Interconnections – “Who Let the Dogs Out?”
The components of musical culture are interconnected within “Who Let the Dog’s Out?”. In the ideas component the question of whether or not the music is appropriate can somewhat be related to the activities component when looking at etiquette. In this song’s case, it is appropriate to hear it within a party arena, while the etiquette behind the song dictates that you dance, move, and have fun with the tune. The social organization component of who listens to the song would relate heavily to the activities associated with the song. Since this song is a fast-paced, movement motivating tune, it would bring out people who are looking to exercise, party, have fun, and socialize. The song strays from anyone who is conservative, maybe older, and more traditional which has a different material culture than those would be expected to like “Who Let the Dog’s Out?”. It was directed to the younger crowd, mainly early 20′s and teenagers. Like the swing, the tempo of “Who Let the Dogs Out?” is what gives the song the athletic and active feel. The tempo is quick so that working out, dancing, and other physical activities are expected. The timbre of this song is a mix of bright tropical colors. It is up-beat, positive, fun, and happy, as well as connected to the Bahama Islands, so it has a definite bright, warm color tones associate with it. In this way, it makes the song associated with drinking and friends. It has a strong connection with the beach and sand, club and bar, and exercise equipment. As a further connection, the clothing expected would be shorts, skirts, flip-flops, and short sleeves.
The sound of this song calls for break dancing, and groups of younger people having fun or maybe in the club scene. The swing of the song is what makes people want to dance and move to it. There is a large swing, but in multiple ways since there is a swing within the rapping, then within the singing vocals, but also within the instrumentation. This swing is obvious since the song comes into its pulse with the force of shouting as an introductory vocal and the very quick drum and cowbell play. The dynamics of the song is generally loud, with slightly softer singing vocals. The shouting and chanting has a high relative loudness which is easily connected to who listens to the music and its appropriateness for a situation.
Without the cow bell and goat skinned drum instruments, this song would lack Bahamian originality. The instruments chosen are important to maintaining a strong connection to the Bahamas and the beach. The chanting and call and response also maintain a connection to the islands as well as the African roots of Bahamian musical culture. The call and response and chanting are important to keeping the song social and pulling in the audience to participate in dancing and singing along. The chorus and dynamic loudness of the barking and chanting help make being loud appropriate. There are certain songs that are meant to be played loudly and this is one of them.
The interconnections of “Who Let the Dogs Out?” and musical culture are strong, but are mainly connected in the ideas and activities areas. The musical culture does give reason to many important aspects of the sound and work of the song. This song is enjoyed by people of many different ages, races, occupations – 11 year olds enjoy this song just because it is fun to listen to, not because of the musical components behind it, however, understanding the musical culture and the roots of Bahamian music does give the song a more original feel.
