A Rhythmic History of Hip-Hop Essay -- Hip Hop Music Beat Essays

A Rhythmic History of Hip-Hop Hip-hop, which originally began more than 20 years ago, has undergone many changes during its lifetime. The music has always remained centered in urban landscapes, with most performers of the music rising up from the inner-city neighborhoods. Throughout its history, hip-hop has centered on the rhythm of the beat rather than the melody, which shows the connection between modern hip-hop and traditional African tribal music, often featuring complex polyrhythms and little to no melody. Hip-hop has also featured heavy bass sounds through out its history, with the rhythms hitting the second and fourth beat of each measure hard with either a heavy bass drum or a bass guitar. Hip-hop beats have evolved in many different ways throughout their twenty-year history, yet they are all centered around rhythm and feature heavy, syncopated bass. For my field report, I chose to compose a number of different hip-hop beats, each one emulating a different style of beat from the history of hip-hop. I composed five different beats. The first is an emulation of a beat from the mid-eighties, the second is based on a gangster rap beat from the west coast during the early nineties, the third is based on a beat from New York City during the early nineties, the fourth based on a beat from the south during the late nineties, and the fifth is based on a beat from New York City during the late nineties. For two of the beats I used samples, which is a common practice in the construction of hip-hop beats. The other beats are all originals, yet they are not as long in length as those that contain samples. The first beat is one that is based on the song . South Bronx. by Boogie Down Productions, which was released in 198... ...t, and it does have a sad and reflective tone to it. My song features a sample from the song "Ballad of the Thin Man" by Bob Dylan. The beat is still repetitive, which has proven to be the one constant between all the beats that I chose to emulate. Most of my beats succeeded in trying to capture the feeling of a different time and a different area in music. As is evident by the difference in the beats that came out of New York, Los Angeles, and the South, whatever area the beat comes from has an influence on how those beats will sound. The time from which a beat came also has an influence on how it sounds, with the old school beats sounding quite different from the modern beats. While hip-hop beats have progressed and changed over time, there have also been constants, such as repetition and rhythmic complexity, that remain as similarities between all the beats.

