Contra Dancing!

I had more fun at this event than any other event with dancing that I've been to in my life. I have always been an awful dancer, but I can usually figure out some way to have a good time no matter how ridiculous my moves are. It makes it a lot more challenging in a normal high school dance (such as a nightclub setting) where everyone is judging you and trying to establish dominance. In a sense, everyone goes in there with a competitive mindset, which usually makes me insecure and much harder to achieve a flow state or even enjoyment while on the dance floor. However, this environment was perfect for me. I believe that what made it so great were the aspects of the dance that are lacking in more stereotypical high school dances and raves. To start, the non-competitive atmosphere was unlike anything I've ever seen. The dancing wasn't about trying to impress others or show dominance over any other person, but to help each other out to achieve a level of communitas and group collaboration so that everyone is having a good time and participating. The helpful atmosphere contributes greatly to the welcoming feeling no matter what the dancing skill levels are of the participants. The fact that we got a special introduction to the basic moves of contra dancing, and they went over every move to each dance before every song, allowing everyone to get accustomed to the dance and feel comfortable dancing with their partners and transitioning to different neighbors. Overall, it felt like the experience of going to the contra dance was more about keeping everyone happy and enjoying the atmosphere than the actual dancing. During the dances I was joking around with the people next to me, getting to know them and, slowly but surely, learning the dance moves. However, the effort put into my learning of the moves and collaboration with my partner and the rest of the group, leading to the progression and group involvement that made this participatory event so fun and successful. In the high school dances I went to, the events always had elements that were more important than the dancing. In those cases, people cared more about hooking up with someone else or at least drawing attention and establishing dominance than the actual dancing. However, these all contributed to the competitive atmosphere that wasn't prevalent in the slightest at the contra dance.

I definitely plan to attend this event again. I had more fun dancing last night than any other time I remember due to the inclusive and friendly atmosphere. Everyone had a different skill level, but everyone was just as enthusiastic to dance with one person as any other. Everyone was willing and excited to teach and learn from what I saw, and it ended up creating an atmosphere that established an unbelievably high level of communitas, making flow states much more easily accessible and powerful than any other social event of that size that I've been to in a long time.

Events like these show the amazing opportunities that participatory music and social situations create that wouldn't be possible in another type of scenario. The friendly and positive atmosphere no matter what dance was being done or who people were partnered with was extraordinary and allowed me to enjoy myself more than any other event of that size that I had been to in a long time. When everyone is willing to participate with anyone who wants to dance, it creates an inclusive atmosphere that can only be achieved in participatory situations, allowing for the most collective enjoyment of any other form of music and social situations in groups of that size. In my opinion, the biggest benefit of this form of presentation is that the more effort being put in will lead to much more being taken from it. Skill level doesn't matter in whatever the activity is, the only thing that counts is doing a personal best and staying involved and engaged throughout the participatory event. This allows for people like me, who may be awful at dancing or whatever activity is being done, to join in and not be looked down upon for my lack of skill due to the goals of getting the most participation and having the most social interaction. Participatory situations care more about establishing communitas and working together to achieve flow states as opposed to a competitive atmosphere where people are trying to show off their talent or at least prove their dominance to others. Contra dancing may only be one of the many forms of participatory music, however, it opened my eyes to the effects of this form of social situation and showed the fantastic effect it can have on a group of people individually and coming together collectively.

The Punks are Alright!

Punk music brings an interesting perspective to world issues, characterized by a rebellious attitude and DIY. In most cases, a rebellious attitude may have a negative connotation, but in this case the rebellious attitude and different mindset of the community of punk listeners brings forth many problems in society. Religion is always being debated throughout the world, but in the movie, Henrike brought forth an interesting issue that he runs into every time he goes to church. He talked in the movie about going to church with a mohawk and the priest at the church being fully accepting of him, saying as long as he is faithful then it doesn't matter what type of hair he has. But regardless, every time he goes into church he talked about strange looks that he got from two older ladies because of his stylistic choice with his hair. Despite the fact that he was coming to church for the same purpose as the women, he was judged just by the way he looked in a religious community where all that is supposed to matter is a shared belief in the same faith. Punk-rockers everywhere also express their unique perspectives in political debates. A huge debate has always been how powerful big business should be in the United States and the rest of the world. Because of the cheaper land and the lesser wages paid due to a number of factors in other countries, bigger businesses tend to buy factories or other manufacturing plants in other countries with extremely unfair worker rights and awful wages. In the movie, a perfect example of this was given through Dali, a punk listener in Indonesia who works in a factory owned by Nike for two dollars and sixty-five cents per day. Other than having these extremely unfair worker rights, it also hinders Indonesia from developing from some of the most awful conditions in the world to a better country. By letting businesses in the United States come into Indonesia and control a huge part of the economy it doesn't allow them to develop and promote their own businesses to the same extent. In a country that is so dependent on other countries for their economy (such as the United States businesses paying taxes) they can't be independent and embrace the DIY mindset that punk music stands for.

