KMadamba
e-Portfolio
WRITING & RESEARCH REPORTS
All of us feel something when we hear music: excitement, pleasure, relaxation, fear, heartbreak, or any combination of these. It pulls at our heartstrings in ways no other form of art can, possessing this indescribable power that can change how we feel and unlock emotions that we didn’t know we were feeling. And even if we’re not aware of the song playing, it has the power to change our mood, behavior, and physiological chemistry. We all respond to music. That’s what makes it universal. And that’s why it’s so difficult to imagine a world without it.
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Throughout this essay, you will find musical clips that are integrated into the text and stories being told in hopes that it can bring us in a common space, and ultimately make this academic report a true musical experience. While this paper takes an interdisciplinary approach– using neuroscience, physiology and musicology– to parallel the diverse responses we have to music, we know that the power of music lies in the experience we have with it. Only then can we fully appreciate music and music therapy.
Snippet of Essay:
Our Experience with Music
Winner of UCLA Writing Program’s
2021 Teague-Melville Essay Prize (scholarship award)
Paper’s keywords and topics: music therapy, neurobiology, musicking, limitations in research
Coursework: Honors Collegium 43W - Science, Rhetoric, and Social Influence
Early on in the quarter, our class reasoned that if research is supposed to inform the way we behave and live our lives, then “Science wasn’t meant to be an exclusive club”. So, we spent the quarter developing writing and communication skills so that we may make scientific research more accessible to a general audience. The purpose of this final paper was to create a public science essay that explains what scientists actually do, and dissects their complex findings. In addition to educating our audience, our job as authors was also to fascinate, entertain, and, most importantly, get audiences to care about the topic even if/when the science has become outdated.
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I’ve always been fascinated by music. How it seems to affect everyone on some emotional level. How it can serve as a medium for connection, or communicate a feeling that can’t be expressed verbally. But what really amazed me was how neuroscience research had brought something artistic, and seemingly subjective into the scientific realm. In this paper, I analyze our experience with music both from a neurobiological and social science/humanities perspective, discuss the clinical applications of music therapy, and examine the future of research on music. Finally, the paper integrates musical clips from a supplementary playlist in hopes of inviting the reader to engage with the essay, and hopefully make it seem less like a report and more like a true musical experience.
Both Rankine’s Citizen and the animation of John Henryism work to distance the Black struggle from traumatic police shootings by refocusing on how subtle, yet consistent forms of discrimination can accumulate to have equally devastating effects on the well-being of Black people. Additionally, each text uses current events to show that the story of racism continues to unfold, challenging audiences to evaluate their role in alleviating (or propagating) this systemic issue.
Thesis:
Microaggressions and the Modern-Day
John Henry
Paper’s keywords and topics: COVID-19, John Henryism, social epidemiology, Claudia Rankine
Coursework: English 11 - Introduction to American Cultures
Claudia Rankine’s Citizen is a profound visual poem that addresses the ramifications of racial discrimination on the physical and mental health of many Black women in the United States. Her work reconstructs the perception of injustice, showing that racism is not just about political or legislative policies but is a daily struggle riddled with microaggressions. Though subtle and typically unintentional, Rankine shows that the effect of microaggressions accumulate and highlights the impact it has on the psyche of many in the BIPOC community.
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As I wrote this essay in March 2021, I recalled how the people of color had been disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Sherman James, a social epidemiologist, related the effects of the pandemic on the Black community to his theory of John Henryism. This essay puts Dr. James’ theory in conversation with Rankine’s Citizen, and analyzes how the intertextual relationship redefines the racial climate in America through microaggressions and subtle forms of injustice.
Despite being a “pop musician,” Prince did not subscribe to the societal expectations of what “pop” sounded like, and his discography is a diverse array of genres that blur the lines that delineate blues, funk, R&B, and country. But beyond his musicianship, Prince did not adhere to the themes that aligned with structures of normativity in American culture, pushing the public’s ideas of gender fluidity and exposing the exploitation of Black creatives within the music industry. His music and his career were revolutionary because he brought conversations about controversial topics to mainstream media.
