My First Music Blog

     For this blog post I decided that I would like to discuss the role of Selena Quintanilla, also known as Selena. I first learned about Selena in 8th grade during Spanish class and thought her story was very interesting and so I wanted to revisit it today.       Selena was an American singer who was famous for her music and performing. She sung Tejano music which is a "fast paced, accordion-based Latin dance music that combines elements of jazz, country, and German polka" (Britannica, 2026). She sung her songs in Spanish and was called the Queen of Tejano. Selena started singing in her family band called Selena y Los Dinos and it later became known as Los Dinos. Selena would travel all throughout Texas as a kid because she was so popular and in 1986 she won the female entertainer of the year award at the Tejano Music Awards. Her band recorded its first album in 1984 called "My First Recordings" and from then on she would release many more as a solo ...

     Today I will be analyzing some music from the Inupiaq culture. Last semester I took an Alaska Native Studies class with UAF. I found the class to be pretty interesting because I did not know a lot about Alaska Native culture before. When I took the class we didn't really go into the traditional music of certain cultures so this sparked my interest.       Drumming is very important to the Inupiaq Culture. It is how they tell stories, folktales, and honor whales that they hunt. The Inupiat use a specific drum called the qilaun that is made from the lining of whale or walrus stomach and driftwood. Since the Inupiat believe that the drum is alive and has spirit they uphold an utmost respect for it and feed it water to keep it alive. The mumiq is the stick that it is played with. The qilaun symbolizes the connection between the people, animals, and environment. Most dances usually have 5 to 20  male drummers and are accompanied by singing. Inupiat...

     As a big country music fan I love listening to the guitar in my favorite songs. I have also always wanted to play guitar and because of that I decided to do a little research on how the electric guitar has evolved from the regular acoustic guitar.      The first guitar ever created is the acoustic guitar. This guitar is one that you will commonly see around a campfire when you are having a good time with your friends. The first electric guitar was created by  Adolph Rickenbacker and George Beauchamp in the 1930s. The guitar was called the "Frying Pan" because it's shape resembled a frying pan. It was created for Hawaiian music because it was super popular at the time but also because the popularity of music bands was growing which meant there was a need for larger concert venues and louder guitars. To the left is a picture of the guitar. This is a link to a Hawaiian song played by this guitar. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Luqy-W0M5eE  ...