Music Ed with MC OCV
Music Ed with MC OCV
Episode 16: Game Over - The Kendrick Lamar Super Bowl Halftime Show
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As the first solo rapper to headline the event, Lamar delivered a spectacle that was as much a cultural statement as it was a musical showcase. Join Mrs OCV and her Music Production students, as they unpack the layers of Lamar's performance, offering insights into how he used the Super Bowl stage to challenge, entertain, and provoke thought.
Whether you're a hip-hop aficionado, a cultural critic, or someone intrigued by the intersection of music and social commentary, this podcast provides a comprehensive look at a performance that redefined halftime shows.
Thank you.
Speaker 1Hey y'all, welcome to MusicEd with MCOCV. I'm your host, Megan O'Connor-Vince. Bringing professional music education expertise with a contemporary twist. Bringing professional music education expertise with a contemporary twist. Find my complete episode library on SoundCloud under Mrs O'Connor Vince or on Spotify. Connect with me on Instagram at Mrs OCV for timely updates and educational insights, or if you just want to check out what I'm doing in the classroom, have questions or ideas for upcoming episodes, email me at mrsocbpodcast at gmailcom or drop me a DM on Instagram. I invite you to visit musicoconnorcom, where you'll find my full collection of educational materials or just get to know me a little bit better. Today we're kicking off our interview series for Music Production 2 students this year. My first student that I'm interviewing is Emily McKnight. Here's my interview with Emily what's your name, grade and favorite food?
Speaker 2My name is Emily, I'm in 10th grade and my favorite food kind of depends on the season. But, right now I would probably say I'm playing ramen.
Speaker 1Oh, wow, that's a good one. And we're in January, just so our listeners know. So depending on the season, right? That's a good point. I never really thought about that. What music classes have you been a part of at barnstable? Do you have any other musical training outside of school, or what instruments do you play?
Speaker 2so basically in general, like so right now I'm in music tech two with you, yay, and I'm in piano one yeah, ms Garth.
Speaker 1Yeah, learning lots of theory there.
Speaker 2I was in vocal jazz last year and I'm hopefully in vocal jazz again this year. When I went to BUE I was in flute for first grade. Nice yeah For like half of fourth grade, did you?
Speaker 1have Miss Feline.
Speaker 2No, I had Mr.
Speaker 1Oh, yes, yeah, for like half of fourth grade, and then did you have miss philene, no, I had mr.
Speaker 2Oh, yes, yeah yeah, okay, got it and then like the mandatory music classes that I had to take right, right, nice.
Speaker 1Would you ever go back to flute?
Speaker 2um, I might, I mean like if I really found the time to you know practice To put some work into that.
Speaker 1Mr McGuire's a flute player and he does like beatboxing flute and stuff. It's sick. It's actually really cool Because at first I was like you're a flute player and then he was like, yeah, watch me shred. I was like, oh my God, what's your favorite piece of music technology that you've used in class and why? Or like, maybe not piece of technology, but like resource or thing well, I do use Soundtrap the most and.
Speaker 2I'm trying to learn how to use, like GarageBand and likeleton and all of those, but I think the resource that's helped me is that website that breaks down the tracks into individual pieces so you can hear each individual instrument. Moises or whatever yeah.
Speaker 1And that's something that I showed you guys after my AI conference. That I agree. That I showed you guys after my AI conference that I agree, like I even just found like you drag audio in and it tells you what key it's in, and that's like super useful if you have like a sample and you're not sure you know where to start, like chord wise. So, ai man, that's how you use it.
Speaker 2That's great and also I used like the beat pad for a while, oh yeah, and I really like that, so I'm going to try and like start using that again.
Speaker 1Yeah, I got to be better about that. I got to talk those up Because I well, I have them, but like I don't, I personally don't utilize them, so then I don't't, like I can't, show off. You know what I mean. So then it's like the kids don't really think about it, but Emily thinks about it anyway. Um, who or what inspired you to make music? How did you first find an interest in music?
Speaker 2so growing up, my parents loved rock music, so I was constantly surrounded with like ACDC Queen. Metallica so that kind of like just brought like this sort of love of music into my life and as I grew up I started like branching off on my own, like yes, I still love rock music like I'll still put on a rock playlist.
