Our project goal
Our Apollo learning skill was synthesis, and my mind and heart instantly went to music. In my project I used synthesis in several different ways. I wanted to make a new genre of music and break down the stigma behind rap and country. My end result was a song and a collage, but it was much deeper towards the end. Since music, (especially rap) has a hardcore related stigma attached, I broke down the wall of the meaning the rappers actually wanted to portray. Music was the best way to express my new idea for this genre because it is a universal language that is made in thousands of ways. When I first heard the song, "Old Town Road", I was surprised at the usage of country and rap music in the song. It sent the same message through two types of music in one way, making a new creation of genre. The song inspired me to make my own version of the iconic genre mash-up. I started off by looking at the famous artist, Willie Nelson. He was particularly known for having two genres throughout his career. He started out as a jazz/hippie inspired artist, but in the 80's he continued to make music, but transitioned into a country/rock and roll vibe. Most of his concerts contained "hippies and cowboys" which caused some tension during the performances.
I decided to take four songs, two country and two rap, and make my own song out of them. I did some research on time periods and different artists, but I ended up choosing four iconic artists and some of their most famous songs. The first country song was "Gravedigger", by Willie Nelson, the second song was "Light of a Clear Blue Morning", by Dolly Parton, the third was a rap song called "Everybody Dies in Their Nightmares", by XXXTentacion, and the last was "Yo (Excuse Me Miss)" by Chris Brown. These songs all had a similar message. My song was based on creating one working song while using four different perspectives. My song will be linked right under here, and I hope it brings a message to you the same it did for me.
I decided to take four songs, two country and two rap, and make my own song out of them. I did some research on time periods and different artists, but I ended up choosing four iconic artists and some of their most famous songs. The first country song was "Gravedigger", by Willie Nelson, the second song was "Light of a Clear Blue Morning", by Dolly Parton, the third was a rap song called "Everybody Dies in Their Nightmares", by XXXTentacion, and the last was "Yo (Excuse Me Miss)" by Chris Brown. These songs all had a similar message. My song was based on creating one working song while using four different perspectives. My song will be linked right under here, and I hope it brings a message to you the same it did for me.
MY SYNTHESIS COLLAGE; FUSING THE CULTURES WEAKNESSES
My collage touched different hardships that all people go through to show that no matter your back round, we still have the same humane issues. I touched on topics such as suicide, alcoholism, drug abuse, spousal abuse, and recovery. Below is a key of every aspect of this collage.
- Center circle: This symbol represents recovery, either with drug abuse or alcoholism
- The semi-colon: This is used as a suicide awareness symbol, so I fused together the recovery symbol with a comma to make this image
- Rope down the middle: This is a rope that could have been used as a noose, which has been a form of suicide since 1867
- Gun in the top left corner: The weapon is used to symbolize the gun violence that has been going on, between people and between the police and citizens. The bottom left has statistics stating the percent of people who get killed by cops based on race
- Pill bottle: The bottle represents drug abuse, and there is an adult advisory sticker on the bottle because most rappers abuse the stigma around drugs in their music
- 129/24: I took this number and ripped it up several times because 129 people die every 24 hours from suicide, and the numbers are torn because the new generation wants to exterminate that number
- Brown liquid: This is whiskey, which is a very iconic drink for country singers. This was used to show alcoholism.
- Purple liquid: This is "lean", which is discussed often in rap music. It is a mix of sprite, cough syrup and ice. This is a very popular drink in the rap culture community
- Broken bottle: The broken bottle represents abuse (spousal and child). 9.1% of relationships go through abuse, and it is something that often gets hidden from music, but it is still relevant in both cultures
THE lyrics behind the song
The lyrics I used in my song were based on the theme I was trying to portray. I used the four songs throughout the remix I recorded, and at the end of the song I layered all of the tracks. My favorite lyrics in the song was from the rapper XXXTentacion, and it means a lot to me because I was a fan of his music before he passed away. I used synthesis in my lyrics by mixing the meanings of the songs together and analyzing the deep meanings behind them.