Before Lady Gaga Came to Town: A World Dance Music List*

Music and dance go hand-in-hand. Everyone has her/his song list. Here's a sample set of world dance music before Lady Gaga became famous.

There's natural symbiosis between music and dance. 

Image courtesy of infoblitz.co.nz

With or without words, music always captures human emotions. It also shows human ingenuity. It can influence one's moods, dreams, and choices in life. And yes, it is music that can lead one to move. As Mark Changizi (2010) writes: "Music is evocative because it sounds like human behaviors, many which are expressive in their nature. Music gets us dancing because we social apes are prone to mimic the movements of others."

There are plenty of dance music around that can just make you either nod or head bang, snap your fingers or stomp your feet, sway your hips or lift your arms to touch the air, or make your body feel its tempo or lyrics of the song - and just dance.

Sans some contemporary dance tunes like those of Lady Gaga's, here's a global bunch of music that one can dance to and can use to escape reality, or to forget inhibitions, or to reflect.

Reminiscing Filipino 90s music

The late Francis Magalona was a league of his own when he penned and performed most, if not all, of his songs. One can easily sing and move to the groovy Girl Be Mine and reflective Kaleidoscope World. He may not have been as famous as Michael Jackson, but Magalona was also a great artist. 

The Jerks' Sayaw sa Bubog (Dance on Broken Glass) and Reklamo ng Reklamo (Endless Whining) depict Philippine socio-cultural and political realities.

Pinikpikan's Kalipay (Happiness) and Una Kaya (First You Can) are indigenously crafted.

Reggae defines Tropical Depression's Bilog na Naman ang Buwan (It's Full Moon Again), Ala-Ala (Memories), and Kapayapaan (Peace).

Eraserheads' daydreaming travelogue Overdrive is a feast to youthful ears.

A mixed collection of Western music

Karl Jenkin's Palladio and Requiem Dies Irae, as well as Rodrigo y Gabriela's Orion and word-laden EmineM's Loose Yourself are done with much passion, inviting a dancer to be as passionate too.

Tunes for interpretative dancing includes Sinead O'Connor's You Made Me the Thief of Your Heart, Black Boys on Mopeds, Last Day of Our Acquaintance, Bono and Gavin Friday's Irish music-inspired In the Name of the Father, Madonna's Rain and Frozen, Peter Gabriel's In Your Eyes, Bruce Springsteen's Human Touch, Fire, and Tunnel of Love, and Tears for Fears' Woman in Chains.

The following rock classics, some with cutting-edge and progressive lyrics, are good for head banging, torso swaying, hip shaking, rhythmic clapping, and other forms of freestyle dancing:

• On the Dark Side (Eddie and the Cruisers)

• Bittersweet Symphony (The Verve)

• Lullaby (Rock-a-bye) (Shawn Mullins)

• Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth with Money in My Hand (Primitive Radio Gods)

• Betterman and Daughter (Pearl Jam)

• 3 AM and Push (Matchbox Twenty)

• Don't You Forget about Me and Alive and Kicking (Simple Minds)

• Beautiful Girl and Disappear (INXS)

• Pride, Angel of Harlem, and All I Want is You (U2)

• Name, Slide, and Iris (Goo Goo Dolls)

The late Michael Jackson leads the pack of pop dance music artists with Smooth Criminal, The Way You Make Me Feel, They Don't Care About Us, Human Nature, and Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’. His sister Janet adds Love Can Never Do Without You, Alright, Together Again, Runaway, and Escapade to the list.

Annie Lennox/Eurythmics hits the same genre with Walking on Broken Glass, There Must Be an Angel, and Here Comes the Rain Again.

One can also dance to woman-friendly No Scrubs and Unpretty by TLC, as well as Ani DiFranco's 32 Flavors. Ditto with Tracy Chapman's Revolution and Give Me One Reason, as well as Arrested Development's thought-provoking Mr. Wendal, spiritual Tennessee, and clashing Everyday People.

Dance is freedom

There are millions of other danceable songs around the globe, including ballroom pieces, Motown hits, and tribal compositions. With various techniques, dance shows how body movements could merge with words and melodies. The art itself creates a space for expression, as well as a source of freedom for anyone who just wants to dance.

Source:

Changizi, Mark. 2010. What Must a Theory of Music Explain? (accessed October 23, 2010).

*This piece was previously published on Suite101. The author credits the artists and musicians in the list, along with their respective record producers and supporters who uploaded videos of their work on YouTube.com.

What May Affect a Worker's Balance in Life?

There are individual differences that influence how people balance paid work and personal life. These include gender, personality, and coping strategies.

