Mike Song and Mike Tompkins — Dance and Musical Performance
This performance is quite a bit dated (in terms of the internet), but I remember talking to one of my WSP colleagues about the internet, music, and dance and this came about. Of course, this video left a significant impression on me when I viewed it for the first time — it is indeed to integrate both the performances of music and dance to tell stories. It’s just that the narrative takes a different form, untypical of the written narratives a formal education tells us is the “true” narrative. Here, we see and hear the Mike Song the dancer and Mike Tompkins the musician provide narratives — one through the visual and the movements of the body, the other through auditory effects and distortions — all approaching the idea called love. Remember, narratives need not take place in the written context — they exist in other forms, and visual and/or musical performance provides one of those contexts.
As a college student, I along with hundreds of thousands of others, tend to get caught up in the fast paced freeway of life with school, work, family, and the seemingly endless list of factors that require my attention. I hardly have enough time to make dinner, let alone reminisce of the past. However, there are moments in my life that can be embodied in a song, and when heard, the memories and feelings of that moment come rushing to the front of my mind, past all the jumbled miscellaneous thoughts of now. Sometimes, it takes a certain song to pop up in a random shuffle to remind me of the path I took to become the person I am today. Music evokes more than just our hearing; it reaches parts of our memories that we’ve put to sleep or just haven’t addressed as time passed.
So I ask you, what are the songs that bring you back to great moments in your life?
It’s 1 in the morning. You’ve tried out all of WSP’s Monday Money tips yet you still find yourself in a rut facing the Goliath of all literary evils–writer’s block. You had a great start and burned through 4 pages of your 7 page English essay, but somehow it seems like all your creative juices have gone dry. Does this scenario sound familiar?
Montage of great classical music composers. From left to right: first row - Antonio Vivaldi, Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven; second row - Gioachino Rossini, Felix Mendelssohn, Frédéric Chopin, Richard Wagner, Giuseppe Verdi; third row - Johann Strauss II, Johannes Brahms, Georges Bizet, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Antonín Dvořák; fourth row - Edvard Grieg, Edward Elgar, Sergei Rachmaninoff, George Gershwin, Aram Khachaturian
One of the ways I like to remedy problems like this is to open up my iTunes and play a tune that sort of reflects the mood or aura of my essay. For example, if I’m writing something on Shakespeare or on authors of the 18th or 19th century, I tend to play music by Beethoven or Tchaikovsky. If I’m writing a creative piece for the WSP Blog, I like to listen to soundtracks from animated movies such as Pixar’s Up or Ratatouille (see my blog piece on Music Therapy: “Review: Music at the Movies“).
When you listen to a song, it’s easy to adapt to the mood or the emotion that the singer or composer is trying to convey. Let’s say, for instance, you decide to play some Jay-Z on your way to your next class. You hear the bass reverberating against your ear, the arrogance and high-mindedness in Jay-Z’s voice, the unrelenting mash-up of eclectic beats and harmony…you’re starting to feel pretty high and mighty now, right? The music energizes you and leaves you ready to hustle through your 12 o’clock lecture.
The same applies to how you feel when you write. Many of us, however, prefer absolute silence when writing our essays. So for those who prefer peace and quiet but still need a little assistance, try taking a 15 minute break to zone out. Find a song that either inspires you, energizes you, or mirrors the themes found within the work you are analyzing. Close your eyes and let the music stimulate your brain and hopefully you’ll start formulating ideas again!
Still a little skeptical? Fair enough, but take the time to research how much your brain is being stimulated when listening to music. [From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "Music and the brain"] When we hear a certain pitch, our auditory cortex is activated. When we notice or bob our heads to a song’s rhythm, the left frontal cortex, left parietal cortex, and right cerebellum are all activated. When we hear unpleasant melodies, the posterior cingulate cortex–responsible for controlling emotional pain–activates.
So many aspects of our brain are stimulated when we listen to music! Treat it as a great tool to get your creative juices flowing again. Thanks for checking in on this week’s Monday Money!
