Gospel music is a genre of Christian music. Gospel music is composed and performed for many purposes, including aesthetic pleasure, religious or ceremonial purposes, and as an entertainment product for the marketplace. Gospel music usually has dominant vocals (often with strong use of harmony) with Christian lyrics. Gospel music can be traced to the early 17th century, with roots in the black oral tradition. Hymns and sacred songs were often repeated in a call and response fashion. Most of the churches relied on hand clapping and foot stomping as rhythmic accompaniment. Most of the singing was done acappella. The first published use of the term "gospel song" probably appeared in 1874.
The original gospel songs were similar to the song 'Nearer thy God to Thee' which was supposedly played by Titanic musicians as it sank.
Early Gospel was written and composed by authors such as... George F. Root
Philip Bliss
Charles H. Gabriel
William Howard Doane
Fanny Crosby
The advent of radio in the 1920s greatly increased the audience for gospel music. Following World War II, gospel music moved into major auditoriums, and gospel music concerts became quite elaborate.
Gospel blues is a blues-based form of gospel music (a combination of blues guitar and evangelistic lyrics).
In 1977 the Voyager 1 rocket was launched
into deep space, far away from our Solar System. The Voyager 1
is the furthest man-made object from earth, ever. Aboard NASA
included a gold plated record that contained information about
humanity. They put lots and lots of audio on the disk, but one
song, one song in particular, a song by Blind Willie Johnson,
called ‘Dark was the Night and Cold was on the Ground’ was
chosen to represent to whoever or whatever found it what the
human emotion of loneliness is. Blind Willie Johnson wasn’t blind
his whole life, he was blinded when his step-mother threw lye
in his face and he died of Malarial fever when his home burned
down and he had nowhere else to live but on wet newspaper…
And now his song is out there in interstellar space representing sadness.
(Blind Willie Johnson)
Southern gospel used all male, tenor-lead-baritone-bass quartet make-up.
Progressive Southern gospel is an American music genre that has grown out of Southern gospel over the past couple of decades.
(The Nelons)
Christian country music, sometimes referred to as country gospel music, is a subgenre of gospel music with a country flair. It peaked in popularity in the mid-1990s.
Bluegrass gospel music is rooted in American mountain music. Celtic gospel music infuses gospel music with a Celtic flair, and is quite popular in countries such as Ireland. British black gospel refers to Gospel music of the African diaspora, which has been produced in the UK. Some proponents of "standard" hymns generally dislike gospel music of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Today, with historical distance, there is a greater acceptance of such gospel songs into official denominational hymnals.
Some notable Gospel I've run across:
I watched Plague Dogs when 12 years old and it still makes me cry today. Here's the intro
'We gotta prove we're adults now. We're not a Punk Rock band, we're a New Wave Band!' - Jello Biafra
From Britannica New wave, category of popular music spanning the late 1970s and the early 1980s. Taking its name from the French New Wave cinema of the late 1950s, this catchall classification was defined in opposition to punk (which was generally more raw, rough edged, and political) and to mainstream “corporate” rock (which many new wave upstarts considered complacent and creatively stagnant). The basic principle behind new wave was the same as that of punk—anyone can start a band—but new wave artists, influenced by the lighter side of 1960s pop music and 1950s fashion, were more commercially viable than their abrasive counterparts.
New wave music encompassed a wide variety of styles, which often shared a quirky insouciance and sense of humour. In the United States this broad spectrum included the B-52s, leading lights of an emerging music scene in Athens, Georgia, whose hybrid dance music mixed girl group harmonies with vocal experimentation such as that of Yoko Ono; Blondie, with its sex-symbol vocalist Deborah Harry; the disingenuous tunefulness of Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers; the Go-Go’s, whose debut album, Beauty and the Beat, reached number one in 1982; the Cars, who found immediate Top 40 success with “Just What I Needed”; and an artier avant-garde that included Devo and Talking Heads.
In Britain new wave was led by clever singer-songwriters such as pub rock veterans Nick Lowe, Graham Parker, and Elvis Costello; Squeeze and XTC, whose songs were sophisticated and infectious; ska revivalists such as Madness and the Specials; genre-hopping Joe Jackson; synthesizer bands such as Human League, Heaven 17, and A Flock of Seagulls; and the so-called New Romantics, including the cosmetics-wearing Duran Duran, Adam and the Ants, and Culture Club. As the mid-1980s approached, the line separating new wave from the corporate mainstream blurred, especially for bands such as the Pretenders (fronted by former rock journalist Chrissie Hynde), the Police, and U2, who became hugely popular. Although punk was pronounced dead (though it later would inspire grunge and alternative), the music and fashion sensibilities of new wave continued to influence pop music through the 1990s.