Speaker 2But like I have my own interest in music now, right, and I think listening to like all different types of music kind of inspired me to try and like see what I can make myself Like in different genres because, like I listen to a bunch of different genres, well I'm just the one. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I got you and I just want to see, like, what I can conjure up in my head and put out. And try my best to put it out, yeah, and like put into thoughts and paper yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1Computers, yeah, no, that's good. I I also. I had a similar experience where I was exposed to a lot of different stuff when I was a kid and then, like, like you're saying, you kind of go off, you know through like friends, or you know social media or whatever, you kind of learn your own stuff. For me it was like TRL, oh yeah, anyway, so being able to have those like different sources of finding different music and especially today with you guys, you guys got you know the internet and all that stuff, um, that was like just starting when I was younger. So, but yeah, that's I. I totally relate to that, which is good. How has music changed or affected your life?
Speaker 2so not a lot of people know this, but when I was in like the sixth grade, so like when covid was happening, I got really depressed and I went through like a whole stretch where, like when I was at lighthouse, I like don't even remember most of my time there because, like I was just like zoned out and you were at Lighthouse during COVID oh yeah, and it just everything that was happening around me just like wasn't helping me either. And one day at the end of summer, before eighth grade, I like on social media.
Speaker 2I like saw this video and I was like who is this? And then that kind of like sparked this whole thing. New person I am now because of that one video.
Speaker 1Love for K-pop, yes, nice.
Speaker 2I love that. It was one video and it was of a singer from BTS. His name is Jimin and he did an aerial. Like he flipped over another member and I was like, oh, this is really cool. And I was listening to the music in the background and I was like, oh, this sounds really good so like.
Speaker 2I started like digging deeper into it and I was like, okay, I vibe with this music and before that I had like hated k-pop, like that was like the one thing I despised, and now it's like all I listen to it's interesting how that works, huh like you're so adamant about one thing and then something persuades you otherwise.
Speaker 1I know COVID was tough for a lot of people so you're very much in good company with that, including myself. It was funny, like you know how Spotify wrapped gives you like like what your aura is or like whatever. So, like everyone's during covid was like sad melancholy reflective. Mine was like dance and pop, like whatever, because I was just listening to music as a like, an escape almost you know like I could not listen to sad music because I would just cry.
Speaker 1So I was like no, I can't like sit in my feelings right now. I already got them Like let me embrace you know, dance music and house music and around the time with you know, beyonce and Renaissance and Drake, honestly never mind and all that stuff, but anyway.
Speaker 2So like when I got into K-pop, once you get into K-pop it branches, and mine branched.
Speaker 1Yeah, it's a big world.
Speaker 2Mine branched.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2And one thing it branched to in particular is like Thai music, and there's one artist that I really love. His name is Jeff Satter and I've done multiple projects on him. I've researched every single one of his songs. I've researched every single one of his songs, I've broken down every single one of his songs and he kind of like inspires me to make music, like that's my number one inspiration is Jeff Satter. I genuinely don't know why, but like it just like clicked something in my head and I was like, okay, this is really what I want to do, because he's like a music producer, he's an actor, composer, he plays a bunch of instruments he's a model like it's nice.
Speaker 1That is a area of music that I don't really know much about, but I know I've had a couple of students previously who have shared like cultural music from that area, um, but not necessarily like modern music. So like, I think that's kind of cool that you're discovering, you know, something different, but also like modern and because I feel like sometimes when we talk about different cultures of music, we tend to do like the traditional, you know, like um, so it's cool that like it's like no, this is current you know, this is you know, and I'm assuming this person is still alive oh, yeah, yeah, he's like in his late 20s.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah exactly so it's. It's. It's cool to hear that, because I don't think that that is something that, a a lot of kids explore, but B you know just the tools that you have at your disposal to be able to explore that kind of stuff. You know what I mean and that's why you're eyeing going to Thailandailand for, yeah, school right, yeah that's wild also.
Speaker 2I just like have this, I don't know why. Again, I just have like an interest in like a bunch of different cultures and like backgrounds and languages.
