Religion, what is it? This was the main thought in my mind when I clicked on Danielle's blog. I never really thought that deep into it and this was a chance for me to learn more about it. In Danielle's blog she explored religion, but also Atheism and the many struggles different religions face. Even though America was founded by different religions there are many people in the same country who won't except other religions. Many small religions face discriminance and hate by other major religions. I once heard that religions were made, because they were a reason for war. And this seems true, just look at the facts, there were so many wars because of religion, for example the Crusades and World War II. All religions are meant for peace but all cause war. I learned one of the reasons why this happens in Danielles slideshow. People just need to accept other religions and stop throwing such a fit about it.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Matan's Blog
Matan's blog was very interesting and I was well aware about his topic. In his powerpoint I became more aware of what automobiles were doing to our planet and how we could prevent this. I knew about pollution, and cars played a huge part in it, and Matan's blog only broadened my knowledge of it. One thing I didn't know muh about was the electric car or the hybrid, I knew that it was better for the economy and polanet than the regular gas guzzler, but that is all I really knew about. After seeing his slideshow I realized how it could help us and how much better it is. Matan presented the problem, lack of natural resources and showed us the solution. After seeing this I realized how little we cre about our planet. Most people barely notice what cars do or they dont' care. I know that I was ne of those people, but now I see what a big problem it is. I also agree with Matan on how the electric car is easier said than done.
Monday, February 22, 2010
The Chosen One's Final Slide Show
I open this blog, knowing a little bit about the topic. When I think about Hispanics, one of the first things that comes to my mind is illegal immigrants. In Carl's blog he explores that and deeper. In his slideshow, he explores, immigration and how hispanics can't really make a living because they don't have an education and they can't get one because they need money and the quickest way to make money is to get a cheap job. they can't get a good job because most well paid jobs require an education. So, this is just a giant cycle that hispanics cannot get out of. another big issue focused in this blog was how some Americans think that Hispanics are taking their jobs, and sometimes the Americans response is violent. I learned a lot from the blog of The Chosen One, it has also changed my view on Hispanics. I now realize thart they are facing a huge struggle. The struggle that they are facing is in some ways similar to slaves faced so many years ago. The hispanics come here for the American dream and many never really achieve it. It makes me wonder if it is really better to come to America and face these hardships or if it better to just stay in their home land.
Works Cited
Caramanica, Jon. "The trials of the hardest-working man in hip-hop.(Lil Wayne)(The Arts/Cultural Desk)(MUSIC)." The New York Times. 159. 54898 (Dec 23, 2009): C1(L). Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. Deerfield High School. 11 Feb. 2010 .
Caramanica, Jon. "For young superstar Taylor Swift, big wins mean innocence lost.(The Arts/Cultural Desk)(MUSIC)." The New York Times. (Feb 2, 2010): C5(L). Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. Deerfield High School. 11 Feb. 2010 .
Greenblatt, A. (2003, November 21). Future of the music industry. CQ Researcher, 13, 989-1012. Retrieved February 11, 2010, from CQ Researcher Online, http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2003112100.
Katel, P. (2007, June 15). Debating hip-hop. CQ Researcher, 17, 529-552. Retrieved February 10, 2010, from CQ Researcher Online, http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2007061500.
D. Stanley Eitzen " American Sport at the End of the Twentieth Century," Annals of American History. http://america.eb.com/america/article?articleId=387715>
"jazz." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 1 Feb. 2010.
"Scott Joplin." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 1 Feb. 2010. .
"American film." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 29 Jan. 2010. http://www.americanhistory.abc-clio.com/.
"American theater." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 28 Jan. 2010. .
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Analytic: Current events
Many people think that gang violence and hip hop are related, like when there is a shooting in a black neighborhood, people think that hip hop has had something to do with it. Because of this many black public figures like Oprah and Hip Hop entrepreneur Russell Simmons have tried to make artists change their lyrics as Simmons said "We recommend that the recording and broadcast industries voluntarily remove/bleep/delete the misogynistic words 'bitch' and 'ho' and the racially offensive word 'nigger,' " They want artists to get rid of swears and dirty words in their songs, because they think that it would lead to young black listeners use of those words. Many artists have refused do this, most saying that it would alter their image and less people would buy their music. Rapper Fifty Cent said on this topic "For me, don't expect me to compromise myself," like most rappers Fifty cent has built his music career on his thug image and the whole drug dealer turned rapper ordeal. It is easy to see how hip hop and violence is connected, many young listeners see their favorite artist getting arrested or involved with firearms. Rap legends Tupac Shakur and NOTORIUS BIG were both shot to death, and rap superstar Lil Wayne is going to jail because of illegal firearm possession. What these performers are doing effect all of their fans. If a kid thinks it’s cool to have a firearm because Lil Wayne had one then who is to blame. Changing the lyrics to a song won’t change what is happening. Artists have to realize what they are doing affects millions of people.
