Music and Talent

It is quite interest in this day of age where just about everything has become restructured (In my opinion) due to the Internet. In our discussion on Tuesday we went over three kinds of ways in which you reach celebrity status: ascribed (born with fame), achieved (achieved the fame), and attributed (octo-mom). I wanted to talk about achieved fame in it's relationship to the music industry. The Internet has open many doors for independent artist, but it has also taken away so much. It is now possible to make music solely by computer, which completely cut's out the $$$ middle man (Music Engineer's and the like). As an artist we also have the ability to market ourselves and even start an independent record label via website or the numerous social networking sites or both. But, where does the down side come into affect?? It come with no surprising that many teens grow up want to be famous. This large amount of kids growing up set on becoming rock-stars (in the long-run), creates numerous artists putting out numerous tracks. In-fact, now that we have the Internet the music has become more saturated then it ever has before. I wanted to give one idea of achieving celebrity status, but feel like this can fit with just about any area of entertainment. Technology has open many door, but I also believe it has padlocked quite a few as well. 

Supersize Me

So in another one of my classes (COMM 494: Health Communications) we are doing presentations for the end of the semester. One of are classmates group decided to do there project on the documentary 'Supersize Me'. If you guys have never seen this documentary it is about a guy that eats only Mcdonalds for around a couple months. In the film it shows the guy gaining around 30lbs, losing his sex drive, a increase in blood pressure, and many other health issues. During the release of this film we looked at a graph studies on consumption of Mcdonalds on the date of the movie airing, which had no affect on people and it almost seemed as if it was increasing sales. After discussing in class about how films create a somewhat revitalization in sale of things such as, toys, books, and other products of similarity. I thought it was funny to see something negative in film such as American obesity having the same affect.  

South Park

I have noticed whether you like the show or not South Park on Comedy Central has closely emulated many of our past social issues in America. This really never hit me until today after watching the documentary on TV and social class. Before going any further this blog post is not really so much on social class as it is what we as the television consumers find entertaining. Often times if not always South Park episodes have a topic that is driven by real events in America. These events are thrown out of context in a drastic way in order for the show to have a funny theme. The themes often times touches on social class, race, stupidity, political issues, and gender bias. During one segment today in the documentary on S. class a young ignorant teen girl is on the Jerry Springer Show babbling on about some nonsense, which mad me think about this (South Park Clip). We really do live in a crazy country at times and basically South Park does a great job explaining it ridiculousness. I know this is off topic but, "What Evah, I do what I want!" <--- (watch the south park clip)

Minorities & Women

In watching the video of 'Killing Us Softly' and piggybacking off of my last post on bell hooks video on 'cultural criticism'. First and foremost even though I may have said in the last post bell hooks does contributed toward racism, which I still stand by (hope not to offend anyone). I would also like to say that her views are incredible accurate and that she brings up phenomenal points surrounding our culture and media on ethnicity.  


The video 'Killing Us Softly' created by the ideas of Jean Kilbourne had one segment that really stands out to me, which was the way youth were depicted in media. She showed clips of young boys and girl photographed together. But in each photo the boy is looking down on girl and has a facial expression like he hold the power. In fact, the only way in which the white female looks down upon another males is with another ethnicity. This made me go back to many of hooks views and I thought how disturbing, at least to extent, these photos of youth had been in relations to ethnicity and femininity.

I know a lot of what bell hooks express in her writings (at least in what we read and watched) are about the superior (in this case the white male) and how they control our culture through media. This is really messed up, but I was also think what if the (Quote-UN-Quote)---> "superior" was another ethnicity??? In my opinion it would be the completely same situation in how these rich white yuppie CEO's work, but just flip flopped to another ethnicity. I have come to the conclusion that you need to have a equal amount of ethical powers in order to keep from this problem with superiority... If anyone one has a better idea please post below.

Madonna Vs. Rappers

In watching bell hooks views on Madonna and rap music I found it to be kind of contradicting. She speaks of Madonna as a woman who has sold out, continually recreates herself solely to make money, and is looked at as a Superior white (through the Spin Magazine comment). I agree on this statement hooks makes, but also believe any individual whether they be WHITE or BLACK try to make music in order to make money, be famous, and sell out.  Sure, I guess the ultimate reason why people get into music is because they absolutely love to do it, but come on... your in it to win it... I get what hooks is saying, I really do! But, why does this come down to white supremacy? I believe if a black female at the same status (lets say Oprah), said the same remark, the outcome in my opinion would have been very similar, if not the same.

