language project by anam naseem

Introduction

Song

In music, a song is a composition for voice or voices, performed by singing. A song may be accompanied by musical instruments, or it may be unaccompanied, as in the case of a cappella songs. The lyrics (words) of songs are typically of a poetic, rhyming nature, though they may be religious verses or free prose.

A song may be for a solo singer, a duet, trio, or larger ensemble involving more voices. Songs with more than one voice to a part are considered choral works. Songs can be broadly divided into many different forms, depending on the criteria used. One division is between "art songs", "pop songs", and "folk songs". Other common methods of classification are by purpose (sacred vs. secular), by style (dance, ballad, Lied, etc.), or by time of origin (Renaissance, Contemporary, etc.).

A song is a piece of music for accompanied or unaccompanied voice or voices or, "the act or art of singing," but the term is generally not used for large vocal forms including opera and oratorio. However, the term is, "often found in various figurative and transferred senses (e.g. for the lyrical second subject of a sonata...)."

Art songs

Art songs are songs created for performance in their own right, usually with piano accompaniment, although they can also have other types of accompaniment such as an orchestra or string quartet, and are always notated. Generally they have an identified author(s) and composer and require voice training for acceptable performances.

Folk songs

Folk songs are songs of often anonymous origin (or are public domain) that are transmitted orally. They are frequently a major aspect of national or cultural identity. Art songs often approach the status of folk songs when people forget who the author was.

Popular songs

Modern popular songs are typically distributed as recordings, and are played on the radio, though all other mass media that have audio capabilities are involved. Their relative popularity is inferred from commercially significant sales of recordings, ratings of stations and networks that play them, and ticket sales for concerts by the recording artists.

Gender

Gender is a set of characteristics distinguishing between male and female, particularly in the cases of men and women. Depending on the context, the discriminating characteristics vary from sex to social role to gender identity.

Some cultures have specific gender-related social roles that can be considered distinct from male and female, such as the hijra of India and Pakistan.

While the social sciences sometimes approach gender as a social construct, and gender studies particularly do, research in the natural sciences investigates whether biological differences in males and females influence the development of gender in humans; both inform debate about how far biological differences influence gender identity formation.

Gender roles

Gender roles refer to the set of social and behavioral norms that are considered to be socially appropriate for individuals of a specific sex in the context of a specific culture, which differ widely between cultures and over time. There are differences of opinion as to whether observed gender differences in behavior and personality characteristics are, at least in part, due to cultural or social factors, and therefore, the product of socialization experiences, or to what extent gender differences are due to biological and psychological differences.

Language

Urdu

Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language identified with South Asian Muslims. It is the national language, lingua franca, and one of the two official languages of Pakistan (the other being English). It is also largely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an official language of five states. Based on the Khariboli dialect of Delhi, Urdu developed under local, Persian, Arabic, and Turkic influence over the course of almost 900 years. It began to take shape in what is now Uttar Pradesh, India during the DelhiSultanate (1206–1527), and continued to develop under the Mughal Empire (1526–1858). Modern Urdu is mutually intelligible with the younger register of Hindustani, which is called Hindi. The combined population of Hindi and Urdu speakers is the fourth largest in the world

Punjabi

Punjabi or Panjabi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by inhabitants of the historical Punjab region (north western India and in Pakistan). For Sikhs, the Punjabi language stands as the official language in which all ceremonies take place. Punjabi is the most spoken language in Pakistan.

Punjabi language has many different dialects, spoken in the different sub-regions of greater Punjab. The Majhi dialect is Punjabi's prestige dialect. This dialect is considered as textbook Punjabi and is spoken in the historical region of Majha, centralizing in Lahore and Amritsar.

Punjabi emerged as an independent language in the 11th century. The Punjabi literary tradition is popularly seen to commence with Fariduddin Ganjshakar (Baba Farid) (1173–1266), many ancient Sufi mystics and later Guru Nanak Dev ji, the first Guru of Sikhism. The early Punjabi literature was principally spiritual in nature and has had a very rich oral tradition. The poetry written by Sufi saints has been the folklore of the Punjab and is still sung with great love in any part of Punjab.

The famous Punjabi writers from Pakistan include:

• Shareef Kunjahi
• Mir Tanha Yousafi
• Sanawar Chadhar
• Abid Tamimi
• Anwar Masood
• Afzal Ahsan Randhawa
• Aatish
• Shaista Nuzhat

Literature Review

Culture of Pakistan:

Pakistan has a cultural and ethnic background going back to the Indus Valley Civilization whose roots emerged from 2800–1800 B.C. It has inherited many cultural practices and great monuments from the time of the ancient rulers of the region. The society and culture of Pakistan comprises various diverse cultures and tribal groups like Punjabis, Kashmiris, and Sindhis in east, Muhajirs, Makrani in the south; Baloch and Pashtun in the west; and the ancient Dardic, Wakhi and Burusho communities in the north.

