Saturday, April 19, 2008
Extra Credit
I attended the extra credit lecture in the Bookstore last week and I enjoyed it. Before going to the lecture I was a bit curious on how the speaker was going to tie Islam and Rock & Roll into one topic. He simply explained that the younger generation are finding their voice through rock & roll. Some of the kids were saying that they didn't even feel comfortable walking around their communities due to the way they looked. To fix that problem they decided to walk around at night time with the rest of the kids. Most of the kids were from poverty and the music that they were fans of, wasn't only music, it was their livelihood. I really enjoyed the lecture and the videos he showed....
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9 comments:
The biggest surprise for me when I went to Heavy Metal Islam was learning that most of the metal bands sing in English. I assumed that they would sing in their native language and I'm surprised that they all know English. Mark Levine, the author, mentioned that the rock festival in Morocco attracts 150,000 people. He went on to explain that other, more populated Middle Eastern cities with these concerts do not draw as many people as lesser populated Morocco because of persecution. In Iran, hundreds of teens were threatened with execution for dressing as metal heads. Rap is popular in Iran because it is cheaper to practice than metal. Many Middle Eastern Muslims claim that people can still be good Muslims while being metal heads.
I also attended the extra credit in the bookstore. What I thought that was interesting is just in general how religious beliefs have their own stereotype within. One of the first things that the speaker said was "heavy metal and islam should not go together", I thought that was pretty interesting. I find this topic intriging because most people do not think about music correlating with religion. Everything came together for me in the lecture when the speaker shared with us what some of the metal heads in other countries said. One stated his reasoning was
"we play heavy metal because our lives are heavy metal", this struck me because it really gave me a better understanding. This showed that there is more behind music like these young children challending the government through their music. Another thing that I thought was really said is that children who are metal heads felt uncomfortable in their own communities and would only walk around at night. I think this entire lecture gave me a greater understanding about other cultures and the reasoning behind music choice.
I too attended the extra in the bookstore and found it to be quite interesting. I feel like music is music. One exception I would put on listening to a type of music (specifically metal) and interfering with religion is if the music/song is against religion. However, when you think of metal you think of devilish vocals and hardcore instruments. I also think someone should not be thrown in jail because of what they listen to. Music sometimes is described as a sense of freedom, then why do so many people get pasteurized for what they listen to? At first I thought it would be pretty flat and boring, but it ended up being an intersting topic of discussion.
I couldn't make it to the extra credit.. it seems like it was a good one. Reading throught he different comments, I was surprised to to hear that metal music is so popular, especially in the Middle Eastern cities...
I did not attend the extra credit but it sounds like it was very impactful. I was also wondering how they were going to connect Islam and rock and roll. Sounds really interesting!
I did not attend the extra credit but I wish I had. It seems like a very original topic and it's interesting to see such an old religion tied to something so current. I would think this would be a very controversial issue between the older and younger generations.
This seems to amaze many people but in my eyes, most places in the world are very similar, including the youth cultures. Every type of music is very popular all throughout the world and people always use these methods to relieve stress or bad feelings, whether they feelings about love, hate, political matters or personal matters. Hopefully these musicians keep their views on these matters public and keep their love for expression and metal.
The Extra credit lecture was about the way rock and metal music was used in Islamic countries. I was very surprised that the metal festivals drew such large crowds. Before this lecture I would not have thought of Islam and metal associating. Dr. Levine explained that many nations are against the metal music, but some nations have come to the conclusion that metal and religion can live harmoniously and not disrupt the Islamic way of life. He also explained that metal is so effective in Middle Eastern countries because the lifestyles are so grim that grim music really relates to teens in Islamic nations. I thought the lecture was very interesting and insightful.
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