Category Archives: Musical

Music Genre – Silverlake, California

Tecktonik is a music style I observed in a Nightclub in Silverlake, Los Angeles. My informant claims that it is a style of dance that is a combination of hip-hop and techno dance style. It is done recreationally and is apparently extremely new. My informant claims to only have discovered it over the past year, as it has become extremely prevalent in Paris. Although tecktonic is not a genre of music but simply a dance style, the music that it is performed to is a genre of Electronic music, mainly Electronica and specifically French Electronica and Disco Pop. I say the word French electronica because the music that is used for this dance is mostly from French Artists and DJs. My informant told me that because this dance style is very new, it is witnessed extremely rarely even within the mainstream Electronic music community. It was emphasised that Tecktonic cannot be performed to House music, as the culture of that genre does not match the more “niche” electro culture. I would like to point out that footage of Tecktonic dance can be found on the internet, i.e. youtube and would like to make the assumption that it became widespread through the internet. I would like to point out that my annotation is a music video of a French pop artist named Yelle. In a remix to one of her songs, the official music video features Tecktonic dance entirely throughout the performance. My informant stresses that this music video is a major catalyst of the Tecktonic dance culture as it had never used and acknowledged on such a grand scale. As the artists success and popularity grew worldwide, the informant said that “tecktonic grew on an international scale”. On the official website, the video is advertised to “feature Tecktonic”. Internet research tells me that the Tecktonic has been copyrighted and that this is the first dance style to ever achieve copyright status. Attached is an image of the official Tecktonic logo.

Annotation:

Artist: Yelle

Song: À Cause Des Garçons (TEPR Remix)

Director: Bastien Lattanzio

Album & DVD: À Cause Des Garçons [Maxi] [Single]

ASIN: B000ZNW75S

Rhyme

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: San Louis Obispo, CA
Performance Date: April 25, 2008
Primary Language: English

Rhyme

The Bedbug Rhyme

“Good-night, sleep-tight,

Don’t let the bedbugs bite.

And if they do,

Get a shoe,

And hit them ‘til they’re black and blue!”

The first two lines of this rhyme are what my parents used to say to me before tucking me in at night. I learned the longer version at a camp, and thinking it extremely clever, ingrained it into my memory. Everyone I tell it to loves it because while the first two lines are a common rhyme, the extended lines are not very well known.

I never understood the original rhyme. What bedbugs? Why did my parents feel they needed to remind me not to let them bite me? Isn’t that common sense? For years, this disconcerting bedbug-biting image irritated me because I didn’t know its purpose. When I learned the rest of the rhyme, it was a relief because it offered a simple solution to those ever-warned-about bedbugs. So after years of being worried by my parents about bedbugs, my young mind quickly embraced the advice the rhyme offered about the shoe.

Annotation:

De Grote, Diane. Good Night, Sleep Tight, Don’t Let the Bedbugs Bite! Seastar: 2002.

Folk Song – Denmark

Nationality: Caucasian
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Culver City, CA
Performance Date: April 30, 2008
Primary Language: English

“Juligen”

“Christmas”

“Nu har vi Jul igen
“Actually have we Christmas again

Nu har vi Jul igen

Actually have we Christmas again

Julen har indtil Påske
Christmas has to Easter

Nej det er ikke adkomsten
No it is no the right!

Nej det er ikke adkomsten
No it is no the right!
Julen har indtil Pinse!”
Christmas has to Pentecost!”

“Now we have Christmas again

Now we have Christmas again

We have Christmas until Easter

No that isn’t so!

No that isn’t so!

We have Christmas until Pentecost!”

Tyler learned this song from his grandfather when he was very young, probably around the age of five in Culver City. He told me that he and his family sing this song every year on Christmas Eve. He said that they usually sing this song while standing outside around a Christmas tree – either the one from inside the house that they bring outside, or another Christmas tree set up outside. He told me that his family gets together on Christmas Eve each year and go to his grandparents’ house to celebrate with the Jensen side.

Tyler believes that the significance of this song is the fact that the Jensen side of his family get together for Christmas Eve each year to reunite. In a sense, this song brings them together as a family around the Christmas tree where they can all connect to one another through singing. He explained how he does not always see all his extended family very often during the year, but they always meet on Christmas Eve. For him this song symbolizes the bond that holds family together, even though they might not see or talk with one another for months at a time. This song represents the ties that families retain, and that kindred spirit shared during family celebrations.