Man and woman have different balancing styles 

br3akthru and FreeDigitalPhotos.net

In An Examination of the Implications and Costs of Work-Life Conflict in Canada (1999), Linda Duxbury and colleagues recognize the adverse effects of work-life stress on the overall productivity and wellness of employees. They observed that “…the variability in employee responses to work and family environments…” are affected by “fundamental individual differences”, specifically:

Gender

There are physiological and sociological bases for gender differences when responding to work-life issues. Women are more stressed than men due to their biological programming: “…wherein women tend to exhibit emotional symptoms…men tend to manifest physiological diseases…”

In Work-role Expectations and Work-Family Conflict: Gender Differences in Emotional Exhaustion (2004), Margaret Posig and Jill Kickul observe that among men work-family conflict (or the extent to which work demands lead to household tension) contributes to the indirect link between emotional exhaustion and work-role expectations. The same can be said for women; but job problems caused by family commitments often results in work-family conflict and emotional exhaustion.

Enilda Delgado and Maria Canabal’s Factors Associated with Negative Spillover from Job to Home Among Latinos in the United States (2006) also note how gender influences negative spillover (NS) of work demands to home life: “Working conditions, including hours worked, supervisor support, job pressure, and job autonomy significantly impact NS for both groups.”

According to Duxbury et al. (1999), the socialization process also affects gender-based responses towards work-life stress, with women’s role expectations containing “a higher level of stressors.” Within the domain of personal life (PL), this could mean expecting them to do chores and caregiving even after performing paid work (PW); while in the workplace, it is occupying jobs where autonomy is minimal. Thus, women’s varied response from men can also be attributed to differences in PW-PL stressors caused by gender stereotypes.

Personality and Coping Strategies

When faced with a taxing situation, everybody uses “adaptational techniques…to master a major psychological threat and its attendant negative feelings,” explains Ellen Galinsky of the Family and Work Institute. The coping style reflects an individual’s personality and “interpretation of potentially competing environmental demands.”

Herta Toth’s Gendered Dilemmas of the Work-Life Balance in Hungary (2005) offers a related finding. Through 30 interviews with male and female managers of a Budapest-based company, it was found out “that men and women have different perceptions of work-life balance and adopt different coping strategies to manage work and family commitments.”

Thus, apart from describing work-life conflict as highly perceptual, Duxbury and colleagues view coping behavior as the outcome of an employee’s decision to do (or not to do) something about the problem. Such manner of coping is shaped by her/his psychological make-up and cognitive assessment of the situation. However, they note that analyzing coping styles remains unexplored in this context.

Red Wine and Its Health Benefits for Moderate Drinkers*

Drinking red wine does not necessarily make a person alcoholic. There are people who occasionally drink it, and there are also those who regularly take it for one reason or another.

Several studies have indicated that moderate consumption of red wine can be good to human health. The list of benefits includes:

• Nurturing cardiovascular health and liver health

• Fighting atherosclerosis and brain diseases

• Protecting men and women from cancer

• Controlling inflammation and preventing acne

• Hampering the aging process

• Inhibiting hypertension and stroke

• Supporting weight management

• Reducing bad cholesterol and clotting

• Curbing diabetes

• Promoting good eyesight

• Hindering osteoporosis

• Blocking vascular injury in light smokers

• Inducing good sleep

Five Ways to Secure a Company's ICT Network

ICT network security is a must for any organization.

Most business owners and managers who are concerned with employee performance and productivity know the importance of information and communication technologies (ICTs). They allocate resources for the setting up of an ICT system that is largely comprised of various digital technologies.

Part of having an ICT system installed is ensuring the optimal functioning of such infrastructure. Not all enterprises, however, adopt network security measures. Based on GeoTrust's Best Practices for Securing Your Enterprise (n.d.), the following are five of the recommended network security measures:

Baseline Test for Athletes - What Is It and Why Is It Necessary?

An athlete's mental health plays a role in his/her ability to recover from injury.

A fundamental, yet critical component of sports performance and athlete management is a baseline test. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) endorse the use this assessment tool to various professional and amateur sports groups. The National Football League (NFL), the Major League Baseball (MLB), the National Hockey League (NHL), and the National Basketball Association (NBA) have adopted a policy that mandates this step to ensure the health of their players.

The Camera - A Brief Early History of Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV)'s Primary Component (BCE-1800s)*

Advancements in camera technology include the invention of the CCTV.

Closed-circuit television or CCTV has been around for decades. Early users of this technology include law enforcement agencies in the United Kingdom (UK), as well as in the United States (US). However, the link between CCTV and crime control has its roots in the history of camera technology in various formats, particularly photography, motion pictures (broadcast television and film), and multimedia.

