Word: contexts
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2000
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Viewed in the context of Black music in America over the past century, there's nothing surprising about hip-hop "crossing over." Blues and jazz crossed over in the 1920s, when whites rushed to Harlem to hear the music. In the 1930s, jazz became - for whites - "swing." When Black musicians created something called bebop (a clear antecedent for hip-hop) in the 1940s, that too crossed over as whites gravitated toward the language, fashion, attitude and music of hip cats like Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. And I think most people today are clear that it was artists like Louis...
...that no matter where we were enslaved in the Western Hemisphere, be it Jamaica, Brazil or South Carolina, we as Black people held on to modes of speech, dance movements, and attitudes (what some call "cool") that formed the foundation for hip-hop's emergence in an African-American context...
...apparently simplistic story but because its medium is so original, its dancing so masterful, and its dramatic structure so solid, its story seems rich and universal. Its final moments are surprising and surprisingly moving. But Contact is greater than the sum of its parts: the three pieces, within the context of the entire performance, take on even greater meaning. Experiences so entertaining, so moving, and so original are rare and should not be missed...
There's also a lot of electronica ballads on the CD--and it's in the context of these ballads that Madonna has made the most progress. Her weakness has traditionally been shallow lyrics; regardless of what emotions she tries to conjure, Madonna always comes off as slightly pretentious, coolly arrogant, and almost never genuine or warm. But Mirwais solves this problem by eliminating the electric contortions on these slower tracks and leaving Madonna's voice naked and credible against the synthesizers...
Issues like government corruption and centralized power can only be understood in a historical context, he says...