Speaker 2Languages like my main thing yeah and I think it's because I don't really like have that in my family, like we don't really know our history in our family yeah yeah, and I think like seeing how other people live is like just fascinating to me, because I live so like set in this way and I like didn't experience how other people in different backgrounds like grow up and live. So I just like want to experience that and let go Like the culture yeah.
Speaker 1No, no, that's legit. I've always said that I think music is a great like window to kind of access that information and see people's like different perspectives, you know, whether it's political or cultural or socioeconomic, whatever. I think it's really a unique way that the world can kind of take some biases out and take a step back and say, oh okay, I understand the picture that this person is trying to portray. Yeah, that's sick. Oh, have you listened to uh bad, bunny's new album, speaking of which?
Speaker 2I have not, but I've, like I have listened to a few of his songs yeah one of his songs came up recently. Don't remember which one it is, but he was like talking about like politics in america. I don't know what song that is yeah, I just like heard a snippet of it, I was like, oh, this is kind of cool yeah, so his newest album, not that this has anything to do with k-pop but it just it just reminds me because it's a cultural opportunity.
Speaker 1So what um the album talks about is bad colonization of Puerto Rico and like how there are people going to the island that you know are tourists and they don't care about the culture and they're kind of like whitewashing like the history of the island, and so it's kind of like his ode to Puerto Rico, which is really cool. But I think the coolest part is that he's taking like modern reggaeton beats and like mixing them with traditional like stuff. So there's like salsa and bachata and cumbia and all that stuff on there as well as. So he's kind of it's it's. It's cool because it's like it's not modern but it's also not traditional. You know, and you know the lyrics not that I speak Spanish, but the lyrics, you know, talk about this idea of like making sure he's like advocating for the people of Puerto Rico. So anyway, I'll send you a podcast episode about it. It's pretty good.
Speaker 2Another inspiration of making music was that Tyler video that you showed.
Speaker 1Oh yeah.
Speaker 2That kind of like when he wasn't just saying anything, it was just him making music for like how many minutes? Like five minutes straight.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2That was like really cool to me.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2And I just like I think about that a lot. I'm like, okay, what should I put here?
Speaker 1what should I put here right, exactly because I think too many times nowadays, like kids want to immediately get to like the right answer, you know, is that a, b, c or d. Did I get it right? Is it right or wrong? You know what I mean. And they don't think about the process. And music and art is really more about the process than the product. So, tyler being one of the few people who also produces his own music, so, like you're saying, he's testing how this sound of an instrument sounds here and the timbre of this and what kind of you know color he's trying to portray here, and he's giving musical direction to horns for recording. And I'm glad you appreciated that video, because that was my goal. Good job.
Speaker 2Like. I like using Soundtrap for the loops, but also I want to create my own. Yeah.
Speaker 1Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2I want to see how it sounds.
Speaker 1Yeah, so we should probably explore more like sound design stuff then, Because that's definitely something that you can kind of play around with more in Ableton.
Speaker 2Like I'll have a beat in my head and I'll like try and find a loop that sounds super similar, or like I'll try and make it on Soundtrap but it doesn't sound right and I was like, oh, I wish I could just like find something around that could make this beat because it's like in my head and I want it out right and that's a a good.
Speaker 1that's a good problem to have, because I think many students struggle with finding that initial like oh, this is what I want to make, rather than like you who has the problem of like okay, how do I get it out? You know, that's like the second step of the process.
Speaker 2So it's good. In that song that I just submitted, I wanted there to be like snaps in it and I found two snap loops but they didn't sound right and I was like, okay, so I can either try and record myself doing the snap or just no snap and I just decided that I wasn't gonna do a snap because like I liked how it sounded, but it would have been nice to have an extra snap.
Speaker 1Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, we'll work on it. We'll explore more of that now that I got that on my radar. Okay, thank you, emily. Yay, good job. Thanks for joining us on this week's podcast. Remember to check out new episodes either on SoundCloud or Spotify. Musiced with MCOCV. And again. Follow me on Instagram and I'll see you next time on MusicEd with MCOCV. And again follow me on Instagram and I'll see you next time on MusicEd with MCOCV.
