Music 101

[wyld-stallyn.livejournal.com]

Hey dudes and girl-type dudes!

Welcome to Music 101. I brought food!

*Ted passes around a few buckets filled with Twinkies, candy, cans of soda, chips and whatever other junk food you can think of. Whoever has these kids for class next are gonna hate him for the sugar high they'll get every week.*


Today we're gonna learn about where rock music came from. Some people think it only showed up in the '50s.. uh, that's Earth's 1950s, but that's most definitely not true. People were playing rock music back in the middle ages! Only they didn't have electricity, so not so many people heard it. They played in forests and caves and stuff where the acoustics were most excellent.

*gets Really Short Dude to switch on the slide show and turn off the lights*

This is a photo from 900 AD in England. As you can see, that dude over there has a very early version of a guitar. And this dude has drums. They couldn't get a keyboard out there, because they're really heavy and too hard to carry without a trailer, but they used a xylophone instead. A xylophone is one of those doink doink things that makes different noises depending which key you hit with a hammer thing. So this is proof of a very early rock band. Is it not excellent?

Rock music has been deemed evil and non-triumphant by lots of governments throughout time. That's why it got ditched until the 1950s, when people realized that it was most rockin' and fun for the whole family, dudes!

This Week's Class Task: So this week we're gonna talk about how you think rock survived in the underground through the ages. You can make stuff up, I don't mind. And maybe one day we'll go on a field trip and find out who was right! So, uh, get into groups and start talking dudes!

Homework: Uh, for next week I want you to grab one of the tapes out of the basket near the door and listen to it. Then for class next week come in with what you thought about it. Any thoughts will do!


[OOC: Your character can either listen to the tape or have problems finding some kind of backwards technology that actually still plays audio cassettes! If you do want to listen, just pick any rock type song from the 1970s or 1980s]

[OOC 2: The group thing is just to make the comments more manageable. Jump into a group and just start talking.]

Comments

Lecture

[wyld-stallyn.livejournal.com]

Comment here if you want to interrupt Ted's lecture and comment/poke fun at him/etc

Talk To Ted

[wyld-stallyn.livejournal.com]

Comment here if you want to talk directly to Ted during the group discussions

Group 1

[wyld-stallyn.livejournal.com]

Comment here to join in on Group 1's discussion

Group 2

[wyld-stallyn.livejournal.com]

Comment here to join in on Group 2's discussion

Re: Lecture

[fullmetal-havoc.livejournal.com]

....Ah, Teach? How did you get a picture from 900 AD?

And "dude", how did you get a job as a teacher with a vocabulary like that?

Re: Group 1

[likeguidelines.livejournal.com]

This music be not at all similar a bit like what me and me fellows used to be playin' on board when the wind be gone and the ship be goin' nowhere. Someone even gave me a version of "Whiskey in the Jar" by a group called Metallica that I be thinkin' our instructor would say be "most triumphant."

Re: Lecture

[wyld-stallyn.livejournal.com]

I'm a time traveller, dude! See, me and my friend Bill, we met this guy named Rufus, and...

*Ted continues to tell the whole story of the first movie*

...and now Bill's still got the phone booth. So we go travelling every now and then. (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096928/)

Re: Lecture

[wyld-stallyn.livejournal.com]

[ten-and-chips.livejournal.com]

((So this is proof of a very early rock band. Is it not excellent?

Oh...man.))

Re: Lecture

[fullmetal-havoc.livejournal.com]

*eyebrows are raised so high that they disappear behind his bangs*

Well then. Maybe Rock music has transcended the ages because you go around in different time periods and influence them.....?

Re: Lecture

[aroseintime.livejournal.com]

You time travel in a phone booth? That sounds familiar.

Re: Lecture

[wyld-stallyn.livejournal.com]

Yeah! We totally broke it, but when we were collecting historical figures, we got them to chew bubble gum and we fixed it with the bubble gum.

Re: Lecture

[wyld-stallyn.livejournal.com]

Could be, dude!

Re: Lecture

[aroseintime.livejournal.com]

I've traveled in a police call box quite a few times. I imagine a phone booth would be sort of similar.

Re: Group 1

[lauraholt.livejournal.com]

Rock suvived because every generation/era needs a way to rebel. Depending on the time/place/culture, some found it easier to express (because of leinency of the times etc) whilst others were ruled harshly and oppressed. The culture of 20th century changed dramatically against all others; technology, end of slavery in western civilisation and many things that weren't accepted, became common practice. The end of 3 major wars was also a determining factor, and when Vietnam happened, music became darker and angrier (but still fantastic) and more rebellious. If there's a cause to be had, rock is there.