This song seems to affirm a certain familial bond shared in the Jensen household, but it also declares that his bond is not only shared one day out of the year. Although extended families do not always see every relative on a regular basis, their love for one another does not last for just one day. Just like in the song how Christmas lasts until Pentecost, a family’s love and care for one another lasts well past the Christmas season and throughout the year. The love and grace that is celebrated during the Christmas season is continued on through family bonds.

Folk Song – London, England

Nationality: Caucasian
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Seattle, WA
Performance Date: April 30, 2008
Primary Language: English

“Among the parts of London’s highest life,

The ghost of Anne Boleyn walks daily there

For Anne Boleyn was once King Henry’s wife

Until he had the headsman bob her hair

With her head tucked underneath her arm

She walks the bloody tower

With her head tucked underneath her arm

At the midnight hour

Along the drafty corridors for miles and miles she goes

She often catches cold, poor thing, it’s cold there when it blows

She finds it very awkward when she has to blow her nose

With her head tucked underneath her arm”

Michaela told me she learned this song from her grandfather on a trip in Paris when she was around eight or nine years old. She told me her grandfather was from England, and when they were traveling their way through Europe and going to go to London Tower he sang this song. She said that his Cockney accent caused him to drop some of the “h” sounds in the lyrics and made the song more entertaining for her when she was a young girl. She explained that her grandfather knew it because a famous comedian in Britain performed it and it had become popular.

She told me that this song was significant for her because it actually taught her about King Henry VIII and his wives. She believes that the comedic approach to history helped her remember and understand it better as she traveled to the historic London Tower where Anne Boleyn was beheaded. It helped her make the association between the landmark and the figures from history. This song also gave her a sense of her grandfather’s English heritage and shaped her own ethnic identity through learning to sing, which is now a very important aspect of her musical endeavors.

I consider the humorous lyrics of this song as a satire of the ridiculous amount of violence King Henry VIII used in order to produce an heir. This song speaks about the power and control men had over their wives in the past. As revenge for being beheaded, the ghost of Anne Boleyn walks the corridors and haunts her husband, according to the song. This song is representative of female empowerment and undermines King Henry’s bloody reign by mocking his rash decisions. This song embodies a more modern approach to women’s rights and their influence in society.

Children’s Song – Pakistan

Nationality: Pakistani
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 28, 2008
Primary Language: Hindi (urdu)
Language: English

“Utto beta, aankay kolo

“Wake up child, open your eyes

Bisthur choro, aur mooh dholo

Leave the bed, and wash your face

Ithna sona teek nahi hain

It’s not good to sleep this much

Vukhtha kona teek nahi hain

Wasting all this time is not good

Sooraj mikhla tare baagey

The sun is out. The stars have ran.

Doonya vale sare jaage

The people around the world are all awake

Utto beta, aankay kolo.”

Wake up child, open your eyes.”

Hadi speaks Urdu, the language this song is in, but he is unable to write it. Instead, he wrote out the Romanized script for me and translated it into English. He learned this song as a boy when his parents would sing it to him growing up in Agoura Hills, CA. His parents learned it in Pakistan, where they are from. He said that this song is sung to wake children up so they will get out of bed in the morning. He told me he still sings it to his little brother to wake him up.

Hadi said that this song is significant in helping children get ready in the morning when they wake up. He said that this song encourages children to not sleep too much because there is so much out in the world that you would not want to miss it. Hadi said that this song helps kids prepare for each new day and to be confident and willing to take on whatever challenges lay ahead of them.

I agree with Hadi’s analysis, but I also noticed the attention to forming good habits as you grow up. For example, the speaker in the song calls the child to wash their face when they get out of bed to help make themselves clean and presentable. The speaker also says that it is not good to sleep this much and waste time, implying that oversleeping and being late is not responsible. I also like how the speaker tells the child to open their eyes, as if inviting the child to experience the world fully and enjoy the sun that is shining. This song seemed to mean a lot to Hadi, and it is clear because it is a very sweet and endearing song that encourages children to take on the day with a clean face and a new outlook.