When she brings up the segment on rap music it becomes kind of contradicting to the whole Madonna segment. She says word for word, "The young men that make rap music are not naive and they know if they can make a million dollars talking about how they want to fuck a women, and that will make tones of money, the kind of capital forces and market forces that are driving young male and female artist producing rap." She continues to say, "Would suggest to me that they are going to go for those millions." This was not the main purpose of what she was saying during this segment, but was how the lyrics in the rap impact black culture. How it damages in the long run black life/culture. When rape and assault become the defining aspect of erotic exchange between black females and males in youth culture.  Then she says this fall out is so much greater then the individual that become wealthy from rap music. Directly after this explanation, they show clips of a Rapper (Black) and his estimated worth $11 Million, then the CEO of Time/Warner (White) Annual Music Sales $775 Million.

My issue is that this rapper who is selling out his culture for money from some rich white CEO has a choice. This is just like how Madonna can run around like a crazy slut and make racial remarks in order to gain more wealth for her ugly ass. Really, what I got from these two segments was that Madonna was greedy and black people were puppets to whites through rap and various other issues. In all reality, or in my opinion, hooks speaks of racism quite often because white people are (Quote-UN-Quote)---> "Superior", but I think she also contributes toward racism. I mean let be honest shes not favoring whites.. I'm just say.. and I'm not racist!!! (laughs) 

A Different World

The episode in class of 'A Different World' really struck me in a peculiar way. Why, because it shows as a country how far we have come from racism. Is racism still here? Absolutely. Will racism always be here? Unfortunately, yes to some extent. It seems as if the race card (or races battling out for superiority) has always been played out on television, but this episode deliberately and quite heavily (at the end of episode) spoke of blacks and whites fighting for a higher status. Or, maybe it was the white fighting for a higher status and blacks fighting for equality? The television I have watched during this present time period is never this deliberate on the subject of race. In fact, I believe we all agreed in class that you never see television episodes similar to 'A Different World'. It was also interesting how they spelled out the N word at the end of the episode. It was another situation in media where whites had been framed as the superior race. Not only did the situation indicating that whites were superior, but the cop who played as the median between white and black, was also white. It was kinda another way of the media expressing race admonition, stereotypes, and racism.    

The Token Black Guy

I'm sure a lot of you have seen film 'Not Another Teen Movie'. In case you haven't had the opportunity to see this film it was an American Comedy that made fun of teen movies. The movie was very similar to the horrible series called 'Scary Movie', which made it to 4 or 5 films. If that doesn't help do not fear I have a movie clip to justify what I am about to say.  In this film there was a character deliberately named, 'The Token Black Guy'. This black guy portrayed basically all the same characteristic bell hooks spoke of in are recent reading 'Eating The Other'. Here is the clip from the film: (Link). This bit gives a great idea of what the character in the film basically symbolizes and the role he plays. I found it incredible interesting how the director intentionally made the character out to exactly how hooks portrays many media's. It really wasn't up until last class that I realized how media often times portrays white as superior to all Others. For example, Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, The Bucket List, and they probable even do this in the Scary Movie series with the Wayne Brothers. I guess really after reading and doing the article summary this made me notice how often this happened in past films and other medias.

TV Without Emotion or Discussion

After discussing the affect of not being able to share emotion or discussion with another in watching a TV program, I decided to try it out. My brother and I often times watch television together (I never watch TV, but when I do it's usually with him). In fact as I type this me and him are watching television. But, as we sat down to watched TV without any discussion and emotion, guess what, TV was a really really boring experience.

In past situations I have found emotion to play an incredible powerful part in the process of sharing. Whether it be watching television with another or even listening to music. I say listening to music because I feel that sharing music can have a very similar outcome. Do you ever get that feeling when driving around with a friend and question putting a CD in just because of the possible clash in taste of music. It is always that couple minutes that distinguish whether it is a good selection or not. When your friend(s) starts bobbing his/there head(s), tapping to the beat, or playing the air guitar/drums. You know these are the cues to if this selection in music was correct.

I guess really the whole point of this blog post was to express how important feelings of emotion are in order to fully share an experience. 