When I was 10-years-old, I learned how to use a CD player and listened to my dad’s first CD collection. In the 70′s my dad was a huge audiophile. We still have his old turntable and audio system sitting in my mom’s office.
Of all his CDs, my favorite one was an old Telarc called “Star Tracks.” The playlist was limited, but it had the theme songs to some of the most popular movies ever made. The CD is scratched up now because I’ve played it so much.
Ever since then, my favorite thing to do after I watch a movie that I really like is to download its background instrumentals, or score. From scores by John Williams to Michael Giacchino to Ennio Morricone, there probably isn’t a popular movie theme song that can’t be found in my iTunes.
I bet you even have a popular movie theme song playing in your head now that you decided to read this blog on theme songs. Star Wars? Indiana Jones? Usually a great movie is coupled by even greater instrumentals.
Let’s take a listen to the score from Disney Pixar’s Ratatouille.
Ratatouille is about food and the idea that anyone can cook. Even little sewer rats. Every time I have the sudden urge to whip up something special in the kitchen, I set up my MacBook at the kitchen counter and have the entire Ratatouille soundtrack on repeat. I mean, who wouldn’t? It’s even better when you’re cooking Italian food (the movie, however, is set in Paris). The music really does take you to another place and for some reason, my food tastes a lot better after I’ve had this Michael Giacchino composition blasting.
“Married Life” from Pixar’s Up, also by Michael Giacchino, is also one of my favorites.
The highest rated comment for this video summarized this song perfectly: “When a movie, in less than the first 5 minutes, can take you on the roller coaster of an entire lifetime that two people share together, and have you smiling one minute, sad the next, happy again, and very sad again; then use all this as the motivating theme throughout the movie, it is called magic.”
Last but not least, I cannot end this post without making a nod to my favorite composer John Williams. There’s a special place in my heart…or maybe in my ear…for Mr. Williams. First there was Jaws (1975) for which he received a Golden Globe and an Oscar. Then followed Superman(1978), Raiders of the Lost Ark(1981), E.T. the Extra Terrestrial (1982), Jurassic Park (1993), Saving Private Ryan (1998), Harry Potter(2001-2004)…you get the picture. In my opinion, he’s basically the greatest composer of all time.
He also composed the soundtrack to another familiar movie: STAR WARS. It makes my geeky heart melt just thinking about it. I would link the famous main title song, but “The Imperial March” is just too badass to pass up.
My homework gets very intense every time my iTunes decides to play this on shuffle. And as one YouTuber plainly puts it, “Star Wars wouldn’t be Star Wars without this music.”
So why are these songs so memorable? You don’t have to speak or understand any particular language to be able to appreciate the content or to remember what movie the song was from. You hear it and you can picture in your head exactly how you felt at the movie theater or in front of your TV/computer at home.
Whether you want to cook with an attitude like me or pretend that you’re flying an X-wing through LA traffic, movie scores really do take your imagination to different places, which is why I have chosen music at the movies as my music therapy.
In her recently posted short essay “When Money Meets the Eye,” fellow blogger Casey O’Neill compares the spiritual guide The Energy of Money by Maria Nemeth, Ph.D. to the critically acclaimed film The Pursuit of Happyness. She shows how these two seemingly unrelated works convey several similar ideas and messages about what many people believe is the root of all evil—money. But is money all that bad?
Perhaps what we can now do is look to other spheres in the media other than film that also address the concept of money and how it is treated today. Money as a focal point in music, for instance, has been popularized by a wide range of artists spanning over decades of music history. From songs like “Sixteen Tons” by Merle Travis (1947) to Madonna’s “Material Girl” (1985) to “Mo’ Money Mo’ Problems” by rapper Notorious B.I.G. (1997), we see how the idea of money played out in song can bring out feelings of angst, discontent, happiness, and pleasure.
