(Cina Nguyen) On class Monday, We started class with news relating to popular culture. Since I rarely read the news and barely have contact with the entertainment world, I was very fascinated by some of the things my classmates mentioned. My classmates brought up hundred of reindeers who were struck by a single lightning and how drake expressed his love of Rihanna, etc. The atmosphere of the class was very light when we shared these news and contained tons of laughter. Then, we moved onto a heavier part of class which is the quiz. Surprisingly, the quiz wasn't too bad. I thought the questions were very fair and reflective. I learned where I had made the mistakes and what to expect for the next few quizzes.
After reviewing the quiz' answers, we broke into smaller groups of 3 to "interpret popular cultural signs" relating to zombies, vampire, and androids. When I read this section at home, I always thought the book was referring to phones when speaking about androids. I realized I was wrong and the book was actually talking about robots after I had discussed with my group members. One of the many questions that struck me at the end of the day about this topic was "will android take over?" and my answer is no. The reason is that androids are too boring and "safe-looking" to be categorized with the "exciting" and "dangerous" zombies and vampires. We've created zombies and vampires because they're so unrealistic that strike fantasies to our minds. Androids, on the other hand, are just too close to potentially becoming humans that they seem dull (because no one wants to fantasize reality). Therefore, I feel very strongly that androids will soon be forgotten although it displays some persistent popularity right now. I believe it is because everyone likes changes so we always push towards different ideas and trends, and that is why androids came into existence, but I don't believe that this childish-looking-cartoon robot will leave as much as an impact as vampires and zombies did.
I like your post, but I disagree about robots not leaving an impact or being scary. Some robots can look childish and cartoonish as you said, but so can vampires and zombies. Films such as Terminator, iRobot, Blade Runner, and The Matrix, all depict pretty creepy robots. I would even say those films where robots are the villains will leave more of an impact on pop culture than Twilight or The Walking Dead.
I enjoyed your post, and how you incorporate what we talk about in class. However, I have to disagree with you on the fact that robots won’t replace vampires and zombies. Films such as Iron Man, Terminator, Transformers, iRobot, and so on are pretty popular, and these shows expanded after vampires and zombies films slowly disappear from the scene. Some robot films may be boring and childish-like, but so can the vampires and zombies. Also, I don’t feel like android is really realistic or portray realities. Because reality is that androids, vampires, and zombies do not exist.
I definitely agree with some part of your post. Androids can be boring and cartoonish depending on how they are depicted. I do think they will leave a major impact if not more than vampires and zombies. I feel that way because maybe someday you will be able to communicate with an android vs. Zombies/Vampires. With technology evolving everyday through self-driving cars, voice controlled machines, and smart phones. We are not far off from having androids that communicate back.
Only time is able to tell which celebrities make a lasting impression in pop culture. In the peak of their popularity, a celebrity might seem like they’ll be famous forever. For a while, Lady Gaga was considered to be the next Madonna, but Gaga seems to have faded out of the public’s consciousness. Paris Hilton was the original reality TV party girl, but has now been pushed aside by her former assistant, Kim Kardashian-West. Usually once the career of a celebrity dies, it stays dead. Comebacks happen, but they are rare, and usually a celebrity never comes back quite as strong. This is what makes the comeback of Britney Spears so impressive. Britney was as big of a teen pop star as one could get, and suffered one of the most public breakdowns in the history of pop culture. The year 2007 in pop culture is arguably remembered as the year of Britney Spear’s breakdown before anything else. Everyone saw the picture of her, clippers in hand, with a half-shaven head and a blank smile on her face. A few days later she locked herself in a bathroom with her toddler-aged child and was forced out on a stretcher and flown on a helicopter to a psychiatric hospital. It was never publicly verified what her condition was, but it is assumed she suffers from bipolar disorder. She was called crazy and dismissed as another young star who could not handle the pressures of being rich and famous. No one expected her to return successfully to music, but she did. Britney came back in full form, delivering more hits than she did before her breakdown. Her latest album, Glory, was released a week ago to some of the best reviews she’s ever gotten. For a celebrity to maintain a career for more than a few years is tough, and to maintain one for a couple of decades has only been done by a handful of stars. Britney might get her share of criticisms, and perhaps some of them are valid, but you can’t deny the impressiveness and strength of Britney Spears and her career.
Logan, this was a very great topic, I would have never guessed anyone would go in this direction with the blog. I agree with you on some points but when it comes to celebrities careers I believe the fans don't like to see them venture off into other genres. It's like they are taking a risk and either their fans come with them and sometimes they don't. I feel like when they make risky decisions to change the direction of their career some fans don't like it and consider their career "dead". Or even when a celebrity just wants to take a break from working and go on a hiatus, we consider their career "dead". Many people don't realize that some of these people just get very famous off doing one particular thing, like acting, however when they began their careers, they may have had dreams of singing, acting, directing and many more and what to fulfill those voids. Great Post Logan!! You got my mind thinking and I may elaborate on this topic for my blog.
(Cina Nguyen) I feel very inspired by your post, Logan! I feel like you nailed it, and although I have never thought about this topic before, I can relate and agree to it as much as if it were my own opinions. It is very true that the idea of popular culture is ambiguous - in many ways. However, I cannot find any objection to your belief that "once a career of a celebrity dies, it stays dead". Usually, no matter how much I strongly I agree with something, I can always propose a counter-view to deeper my critical analysis. However, It is very odd the fact that I cannot rebuttal to that statement. And I feel that if not all, then most people would agree with it because it's almost a fact. We see it everyday! (One being replaced by another-although there are comebacks). It is sad thinking of it that way, that you can lose fame eternally when your position dwindles and competes with newer celebrities. Also, I felt very uplifting hearing your share about Brittney Spear. I knew that she went through Bipolar disorder and appeared afterwards. That is definitely a motivation on my behalf. THnak you so much for the wonderful post!
My blog post was inspired by Logan Case's post. I thought he had a very interesting view point on celebrities careers, downfalls and comebacks. So, I decided to elaborate on Logan's post. I agree that once a celebrity hits a downfall they are forgotten about, however we do see comebacks quite often, some even after a decade; for example, the R and B artist Omarion made a musical comeback after making no music for 10 years straight. So, I wouldn't considered their career dead, especially because most celebrities don't stop working, they may just take on other jobs behind the scenes; for example, Cree Summers from the TV Show A Different World, she fell into doing voices for cartoon characters. Just because we haven't actually seen her on any popular shows doesn't mean her career is dead. Also, just focusing on your comment about Lady Gaga's career, I don't believe she has "faded out of the public's consciousness" because she actually took the time to move her career in another direction last year when she started in FX's hit show American Horror Story, which she went on to win a Golden Globe for this year. So as an audience we might think our celebrity has fallen off if we only watch one genre of entertainment, however as fans I think it is important to actually follow the celebrity in all their ventures so that we recognize their careers in all aspects and genres. So my questions is: Who do we blame for the downfalls of celebrities careers? Is it the audience/fans? Or is it the celebrity?
So to answer your question I feel like we should blame the fans for the downfall of a celebrity. While of course there are exceptions to the rule, if you were really a fan you would support your artist through whatever endeavors they journey on. You cant completely diss someone because they decide to change. If every artist stuck to what they know entertainment would be very static. Now I'm not saying that you have to like every single thing that they do but not embracing growth in an artist is like telling them to not grow up. Imagine if someone put a limit on your growth. Most people don't want to be the same person they were when they were 12, 18, or even 21. Like you mentioned most downfalls are not really downfalls they're just shifts in genres, and if you were a true fan of that celebrity you would follow them into their next adventure.
