Stereotypes Associated with Gospel Music

Gospel is one of my favorite genres of music. It comes from a place of gratefulness, hurt, pain, joy, and longsuffering. This genre comes from those places because gospel started centuries and centuries ago during slavery. Slaves would sing songs to the Lord with hurt and pain but with faith that he will see them through the hard and vicious times. This is why some people think gospel songs are about slavery.

Contemporary gospel is quite similar to its roots. All gospel tells a similar story about struggles, trials and how through it, God is in the mist of it all. But another stereotype of gospel is that it’s all hype with no substance. That’s a lie. When God's presence fills the room and the Holy Ghost touches souls it causes you to run, shout and cry out. That is a whole lot of substance to me! Gospel is all about praising and worshipping our Savior.

Another stereotype is that contemporary gospel is bad and can’t be good because it’s jazzy and makes you want to dance. But that’s dumb because any good music should make you feel something. Some gospel music is deep and caresses the soul and some gets the spirit shaking and alive making you want to dance for the Lord. This could only be bad if church members were bumping and grinding in the sanctuary. That would be crazy!

Gospel music is very close to my heart. It picks me up when I'm in a bad mood and I'm so grateful to know the Lord and appreciate this genre.

One more stereotype is that all gospel sound the same. Not true, listen to these different styles listed below!

Lecrae-Give In https://youtu.be/_urURyaQOvs
The Winans- Tommorrow https://youtu.be/KB_xxO0jBBI
Kirk Franklin- Melodies From Heaven https://youtu.be/zgT-DbTdyqY


Zari Gary

Stereotypes Associated with Country Music by Sami Ahrens

The big stereotype associated with country music is that it's just about heartbreak or love. People assume that this type of music is just "sappy" and/or depressing or uninteresting. Therefore, they don't give it a chance. I'm going to show that not all country music fits the stereotype.

A lot of early country music did start out about being about love or heartbreak. For example, Something Like That by Tim McGraw is a song about being in love in the summer time. People who believe in the stereotypes probably wouldn't want to listen to that song. They also wouldn't want to listen to any of Taylor Swift's first album.

Now I am going to "debunk the myth" by giving examples of songs that don't fit the stereotype about country music. My first example is Red Camaro by Rascal Flatts. This song is just about looking back on the good times and enjoying the memories. Lots of other genres of music have songs about that type of stuff. My next example is I Will Always Love You by Dolly Parton. A lot of people do not know that Dolly Parton was the original writer/singer of the famous Whitney Houston song. This proves that country music can be interesting sometimes.

I don't really listen to a lot of country music, but I hope that this blog post has made people look at this genre of music as not just "sappy and boring". Country music isn't just about heartbreak or love.

R&B Stereotypes By Adam Jacob

One of the misconceptions about R&B music is that it is solely based around sex and feelings. R&B has always been my go to genre of music because the songs are soulful and I feel that I can easily connect to the music. People do not give R&B a chance because they feel it is “ghetto.” They probably do not know all of the history behind the genre.

R&B has been known to go hand in hand with rap. These genres started because of the hardships African American individuals went through.  They would express themselves though music, called soul music. Soul music is where R&B is derived from. A good example of powerful soul music is A Change is Gonna Come by Sam Cooke. From this era of soul music came what we consider R&B.

With all the history that comes with R&B, it puts me in an instant “feel good” mood. I love to just drive around in my car blasting this music. If I have friends over and we are just chilling, we are always listening to some type of R&B. Some of my favorite artists include Drake, Chris Brown, Jeremiah and K CAMP.

So now I am going to break down the stereotypes. Don’t get me wrong; there are plenty of R&B songs that could be considered baby making music. However, there is a broader spectrum to the genre. There are songs like Show Me, See You Again, and Ride Out. The genre of R&B is broad. There is a powerful song for any type of mood you are in.

People would never look at me and think that I listen to this type of movie. They associate R&B with individuals who are emotional. There is a strong stereotype where people think African American people are the only people who listen to this genre. This makes me upset because that is just like saying only country people can listen to country music.

With this blog post, I hope I was able to shed some light on R&B music. I encourage all of you to go onto iTunes and look up different R&B songs. You might be surprised what you find.  

STEREOTYPES OF POP MUSIC BY ELIZABETH OGUNFOLU

Pop music, I must say, is very broad based consisting of pop rock, power pop, Traditional pop music, Bubblegum pop., and there are so many more sub-genres we haven’t heard of before. They all have different beats, different meanings, and so much difference. From the likes of Madonna, The Beatles, Brenda Lee, Michael Jackson, and Brenda Fassie, we find amazing singers. They brought to us pop songs in different flavors. Pop is music you listen to and move your body and bop your head. You might say you dislike pop music, but are you kidding yourself? Ever listened to Katy Perry? Don’t you just love her and her song "Part of Me"? Even though the song sometimes tells us about personal issues, the beats rock.

Truth be told, I sometimes do not pay attention to the lyrics; I just bop my head to the beats. Pop isn’t always girly, as some people put it. I love songs that make me happy, and make me scream at the top of my lungs. Listening to a song that would make me sad or tear up is the last thing I would ever do. There is a special thing about pop, it uplifts my soul in so many ways. 

Pop music is thought to be songs that give off the issues the writer or artist is going through. Taylor Swift, we all believed, created a song for every heartbreak she went through. But I must say, I disagree, she had the emotions to create new art whenever she was down, and she is one of the most artistic persons I have ever heard. To create a song you don’t have to be heartbroken or sad, you just put out all the lyrics that match up to your emotions. 

Listening to pop music doesn’t define who we are. We all assume that our musical preference tells us what underneath the surface. Assuming a person looks a certain way based on the music they play or listen to, is inaccurate. We all listen to different genres of music, but our appearance doesn’t give it off. Take Pink, for example; listening to her song without seeing her you might think the song is just pop rock but merely looking at her, she looks like a rock singer. We all are quite different and so is our taste in music.

People think the lyrics of pop music are only about heartbreak and women as sex symbols, but I disagree. We all seem to assume this, based on the images seen, but we do not listen to the lyrics or the message behind it. Beyoncé’s song “Pretty Hurts” shows women in little clothing but gives off a deep message of female empowerment. However, I believe artists sometimes try to make their music videos about sexually explicit things to catch the attention of the audience. 

Pop music creates a bond between familiar people and strangers. Singing pop song with a bunch of people I have observed creates a great bond or maybe friendship. All I can say is that, we all have the choice to listen to what we want, and not be criticized about it. I love pop music and I know I’ll love it till the end. Call me crazy fan, I don’t care but seriously pop is the bomb. This are my favorite songs.

brenda fassie - vulindlela

Kelly Clarkson - Heartbeat Song

Jessie J - Masterpiece