Hierarchical Society:

Pakistan is basically a hierarchical society. People are respected because of their age and position. Older people especially males are viewed more dignified and are granted much respect. Pakistan is one of the few countries in the world with an inverse sex ratio: official sources claim there are 111 men for every 100 women. The discrepancy is particularly obvious among people over fifty: men account for 7.1 percent of the country's total population and women for less than 5 percent. This figure reflects the secondary status of females in Pakistani society, especially their lack of access to quality medical care. While in a social situation men are served first. They are provided with the choicest cuts of meat, and in general are treated much like royalty. Pakistanis expect the most senior person, by age or position, to make decisions that are in the best interest of the group. Titles are also very important and denote respect.

Position of men in Pakistani Society:

Dr. Rakhshinda Perveen writes in article “Gender In Pakistan” about men’s position and status in Pakistani society that:

The constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan gives equal rights to both men and women. However, in practice men are more equal than women are. The reality gives a picture where women rarely appear in positions of power. According to the Human Development Report 1999of UNDP the Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM) rank of Pakistan among 185 countries registered with UN is 100. The GEM quantitatively measures the empowerment of women on a country basis. This indicator includes the measure of inequality in control over earned economic resources, participation in political decision-making and economic decision-making.”

While in another article “Political and Economic Constraints in Women Empowerment in Pakhtoon Society of the North West Frontier Province (N-W.F.P) Pakistan” published by the Admin of E- Reader on April 1, 2011:

Women empowerment is a compulsory element and a pre-request both for communal and national development because female constitutes almost half of the population. Especially in Third World in general and in a country like Pakistan, women have been discriminated both economically and politically. The patriarchic and male dominated nature of the Pakistani society is providing more economic and political power to male in strata.”

Media Portrayals of Men and Masculinity:

For several decades now, media critics and feminists alike have been examining the role of the media in creating and reinforcing stereotypical representations of women and femininity. But only recently have they expanded the research to consider how the media also construct, inform and reinforce prevalent ideas about men and masculinity.

How does the Media Outline Masculinity:

Family members, friends, society and media all play a vital role in helping boys define what it means to be a man. Mainstream media representations have set reinforcing ideas about how to be a "real" man in our society. In most media portrayals, male characters are rewarded not only for self-control but to control others as well, aggressive and violent, financial independence, and physical attractive.

In Tough Guise: Violence, Media and the Crisis in Masculinity, Jackson Katz and Jeremy Earp argue that:

“The media provide an important perspective on social attitudes—and that while the media are not the cause of violent behavior in men and boys, they do portray male violence as a normal expression of masculinity.”

Common Stereotypes of Men in Media:

Various media analysts and researchers claim that media portrayals of male characters fall in category of “stereotypes”. The report “Boys to Men: Media Messages About Masculinity”, identifies the most popular stereotypes of male characters are:

1. The Strong Silent Type: This stereotype reinforces the assumption that men and boys should always be in control, and that talking about one’s feelings is a sign of weakness. It focuses on "being in charge, acting decisively, containing emotion, and succeeding with women."

2. The Big Shot: This stereotype recommends that a real man must be economically powerful as well as socially successful. He is defined by his professional status. He is the "epitome of success, embodying the characteristics and acquiring the possessions that society deems valuable."

3. The Action Hero is "strong, but not necessarily silent.” He is often angry. Above all, he is quite aggressive and, over the past several decades, increasingly “engages in violent behavior.”

The history of the teaching of human female inferiority in Darwinism:

First published: Technical Journal (now Journal of Creation) 14(1):117–126
April 2000 by Jerry Bergman

According to Charles Darwin,   inferior animals are more likely to become extinct while the superior ones are more likely to thrive. In this concept, the central mechanism of evolution is survival of the fittest. The racism that this idea has produced has now been both well-documented and taught that women were both biologically and intellectually inferior to men.

Reasons for Inferiority widely publicized.² Less widely known is the fact that many evolutionists, including Darwin,

According to Darwinian theory, women were less evolved than men, and because of their smaller brains, they were “eternally primitive,” childlike, less spiritual, more materialistic, and “a real danger to contemporary civilization.”^. The supposed intelligence gap that many leading Darwinists believed existed between human males and females was so large that some leading Darwinists classified them as two distinct species—males as Homo frontalis and females as Homo parietalis.The differences were so great that Darwin was amazed “such different beings belong to the same species.”