Violence is not the only problem hip hop is having. The other problem is happening to every genre of music; it is illegal downloading and piracy. Since the advancement of technology, the music industry has been losing money, cd sales have plummeted and record stores have started closing done all over the country. Less and less people are buying cds and more people are downloading music illegally. As Mitch Bainwol said “At any given time, 3 to 5 million people are on the Internet, downloading music and violating copyright law,” avid listeners download music because it is free and cds are too overpriced. Many artists are mad about this also because they are losing money and they want to be paid for their work. As LL Cool J “The majority of artists want to be compensated,” the people who are downloading music illegally don’t realize that other people are being affected by this, that people are losing money because of what they are doing. In an article about the future of hip hop the author says that most of the listeners that buy cds are rich white suburban kids, but this is not necessarily true, because many rich white suburban kids download music illegally. The main reason that people download illegally is that people don’t want to spend more than ten dollars on a cd especially if they want to listen to just one song. The music industry has tried to fight this by filing lawsuits against piracy and illegal downloading, like Napster which shut down then went back online as a low fee music downloader. Some bands have found ways to make money of this, by offering their listeners the ability to download music off their website for free, or they can donate a small amount to a “penny jar” on the website, that would pay for the album. Surprisingly many people donated to the website. Even though music has been through many changes it still has survived and will always be around.
Analytic Backround
Music has always been around since the beginning of time, people only started recording it in the 16th century. Music is all around us, it surrounds us, there are so many different types of music, but the two main categories are classical and popular. Classical, is usually jazz and other genres that were popular during the beginning of the 20th century. While popular music is mainly rock, country and hip hop. Music allows people to express how they feel and allows others to relax in it. It pumps people up and it calms them down, makes the happy or it makes them sad. Music thrives through people, it runs through their veins. There are so many different types of music; it seems that each person has their own individual genre. Some genres have died out over time, while some have survived through the good times and the bad. For example, jazz was invented after the Civil War and it thrived for a while, everything was jazz. Then something new came and replaced it, but jazz regained popularity again and still remains popular to this day. Music will always be around.
For people who are more visual than audio, there is the American Theater and American Film. Theater became more popular in America after the Civil War and continued to be popular. It became popular after the war because, before America wanted nothing to do with Britain and theater reminded them of it. Theater truly thrived after the Civil War, with its most famous play being Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The beginning of the Twentieth Century was not so kind on American Theater, with the invention of motion picture. Motion picture was first short silent, gag news reels, but then developed into feature length films lasting two to three hours. The first feature film was the silent film “The Great Train Robbery”. The actors in these films were celebrities among the people of America. After the first world war the film industry went through several changes, one of them being moving from the East coast to the West, going to Hollywood. The big change was the invention of sound in films. This completely changed films and it attracted more viewers, which was worse for theater. With the invention of television, the film industry entered a slump and fought through it by making movies people could only see at the movie theaters and gave viewers an experienced that could not be achieved at home. Movie still do this to this day, with films like “Avatar” and “Titanic”, that have special effects and 3d that can only be seen at theaters. The American Theater and American Film, have both been through hard times but, they will always be around because they allow people to escape into another world.
Current Event: Lil Wayne
How to Cite
Current Event: Taylor Swift From Teenager to Adult
At this years Gramm'y teen popstar Taylor Swift won quite a few Grammy's, one which was album of the year, "Fearless". This win made her the youngest perfomer to do so. But with her winning the Grammy's this means a whole new Taylor Swift. Over the past year we saw Taylor Swift rise to the top of the Billboards, and we saw her handle bad situations very well. Like at the MTV video awards, when Kanye West interrupted her speech, everyone one of us assumed that she was mad and this made her David to Kanye's Goliath. Taylor Swift does have weaknesses like her duet with Stevies Nicks or her new single, but this isn't a bad thing, this shows us that she is human, unlike Beyonce, who it seems can do no wrong. But now taylor swift is an adult, yes she turned twenty in December. No longer can she sing songs about teenage romance and heartbreak, and if she does she will look like someone trying to live in the past. Her new album which she will surely release after she is twenty one, must be something new and different. I don't think that Taylor Swift has to worry about people buying her new album after she change's her style, She is a smart, young musician, who has been through more than she looks. Her fans will always like her music and she will still remain a popstar.