Top 50 New Wave Songs Of All Time (as decided on by WFDU listeners):
1. Joy Division - Love Will tear Us Apart
2. Siouxsie & The Banshees - Christine
3. The Smiths - There Is A Light That Never Goes Out
4. Ultravox - Vienna
5. Romeo Void - Never Say Never
6. The Smiths - Bigmouth Strikes Again
7. Echo And The Bunnymen - The Killing Moon
8. Gary Numan - Cars
9. New Order - Blue Monday
10. The B-52's - Rock Lobster
11. Talking Heads - Psycho Killer
12. Peter Godwin - Images Of Heaven
13. New Order - Temptation
14. Icicle Works - Birds Fly (Whisper To A Scream)
15. Gang Of Four - To Hell With Poverty
16. The Stranglers - Skin Deep
17. John Foxx - Underpass
18. Martha And The Muffins - Echo Beach
19. The Only Ones - Another Girl, Another Planet
20. Yaz - Don't Go
21. The Specials - Ghost Town
22. The Psychedelic Furs - Heaven
23. Split Enz - I Got You
24. The Chameleons U.K. - Swamp Thing
25. Tom Tom Club - Wordy Rappinghood
26. Depeche Mode - Shake The Disease
27. Visage - Fade To Grey
28. Berlin - The Metro
29. Alphaville - Forever Young
30. Blondie - Heart Of Glass
31. The English Beat - Mirror In The Bathroom
32. Duran Duran - Rio
33. The Flying Lizards - Money
34. XTC - Dear God
35. ABC - The Look Of Love (Part 1)
36. Q Feel - Dancing In Heaven (Orbital Bebop)
37. Altered Images - I Could Be Happy
38. The Boomtown Rats - Rat Trap
39. B-Movie - Nowhere Girl
40. Squeeze - Cool For Cats
41. The Cure - In Between Days
42. Depeche Mode - Just Can't Get Enough
43. Devo - Whip It
44. Public Image Ltd. - Public Image
45. Erasure - Oh Lamour
46. Fruer - Doot Doot
47. Lene Lovich - Lucky Number
48. Bow Wow Wow - Do You Wanna Hold Me?
49. Heaven 17 - Let Me Go
50. China Crisis - Working With Fire And Steel
Cormac McCarthy (born Charles McCarthy; July 20, 1933) is an American novelist, playwright, short-story writer, and screenwriter. He has written three short-stories, two plays, two screenplays, and ten novels, spanning the Southern Gothic, Western, and post-apocalyptic genres. He is well known for his graphic depictions of violence and his unique writing style, recognizable by its lack of punctuation and attribution. He is regarded as one of the greatest contemporary writers.
McCarthy was born in Providence, Rhode Island, although he was mostly raised in Tennessee. In 1951, he began attending the University of Tennessee, but dropped out to join the Air Force. His debut novel, The Orchard Keeper, was published in 1965. Awarded literary grants, McCarthy was able to travel to Southern Europe, where he wrote his second novel, Outer Dark (1968). Suttree (1979), like his other early novels, received generally positive reviews, but was not a commercial success. A MacArthur genius grant enabled him to travel to the American Southwest, where he researched and wrote his fifth novel, Blood Meridian (1985). Although it garnered lukewarm critical and commercial reception, it is now regarded as his magnum opus, with some even labelling it the Great American novel.
The novel opens in the year 632 A.F. (which means After Ford, the god of the New World). All of civilization has been destroyed by a great war. Then there is another war, the Nine Years War, which ushers in the era of Ford, ensuring stability through dictatorship. The society depicted in the novel is based on a rigid caste system. The higher of the five castes enjoy superior tasks, while the lower ones perform menial roles. Ten Controllers hold all the power in this new world and peace is maintained by conditioning infant minds and by soothing adults with the tranquilizer, soma. The population is further controlled through scientific methods; marriage is forbidden, and children are not born but produced in an embryo factory.
When the novel begins, some students are being given a guided tour through the London Hatcheries. Henry Foster and Lenina Crowne, two employees of this center, have been dating each other a little too often, going against state rules. Lenina's friend Fanny warns her against such promiscuity. As a result, Lenina decides to date Bernard Marx, who is very intelligent but not quite like the others of his caste. Lenina and Bernard decide to go on a vacation to a Savage Reservation in New Mexico, where people considered unworthy of Utopia are confined. On the reservation, the inhabitants live in an almost primitive manner. Before Bernard leaves for his vacation, he is warned by Tomakin, the Director of Hatcheries, about his non-conformist ways and threatened with exile to Iceland.
