Lessons from my LUO American Pop Music History Class

I have learned a lot in this class. Something very interesting to me that I just learned is about the album Graceland by Paul Simon.

Graceland isn't the first world music album ever made, but I think it is the first multi-platinum international hit world music album. My history book also points out that this album was really created by musical artists (who helped Paul Simon) who were from various different countries and different cultural backgrounds, which sets it apart from albums that came before it. Another interesting thing about the album is that parts of the album were even recorded in different countries. This album was recorded when Apartheid was occurring in South Africa. Paul Simon was recording in South Africa with black Africans, which became a problem with the authorities of that time. At first Paul tried to state his case to stay, but in the end the authorities got their way. Though he couldn't continue recording in the country of South Africa, the album was complete with African singers/musicians. The book says Paul Simon brought some of the South African musicians/singers to him when the door closed inside the country of South Africa. This is one of my new favorite mainstream/secular albums.

The song that most people are familiar with on the album, You Can Call Me Al, is about someone trapped/lost in a foreign country where they don't know the language or customs, and they are trying to figure out what to do and how to survive.