I halfway agree with Dazia Gatlin in blaming the fans for the "downfall" of a celebrity because like Dominique stated, as fans/audience it is important to follow the person you admire in all aspects that may venture out in to. Interests can change or expand, not everyone will stay on the same page their entire lives and sometimes a "downfall" isn't technically a downfall but a change of pace. Maybe a change in career. No longer interested in being a singer or actress anymore or would simple rather live a normal life and that is no downfall at all.
Interesting post Domonique! I agree with you in the sense that some celebrities do pop back up. On the other hand has it occurred that so many artist invest in so many other businesses and brands, that they don't even have to stay in the spotlight long. I'd argue that most talented people can make something good every few years just to entertain and they still live very nice lives. Just because they're not on the scene doesn't mean they've "fallen off."
After reading the chapters assigned for this week, the popularity of clothing that changes throughout the decades really intrigued me. Each decade adopted unique fashion trends and symbols that represented how people at time wanted to rebel or express themselves. The 1950's and 60's interested me the most because blue jeans began to be worn outside of the workplace as a symbol of defiance. People wear jeans casually and sometimes for business attire now and no one thinks twice. It is fascinating how much our society has changed from just a few decades ago, and also how fashion trends go out of style and then come back years later. Growing up, my parents did not understand the baggy pants trend during the 90's and early 2000's. I remember getting so upset because they would not buy me a pair. All the kids at school were wearing them and I wanted to fit in. Looking back, it makes no sense to me because I would never wear my pants like that now. Over the years, there are many bizarre styles of apparel that celebrities start exploiting, and then they blow up as fashion trends. An example is when Pharrell wore that huge hat at the 2014 Grammys. It looked ridiculous, but people actually started wearing them. American fashion trends influence our society in positive and negative ways, just like all the other genres in pop culture. It affects people negatively when our peers produce poor judgement on an individual based on the style of clothing they wear. Different innovations in clothing also contribute to our freedom of expression in a positive way and helps define who we are individually.
I agree with you that our fashion trends depend on what others think and what celebrities wear. Although this can have a negative effect when people start to judge you, I think it can also have positive influences. Some on the positive influences that I thought of were confidence in yourself and improving economy. Fashion can also improve the economy because as fashion keeps changing, new companies are built and increases jobs.
I have recently been enlightened by our class conversation and later on our reading on how social media makes profit. Before this revelation I often did wonder how exactly it is that my Facebook page knew what to advertise to me. Once I was informed to say that I was completely baffled by my discovery is an understatement. I first came about this discovery when my classmate Nicholas answered the question “how do we pay for Facebook??” He answered because they use our data. A lightbulb came on and I thought of course because we pay for data through our cell phone companies and then we use it up on social media like Facebook, hence we are paying for Facebook. When the discussion continued I realized that although that was a relevant point there was also another way that we were paying for social media. Prof Emilio went on to explain that advertisement companies pay for our data so that they can see what it is that we take interests in and use their “smart “technology to market products that we are more likely to buy on our feed. So not only am I paying for Facebook but they are also selling my personal information to the highest bidder. Now it makes sense Facebook and all other social media is free because they are already making a huge profit from the information we have on our profiles. I feel as if I’ve been betrayed by a good friend. A friend who said hey trust me with your information I won’t let you down. A friend who in turn is making a huge profit and not cutting me in on it. I almost feel like I’m being stolen from. Don’t you??
I'm sorry for your betrayal. It's funny how enlightening the subject of Pop Culture is and will be to each one of us. My "Lightbulb" moment was learning that a major component our economy now revolves around the consumption of entertainment. Our entertainment, phones, and social media is all about companies making money. America is also truly an information driven society. I love Facebook too, and I had to choose to lose my privacy in order to enjoy it. Unfortunately it seems that the only way to not get your information taken from you is to be "Off The Grid." I don't know about you, but I'm not ready to go that far yet!
Social media has been gaining popularity within this century. Just about everyone has a social media account like Instagram, Facebook or Snapchat. All of these social media has around 2 billion users. Because so many people have at least one social media account, I chose to base my blog post on why these media has been gaining popularity and whether or not this has a positive effect. One of the reasons why these medias are so vastly used is because it allows people to express their freedom of speech. For instance, in Facebook, when a person like an article they are able to express their emotions by writing a comment or liking the article. Another reason why the social media has been gaining popularity is because of the different and unique options each software offers. For instance, unlike posting a comment directly on a news site, social media allows different ways to express their opinions like through pictures with Instagram, videos with Snapchat, and sharing with Facebook. Social media can have both a positive and negative effect. These programs allow people to meet new people. Based on PewResearchCenter, about 5% of Americas meet their significant other online. Although this may not seem a lot in percentages it is approximately 5 million people. Social medias also allow people to express their emotions freely, but it doesn’t have privacy. For instance, if a person uploaded a picture on Snapchat and only wanted just his or her friends to see it, the friends can take a screenshot of the picture and distribute it to others. In my opinion, social media has helped many people connect each other and has given many different ways for people to express their freedom of speech, but it can also have negative effects like revealing private information.
Social media has definitely taken over our society, and people record pretty much everything they do during the day. It is a great way to connect with friends and loved ones, but in my opinion is starting to distract people from getting a full experience of whatever activity or adventure they are experiencing. An example is when fans at concerts are too busy taking videos with snapchat instead of watching the live performance. I think your post made very good points as well about social media.
Hello YunHa! Great post, and I completely agree with It, but I would like to expand more on the negative points. You mentioned that it had negatives to it but didn't really express those negatives. A huge con with social media is bullying. People become more confident when they can speak on something when other people are not physically there and that can create the need to pick on other people. Our society feeds on negativity and drama so when a person picks on another person, it is laughed at and entertained instead of being looked down on. Due to the encouragement of this behavior, it creates a nasty/disturbing cycle. So in this case, social media can be a very dangerous creation. Bullying leads to suicide and it has been a huge reason for people to commit suicide.
With my quirkiness, it’s not surprising that one of my favorite shows is Hoarders. My best friend and I had the following conversation last month about our mothers:
“Remember when you were over my mother’s house and she had that dining room full of stuff piled up to the ceiling with a path through it?” I asked.
“Oh that’s nothing! My mom doesn’t even have a path. We have to create one in order to get in the room,” she chuckled, getting the last word in as usual.
Hoarding has always been a fear of mine because I’m unsure whether or not it’s hereditary, and so one of the most satisfactory things that I enjoy, is to throw things away. It’s so cleansing to me. I’m also one of those rare people who hate shopping. So when I read James A. Roberts, “The Treadmill of Consumption”, I immediately thought of those people who have no idea how to get off the treadmill. Hoarders have no “Off Button;” they continue to accumulate their preferred items in their homes until they no longer have any space for themselves. It’s fascinating how the extreme of having a culture of consumption, is that it would lead to the proliferation of Storage businesses (which would actually be an easy way to make money) and to consumption addiction (which leads to isolation and imprisonment with the things that are purchased and cherished over loved ones).
I’ve also noticed since last year, that there’s an opposite trend that is now simultaneously occurring; a minimalistic lifestyle. My favorite network, HGTV, seems to have been taken over with “Tiny Houses” as a new generation has decided to embrace an alternate lifestyle of having less debt, less possessions, and the freedom to travel. These people have put their treadmills in the junkyards, as they decide that more consumption is not the key to satisfaction and happiness. I find this to be encouraging, because instead of our society getting sicker underneath the burden of consumerism, there’s hope that we can be delivered and be able to see the futileness of it all.