The movie truly opened my eyes to a lot of the negative effects of having this dependent form of economy, particularly to the children going up. Being raised in a lesser developed society exposes many children to bad influences such as the drug wars in Indonesia and Brazil. It is hard not to get sucked up in these dangerous and unhealthy aspects of life when there aren't very many other opportunities to entertain the children and keep them occupied with different activities in life. Music, such as punk, is one of the options that can, in a sense, take kids away from the bad conditions that are present where they grow up such as in Brazil and Indonesia and lead them down a better path than the one that they would otherwise take following the normal lifestyle of people growing up in lesser developed and safe areas.

I have a hard time relating to the lives of the artists in the movie directly because the situations in which they live in are very different from the life I've lived. Growing up in lesser developed, more dangerous places, like those highlighted in the movie in Brazil and Indonesia is something that I've been fortunate enough to avoid in my life. On top of that, I've always been surrounded by amazing family and friends to help guide me in the right direction. However, I can relate to the punk music that the artists pride themselves on. Particularly, I can relate to the confrontational style of the music and the rebellious lifestyle that the music talks about. I have been a part of protests and events for the point of promoting a belief and making a point. A perfect example of this occurred last summer when I participated in Pride Parade in San Francisco, not only was I there to have a good time, but also to be a part of making a point to accept anyone no matter who they choose to love or be attracted to. Even if it is rebellion to a lesser degree of some of the stories that the artists in the movies told, I have had rebellious attitudes at a variety of points throughout my childhood. My rebellious actions have ranged from staying up past my bed time without telling my parents when I was four years old to not doing a homework assignment on the day it was due. 

Looking at the larger picture, the decisions that I make effect everywhere in the world, including the places where the featured people in the movie live. As mentioned in the first paragraph, big businesses in the United States are expanding their manufacturing and production plants to other countries for monetary purposes, hindering the quality of life in the country and potentially preventing them from developing. My decision on what products I buy, like many others can affect this. If I take the confrontational and DIY mindset of punk music listeners and avoid buying as many of the products from the big businesses as possible, it will help to make a statement against the negative effects of global business. Technically, if enough people do this and big businesses have to shut down their factories in foreign countries it will technically cause people to lose their jobs, but it will force the country itself to take initiative and work towards providing jobs for businesses within the country and maybe gain more fair rights for their citizens as workers. In the overall picture, I am one very tiny peace of a huge puzzle whose decisions affects the global market, however, I am part of the connection to everyone in the movie and around all other parts of the world.

Bloomington Farmer's Market!

More than anything, the diversity of the Bloomington Farmer's Market stood out to me as I explored the area and reflected on it while mapping it out. Immediately as we walked in there were one of two paths you could choose. One leads directly into the market with all of the vendors and their stands, and the other path leads to tables and other hang out spots with a variety of musicians. Each path technically meets up with each other, as you can follow the second path back up around to the vendors, however, each offers distinct opportunities and a different experience depending on what people want to do there. As shown by the orange on the map, generally the children and families tended to be in the hang out spots away from the vendors to enjoy the day and take in the scene going on around them. However, when looking at the entire map, the main common element where the families and children hung out was music. There were musicians lined up along the second path, as there wasn't a limit to the amount of musicians who could play there. Even though there were families hanging out all throughout the second path, they tended to be more clustered around the musicians. When walking down the first path through the vendors, the majority of people were shopping and minding their own business, but the only places where people gathered together and took a break from the hectic shopping was near the musicians. Even though there were smaller groups around the musicians in the shopping area in comparison to the second path, there were still clearly groups of listeners that had gathered. In my mind, this established one of the communities within the market; the music listeners. Even though the majority of the performances were presentational and didn't have the same level of communitas that a participatory performance entails, the music listeners still stood out from the busy shoppers as a distinct community. One of the ways this became very clear was through the only participatory performance that I saw at the farmer's market, which took place right upon entering the farmer's market. The first thing that I noticed when I walked in was the loud banging of drums in a unique style coming from the general direction of a huge crowd of people. Generally, people initially either went right to their shopping or established themselves as part of the music listening community and went immediately to check out the interesting drumming that was occurring. When I went to see the performance there were a few people dressed in some sort of unique African-looking regalia playing the drums, while a girl danced and chanted around a semi circle while everyone stood around and watched. However, this performance encouraged people to come join in with the dancing, and out of the few who actually joined that I saw, there was certainly of level of flow reached by some people and communitas was established even further in the group of music listeners for those who came out and actually danced. When asking one of the male drummers in the performance about the music, he said that it was a West African style of music that he studied at Indiana University. He told us about his professor (Dr. Djo Bi) and how the goal of the music was to get as many people involved, smiling and engaged as possible. He talked about the point of the music being to spread the knowledge and respect of the music everywhere, regardless of background, skin color or any other element of a person. Music was a key component of the fair that established a community within the farmer's market, but it wasn't the only community there.

