Worldy Success and Liberation

I will preface this post by saying the majority of these songs contain explicit content, so listen with caution.

Worldly Success:
1.) Jadakiss, "We Gonna Make it," Rap, 2001.
2.) Young Jeezy, "I Got Money," Rap, 2006.
3.) Lil Wayne, "A Milli," Rap, 2008.
4.) Jay-Z, "Success," Rap, 2007.
5.) The Notorious B.I.G., "Juicy," Rap, 1994.

Liberation:
1.) Willie Nelson, "On The Road Again," Country, 1980.
2.) Jay-Z, "99 Problems," Rap, 2004.
3.) Jay-Z, "Dope Man," Rap, 1999.
4.) Red Hot Chili Peppers, "The Zephyr Song," Rock, 2002.
5.) Johnny Cash, "Rusty Cage," Country, 1996.

In my opinion, the more prevalent aim differs depending on whether or not you are looking at it from an American music view or the Hindu view.  Obviously for Hinduism, liberation is the ultimate goal, thus making it the more prevalent aim.  However, for Americans and especially from the perspective of American music (of which I focused on rap and hip-hop,) worldly success is clearly the more prevalent aim.  I had no trouble at all finding (rap) songs about worldly success, it seems that almost every other song I clicked on was about money or women or success in general.  Hindus strive to achieve liberation, so the prevalence of that aim for Hindus is not surprising.  And we as Americans who have grown up in this materialistic society are obviously going to strive for worldly success.  There was little that surprised me while doing this assignment, I had a pretty clear idea and path of what songs and artists I wanted to explore and use, so there wasn't really anything different from what I was expecting.  As I stated in last week's post about community service and pleasure, I feel that there isn't much correlation, between American pop music and the Hindu aims.  In America, and American music, worldly success is something that is sought after and dreamed about by basically everyone.  This seeking of success is typically not to achieve anything else, it is simply a selfish hunt for oneself.  While in Hinduism, one aim is used to reach the next, so with the ultimate goal being liberation, worldly success along with the other aims are simply stepping stones to reach that ultimate goal.

Pleasure and Community Service

Pleasure
1.) Alabama, "Dixieland Delight," Country, 1983.
2.) Jefferson Airplane, "White Rabbit," Rock n Roll, 1967.
3.) Snoop Dogg, "Gin and Juice," Hip Hop, 1993. (Explicit)
4.) Styles P, "Good Times," Hip Hop, 2002. (Explicit)
5.) Rick James, "Mary Jane," R&B, 1978.

Community Service
1.) Future, "Spread Love Massive," Rock n Roll/Hip Hop, 2008.
2.) John Lennon, "Give Peace a Chance," Rock n Roll, 1969.
3.) Marty Robbins, "Big Iron," Country, 1959.
4.) Michael Jackson, "Earth Song," Pop, 1995.
5.) Red Hot Chili Peppers, "Power of Equality," Rock n Roll, 1991. (Explicit)

In my opinion, it is hard to say which of these aims is more prevalent.  Placing pleasure before community service seems a bit selfish, but at the same time; placing the community before yourself doesn't make a ton of sense to me either.  I personally would take the selfish route and say pleasure is the more prevalent aim, because ultimately making yourself happy is what's most important in life.  While working on this assignment I was a bit surprised at how hard it was to find songs about community service.  There were the obvious choices that seemed to be used on most everyone's list, so I had a somewhat difficult time picking out five different songs.  Another observation I made was that almost any song, regardless of its true intentions, can be interpreted as a song about pleasure by one person or another.  I feel that the Hindu understanding of the four aims is 100% different than what is expressed in American pop music.  In my understanding of Hinduism, one aim is used to achieve the next with the ultimate goal being liberation.  Songs about pleasure do have the intention to achieve worldly success, but the ultimate goal isn't liberation.  I personally feel there is little to no correlation between the Hindu understanding, and American music.