Youth Radio - Topic: Music

Will Measuring Creativity In Schools Help Youth Be Workforce Ready?

rgee — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 18:53:34 -0600

Last month, the California State Senate approved a bill to develop a Creativity and Innovation Education Index, designed to measure how schools are fostering creativity among their students. California is just one of several states to implement a law like this, Massachusetts being the first, according to Education Week.

It might seem like a shock that California is concerned with measuring creativity opportunities when the budget for arts classes and music programs has been cut in school districts all over the state in recent years. However, employers and business owners are saying that new applicants to the workforce are not equipped with the creativity and critical-thinking skills required to get hired.

The California Alliance for Arts Education describes the index:

A creativity and innovation index would provide a way for schools to rate their progress in teaching, encouraging and fostering creativity in students. Index scores would be voluntarily compiled by school and district staff from a survey of curricula and teacher reports. It would quantify the opportunities in each school as measured by the availability of classes and before and after-school programs offered by and through school districts that nurture creativity and innovation in students. Examples might include visual and performing arts education classes, debate clubs, science fairs, theatre and dance performances, music concerts, film-making, creative writing, and independent research.

We spoke with Mary Wright, Associate Director for The Conference Board, a business membership and research association, who specializes in the intersection of business and education. She was a leader on a report called, “Are They Really Ready To Work?” in 2006, which identified key skill sets that employers thought were important for their employees to have, and creativity / innovation were among the top five.

We spoke with Wright about the concept of a Creativity Index and how she thinks it could affect the workforce readiness of young people today.

Youth Radio: Explain in a nutshell, the findings of your workforce readiness research with regards to the need for non-academic skills.

Wright: We wanted to understand what business really meant by--new entrants are not workforce ready. We looked at both basic skills, which we took from No Child Left Behind-- the reading, writing, and arithmetic skills, and also asked about the applied skills, like 21st century skills. The applied skills are things around critical thinking, information technology application, teamwork and collaboration, and creativity and innovation. There are about 13 or 14 skill sets we looked at.

It was clear to us that the applied skills were the ones that were considered most important. Certainly, people would argue that math and science develop significantly critical thinking skills. They give you tools to figure out problems. But if you can’t communicate what you just learned or what you just did, you’re not as valuable in the workplace.

It was interesting given the emphasis that people have on STEM [science, mathematics, technology and engineering] skills, and yet, what employers were saying, it wasn’t the math skill that was important, it was the critical thinking skill. That would be true regardless of whether someone was in a STEM career or a retail career.

Youth Radio: How does this research reflect a changing trend in the workforce?

Wright: In my parent’s generation, you started working at the bank, and you were at the bank for 50 years and you retired with your gold watch, and that’s all you did. Today’s generation, you’re not only looking at six different jobs at the bank, but six different careers. You may start in a retail company, and take those skills and go to a manufacturing company, and take those skills and go to a bank, and take those skills and go somewhere else.

The ability to use your knowledge as a set of tools, to be ably to analyze, regardless of the industry or the role you find yourself playing - that seems to be a far more valuable skill set than whether you have the technical skills. There’s a stubbornly high unemployment rate, and people are saying that there’s a huge mismatch between the skills of the people available and the skills of the jobs that are there. That, I think, people are attributing to the decline of technical education, or the fact that people are saying everyone needs a four year degree, I think the data shows that that’s not necessarily true.

Youth Radio: Do businesses and schools deal with creativity in the same way?

Wright: We were curious to see, how is it that creativity is taught, and how is it enhanced. We asked both business executives and school administrators how they were thinking about creativity. Everybody said creativity was very important, but how it is defined was quite different. Businesses said that it was the ability to define the problem, whereas school administrators were saying it was the ability to find the answer.

A lot of businesses have gone out of business because they were solving the wrong problem. The auto industry has solved the wrong problem many times over - maybe they’re building bigger cars but the problem was fuel... We also saw that when we asked schools -- what are the programs that help develop creativity? They said creative writing and arts classes. Yet the majority of those classes are not required, not part of the strict core curriculum, they were an elective.

Now business had a very similar result. We asked, once you have these employees, how do you help develop creativity? They said yes, it’s important, but we don’t require them to take advantage of these things, they’re not required. Neither schools nor businesses are making creativity a requirement of either their employees or their students.

Youth Radio: Do you think creativity indices are a good way to increase the amount of creativity in schools?

Wright: What’s important gets measured. I think that therefore developing some metric by which you can determine - are you making a difference? - is a critical one. Massachusetts and California are two states with big high-tech industries and very interested in making sure there’s a creative nature. If we develop this measure and we think these schools are doing it really well - it allows for inter-state and inter-district sharing about what programs have really helped.

