Category Archives: Musical

Camping for Brotherhood

Nationality: Caucasian
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: San Diego, CA/New Orleans, LA
Performance Date: 3/31/15
Primary Language: English

Collector: What camp did you go to?

Informant: I went to Fallen Creek in North Carolina.

Collector: Did you guys have any, like, special songs or chants or anything?

Informant: Every Sunday we’d do this campfire. It was kind of like church, minus, like, the religious aspect, more of just a community thing. And it would always end with taps, but throughout there would be all these songs, like counselors and campers would get up and sing and stuff. And we’d do skits and stuff. Every week we would have special messages about brotherhood.

Collector: Was it an all guys camp?

Informant: Yeah. I went Eight years.

Collector’s Notes: A huge aspect of folklore, and one of its purposes, is that it builds community.  One of the long-used ways of doing this is through song.  Singing has been around for a very long time, and people teaching others songs that the community is familiar with to welcome them and make them part of the group.  I also think that the message about brotherhood is important here.  The camp is creating a tight-knit group by repeatedly reminding this group of young boys that they need to be there for each other.  The taps are somewhat ceremonial almost.  Historically, the TAPS is something that has only taken place in the United States military.  Oddly enough, it’s usually used at funerals, wreath-layings, and memorial services (Villanueva).  The military is one of the most well-known tightly knit, family-like communities that exists, so it makes sense that they would use this to subconsciously provide that type of atmosphere.  Also, the ceremonial use of it is important.  These ceremonies, like funerals, are really important in folklore.  They signify someone passing out of the community and into whatever afterlife they believe in.  Also, some cultures use funerals to celebrate life instead of grieve over death.  This could possibly be an underlying message in the Fallen Creek tradition of playing.  Skits also have been a usual way of getting people to become more comfortable.  A lot of ice-breaker games are centered around working together and team building to work toward a common goal (“Ice Breakers”).  This is a way that the group in question, in this case the boys in the camp, make a special bond with other boys around the same age, thus creating a “folk.”

REFERENCES:

“Ice Breakers: Getting Everyone to Contribute at the Start of a Successful Event.” Mind Tools. Mind Tools Ltd., n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2015.
Villanueva, Jari. “History of Taps | JV Music.” JV Music. WordPress, n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2015.

Break a Leg!

Nationality: Caucasian
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 4/03/15
Primary Language: English

Collector: So, you’re involved in theatre and also some film stuff.

Informant: Yes.

Collector: So, are there any tabooistic or initiation things involved in that world?

Friend: Don’t say “Macbeth” in a theatre setting. We call it “The Scottish Play.” Also, you’re not supposed to say “Good luck.” You’re supposed to say, “Break a leg.”

Collector: Oh, yeah I’m familiar with those. Do we know the story behind “Break a leg?”

Informant: In earlier centuries, people would bow. There are a couple of different stories. The way you bow included kneeling one leg and bending down, so you’re literally breaking the line.

Collector: Oh! That makes sense.

Informant: Yeah, and if you had a really good performance, you would bend really far down, so that’s why you really want to, like, “break” the leg.

Friend: And you’re also breaking a line by doing that, in a way. You’re creating a line by straightening the one leg, but you’re breaking the other potential line, a little bit, because you’re bending the knee.

Informant: So it’s like “Give a performance deserving of taking a bow that low.”

Collector’s Notes: Theatre has always been an area of a lot of tradition.  People chant things before performing, they’ll wear certain pairs of tights or shoes, or they’ll ceremoniously give each other gifts on opening night.  So, it doesn’t surprise me that the “Break a leg” saying is deep-rooted in tradition as well.  Although I’ve never heard it called “The Scottish Play” I think that’s really interesting.  I’m assuming that they call it this in a “He Who Will Not Be Named” sort of way.  Because it is a play about Scotland, I’m guessing that they call it this instead of using its actual name.  We see this a lot in studying folklore, because certain things that become “bad luck” are avoided like the plague.  I like this story, though, because it sort of gives a logical explanation to the meaning of the saying.  As if someone “breaking” the line of their leg gives the saying more validation than just being a bad omen.  People naturally like to have logical or scientific explanations for things, instead of saying that something is the way it is “just because that’s how it’s been done.”  An interesting hypothesis, is that maybe people started saying “break a leg,” then because more people started saying this, “good luck,” being heard less and less, was assumed to be bad luck just out of lack of use.

 

 

AMV

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 30APR2015
Primary Language: English

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The Amateur Music Video!

Kropp was a secret geek in high school. He thoroughly enjoyed sports, rap, and women but had a soft spot for cartoons. He says he would secretly want to be a superhero if he had the chance – “a dope superhero” at that. He is currently a USC student studying environmental science, is enrolled in the NROTC program and loves to skateboard. He has very close ties with his extended family. He hopes to one day commission into the navy as an officer.