Another community of the farmer's market in Bloomington is the venders. Like other elements of the fair, this community valued diversity as shown by the array of products that the farmer's market offers and the pride that the vendors feel to be a part of a farmer's market with such a wide array of products. One woman who I talked to sold clay art and she not only was happy to talk about the artistic process behind her unique art style, but she raved about other cool artistic venders around her who she'd gotten to know in her two years of selling at the farmer's market. She also talked a fair bit about the application process she went through, which she said was fairly competitive (only fifty applicants out of around three hundred applicants looking to sell products that fell into the categories of sculpture, jewelry ,surface decoration, glass and woodworking). She said it took her a bit to get in, but because of how unique Bloomington's farmers market is with the huge variety of products they offer and fantastic atmosphere, it was worth it. When I talked to the people at the information booth at the farmer's market about the application process they said more or less the same thing as the woman selling crafts about the diversity. They love to find a diverse group of products to sell as they feel that there will be something for everyone and it will attract a bigger amount of people. However, they added that it is also very important to them that venders cultivate their products, and don't lie about any aspect of the creation process. They also talked about the importance of having a good amount of local venders. A woman I talked to at the information desk said that the farmer's market should reflect Bloomington's culture, making the importance of having local venders very high. This was also shown by a man I talked to at the Monroe County Democrats booth. He said that the goal of the booth was to help people understand what their political party is doing to help local problems and why voting for democrats will lead to solutions to these problems. Combining the local aspect, the legitimacy of the cultiving process and the diversity of products, the farmer's market in Bloomington is able to create a spectacular community of venders each year, contributing hugely to the great atmosphere of the market.

After looking back at all of this, my main conclusion is that Bloomington's farmer's market does everything in order to promote as much of an inclusive atmosphere as possible, making the market similar to participatory music in many ways. By having such a big focus on diversity with the music and venders it attracts a wide variety of people and contibutes hugely to the inclusive environment. By having something for everyone, nobody is excluded, giving everyone the opportunity to participate, the same as the goal of participatory music. By having an emphasis on local venders and giving the opportunity for local musicians to come out, it shows the importance of expressing the culture of the area, and gives the market a chance to interpret Bloomington's identity however they want. In participatory music, usually one of the goals is to reflect something about the culture, just like the farmer's market. Everyone I talked to also had a lot of pride about the market, and, furthermore, loved talking about it and was having a good time doing whatever they were doing. There is no doubt that a huge goal in participatory music is to make sure everyone is having a good time and has pride in the performance they are contributing to. Maybe most importantly, the variety just in the social atmosphere is very similar to participatory music. As I walked around, I noticed people doing a huge variety of things including, walking around, talking to people, sitting, dancing, analyzing various fruits or vegetables among many other activities. Everyone had a role to play in the social atmosphere that made it the way it was, and the farmer's market wouldn't have been considered nearly as successful if any of the roles went away. In participatory music it is extremely important to have a diversity of activities to create the dense textured music that is so unique to participatory music and makes everyone feel safe and want to get involved. I could describe the farmers market the exact same way, nobody seemed to be left out from my observations because everyone felt comfortable doing something, even if it was taking a break and sitting down to let the atmosphere soak in. For however much I talk about more specific communities within the farmer's market, I look back at my overall experience and know that it was so fun and out of the box was getting to constantly participate in the bigger community of the Bloomington farmer's market.

