Thomas-Wolfman

I'm Not Sure if I Believe in Music.

The semester is coming to an end and I'm stressed about just about everything. So, I got to thinking last night and I've come to this conclusion: I think I've lost faith in music. I'd like to give a shout out to my professor for this one. Totally kidding...sort of. In my seminar class, we've been talking a lot about whether or not music has it's lost it's touch. I was just up last night talking to friends about music and how it's all the same and none of it's special anymore. If there can be a program that can predict whether or not a song is going to be a hit, something has got to be wrong. The program is called Platinum Blue Music Intelligence and it has an 85% accuracy rate. It isolates mathematical properties found in most hit songs and compares the new song with the characteristics of the hits and determines whether or not the song with be a hit.

I told this to some people, and they thought it was amazing, but I just think it's depressing. Are we that predictable? We're so predictable that we can be reduced to math. It's just depressing to me. But then, I started thinking even more. The program is 85% predictable, not 100%. So, I guess there's still faith and creativity out there. I think that I believe in creativity more than anything now because veery once and awhile, you'll have someone create something that will completely blow your mind and it will be completely outside of the box. Will we ever hear these songs become smash hits because they don't follow the rule of music? I doubt it, but maybe there's still hope that it will.

Stuck on Replay?

It's so weird going back home. I met up with my friends, went to a club, went to my favorite coffee shop, and of course tried to push my sister off the bed when she woke me up from a nap. I've always been the friend with the hot new music and I always keep my friends updated. I showed them some songs that they overplay down here in New Orleans and I was surprised when they hadn't heard any of them. I found myself comparing New Orleans radio stations to Colorado radio stations. I wouldn't say the music is better, but it's just different. The same was true when I was comparing music with my sister, who's from New York.

Dirty South rap is rarely played on the west coast or on the east coast. I think it has something to do with a sense of pride for their coast. Some of the songs that are overplayed in Denver, people have never heard down here in New Orleans and vice versa. I wonder if there could be other reasons for this rather than a sense of pride for their coast? All I know, is that I'm sick of hearing the same thing over and over again when there's so much new music coming out all over the country.

Gaga, Ooo La La.

THE "VIDEO PHONE" MUSIC VIDEO IS FINALLY OUT! And it's an extreme disappointment. Lady Gaga and Beyonce recently released a remix of Beyonce's song "Video Phone." I was expecting it to be a hot collaboration. Unfortunately, the song and the video fell short of my expectations. I love both of these divas, but I was confused as to why the video was to terrible. The video appeared to be a collage of random shots, all thrown together to make a horrible music video.

Lady Gaga and Beyonce are undoubtedly the top divas in the music business right now, so why did they need to do a music video together? Lady Gaga recently came out with her "Bad Romance" music video, and she's number one on the charts right now. I think Beyonce wanted to get back into the spotlight and doing a music video collaboration was the perfect way to try to achieve this. I was upset to see Lady Gaga compromise her unique style in the "Video Phone" music video. She looked like any other blonde pop star in the music video.

People love Lady Gaga because she's unique and uses her music video to express unique and uncompromising art, and people love Beyonce because of her sexy and sultry style. I thought the music video was a bad mix because they both are strong divas in a unique way. The collaboration was just awkward. Beyonce is featured on Lady Gaga's song "Telephone." I think this song is more successful than "Video Phone." What do you think of these two songs?

Awkward.

I Can Jerk.

Yesterday, I finally learned how to jerk. If you don't know what that is, I'll post a video for you to experience what it is. It's a kind of dance and my friend Jordan taught me how to do it. After days of practice, I magically got it. So, naturally I had to brag to the whole world about it. I know you're thinking, "how on earth is this relevant?" Well, I'm going to blow your mind.

It's interesting how an entire style and type of music can revolve around one kind of dance. Jerking is done to a specific kind of music with a specific kind of beat. There's also an entire style that surrounds the whole jerking movement. I went to a jerking party once, and everyone was wearing bright colored skinny jeans, geeky glasses, bright colored shoes and backpacks. Music plays a huge part in fashion. When the whole jerking movement began, I started wearing brightly colored skinny jeans. I sported a pair of yellow ones and a pair of purple ones. People thought I was crazy for wearing them, but they were hot during the jerking movement.

I find it interesting that music has a strong influence on the way we dress. I've noticed that people who listen to "indie" music wear more eclectic clothing. The often stand out with quirky pieces. People who listen to hip hop generally wear flat billed hats and baggy pants. The list goes on. We want to imitate the artists we listen to. An genre is more than a type of music. It introduces a type of style and new dances.

What are some other type of dances or type of styles have come from music?

Also, take note to how people dress in the video.

Hip Hop: More than Bitches and Hoes.

In class today, we briefly discussed hip hop and how the lyrics include a lot of profanity and dirty lyrics. I've noticed that a lot of people use that for their reason for not listening to hip hop music. Hold up though, has anyone listened to "The Bad Touch" by the Bloodhound Gang? That song is blatantly about sex. One of the lines from the song is, "So put your hands down my pants and I'll bet you'll feel nuts."

It bothers me that hip hop is criticized for being about sex and for being dirty when rock, country, and pop do the same thing. So why is this? Someone told me that they think rap is more blatant about it, but I've definitely heard some rock songs that have described sex in graphic detail. I don't understand why hip hop is the only one that's been singled out. Is it because of where it comes from? People fail to recognize that there's a ton of different rappers that address a variety of issues. It's unfair to let rappers like Soulja Boy define hip hop as a whole. Do your research, look at people who aren't on the radio all the time.

Lupe Fiasco constantly tells a story with his lyrics and delivers a meaningful message. In his song "Hip Hop Saved My Life," he raps about how hip hop has been an outlet for him. His songs have a good beat, and have a deeper meaning. Why don't people give enough recognition to artists like that? Because that's not what makes money. Lupe Fiasco even talks about that in "Dumb it Down." One of the verses talks about how dumbing a song down will sell more records.

"You goin' over niggas' heads Lu (Dumb it down)
They tellin' me that they don't feel you (Dumb it down)
We ain't graduate from school nigga (Dumb it down)
Them big words ain't cool nigga (Dumb it down)
Yeah I heard Mean And Vicious nigga (Dumb it down)
Make a song for the bitches nigga (Dumb it down)
We don't care about the weather nigga (Dumb it down)
You'll sell more records if you (Dumb it down)"

FEEEEEL THE MUSIC!

So much music today talks about violence? Um, this should be concerning. Does this influence crime? They talk about guns and knives and "killin' a nigga." Does this influence impressionable youth to go out and go kill or break the law? Maybe. I know when I hear a song that talks about dancing and has a good beat, I want to go out and party and dance. I'm not sure if this is the same thing, but it could be.

Music has the power to change out moods and influence how we think. From experience, I know if I hear a song that reminds me of something, I go back to that moment. If it makes me happy, it has the ability to put me in a good mood. So, if music has this much influence over how we feel think, can it move us to commit crimes? It definitely has the ability to put us in the mindset and make certain emotions stronger.

So, should we hold these artists accountable for the crimes? I think they should to a certain extent, but the people committing the crimes still need to be held accountable. I often hear about someone committing suicide and one of the things that's discussed is what kind of music they listened to. It's usually something depressing and something that talks about "taking the pain away." Maybe some of these artists should be asked to tone it down, or maybe there need to be rules in the music industry about how violent the music can be.