Reasons for male superiority included the conclusion that war and hunting pruned the weaker men, allowing only the most fit to return home and reproduce. Women, in contrast, were not subject to these selection pressures but were protected by men, allowing the weak to survive.

The Sex Revolts: is a book for those who don't just love rock music, but who also love to think about it. The book's subtitle, "Gender, Rebellion, and Rock 'n' Roll" might seem to presage serious windiness. Yet the book is  written, well-researched (complete with footnotes and a helpful bibliography) and covers a very wide array of musicians. Best of all, the book is an entertaining way to bring yourself up to speed on many of rock's current upstarts.

Gender is at the core of rock. In this music (historically created by males), the tension of love, lust, and hate between the sexes is a central issue. In addition, rock, from its setting up, has challenged the validity of culturally imposed sex roles. Journalists Reynolds (Melody Maker, New York Times) and Press (Spin, Village Voice) address these issues determinedly and knowledgeably. Methodizing gender motifs within male-created rock, they contrast a snarling misogyny (e.g., the Rolling Stones) with an awe-captured, oceanic mother-worship (e.g., Pink Floyd). Especially provocative is the authors' classification of role imagery among female rockers. As Robert Walser's excellent Running with the Devil: Power, Gender, and Madness in Heavy Metal Music (LJ 5/1/93) considers only the metal subgenre, Revolts emerges as the only complete analysis of gender in rock music. The writing is intelligent, evocative, and engaging, rich in thought without becoming ponderous. Even those readers who question the authors' frightened paradigms will find this an authoritative, comprehensive history of rock.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title

Attempting to focus on rock 'n' roll's underlying misogynies, freelance critics Reynolds and Press claim that: “ two distinct male characters dominate the genre: the angry rebel and the sensitive mama's boy. They argue that the rebel image, exemplified by groups like the Rolling Stones and Throbbing Gristle, blames mothers for the degenerate youth culture and incites negative, if not violent, portrayals of women. Opposite such groups are those who bring the rebel full circle: dreampop, ambient and noise artists like My Bloody Valentine who have revived psychedelia's romanticism. Left stranded, then, are women who have had to find their place among these two male forces. While Patti Smith and Kate Bush have turned to males as role models, Kristin Hersh and Courtney Love have formulated their own brand of music”.

                                                                                             

Yet the authors speak less about how women have dealt with the misogyny, spending more space defining the rebel and boy personas in this clinical analysis.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Talcott Parson's view of gender roles:

Working in the United States, Talcott Parsons developed a model of the nuclear family in 1955. (At that place and time, the nuclear family to be the prevalent family structure.) It compared a strictly traditional view of gender roles (from an industrial-age American perspective) to a more liberal view.

Parsons believed that: “the feminine role was an expressive one, whereas the masculine role, in his view, was instrumental. He believed that expressive activities of the woman fulfill 'internal' functions, for example to strengthen the ties between members of the family. The man, on the other hand, performed the 'external' functions of a family, such as providing monetary support”

L. KOHLBERG, A Cognitive-Developmental Analysis of Children’s Sex Role Concepts and Attitudes, in The Development of Sex Differences, ed E. E. MACCOBY. Tavistock London 1967 shows a research that:

A study based on 110 present-day societies shows that from the fourth year of age children are pressurized into their future adult role in society. In most societies (85%) achievement and self-reliance are virtues exclusively held out to boys. Girls are educated towards nurturance (82%) and responsibility (61%). The values thus inculcated by society become part of the myth by which man and woman judge their own characteristics and task in society.

References:

Ø  http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/resources/global-etiquette/pakistan.html

Ø  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_Pakistan

Ø  http://www.mongabay.com/reference/country_studies/pakistan/SOCIETY.html

Ø  http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/issues/stereotyping/men_and_masculinity/masculinity_defining.cf

Ø  http://www.mediaawareness.ca/english/issues/stereotyping/men_and_masculinity/masculinity_stereotypes.cfm

Ø  http://www.ontheissuesmagazine.com/cafe2/article/113

Ø  http://www.womenpriests.org/scriptur/mythmale.asp

Ø  http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/am/v2/n1/darwin-taught-male-superiority

Ø  http://www.amazon.com/Sex-Revolts-Gender-Rebellion-RockNRoll/dp/product-description/067480273X/ref=dp_proddesc_0/179-4875052-3148766?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books

Ø  http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Students/elb9501.html

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