Four Fields of Music Making

In this clip, an example of a participatory music performance is shown in a Jewish service at temple is shown where everyone in the congregation is participating in the prayer. Everyone participating simultaneously with their praying give a great example of the group involvement that is prevalent in this form of music making. Since it is a prayer service, group involvement is valued above all to give everyone a chance to pray to god. With this, everyone is able to participate and have as much of an opportunity to achieve a flow state as anyone else. It doesn't matter what everyone's level of music talent is in the video, all that matters is that everyone is there for the same purpose of praying. However, as a participatory performance the more musically talented people aren't able to stand out as all the voices blend in the cloaking effect.



An example of a presentational music performance is shown in this live performance of the song "Boston" by Augustana. Augustana is presenting his music live for an audience, and due to this the goal of his show is to keep the audience engaged and interested. Due to this, the songs for this show were rehearsed ahead of time and they don't have to worry about audience involvement. Since they don't have to worry about a larger group of people participating in the show with no rehearsal, they can also have more variation in their music and have more freedom with their performance. This form of performance also values transparent textures, allowing every instrument and other contribution to the musical performance distinguishable from one another. However, since there is a much lesser degree of audience involvement, the level of flow achieved from this performance will most likely be lower than participatory music performances. There will also be less social bonding due to the focus on the artist in this more hierarchical form of performance, which can take away from the overall experience.



This recording of "Can't Hold Us" by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis is a high fidelity performance as it is a recording that has indexical significance to a live performance. Because of this, people who listen to this type of music value feeling like they are listening to their music live. There tends to be a pretty good amount of variation of sound in the song and, as a recording, the studio engineers tend to have the majority of the control in making the song and the value is placed on selling it. However, since this form of music isn't live, there is a lack of audience interaction which can take away from the experience and lessen the chance of the listener achieving a flow state.



"Devil's Den" by Skrillex is a great example of studio audio art because it is recorded and could never be played live.  This makes the music very abstract in the sense that artists of studio audio art tend to add sounds and twists to their music that couldn't be replicated in any sort of other performance. This reveals the value of the artist having a large amount of control over the product to make it sound however they desire. Due to the style of this form of music, the song will have no authenticity and little to no human interaction even in performance.

Emotion and Meaning in Music

Before every wrestling match in high school I would always have the same routine. There was always a pre-meet team warm-up, followed by a personal warm-up, then I would sit down and wait until my weight class came up and it was my turn to wrestle. I would usually get fairly pumped-up after the warm up, but depending on the meet I would sometimes have to wait up to thirteen matches before I would wrestle mine. During the waiting period I would usually become bored and distracted from my wrestling mindset, losing a lot of the energy and excitement that I had built up for my match. However, starting about two matches before my weight class I had a routine to get myself pumped-up again. I would put on my headgear and start to get myself warmed up with a jog or by doing other wrestling warm ups. When it got to the match before mine I would always button the straps my headgear and put on "Invincible" by MGK featuring Ester Dean and pace back and forth, getting lost in the music, focusing on the approach to take in the match and becoming more pumped-up then I could be in any other scenario.

This tradition started for me in the meet with my first varsity match. I was extremely nervous before the match, so much so that I was preparing myself more for a loss than actually wrestling my best in the match. However,  I still got up two matches before mine and did some warm ups nervously, still not even close to the mindset I needed to even put up a decent match. Then as the match before mine came along, I decided to take out my iPod and shuffle the songs I had. I think you can guess what song came on. I started to pace and found myself more focused than I had ever been previously. I was more pumped-up for a match than I had ever been before and I felt more ready than ever to take on the kid I faced. I struggled for most of the match, but due to the mindset I was in from the song I was able to stay within striking distance. With thirty seconds left I was four points down, but I took the kid down from neutral giving me two points and put him on his back for the remaining time giving me three more points and the win.