I found your blog post to be very interesting and a great example of what we read from our book. I would have never thought about comparing the two. I really like how then you turned it around to show the tiny houses are becoming a big for our generation and because of that it may being showing that we aren't so materialistic and that happiness doesn't come from consuming more and more material goods. Nice work I really enjoyed reading your post.
During the Elizabethan age, Shakespeare was apart of the "Popular culture", and in a sense, he is still relevant and still apart of that culture. One of my favorite plays from his work is The Twelfth Night, so my blog post is revolved on the constant theme in this play. The theme would be the idea that consequences can occur when love is involved. When one is taken over by the power of love, they act out and partake in ridiculous actions and in the end it's hard to get untangled from the whirlwind of a mess that those actions got that person in. For example, Viola had a strong love and passion towards music so in result of that passion, she disguised herself as a man but ended up falling in love with another man. While she was falling in love with a man who believed that she was a man, another women fell in love with her because she also believed that Viola was a man. The difficulty with this situation is that Viola cannot tell the man she is in love with, Orsino, that she is in love with him neither can she allow the woman that is in love with her, Olivia, to love her because she is pretending to be someone that she is not. Viola did not plan to fall in love, nor to have someone fall in love with her- but she did plan to do whatever it takes to fulfil her burning passion/love- which was to partake in the making of music. This downfall and tangled mess that Viola is in overall explains the theme of the play- every action has a reaction and the reaction of acts sparked by passion and love can tend to be dangerous at times.
One of the things that I find entertaining to think about when it comes to discussions of Shakespeare is that even though his work is seen to be this piece of high culture to be studied by scholars and revered by students, when those plays were written they were seen as a very low form of culture. The bawdy and lewd jokes in his work were thrown in to keep the "less cultured" audiences of his shows entertained. Twelfth Night is a great example of that, since it was common for a lot of the gender swapping elements in some of his plays to include quite a bit of cheeky humor that flies right over the heads of some readers of today. Shakespeare's definitely a favorite of mine, too, as is Twelfth Night (really, any of his plays involving gender swapping could be considered 'one of my favorites'). Good post!
I was having a little trouble figuring out a topic, so I asked my friends what type of pop culture should I talk about. Majority of them only mention about the recent pop culture in America, like Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj new song, Side to Side, or the incident where Tyga’s Ferrari 488 apparently got repossessed. I realized that so many of us habitually think about pop culture in America, and forget that pop culture is world-wide. Even though it is world-wide, many countries around the world are being influenced by American pop cultures and expanding from it. This is all thanks to media. People all over loves to watch a good movie, or listen to a good song, and that’s what media do. They provide the entertainments, and all of this can be view with a click of a button. So when someone spends so much time on the internet, they would adjust to what they see and hear. They become Americanized.
When I watch Vietnamese music videos, I can clearly see the differences in their styles. For instant, in Moi Nguoi Mot Noi by Ung Hoang Phuc and Thu Thuy that was film about 10 years ago, the two singers were filmed at only one location, the beach. Then fast forward ten years later, the same singer (Ung Hoang Phuc) is singing shirtless, showing off his abs. No longer is his music video filmed with just one scene. This is because American music videos are becoming very modern, and fans love that. So in order for other cultures to maintain their fans and stay in the business, they must adjust themselves to the different styles in America.
After being in class for the first week and reading the first couple of chapters in the book, I began to wonder why pop culture is so popular today. I guess I never paid attention to how much pop culture actually affected us! I mean in it way, it became a part of all our daily routines of checking social media, listening to music, watching the news…etc. This weekend while watching the E! Channel, I began to notice some of their new commercials that were appearing. The channels new slogan is Be Pop Cultured. Example, a girl is talking to her parents about how she is in love with Justin Bieber and her parents assume that he is a student at school not knowing that he is one of the worlds most popular artists of all times. This slogan is supposed to be a multiplatform campaign aimed at millennials. Also, looking into things, I saw that Barnes and Nobles also offered a “celebration” called Get Pop-Cultured. It is an annual celebration in stores all of July to celebrate the “fanboys, fangirls, and pop culture.” So between reading, class, commercials on TV, and even a bookstore pushing for people to be pop cultured, it sparked my interest even more to understand why pop culture is being pushed so much on people in today’s society. Well first, studying pop culture reveals the underlying assumptions, power structures, and the philosophical and moral constructs of the society that produces those cultural products. That being said it is the people and companies that are pushing pop culture for exactly the reason our book states. Entertainment culture is a center of major businesses of our economy and all aspects (such as elite arts and politics) are linked by a common imperative to entertain and to make profit. By E! having commercials telling people to get pop cultured, it might make for more viewers for their E! News show. And if Barnes and Nobles has a celebration, it can attract people to come to the store and buying something in which then they can make a profit. Pop culture has changed so much from what it used to be and has become another thing to make a profit from and I think that no matter what, it is just going to keep on growing.
In our first reading we talked about entertainment culture and how it has consumed us. We briefly talked more specifically about elections and how debates seem to just be for our entertainment. While I was listening all I could think about is how our current election process has gone totally off the entertainment culture rails. Memes, songs, and videos are everywhere. This election is more entertainment oriented than ever before. Why? Younger people are getting more involved in politics and it shows. Social media posts have launched this election to the forefront of our pop culture. Its impossible to get on Facebook or twitter and not hear something about the election. Elections normally appear on the American pop culture stage, but this election in particular seems to be completely driven by it. Seeing it in this election and not in others has made me wonder, why now? What makes this election different, and so heavily reliant on entertainment? I’ve concluded that it comes down to cell phones and a celebrity. Cell phones have allowed us unparalleled access to the internet giving us a way to spread our opinions as fast as the internet itself. This turns politics into easy fodder for conversations and humor. Cell phones are only half of the picture though. Whether you love him or hate him, Trump has made the phenomenon that is this election possible. His action and his presence as a celebrity have brought attention to this election that is unrivaled by past elections. These two things have made this election unique, and will effect future elections to come. Breaking it down has left me to worry though. What will become of our elections to come? Politics determine the fate of our country, so should they be taken as humorously as they are now? One thing is for sure, our candidates are putting on quite the show.
The Obamas have been in office for two terms and have been one of the most influential first family that America has ever seen. They truly embrace pop culture it to its fullest extent. We have had a song written by Rapper Jeezy about how Barack Obama was the first African American President. We have Michelle Obama in the car singing Karaoke with Missy Elliott. We have even been able see Sasha Obama get a job at a restaurant. They have been able to show that they are human and have set the bar high for how future first family should relate to the country. The Obamas have been able to show that the First family can have fun too. Events like this really shape America and shows how our country is really changing as a whole. We have never seen a President be so serious, but still be able to crack a joke in-between. Through the Obama administration we have seen more, youth, celebrities, and political figures be more involved in today’s election. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are prime examples. They have utilized twitter and other social networks to promote the candidacy. Past candidacy we never would think about a President tweeting, but the way social media has change the way we communicate we can’t go a day without seeing some type of tweet from a political figure. They are starting to be more vocal and expressing their thoughts regardless of the backlash. This is part of pop culture and will change presidential elections forever.
