Introduction to this Society

[DM]

I am taking a class called "Religion and the Constitution," and we recently talked about a case involving the Amish. Naturally, my mind started to drift in class and I started thinking about dating an Amish woman. What would it be like? What if she renounced her Amish life and joined me in mine?

This led to what ultimately is the point of this thread: if you had a converted Amish person with you, and you had the opportunity to play for that person the FIRST MUSICAL RECORDING in their entire life, what would you choose? What if you had to pick for them an entire album? What is the first movie you would have them watch?

It took me all day and I still have no good answers for these questions. I suppose the first movie I would watch with them is Glory, not only because it's my favorite movie, but because it doesn't contain a lot of modernisms that would be lost on that person. For a single song, I would probably choose something out of the classical genre so as not to overwhelm them with instrumentality, probably a piano concerto (I'm a Beethoven fan, so probably Moonlight Sonata). For an entire album... damn, that's the hardest. I think I would go with something driven by acoustic guitar (again, take it easy on the instruments), so maybe something like City and Colour's Sometimes or Nick Drake's Five Leaves Left.

Your turn. And please don't clog this up with shitty posts; trust me, you're not funny.

 

[THE_IRON_...KENYAN?]

Weird Al Yankovic - Amish Paradise

 

[Matthew]

The question is, DM, is this before or after their Rumspringa? If it's after they've most likely have heard music before, so it wouldn't be their first album, though I doubt they wasted their Rumspringa watching movies so the movie question is pretty good.

I'd probably play them The Royal Tenebaums or 2001: A Space Odyssey something with a lot of plot they would get them super involved, but it's not too deep or too complex to follow. Actually I maybe wouldn't want the person being afraid of computers and AI in their life, so probably just The Royal Tenebaums

 

[giga]

I would definitely positively make them listen to Hendrix- Are You Experienced... and see what they got outta that.

Or just shatter their universe with some nice dubstep, that would probably scare them actually.

 

[Hipmonlee]

This topic displays a frightening lack of understanding of Amish culture!

However, I will accept its premise, for the sake of this post.

Ok! For the song, it has to be something easy to get. And not something too metamusical which is a word I just made it but I hope you get what I mean. It also depends a bit on the person who will be listening. But for the general case. There are two things I am kinda thinking, firstly it would be nice to kinda blow them away with what can be done with music in recorded form, but also it is important to have lyrics they can easily get into. Cause they are going to get the lyrics no matter what.

Also when you talk about blowing them away, you probably dont want them to be too blown, a pinch of blowing is plenty.

So yeah, I think Simon & Garfunkel - The Only Living Boy in New York would be a good option.

Have a nice day.

 

[Cooky]

Finley Quaye - You're Love Gets Sweeter Every Day

gotta let her fall in love with the happy music

ametamusical music?

 

[WaterBomb]

I think some people are failing to realize that just because an Amish person has never heard a musical RECORDING before does not necessarily mean they have never heard MUSIC. The Amish play musical instruments, so I think my song choice would be a little different than expected. I would try to find something that's closer to the live music they've experienced previously in their life, so they can connect to it a bit, thus building the foundation to depart into other genres. Now I don't know exactly what type of music the Amish play, but if I had to guess I'd say it would fall more in the folk spectrum. For this reason, I would choose Nancy's Whiskey by Battlefield Band. This is a very traditional Scottish folk song, very pretty and easy to listen to. This would open the door (hopefully) for me to simply share a whole Battlefield Band album with her, and I would choose Time & Tide. This would expose her to a blend of light folk music and more elaborate Bagpipe grafts. Once I've built a foundation and appeal for recorded music, then I can get into the more complicated stuff.

As for the movie, it's tough to think of something that's genuinely good and interesting, but not terribly overwhelming. I have a few ideas in my head, but I think what I would ultimately go with is The Great Escape. It's difficult to name all the reasons, but this is simply one of my favorite movies, and I believe the proper combination of good acting, interesting dialogue, and realism of plot (being an absolutely true story).

 

[akuchi]

A Clockwork Orange, followed by a bit of Lady Gaga then some GTA to round off. I think they'd love it.

 

[JimBob]

I'm not a big movie person, so I'm not really sure any of the movies that immediately come to mind (Office Space, Ocean's Eleven, The Matrix) are good for "first movies". But for music, I would probably just go with some Led Zeppelin (first album probably). It has a lot of interesting musical elements but is still easy to listen to. Tommy by The Who might be another interesting choice.

 

[TubaKing]

For music, I'd probably start off with Beethoven and then move on to Mahler or Dvorak or Tchaikovsky or Mussorgsky, then Stravinsky and then explore what else she might like from there.

I think Forrest Gump would be a movie just about anyone could appreciate that doesn't involve very much technology.

 

[CaptKirby]

I think I would play the worst metal I could find. Not like Linkin Park bad, I mean something with a name like like Anus Tumor / Vaginal Incest / Teen Pussy Fucker / Scumfuck - 4 Way Split. How could you not troll in that situation?

 

[andrea]

Oh my. Great topic. I live in the heart of Amish country- my family and I just moved into a new house that was built by an Amish timber frame company like three weeks ago. I could tell you story after story after story.....

