Responce to Mr. Chinen

It was absolutely wonderful having Mr. Chinen come and talk to our class today. He is really an amazingly bright person who loves what he does and you can see that just from him talking. I really loved how he broke down how he accesses the pieces of music which he is critiquing. When we first started talking about Russian Roulette, I really did not know what to think of this song and how it really related to the Rhianna/ Chris Brown incident. I felt that I did not know the proper steps to take to reach the point of understanding. One thing that stuck out for me was the fact that you really need to take a good look at each angle of a certain phrase or word and relate it to the song or an incident. But while you are doing that you must consider metaphors that are created, in this case Russian Roulette to love, and the purpose of piece of text. Along with this text, we music look at the cover for we are able to decipher more clues from clothing, posture, and expression. I really did not realize how much the repairing of an public image has to do with the music that is put forth. In this incident, both Rhianna and Chris Brown speak out, Chris Brown apologizing and Rhianna showing her strength at this time of confusion. Another interesting issue that was brought up was that of female views in music. We saw this contradiction of degrading/ strengthening women in the music video of Miss Independent. Many artists now days are attempting to adjust to please both the powerful women yet still have the sexy feminine quality. Mr. Chinen really was a huge help by presenting an example of critically looking at music. I feel that now I will be able to take apart text better and create a better understanding for myself.