Pop culture is changing at a faster and faster pace as the years go by. Things like vine (which is 6 second video clips that loop), Twitter ( social networking that updates every second or less), and other short tension span trends. People these days get bored extremely easy because there is always something new and cool for people to hype up. A song that may be popular this week will be quickly overshadowed the next week because any and everybody can upload music and have it reach the whole world. Clothing trends , makeup trends , color trends, hair trends, car trends, and slang words all change almost too quickly for the average person to keep up with while maintaining a life. It is also putting pressure on people (which is what the corporations want) and making them want to spend more and more money. These things that we pay money to keep up with only put money in the top one percent's pockets (while they laugh in their yachts , drinking champagne). Although the speed of change may seem insignificant , it's not. More and more children are being diagnosed with ADD and other types of attention disorders because they are being raised in an environment that is forever changing on an unnatural level. For example, fast food has been in such high demand that almost everything we eat is pumped with chemicals to increase the production speed. Genetically modified and steroid pumped foods have created a plethora of new cases of cancer and other illnesses. This is because it is unnatural food that our bodies cannot identify with. Also colon cleansing is on the rise because our bodies are having a hard time getting rid of the fake food waste. I can go on and on about the many levels of harm that this new pop culture's rate of change does to us as people (as well as animals), but I would have to write a whole book. So I'll leave it at this ; Quicker is not always better. Slow and steady wins the race.
Beyoncé just celebrated her 35th birthday Sunday and her husband threw her a groovy 70s soul train birthday party. Amongst the guest list were high end celebrities like Usher, Carmelo Anthony, and Kelly Rowland. Everyone came dressed in their grooviest outfits! Flare pants and big afros were spotted heavily throughout the venue. Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys were also on the guest list and Swizz Beats was pictured at the turn tables. Wonder what that was about!! Nevertheless, Beyoncé looked flawless as ever. She had on a gold one-legged romper that showed off her toned body. Even though she didn’t have an afro her hair was voluptuously styled with a 70s feel. Her hubby had on a button down shirt that showed his chest. He even had the matching head band to complement his fro. To sum it up, her 35th soul train extravaganza was filled with celebrities and as the videos show they had an amazing time. Most of the videos that were posted on social media had old school music. As far nosey ol me could tell, it was a soulful environment and there were all good vibes. HOWEVER, I did not see the infamous Kimye *sips tea*. Maybe they were there and my detective skills just didn’t locate them. In addition to her star studded 70s party, Snapchat dedicated not one, not two, not three, but five filters to Queen Bey. In a time of so much controversy and bad news, I just thought I’d share the queen’s nice birthday celebration.
Some of the content that we've been reading from the textbook--namely, the passage which explains the way in which traditional Bluegrass and Folk evolved into Country music as we know it--got me thinking on the topic of what pieces of a genre are the qualifiers that help us define what is and isn't a "true" continuation of the core aesthetic and ideal set of a certain genre. I've recently found myself listening to a lot of music in the Folk Punk genre (I've included a link below to a song to give you a feel of the type of music I'm talking about), and it occurred to me that even though the surface-level content of most modern country may adhere to the same rule set as years past, the stories that play out through the lyrics seem much less sincere than older pieces of country music, as if they had been overproduced (who would've thunk, pop music? Overproduced? Why, I'd never). Folk punk, however, is filled with artists who fit the basic framework and ideals of classic folk: it's made by people who aren't just trying to profit from an audience, who have faced very real and challenging moments of strife in their life, and who are very staunchly against the idea of their free will being controlled by some outer force. The sense of camaraderie and loyalty to family and community is also present in folk punk, which is something that modern country has twisted to be a two-dimensional value system based around the idea of fighting for your country (not for any specific people, but only for the abstract concept of "America", since many of the actual people in America aren't exactly held to high regard in country songs) without question, without hesitation. In other words, I feel as if modern country may capture the face value of what bluegrass and folk used to be, but folk punk is much closer to the value set and moral code from before.
We are almost coming to closing terms with our current president and we have new candidates up for the running of course. We hear and see presidential debates and interact more with our candidates through social media. I think that the media has affected the way that we view and have shaped our choice for president. Back in the day they didn’t have twitter and Instagram and reality shows and more. The candidates had to really get to know the citizens, eat dinner with them in their homes, and really impact the community. Now it seems through technology and popular culture that we choose our candidates more vaguely. Now we can have a candidate take a picture holding a baby and now he is a great human being who is a family and loving person. In all actuality we don’t know that for ourselves. What we don’t see is that behind the Instagram post is how the candidate just picked up a baby for a photo and dumped it right back into the mothers hand without saying a word of encouragement to the mother besides “Cute baby”. We have become more drawn to the illusion than to the actual facts. Technology has made it even better to draw a certain assumption about the candidates. We also have grown into a lack of education in the background of the candidate. It’s as if we have lowered the standards. We are now letting reality TV starts be in the run to rule our country that has little to none study in the education of politics and the history of how to truly run a great country. But with technology creating an illusion of the candidates because they look good and they have the finer things in life which draws us to them because in our generation we seek that over morals and truth.
The last several classes, we have been talking about pop culture and freedom online with regards to social media platforms. The deeper we dove into this topic during class, the more I wanted to write about it and share some of my own experiences with the matter. In many of these platforms, namely Facebook, things aren't always as they seem as far as privacy is concerned. There is an old saying that goes something like, "When you're on the internet, someone's always watching". This is exactly the case with Facebook. Every time I log into my computer and into my Facebook account, I'm giving the website permission to "mine" my search history and figure out what I tend to look for on other sites. This, in turn, lets Facebook create an essentially customized, select group of advertisements within their site based upon my searches. They do all this in the hope that I will be more inclined to buy whatever product/service. Is it actually a helpful feature though? Or just a blatant intrusion of my privacy? I have encountered these Facebook ads countless times, and they have actually been useful to me in one instance. One day, I had been searching for camping equipment through Google for the better part of an hour but turned up nothing that I particularly liked. Later in the day, I logged into Facebook and saw an ad for a camping equipment website that I hadn't found before. It turned out to have just the right stuff I needed and for a great price. This was, however, an isolated occurrence. Compared to the probably hundreds of times I've looked at my Facebook feed, that was the only time an ad had ever been helpful or actually useful. The typical advertisement I would see would be for some product/service I had previously found and didn't want. It gets annoying and repetitive seeing the same thing over and over again, to the point where I purposefully try to avoid seeing the ads. Thus, I would have to say that this data-mining advertisement technique utilized by Facebook and many other sites is overall a nuisance and invasion of privacy.
I am more than positive I posted, but for some reason I can't find it. I thought it was pretty good. Of course I can't remember everything I said so if anyone finds it and then reads this, oh well.
But there was a really funny video (at least to me) of a cat, link below:
https://youtu.be/_VkGctpu214
But anyway, like I said previously.. having a hard time in this class, but I'm doing the best I can. I understand but I don't. I can talk about Colin Kaepernick again, whom I completely agree with. (you don't have to, totally your choice and I don't care) His explanation to why he sat during the national anthem " I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color, to me this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder."
A space lander to land on a comet nearly 10 years after departing from earth, had a little rough landing but it took a few images before entering safe mode before the connection was lost so if you would like to read up on that..
I would go into my social media of the day but I'll save it for next week, too many ads popping up during my read. I was online late last night browsing for some winter items. You know, just to get a head start on my sexy fashion. Then what do you know.. I log on to Facebook and there are those shirts I stared at for about 5 minutes looking back at me on my timeline. After that, I just went to sleep. This class will literally stick with me for the rest of my life!!!!
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ReplyDelete(Cina Nguyen) On class Monday, We started class with news relating to popular culture. Since I rarely read the news and barely have contact with the entertainment world, I was very fascinated by some of the things my classmates mentioned. My classmates brought up hundred of reindeers who were struck by a single lightning and how drake expressed his love of Rihanna, etc. The atmosphere of the class was very light when we shared these news and contained tons of laughter. Then, we moved onto a heavier part of class which is the quiz. Surprisingly, the quiz wasn't too bad. I thought the questions were very fair and reflective. I learned where I had made the mistakes and what to expect for the next few quizzes.