We're hoping to be able to ask, if these are the most creative people in the company, what is their training? What is similar in their background that would suggest that therefore if you did the following six things, you are going to be more successful as a creative person? If schools had some measure that begins to say-- it’s because they had a fabulous science teacher, or project-based learning, or a theater program -- because we don’t have a sense of what is the most significant driver.

Youth Radio: Do you have any concerns about the index?

Wright: There’s always an issue around equity -- if kids are coming from an upper-income area and parents can supplement what kids are exposed to, then you begin to worry about the bias. Is it just the school environment? Or what is happening before and after school that is going to make a difference? I haven’t seen the indices so I don’t know how they’re going to factor in that kind of thing.

There’s always the concern about how inclusive is the data and how are they used -- are they used to really benefit all the kids in the system?

Then there’s the issue of preference... If a kid chooses not to be involved in activities like theater, are they missing out on the opportunities?... If that project-based learning is not used in the traditional classroom, then that child will not be exposed. Then there’s the reverse - just because a kid was in a classroom with project-based learning, does that mean they’re inherently more creative? No.

Youth Radio: Do you see a common goal for businesses and education in terms of workforce readiness?

Wright: We continue to look at the issue around how businesses and schools talk to each other. Schools have always felt that their role is to make that person ready to be an important contributor to society, someone you want to have as a neighbor. We certainly feel that the skill sets involved in being workforce-ready are exactly the same as those of being a good citizen -- you can read, you can write, you can express yourself, you can understand, you can take knowledge from a variety of areas and turn it into something useful. We feel that the bridge between the business world and the education world is there - and it’s something we need to work on strengthening.

House Of The Rising Sun Covered By...An Oscilloscope?

squevedo — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 18:14:27 -0600

A lot of my friends think current music is way too reliant on technology instead of good old fashioned musical talent but a new video by bd594 turns that argument on its head.

Bd594 manages to recreate the song “House of the Rising Sun” by The Animals using only the recorded sounds of old computer equipment including an HP Scanjet 3P, Adaptec SCSI card and a computer powered by Ubuntu v9.10 OS, an Atari 800XL with an EiCO Oscilloscope, a Texas instrument Ti-99/4A with a Tektronix Oscilloscope, and a hard-drive powered by a PiC16F84A microcontroller. In the video description he says, “For this video I recorded each instrument separately with a decent stereo mic and I also used a mixer to adjust the audio levels.” He says he used no sampling or effects to create the sound. This video is one of two he’s done using this technique, the other is a cover of Queen's, "Bohemian Rhapsody."

Check out the video below or on bd594’s page on Youtube.

Your Brain on Music: A Musician and Neuroscientist in Conversation

squevedo — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 15:30:10 -0600

CAPTION: Musician, Alex De Grassi (background) and author, Daniel Levitin (foreground) sign books and CD's at Inforum. Photo Credit: Meles Gebru

The Commonwealth Club in San Francisco hosted an Inforum event last week that featured a conversation between Daniel Levitin, author of This Is Your Brain on Music and musician Alex de Grassi, a Grammy Award-nominated Fingerstyle Guitarist.

Levitin, who is also a Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Neuroscience at McGill University, provided the technical know-how about music and cognitive functions while De Grassi brought years of musical experience as a guitarist. The conversation had something for everyone, neuroscientist or music nerd.

While this was Levitin and De Grassi’s first time formally working together, De Grassi happens to be one of Levitin’s favorite musicians. When he wasn’t bouncing information off of De Grassi, Levitin was requesting he play bits of his favorite songs.

One interesting topic they discussed was about the chemicals the body releases while listening to music. Oxytocin, the same chemical that is found in breast-milk and is also released during sex, is present when people listen to music together. “I’m not saying that listening to music is the same thing as having sex or doing drugs, but our bodies do react in a lot of the same ways to it,” said Levitin.

So while questions like, “Is musical talent genetic?” remained unanswered, the audience got a little more insight into why, for example, it feels good to go to shows.

Meles Gebru also contributed to this post.

