Pop Quiz
test your music IQ with 'boom boom pow'
By Hannah Yudkin and Betsy Morais
PrintThe Black Eyed Peas performed their hit song “Boom Boom Pow” on “Saturday Night Live” this weekend, and while many of us would have liked to be there, schoolwork tends to accumulate this time of year. Thankfully, Betsy Morais and Hannah Yudkin have found a convenient way to enjoy the Black Eyed Peas while pretending to study at the same time.
1. History: Short Answer - Discuss the origins and significance of the Black Eyed Peas song “Boom Boom Pow,” and apply a Marxist analysis to its success.
The Black Eyed Peas song, “Boom Boom Pow,” was first released to American radio stations on March 13, 2009. Since then, it has become the band’s first number one single in the U.S. Originally intended for underground clubs, the song made a pow-er play on the radio. “‘Boom Boom Pow’ is proof that if something’s dope, regardless of if it has that sprinkled radio vibe, that it should be played on the radio and the people are gonna like it,” as Pea with a Black Eye, Will.i.am, said. Fergie elaborated on this revolution of sorts, perhaps of the Marxist tradition: “It’s basically kind of to the left. We’ve always been kind of misfits, and so it kind of fits. The song is to the left, but it works, because we’re being true to ourselves.”
2. English: Gotta Get-Get
a) Get, a verb—to come to have or to hold.
b) Get, a verb—to travel by, to catch (as in a bus)
c) Get, a noun—a successful return of a difficult ball (as in tennis)
d) Get-get, unknown—a stutter.
3. Math: Boom Boom
a) [(Boombox) - (Box)] + [(Boomerang) - (Phone that rang)]
b) 2 (Bassoon - ass - n + m)
c) Bono + Jimmy Buffett + Teddy Roosevelt = 2(B) + 4(O) + 2(M)
4. Science: Pow
a) Potassium chlorate and red phosphorus
b) Straight up TNT
c) A male SEAS student at a Barnard event in the Vagelos (aka Diana) Center.
19 November 2009
vol. 7, issue 10
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