Let’s take a look at the chorus to “Material Girl”. Madonna sings,
‘Cause the boy with the cold hard cash
Is always Mister Right, ’cause we are
[Chorus]
Living in a material world
And I am a material girl
You know that we are living in a material world
And I am a material girl
Michael Jackson aside, Madonna as perhaps the most iconic figure in pop culture and music encapsulates in this song what many people can agree with: we live in world where money is king and we do what we must to get it. Madonna, in a sense, hints that at the end of the day we are all material girls. So how can we possibly survive in a capitalistic world and still manage to accept money as something good? What do we have to do to be successful? “Successful people,” says Nemeth, “know how energy works. Successful people are conscious conduits of energy.”
With that in mind, we can now look at someone who loves to talk all day about his money. From his album The College Dropout (2004) to Graduation (2007), Kanye West’s dynamic relationship with money can be expressed in songs like “All Falls Down feat. Sylena Johnson,” “Spaceship feat. GLC and Consequence,” “Gold Digger,” and “Good Life.”
Let’s take a look at how Kanye first addresses money in “All Falls Down.” Here are some key verses from the song:
Man I promise, she’s so self conscious
She has no idea what she’s doing in college
That major that she majored in don’t make no money
But she won’t drop out, her parents will look at her funny
Now, tell me that ain’t insecure
The concept of school seems so secure
Sophmore three years ain’t picked a career
She like f*ck it, I’ll just stay down here and do hair
Cause that’s enough money to buy her a few pairs of new Airs
Just as there are anxieties about writing, Kanye reveals that there are anxieties about money as well. In The Energy of Money, Nemeth begins her book by discussing these anxieties and fears in a similar fashion. In both the literature and the song, the authors point out the idea that money makes us self-conscious and forces us to evaluate nearly every action and decision we make.
The concept of security, which West addresses in the above verses, becomes something so necessary to one’s well being that the pursuit of other things is abandoned. Usually those other things are not viewed as practical or reasonable in a money-driven world.
One of the more complex ideas Nemeth brings up in her book is the relationship between a person and his metaphysical and physical realities. She argues that reality is divided into two realms. In the domain ofphysical reality, she says that “energy is coalesced into objects that have form, density, and size” and that in order to see objects change in this realm we must focus energy on them. In metaphysical reality, on the other hand, that energy is not solidified. Daydreams, wishful thinking, and fantasies live in the metaphysical realm.
The college student that West talks about in “All Falls Down” is caught in the middle. She would be experiencing what Nemeth likes to call “Trouble at the Border.” Her intentions, her ideas are set aside because she cannot get across this border and make her passions materialized in the physical realm.
Over time, Kanye himself has overcome that trouble at the border. We can see this if we juxtapose his attitudes towards money in College Dropout and Graduation. His songs in earlier albums express feelings of angst and bitterness on the issue of money. In “Spaceship” West raps, “I’ve been workin’ this graveshift and I ain’t made sh*t / I wish I could buy me a spaceship and fly past the sky.”
Then Kanye’s attitude toward the pursuit of wealth and riches completely changes in Graduation. Let’s take a look at “Good Life”:
Yo, it’s got to be ’cause I’m seasoned
Haters give me them salty looks,
Lowry’s 50 told me go ‘head switch the style up
And if they hate then let ‘em hate
And watch the money pile up, the good life.
Many would argue that it was money that was the prime suspect in causing Kanye West’s downfall as a rapper. We can see that throughout Graduation, his songs contain suggestive themes about sex, glory, and fame, all which seem to stem from his growing (and still growing) ego. This ego has made us both hate and love Kanye West. It has also caused him to make a big ass of himself (HINT: 2009 VMA’s).
However, we still see that West’s success partly comes from his understanding of money. He has not abolished the monkey mind (see the post by Jesse Chiang) since according to Nemeth that is impossible, but West knows how to energize his goals so that they materialize in the physical realm.
In your opinion, do you think Kanye West understands the energy of money?
Take the time to watch his new music video/mini movie “Runaway.” I would love to read your thoughts and reactions to it.