Night of the Lasers

dwilliams — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 23:09:51 -0500

One word, phenomenal. That’s just about the only word I can think of that would best describe my first time being at a real live concert this past Tuesday, the best hip-hop concert in Oakland. The opening performers started off the night in an electrifying manner, an amazingly talented 11 year old rapper by the name of Young Marqus from Houston, Texas, female singer, Sarah Green from Chicago, Illinois, and rock out hip-hop band, Chiddy Bang from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with rapper, Chiddy raping a dope freestyle with the topics chosen from the audience such as zebras, “Chewbacca” from star wars, Wiz Khalifa, dinosaurs, Oakland, and eight other random topics. But the night became ten times as electrifying with the grand finale, Lupe fiasco. As he jumped out on stage full of energy, the crowd went delusional. I have never heard an audience so loud, and full of so much love, but I have no doubts that he deserves it. The first song he performed off of his hit album, “lasers” was “words I never said” featuring Skylar grey. When I observed Lupe standing tall, spitting every line though the mic’ with passion, I felt a huge difference of presence and delivery compared to the way he was 5 years ago when he came out with his first album, “Food and Liquor”, which marked the 5th year anniversary on Monday, September 19. He is a true professional; it had me really thinking, as a lyricist and performer myself, “I wish I could have that much influential stage presence.” Later on though the concert he revealed to us exactly how much love he has for the bay area, not only by saying “I love the bay”, but also stating a verse from the song “187 proof” that came out in the year of 1992 by the rapper who Lupe said himself and I quote “the dude who really made me want to rap”, spice 1, from Hayward, California. He was not faking at all. I could feel the sincerity. The concert was crazy fun as he threw water at everyone in the general admission audience at the beginning and end of the show. My friend and I got soaked, but still, it was a great feeling to be right in the front row, it was the best night of my life. Lupe fiasco is not just a performer who I went to see with a friend on a Tuesday night, he is, in my eyes and in my heart, the best mc of my generation. Anyone who disagrees with that, they have the right to be entitled to their own opinions and I respect that, but you also have to respect mines as well, and that’s just the way it is

Hollow Hip-Hop

denise — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 14:09:44 -0500

The following originally aired on KCBS.

By Deyante Newson

An innovative genre of music has now become watered down pop music. Hip-hop has taken a turn for the worst.

Nowadays, instead of rappers putting meaning into their music, many songs deal with how much money you have or how “tight” you are.

Back in the day originality and a social message was what made a song good. We had groups like Wu-tang and Outkast. They put out music that teaches or that touches you. In the song “C.R.E.A.M”, In Spectah Deck raps “It’s been 22 long hard years and still struggling/survival got me bugging, but I’m alive on arrival”. This song makes me think of daily life. Deck is letting us know that we shouldn’t give into our circumstances.

Nowadays we have artists like the New Boyz. In their first single they just repeat the phrase “You’re a Jerk” over and over.

The type of music you listen to defines what type of person you are. I want to be the type of person who is defined by music containing morals, intelligence, and wisdom, but that’s just not as available from many artists today.

Alicia Keys

Kpellum — Fri, 27 May 2011 22:55:23 -0500

When she first broke through in the entertainment business, alicia keys got attention for her egdy look, soulful voice, and ever changing braided hair styles, which can be seen in her performance at the 2002 grammys. She was different from other singers because she wanted to be seen as an independent women rather than a sex symbol.
i like alicia keys because she is an accomplished classically trained pianist and incorporates that into the majority of her music. My favorite and far best album of hers is “songs in a minor”. I like it because in this album she showcases raw emotions and talent; “butterflyz” is a clear example of that. In “songs in a minor she also showes that her voice is not generic but natural, i believed this is what won her five grammys in 2002.
Another thing that i like about alicia keys is that she is very involved in the world through philanthropy. She donates to many non profit organizations and foundations including “frum tha ground up” and is the co founder of ‘keep a child alive’, a non- profit organisation that provides medicine to families with hiv and aids. She also hosts annual black balls to raise funds for the non profit.
Ten years later, new mother alicia keys still proves to be an inspiring person, singer, and philanthropist.

The Music Dream

Chernadez — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 22:19:27 -0500

Everyone likes music right? But how many of us are willing to put our dedication and time into the music industry?

I mean it’s easy to dream but how many of us will stick to that dream like I have? I’ve seen the life of a musician and imp pretty sure we all have. I’ve seen it through TV, movies, and even in a song, over and over again.
To me it seems quite lonely, so lonely it seems pretty much unbearable. We’ve all seen it, the famous musicians such as Kurt cobia, dj am, and James Sullivan who commit suicide or overdose because of the isolation of their friends and family. But despite the possibility loneliness, I want to pursuit this dream. I’ve been interested in music since I was five and I give all thanks and love to my family. I mean, I’ve been told most of my family has either been engaged in making music or playing, like my father who’s been dj since he was seventeen. I can relate to it which makes me feel right at home when I pick up any instrument.
for someone like me who’s a bit meek and timid the first time meeting someone new, I see singing, rapping, or even playing my guitar as away escape to express myself whether someone listens or not. Unlike speaking, I sing with confidence, like most musicians who spill their heart out to the audience or the dance floor. But don’t get me wrong, I get stage fright when I know I have to perform but that’s totally fine with me because by the time I get up there and start playing I’m a whole different person. I’m more energetic and bold and I forget what’s around me, only to drown myself in music itself. My mother says that a song of Alicia keys reminds her of me every time she hears it, it’s called “cage bird” and the reason she says this is because the moral of the song is that a cage bird is trapped but finds singing as its only source of freedom, due to its incapability to fly. Once I heard the song I felt like I was singing it myself. I’m just a cage bird singing until I can fly. So I can share my songs across the world….