Life of Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman is one of the most eminent poets of America who expressed the condition of nineteenth century American society in his works, which always reflected the cruel, unjust and discerning face of the country. In his period the Americans reviewed those illustrations unpatriotic so his poetic license was very much condemned. At the time of his death only he got recognition by his country.Walt Whitman was born on May 31, 1819 in West Hills, New York. His father, Walter Whitman, Sr., was a carpenter and farmer. Whitman was named after his father. His origin was mixed with English and Dutch. He was the second son of Walter Whitman and Louisa Van Velsor, the granddaughter of a sea captain. When Walt was not just even four years old, Walter Sr. with his family that consisted of nine children moved to Brooklyn, which was a growing city, across from New York. As he was not successful in any of his trade so he decided to try his fortune in house building. And when Walt was six year old, General Lafayette who visited the New York that time carried him. This is described in some of Walt’s stories (Ed Folsom and Kenneth M. Price).Walt was born in a newly shaped United States. The young Whitman got lots of opportunities to gather experience from his farm life and the new city society that helped him to prepare his attitude for writing. Walt’s love for living close to the East River later reflected in his poem â€Å"Crossing Brooklyn Ferry†, published in 1856 where he has shared his experience that how as a child he used to ride ferries onwards and reverse to New York city. That was the most reminiscent experience in his life. This daily commuting became the symbol of the way from life to death and to life again (Ed Folsom and Kenneth M. Price).In Brooklyn Whitman finished his elementary schooling. He spent his six years in Brooklyn public school with different backgrounds and age group children. He described later in his journals and poetry that he never liked physical punishment in schools. Except this formal education of schooling he received most of the significant education from outside like visiting museums and libraries and by attending lectures. He never forgot the first great lecture given by Quaker leader, Elias Hicks who was a very good friend of his grandfather Jesse.In his boyhood, Whitman’s one of the favorite activities was to visit his grandparents on Long Island and the beauty of that mystical land attracted him a lot. His love to that place is revealed from his poem â€Å"Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking†. As Whitman grew up in both places like growing and energetic city Brooklyn and idle Long Island countryside, the double adherence of urban and rural life can be marked out in his poetry (Ed Folsom and Kenneth M. Price).When Whitman finished his formal schooling, at the age of eleven, he started working as a clerk in a local office of some lawyers where his work was related to the libraries and there he got chance to start with his informal education. His love to get engaged with everyone in conversation and discussion also increased his knowledge. He was also a nonstop reader. When other celebrated writers of his time were taking well-arranged education from private institutions, Whitman was busy in gathering information about history, literature, music and some other fields from the fastest growing city New York.In 1831 he learnt printing trade during being an apprentice in Patriot, a newspaper and started liking written word. Here he observed how the thoughts could be changed in to language and soon could be transmitted to the readers. As he was mainly self-taught, he became familiar with the works of Dante, Shakespeare, Homer and the Bible. At the age of twelve only he also added his words in the newspaper.In 1833, his family moved back to the West Hills. Whitman was alone in the city experiencing the freedom that could make his career. These were the years, which taught him the changing parameters of life that reflects in his poetry also. In his poetry, journalism and prose one can find focus on the history of Brooklyn, Long Island and New York City.Walt was living separately from his family and was increasing his knowledge from different sources like in the libraries he read about Sir Walter Scott, James Cooper and other romance novelists. He saw the theatres where he liked Shakespeare a lot. Richard III had always been Whitman’s favorite play. He gathered lots of knowledge from different lectures of Francis Wright who was a Scottish Women’s right advocate   (Ed Folsom and Kenneth M. Price).At the age of sixteen he was about to set his career in the printing trade and news paper when in two cases of fire destruction in the printing industry of New York city stopped him and in 1836 Whitman joined his family back in Hampstead.Though Whitman had very little formal education still he developed some skills of reading and writing through the profession of apprentice in the newspaper. That was sufficient for the type of teaching he could do for some time. He opposed his father who wanted him to work on their new farm, as he never wanted to be a farmer. Only teaching was the career left for him to support him and his family in a very bad financial situation.In his five years of teaching profession he taught in many different towns of Long Island with a very little payment. Whitman proved to be a good teacher and he encouraged the students to think instead of only reciting. He discouraged the punishment and he involved the students in educational games. Whitman’s educational philosophy can be understood in his poem â€Å"There Was a Child Went Forth† commemorating extra curricular learning. He valued the variety of education. His suspicion for the classroom is produced from the poem â€Å"Song Of Myself† where a child ask the question â€Å"What is a grass?† and this is the question that makes Whitman thinking for a simple question. He kept himself energetic by discussing about societies. He also did campaigning for Martin Van Buren’s and became the hard worker for the Democratic Party.In 1838, he tried to start his own newspaper ‘The Long Islander’. He also bought a press and kept his brother George as an assistant. Though he actively wrote, published and edited still, he could not continue long in this field and unwillingly he had to continue in teaching and by 1841 his teaching career was almost at end. He was happy with his newspaper work and could not find happiness in teaching.In the late 1840s, Whitman wrote some journalistic pieces and by the early 1860s, he permanently left teaching career, as he did not find himself suited in this career. Then he decided not to make his career in fiction writing, instead establish himself in the career of journalism. His poetry and fiction was published in about twenty newspapers and magazines. His stories were published in Democratic Review, the most reputed magazine of the nation. His stories are full of professional and psychological matters.His story ‘The Shadow and The Light of a Young Man’s Soul’ narrates Whitman’s own attitude. In the story, the hero, Archibald Dean, left the New York City due to a fire incident and took the charge of a school. H e successfully wrote some novella about rising temperance movement. Benjamin who was Whitman’s partner published his Franklin Evans; or the Inebriate in New World. Whitman’s handling romance and passion in this novel is remarkable. Approximately, 20000 copies of Franklin Evans were sold. This was the novel that Whitman completed in three days.Whitman supported temperance movement in his another two stories- ‘Wild Frank’s Return’ and ‘The Child’s Champion’ Soon he started another novel ‘The Madman’ on the theme of temperance but he lef t it in the middle. It is assumed that his temperance issue came from the drinking habits of his father or may be his habit of drinking at the time of school teaching.Whitman and The Leaves of Grass:Having faith in his own fictional journey of national importance, Whitman published his Leaves of Grass on 4 July 1855. He believed that he could give his poetry to the common men and when Leaves of Grass got published, he imagined himself the poet of America and referred himself â€Å"one of the roughs†, a common man (Pierce A. Jason, 1992).The poem clearly classified Whitman’s goal as a national poet who was a self styled poet. Leaves of Grass had the series of edition making the poet and nation’s life unique (Pierce A. Jason, 1992).His ‘The Leaves of Grass’ became the notorious collection. In 1855, he got it published privately, as no reputed publisher was ready to publish it. The 19th century Americans were not ready to accept the subjects like homo- sexuality, respect for prostitutes, religious references about Adams and Eves that was the subject of this work.Whitman included the civil war thing in the third edition of ‘The Leaves of Grass’ as the war erupted in 1861. At that time Abraham Lincoln’s assassination affected him a lot and he got inspiration to write his most remarkable poem â€Å"When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom†. His war poetry titled â€Å"Drum Taps† was added in to Leaves of Grass. He would declare that his leaves of Grass spin around the four years of civil war   (Pierce A. Jason, 1992).Whitman was never discouraged. He never stopped revising â€Å"The Leaves of Grass† and kept on adding poems. He added poems at leas eight times. For the first edition of â€Å"The Leaves of Grass†, he paid from his own pocket and got only 795 copies printed. Whitman never put his name on the title page of the book and that was assumed unconventional and it was understood t hat not putting the name on the title page was much about America not the writer himself.Whitman never got married and never left America. He never lost his hope even in his last years, though he was badly criticized for his work â€Å"The Leaves of Grass†. He always kept his self-esteem.In 1881, again the disputable publication of â€Å"The Leaves of Grass† appeared. Same time Whitman published â€Å"Specimen Days and Collect†. In 1888, his collection of newspaper pieces â€Å"November Boughs† was published.On May 26, 1892 Whitman died. And after death he got lot of recognition. American poetry got enriched with the poetic ideas of Whitman. He emphasized on the natural and simple way of poetry. His use of free verse put deep effect on the poetry. His poems have variety in rhythm.After his death he left many notes about the intention of writing â€Å"The Leaves of Grass†. He was a tolerant, contended and joyful man. Whitman’s place in Americ an history is mysterious. It seems that it is based on the ideas upon which America was established (Pierce A. Jason, 1992).References:Biography of Walt Whitman, http://utut.essortment.com/waltwhitmanbio_pmq.htmFolsom, Ed and Price, Kenneth M., Biography of Walt Whitman, http://whitmanarchive.org/biography/index.htmlCarpenter Edward, Days with Walt Whitman With Some Notes On his Life and worksFolsom, Ed and Price, Kenneth, Rescripting Walt Whitman: An Introduction To His Life and Work.Pierce, Jason A., 1992, Walt Whitman and the development of Leaves of Grass, http://library.sc.edu/spcoll/amlit/whitman.htmlThe Life of Walt Whitman, http://www.poetseers.org/early-american-poets/walt-whitman/whitman-biography/Walt Whitman, http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/wwhitman.htm

