In English 101 we recently watched a comparison video on youtube. Both videos were of the same song with the same lyrics as well as tune. The "context" however was totally different. The name of the video was "This Land is your land". One video was by far a more optimistic video while the other seemed to be a more pessimistic video. This was not a political exercise in class but more of a context comparison exercise.
The first video was one of optimism. The video presented itself in glorified expression of America with its waving flags, majestic buildings, and pride in patriotism. They had a majestic chorus with an ensemble of instruments that was enough to make any man take off his hat, stand, and salute. The thing was that it did not produce very many pictures of people in the video. The second video although was quite different.
The second video was the same song except sung by Bob Dylan. There were no majestic ensembles but merely Bob and his guitar. It was the way he sang it I think. He always tends to have a depressing tone to his voice but this was accompanied by pictures of depressed people with in the United States. It adds a taste of sadness and truth to our country, one that can not be ignored. The example of these contexts were extraordinary and awakened a new since of diversity with in myself, a lesson well learned.
No comments:
Post a Comment