What may come to mind when reading the title is a very under-budgeted, poor music video by a new talent trying to make their way into the music industry. But, in fact, an AMV – Amateur Music Video, is something much more personal. AMV’s are composed of a song of your choice (as the theme song to a video); and by yourself on programs like iMovie and Adobes Premier Pro, edit scenes from a TV show or movie or music video that has already been published. It’s your own music video with characters and actors from your favorite media.

My friend, when he was in middle school, used to take clips from his favorite cartoon Teen Titans and create music videos. On youtube, he and thousands of others would have AMV challenges as to which video was the best – determined by those who posted the challenge and by other viewers. The editors were challenged to create something that had great images, a story or a smooth flow, and most of all the song had to represent not only the story that he was trying to tell but had to represent the characters themselves. His favorite characters were Beast Boy and Raven. Beast Boy was the comedy relief on the show – “or tried to be” he says. While Raven played “the devils advocate”. Not to mention he liked the bit of romance there was between the two.

He spent hours after school watching episodes to see which scenes would be right for the song. He then spent days cutting down the episode into scenes and then the rest of the time was devoted to synchronizing the combat and movements of the characters to the rhythms in the song.

Analysis: I also used to make AMV’s in my early high school years out of videos from Lost. One of the main reasons I did it was because after the show finished it gave me an opportunity to change some of the outcomes. I changed the romantic relationships with one love song and some downloaded scenes of my favorite episodes. I also kept the show alive by continuing to play around with the characters that would no longer show up on Tuesday nights. I think that may be the reason he did it – not just because he really liked the show growing up, but he wanted to be amongst the characters. He wanted to be a Teen Titan (c).

While he was too shy to give a link to his own videos, he gave us the link to one of his friends and competitors:

Cinderella Dressed in…What??

Nationality: US
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los angeles
Performance Date: 24APR2015
Primary Language: English

Megan is a sophomore in my french class. I’ve known her for a year. She’s a sweet, very soft spoken intelligent girl. She loves horseback riding. She’s majoring in creative writing and wants to be a screenwriter for Pixar one day.

When I first introduced the topic folklore and then mentioned childhood rhymes, riddles, and songs, one of the first things that popped into her head was this song:

“Cinder-ella, dressed in yell-ah

Went upstairs, to kiss, a fell-ah

Made a mis-take, and kissed a snake

Came downstairs, with ah belly-ache

How Many doooctors did-it-take

One…Two…Three…”

It’s a song girls sing when they’re jumping rope. I remember all the different variations of this form of folklore:

Cinderella, dressed in green,
Went upstairs to eat ice cream.
How many spoonfuls did she eat?
One, two, three

Cinderella, dressed in brown
Went upstairs to make a gown
How many stitches did she use?
One, two, three

Analysis: One of the more fun parts about being a girl is being able to sing silly things about the toys and characters you love without seeming too odd. Boys aspire to be astronauts, cowboys, police officers, doctors, chefs and more. But all little girls will tell you at least once in their lifetime that they want to be a princess. Whether they were 8 years old and playing on the playground or a 43 year old mother who only wishes to be spoiled and pampered by her prince. Songs like this play into our culture as a reminder that we can still have our imagination while understanding the truth; reality. Yes, we may not be princesses, so let’s make a little fun of Cinderella or whomever. It also keeps the character alive. While slightly teasing the character, little girls bring the princess to the playground and engulf themselves in an environment where they can run around their own princesses.

Arroro del Niño (Colombian lullaby)

Nationality: Colombian/Americn
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: San Diego, CA
Performance Date: 4/17/15
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

My informant refused to have his voice recorded, and I have respected this. Instead, he told me the lyrics to the lullaby which his mom had sung to him and continues to sing to him even though he is still in college. He unfortunately couldn’t recall the whole thing when I interviewed him and instead gave me the first verse. Despite persistence, I could only get this much out of him.

Siempre te querer

Siempre te querer

Asta que me halla unda

Seas me bebe

 

Translation

Whenever you want

whenever you want

till you found me life

you are my baby.

 

Analysis

He says that there are many variations of this song, and that this is simply the generic version. When his family sung it, it tended to be off beat but the message was nevertheless the same. Supposedly, the whole song was about a moral because the elders would often sing this to their young, but it is restricted only to female, the male would not sing this. Literally, it shows that no matter how old you are, you will always be a mother’s baby, and that her love will always prevail. When he thinks about this, it makes him proud of his heritage. I believe that his interpretation on the lullaby is correct, and that it is traditionally sung at night because it always gives reassurance to both child and parent when they go off to bed.