Lenina and Bernard accidentally meet Linda and her son, John the Savage, on the Reservation. Bernard learns from John that long ago Linda had come to the Reservation with Tomakin, who had abandoned her there. Discovering herself to be carrying Tomakin's child, she knew that she could not return to Utopia; therefore, she stayed on the Reservation and raised John. Hearing this story, Bernard goes to the Controller and gains his permission to take John and his mother back to Utopia. When Bernard presents the pair to Tomakin, the Director is shattered and resigns from his position at the Hatcheries, having become an object of ridicule. Bernard no longer has to worry about being exiled to Iceland.
While living in the custody of Bernard, John becomes the object of everyone's curiosity and amusement. Bernard at first revels in the attention that he receives because of the Savage. Things, however, do not go smoothly. John soon grows repulsed by the ways of the New World and becomes unhappy. Despite his mood, Lenina finds herself terribly attracted to John and tries to seduce him. John, however, fights his physical attraction for her and resists her advances.
When his mother dies, John goes crazy. He then tries to convert the Utopians to his way of thinking. Rebellion results and must be quelled. Bernard and Helmholtz Watson are blamed for the rebellion. When the two of them are taken to Mustapha Mond, along with John, Bernard and Helmholtz are exiled. John is retained for further experimentation. He resists and tries to flee into solitude, but the citizens of Utopia continue to hound him. In a fit of misery and depression, John commits suicide.
George Orwell wrote 1984 in 1949. The dystopian novel is set in 1984 - Orwell's near future and our recent past - but the novel is still relevant today, due to its depiction of a totalitarian government and its themes of using media manipulation and advanced technology to control people.
Winston Smith lives in London, but not the London we know. Instead of being a part of England, 1984's London is part of Oceania, one of the three huge governments that exist in the book's world. Oceania is controlled by a powerful and mysterious elite. The government, referred to as 'Big Brother,' uses cameras and listening devices to constantly observe all of its citizens. There is also a secret police force dedicated to reporting both rebellious thoughts and general misbehavior to the appropriate authorities.
For the most part, Winston is a typical cog in the machine. He works at the Ministry of Truth, but he has a very low-ranking position. His job is tedious and involves altering records to promote the government's version of history.
Winston has a few problems with the government. To begin with, he does not buy into all of the propaganda he is fed. Some of the things he reads or hears contradict with his memories. For example, the government claims that they are at war against Eurasia, but Winston remembers being at war with Eastasia.
Winston also has a vision: he does not want to live under such a repressive government. He commits tiny acts of rebellion. He starts to keep a diary, and he begins to look for allies. This is a dangerous task, since Big Brother is always watching.
Despite his desire to rebel, Winston thinks he will be discovered soon by the Thought Police, the secret police force that searches for and punishes members of society that dare to even question how the government is run. The Thought Police also run a fake underground resistance in an attempt to discover rebellious Party members.
Then, Winston meets Julia at work. Despite the danger of exposing himself to a potentially fake rebel, Winston reveals his true thoughts to Julia. Julia turns out to be a rebel, too. The two start an affair, which is illegal in their country, especially because Julia is a member of the Junior Anti-Sex League. Winston and Julia share a mutual dream of a world free from war and oppression.
O'Brien, another rebel, befriends Winston and Julia. He invites them over to his place. Unfortunately, O'Brien turns out to be one of the Thought Police working undercover. He has spent the last seven years watching Winston for rebellious tendencies. O'Brien busts them with the help of Mr. Charrington, a man from whom Winston and Julia rented a secret room to conduct their affair.
Winston and Julia are separated, and Winston is tortured. Winston resists all the torture until he is sent to Room 101 where O'Brien straps a cage of rats to his head. Winston, terrified of rats, begs O'Brien to torture Julia instead. O'Brien stops torturing Winston. In fact, he even releases him back into society. By making Winston betray Julia, O'Brien succeeded in destroying his spirit. Grateful at being released, Winston is completely recommitted to Big Brother and no longer has any feelings for Julia.
From all outward appearances, Guy Montag is content in his job as a fireman in the 24th century town in which he lives. He has learned to accept that his society is dictatorial, expressly forbidding its citizens from reading or possessing books or seeking any other intellectual self-improvement. Montag has even learned to take pleasure in the flames that shoot from his igniter when he is called to burn the dwelling of the citizens that possess books or commit other crimes against the society. He is successful in distancing himself from the fact that his purpose in life is to destroy other peoples’ property.
The novel opens on a typical day for Montag, the protagonist of the novel; he finishes work and heads toward home. On the way, he runs into his teenage neighbor, Clarisse McClellan, who lives in the house next door to him. In the futuristic world in which she lives, Clarisse is judged to be peculiar, for she is strangely old-fashioned. She is interested in the way flowers smell and how the grass feels under her feet. She is seeing a psychiatrist because of her non-conformist interests. As she talks to Montag, Clarisse challenges him by asking, “Are you happy?” This simple question is Montag’s catalyst for change and causes everything that follows in the novel.