ReplyDeleteAfter reviewing the quiz' answers, we broke into smaller groups of 3 to "interpret popular cultural signs" relating to zombies, vampire, and androids. When I read this section at home, I always thought the book was referring to phones when speaking about androids. I realized I was wrong and the book was actually talking about robots after I had discussed with my group members. One of the many questions that struck me at the end of the day about this topic was "will android take over?" and my answer is no. The reason is that androids are too boring and "safe-looking" to be categorized with the "exciting" and "dangerous" zombies and vampires. We've created zombies and vampires because they're so unrealistic that strike fantasies to our minds. Androids, on the other hand, are just too close to potentially becoming humans that they seem dull (because no one wants to fantasize reality). Therefore, I feel very strongly that androids will soon be forgotten although it displays some persistent popularity right now. I believe it is because everyone likes changes so we always push towards different ideas and trends, and that is why androids came into existence, but I don't believe that this childish-looking-cartoon robot will leave as much as an impact as vampires and zombies did.
I like your post, but I disagree about robots not leaving an impact or being scary. Some robots can look childish and cartoonish as you said, but so can vampires and zombies. Films such as Terminator, iRobot, Blade Runner, and The Matrix, all depict pretty creepy robots. I would even say those films where robots are the villains will leave more of an impact on pop culture than Twilight or The Walking Dead.
DeleteI enjoyed your post, and how you incorporate what we talk about in class. However, I have to disagree with you on the fact that robots won’t replace vampires and zombies. Films such as Iron Man, Terminator, Transformers, iRobot, and so on are pretty popular, and these shows expanded after vampires and zombies films slowly disappear from the scene. Some robot films may be boring and childish-like, but so can the vampires and zombies. Also, I don’t feel like android is really realistic or portray realities. Because reality is that androids, vampires, and zombies do not exist.
DeleteI definitely agree with some part of your post. Androids can be boring and cartoonish depending on how they are depicted. I do think they will leave a major impact if not more than vampires and zombies. I feel that way because maybe someday you will be able to communicate with an android vs. Zombies/Vampires. With technology evolving everyday through self-driving cars, voice controlled machines, and smart phones. We are not far off from having androids that communicate back.
DeleteOnly time is able to tell which celebrities make a lasting impression in pop culture. In the peak of their popularity, a celebrity might seem like they’ll be famous forever. For a while, Lady Gaga was considered to be the next Madonna, but Gaga seems to have faded out of the public’s consciousness. Paris Hilton was the original reality TV party girl, but has now been pushed aside by her former assistant, Kim Kardashian-West. Usually once the career of a celebrity dies, it stays dead. Comebacks happen, but they are rare, and usually a celebrity never comes back quite as strong. This is what makes the comeback of Britney Spears so impressive. Britney was as big of a teen pop star as one could get, and suffered one of the most public breakdowns in the history of pop culture. The year 2007 in pop culture is arguably remembered as the year of Britney Spear’s breakdown before anything else. Everyone saw the picture of her, clippers in hand, with a half-shaven head and a blank smile on her face. A few days later she locked herself in a bathroom with her toddler-aged child and was forced out on a stretcher and flown on a helicopter to a psychiatric hospital. It was never publicly verified what her condition was, but it is assumed she suffers from bipolar disorder. She was called crazy and dismissed as another young star who could not handle the pressures of being rich and famous. No one expected her to return successfully to music, but she did. Britney came back in full form, delivering more hits than she did before her breakdown. Her latest album, Glory, was released a week ago to some of the best reviews she’s ever gotten. For a celebrity to maintain a career for more than a few years is tough, and to maintain one for a couple of decades has only been done by a handful of stars. Britney might get her share of criticisms, and perhaps some of them are valid, but you can’t deny the impressiveness and strength of Britney Spears and her career.
ReplyDeleteLogan, this was a very great topic, I would have never guessed anyone would go in this direction with the blog. I agree with you on some points but when it comes to celebrities careers I believe the fans don't like to see them venture off into other genres. It's like they are taking a risk and either their fans come with them and sometimes they don't. I feel like when they make risky decisions to change the direction of their career some fans don't like it and consider their career "dead". Or even when a celebrity just wants to take a break from working and go on a hiatus, we consider their career "dead". Many people don't realize that some of these people just get very famous off doing one particular thing, like acting, however when they began their careers, they may have had dreams of singing, acting, directing and many more and what to fulfill those voids. Great Post Logan!! You got my mind thinking and I may elaborate on this topic for my blog.
Delete(Cina Nguyen) I feel very inspired by your post, Logan! I feel like you nailed it, and although I have never thought about this topic before, I can relate and agree to it as much as if it were my own opinions. It is very true that the idea of popular culture is ambiguous - in many ways. However, I cannot find any objection to your belief that "once a career of a celebrity dies, it stays dead". Usually, no matter how much I strongly I agree with something, I can always propose a counter-view to deeper my critical analysis. However, It is very odd the fact that I cannot rebuttal to that statement. And I feel that if not all, then most people would agree with it because it's almost a fact. We see it everyday! (One being replaced by another-although there are comebacks). It is sad thinking of it that way, that you can lose fame eternally when your position dwindles and competes with newer celebrities. Also, I felt very uplifting hearing your share about Brittney Spear. I knew that she went through Bipolar disorder and appeared afterwards. That is definitely a motivation on my behalf. THnak you so much for the wonderful post!
DeleteMy blog post was inspired by Logan Case's post. I thought he had a very interesting view point on celebrities careers, downfalls and comebacks. So, I decided to elaborate on Logan's post. I agree that once a celebrity hits a downfall they are forgotten about, however we do see comebacks quite often, some even after a decade; for example, the R and B artist Omarion made a musical comeback after making no music for 10 years straight. So, I wouldn't considered their career dead, especially because most celebrities don't stop working, they may just take on other jobs behind the scenes; for example, Cree Summers from the TV Show A Different World, she fell into doing voices for cartoon characters. Just because we haven't actually seen her on any popular shows doesn't mean her career is dead. Also, just focusing on your comment about Lady Gaga's career, I don't believe she has "faded out of the public's consciousness" because she actually took the time to move her career in another direction last year when she started in FX's hit show American Horror Story, which she went on to win a Golden Globe for this year. So as an audience we might think our celebrity has fallen off if we only watch one genre of entertainment, however as fans I think it is important to actually follow the celebrity in all their ventures so that we recognize their careers in all aspects and genres. So my questions is: Who do we blame for the downfalls of celebrities careers? Is it the audience/fans? Or is it the celebrity?
ReplyDeleteSo to answer your question I feel like we should blame the fans for the downfall of a celebrity. While of course there are exceptions to the rule, if you were really a fan you would support your artist through whatever endeavors they journey on. You cant completely diss someone because they decide to change. If every artist stuck to what they know entertainment would be very static. Now I'm not saying that you have to like every single thing that they do but not embracing growth in an artist is like telling them to not grow up. Imagine if someone put a limit on your growth. Most people don't want to be the same person they were when they were 12, 18, or even 21. Like you mentioned most downfalls are not really downfalls they're just shifts in genres, and if you were a true fan of that celebrity you would follow them into their next adventure.
DeleteI halfway agree with Dazia Gatlin in blaming the fans for the "downfall" of a celebrity because like Dominique stated, as fans/audience it is important to follow the person you admire in all aspects that may venture out in to. Interests can change or expand, not everyone will stay on the same page their entire lives and sometimes a "downfall" isn't technically a downfall but a change of pace. Maybe a change in career. No longer interested in being a singer or actress anymore or would simple rather live a normal life and that is no downfall at all.
