Pleasure
Community Service
While I was searching for songs to use for this assignment, I found it to be much easier to find songs that related to pleasure than to community service. I think that this is because so much of American pop culture revolves around sex, drugs, and alcohol. I believe that in general our society is much more entertained by sex and intoxication than in community service. This may also be related to the fact that much of what is considered pop culture is decided by the younger generations, who typically take a greater interest in partying and having a good time.
I also noticed that most of the community service related songs were produced in times of war and hardship, such as “Lean on Me,” by Bill Withers and “For What it’s Worth,” by Buffalo Springfield. This may be a reason that the pleasure songs far outnumbered community service songs.
I found this assignment very interesting because it helps to contrast the differences in values between American culture and Hinduism. One of the key points of the first aim, pleasure, is to follow the basic laws of morality and seek pleasure intelligently. In American pop culture, the message seems to be a bit more rebellious when it comes to pleasure-seeking. This may be due to the differences in moral values- Americans typically are more strict about sexual behavior and drug or alcohol use with their children, which could eventually lead them to be more rebellious. However, with Hinduism, the idea is that “you can have what you want.” Children in this culture grow up with more freedom, which may eventually lead them to make more careful and thoughtful choices.
I am currently listening to, "Felt Good on My Lips," while responding to you. It is one of my favorite songs!
ReplyDeleteI agree about a lot of the community service songs coming about during times of hardship. There were many country songs out after 9/11, expressing some form of hatred and retaliation, to the community service from the men and women serving in the Armed Forces.
I think your observation that community service songs tend to only be produced in hard times or times of war was really interesting. This seems to be totally true about our culture in general - just look how many benefit concerts pop up after a natural disaster!
ReplyDeleteI also think your sentiment about how being told you can have what you want form birth may make for better choices was great.