Shock Jocks, Lady Jocks, and the Freedom of the Press-ing Comb
by Guthrie P. Ramsey, Jr.
Can musical objects speak? Of course, they can. And if you attend any of my courses or lectures you’ll learn how they speak loudly, expressing profound riches where mere words can often fail. As we learned this past week, unfortunately radios personalities speak loudly, too.
I’m a father who raised two daughters in the long shadow of Title IX during an era in which young girls of aspiration were not only encouraged but expected to participate in sports as enthusiastically as their male counterparts. My daughters are both accomplished young women now. One decided mid-way in high school that while she had learned through the years to “suck up” a loss on the basketball court or soccer field, she couldn’t bare the thought of the abominable A-minus on an exam. Not to mention the elusive and unpredictable bad hair days. Ramsey “the younger,” however, preferred the full-court press to the “press and curl,” the pick and roll over the hair roller. She thrived on a hurdle, sprint, and triple jump and the requisite burnt midnight oil. She could live with a split end but not without a fast break.
I dedicate my two cents and sixty seconds to my athletic daughters and to all female-student athletes. No corporate-sponsored, mass-mediated, and ill-conceived insult can erase our pride in your accomplishments. May you continue to exercise your hard won choice to fly high during the game and to be oh-so-very “fly” after the buzzer sounds.
***
Guthrie P. Ramsey, Jr. specializes in African-American and American music, jazz, cultural studies, popular music, film studies, and historiography. Ramsey is the author of Race Music: Black Cultures from Bebop to Hip-Hop ( University of California Press, 2003), which was named outstanding book of the year by IASPM (International Association for the Study of Popular Music). His current project, In Walked Bud: Earl “Bud " Powell and the Modern Jazz Challenge, is a study of jazz pianist Bud Powell and is forthcoming from the University of California Press. His band Dr. Guy’s MusiQologY has performed for audiences in South America, New York, Australia, the University of Pennsylvania, the Kimmel Center, and in Philadelphia venues such as Zanzibar Blue and Gloria's Seafood House. Ramsey composes and arranges all of MusiQologY's music, which moves beyond the traditional Jazz idiom, experimenting with R&B, Latin, Hip Hop fusions. The band’s first CD, Y the Q? will be available soon.
Can musical objects speak? Of course, they can. And if you attend any of my courses or lectures you’ll learn how they speak loudly, expressing profound riches where mere words can often fail. As we learned this past week, unfortunately radios personalities speak loudly, too.
I’m a father who raised two daughters in the long shadow of Title IX during an era in which young girls of aspiration were not only encouraged but expected to participate in sports as enthusiastically as their male counterparts. My daughters are both accomplished young women now. One decided mid-way in high school that while she had learned through the years to “suck up” a loss on the basketball court or soccer field, she couldn’t bare the thought of the abominable A-minus on an exam. Not to mention the elusive and unpredictable bad hair days. Ramsey “the younger,” however, preferred the full-court press to the “press and curl,” the pick and roll over the hair roller. She thrived on a hurdle, sprint, and triple jump and the requisite burnt midnight oil. She could live with a split end but not without a fast break.
I dedicate my two cents and sixty seconds to my athletic daughters and to all female-student athletes. No corporate-sponsored, mass-mediated, and ill-conceived insult can erase our pride in your accomplishments. May you continue to exercise your hard won choice to fly high during the game and to be oh-so-very “fly” after the buzzer sounds.
***
Guthrie P. Ramsey, Jr. specializes in African-American and American music, jazz, cultural studies, popular music, film studies, and historiography. Ramsey is the author of Race Music: Black Cultures from Bebop to Hip-Hop ( University of California Press, 2003), which was named outstanding book of the year by IASPM (International Association for the Study of Popular Music). His current project, In Walked Bud: Earl “Bud " Powell and the Modern Jazz Challenge, is a study of jazz pianist Bud Powell and is forthcoming from the University of California Press. His band Dr. Guy’s MusiQologY has performed for audiences in South America, New York, Australia, the University of Pennsylvania, the Kimmel Center, and in Philadelphia venues such as Zanzibar Blue and Gloria's Seafood House. Ramsey composes and arranges all of MusiQologY's music, which moves beyond the traditional Jazz idiom, experimenting with R&B, Latin, Hip Hop fusions. The band’s first CD, Y the Q? will be available soon.
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