DeleteInteresting post Domonique! I agree with you in the sense that some celebrities do pop back up. On the other hand has it occurred that so many artist invest in so many other businesses and brands, that they don't even have to stay in the spotlight long. I'd argue that most talented people can make something good every few years just to entertain and they still live very nice lives. Just because they're not on the scene doesn't mean they've "fallen off."
DeleteAfter reading the chapters assigned for this week, the popularity of clothing that changes throughout the decades really intrigued me. Each decade adopted unique fashion trends and symbols that represented how people at time wanted to rebel or express themselves. The 1950's and 60's interested me the most because blue jeans began to be worn outside of the workplace as a symbol of defiance. People wear jeans casually and sometimes for business attire now and no one thinks twice. It is fascinating how much our society has changed from just a few decades ago, and also how fashion trends go out of style and then come back years later. Growing up, my parents did not understand the baggy pants trend during the 90's and early 2000's. I remember getting so upset because they would not buy me a pair. All the kids at school were wearing them and I wanted to fit in. Looking back, it makes no sense to me because I would never wear my pants like that now. Over the years, there are many bizarre styles of apparel that celebrities start exploiting, and then they blow up as fashion trends. An example is when Pharrell wore that huge hat at the 2014 Grammys. It looked ridiculous, but people actually started wearing them. American fashion trends influence our society in positive and negative ways, just like all the other genres in pop culture. It affects people negatively when our peers produce poor judgement on an individual based on the style of clothing they wear. Different innovations in clothing also contribute to our freedom of expression in a positive way and helps define who we are individually.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that our fashion trends depend on what others think and what celebrities wear. Although this can have a negative effect when people start to judge you, I think it can also have positive influences. Some on the positive influences that I thought of were confidence in yourself and improving economy. Fashion can also improve the economy because as fashion keeps changing, new companies are built and increases jobs.
DeleteI have recently been enlightened by our class conversation and later on our reading on how social media makes profit. Before this revelation I often did wonder how exactly it is that my Facebook page knew what to advertise to me. Once I was informed to say that I was completely baffled by my discovery is an understatement. I first came about this discovery when my classmate Nicholas answered the question “how do we pay for Facebook??” He answered because they use our data. A lightbulb came on and I thought of course because we pay for data through our cell phone companies and then we use it up on social media like Facebook, hence we are paying for Facebook. When the discussion continued I realized that although that was a relevant point there was also another way that we were paying for social media. Prof Emilio went on to explain that advertisement companies pay for our data so that they can see what it is that we take interests in and use their “smart “technology to market products that we are more likely to buy on our feed. So not only am I paying for Facebook but they are also selling my personal information to the highest bidder. Now it makes sense Facebook and all other social media is free because they are already making a huge profit from the information we have on our profiles. I feel as if I’ve been betrayed by a good friend. A friend who said hey trust me with your information I won’t let you down. A friend who in turn is making a huge profit and not cutting me in on it. I almost feel like I’m being stolen from. Don’t you??
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry for your betrayal. It's funny how enlightening the subject of Pop Culture is and will be to each one of us. My "Lightbulb" moment was learning that a major component our economy now revolves around the consumption of entertainment. Our entertainment, phones, and social media is all about companies making money. America is also truly an information driven society. I love Facebook too, and I had to choose to lose my privacy in order to enjoy it. Unfortunately it seems that the only way to not get your information taken from you is to be "Off The Grid." I don't know about you, but I'm not ready to go that far yet!
DeleteSocial media has been gaining popularity within this century. Just about everyone has a social media account like Instagram, Facebook or Snapchat. All of these social media has around 2 billion users. Because so many people have at least one social media account, I chose to base my blog post on why these media has been gaining popularity and whether or not this has a positive effect.
ReplyDeleteOne of the reasons why these medias are so vastly used is because it allows people to express their freedom of speech. For instance, in Facebook, when a person like an article they are able to express their emotions by writing a comment or liking the article. Another reason why the social media has been gaining popularity is because of the different and unique options each software offers. For instance, unlike posting a comment directly on a news site, social media allows different ways to express their opinions like through pictures with Instagram, videos with Snapchat, and sharing with Facebook.
Social media can have both a positive and negative effect. These programs allow people to meet new people. Based on PewResearchCenter, about 5% of Americas meet their significant other online. Although this may not seem a lot in percentages it is approximately 5 million people. Social medias also allow people to express their emotions freely, but it doesn’t have privacy. For instance, if a person uploaded a picture on Snapchat and only wanted just his or her friends to see it, the friends can take a screenshot of the picture and distribute it to others. In my opinion, social media has helped many people connect each other and has given many different ways for people to express their freedom of speech, but it can also have negative effects like revealing private information.
Social media has definitely taken over our society, and people record pretty much everything they do during the day. It is a great way to connect with friends and loved ones, but in my opinion is starting to distract people from getting a full experience of whatever activity or adventure they are experiencing. An example is when fans at concerts are too busy taking videos with snapchat instead of watching the live performance. I think your post made very good points as well about social media.
DeleteHello YunHa! Great post, and I completely agree with It, but I would like to expand more on the negative points. You mentioned that it had negatives to it but didn't really express those negatives. A huge con with social media is bullying. People become more confident when they can speak on something when other people are not physically there and that can create the need to pick on other people. Our society feeds on negativity and drama so when a person picks on another person, it is laughed at and entertained instead of being looked down on. Due to the encouragement of this behavior, it creates a nasty/disturbing cycle. So in this case, social media can be a very dangerous creation. Bullying leads to suicide and it has been a huge reason for people to commit suicide.
DeleteWith my quirkiness, it’s not surprising that one of my favorite shows is Hoarders. My best friend and I had the following conversation last month about our mothers:
ReplyDelete“Remember when you were over my mother’s house and she had that dining room full of stuff piled up to the ceiling with a path through it?” I asked.
“Oh that’s nothing! My mom doesn’t even have a path. We have to create one in order to get in the room,” she chuckled, getting the last word in as usual.
Hoarding has always been a fear of mine because I’m unsure whether or not it’s hereditary, and so one of the most satisfactory things that I enjoy, is to throw things away. It’s so cleansing to me. I’m also one of those rare people who hate shopping. So when I read James A. Roberts, “The Treadmill of Consumption”, I immediately thought of those people who have no idea how to get off the treadmill. Hoarders have no “Off Button;” they continue to accumulate their preferred items in their homes until they no longer have any space for themselves. It’s fascinating how the extreme of having a culture of consumption, is that it would lead to the proliferation of Storage businesses (which would actually be an easy way to make money) and to consumption addiction (which leads to isolation and imprisonment with the things that are purchased and cherished over loved ones).
I’ve also noticed since last year, that there’s an opposite trend that is now simultaneously occurring; a minimalistic lifestyle. My favorite network, HGTV, seems to have been taken over with “Tiny Houses” as a new generation has decided to embrace an alternate lifestyle of having less debt, less possessions, and the freedom to travel. These people have put their treadmills in the junkyards, as they decide that more consumption is not the key to satisfaction and happiness. I find this to be encouraging, because instead of our society getting sicker underneath the burden of consumerism, there’s hope that we can be delivered and be able to see the futileness of it all.
I found your blog post to be very interesting and a great example of what we read from our book. I would have never thought about comparing the two. I really like how then you turned it around to show the tiny houses are becoming a big for our generation and because of that it may being showing that we aren't so materialistic and that happiness doesn't come from consuming more and more material goods. Nice work I really enjoyed reading your post.