The Influence of Media on Human Sexuality, Culture, Gender Issues, and Same-Sex Marriage

Media's global power lies in the hands of sexual humans.

The definition of human sexuality carries a broad spectrum of human experiences. However, reproduction is its core activity (Benagiano & Mori, 2009, p. 50). With the multiplication of sexual human species, a sexual human culture has evolved (Kauth, 2006). 

Culture's birth among humans has introduced the concepts of "gender" and "social reproduction". Referring to feminist studies, Laslett and Brenner (1989) explained that gender as a cultural construction based on biological sexual differences between men and women, while social reproduction refers to individual dispositions and functions aimed at maintaining everyday life and sustaining generations (p. 382). 

Electronic Health Records (EHRs) and the Use of Medical Transcription Services

Systematize electronic health records with the use of technology.

The impact of technology in the field of medicine goes beyond improved drugs and sophisticated equipment to treat ill patients. Certainly, it has also influenced hospital administration and clinic management.

For people who are involved in private practice and/or working for a medical institution, digital technology has facilitated documentation of a patient's medical history. Installing an electronic health record (EHR) system, however, is quite costly. Thus, many hospitals and clinicians still rely on paper-based records.

Factors Behind Paid Work and Personal Life Balance

Work-life balance is a person's ability to handle the demands of various roles.

Work-life stress has a negative effect on employee productivity. According to Linda Duxbury et al.'s An Examination of the Implications and Costs of Work-Life Conflict in Canada (1999), how a worker resolves or handles stress is based on several factors. These include:

• Gender

Though they may adopt similar means to address work-life conflicts, Duxbury and colleagues (1999) that men and women have difference when dealing with work-life issues. Women, for instance, tend to be emotional, while men get physically ill when stressed.

The researchers add that the socialization process has an impact on individual responses to work-life stress. For women employees, this could mean doing domestic and caregiving tasks, as well as performing jobs with little control. Thus, gender stereotypes can affect the source of stress for women (and men). 

Public Health and Consumer Care*

The health of the public and of the consumers is a global concern.

The progress of any nation is affected when its people's productivity is hindered by ill health. Thus, one of the key concerns that state governments should address is public health.

With its aim to end poverty by 2015, the United Nations (UN) implemented an eight-point program called Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2000. The MDGs underline the imperative of good and sustainable public health for all people across the globe. The World Health Organization (WHO) (2007) emphasizes the need to combat diseases that undermine the health of workers, families, and children in order to overcome poverty.

Eating Disorders among Adolescents and the Influence of Family

Teens should be aware about eating disorders.

The family serves as every person’s primary unit of life support and socialization. Heredity and modeling other people’s behaviors contribute to certain traits, including those that concern one’s weight. The Royal College of Psychiatrists or RCP (2008) posits that part of individual eating habits, however, is the ‘intense fear of becoming fat’ that has evolved into eating disorders.

Prevalence, major categories, and symptoms of eating disorders

As the National Centre for Eating Disorders or NCED (2009) notes, many people struggle to overcome their unhealthy relationship with food. In the United Kingdom (UK), for instance, over a million suffer from disordered eating (Smith 2011). Recent statistics show that this country has more than 2,000 teens and children suffering from this problem for the past few years (Press Association 2011).

The Incarceration of the Innocent: A Look into the Stanford Prison Experiment

Though simulated, the Stanford Prison Experiment seriously affected its participants.

The social sciences offer much knowledge about people, cultures, organizations, and societies. Among the field’s many studies are those that explain human psyche and behavior. One classic research is the Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE) that sought to analyze human nature in the context of a simulated penitentiary.

An overview of the SPE

Using a grant from the US Office of Naval Research, Dr. Philip G. Zimbardo and his team of social psychologists constructed a pseudo-detention centre within the Stanford University’s Department of Psychology building in 1971. According to its website, the SPE aimed to determine ‘the psychological effects of prison life’ on college students who functioned as inmates and/or jail protectors (Zimbardo 2011, p. 4). What could have been a two-week simulation act ended abruptly on its sixth day due to abusive fake jail guards and the strong objection of Dr. Zimbardo’s colleague who ‘questioned its morality’ (p. 38).

The Code of Muslim Personal Laws: Issues and Other Related Laws*

The Philippines is home to many Muslims.

Apart from the protracted hostilities between the Moros and the State, the Philippines during the 1970s saw the post-colonial conception of the Code of Muslim Personal Laws (CMPL). The Code was in compliance to Article XV Section II of the 1973 Constitution: “The State shall consider the customs, traditions, beliefs and interests of national cultural communities in the formulation and implementation of state policies…” It codified Muslim laws on marriage, divorce, property relations, and child custody, among others.