Crowdfunding: Revolutionizing the Investment Essay

In April 2012, President Obama signed the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act into legislation, (potentially) allowing small startup companies to gain investment from private individuals through crowdfunding. This case study explores the viability of crowdfunding as a means of investment, its advantages and disadvantages, its utilization thus far, and its potential success going forward. Features and benefits * MarketLine Case Studies describe topics such as innovative products, business models, and significant company acquisitions. * Fact-based and presented in an accessible style, they explain the rationale of commercial decisions and illustrate wider market and economic trends. Highlights In recent years, crowdfunding websites such as Kickstarter have seen a dramatic increase in activity as the trend has gained momentum. As a result, the number of crowdfunding platforms is on the rise, and such enterprises are beginning to see their business models change in accordance with the future direction of this burgeoning new industry. Advantages of crowdfunding include the fact that it offers a much larger pool of investors from which startups and entrepreneurs are able to raise capital. Additionally, crowdfunding lessens the risk of bringing a new product to market, and enables startups to benefit from large-scale brand and product exposure. Crowdfunding ventures, such as the Pebble Watch, which launched on Kickstarter, have shown the potential rewards of a successful crowdfunding campaign, although this example also serves to exemplify the drawbacks of such a means of raising capital. Your key questions answered * What are the potential implications of the JOBS Act? * What are the advantages and disadvantages of crowdfunding initiatives? * How successful have crowdfunding initiatives been thus far? * What impact is crowdfunding likely to have on the traditional investment landscape

