Hinduism Aim #1: PLEASURE
1. Musiq Soulchild "Love"
2. Beyonce "Speechless"
3. Katy Perry "I Kissed a Girl"
4. Tweet "Oops oh my"
5. Trey Songz "Love faces"
Hinduism Aim #3: COMMUNITY SERVICE
1. John Legend "Wake up"
2. T.I. ft Chris Brown "Get back up"
3. Andy Grammer "Keep your head up"
4. Bill Withers "Lean on me"
5. "Whats going on?" artist collaboration
Overall Response: I would say that the pleasure aim seems to be more prevalent. Love is one type of pleasure common to just about everyone, and love doesn't just have to pertain to a direct relationship with another human being. It was much easier for me to think and find songs about pleasure because one can take pleasure doing many things and/or obtain pleasure in the process. What surprised me was how hard it was to find songs I felt would coincide with the concept of community service. Overall, I aimed for the positive and influential lyrics within the content of the songs in hopes of grasping the idea of community service. Because the American pop music has a variety of people with different backgrounds and religious preferences, the understanding of the Hindus Four Aims of Life becomes different from that of the artist of American pop music. The Hindus understanding of the Four Aims of Life is of a much simpler, although complex, range than that of American pop music.
Cora-
ReplyDeleteI agree that pleasure is a more prevalent subject than community service. This seems to be an issue not only in the music industry but in our society as well. What I disagree with is that you stated that the Four Aims are "much simpler, although complex, range than that of American pop music." I think that the Four Aims have much more substance and are much more in depth than American pop music. American pop music is mostly meaningless words put together by those working in the music industry to give those pop music listeners what they want to hear. The Four Aims really establish the meanings for an individuals life while American pop music is appealing simply because of the tune or beat.
I think the part about how "love doesn't just have to pertain to a direct relationship with another human being" is very interesting and very important to this topic. With this kind of broader understanding of love as something more than just romantic love, it could be argued that love for one person falls under the pleasure aim, but love for many falls under the community service aim. After all, why would anyone want to serve a community that they didn't love?
ReplyDeleteCora,
ReplyDeleteYou brought up a very interesting point which I agree very strongly with. While discussing the presence of pleasure songs, you hint at the variety of sources that this pleasure originates from and also the variety of events that writers discuss in their songs revolving around pleasure. As you say, one certainly can take pleasure in doing many different things. I think one of the biggest misconceptions in music nowadays is that the songs are always about the same things, and that too normally of a misogynistic nature. However, I strongly support your viewpoint that this idea is rather false, and that there is a great variety in the sources and descriptions of pleasure.
If I am understanding your words correctly, I think you are trying to say that because of the wide array of pop artists and their different backgrounds, a vast range of interpretations of the Hindu aims emerges. I agree that not all American pop musicians come from the same places or have the same experiences. In turn, this obviously makes their approaches to things such as pleasure and community service very different. I do not think, however, that one can say that the Hindu understanding of The Four Aims is more simplistic than that of pop artists. These aims do, after all, come directly from sacred Hindu text and, like Alexandra said, truly establish the Hindu understanding of life.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you statement about it being easier to think and find songs about pleasure because it's naturally subjective. Heck, if I could find a song about crocheting I could definitely argue that it's a song about pleasure. Although, I don't know if I agree with the four aims being described simple. I personally feel as though there is so much depth and complexity to some of these aims that it would be somewhat difficult for us (and maybe even some Hindus) to fully comprehend. Even though a popular song may try to interpret the aims, I don't think they can accurately do it in less than 5 minutes.
ReplyDelete