https://www.dropbox.com/s/ojrv7eqxhgjuopr/Nile%27s%20Final%20Video%20Render.mp4
I couldn't get the video to embed correctly so I there is the link.
We felt that music and its effect on people and culture was underrepresented in this class so we went to the billboard charts and picked from the top songs to show how these songs shape the dress, attitude, and lives of the listeners.
*we don't claim any ownership of the music used in this video, it is used for educational purposes only. All music credit goes to the owners and copyright holders*
Nile Wright, Jenna Jessen, Raegan Werner, Michael Mathis, Nathan Maude
Showing posts with label NileWright. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NileWright. Show all posts
Sunday, November 24, 2013
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
There Is No Logical Reason…...
For this last blog I decided to do something different. I don't mean to make people angry or stir anything up with this, but it's something that I feel somewhat strongly about.
"There Is No Logical Reason Why The Camel Of Great Art Should Pass Through The Needle Of Mob Intelligence?".
I want this quote on a shirt so bad because it sums up my ideas any time someone condemns a show or movie or anything because it doesn't pass the bechdel test or any other made up form of quantifying how "inclusive" a piece of art is. I am all for equality and the idea that people should be able to find something that is representative of them in the canon of popular media, but there is always a part of me that says "Art shouldn't be held up to any test other than how it makes you feel or whether it accomplishes the goal of the artist". Hollywood is definitely overly fascinated by grizzly white dudes saving people, but if that is what the director/writer/creative team wants, then that is the movie they should make. If the consumer doesn't want to see that stereotype, then they don't have to see the movie. We live in a world where we have access to movies of all kinds from the biggest blockbusters to the student film projects posted on social media sites. So there are films made by and made about all types of people that you can support. It's the same thing that happens when I hear people complaining about pop music, if you start buying other music and supporting independent artists, the industry will rise up to meet those needs. Our pop culture machine will scoop up anything that will make money, so if films by non white men start making money and making waves, the industry will follow suit. Trying to force artist's visions to meet a series of checklists to be progressive or inclusive kills the creative process. It makes movies more about meeting these guidelines instead of putting something forth that is artistically solid.
"There Is No Logical Reason Why The Camel Of Great Art Should Pass Through The Needle Of Mob Intelligence?".
I want this quote on a shirt so bad because it sums up my ideas any time someone condemns a show or movie or anything because it doesn't pass the bechdel test or any other made up form of quantifying how "inclusive" a piece of art is. I am all for equality and the idea that people should be able to find something that is representative of them in the canon of popular media, but there is always a part of me that says "Art shouldn't be held up to any test other than how it makes you feel or whether it accomplishes the goal of the artist". Hollywood is definitely overly fascinated by grizzly white dudes saving people, but if that is what the director/writer/creative team wants, then that is the movie they should make. If the consumer doesn't want to see that stereotype, then they don't have to see the movie. We live in a world where we have access to movies of all kinds from the biggest blockbusters to the student film projects posted on social media sites. So there are films made by and made about all types of people that you can support. It's the same thing that happens when I hear people complaining about pop music, if you start buying other music and supporting independent artists, the industry will rise up to meet those needs. Our pop culture machine will scoop up anything that will make money, so if films by non white men start making money and making waves, the industry will follow suit. Trying to force artist's visions to meet a series of checklists to be progressive or inclusive kills the creative process. It makes movies more about meeting these guidelines instead of putting something forth that is artistically solid.
Rudie Can't Fail
Continuing on my rant about why popular culture is the way it is, I'll be tackling the idea of "princess" culture and gender norms especially in children. I may sound a bit like a broken record at this point, but yet again, I think it all comes down to insecurity. In this case, it is more on the parents than the children. Parents want their kids to succeed, so they stick to the stereotypes that "work". Women are supposed to be passive princesses that are up in their (luckily metaphorical) tower waiting for a man to come save them. Men are supposed to be valiant warriors and saviors. This dynamic is insanely outdated, but it sells dolls and movies so it stays. Some of these long held beliefs are on their way out, but for many, they are still valid.
I know that as a child, I made fun of my brother for getting Polly Pockets at McDonalds instead of Hot Wheels. I would like to think that I am past that point in my life where I would make fun of someone for something as simple as getting the "girl" toy. The fact that the toys were separated by gender and not just brand name is something that shows how deep seated these norms are in our society. I remember wondering why my brother would want the "girl" toy when I was racing my hot wheels down a track and launching them into the concrete wall in my basement. I fell in to many of the stereotypes as a kid. I tried to play sports (before giving up when I hit high school), I watched the shows I saw my friends watching and I tried to be a boy through and through. It just seemed like the thing to do. Now I can freely admit that I don't get sports and why they are a big thing and I would much rather watch horror movies than sports any day. I found my passion in music which is still a male-dominated world at this point, but it is changing.