Hero Myth †Achilles Essay

The concept of the hero is as old as myth itself. Throughout history both concepts have evolved together. Myths tell tales of the adventures of man, frequently the son of a god or goddess and a human, who is endowed with great promise and destined to perform great feats. Often these feats involve acts of rescue, war or protection. This heroic myth is rooted in the ideal of familial romance. Particularly during adolescence it sustains and expresses the identification of the ego with idealized imagery. The hero myths have been used for centuries to educate and train youths as parts of institutions and groups. One example of a hero is Achilles, made famous through Homer’s epic Illiad. While we may not look at myths today in the same ways as our ancient forebears, the hero myth is still alive and well in our culture today. Achilles was the hero of the Trojan war as related by Homer in the Illiad. He was the mightiest of the Trojan warriors. He began life as a demigod, the son of Peleus, the king of the Myrmidons and a mortal, and Thetis who was a Nereid. The Myrmidons were legendary warriors, very skilled and brave. Nereids are sea nymphs being the daughters of Nereus and Doris. Thetis was very concerned that her son was a mortal. Therefore she attempted to make him immortal. There are two stories of how she wet about this. The lesser-known story is that she burned him in a fire nightly and then healed his wounds with a magical ambrosia. The more well-known story is that she held him tightly by the heel and submersed him in the river Styx. This made his entire body invulnerable except for the spot on his heel where she held him while he was in the river. During Achilles’ boyhood, a seer named Calchas prophesied that Troy would not fall without help from Achilles. Knowing that he would die if he went to Troy, Thetis sent Achilles to the court of Lycomedes in Scyros. He was hidden there in the guise of a young girl. While at the court he had a romance with Deidameia who was the daughter of Lycomedes. The result was a son who was named Pyrrhus. The disguise finally came to an end when Odysseus exposed Achilles by placing arms and armor amongst a display of female garments and picked Achilles out when he was the only â€Å"female† to be interested in the war equipment. Achilles then willingly joined Odysseus on the journey to Troy. He led a host of his father’s Myrmidon troops in addition to his utor Phoenix and his friend Patroclus. Once in Troy, Achilles quickly gained the reputation as an undefeatable warrior. One of his most notable feats was the capture of 23 Trojan towns. One of these was Lyrnessos where he took a war prize in the form of a woman named Briseis. The central action of the Illiad was sparked when Agamemnon, the leader of the Greeks, was forced to give up his war-prize woman, Chryseis, by an oracle of Apollo. As compensation for the loss of Chryseis, Agamemnon took Briseis from Achilles. Thus enraged, Achilles refused to continue fighting for the Greeks. With Achilles’ withdrawal from the action, the war started to go badly for the Greeks and they offered large reparations to try to lure back their greatest warrior. Achilles continued to refuse to rejoin the war, however, he did agree to allow his close friend Patroclus to don his arms and armor and fight in his place. The next day Hector, a Trojan hero, mistook Patroclus for Achilles and killed Patroclus. Achilles was engulfed with rage at Hector and consumed by grief for his friend’s death. Thetis went to Hephaestus and obtained fabulous new armor for Achilles. Achilles recommenced fighting and killed Hector. Not satisfied with Hector’s death, Achilles used his chariot to drag the body before the walls of Troy and refused the corpse funeral rites. Hector’s father Priam, the king of Troy, went secretly to the Greek camp to beg the return of the body. Finally, Achilles relented and allowed Priam to take Hector’s remains. After Hector’s death time started to run out for Achilles. He continued to fight heroically and killed many Trojans as well as their allies. Eventually, Paris, who was another of Priam’s sons, enlisted the aid of Apollo and wounded Achilles in his weak spot – the heel – with an arrow. This caused Achilles death. The enduring legend from the story of Achilles has to do with the concept of the Achilles’ heel. An Achilles’ heel has come to mean that despite overall strength, there is a mortal weakness that can lead to one’s downfall. While the original myth refers to a physical weakness, in modern times it has come to reference other types of character flaws or qualities that can cause ruination. The concept of the hero has changed somewhat in our modern culture. Instead of daring people who buck trends and traditions in order to help their families, nations or cultures, today we tend to revere people like sports figures and actors. While we have the occasional government or political leader such as Winston Churchill, Martin Luther King or Nelson Mandela, most of what you hear about is who is making the most money due to their sports or acting ability. The concept of the sports figure hero can have some validity as these figures do occasionally overcome great odds and perform daring feats on the modern â€Å"battlefield†, i. e. , the sports arena. However, this is nothing compared to the feats of the ancient heros. Hero myths are powerful stories from ancient times. So powerful are they that they cross cultures and ages, continuing to influence us today. Achilles was one of the great heros of ancient times as the mightiest warrior of the Trojan war. While who we classify as a hero has changed in our modern societies, we still look to the concept today. We teach young people about heros as a method to inspire them. We look to our heros as adults to give us guidance and to give us something to guide our hopes and dreams. While modern heros may not be of Achilles’ status, they remain an integral part of our cultures.