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But perhaps what was truly revolutionary about Prince was that his work was always “rooted in a kind of honesty,” that he braved the pressures of publicity and fame in order to stay true to who he was as a musician, creator, and human being (Thrasher 15). It may seem contradictory to stay true to oneself when Prince was so ambiguous with his identity. However, the power lies not in the assurance of who one is, but in the truthfulness Prince showed while exploring who that person could be. In fact, it seems that the ambiguity in Prince’s comments about his identity is what resonates with his fans. He created a space for introspection, one that encourages questions about who we are and how that relates to the world around us.
Snippet of Essay:
Prince: Transcending Gender and Race
Paper’s keywords and topics: gender norms, racial capitalism, identity, legacy
Coursework: English 11 - Introduction to American Cultures
As a final project, we were tasked to select a figure in American culture that commented, critiqued, or revolutionized society’s perspective on gender and race through their art. As a culmination of the course’s focus on performance studies, musicology, and literature, my partner and I created a visual essay on Prince. We discussed his career-long battle for artistic freedom in the face of racial capitalism, and how his performances - both in terms of his clothing and music - created a space for introspection and reflection about aspects of one’s identity.
Thesis: Prince became an icon for his flamboyant style and the way he performed fluidity in identity, pushing the boundaries of sexuality and gender norms through his more feminine appearance, costuming, and makeup. In addition to his exploration of gender identity, Prince brought conversations of racial injustice into mainstream media as a Black artist navigating a largely White music industry and its practice of exploiting Black music and Black culture.
Poiesis Analysis of "All Along The Watch
tower" (1968)
Thesis: In this paper, I will examine how Bob Dylan’s "All Along the Watchtower" creates the sense of restraint that inspired Jimi Hendrix’s cover. While he takes the same structural elements, Hendrix’s version challenges Dylan’s non-political notion by instilling his electrified style to tell the story of his personal battle against the racial expectations that the song’s relentless structure represents. But by concluding with a resolution to the musical unease, Hendrix triumphantly escapes from the structural trap of both the song and society.
nina Simone's "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free" (1967)
Thesis: Simone infuses a cynical undertone to “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free” as a reminder of the urgency in their fight for freedom. Yet, she retains the optimism and liveliness inherit in Billy Taylor’s original composition. In this way, “I Wish I Knew” encapsulates the episodic and emotional highs and lows Black people have experienced, making it one of the anthems in the fight for civil rights.
Re-Presentation of Black America During the Sixties
Thesis: Using Stuart Hall’s constructionist approach to creating meaning, I will discuss how Nina Simone uses “Mississippi Goddam” and “To Be Young, Gifted and Black” to challenge the morality of society’s stigmas towards Blackness. By speaking of the African American struggle, Simone deconstructs this notion that one’s skin color warrants mistreatment, allowing her to reconstruct and re-present Black people as complex human beings unworthy of the oppression and brutality that haunted their history for centuries.
Hover over the image to read the thesis of each paper!
Image Credit: Nina Simone- Both from discogs.com ; Jimi Hendrix- wallpaper from https://imgur.com/t/jimi_hendrix/fEmaCCc
Cluster 60 - America in the Sixties:
Politics, Society and Culture; Special Focus on Music and Social Movements
Clusters are interdisciplinary, year-long courses offered to first year undergraduates at UCLA. I participated in the American 1960's Cluster which combined disciplines of political science, history, literature/media and musicology. Throughout the 30 weeks, I decided to focus on the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements to investigate racial relationships in America during the sixties and how music factored in the representation of Black people in American culture.
In the final quarter, I chose a seminar that explored the musicology aspect of the Cluster and studied how music was used to galvanize and mobilize the various movements that defined the decade. In this seminar, I did a case study on Nina Simone to examine her contribution to the African-American community, the fight for civil rights, and to the decade as a whole.
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Left - A Poiesis Analysis of Jimi Hendrix’s "All Along the Watchtower"
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Middle - I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free: Hopeful for the Actualization of Equal Rights for Black People
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Right (Final Paper) - Nina Simone's Re-presentation of Black America During the Sixties