Current Event: Future of the Music Industry
The music industry's future seems to become worse and worse every year. The advancement of technology is resulting in the decline of the music industry. With internet becoming easier and easier to access, illegal downloading is becoming easier. Before the internet listeners would buy cds, but now they download songs illegally and cd sales go down. For some music genres like hip hop, only rich white suburban kids buy their favorite artists new cd, while most of its listeners, black teens, download the songs online for free. After cd sales reaching a new low and many record stores going out of business, the music industry started to fight back against illegal downloading. One of the things they did was filing lawsuits and cracking down on people who illegally download and on piracy. Some artists like Radiohead put their new album online and let people pay for it online, and this worked pretty well for them. But most artists want to make money off their music and are against illegal downloading. Popular sites like napster and limewire offer people to download music at a low fee, because one of the main reasons for illegal downloading os that cds are overpriced. This article seemed really interesting to me because it said that the main buyers are rich white suburban kids but many of them still download music illegaly. Also that the last sale of a million copies in a week for the past decade was Lil Wayne's "Tha Carter III" which was a hip hop album.
Greenblatt, A. (2003, November 21). Future of the music industry. CQ Researcher, 13, 989-1012. Retrieved February 11, 2010, from CQ Researcher Online, http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2003112100.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Current event: Debating Hip Hop
Hip Hop is just another form of music but it is the one that has the most controversy and criticism. It has been blamed for the actions of young black Americans and that it has a huge influence on them. Theses accusations have forced many famous black public figures to change their views on hip hop and want to change the lyrics in the songs. Some of these changes would be bleeping or completely deleting dirty words. Many rappers have refused to do this, some saying that if they did that they wouldn't sell any Cd's or that it would completely go against the image that they have established for themselves. Rapper Fifty cent says that if he watered down his lyrics, that it would change his thug image of drug dealer turned rapper and his music sales would go down. Another debate of hip hop is that its sales have gone down and it has fallen to third place behind country. the main reason for this is that most of hip hops buyers are rich white suburban kids that can afford to buy the Cd's and that the majority of listeners black teenagers cannot afford the Cd's and would most likely buy bootlegs or illegally download the songs. In my opinion hip hop will thrive over the next couple of years and establish itself as genre that is here to stay, because when Rock and roll first appeared many people didn't like it, but now it leads the genres in record sales.
Katel, P. (2007, June 15). Debating hip-hop. CQ Researcher, 17, 529-552. Retrieved February 10, 2010, from CQ Researcher Online, http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2007061500.
Where I am
Now that I have learned more about the arts, my views on it have changed a little bit. When i first started out, I thought that the arts were mostly just music and paintings. But now I have realized that arts can be anything from a simple street performer to a Oscar winning film. Arts is a form of entertainment that people go and see for their leisure and entertainment. As we learned more about our topics, I started to narrow my entries into music and i discovered that there are many different forms of music and different types of music. I have learned that arts are all around us and that anything can be considered an art.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Sports, An Art?
Are sports an art? Many people consider something an art as something that people do for entertainment, not just painting and music. People watch sports for entertainment and that make sports an art. By the end of the twentieth century sports had more viewers than anything. At the beginning of the century sports like boxing and racing dominated sports but that has changed so much by the the end of the century. Now a numerous amount of sports have millions of fans on the edge of there seats. People love to watch sports mainly for entertainment but also because it offers an escape from reality and that it represents humanity itself. It represents it downfalls, triumphs and risks. Sports have always had millions of viewers and always will. They are the ost viewed form of art.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Jazz
Jazz was created by mostly free African Americans after the civil war. It focused on black and white and urban elements that created a sound only heard in cities. Jazz was made up of African melodies and a lot of improvisation, some listeners called it swing. The one place where jazz was the most popular was New Orleans or " The Cradle Of Jazz". Jazz thrived here for a while until in 1841 New York surpassed it. Later a new music emerged from New Orleans, called blues. Blues was a slower form of jazz. Famous Jazz players were Joe "King" Oliver and Louis Armstrong, these popular musicians were attracted to Chicago, its bright lights and many dance crazes. One key change for jazz was the rapid and diverse population growth. New York still remained as the capitol of jazz and brought many new musicians and forms of jazz. It seems that jazz has died out and will never have mass audiences. It will always be behind Rock, Hip Hop and other popular music.
Ragtime
When Scott Joplin's song was published near the end of the 19th century a new genre of music, Ragtime, swept the country. It's happy melodies with a heavy bass rhythm back round was something new and it had the whole country dancing. Scott Joplin was honored as being one of the nation's first important composers. even though it was a descendant of jazz it was different because while jazz is improvised, ragtime was written.
It interested white people with its foreign accents and it featured forms of European dances. One of the things that interested was how the accents and language startled the white people. Imagine what those people would think if they heard hip hop or reggae,the might have an heart attack. Even thought to them it seemed upbeat and lively to us it would probably seem dull, slow and boring. It is interesting to see the change in music. I wonder what people will think of hip hop a hundred years in the future.
"Scott Joplin." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 1 Feb. 2010.