Discuss two or three texts which explore the idea that gender roles Essay

Discuss two or three texts which explore the idea that gender roles are performative rather than innate. Discuss with reference - Essay Example Socially accepted mannerisms and functions are them critiqued through frameworks of understanding that are at once rebellious and radical. These texts open up new ways of understanding the gender relations that exist in patriarchal societies and the influences that such societies have on the people who are a part of such societies. The texts also open up the possibilities for social theorists to understand the ways in which society as a whole is complicit in the victimization of women. The victim’s complicity is also often explored and this results in a better understanding of how the power structures that area associated with patriarchy are able to stifle women’s roles without any voice of dissent making itself known or heard. Film theorists have often been able to locate such discrepancies in the society that is modern and yet patriarchal; they have also been able to locate better the performative aspect of gender because of the very nature of film as a medium. The Gr eat Gatsby is an important example of gender relations in the American society during the 1920s. This was an era when there was a great emphasis on the improvement of the economy and speculative investments were on the rise during this era. As a result of this, there were a large number of people who were extremely wealthy and held a great number of very lavish parties. Jay Gatsby is one such person. His source of income is very mysterious. What the reader knows of Jay Gatsby is what he chooses to tell the narrator Nick. As a result of this, the reader has no option but to accept the version of Gatsby. This passage makes this very clear- The truth was that Jay Gatsby, of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself. He was a son of God—a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that—and he must be about His Father’s business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty. So he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a s eventeen year old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end (Fitzgerald 1995, 16). The idea of inventing for oneself the kind of identity that was in vogue during the twenties is what Gatsby does. What he does is informed by the gender codes of the time and he is able to successfully inhabit such a role. This makes him a successful person for those who are around him. To inhabit a gender role is thus, what makes a person successful in a patriarchal society according to Fitzgerald. This inhabitation of gender roles can also be seen in the women characters of the novel. For instance, the extreme femininity of Daisy is what makes her attractive to the two men who are in love with her. Her rejection of the gender roles that are prescribed then makes room for turmoil and tension within the novel, the kind of tension that finally leads Gatsby to his death. Tom is another character who chooses to inhabit a space that has been socially prescribed. He p lays out an older form of masculinity. According to this role, he is physically strong and is also the provider of the family. Such ideas of gender, according to feminists like Simone de Beauvoir are based on the idea that gender roles are based on the sex of a person. Such roles are then sanctioned by the society and this leads to them being set

