs of liberation could refer to personally freeing oneself from a difficult situation or the actual liberation of a group of people from a country or overbearing power.  Either way, I think general concepts of liberation and success all depend on the person discussing them.  Particular events in life will ultimately lead a person to sing about certain themes.

If you were to take a look at Animal Collective’s “My Girls”, I think it really does coincide with the Hindu idea of success (well, one of the ideas).  Success of supporting a household and completing civic duties is clearly described in the song and is one of the Hindu prongs.  The Hindu concepts also explain that individual success is only temporary and should not be the focus of life.  I think that Biggie’s “Big Poppa” is the type of song that describes wealth, fame, and power and is not generally accepted into Hindu life.  Liberation in Hindu terms discusses “infinite being, infinite awareness, and infinite joy” which is the goal of all humans.  The American idea of liberation is somewhat similar to this Hindu concept, but isn’t as simply stated most of the time.  The liberation of a particular thing or event is what is discussed in song (example: “Fast Car”).

Overall, success is more prevalent in our American culture.  Everyone strives to be successful, primarily for money reasons.  People want to get what they want which is typically material type objects.  Most people will try to be successful by any means possible which could be damaging to others as a result.  Restating what I said in my previous post, Americans are selfish.  Liberation from hardships is a good thing, but focusing on happiness and success in the end dominates most American lives. 

Community Service
1. Ben E. King, "Stand by Me", soul, 1961
    Ben E. King sings about people standing together when times are tough and when they feel like there is nothing left to live for.  He attempts to bring comfort to people by saying "Whenever you're in trouble won't you stand by me".
2. Phil Collins, "Another Day in Paradise", pop, 1989
   Homelessness is the topic of this song and Phil Collins describes a woman living on the street who people ignore on a daily basis.  He urges every person to think twice because everyone is living in the same world and no one should be treated differently.
3. Ani DiFranco, "32 Flavors", pop, 1995
    This song describes differences in people and once again, is trying to have people accept others based upon differences.  Identifying people of lower class and just being kind to them will ultimately change your life.
4. N.W.A. "Express Yourself", rap, 1989
   Dr. Dre is the primary voice on the track and he is urging people of all races to express themselves through words.  It's probably N.W.A.'s only song that doesn't highlight the importance of drugs and violence (don't get me wrong, I love all of their songs).  Speaking your mind in order to benefit yourself and the people around you is important.
5. Tracy Chapman "Talkin' 'bout a Revolution" , folk, 1988
   Tracy Chapman is notorious for talking about hardships in life and in this song, she discusses how people in unfortunate situations should rise up and start a revolution to receive equality.  It is an inspirational song that people can listen to and feel some sort of empowerment to make their lives better.
6. The Beatles, "Eleanor Rigby", pop, 1966






This song can be looked at as a form of community service.  It talks about a woman two people who are extremely lonely who live life day to day with  hopes of a change.  It can be interpreted that these people are there for all the lonely people, but there is no one there to recognize it.  You can say that Eleanor helps out the lonely people.

Pleasure
1. Tilly and the Wall, "Nights of the Living Dead", pop, 2004
   The entire premise of this song is a group of young adults living life the way they want and messing things up in order to have fun.  They drink in parking lots, go wild, and damage whatever they can.  They live the reckless young lives that they want.
2. Notorious B.I.G., "Ten Crack Commandments", rap,  1997
    Biggie is has many songs about drugs, but this one clearly goes into depth about how to be a drug dealer.  This pleasure or selling and doing drugs is extremely apparent.
3. Paul Baribeau, "Ten Things", alternative, 2007
   Paul discusses a 'bucket list' of sorts and he talks about doing your favorite activities before its too late.  It describes the pleasure received from doing what you like.
4. The Mountain Goats, "Dance Music", alternative, 2005
   The pleasure of dancing is apparent and the lead singer just talks about his desire to listen to dance music in order to calm down.
5. Michael Jackson, "Dirty Diana", pop, 1987
   Michael discusses ultimate pleasure of a woman who sleeps with musicians without a care in the world if they are in relationships or not.

The aim that is most prevalent in American society today is the aim of pleasure.  Our society is full of people who are obsessed with themselves.  People will do anything to be the focus of attention on themselves in order to discuss their likes, dislikes, what annoys them, and how their daily life is.  If you think about this then you will realize that almost all songs focus on what makes a person happy, sad, or about something that is a topic of interest.  A millionaire rap artist will discuss his love of strippers while an old age rock n’ roll singer will write songs about his excessive drug use.  Whatever makes someone happy will typically turn into the most entertaining of songs. 

It isn’t too difficult to find songs involving pleasure.  Listeners are most drawn to the exciting lives of music artists that put thrilling beats and background music to simple, rhyming versus.  To most people, the perfect life is being carefree and surrounding oneself with luxurious things like money, cars, alcohol, drugs, and beautiful people.  A lot of songs glorify this type of life so people want to listen to them and just envision living these lives even if it’s for a few minutes.  It is more difficult to find songs that focus on helping other people in a community.  It is assumed that those songs dwell on negative aspects of society and most people would prefer to listen to more uplifting or fun songs.  Pleasure is fun and desirable.  In order to make a song relevant and exciting in a selfish America, it is vital that songs must have some sort of pleasure to interest listeners.

There are differences between how I view pleasure and what the Hindu aims signify.  The overall concept of pleasure is that it will promote happiness at the time but will not be good enough to satisfy a person’s total nature by the end.  The Hindu aim of pleasure says that as long as integrity and respect stay important to a person throughout his/her life, then to go ahead with what is pleasurable as long as he/she realizes that it will not satisfy him/her totally.  The Hindu aim actually does not give a negative meaning to pleasure unlike American point of views.  In all, the Hindu aims state that we as people want joy in the end but pleasure, community service, and success will not completely satisfy that desire in the end so it isn’t necessary to focus too much on them.  Pop music, on the other hand, makes it seem like living a life with pleasure will lead to unlimited happiness.  Happiness at the end of a life is the goal of all people and following either the Hindu way of thinking or following the American pop culture way of life is a choice all people will make.