Summers Eve Youtube Channel

I feel like this topic needs to be brought back up on the racially depicted commercials from the Summers Eve youtube channel. Instantly after watching these three commercials, I realized other then being incredible racists, it kinda tied in with another in-class video. In prior classes we watched a video clip (with Denzel Washington) about the dictionary definitions between black and white. In my opinion this was most certainly in favor of white women for the least offensive racially. But, will give them credit for making white women out to be incredible huge air-heads. They made the white women sound like the dominating race with the commercials quote saying, "Population of 3.5 billion and growing, thanks to us" (us = white vagina hands, if you forgot...). This meant 3.5 billion women in general, but the white vagina hand represented these females as a whole.  Then they presented symbols like B.F.F. (best friends forever or friendly) and the ying yang symbol (sign of peace), which was not a bad set of classifications on the white female race. Now, lets look at the other ethnicity symbols or focused ideas. The black women has a cactus, hair, words spelled incorrectly, and a stereotypical black female voice. Now, for the Latino, hhhmmm, again stereotyped voice, babies, and classification that they often times move. This was really interesting in thinking back to the Denzel Washington Clip on the definitions of black in white. If you remember the clip did it bare resemblance, because I think it did... 

Dewey's Ideas of Occupying Z Wall Street & Hockey

After yesterdays class on the views of Dewey and Lippmann with the comparison of the Occupy Wall Street protest, multiple things can be taken from this situation. I do believe that Dewey's ideas as well as Lippmann's equally share purpose for this so called issue, but also would like to bring up a point leaning toward Dewey's potential thought process (and Hockey).

Dewey may have said during this issue (at least what was discussed during class on this situation) that it would be portrayed as a positive in society. His views in my opinion are incredible liberal and the Wall Street protest also certainly seems like it is heading in this similar direction. Personal I believe that it is not right to fight for something that you as a individual know nothing of, but also want to give an example by using Hockey to express a point.

Prior to the Blackhawks being put on television or being good, no one in Chicago really payed much attention to this game (in less you were a true fan).  Directly after this decision to put them on TV and pick many positive players from 2006 draft (A.K.A Toews and Kane), many people during this season tuned in (and called themselves so called Hockey fans (or Bandwagon Fans)). Eventhough these individuals knew nothing of Hockey during this season (and many Hawks fans still know nothing of Hockey) they were forced to learn the game.

In this way many people (must I add youthful individuals) have sparked interest in politics or if you want to look at Hockey have become Blackhawks fans. I think this is good for politics just like it is good for the NHL game and Hockey it's self. Surely Lippmanns ideas would also be feasible.. I mean honestly what are these protesters really trying to prove other then being unhappy with this situation. Really down to the point, ignorance is never a good thing. So basically this interest can never be classified as a bad because really you gotta fight... for your right...to party.. OH, and the REDWINGS are going for a NHL record of a 21 home game win streak!!  Pardon me they already beat the record!! 

Reality Television and It's Consumers

After reading, "The Political Economic Origins of Reali-TV" by Chad Raphael, I wanted to go more in depth about economics in television. One part of this text really touch down on how Reali-TV is sold as a discount, because of the demographic watching these programs. The discount was due to the lower income of viewers. This to me was very interesting because majority of these reality programs are incredible popular. Sometimes possible even more popular then a regular television Drama. 


In looking at Marx key ideas; Capitalist societies alienate the working class, consumer consumption is motivation for work, Capitalism destroys individuality, and ruling class monopolizes mass media and advertising. These all hold possible some truth with the given scenario above (or the discount because consumers have lower income). But, when we look at reality television and it's similar themes, mainly being trashy or focused around entertainment news (also somewhat trash).  Why does advertisement assume the demographic is of a lower income? Is this because we assume people watching filthy TV must be poor? Is this another way of the ruling class placing people in one genre? If your poor you watch garbage television, if your rich you watch intelligent television, and if your middle class you watch everything in between.


Basically, I thought this was interesting how advertisers and/or the ruling class can classify the individual just because of... well, class. This is in the text and also the main idea for my post, "The genre's (Reali-TV) excesses drove away some advertisers that do not want to be associated with its tawdry image and generally lower-income audience". (Raphael, Pg. 137)

GUYS, JUSTIN BIEBER HAS MAD TALENT!! BY JACK GOHL

AWWW SNAP!! So after listening to 'Who Shot Ya' from Biggie, I figured why not incorporate this incredible talent we know and love named Justin Bieber. Did you know he covered 'Who Shot Ya'. Check it! Beaver Swag!! Alright, now that we got our fix on to my actual post..