The enacted Code though was limited to personal laws because of the limited preparation time to deliberate on other legal provisions, as the Civil Code statutes related to Muslims were about to end. The CMPL then was meant to thwart a legal problem that could weaken the political identity of Muslim institutions.

The Global Commercialization of Tobacco and Cuban Cigars

Tobacco and Cuban cigars are a profitable combo.

The word " cigar " originates from Mayan civilization that used 'sikar' or 'cikar' to mean "smoke". Its major component is tobacco which Mayans traded with fellow Indians from Caribbean islands, including Cuba.

Centuries later, in the midst of European hegemony, tobacco became a valuable cash crop. Mattoon Curtis, in The Book of Snuff and Snuff Boxes (1980), notes that: "Tobacco's first speedy conquest was the maritime world, then the great port cities, and finally the Church and State capitals of the world." 

Different uses of tobacco 

 

Civilizations during pre-Hispanic America were the first cultivators and consumers of tobacco. Between 2000 BC and 987 AC, it was planted in Chiapas, Campeche, Yucanta, Guatemala, and Honduras. Ernesto Montero's Tobacco as a Medication (n.d.), describes how the Mayans, the Aztecs, Brazil's Aracunas, Colombia's Huitotos, and other Native American Indian tribes used it as part of their diet and/or to treat diseases and to ward off insects and pests. Furthermore, according to Curtis (1980), early American Indians used tobacco:

The Journey of John Locke (1632-1704)

John Locke believed in the principle of private property.

Aside from politics and philosophy, Locke also had contributions in the fields of education and medicine. He grew up in an Anglican-Puritan family who instilled early grains of thought about a sense of responsibility towards other people; this, however, did not inspire him to turn into a devout follower of his family’s religion. Locke’s lawyer father likewise emphasized the value of education that somehow motivated him to earn college and postgraduate degrees in mid-1650s (Encyclopaedia Britannica 12).  

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679): His Life and Some Ideas

Thomas Hobbes viewed human nature as violent.

A political absolutist, Hobbes is described as among the proponents of liberalism. His father, also named Thomas, was a vicar in England who left his children in the care of their rich paternal uncle. This episode somehow echoes the five adjectives he used to depict the nature of human beings – “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short” (Pratt 1). It also forebodes his idea that the right and need for security is an individual’s primary concern which only an authoritative body or the monarchy could provide (Encyclopaedia Britannica 970).  

‘State of Nature’: A Brief Look into the Views of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke

Famous works of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke

Regarded as two of the world's great philosophers and political thinkers, Thomas Hobbes and John Locke espoused beliefs about human nature that are seemingly contradictory. Yet, according to academics Jeffrey Pratt and Steven Forde, Hobbes and Locke have several intersecting ideas. Nevertheless, their teachings still have differences. 

To Pressure or Not to Pressure: Analyzing Behaviors and Attitudes of Filipino Young Adults using the Myers-Briggs Personality Typologies

For most people, interaction with others happens on a daily basis and in various social institutions (i.e., home, school, workplace, government, market, church). The nature of such interaction could either be personal (e.g., family members, life partners, and close friends), conventional (e.g., neighbors and colleagues), or formal (e.g., boss, supervisor/manager, doctor, police, and clients). Moreover, these interactions either create, strengthen, or weaken relationships as a result of either familiarity, trust, or indifference. These exchanges also require a person’s conformity to certain acceptable social and cultural norms which include courtesy and politeness. However, such conformity relies on one’s decision to do so or not. In some situations though, one does not have any other choice but to conform.  

Boardwalk Empire: Some Lessons for Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) and Business Managers

Nucky Thompson may be fictive, but his greed is a real human trait.

Boardwalk Empire, a critically acclaimed series produced by HBO (Home Box Office), is not simply a tale about New Jersey during the Prohibition era when alcohol was legislated as a state enemy. Its main figure, the fictive Enoch "Nucky" Thompson, resurrects Enoch L. Johnson's character whose life history can serve as a teaching ground for chief executive officers (CEOs) of neophyte and burgeoning technology firms. It may seem uncanny to connect history and management of a technology business, but Nucky's character reeks of lessons for corporate heads. 

Safety Tips While Finding a Date in Cyberspace *

OnlineDatingSafetyTips.com recommends that searchers should ascertain a high level of computer security. This can be achieved with the use of effective anti-virus programs and firewalls, reliable Internet connection, and strong passwords.

Furthermore, before joining an online dating site, read carefully its policies or terms of service. Also, research on site reviews to have more information. This will help weigh the pros and cons of signing up. It is also better to decide on how much information one is willing to post on the site.