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ReplyDeleteBlog Post #2
ReplyDeleteDuring the Elizabethan age, Shakespeare was apart of the "Popular culture", and in a sense, he is still relevant and still apart of that culture. One of my favorite plays from his work is The Twelfth Night, so my blog post is revolved on the constant theme in this play. The theme would be the idea that consequences can occur when love is involved. When one is taken over by the power of love, they act out and partake in ridiculous actions and in the end it's hard to get untangled from the whirlwind of a mess that those actions got that person in. For example, Viola had a strong love and passion towards music so in result of that passion, she disguised herself as a man but ended up falling in love with another man. While she was falling in love with a man who believed that she was a man, another women fell in love with her because she also believed that Viola was a man. The difficulty with this situation is that Viola cannot tell the man she is in love with, Orsino, that she is in love with him neither can she allow the woman that is in love with her, Olivia, to love her because she is pretending to be someone that she is not. Viola did not plan to fall in love, nor to have someone fall in love with her- but she did plan to do whatever it takes to fulfil her burning passion/love- which was to partake in the making of music. This downfall and tangled mess that Viola is in overall explains the theme of the play- every action has a reaction and the reaction of acts sparked by passion and love can tend to be dangerous at times.
I love that you brought Twelfth Night into our discussion of pop culture! More Shakespeare!
DeleteOne of the things that I find entertaining to think about when it comes to discussions of Shakespeare is that even though his work is seen to be this piece of high culture to be studied by scholars and revered by students, when those plays were written they were seen as a very low form of culture. The bawdy and lewd jokes in his work were thrown in to keep the "less cultured" audiences of his shows entertained. Twelfth Night is a great example of that, since it was common for a lot of the gender swapping elements in some of his plays to include quite a bit of cheeky humor that flies right over the heads of some readers of today. Shakespeare's definitely a favorite of mine, too, as is Twelfth Night (really, any of his plays involving gender swapping could be considered 'one of my favorites'). Good post!
DeleteI was having a little trouble figuring out a topic, so I asked my friends what type of pop culture should I talk about. Majority of them only mention about the recent pop culture in America, like Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj new song, Side to Side, or the incident where Tyga’s Ferrari 488 apparently got repossessed. I realized that so many of us habitually think about pop culture in America, and forget that pop culture is world-wide. Even though it is world-wide, many countries around the world are being influenced by American pop cultures and expanding from it. This is all thanks to media. People all over loves to watch a good movie, or listen to a good song, and that’s what media do. They provide the entertainments, and all of this can be view with a click of a button. So when someone spends so much time on the internet, they would adjust to what they see and hear. They become Americanized.
ReplyDeleteWhen I watch Vietnamese music videos, I can clearly see the differences in their styles. For instant, in Moi Nguoi Mot Noi by Ung Hoang Phuc and Thu Thuy that was film about 10 years ago, the two singers were filmed at only one location, the beach. Then fast forward ten years later, the same singer (Ung Hoang Phuc) is singing shirtless, showing off his abs. No longer is his music video filmed with just one scene. This is because American music videos are becoming very modern, and fans love that. So in order for other cultures to maintain their fans and stay in the business, they must adjust themselves to the different styles in America.
After being in class for the first week and reading the first couple of chapters in the book, I began to wonder why pop culture is so popular today. I guess I never paid attention to how much pop culture actually affected us! I mean in it way, it became a part of all our daily routines of checking social media, listening to music, watching the news…etc. This weekend while watching the E! Channel, I began to notice some of their new commercials that were appearing. The channels new slogan is Be Pop Cultured. Example, a girl is talking to her parents about how she is in love with Justin Bieber and her parents assume that he is a student at school not knowing that he is one of the worlds most popular artists of all times. This slogan is supposed to be a multiplatform campaign aimed at millennials. Also, looking into things, I saw that Barnes and Nobles also offered a “celebration” called Get Pop-Cultured. It is an annual celebration in stores all of July to celebrate the “fanboys, fangirls, and pop culture.” So between reading, class, commercials on TV, and even a bookstore pushing for people to be pop cultured, it sparked my interest even more to understand why pop culture is being pushed so much on people in today’s society. Well first, studying pop culture reveals the underlying assumptions, power structures, and the philosophical and moral constructs of the society that produces those cultural products. That being said it is the people and companies that are pushing pop culture for exactly the reason our book states. Entertainment culture is a center of major businesses of our economy and all aspects (such as elite arts and politics) are linked by a common imperative to entertain and to make profit. By E! having commercials telling people to get pop cultured, it might make for more viewers for their E! News show. And if Barnes and Nobles has a celebration, it can attract people to come to the store and buying something in which then they can make a profit. Pop culture has changed so much from what it used to be and has become another thing to make a profit from and I think that no matter what, it is just going to keep on growing.
ReplyDeleteIn our first reading we talked about entertainment culture and how it has consumed us. We briefly talked more specifically about elections and how debates seem to just be for our entertainment. While I was listening all I could think about is how our current election process has gone totally off the entertainment culture rails. Memes, songs, and videos are everywhere. This election is more entertainment oriented than ever before. Why?
ReplyDeleteYounger people are getting more involved in politics and it shows. Social media posts have launched this election to the forefront of our pop culture. Its impossible to get on Facebook or twitter and not hear something about the election. Elections normally appear on the American pop culture stage, but this election in particular seems to be completely driven by it. Seeing it in this election and not in others has made me wonder, why now? What makes this election different, and so heavily reliant on entertainment? I’ve concluded that it comes down to cell phones and a celebrity. Cell phones have allowed us unparalleled access to the internet giving us a way to spread our opinions as fast as the internet itself. This turns politics into easy fodder for conversations and humor. Cell phones are only half of the picture though. Whether you love him or hate him, Trump has made the phenomenon that is this election possible. His action and his presence as a celebrity have brought attention to this election that is unrivaled by past elections.
These two things have made this election unique, and will effect future elections to come. Breaking it down has left me to worry though. What will become of our elections to come? Politics determine the fate of our country, so should they be taken as humorously as they are now? One thing is for sure, our candidates are putting on quite the show.
The Obamas have been in office for two terms and have been one of the most influential first family that America has ever seen. They truly embrace pop culture it to its fullest extent. We have had a song written by Rapper Jeezy about how Barack Obama was the first African American President. We have Michelle Obama in the car singing Karaoke with Missy Elliott. We have even been able see Sasha Obama get a job at a restaurant. They have been able to show that they are human and have set the bar high for how future first family should relate to the country. The Obamas have been able to show that the First family can have fun too. Events like this really shape America and shows how our country is really changing as a whole. We have never seen a President be so serious, but still be able to crack a joke in-between. Through the Obama administration we have seen more, youth, celebrities, and political figures be more involved in today’s election. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are prime examples. They have utilized twitter and other social networks to promote the candidacy. Past candidacy we never would think about a President tweeting, but the way social media has change the way we communicate we can’t go a day without seeing some type of tweet from a political figure. They are starting to be more vocal and expressing their thoughts regardless of the backlash. This is part of pop culture and will change presidential elections forever.
ReplyDeletePop culture is changing at a faster and faster pace as the years go by. Things like vine (which is 6 second video clips that loop), Twitter ( social networking that updates every second or less), and other short tension span trends. People these days get bored extremely easy because there is always something new and cool for people to hype up. A song that may be popular this week will be quickly overshadowed the next week because any and everybody can upload music and have it reach the whole world. Clothing trends , makeup trends , color trends, hair trends, car trends, and slang words all change almost too quickly for the average person to keep up with while maintaining a life. It is also putting pressure on people (which is what the corporations want) and making them want to spend more and more money. These things that we pay money to keep up with only put money in the top one percent's pockets (while they laugh in their yachts , drinking champagne).
