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.

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 .

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

"jazz." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 1 Feb. 2010.

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. .