HW Math Problem Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

HW - Math Problem Example b. 1. What is the estimated adjusted mean difference in hourly wages for females as compared to males, adjusting for age, union membership, and job type? When age, Union Membership and type of job were taken into consideration, it was found that women earned approximately 1.9 dollars lesser per hour then men did in 1985. 2. Report a 95% confidence interval for this difference. The 95% CI for this difference ranges from -2.76 to -1.04. 3. Write a sentence interpreting both the adjusted mean difference and the corresponding confidence interval. When considering other variables like age, union membership and job type, women in 1985 earned approximately 1.9 dollars less than the men did; and 95% of the times, the actual values for this estimate would fall between 2.76 dollars to 1.04 dollars less then what the men earned on an average. 2. Comment on any disparities in the estimated mean difference in hourly wages between males and females in the four models whose results are listed above . Does it appear from these results that the wage/gender relationship in confounded by other worker characteristics such as worker age, membership in a union, and job type? Why or why not? Across the four models; it is evident that woman did earn lesser than men did per hour in 1985. This effect was seen regardless of the variables included in the study. Adjusting for age increased the discrepancy slightly; while adjusting for job type and union membership in addition to age decreased the discrepancy between the average wages of men and woman slightly. In spite of this, it is difficult to say that these variables play a very significant role; since the differences seen were quite small; and the confidence intervals for the four models overlapped quite a lot. It may be said that variable like age, union membership and job type did affect the discrepancy in the average wages of men and women; but this effect was quite small. 3. Use the results from Model D to estimate the mean differe nce in hourly wages for females, age 42, who are union members with manufacturing jobs, as compared to 42-year male union members with manufacturing jobs. (Note that you have already done this in a previous portion of the problem – I am just trying to â€Å"drill into you† how to interpret multiple linear regression coefficients.) After controlling for Union membership, type of job and age, it was found that women earned on an average, 1.9 dollars less than men in 1985. 4. 1. Does the given information allow you to assess whether the relationship between hourly wages and sex is modified by age? By itself, the data available is not enough to assess if the relationship between hourly wages and sex is modified by age. 2. If not, what additional results would you need to see? We would need information on the significance testing of the F values for the regression analyses in order to estimate whether age does truly affect the relationship between hourly wages and sex; or w hether the observed effect is simply a function of the sampled data. 2. Question two a) 1. What is the estimated adjusted association between Diastolic Blood Pressure (DBP) and

Transition Plans in Special Education Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Transition Plans in Special Education - Essay Example The transition process for students with disability begins as from age 14 when a student’s is within the educational system or high school. IDEA also offers funds to transition planning programs for student only when still under the confines of an educational system (Trach, 2012). The development of transitional plans targeting children with special disabilities has led to increased number of disabled youths registering for high school and post high school programs. A transition plan is contained under the individualized education program and refers to activities that outline the strengthening of needs, skills and interest of students with special disabilities immediately after high school. Through transition planning, the needs, strengths, skills and life goals of students can be identified long in advance and nurtured. Implementing such a plan in advance enables a student with disabilities to develop personality and skills that can enable them to overcome post high school ch allenges (Trach, 2012). Problem statement and significance of study The development of a child with special disabilities has thus been given much prominence and the education system within the United States mandates schools within role. It appreciates the barriers, challenges and problems that students undergo especially after graduating from high school. Understanding the various process, impacts and players in the transition planning development is an important aspect for all scholars within the special education fraternity. This study thus seeks to highlight the processes of transition planning and the impacts that it has created in the development of special education and the preparation of students for postsecondary school life. It seeks to identify the key stakeholders and collaborators of the process and the different roles that each plays (Trach, 2012). The impact of their input in developing a proper transition plan for students with disability will also be evaluated in the study to help discern the importance of transition planning in the education system of students with disabilities. Most student transition planning focuses on providing skills that can enable the students with special disabilities to secure employment and gainful engagement after high school. Comprehensive transitional plan thus ensures the coordination and liaison with external organization that may be interested in employing the students well in advance before they actually graduate from high school (Michaels & Ferrara, 2005). Research questions 1. What is the impact of transition planning in the educational development of students with disability? 2. What transition area holds the key to the success of any transition-planning program? 3. What are the impacts of formal and informal assessment methods available as IDEA regulations? 4. What are the roles of collaborators and how have they contributed towards the development of an effective transition planning approach Participants in transition planning Participants in transitional planning fall in different age groups and this makes their levels of exposure and life experiences vary significantly. Transition plans are thus developed and modeled depending on the needs of the students, their age groups and life experien