Week 11 - The Future of Popular Media: The Internet, Social Networking, and the Blogosphere

The music industry and the Internet have a very interesting relationship. Back in 1999, Napster came to the forefront with a revolutionary idea that changed the way anyone thought about music: peer-to-peer file sharing which allowed users to swap music files for free, with no regard to copyrights. This new service neglected copyrights of music, which meant that the artist would not get royalties despite everyone getting their music. People thought this new idea was justified; popular musicians were already rich and unknown musicians would benefit from exposure that they previously did not get.

Illegal downloading of music continued and rose enormously in popularity. This eventually led to numerous lawsuits from musicians and record labels, causing the shut down of Napster and forcing them to pay millions in copyright restitution. But illegal downloading was too popular to stop entirely. This led to waves and waves of other free p2p downloading programs and networks, like Kazaa and Limewire. The music industry had changed. It needed to adapt.

Eventually, legal music downloading became the industry's answer, with the likes of Apple's iTunes, where anyone can download music for a fee, which helped rectify artist's royalties and ensuring the artists get paid for the music that they create.

But with the music industry going digital, it created a brand new way for people to view and hear new music. The internet has done some wonderful things for the music industry, like allowing just about anyone to be recognized and be able to produce and publish music for millions to see, but at the same time still features many illegal downloads of music files.

It is a love/hate relationship.

But, everyone is a pirate ;)

Week 10 - The Cyborg Cometh: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Having never seen Blade Runner before, the movie was certainly interesting! Harrison Ford is one of my favourite actors and was really interesting in this type of role.

The film definitely plays into Jean Beaudrillard's idea of "hyper-reality", in which everything is more real than real itself. The film even depicts the same type of mantra, spoken by Tyrell: "more human than human", in regards to the replicants. The idea of machines that adopt human characteristics and even eventually adopt emotions is a scary concept. Man's obsession to create an equal to himself never ends well.

I was reading up on the movie and noticed this little bit of trivia: "After the film had changed its name from 'Dangerous Days' to 'Blade Runner', Ridley Scott decided he didn't like the new name, and tried to call the film 'Gotham City', but Bob Kane (comic book creator of Batman) wouldn't see the rights to the name, so it returned to being called 'Blade Runner'." Being a gigantic Batman fan, I am so glad Bob Kane didn't sell the rights, haha.

One of the funny aspects of the movie I saw, was that all these events took place in 2o19. Guess we better get ready for flying cars and replicants! It's only 8 years away!

Week 9 - Hybridized Forms: The Postmodern Body and Identity

This is a video of a robot that is controlled by the brain of a rat, and is the first robot in the world to be controlled entirely by living tissue.

It's truly amazing how far we have advanced in cybernetics. I can only imagine what will come next.

Week 8 - Postmodernism and Consumer Culture

This is just kind of like a little rant about consumer culture.

I really don't understand why everyone NEEDS to have the latest Apple product. First it was the iPod (in which I can understand why, it was a revolutionary product). Then building off of their success with the original iPod, they made adjustments and released a newer iPod. Then Apple came out with the iPhone and its numerous models as well. The most recent Apple product, the iPad, just got a new version release called the iPad 2. And everyone always wants to newest Apple product. And I don't know why. I think that everyone believes that they need to have the "latest and greatest" to make themselves look hip and in style. I know this is not just with Apple, but consumer culture burns this idea into our heads and we are all suckers for buying into it. I believe myself to be a part of this technological age without having bought an Apple product. People need to realize that you can still exist in this great era we live in without having to succumb to consumer culture's pressures.

/Rant.

Week 7 - Technological Innovations in 20th Century Popular Music

Considering the evolution of The Beatles' sound, I'd like to use my favourite band in a similar comparison.

Guns N' Roses hit it big in 1987 with their debut record Appetite For Destruction (which is to date, the best-selling debut album of all time worldwide with over 28 million albums sold). The album featured many hits including "Welcome To The Jungle", "Sweet Child O' Mine" and "Paradise City". The album is non-stop face-pace rock n' roll.

Here is the video for "Welcome To The Jungle".

In 1991, GN'R released a two albums simultaneously on the same day, Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II (which to date, is only time an artist has had two albums peak at #1 and #2 on the Billboard charts at the same time). These albums featured hits like "November Rain", "Don't Cry", "You Could Be Mine" and a cover of Bob Dylan's "Knockin' On Heaven's Door". These albums are somewhat different compared to their debut album. Although they did not abandon the hard-rock tendencies of Appetite, some songs contained different elements such as blues, country, and classical music. Piano became a very popular element in many GN'R songs, as many songs slowed down, with some songs reaching 10 minutes long, and one exceeding 10 minutes.

Here is the video for "Estranged".

A big difference from "Welcome To The Jungle".

2008 marked the revival of Guns N' Roses with their most recent album Chinese Democracy, 17 years since they had released a studio album of new material. The album is relatively different from Appetite For Destruction, with many uses of technology being used in all the songs. Many songs are layers upon layers of music and vocals.

Here is one song from the album called "Scraped":

This is a dramatic change compared to their old material.

The band did not release music for 17 years, all through the technological revolution with computers and the music industry becoming digital. To me, it seems to be a logical progression in musical direction, and the album seems to be what would be next after the Use Your Illusion albums. Another reason was that it was not the same members writing the music. One of the guitarists for the current GN'R lineup has called Chinese Democracy the band's White Album, and has compared this evolution to The Beatles discography.

Week 6 - “Better Living Through Chemistry”: Countercultural Environmentalism and Technology

I kind of feel that there is now a internet revolution that is taking place, where anything the happens recently in media or just in general everyday life ends up on the Internet and becomes a meme. This feeling has been creeping up on me a lot recently, with so many different examples. Charlie Sheen and his "winning" phrase has taken the Internet by storm recently, as has Rebecca Black's music video for her song 'Friday'; the Zangief Kid (the boy who was being bullied but fought back), and the man with the bread helmet... There is just so much and its all being documented at an alarming rate. These 4 references I made are all over the Internet and this so-called 'revolution' will continue.

Week 5 - “The Media is the Message”: Countercultural Political Protest

I'd like to talk about Abbie Hoffman and the Chicago Eight (which became the Chicago Seven later), as I wrote an essay in high school on this topic for American History (forgive me if I forget a few things, it has been a while since grade 11, haha).

From what I remember, yippies Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, David Dellinger, Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis, John Froines, Lee Weiner, and Bobby Seale were arrested at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, IL for having "crossed state lines to incite a riot" and of "conspiracy". Their demonstration was against Lyndon Johnson's policies for the Vietnam War.

The trial was seen as a joke to the accused, with the eighth member of the accused, Bobby Seale, insulting the judge, calling him a "fascist dog", a "honkey", a "pig" and a "racist". These insults led to Seale being charged with contempt and being tried separately from the other seven. The other defendants also wanted to show how ridiculous the trial, which Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin showing up in judicial robes, mocking the judicial system. Hoffman also blew kisses to the jury and remarked to the judge that "you are a 'shande fur de Goyim' (disgrace in front of the gentiles). You would have served Hitler better." From these antics alone, you can judge for yourself what this trial was like.

Eventually, all seven defendants were found not guilty of conspiracy. Froines and Weiner were acquitted completely, while the other five were convicted of crossing state lines to incite a riot, which gave them each 5 years in prison. At the sentencing, Abbie Hoffman told the judge to try LSD, offering to set him up with a deal he knew.

It's a pretty ridiculous part of American history, especially the mockery of the American justice system.