I know that as a child, I made fun of my brother for getting Polly Pockets at McDonalds instead of Hot Wheels. I would like to think that I am past that point in my life where I would make fun of someone for something as simple as getting the "girl" toy. The fact that the toys were separated by gender and not just brand name is something that shows how deep seated these norms are in our society. I remember wondering why my brother would want the "girl" toy when I was racing my hot wheels down a track and launching them into the concrete wall in my basement. I fell in to many of the stereotypes as a kid. I tried to play sports (before giving up when I hit high school), I watched the shows I saw my friends watching and I tried to be a boy through and through. It just seemed like the thing to do. Now I can freely admit that I don't get sports and why they are a big thing and I would much rather watch horror movies than sports any day. I found my passion in music which is still a male-dominated world at this point, but it is changing.
Thursday, November 14, 2013
Cool Confusion
In my last blog I talked about how insecurity plays a role in reality TV. This blog will talk about how it plays a role in gender.
The topic of gender is very fiercely debated currently because people are becoming less and less tied to the traditional ideas of gender and its norms and roles in society. More and more people are identifying as trans* or any of the other non-binary gender terms that have come into use. Gender is fluid and the idea of only two genders leaves a lot of people out in the cold so to speak.
This is a good resource for getting started on these subjects.
https://www.genderspectrum.org/understanding-gender
Now, how this relates to my overall theory - People have a tendency to identify themselves by a list of terms. A person will say they are a straight, white, male, christian, accountant, that is single, and is a sports fan. These things make the person comfortable because it is easy. The list is like a home for the mind. It gives them something that won't change and is comfortable. A lot of people have trouble with people that don't necessarily go with this idea.
Think about the first questions you ask someone when you meet. It usually involves a lot of these descriptors (name, place of birth, occupation, relationship status, religion, etc.). It allows us to categorize the person in our minds by use of stereotypes and traditional ideas about their answers to these questions. This leads to a social system that is pretty easy where you can find likeminded people based on a single thing and feel a bond with them. Now, when people start to throw out some of these descriptors from their life it makes people uncomfortable. They don't know how to react when you say you don't prescribe to a binary gender or a nontraditional job etc. It confuses a lot of people and makes them wonder about themselves and if the little comfortable corner they have described themselves into is really as true as they thought it was.
This isn't to say that people who identify as one of the two "main" genders are bad or wrong. They aren't, but trying to force everyone to do that is like trying to get everyone to be a Christian, or a fan of a specific sports team. It isn't going to happen. The cat is out of the bag on gender and I don't think it will go back in in the foreseeable future, so get used to it.
The topic of gender is very fiercely debated currently because people are becoming less and less tied to the traditional ideas of gender and its norms and roles in society. More and more people are identifying as trans* or any of the other non-binary gender terms that have come into use. Gender is fluid and the idea of only two genders leaves a lot of people out in the cold so to speak.
This is a good resource for getting started on these subjects.
https://www.genderspectrum.org/understanding-gender
Now, how this relates to my overall theory - People have a tendency to identify themselves by a list of terms. A person will say they are a straight, white, male, christian, accountant, that is single, and is a sports fan. These things make the person comfortable because it is easy. The list is like a home for the mind. It gives them something that won't change and is comfortable. A lot of people have trouble with people that don't necessarily go with this idea.
Think about the first questions you ask someone when you meet. It usually involves a lot of these descriptors (name, place of birth, occupation, relationship status, religion, etc.). It allows us to categorize the person in our minds by use of stereotypes and traditional ideas about their answers to these questions. This leads to a social system that is pretty easy where you can find likeminded people based on a single thing and feel a bond with them. Now, when people start to throw out some of these descriptors from their life it makes people uncomfortable. They don't know how to react when you say you don't prescribe to a binary gender or a nontraditional job etc. It confuses a lot of people and makes them wonder about themselves and if the little comfortable corner they have described themselves into is really as true as they thought it was.
This isn't to say that people who identify as one of the two "main" genders are bad or wrong. They aren't, but trying to force everyone to do that is like trying to get everyone to be a Christian, or a fan of a specific sports team. It isn't going to happen. The cat is out of the bag on gender and I don't think it will go back in in the foreseeable future, so get used to it.
The Beautiful People Are Ugly, Too
I have been taking a sociology class at the same time I have been taking this class and it has been interesting to see how topics and occasionally even examples line up in the two classes. It has also led me to have a sort of overall theory on the state of our society in terms of both media and national attitude. So for the remainder of these blogs, I am going to talk about that. This one will specifically cover TV (more specifically reality TV).
We talked about reality TV recently (and on and off throughout the semester) and why people watch it. I haven't really spent much time with reality TV outside of random episodes of American Idol and Last Comic Standing that my parents would have on and a night of watching a Moonshiners marathon this last summer, but from what I've seen and what I've heard about these shows, it's all about laughing at the stars. I was watching this clip from Conan recently and it made me think.
