Assignment 2: Worldly Success and Liberation

Songs About Success

Notorious B.I.G., "Juicy," Rap/Hip Hop, 1994 *explicit*
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNPIOi2LiQk
Billy Joel, "Uptown Girl," Pop/Rock, 1983
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCuMWrfXG4E
Drake ft. TI and Swizz Beatz, "Fancy," Rap/Hip Hop, 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjpNI4MgCK8&feature=fvwrel
Snoop Dogg, "Gin N' Juice," Rap, 1995 *explicit*
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6TUhx2wX0M
Pink Floyd, "Money," Progressive Rock, 1973

Songs About Liberation

Bob Marley, "Redemption Song," Reggae, 1980
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yXRGdZdonM
John Mayer, "Who Says," Pop/Rock, 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akvu1AOnUIw
Lynard Skynard, "Freebird," Southern Rock, 1973
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=np0solnL1XY
Tom Petty, "Free Fallin'," Rock, 1989
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gqT6En2O78
311, "Speak Easy," Reggae/Rock, 2005

In the last assignment involving pleasure and community service, there was clearly an aim more prevalent. However this time around, I found the aims success and liberation to be fairly equal. It became clear to me that the aims were separated by different genres. Songs about success were easy to find in the pop, hip hop, and rap genres; whereas songs about liberation were much easier to find in the rock and reggae genres. It's interesting how drastically the different genres are when it comes to what their lyrics are written about. Pop, hip hop, and rap are more mainstream, probably because Americans enjoy singing along to songs about success and pleasure rather than liberation and community service. I think it comes down to the fact that, in general, our society is greedy and materialistic. So while neither aim was more prevalent over the other, I was able to find a trend in the aims and music genres.
The Hindu understanding of success was very limited. One could only be successful within their class, which for those other than priests was not saying much. It was impossible for a servant to find success or wealth as a priest. Americans, however, have more opportunity for success because we are all "equal".
Liberation was the ultimate goal in Hinduism. Hindus strived for moksha, which was liberation from samsara. Liberation had more importance in Hindu society than it does now in American society. America is the "land of the free" and while there are still Americans fighting for liberation from certain policies, it doesn't have the same significance that it did in Hindu society. I think it's safe to assume that success and wealth play a larger role in American society today, and liberation played a bigger role in Hinduism.

Assignment 1: Pleasure and Community Service

Pleasure Songs:

1. Joshua Radin, "You Got What I Need," Acoustic/Indie, 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgaksJ7bezQ

2. Zac Brown Band, "Toes," Country, 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lB8Nkn3Xjes

3. Dave Matthews Band, "Crash Into Me," Alternative Rock/Jazz, 1997
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7in-9E3ImQ

4. Iration, "Falling," Reggae, 2008.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkJDF94_B7U

5. Merril Bainbridge, "Mouth," Pop, 1994







Community Service Songs:

1. John Lennon, "Imagine," Classic Rock, 1971

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNKhIJfB510

2. Bright Eyes, "Bowl of Oranges," Indie, 2002

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmiRWwAXexY

3. Michael Jackson, "Heal the World," Pop, 1991

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UGTISl1Gts

4. Jack Johnson, "The Sharing Song," Acoustic, 2006

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfSpsnLyo18

5. Ben Harper, "With My Own Two Hands," Rock/Folk, 2003

It was clear while scrolling through my Itunes that songs about pleasure were more prevalent over community service songs, as I had assumed. This is for the simple reason that Americans are obsessed with pleasure- sex, materialistic objects, love, drugs, etc. While not everyone shares the same pleasures, we all thrive off of them. Artists make songs to please people, so they sing about pleasing things. Songs regarding community service were not as prevalent, but were still fairly easy to find. The IDEA of community service has become glamorous in America- like "going green" for example. More people prefer the idea of "going green" because it's a trend, but how many people are actually doing their part? The sad reality is that in general, most Americans don’t care about community service. This is how the Hindu's understanding of the four aims differ from ours. Community Service was not just a trend among the Hindus; it was their way of getting good karma and eventually reaching liberation. American’s on the other hand don’t have the same determination to perform community service. Some may to it for popularity reasons and others may because they believe it will send them to Heaven, but generally it’s not a big part of our culture. It comes nowhere close to the exaggeration of pleasure in our society. The Hindu's idea of pleasure is more natural and simple. Imagine being at the bottom of the Hindu caste system- there probably wasn’t much that Americans today could find pleasurable. Therefore I assume they had more appreciation for the simple pleasures in life than Americans do now.