Cultural Influence of Music- Juan Estrada

            Cultures and trends in the United States have a tremendous impact on society, particularly on the youth and teenagers. Different trends become exceedingly popular and fade seemingly instantaneously, however things such as art, film, photography and music have left each phase in the record books that will always have a chance to delight the future audience.  I believe music has the most powerful influence over the youth of this generation, and for this reason I followed two individuals, one an aspiring rapper, the other an aspiring producer inspired by today’s popular music and instrumentation. I go into the studio and observe how the music process operates, and how the intricacies of songs are captured to make music can influence one person to the masses.

            For this digital media project I networked with students from the mason gross school of the arts, and another brother within my fraternity who have a passion in the music making process. I first had the two gentlemen sign the release form and then I interviewed one by audio, the other by a photo collage of the making of his first two songs on his upcoming mix tape. Adam, the first contender took me with him to a studio in Mount Holly, south jersey. When we walked in the studio, there was a band recording live instrumentation, so we had to wait a tad; after their session ended we went in and met the software engineer.

The engineer spoke to Adam for a while and worked out the monetary situation, after they started testing out instrumentals that Jerry, the producer had made. They chose a beat and Adam went into the booth and started recording the vocals that would compliment the beat. I observed, for hours at end, all the minor adjustments to these seemingly insignificant aspects of the music… after a quick discussion I asked him why did he spend hours at a time just analyzing music and doing everything he did for the artists, he responded by saying music has the power to change lives; the ability to change someone’s mood song-to-song is very powerful.

https://soundcloud.com/jacob-estrada-2/impact-of-music-interview

When someone wants to have more energy they play higher amped music, if they want to wallow in sadness they play Rhythm and Blues (R&B). Music has the ability to make people cry, smile, and arouse emotional, sexual and physical programs amongst the community. Music has the ability to start fights, political and civil discussions and influence the youth to either be more involved, or the opposite; engage in violent revolts depending on your race, religion or region.  Music is the soundtrack to making love, getting through the day, people listen to music to go to sleep, to wake up and get ready, and life without music is bland and a boring existence.