Don't Lean On Me For Technology

rgee — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 12:14:26 -0600

The following was originally broadcast on 3/12/11, WABE-FM, Atlanta.

By Mason Gepp

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Two years ago my life was forever altered after I purchased the sleek, innovative, multi-functional iPhone. Besides using it as a phone, I constantly use it to stay connected to the world using the Internet, Facebook and email.

I am a fairly tech savvy person -- seems you have to be nowadays. But my parents, and most people I know older than 50, seem to be technologically challenged. When an adult asks me
if I know how to sync my iphone, download music or use a GPS, they sound like rhetorical questions – of course I do. To me, not knowing how to use these things sounds foreign because I grew up with them.

My parents used to ask me how to turn on the DVD player or how to use the TV remote control. Now, they want me to put music on their iPods or help them navigate their own iPhones. I
can’t really say it’s entirely their fault that they are dependent on me, it’s all new to them. But it frustrates me sometimes. I wish they would make a stronger effort to learn the skills
themselves. And let’s just say they have a lot of catching up to do. I’m not saying my parents -- or people in their generation -- can't figure out these devices, because I know plenty of parents who understand electronic gadgets better than I do. They just need to practice more than people my age. So, I’m willing to make a deal: I will help my parents copy a music CD, if they promise to take the time to learn how to do it themselves from now on.

How Bay Area Hip-Hop Has Changed

dwilliams — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 21:15:24 -0600

How has hip hop in the bay area evolved? Back when I was in middle school the only artist getting played in the bay were Keak da sneak, too short and E-40. A song that I remember the most that played at that time was “Tell me when to go” by E-40. Everybody used to like it because it showed how the bay got down. However, the hyphy movement didn’t last long. I read an article that was very interesting and it was about Mistah fab, a popular rapper in Oakland and big von, the dj from 106 kmel got into an argument. Ever since the argument they haven’t played Mistah fab’s music on the radio. The article referred to the fight as the death of hyphy. Now a couple of years later the rappers that are getting played from the bay are Roach Gigz, Young Curt, Young Bari and Db the General. I'm not saying they are bad rappers but they’re not representing the bay as it was once known. Also, local radio stations support bay area rappers less than before. The radio used to play too short, Mistah Fab, Keak da sneak and E-40 because they were the major bay area rappers at that time. Recently, too short had one song on the radio and Roach Gigz came out with the “black and orange.” Other than that we haven’t heard other songs from the bay on the radio. People from Oakland can relate more to db the general because he’s from Oakland and he raps about what we see or whatever happens in our neighborhoods. I feel like the bay area rappers should be played more than rappers like Soulja boy that talk about things like shopping and having the best things. I think that people should be aware of what rappers from the bay area go through, because what they write is what some of us have to go through. Their music is their way of telling a story about their lives and some of our experiences.

The Remix Your Life Project:

mholt — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 14:58:36 -0600

The Remix Your Life Project: Changing the way we see ourselves, our community and each other.

From humble beginnings as a once a week Gender Specific Support Group, the Remix Your Life Project (RYL) has blossomed into a three day a week project engaging the young people of Youth Radio in the “remixing” of societal issues with regard to race, gender and class through critical analysis/discussion, cathartic poetry and song writing, and the recording, mixing and mastering of their own media content.

The project meets every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 6:15-7:15pm and is youth driven on all levels. The Thursday space is a discussion based group where the topics of discussion are developed by the participants and each session is crafted to address these issues. The Tuesday space is dedicated to writing: writing prompts relevant to the previous Thursday group discussions are provided, however writing of all kinds are welcome and encouraged. Wednesdays are reserved for recording in Youth Radio’s professional studio space. Our youth are encouraged to share their perspectives on society through the form of raps, spoken word and commentaries.

In addition, RYL hosts a “Showcase and Open Mic” at the end of each quarterly session at Youth Radio, immediately following the Graduation Ceremony. All participants who wish to do so are invited to debut their creative pieces to an audience of friends, family and community members.

The following songs were developed as the RYL project was in the midst of evolving from a support group to a full fledged project. Enjoy the good music and keep your ear to the ground for much more from the REMIX YOUR LIFE PROJECT in 2011. If you don’t know about us yet, you will. Holler!

Chris Hurts is a song in the form of a social commentary addressing hypermasculine behavior.

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Ok2bU is a song encouraging youth to embrace thier own sense of self

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The Ugly Truth is a song based upon the reality that is Domestic Violence and Teen Dating Violence.

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This is a video of BeMe The Rapper Preforming "Good Guy Friend" at the Remix Your Life ShowCase/Open Mic. Enjoy!!