What's in a name?
Image retrieved from http://www.mybrilliantmistakes.com/2009/03/musical-landscapes-big-sur-and-me/
While perusing my chosen social network site Soundcloud, and in between a hardcore electronic headbash and a funky cumbia jam, I realised that a lot of power can be wielded by a name. Tuan (1991) claims that the right to name is empowerment, and this is certainly the case when it comes to music on Soundcloud. As I scroll down the page through what could be thousands of songs, my eyes pick out certain words, titles of songs, that may appeal to me. I realise that a lot of the songs I've been listening to I chose because I liked the sound of the name...it had a certain something I was drawn to.
We know that 'space' becomes 'place' as we attach meaning to a landscape (Week 5 Lecture notes) and we also know that music has the power to evoke the strongest of emotions. The way music can connect us to a certain time or place is like a kind of alchemy. Indeed there need not be any words in the music for this magic to occur, but the music always has a name and the name is of incredible importance. Without the name, the music may be lost to us, we may forget the sound or the memory of the song unknown may fade.
Tuan (1991)speaks of the metaphorical power of language and such is music! Through first internal dialog, then the spoken sharing of ideas, the physical processes of making music (as like most things) are made and, in true humanistic fashion, a name is then given to the finished product. The name becomes a symbolic identity of the artwork and is just as important as the form it describes. There is power and meaning in a name and much to be said about the choices that we make, either consciously or unconsciously, based on names.
To see an excellent example of the power of words and music joined with political and social commentary and completely in relation to the BA1002 course, check out this episode of "Rap News". Enjoy!
Over & Out!
Lunar (Vivian Davey)
References:
Week 5 lecture slides (2013). BA1002: Our Space: Networks, Narratives and the making of Place, week 5 lecture slides [Powerpoint slides]. Retrieved from https://learnjcu.jcu.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_312_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_42849_1%26url%3D
Tuan, Y-F (1991). Language and the making of place: A narrative-descriptive approach. Annals of the Association of American Georgraphers, 81(4),pp 684-696.
Photo credit: Big Sur –
Aug06, originally uploaded by Waldo647.
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