This song puts me in a state of flow unlike any other song I've heard. Whenever I hear the opening notes followed by Ester Dean's voice it takes me away from everything else in the world and puts me in a state of mind where all I can think about is the music and the wrestling strategy that I come up with going into a match. Sometimes the thoughts feel a little out of place looking back on listening to it while at the gym or any other non-wrestling situation, but in the moment it always feels right because no matter what I'm doing. The song as the sign in this scenario stands for wrestling as the object, but the interpretant goes beyond wrestling and pumps me up no matter what I'm doing. The indexical connection I have with the song does more for me than get me in a state of mind to wrestle, but it gives me more confidence and boosts my spirits no matter what I'm doing, which is why the song means so much to me. Beyond that, I have a huge symbolic connection with the song, contributing greatly to the level that it gets me pumped-up. I can't help but to feel "invincible" every time I hear the chorus, "I hear voices in the air, I hear 'em loud and clear, tellin' me to listen. Voices in my ear, nothing can compare, I just want to listen, telling me I'm invincible, I'm invincible, I'm invincible, telling me I'm invincible, I'm Invincible, I'm invincible, I am." I can't think of any other song that has as large of an effect on my emotions as this song, and it continues to have a deep meaning for me every time I hear it.

My Musical Introduction

Hey everyone! My name is Jared Burk and I have an extremely diverse taste of music. You'll find everything on my I-Pod from Sinatra to Ke$ha and everything in between, and I attempted to show a little bit of my variety in this assignment. I wanted to pick songs that represented where I've lived, which should give you an idea of what the place meant to me and how the aspects unique to the area helped shape me into who I've become. I also included a song that represents some of my strongest values and, finally, a song that talks about my life going into the future. I hope you enjoy the musical introduction to my life!



I was born in San Francisco, California and, when I was one, I moved to a suburb named Mill Valley where I lived until I was sixteen.

More than anything, this song captures the diversity of activites, people and places in San Francisco and other areas of California including "Marin," which is the county where I spent fifteen years of my time in California. The diversity that I experienced taught me to be accepting of everyone and that all people have a place where they can fit in and live a happy life. Due to this, no matter what situation I come across in life, there is always reason to be optimistic due to the huge variety of opportunites that are out there. Without the time I spent in San Francisco and Mill Valley, I doubt that I would have these values close to the same extent that I do today.



During the summer after my sophomore year of high school, my family moved to Chapel Hill, North Carolina where I experienced a completely different culture. Other than the best barbecue I've ever tasted and experiencing college sports like never before, I had never been in an area where country music was as popular among people my age as any other genre. I experienced this for the first time when I was being driven around Chapel Hill by my two best friends, and they played this song. I complained about how much I hate country, but they forced me to listen. After the song finished, I was happy to put this song on what remains to be an extremely short list of country music that I like.

Due to that scenario, this song has some indexical significance to me. However, the story that the song tells reflects more of what I took away from my time in North Carolina. The pride that the person in the song felt for North Carolina is something that I experienced with a lot of people that I had never seen before. After living there, some of the pride has rubbed off on me, and I've been able to feel a lot more pride and more appreciation for where I am and what I'm doing. The song also talks about the twists and turns that the person in the song is thrown as he's going to North Carolina but how he manages to embrace all of them. Moving to North Carolina was, in a way, thrown at me and learning how to embrace it has taught me how to make the most of any situation that I have to deal with.



Believe it or not, I'm not "the new Sinatra," I never sat court side at a Knicks or Nets game, nor did I sip a Mai Thai at any point while I was in New York City, however, the variety of experiences I had was larger than any other four month stretch of my life by a long-shot. I spent my last semester of high school living in  the town of Dobbs Ferry, New York, where I studied about the amazing city that was forty minutes away by train.

The huge array of experiences and opportunities that are presented in the song do a good job of showing how much there is to do in the city that never sleeps. The amount of experiences I had and places I went in the city taught me to be open to any situation and adventure, as long as I am smart about it. Being exposed to New York City helped me learn to adapt to any scenario I am exposed to and to be open to whatever I come across.



This song has some one of the most symbolic meanings to me of any song I have ever heard. The lyrics express how everyone is equal and should have faith in themselves and others. I have always tried to have a large amount of faith in people, and I believe that no matter where I go and what I do I will always find people there for me if I need them.  Furthermore, I believe that at the very least everyone deserves a chance no matter where they are from, what they look like or what they are doing with their life.



This song expresses optimism about the future, wherever it takes me. I am extremely excited to be here at college, in this class, and going into my freshman year and beyond at Indiana University. I believe that I will always be able to find help if I need it and I'll be able to find more great people to add onto those I've already met. I am very happy with where my life is right now, and I don't see very many reasons why I shouldn't be. I am very excited for whatever will come during the rest of Intensive Freshman Seminar and I can only hope that I will feel just as good over my next four years here.