Donnie Cook
Mrs. Boresen
Expos, P-4
Essay
2/2/09
Music
Music, we all listen to it and we all love it, whether we are listening to it for entertainment purposes, at a religious ceremony, or at a festival or restaurant. We listen to music everyday of our life. We all have our personal preferences when it comes to the genre of music we listen to. Some of us enjoy the sweet, steady, and rhythmic beats of Hip-Hop, while others enjoy the distorted sound of rock, or the clean sound of country, others even enjoy the classic down to earth style of folk music. We all know what each genre sounds like and can point it out, but few of us actually know the history behind the music we listen to. Few of us know how very music we love to listen to everyday got its start and became popular in the United States. Where did our favorite styles of music come from?
The earliest music style to show it self, was folk music. Folk music is pretty much any kind of music unique to a culture. Such as, Celtic music is a type of Folk music played in Ireland, or French music in France, and Italian music in Italy. You can hear folk music at any local restaurant or festival with a theme from some country. Folk music is a generally a style of music that you would only find in one area. Folk music has been around for ages and has no true history, because folk music was played since the beginning of life and since we started to play music. For all we know, the cavemen could have played their own style of music, using the skins of the animals they kill to make a drum for ceremonies. Folk music was made as a way to escape the stressful life style of work and other things. People would sing folk songs at local bars or around the campfire.
In the late 1920’s, people inspired by folk music started to make their own style and a new genre arrived on the music scene, Country music. We all have the image of country music, a couple cowboys sitting around a campfire, playing a guitar and singing while roasting weenies on a campfire. This image is true for the most part. Country came from folk music, using mainly a guitar and a singer, and it started in Nashville, Tennessee with a radio station called WSM Radio. WSM had a segment on called the Grand Ole Opry where they would play music; the Grand Ole Opry hired part-time country singer to perform on their show for some quick and easy cash. However, The Grand Ole Opry was not the only thing that had helped country get its start, country also became popular with the help of a man by the name of Jimmie Rodgers. Jimmy Rodgers inspired many other artists during that era to write and sing country music. Jimmy Rodgers was named the “Father of Country” (Roughstock.com).
In the late 1950’s a country inspired genre called rock came into the music scene. People such as James Brown and Muddy Waters, helped rock get a good start (History-of-rock-music.com). Also, we can’t forget about The Beatles, a very popular British rock group who swept the United States with their British rock style. Unfortunately, they came to an abrupt end because of a statement they made. Throughout the years rock developed into several types. From 1981 to 1990, styles such as blues, pop rock, and hard rock developed into the music scene. Blues was a rock style where the musician talked, or sang, about their life’s problems. Pop rock was pretty popular also, a style that combined the fast beats of drums and the distorted sound of guitars. Hard rock became extremely popular and developed into many of its own styles throughout the years. From 1981 to 1995, styles such as punk and grunge began to spring up. From 1990 to today, styles such as pop punk, alternative, indie, and progressive rock came about.
In the 1980’s-1990’s a new style called Hip-Hop made its way into the music scene. Hip-Hop is a style of music that either just has beats along with a singer or “MC” rapping, or the song had other things in the background along with the beat. It all started when a man named Clive “Kool Herc” Campbell migrated from Jamaica to the Bronx. He became a DJ for Hip-Hop, creating things such as the “break beat” (Mrwiggles.biz). He was a DJ for many big artists during this era. The break beat is a section in a song where the drums play and the lyrics stop; this is where the break dancers start showing their dance moves. Kool Herc also invented something called “funk drumming” or beats that have a funk style to them. The dancing in Hip-Hop was heavily influenced by James Brown. Kung-Fu movies and some gymnastic moves were also big influences on the dancing moves in the Hip-Hop culture. Early groups of “MC’s”, a name given to the rapper of song, were the”Black Spades” and the “Ghetto Brothers”.
So how many styles of music are there out in the world? There are too many to put into categories, simply because there is a new artist or artists everyday coming up with new styles of their own. But we can generalize them into four big categories, folk music, country music, rock, and Hip-Hop. Personally, I have a hard time choosing between the rhythmic styles of classic Hip-Hop with artists such as Nas, A Tribe Called Quest, and De La Soul, or the awesome sounds of rock, with artists such as, Blink182, Story of the Year, and Anberlin. All in all, we all listen to our different styles of music, but when we take the time to research them; we understand that they all came from similar roots and maybe try listening to some new music that maybe we would have never listened to before.

Winter Narrative

Donnie Cook
Mrs. Boresen
Expository Writing, 4
Winter Narrative
1/13/09

New Years Eve

Typically my New Years Eve consists of me staying at my house with my parents and some of their friends. We play pool or some other game and then welcome in the new year with sparkling wine. I am thankful to say that this year, the only thing that didn’t change was the sparkling wine while watching the ball drop. The day before new years was starting to show that this new years was going to be like every other one before it. My parents have already made plans for us and the usual gang was ready to see each other. Once I got home that day my mom told me that the plans had to be canceled and I was free to do whatever for New Years Eve. The only problem was, I had nothing to do. Then, one of my best friends Michael called and told me that Aaron was hosting a party and he wanted to know if I could go. I said that I would definitely go so I could escape the yearly routine. He told me when the party was and I was ready for something new as I went to bed that night.
I woke up the next morning around the usual time during break, around twelve, and then got Xbox for some intense gaming. After about thirty minutes I got a message from my friend Tim. He wanted me to come over and play Left 4 Dead, the game he had received for Christmas. I have been wanting to play this game for a while now and he was my chance! So I got in my car and headed off to Tim’s house. We played until about five, when I told him that I needed to get to Aaron’s house. After that, I headed on down to Aaron’s house for the party. While I was on my was there, I expected the street to be full of cars so I would not be able to find a spot. But, I got there and almost nobody was there so I found a spot easy. When I rang the doorbell Aaron’s family told me that Aaron was downstairs so I went down and I wasn’t too surprised to find only Aaron and Michael there playing Halo 3 four inches from the screen. So I laughed at them and then joined in.
After a while, more people started to arrive and we got out the games and decided to play Cranium. After my team dominated, naturally of course, everyone gathered around the couch and talked while Aaron put on some music. The talked eventually turned into a dance off where yet again, me, Aaron, and Michael dominated. The dancing left us tired and we eventually started Halo again while people talked. After awhile we turned to the TV to watch the ball drop and poured the sparkling wine and got ready for the countdown. We counted down and said “Happy New Year” to everyone we could. About an hour after that people left and me, Michael, Aaron, Richie, Buckey, and Bobby were left. Everyone but Bobby, who was asleep in five minutes, was ready to play some extreme Halo all night. So we played until about five in the morning, which was when I decided to go to bed. Michael followed while Richie, Aaron, and Buckey stayed up to play more Halo.
Eventually, they went to bed and we all got up at twelve or so and laid around talking. This is when we decided that Ihop sounded amazing, since we had nothing to eat all night. So Bobby went home and me, Richie, Aaron, and Michael piled into my car and headed to Ihop. When we got there we ordered four huge breakfasts and ate till we were full. Once we were done, I dropped everyone off and drove home, to sleep more. On the way home I realized how great the past few hours have been. Not cause of everything we did, but the fact that I did everything with some of my best friends in the world. I realized how truly blessed I was to have such amazing friends.