On June 24, 1545, Hans Bluetl was tied to a stake in the town square of Ried, located in the Bavarian region of modern-day Austria. He was soon set alight by his Catholic captors and, according to the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online, "With great courage he endured the fiery death, singing hymns of praise until he collapsed." Bluetl was...

You may have heard it blaring through the speakers across Corsair Stadium this fall as the football team scored another touchdown. All great colleges and universities have a memorable fight song, and now Santa Monica College will finally join the ranks. Jessie Moorehead, head coach of SMC’s cheer squad, was the innovator behind the creation of the song.“It seems to...

The songs are not telling us what to do. Instead, they are mirrors into what's cooking inside our membranes as a society. The argument over whether music is a bad influence on society should refocus on whether society is a bad influence on music. The infamous credit card through the posterior swipe in Nelly's "Tip Drill" or the recent uproar...

With her tongue waving to the world, wearing barely anything, a lithe figure strutted onto the stage. A barrage of stuffed teddy bears followed behind and pranced around. The crowd's bewilderment soon turned to shock once artist Robin Thicke joined the bizarre choreography as she twerked on him, provocatively touching herself with a foam finger. The next day, she was...

The pressure can be daunting. With fans cheering and booing, and the opposing team walking on the court, easy distractions can deter any athlete preparing for battle. But while sitting on the bench with pressure in the air, athletes often turn to one thing to keep them calm — music. Valerie Carillo, a former Santa Monica College volleyball player, listens...

With an extensive amount of distractions each day, people often drift into the world of music, which helps block out all unwanted background noise, and allows a little peace and quiet for the mind. But not everyone knows about the positive and negative effects of music on our concentration. Multiple research papers have been written regarding music’s effects on cognitive...

In the days of ancient Rome, some gladiators, though talented, might not have dreamed of a life spent fighting to the death. Some undoubtedly heard the sound of the blaring Colosseum horns, and could only hope to serenade the masses in another life. For every one of those envious gladiators, there had to be a matching musician high in the...

Music is a universal language that is able to break cultural, social and racial barriers. Certain musical pieces can also traverse through time, retaining the emotional resonance from the day they were first released. Timeless songs, from “Hey Jude” by The Beatles to “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana, have etched themselves in the halls of music history. But what...

With winter around the corner, social media is already buzzing with countless announcements of spring and summer music festivals to come in 2014. Music festivals have become so popular in the last century that what once was a counterculture movement, music festivals are now evolved into more mainstream, inclusive events. A study by Nature Reviews Neuroscience shows that listening to...

For Christy Damron, a former Santa Monica College student, it is not easy for her to see her father, a grown man, cry."One moment he'll be hanging out on the couch, very normal," Damron said. "The next he'll be crying and going ballistic. Bipolar can be terrifying."Many people associate mental disorders with homeless people, drug addicts, or people with rough...