Voice Of America Programing

3 Pages 715 Words

Voice of America Programming
Assignment



What music embodies the spirit of America? One could say it was the original genres, blues and jazz. One could say it the folk music of our early immigrants. One could say it’s the unique way that Americans change international musical styles to suit their lifestyles. To me it is all of the above. America is unique in the way we are allowed to so thoroughly express ourselves in our music. Political views, religious values and societal issues are fair game without fear of government persecution. I think that if one is to show the true Voice of America all aspects of American music must be represented. The best way to do this would be to divide the entire broadcast into segments. I will discuss some sample program segments and why I believe they are an important part of the American Voice.
When most think of American music their first thought is usually of the modern music we hear on the radio everyday. Pop. Rhythm and Blues. Modern Rock. I would devote a 2-3 hour segment to each of these genres. These songs generally have love themed topics, something that in itself is universal and non-controversial. They tend to reflect the ideals of teens and young adults (13-23). This would also, from a marketing standpoint, be a hook. This is music that is not filled with overtly political themes (in most cases), but does reflect some of the Mass’ ideals.
It would be impossible not to acknowledge jazz and blues. Throughout the jazz era, slavery was in full gear in the south. Within a few years, the civil war broke out. Jazz was not only played for listening pleasure, jazz was played as a way to express feelings and tell stories, since in some areas it was illegal for slaves to converse at large. From jazz grew the blues, blues was a form of jazz in which there would be a slow beat and a rhythmic story being told in sync with the beat. These genres are also entitled to at least 2-3 hours api...