Without eagerness, Montag goes home to Millie, his wife. There is never any affection between them; in fact, they seldom even notice one another. On this particular night, as bombers fly overhead to foreshadow impending war, Montag discovers Millie has taken an overdose, which is a common occurrence in the town. He calmly calls the suicide orderlies, who are always standing by to come to the rescue of those who attempt to kill themselves. With little effort, they save Millie’s life. The distance between Millie and Montag deepens the next day when he tries to talk to her about her actions. She claims not to remember what she has done and returns to her interactive television, totally ignoring him.
Over the next several weeks, Clarisse and Montag develop a friendly relationship. They talk about ideas and thoughts in a way that no one in this society seems to do anymore. Because of Clarisse’s influence, Montag grows more concerned about his own life. Then one day, Clarisse disappears and Montag is troubled. Work troubles him even more, for he must participate in burning an old woman’s home. Refusing to leave her books and her belongings, she lights her own fire and stays inside, dying a martyr. Montag is moved by the woman’s bravery and sees it as a symbol of what is wrong with society. Almost in protest, he steals a book from the woman’s house.
Back at home, Montag learns that Clarisse has been killed; her death upsets him greatly. He tries to talk to his wife about books and ideas and what is wrong with society, but she is not interested. The next day, Montag calls in sick to work, for he has lost all interest in his former life. His boss, Beatty, comes to his home and warns him that sometimes firemen go through phases when they steal books; he reminds Montag if they do not return the books within twenty-four hours, they will be arrested and all their belongings burned. Montag thinks he should get rid of the books he has stolen, including the one from the old woman’s house.
After Beatty leaves, Montag shows the old woman’s book to his wife; he also shows her some twenty others he has apparently stolen over the years. Millie is terrified and refuses to deal with the situation. In frustration, Montag takes one of his books and leaves to visit with Faber, an old English professor he once knew. The two of them devise a plan to save the knowledge from Montag’s books. They decide that Montag must memorize the books to be ensured that their contents are preserved. When Montag goes home, he again frightens his wife by showing her his books; he also shows them to two neighbors. Then he goes to the fire station to turn over one of his books so no one will be suspicious of him. At the fire station, the alarm sounds and Montag must go with Beatty and the other firemen to destroy a house. When they arrive, he realizes it is his own home they are supposed to burn.
At his house, Montag discovers that his own wife has turned him in. In a rage, he kills Beatty and is then attacked by the Hound. He manages to escape and goes to see Faber, seeking help. Faber takes Montag to the country, where some other intellectual exiles are living. Montag becomes part of their group. Like the others, he struggled to memorize books. Their plan is to someday put the knowledge from the books back on paper.
While Montag is in exile, the long-awaited war finally breaks out. The city that Montag has come from is completely destroyed. After the fighting is over, Montag and the others walk back to the city. They are determined to build a new civilization there.
“The Handmaids Tale” is the sixth novel by Margaret Atwood. It was published for the first time in 1985 and has received several awards. It is set in a time where the US has collapsed, and the rule is called Gilead republic. It is an account of the narrator Offred and her experiences during and before the time.
The Plot in Brief
There is a low fertility rate, and fertile women are being imprisoned and getting forced to reproduce for the high rank of society. They are the handmaids. Offred gets assigned to a commander and his wife, where she is to abide by strict rules.
During each month when she is likely to conceive, there is a ceremony whereby Offred has to have intercourse with the commander to conceive a child who would be considered the family of the commander and Joy, his wife.
Offred often thinks of life before the Gilead came into power. She had a husband and a daughter. She and her husband Luke tried to escape with her daughter but got caught. They were separated, and Offred does not know where her family is. Moira, her friend, escapes the Centre.
Offred breaks routine on orders from the commander, and they become close to the point she kisses him goodnight every night. Offred is not pregnant yet, and they start suggesting the commander is infertile. She is instructed to have intercourse with Nick.
Offred finds out that her friend Moira was living as a prostitute. The commander takes Offred to the brothel. Offred fakes the experience for the commander’s sake. She is later sent to Nick, and sex with him is passionate. She starts sneaking to meet Nick, and they start a risky relationship.
A mob of women executes a man accused of rape as was the rule. Offred becomes confronted by Serena about the incident at the brothel, and this presents a danger. A black van arrives to take her away, the commander is surprised, and his wife is angry. Nick had told Offred that the van would lead her to freedom. Offred is not sure where she is being taken.
