Sir Isaac Newton's Cradle

The drum major’s voice rings out, sharp and clear in the tense silence. We hear her call us to set, and we freeze. The band is across the field, standing a block, every member leaning forward, forming the same angle towards the ground. We are lined up from the 35 yard line to the 45, lying on the wet grass as if we are asleep. We are perfectly still, then suddenly we rise, kicking our legs in unison. The show has begun, and we are in our element, doing what we do best. We are color guard girls, and this is what we live for.

“Politics can be strengthened by music, but music also has a potency that defies politics.” This quote by Nelson Mandela summarizes the relationship between music and politics, and how important and unique their connection is. “This relationship is important because music has the power to enforce and the power to challenge politics”. Music has this power because it contains the potential to influence individuals, which can result in political movements, and even cause cultural change. The influence of music genre, Rock ‘n’ Roll, has heavily impacted the culture and society of America in several different ways. One of the most influential effects Rock ‘n’ Roll music has on America is its power to unite and divide individuals during troublesome periods. The unison and division of American citizens has been displayed several times throughout history, but perhaps the most important is shown in the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War.

Music carries each and every one of us to a new awareness. It can reach to the innermost part of an individual. Music can envelope our emotions from tears all the way to our joy. It captivates and motivates. As I attended a concert on Saturday, November 7, 2015, Lynyrd Skynyrd performed with power and feeling to their audience. The audience ranged over four generations. For a band to begin forming by 1965 and performing by 1970, their music can punctuate and electrify the generation of today. By understanding the origin of Lynyrd Skynyrd, an individual could feel how this Southern Rock band injected sorrow, joy, and sometimes confusion in their electric jams. They loved their guitars. This group was not a Confederate flag-waving, redneck band. Their music

In Ishmael Beah’s personal memoir, A Long Way Gone, music courses through the story quite often. Music is first seen in Ishmael’s peaceful childhood. He and his friends enjoy singing and dancing along to music, in particular, Rap Music. As the story progresses, and the war becomes more prevalent in the young boys lives, rap continues to play a substantial role in their lives, just in a different way. At the end of Ishmael’s life story, there is yet another role that music plays. While music’s symbolism did change throughout the book, ultimately, the symbolism in the beginning matches that of the end.

Music can bring the brightest of joys that keeps us moving through our dull and boring lives. An example of this joy is Ishmael Beah’s life as a boy soldier in his book A Long Way Gone. As he tells you his story, he tells of his dance group with his friends, the times he heard music in the middle of war, and how music saved him from the madness that brewed within him. Music has the unique ability to create peace in a person’s life despite the difficulties surrounding them, and to bring a constant reminder of who they are as a person.

Music changes with the times, just like people do. Music is also an important part of all cultures, but some genres of music were actually a direct creation of war. War brings violence, turmoil, and stress to many, which is why these people used music to escape. However, music also helped soldiers during the wars. The soldiers use music to cope with the cruelty of war. Music provided entertainment for soldiers, relieved stress, and allowed the families back home to express their joy and grief of the war with the world.

Throughout the novel A Long Way Gone, music is used as a motif. Music is used to distract or calm the soldiers in rehabilitation, as it has the ability to trigger emotional responses. Also, music is used to remind the soldiers of their innocence and life before the war. And lastly music is used to create common ground amongst strangers.

People know that during half time at football games two bands play and in the band there are the color guard. No one ever stops to think about them and how they came to be. The fans just know that they are there most likely to just entertain them. They never stop to think twice as to how color guard was made and the big meaning behind it all. That there is a rich history of how and why they came to be.

Imagine helping a deaf person hear music and helping them feel the emotion just by watching the color guard perform from the stands. That is what color guard is. Every year I join color guard not knowing what I am getting myself into. Although I am in color guard and I know things about it, there is a lot that I am missing. I know it consists of dance, flag, rifle, and sometimes saber. I also know that color guard marches with the band and has an indoor season, specifically focused on color guard. Color guard is something I am very passionate about and I want more in depth about the history of guard, how it benefits me, and what other people think of color guard. I am hoping that this information will help me better understand the activity I am a part of.

Music played a very important role in the Civil War. In the case of the Confederacy, it helped the new country create the sense of national identity and unity. From inspiring supporters to initiating marches, music was commonplace, and significant in raising people’s spirits. One way music was used in the civil war was to start a march. Instruments like bugles, drums, fifes, and others were played to issue marching orders or to just boost the morale of the soldiers. The band’s main duty was to help rally the men before and after battles, but were sometimes used to give signals and commands in battle. Drummers were relied on to play drum beats to call the soldiers into formation and for other events. Drums were used to signal troops to maneuver

War is an ambiguous matter. From one perspective, it is seen as a glorious act of valor, benefitting the nation and bringing peace to a victorious land once drenched in blood. On the other hand, however, war is a massacre; a useless act of violence that only brings more death and destruction. While focusing on the bigger picture of war’s influence on the world is often the most popular discussion, the individual aspect of war in which soldiers’ deal with their own personal struggles is often forgotten. Through the novel, The Things They Carried, the author, Tim O’Brien, teaches his readers that war compels soldiers to become morally ambiguous. This message is further reiterated in the poem, Midnight Movie, by Mike Subritzky.

Color Guard would be protected by soldiers with sabres or rifles. Fallen Soldiers Battle Cross would be another tradition the military has, it’s a maker appropriate to the soldier’s religion, or were for the soldier who has been killed. It deals with the riffle of the soldier placed in the soldier boots or stuck in the ground with their helmet on top.

During the 1910s, there were many exciting and terrifying events. In 1910, a horrible inferno called the Great Fire of 1910 broke out and destroyed a couple million acres of forest. With the Great Fire, one of the heroic firefighters, Edward Pulaski, saved almost all of his crew except The 1910s also had music. Bluegrass, jazz, and scat with many other genres. The Great Fire of 1910, Edward Pulaski, and Music Impacted the culture of the United States because of the new rules and plans for fire safety, act of heroism and saving people, and all the jobs for people.

Do people ever stop and think that a certain song has changed their mood completely? One minute they were mad and the next they are sad. Or that music can help people with illnesses and disabilities. How music can affect the brain, emotions, memory and so much more. Music plays a key part in today’s society. It really has an impact on just about everyone. So how does music affect everyone in its own way?

History often influences one to convey a message artistically through music, plays, books, and paintings. The composer and playwright of “Miss Saigon”, Claude-Michel Schӧnberg and Alain Boublil took the opera “Madame Butterfly” and transformed it into modern day musical depicting the Vietnam War. “Miss Saigon” is about an American soldier and a Vietnamese woman falling in love, but when the North Vietnamese Army descends on Saigon, the American soldiers were forced to evacuate; leaving all the Vietnamese citizens behind including the children who were conceived by the American soldiers and the Vietnamese women. The musical, “Miss Saigon”, accurately portrays the Vietnam War through the diverse relationships of the Vietnamese women and the