{"id":2468,"date":"2020-02-26T21:21:29","date_gmt":"2020-02-26T21:21:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/?p=2468"},"modified":"2020-03-28T22:15:43","modified_gmt":"2020-03-28T22:15:43","slug":"snowball-musings-what-music-accurately-reflects-our-generation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/2020\/02\/26\/snowball-musings-what-music-accurately-reflects-our-generation\/","title":{"rendered":"Snowball Musings: What Music Accurately Reflects Our Generation?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>By&nbsp;Rhea&nbsp;Kapur&nbsp;(IV)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In preparation for Snowball, Pingry\u2019s annual winter formal, there are a couple items to consider. One is, of course, the look. For female students, it\u2019s finding the perfect dress\u2014classically beautiful, yet original\u2014and for the gentlemen, a suit that stands out. Refer to this issue\u2019s fashion column for more! Other items that come to mind include finding a date, perhaps, a group of friends to get ready with, and everything in between. In all the mayhem that ensues in the week leading up to the event, many don\u2019t stop and think about the music. Out of sight, out of mind\u2014until the event starts. There, it\u2019s, \u201cUgh, what are the words to this again? Let\u2019s go get a drink and wait \u2018till something we know comes on.\u201d The cycle repeats itself every year. The real fun at Snowball\u2014or any dance, for that matter\u2014is to vibe with your friends and just enjoy the music. Many upperclassmen I\u2019ve talked to agree: at a dance, we enjoy the music to the fullest when, first of all, we like the songs, and even more importantly, we <em>know<\/em> the songs\u2013 the chorus, when the beat drops, and a cool freestyle that matches. And let\u2019s be real here: a lot of the time, that isn\u2019t the case.&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To investigate this further, I reflected on exactly what type of music is played at Snowball. A friend on Student Government sent me the suggested playlist, which is curated by members of the group and sent to the Snowball DJ. Looking at it, we see that the songs mainly fall into two categories: hip-hop and iconic bops. The latter is self explanatory: the likes of Ed Sheeran\u2019s \u201cThinking Out Loud,\u201d The Killers\u2019 \u201cMr. Brightside,\u201d and John Legend\u2019s \u201cAll of Me\u201d are commonplace. These are songs that we\u2019ve grown up listening to on the radio, the kinds of songs that friends scream out loud together, smiling, arm in arm\u2014the songs that bring us teenagers together. These fall under the wider umbrella of \u201cpop,\u201d and they\u2019re perfect for a close-knit, school-wide dance. An observation, though, if I may\u2014at Snowball, it\u2019s mainly the female students who dance to these songs, while the males stand on the side awkwardly. Maybe it\u2019s because the lyrics are more touchy-feely, and that, even though male students know the words, singing along goes against the \u201cmasculine\u201d image that they must project. Or, maybe this music just isn\u2019t as popular among male students\u2014but I digress.&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The roles quickly reverse, though, when songs from the former category\u2014hip-hop\u2014come on. These are characterized by rhythmic beatboxing and clean beats accompanied by raw, flowing rap lyrics. The most popular of them\u2014Drake\u2019s \u201cOne Dance,\u201d Travis Scott\u2019s \u201cHIGHEST IN THE ROOM\u201d\u2014are decently well known to all genders and bring most people out to the dance floor. However, when just slightly less popular songs come on\u2014Lil Uzi Vert\u2019s \u201cThat\u2019s a Rack,\u201d Migos\u2019 \u201cNarcos\u201d\u2014it\u2019s the male students that jump up and crowd around the middle of the dance floor, enjoying the beat and shouting the lyrics, while female students step back.&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Does this mean that the music tastes of our generation, our age group, also split into these two strict categories\u2014and that the gender interests do as well? I would disagree. Take a look at recent breakout stars like Lil Nas X or Billie Eilish, for example. Lil Nas X\u2019s \u201cOld Town Road,\u201d a smashing hit, combines a country sound with the classic hip-hop beat. Both sounds are prominent, and by putting them together, Lil Nas X becomes original, a pioneer, and instantly popular. Eilish\u2019s sound is also definitive, original; she specializes in horror pop, with tunes that are uncannily catchy but also creepy and spine-tingling, and even have a bit of the hip-hop influence mixed in with the beat. As such, Eilish\u2019s music has an entirely different, captivating sound, unlike anything that has been heard before. Both artists have a fantastic following with teenagers of all genders and backgrounds, including Pingry\u2019s own\u2014both artists are on the Snowball playlist and stirred the entire crowd to their feet when played. They\u2019ve blurred the lines between the different genres. I believe this is also reflective of the world our generation is growing up in as a whole: we\u2019re more accepting, more fluid, more willing to combine different aspects of what is known to create what is not. Although there may not be as many artists like Lil Nas X and Eilish out there just yet, with the same degree of popularity, I think that\u2019s the direction we\u2019re going in. Soon, popular music will be more obviously made up of more than just two sounds. Just imagine what the dynamics at Snowball will be like when that\u2019s the case.&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By&nbsp;Rhea&nbsp;Kapur&nbsp;(IV) In preparation for Snowball, Pingry\u2019s annual winter formal, there are a couple items to consider. One is, of course, the look. For female students, it\u2019s finding the perfect dress\u2014classically beautiful, yet original\u2014and for the gentlemen, a suit that stands out. Refer to this issue\u2019s fashion column for more! Other items that come to mind [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[24,86],"class_list":["post-2468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music","tag-music","tag-snowball"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2468"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2468\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2480,"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2468\/revisions\/2480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}