Money, Power, Success.. AND liberation?

Worldly Succes:Daft Punk's "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger"

                                                                  Electronica/

Death Cab for Cutie: Sound of Settling Indie/, Gym Class Heroes: Viva La White Girl Hip Hop/, Fergie: Glamorous, Pop/, Atmosphere: Saves the Day Hip Hop/

Liberation:

Cary Brothers: "Ride" Indie/Pop

Pretty Lights: The Time Has Come Electronica/, Atmosphere: Love Life Hip Hop/, Verve: Bittersweet Symphony Alternative Rock/,
                                                    Christina Millian: Say I Pop/




These two elements focused on the aims of liberation and worldly success. While worldly success was easier to find, the difference between these two was not as great the difficulty between pleasure and community service. I feel like our version of worldly success with the Hindu depiction is not inherently dissimilar. Both focus around wealth, fame, and power; both Hinduism as well as American culture see this option of worldly success as one of their "aims". However, in the Hindu tradition, they recognize this goal and aspiration of worldly success as a fleeting, unfuliflling thing, while I feel that American culture finds its ultimate fulfillment in material goods and the longing for posh lifestyles. America is saturated with media focusing on these quests of luxury cars, dream homes, botox to paralyze your facial muscles, and surgeries for, literally, everything. These things are glamorized from so many different directions; from the brilliances of "The Real Housewives" to the "Kardashians", or favorite pop icons. This is not what Hinduism meant by the aim of worldly success. It is understood that you go through these aims, but that they are fleeting; it is understood that the ultimate purpose is liberation (Moksha). Yet, in American society, we seek after these things until we no longer, physically, can. Hinduism says to let it go, they are just things; it preaches to go find your soul,true self, that you may reach liberation.  American culture's idea of this liberation is, in this sense, a complete reverse. Liberation or moksha, in Hinduism, means a release of your soul from samsara, that you may be released from reincarnation into the world, over and over again. What I found in searching for songs that depicted our liberation, is that liberation tends to be a release, often times, from some significant other, or a job. Some songs, such as "Ride" depict more of the freedom of leaving behind past ghosts, while "Say I" is more explanatory of the idea that liberation is allowing yourself to behave however you like. Regardless, I feel that American culture's viewpoint of liberation is consistently more shallow, shown through fleeting moments of self-declaration, rather than Hindu's eternal liberation.

Pleasure and Community Service

Incubus "Here in My Room"

Some songs for your pleasure:  Norah Jones"Chasing Pirates"Jazz/Pop, 2009 2. Jessie Baylin "Contradicting Words" Pop/Folk, 2008 3. Ingrid Michaelson "The Way I Am" Indie/Pop, 2007 4. Jack Johnson "Rodeo Clowns" Alternative Rock, 2003 and of course, 5. Incubus- "Here in My Room" Rock, 2004





And to motivate you to give back or make a change, some community service songs: 1.Coldplay "Fix You" Alternative Rock, 2005 2.Bob Marley "One Love" Reggae, 1977 3. U2 "One" Alternative Rock,    4. Beatles "Come Together" Britpop, 1969 5. James Taylor "Shower the People" Classic Rock, 1977






                                                               U2  "One"

The more prevalent aim established was, by far, pleasure. To find pleasure songs only took a few minutes, as the majority of what is available and popular to the public is focused around pleasure. Our media has an unwaivering focus on sex, love, capitalism, and self-seeking goals. This is not to say that such an indulgence in pleasure is wrong. It is, obviously, human nature. However, compared to finding songs centered around some form of community service, it proved much more difficult. Even then, the songs I attempted to relate to community service speak of an undercurrent of love. Pleasure is so much easier to find, I think, because we are such an individualized culture. We, in general, are brought up being taught to seek after whatever it is you want: achieve, accomplish, be successful, follow your dreams. I feel that the unity aspect of Americans falls by the wayside. Our culture is engrained with an idea to be self-sufficient, and to beat competition. Community service or unity does not hold the weight in the American culture, like it does in eastern cultures.  I was not surprised at the amount of "pleasure"songs that could be used, but I was surprised that there were so few unity, service songs that could be found. The Hindu understanding of the pleasure and community service aims differs greatly from how these aims are expressed in American pop culture. In Hinduism, it is believed that you can have what you want, as long as you eventually let it go, so that for example, pleasure is perfectly appropriate to seek, for a time, and as long as you follow basic laws of morality. In American pop culture, there is no sense that pleasure-seeking will, or even should, end. Our culture sustains this wanting of more and more goods, services, and material wealth, and as time goes on, the culture seems to become more sexually liberated, but in some cases seems to deviate from what may be morally sound for some. The example presented of "Here in My Room" speaks of this promiscuity, as the end lyrics say "Thanks for being that kind of girl". Also, in reference to the Hindu aim of community service, American culture seems to focus more on loving your neighbors, but does not state very often to actually aid them. There some artists or bands that have taken the humanitarian route, such as Bono and Coldplay, but you see these visions of humanity more through their videos, while their lyrics could still be related to other causes, or more on a personal level of love and loss. I feel that our culture becomes increasingly impaired when trying to differentiate between selfish desires and altruistic behaviors, and trying to find songs to pinpoint both sides seems to solidify this.