But first things first. My Dad is a funny guy, my mother is very inquisitive. She normally asks about their lifestyle and customs, whereas my dad has conversations about their weird quirks and stuff. No joke, he brought the Amish guy in charge of the crew (Urie) into our old house one day and played the Amish Paradise music video for him. Urie thought it was pretty funny.

So, if you want to hear some really oddball stories about the Amish, I'm up for it. I'll see if I can manage to get the amazing picture on my dad's cell of one of them at an auction looking through a box of magazines and checking out the contents of a Playboy.

 

[WaterBomb]

Your turn. And please don't clog this up with shitty posts; trust me, you're not funny.

Thank you, everyone, for adhering to DM's request. You are all upstanding smogonites who deserve much praise -_-

 

[Staraptor Call]

Just this day I watched a movie about the Amish and their rumspringas. Apparently, a lot of Amish on their rumspringas dress like complete douches and become drug addicts. Some sufficiently douchey music would be good.

 

[drcossack]

Oh my. Great topic. I live in the heart of Amish country- my family and I just moved into a new house that was built by an Amish timber frame company like three weeks ago. I could tell you story after story after story.....

But first things first. My Dad is a funny guy, my mother is very inquisitive. She normally asks about their lifestyle and customs, whereas my dad has conversations about their weird quirks and stuff. No joke, he brought the Amish guy in charge of the crew (Urie) into our old house one day and played the Amish Paradise music video for him. Urie thought it was pretty funny.

So, if you want to hear some really oddball stories about the Amish, I'm up for it. I'll see if I can manage to get the amazing picture on my dad's cell of one of them at an auction looking through a box of magazines and checking out the contents of a Playboy.

I wish I remembered mine, from my infrequent visits while I was growing up; my dad's from that area (by state college), and he grew up around them. He'd definitely be able to tell a bunch of stories. I remember some being in the Lancaster area, but that was some time ago; I dunno how many are there now.

On to the thread question:

Music: hmm, this is a tough one. I'm going through my iTunes, and apprxoimately 98% of it is stuff the more traditional Amish (ie the ones in PA) would definitely NOT like; not entirely sure on the Mennonites though, who are a bit more modern. Would probably have to go with my instrumental stuff from high school. Amish Paradise is a good choice though.

Movie: not a movie person, don't really know. Would probably go with a comedy.

before I forget: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amish and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mennonite

 

[Max]

Hmm...wow this is a tough question. I guess I'd probably go with Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd. I'm not really sure how to justify my answer other than, "the song gave me chills the first time I heard it, so I think it would do the same for others."

I hope I wouldn't mess up their musical pallet forever!

 

[DM]

I'm pretty giddy that my thread was special enough to get giga and akuchi posts! Hey guys. :doom:

The question is, DM, is this before or after their Rumspringa? If it's after they've most likely have heard music before, so it wouldn't be their first album, though I doubt they wasted their Rumspringa watching movies so the movie question is pretty good.

I merely used the Amish as a vehicle for the ultimate question underlying this thread. It's safe to assume the person either hasn't been on their rumspringa yet, or just chose not to go.

This topic displays a frightening lack of understanding of Amish culture!

However, I will accept its premise, for the sake of this post.

Not to derail my own thread, but how so? I admit I am using a very narrow view of Amish culture, but like I said above, it serves this thread's purpose. I just found it easier/more plausible than saying "okay you have a person who lived in a cave since birth".

 

[klompus]

i choose que sera sera, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZbKHDPPrrc

 

[VKCA]

I'd try some crazy dubstep, mainly just to see reactions though I think.
Oh wait no, definitely Twirl by Venetian Snares

Although I do like the idea of comfortably numb, maybe is there anybody out there....
I think if I had to choose a whole album, it'd be Strange Days by The Doors. My dad loved the doors/this album and it was my cradle music, so obvious bias, but god damn it's just such a sweet album.

I'm very interested in this thread.
?

 

[jrrrrrrr]

I'd probably start with The Beatles or some other classic rock band....then maybe go into some kind of dubstep/electro stuff because I'm pretty sure they aren't familiar with that kind of bass. And after that I'd use CaptKirby's option and show them the darkest depths of "music"

 

[TheValkyries]

Well... I'd probably give them some kind of folk metal, because I imagine hearing those melodies might be both familiar and fresh.

As for the movie... I would show them a Zombie movie. Because they wouldn't know that the effects and story are fake.

 

[Hipmonlee]

Well if you have questions about the Amish you are probably better off asking Anthea, but my understanding is that Amish people all have to become Amish as adults, which means they can listen to all the music they want as kids.

Have a nice day.

 

[Dubulous]

The Amish are not permitted to join the church until the age of 16. Because the Amish are such a tight-knit community, however, young Amish tend to follow the ideals of the Ordnung (the community bylaws, essentially), which means they wouldn't listen to music or anything like that.

Once a person turns 16, he/she is free to do whatever he/she wants to do. A lot of Amish like immerse themselves in "the real world" for a short amount of time (which varies), after which they decide whether or not to join the church. This is the Rumspringa that Matt was referring to earlier in this thread. The vast majority actually end up joining the church afterwards. If a person decides to leave the community after joining the church, he/she is shunned forever and treated as a stranger.

I would play Fight Club.