[scissors--.livejournal.com]

*pokes with scissors at the tapes, to see what they're made of*

Re: Group 1

[whitedeathpod.livejournal.com]

Rock survived because it had to. Rock and rebellion go hand in hand in most generations. In the US, we are not short on things to rebel on. It's a theme song almost, marching orders, and it's a tangible thing to hold on to during times of oppression, repression, or depression.

Where there is rebellion, there will be rock music. Those musicians will be figureheads, almost for that decade. Whether underground or in the public places.

[wyld-stallyn.livejournal.com]

[OOC: *falls over laughing*]

Re: Group 1

[psycho-barbie.livejournal.com]

Rock survived being deemed "evil and non-triumphant" by governments because it was deemed "evil and non-triumphant" by governments. There's nothing that'll make some rebellious teen with a chip on their shoulder flock to something faster than an authority decrying it. They feel like they're sticking it to The Man, and being all dangerous and naughty.

Re: Group 1

[lane-drums.livejournal.com]

Absolutely!

[http://users.livejournal.com/___lily_evans_/]

Lily waits until Edward is through 'poking' and selects an audio tape.

[lane-drums.livejournal.com]

*Lane looks through the basket and picks a song - she doesn't take the tape, though, because she has most of them already*

[scissors--.livejournal.com]

*looks at her, to see if the tape will move if you pick them up*

So you know what they are, then?

[http://users.livejournal.com/___lily_evans_/]

*Lily smiles politely*

Ah, yes... Edward, is it? They are "audio cassettes" - you put them in an audio cassette playing machine, and then you can listen to the music. I can put one in your bookbag for you, if you like?

[scissors--.livejournal.com]

ah waw, that's...awesome 0.o And yes please, i kinda have problems picking up small things, and i'd love to have one to dissect listen to at home. *nods*

[http://users.livejournal.com/___lily_evans_/]

*Lily smiles again and puts a tape in Edward's bag*

This one should be good, then.

Re: Group 1

[sogothcally.livejournal.com]

Exactly. ::is very confused by Ted's lecture::

Uhhh, Crichton has it right. Figureheads. Rebellion. Marching order-thingies.

Re: Talk To Ted

[soniabelmont.livejournal.com]

*raises hand* Professor? Vill ve be studying modern medieval music this semester?

Re: Group 2

[soniabelmont.livejournal.com]

So this is proof of a very early rock band. Is it not excellent?

Vell, I do remember some of the tavern musicians and troubadours ve vould get around town. Vhile I don't think they're *exactly* the same as modern rock musicians, they definitely had similar ideas in mind- rebellion, to a degree, and the more...um...sensual pleasures of life. *blushes* Ballads, especially, seemed very popular.

Re: Talk To Ted

[wyld-stallyn.livejournal.com]

I'm sure it'll come up somewhere, Frood Dudette!

[soldtoarmenians]

Xander eyes the tapes curiously. It's not that he doesn't have a cassette player [because his mun is 8 years older than him and goddammit didn't have a CD player until well into college] -- it's just that he's not sure he can get away with using it in his room without pissing off the sonar-eared freak roommate.

Wait, that's supposed to be an incentive not to take one? Xander rolls his eyes at himself and pockets a cassette.

Re: Group 2

[master-of-fear.livejournal.com]

All one needs is a good cover for any secretive thing to survive. I know this firsthand! Perhaps the musicians were masquerading or pretending to play different music?

[soldtoarmenians]

And three twinkies. In addition to the one in his mouth.

Re: Group 1

[alchemy-4-arson.livejournal.com]

Roy takes a soda, two candybars of Rolos (he's become strangely addicted to this world's junk food, these little carmelly things cups in particular), and fishes a cassette out of the basket. The song label reads "Cheeseburger In Paradise".

He sits down with group 1.

"Rock music," he begins, having no actual idea of what rock music is yet, "was obviously born from the discontent of the middle classes and their anger at their totalitarian government, which compelled them to make elaborate compositions by, um, banging rocks together. Clearly a percussion-based genre of music."

Re: Group 1

[alchemy-4-arson.livejournal.com]

"Oh, wait, that's not the question. Okay. Um... rock music survived the discontent of governments through the ages by being so... uh...wonderful to the ear that They (with a capital T) simply couldn't ever erase it totally from people's minds and hearts."