Honors

This article was very interesting to read. It was about the state of Iowa and what defines it as a state. It talks about how Iowa is one of the first states that helps define how a presidential election will go. It talks about the authors first impressions of Iowa and how it is different then any other place in the nation. In the article it also talks about how religious Iowa really is. The author is a professor at The University of Iowa who first came from San Francisco. He talks about how Iowans are big hunters and how they say words differently.

This article was really interesting to me just because i have lived in other states and have experienced other places then the state of Iowa. I have lived in Iowa, Tennessee, and Minnesota. All of these places are very different. I liked Iowa so i came back to it. I can understand why other people that are educated have left. I myself do not plan on going to graduate school here. I don’t understand why Iowa is the first in the presidential race though. Why do the Iowa Caucuses matter that much and why are they here first? There are not many reasons i can think of why. There were a lot of facts that i did not know about the immigration here and how they have come for the slaughterhouses. In Tennessee though we also have a lot of slaughterhouses where i am from so we also have some of the immigration there too. In Sioux City i think that they saw the same influx of S-houses during the Chicago’s growth as well and we can see from the abandoned S-houses that it is declining. Many of the things he said were true  but i dont know if he saw all of what Iowa Really is.

These two articles were about how music influences politics and how politics influences music. The first article was about the start of calypso which is an early rap/Jamaican style music. It was very political and fights often broke out after these performers did rap battles.  This article also talked about how if there was any political issue the music would attack the politics. The second article also talked about how the politics is in the music. It talked about different songs and the politics in it.

Before now I had not realized how much politics is in music. Looking back on some of the songs i have listened to through the years it is actually clear to me where the political innuendos are. It was also very interesting to learn about the earliest form of rap. I have heard of rap battles before but not of actual battles over the political issues. It is crazy that music is used so much for the purpose of politics. Everyone does listen to music so it would be an easy form to send ideas and inflections through it but i really had not thought it was big through the years. One of the questions i have is how well it actually works? Does it really sway peoples view points or is it more for just educating people so they can make there own informed decision?