These reality shows are really sad. It's all about looking into people's lives that are worse than our own and laughing and thinking "boy is my life better than theirs". Even if your life is miserable, you can look at these shows and feel ok. This is both a good and a bad thing. It's good because you don't feel as miserable, but it also breeds complacency. If your only goal in life is to be "better" than the stars (for lack of a better word) on the reality shows, then you have a crappy life. I have way higher goals for that in my life. I would much rather spend time studying people who have done things I want to accomplish than what I want to avoid.
But back to my original point. Our nation is incredibly insecure. We aren't the biggest and baddest nation out there anymore, our economy is still recovering, stuff is getting expensive, and our planet is getting worse. We want to look at these people as entertainment to make ourselves feel better. We watch reality TV for the same reasons kids bully other kids, to feel powerful and better about us. Instead of trying to do better and accomplish things, we want to set our bars so low that just not being laughed at on national TV is an accomplishment.
We talked about reality TV recently (and on and off throughout the semester) and why people watch it. I haven't really spent much time with reality TV outside of random episodes of American Idol and Last Comic Standing that my parents would have on and a night of watching a Moonshiners marathon this last summer, but from what I've seen and what I've heard about these shows, it's all about laughing at the stars. I was watching this clip from Conan recently and it made me think.
These reality shows are really sad. It's all about looking into people's lives that are worse than our own and laughing and thinking "boy is my life better than theirs". Even if your life is miserable, you can look at these shows and feel ok. This is both a good and a bad thing. It's good because you don't feel as miserable, but it also breeds complacency. If your only goal in life is to be "better" than the stars (for lack of a better word) on the reality shows, then you have a crappy life. I have way higher goals for that in my life. I would much rather spend time studying people who have done things I want to accomplish than what I want to avoid.
But back to my original point. Our nation is incredibly insecure. We aren't the biggest and baddest nation out there anymore, our economy is still recovering, stuff is getting expensive, and our planet is getting worse. We want to look at these people as entertainment to make ourselves feel better. We watch reality TV for the same reasons kids bully other kids, to feel powerful and better about us. Instead of trying to do better and accomplish things, we want to set our bars so low that just not being laughed at on national TV is an accomplishment.
Friday, October 11, 2013
Hate and War
I think I may attempt to name all of my blog posts after Clash songs if at all possible.
But anyway....
War is a weird thing. My entire generation has lived through and known war all our lives and it is something as natural to us as breathing. The majority of our lives have been post 9/11 which means we have grown up with our country pretty much policing the world and sending out millions of troops and spending trillions. Saying that this has no reflection on our culture is ridiculous. The whole point of this week of class was to be able to answer the question "does war have an effect on our culture" and that's my answer. I have grown up underneath a waving American flag and a large percent of our population thinking anyone from the Middle East (which includes everything from northern Africa to India for a lot of people) as terrorists and a threat to our safety. Our culture has become one of hate because we have had a philosophy of "us vs. them" thrust upon us from a very early age.
Nowadays the rise of social media has made it easy for everyone to put out their opinions on the internet. Blogs are everywhere and everyone has opinions on everything and posts them on the internet all day every day. This has led to an inundation of information but most of it is incredibly uneducated and based upon very little fact. Put this together with the ever shortening attention span and we have the equivalent of a room full of middle schoolers shouting at each other about quantum physics. So few people try to be informed and rational because it takes time and effort. We are full of information on pop culture and lacking in information on much else, so maybe people should think twice before posting their opinions everywhere.
The reason I haven't been posting blogs so far is because I've been waiting for something that I think I can speak articulately on. I don't spend a lot of time researching politics or anything, but I need to start writing blogs or I won't hit my quota.
But anyway....
War is a weird thing. My entire generation has lived through and known war all our lives and it is something as natural to us as breathing. The majority of our lives have been post 9/11 which means we have grown up with our country pretty much policing the world and sending out millions of troops and spending trillions. Saying that this has no reflection on our culture is ridiculous. The whole point of this week of class was to be able to answer the question "does war have an effect on our culture" and that's my answer. I have grown up underneath a waving American flag and a large percent of our population thinking anyone from the Middle East (which includes everything from northern Africa to India for a lot of people) as terrorists and a threat to our safety. Our culture has become one of hate because we have had a philosophy of "us vs. them" thrust upon us from a very early age.
Nowadays the rise of social media has made it easy for everyone to put out their opinions on the internet. Blogs are everywhere and everyone has opinions on everything and posts them on the internet all day every day. This has led to an inundation of information but most of it is incredibly uneducated and based upon very little fact. Put this together with the ever shortening attention span and we have the equivalent of a room full of middle schoolers shouting at each other about quantum physics. So few people try to be informed and rational because it takes time and effort. We are full of information on pop culture and lacking in information on much else, so maybe people should think twice before posting their opinions everywhere.
The reason I haven't been posting blogs so far is because I've been waiting for something that I think I can speak articulately on. I don't spend a lot of time researching politics or anything, but I need to start writing blogs or I won't hit my quota.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)