In covering ideology and then incorporating the four rap vids today really got me thinking about the music industry and our culture. Our music industry teaches us everyday from radio and television that we as a society obtain common beliefs (some times forced), which provides a foundation for a complex system of domination. This common belief produced from larger record labels, radio stations, and television, can help classify what's good and bad music. In scooping out the Magazine Entertainment Weekly, I noticed something very interesting on a segment they called 'Grammy Insider'. In this segment they chose who had the best opportunity to win for each ballot. In reading just one category 'The Album Of The Year' with the nominees, Adele, Foo Fighters, Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars, Rihanna (wow, it is a sad day for music) it seemed very limited. I do not believe this was a coincidence, but really a way in which people of the music industry (or high powers) chose these talents. Now we ask who's fault is it that our society has such a narrow perspective of looking at music?? Is it the record labels, the radio stations, or TV?? I blame ourselves, according to Marx the power is not obtained by force, but through consent and coercion... We give them the power! (Not yelling, just making a point) There are many ways in which the major record label system can be beaten via the Internet. To name yet a few SoundCloud, *BLOGS*, YouTube, networking sites, Pandora, and sure even digital download stores. Really it comes down to not caring or being lazy, which leads to major record labels success with these given options. Maybe the options are just not recognized like the sweet vid I shared above of biebs. All I'm getting at is if you don't care then fine, if you do care don't complain and do search for content rather then be feed. If everyone did this the music industry would change incredibly fast. In less of course your fine with this limited pop material. I would consider myself as one who does not care, but also searches for my material. Especially in my case when 'Under The Mistletoe' gets played one to many times.

Hegemony & Justin Bieber: By Jack Gohl

99.9 percent of the time I almost always dislike reading about Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels views, because these text are always way to abstract for myself and can almost always be summed up in one paragraph or at least the 5 page conclusion. This reading on Marx and Engels text, "The Ruling Class and the Ruling Ideas" gave me inspiration towards the last .01 percent. After reading and discussing in small groups I found these ideas to be quite enlightening and actually really got me thinking about our media powers and the effects they have on society.

In doing my comparison of the texts information to the media, I wanted to use the TV News as an example. More then ever in this day of age we see entertainers swamping the media with ideas and random bull. For example, Bonos (U2 singer) thoughts on how we can save the world or Mel Gibsons drunken anti-semitic slurs, which make top headlines on various news programs. In my opinion there are 1,000's of Bono's in this world, but only 1 gets our attention and really even though it is fun to make fun of Mel after his drunken buffoonery, who really gives a poop. Why could this be?? This (to me) is because entertainers/politicians are considered the elite beings in our society, which also have some of the highest paying salaries and power.

The power these few and very wealthy individuals display, whether outrageous or normal in the events captured on news programs can (to me) be a wonderful example of hegemony. These news programs sift through the material and choose what is of importance and what is not. Do many of us not give a poop to what and why Linsey Lohan is in court for each time she breaks top story (which is a lot), rather the kid that saved a cat from a tree or the many people that die from various issues around the states and world? I blame hegemony and Justin Beiber... But really, we can not blame Justin biebs for all our problems, because he has a great head of hair. Hegel was right on, hegemony or in his words our hierarchy in society is what controls various medias. But, I may be 99.9 percent off on this...

Work It

In reading the first chapter and watching the episode of 'Work It!' says to me many things about our culture trying to portray certain values in our society. The first chapter 'What Is Popular Culture' mentioned a form of ideology for popular culture which said, "This ideological form is intended to draw attention to the way in which texts (television fiction, popular music, novels, feature films, etc.) always present a particular image of the world." (pg.4, Storey) This defiantly must hold some truth after watching this pilot episode of 'Work It', which was based strongly on gender and ethical stereotypes of how people act in our culture. 'Work It!' is not the only show that has contributed using real events & some stereotypes to formulate episodes (South Park, Workaholics, Desperate Housewives, Modern Family, etc.) and in my opinion it is quite entertaining. Many people may also agree with me because these types of shows relate to the viewers lifestyle in some way or another. But, in 'Work It' the plot of the story may have been a little too overboard on the stereotypes, as well as it's cheesiness. Lastly, did anybody think the setting of the house for 'work it' shared many similarities to the show 'Tool Time' w/ Tim Allen? It has nothing to do with what was said above, but that was the first thing that I noticed. Check it out and report back.