ReplyDeleteAlthough the speed of change may seem insignificant , it's not. More and more children are being diagnosed with ADD and other types of attention disorders because they are being raised in an environment that is forever changing on an unnatural level. For example, fast food has been in such high demand that almost everything we eat is pumped with chemicals to increase the production speed. Genetically modified and steroid pumped foods have created a plethora of new cases of cancer and other illnesses. This is because it is unnatural food that our bodies cannot identify with. Also colon cleansing is on the rise because our bodies are having a hard time getting rid of the fake food waste.
I can go on and on about the many levels of harm that this new pop culture's rate of change does to us as people (as well as animals), but I would have to write a whole book.
So I'll leave it at this ; Quicker is not always better. Slow and steady wins the race.
Beyoncé just celebrated her 35th birthday Sunday and her husband threw her a groovy 70s soul train birthday party. Amongst the guest list were high end celebrities like Usher, Carmelo Anthony, and Kelly Rowland. Everyone came dressed in their grooviest outfits! Flare pants and big afros were spotted heavily throughout the venue. Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys were also on the guest list and Swizz Beats was pictured at the turn tables. Wonder what that was about!! Nevertheless, Beyoncé looked flawless as ever. She had on a gold one-legged romper that showed off her toned body. Even though she didn’t have an afro her hair was voluptuously styled with a 70s feel. Her hubby had on a button down shirt that showed his chest. He even had the matching head band to complement his fro. To sum it up, her 35th soul train extravaganza was filled with celebrities and as the videos show they had an amazing time. Most of the videos that were posted on social media had old school music. As far nosey ol me could tell, it was a soulful environment and there were all good vibes. HOWEVER, I did not see the infamous Kimye *sips tea*. Maybe they were there and my detective skills just didn’t locate them. In addition to her star studded 70s party, Snapchat dedicated not one, not two, not three, but five filters to Queen Bey. In a time of so much controversy and bad news, I just thought I’d share the queen’s nice birthday celebration.
ReplyDeleteSome of the content that we've been reading from the textbook--namely, the passage which explains the way in which traditional Bluegrass and Folk evolved into Country music as we know it--got me thinking on the topic of what pieces of a genre are the qualifiers that help us define what is and isn't a "true" continuation of the core aesthetic and ideal set of a certain genre. I've recently found myself listening to a lot of music in the Folk Punk genre (I've included a link below to a song to give you a feel of the type of music I'm talking about), and it occurred to me that even though the surface-level content of most modern country may adhere to the same rule set as years past, the stories that play out through the lyrics seem much less sincere than older pieces of country music, as if they had been overproduced (who would've thunk, pop music? Overproduced? Why, I'd never). Folk punk, however, is filled with artists who fit the basic framework and ideals of classic folk: it's made by people who aren't just trying to profit from an audience, who have faced very real and challenging moments of strife in their life, and who are very staunchly against the idea of their free will being controlled by some outer force. The sense of camaraderie and loyalty to family and community is also present in folk punk, which is something that modern country has twisted to be a two-dimensional value system based around the idea of fighting for your country (not for any specific people, but only for the abstract concept of "America", since many of the actual people in America aren't exactly held to high regard in country songs) without question, without hesitation. In other words, I feel as if modern country may capture the face value of what bluegrass and folk used to be, but folk punk is much closer to the value set and moral code from before.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_K5FwDDscE
ReplyDeleteWe are almost coming to closing terms with our current president and we have new candidates up for the running of course. We hear and see presidential debates and interact more with our candidates through social media. I think that the media has affected the way that we view and have shaped our choice for president. Back in the day they didn’t have twitter and Instagram and reality shows and more. The candidates had to really get to know the citizens, eat dinner with them in their homes, and really impact the community. Now it seems through technology and popular culture that we choose our candidates more vaguely. Now we can have a candidate take a picture holding a baby and now he is a great human being who is a family and loving person. In all actuality we don’t know that for ourselves. What we don’t see is that behind the Instagram post is how the candidate just picked up a baby for a photo and dumped it right back into the mothers hand without saying a word of encouragement to the mother besides “Cute baby”. We have become more drawn to the illusion than to the actual facts. Technology has made it even better to draw a certain assumption about the candidates. We also have grown into a lack of education in the background of the candidate. It’s as if we have lowered the standards. We are now letting reality TV starts be in the run to rule our country that has little to none study in the education of politics and the history of how to truly run a great country. But with technology creating an illusion of the candidates because they look good and they have the finer things in life which draws us to them because in our generation we seek that over morals and truth.
The last several classes, we have been talking about pop culture and freedom online with regards to social media platforms. The deeper we dove into this topic during class, the more I wanted to write about it and share some of my own experiences with the matter. In many of these platforms, namely Facebook, things aren't always as they seem as far as privacy is concerned. There is an old saying that goes something like, "When you're on the internet, someone's always watching". This is exactly the case with Facebook. Every time I log into my computer and into my Facebook account, I'm giving the website permission to "mine" my search history and figure out what I tend to look for on other sites. This, in turn, lets Facebook create an essentially customized, select group of advertisements within their site based upon my searches. They do all this in the hope that I will be more inclined to buy whatever product/service. Is it actually a helpful feature though? Or just a blatant intrusion of my privacy? I have encountered these Facebook ads countless times, and they have actually been useful to me in one instance. One day, I had been searching for camping equipment through Google for the better part of an hour but turned up nothing that I particularly liked. Later in the day, I logged into Facebook and saw an ad for a camping equipment website that I hadn't found before. It turned out to have just the right stuff I needed and for a great price. This was, however, an isolated occurrence. Compared to the probably hundreds of times I've looked at my Facebook feed, that was the only time an ad had ever been helpful or actually useful. The typical advertisement I would see would be for some product/service I had previously found and didn't want. It gets annoying and repetitive seeing the same thing over and over again, to the point where I purposefully try to avoid seeing the ads. Thus, I would have to say that this data-mining advertisement technique utilized by Facebook and many other sites is overall a nuisance and invasion of privacy.
ReplyDeleteI am more than positive I posted, but for some reason I can't find it. I thought it was pretty good. Of course I can't remember everything I said so if anyone finds it and then reads this, oh well.
ReplyDeleteBut there was a really funny video (at least to me) of a cat, link below:
https://youtu.be/_VkGctpu214
But anyway, like I said previously.. having a hard time in this class, but I'm doing the best I can. I understand but I don't. I can talk about Colin Kaepernick again, whom I completely agree with. (you don't have to, totally your choice and I don't care)
His explanation to why he sat during the national anthem " I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color, to me this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder."
Link:http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000691077/article/colin-kaepernick-explains-why-he-sat-during-national-anthem
I'm currently following his movement as well as others and will continue to give updates.
The Philae was also found in space when I previously typed this post.
Link:http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Rosetta/Philae_found
A space lander to land on a comet nearly 10 years after departing from earth, had a little rough landing but it took a few images before entering safe mode before the connection was lost so if you would like to read up on that..
I would go into my social media of the day but I'll save it for next week, too many ads popping up during my read. I was online late last night browsing for some winter items. You know, just to get a head start on my sexy fashion. Then what do you know.. I log on to Facebook and there are those shirts I stared at for about 5 minutes looking back at me on my timeline. After that, I just went to sleep. This class will literally stick with me for the rest of my life!!!!