MUST-501 Lessons

Welcome back to your second lesson on pop culture!

After last week’s lesson, I did have a few students ask me how pop culture is related to Muggle Studies. Well, frankly, in order to successfully integrate and mingle with Muggles, you need to fully understand how to approach situations in which you interact with Muggles! In exploring pop culture, you will be able to gather useful knowledge of how quickly the Muggle world changes and adapts, and what things to look out for when you find yourself spending lots of time with groups of Muggles - which I hope many of you do!

Now, on to the lesson!

I know many of you have been eagerly awaiting a lesson about music, but this may not be exactly what you were expecting. Instead of a lesson all about the history of music, we’re going to take a bit of a different path. This is pop culture after all, so we need to discuss music in a different way - namely, how do Muggles influence music popularity?

As we discussed last lesson, ‘pop culture’ primarily refers to what is ‘popular’ at the time. Often, the term pop culture is used synonymously with ‘trend,’ as what is deemed popular can change in an instant.

Reality Television - The Musical Edition

One of the ways that Muggles have explored music in the last fifteen years has been with reality television. We’ll talk about television in a future lesson, but today I’ll introduce you to the wonder of reality television (TV).

One of the biggest musical reality shows is the Idol series, also known as SuperStar. Not only does this show aim to showcase amateur talent (such as if you or I were to perform), but also brings in a competition aspect to it - someone will win Idol each season! The idea is to find the best solo performer in the country the show is set in. This singer should not yet be signed to (under contract to) a recording studio at this point, as that is one of the prizes for winning.

The show starts with thousands of potential singers auditioning for a panel of judges, who then decide whether they will move on to the next round or not. The first few rounds are completed with the judges alone, who often are musical celebrities of the country the show is being produced in. Once the top performers are selected by the judges, the fan rounds begin! The performers sing live onstage, and then the audience can vote on who they want to keep in the competition. Typically, the performers are split evenly by male and female, and the lowest voted performer of each sex is eliminated from the next round. On a side note, this format has been used for many different reality shows in recent years, including So You Think You Can Dance, which, I’m sure you can guess, involves dancing rather than singing.

Many winners (and runners-up) have gone on to become successful and famous. You may have even heard of some of them, though the ones I will mention are all Muggles. Perhaps the three most famous winners were from American Idol - Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, and Jennifer Hudson. There’s also Carly Rae Jepsen, and Jacob Hoggard from Canadian Idol; Jacob went on to achieve success with his band Hedley. Kurt Nilsen from Norway and Will Young from the UK are also well known. Before you ask, yes, there are a few I suspect have magical blood in them, as most charismatic individuals do. However, none of them have expressed any magic throughout their lives that we are aware of. I should hope we would know, wouldn’t you?

In more recent years, American television launched another reality music show called The Voice - but did you know that it is based on a show from the Netherlands? In this show, the contestants perform to the judges - who are not facing them. They sit in high backed chairs, unable to see the performer, and have to decide solely based on the performance whether or not they want to work with the singer. The winners are determined using the same voting technique as the Idol shows, which allows for the audience to vote for their favourite performer, with a winner ultimately being declared.

The Voice blind auditions - Top 10 (Brazil is my personal favourite!)

What do you think of this format? How successful is it in determining musical trends? Do Muggles really vote for their favourites or simply follow the ‘trend’ of who the judges (and everyone else) seem to like? Some food for thought.

Whose Tube? YouTube!

Let’s look at influences a bit differently now. Who has heard of YouTube? Okay, a few of you have. I’ll give you a brief explanation. YouTube was originally launched in 2005, and is primarily a video sharing service; what this means is that you could make a video of essentially whatever you want, upload it to the YouTube website, and hope that people watch it. You can find all kinds of videos on YouTube - music videos, instructional videos, pranks, parts of movies or television shows… virtually anything you can think of. In addition to simply watching the videos, you can comment on them and rate them with a thumbs up or a thumbs down! If you are ambitious, you can make your own videos and upload them!

This brings me to the primary reason I’m mentioning YouTube in this lesson - music. Yes, yes, I know I mentioned that music videos are on there. Many of them are the ‘official’ music videos that recording artists have made, but there are far more amatuer videos from individuals like you and me. In recent years, recording companies have begun searching through these amateur videos in the hopes of finding the Next Big Star. One lucky (formerly) amateur singer got famous in this manner - the Muggle singer Justin Bieber.

Justin is a Canadian singer who was essentially discovered in 2007 after he and his mother posted several videos on YouTube of him singing. He was then signed to a record label, and released his first album in 2009. Love him or hate him, he achieved what many YouTube users dream of - being ‘discovered’ where you least expect it. His videos went ‘viral’ - passed on from viewer to viewer, shared repeatedly, and amassed millions of views.

Now, is this something that can happen to any of us? Sure, but don’t expect it. It really is a one in a million chance.

Magical Misfits

Now, this next section should be very familiar to all of you, as we will quickly review some of our favourite magical musicians!

Let’s start off with Celestina Warbeck, the “The Singing Sorceress.” I’m sure you are all well aware that she did attend Hogwarts, and was sorted into my wonderful house of Gryffindor. She has had a long and storied career, and I know that even if you don’t listen to her music, your parents and grandparents sure did!

Celestina was born in 1917, and it was clear from a young age that she had a talent that could not be contained. In fact, her mother sent many owls to the school, suggesting musical courses, so that her daughter could participate!

Once she left Hogwarts and pursued her musical career, it was as if she had been singing forever. She immediately became a popular and much-loved entertainer, which unfortunately caused tickets to many of her shows to be sold at disturbingly increased prices by those sketchy individuals down in Knockturn Alley. It made it very difficult for the average fan to see her in concert unless they got very, very lucky.

Celestina’s personal life has had its ups and downs, with several husbands, and one son being produced. She is currently married to her third husband, who was actually her music composer!

She typically performs with a chorus of Banshees, and has made numerous appearances on The Witching Hour to perform her hit songs. One of her most well-known songs is “You Stole My Cauldron, But You Can’t Have My Heart.”

Now, I know many of you may be more familiar with The Weird Sisters, as they appeal to a bit of a, well, younger crowd, with their wizard rock. As you know, they even performed here at the castle in 1994 during that year’s Yule Ball! I bet quite a few of you wish you had been here for that performance. Alas, we must reminisce about it instead. An interesting trivia point - even though they call themselves The Weird Sisters, there isn’t a single female in the group. All of the members are male - and also very hairy! I’m sure that Hagrid was happy to see some other hairy folks in the castle during the performance.

Their most popular songs include ‘Do the Hippogriff’ and ‘Magic Works,’ and they play some instruments that are unusual in standard Muggle rock bands, such as the lute, bagpipes, and a cello. These instruments, however, serve to make The Weird Sisters music that much more appealing, as they help to create such a unique sound.

Finally, we have our very own Frog Choir. Is anyone here a member of this year’s choir? No? Perhaps it is something to pursue! Professor Flitwick sure did love running the choir, but he was very picky about his performers - you must be able to sing fluently in Latin. This is a must. I know you’ve all heard them practising and performing. One small bit of trivia, however, that some of you may have noticed - the Frog Choir doesn’t actually have any frogs in it. The students are holding toads!

On that note, we will finish off our lesson today with a fun video that Professor Hackett provided me, on some interesting and strange musical instruments that exist. Enjoy, and don’t forget to complete your assignments!

Bizarre and Unusual Musical Instruments

Bonus videos: My two favourite performances from So You Think You Can Dance!