There are some useful blogs for you to visit if you want to find out more about issues of the interaction of media and modern society.
Martin explored the increasing trend to incorporate images of sex into advertisement these days. Provoking and controversial images sell, that’s why we have them all over the place.
Linda wrote about controversial advertising in general with lots of good examples of how controversy draws desired attention to the companies.
Zhazira has a lot of interesting and useful information on media influencing young women and encouraging eating disorders.
Barabara wrote how desensetization occurs, as a primary effect of watching violence on media and why is it important.
And finally, Greg explored the advantages and disadvantages of media technology and how techonological advancements affect people.
There are so many movies about music, musicians and subcultures. I’m going to mention some of those that are worth watching.
‘American Hardcore’ - the history of American 80s punk rock. A decent documentary, however, it definitely misses out some important bands.
’24 Hour Party People’ and ‘Control’ - two feature movies based on real events. The story of Manchester rock scene, Tony Wilson and his record label. ‘Control’ is a biopic of Ian Curtis, a singer of Joy Division, who committed suicide at the age of 23.
‘SLC Punk’ – “To be an anarchist in Salt Lake City was certainly no easy task, especially in 1985. And having no money, no job, no plans for the future, the true anarchist position was in itself a strenuous job.”
‘I’m Not There’ - a Bob Dylan biopic. Six characters trying to show different aspects of his life.
‘The U.S. vs John Lennon’ - a documentary that shows another dimension of John Lennon’s life as an antiwar activist and how the U.S. government tried to silence him.
‘Party Monster’ - a true story of Michael Alig and the “Club Kids” subculture.
“wouldn’t it be more of an act of rebellion if you didn’t spend so much time buying blue hair dye and going out to get punky clothes? it seems so petty. stop me if I’m being offensive. you wanna be an individual, right? you look like you’re wearing a uniform. you look like a punk. that’s not rebellion. that’s fashion.”
- slc punk [a movie]
Fashion is inspired by music. Music has its own fashion. Everyone claims to be an individual while clearly being one of the sheep in the flock. This website offers a variety of “subculture” representatives that are basically a “uniform” look for people who listen to similar types of music. Unfortunately, it’s common these days to adopt certain style in order to fit into desired subculture without knowing anything about it.
Straight Edge. – It is one of the most interesting and self-beneficial subcultural hardcore movement for young people. No drinking, no smoking, no drugs, no meat, no casual sex. The whole subculture, its name and ideology emerged directly from a song called “Straight Edge” by Minor Threat.
I’m a person just like you
But I’ve got better things to do
Than sit around and fuck my head
Hang out with the living dead
Snort white shit up my nose
Pass out at the shows
I don’t even think about speed
That’s something I just don’t need
I’VE GOT STRAIGHT EDGE
I’m a person just like you
But I’ve got better things to do
Than sit around and smoke dope
‘Cause I know I can cope
Laugh at the thought of eating ludes
Laugh at the thought of sniffing glue
Always gonna keep in touch
Never want to use a crutch
I’VE GOT STRAIGHT EDGE
Sisterhood.-an online zine and community run by ladies of a straight edge movement. Hardcore scene has long kept a stage reserved for men primarily. These girls stand against violence, elitism, sexism, racism or discrimination in any form. Gender based sub development of a hardcore subculture.
Hipster Hunter. – according to this website, pretty much everyone is a hipster. It has numerous classifications and rants (including “Was Hitler a Closet Hipster?” and “Bird Nest Hairpiece”) See if you can be “labeled”.
There’s been much fuss about emo kids taking over the planet lately. I assume everyone already knows what is it if not, I recommend to visit this website to find out.
Emo is the example of how an underground subculture was completely eaten and distorted by a mainstream. Back in the day, it was just another name for the type of music, such as pop, electro or folk. Apparently, now it’s a mock word for most black-haired teenagers.
Commercial adaptation of a certain subculture is most feared by its members. From a small group of people subculture spreads out to larger groups and eventually might end up becoming a part of mainstream as it has happened with hip-hop subculture. With such assimilation the original ideology looses its meaning, and it all goes down to music and clothing style. As an example, punk was declared “dead” ever since it’s been commercialized and exploited by a mainstream culture. Some subcultures stress the point that it is important to hold on to ideology rather than rely on looks while being a part of certain subculture. Those who adopt music and clothing style without any knowledge of original roots and meaning of subcultures are usually labeled as “posers”.
These are the recent news reports on rapidly evolving emo/scene movement.
Notice how almost all reports begin with a warning to parents…
They have most primary characteristics of a newsworthy event:
Personalization – all news stories are about local kids.
Action – moms calling their kids to find out what is actually emo. Footage of concerts.
Novelty and deviance – a new subculutre that is considered to be dangerous for teenagers.
Drama and conflict – missing teenagers, violence, self-harming and suicide.
Link to ongoing themes – troubled teens, parents should be warned. Link to a recent murder of a girl by two teenagers linked to an emo subculture.
However, what they’ve achieved is to seed panic among parents. And again, someone’s not doing the research thoroughly. Half of the kids shown do not even fit the common description of emos. Bands featured are of completely different genre. And most of the material used is a mock-up parody of the subculture itself.
And at last, this is something for your entertainment. : D
Not as current but quite widespread event. Doesn’t necessarily ends up lethally but happens on a daily basis, especially if you’re an avid concert-goer. Which I am.
Almost because of the same reason I had to go to the hospital to get stitches in my head after a punk rock show. Not talking about numerous bruises, the loss of a decent amount of hair (they had to cut it out to do the stitches) and fainting in public transportation, I had a lot of fun. And it was probably one of the greatest nights in my life. You ask, am I in my right mind? (Probably not, c’mon, I fell on my head…)
Moshing which is a common practice on hardcore/metal shows has been a reason for a lot of injuries. No wonder there’s always the whole crew of paramedics watching out for careless kids on almost every major concert. Generally, moshing is just banging against one another, jumping around aggressively, stage diving and crowd surfing. There are numerous types of it.
Wall of death.
This has become a sort of “official” symbol of a hardcore subculture. But there are certainly two sides to it. “It’s a thrill – a rush,” the 27-year-old from Richmond says. “It’s like one big, happy family out there.”
But it is not just a random fight with whoever you grab first. There’s a “moshing etuqette” (yes, that’s right, etiquette) It includes no heavy jewelry, no personal vendettas, if someone’s fallen, help them up and just be careful.
However, there’s much controversy to it. The article above is one of the examples. Things went seriously wrong. Other concerns had been raised about the presence of younger kids at the shows who have a higher risk of being injured as well.
Why do people do that, after all? Probably for the same reason they engage into extreme sports or any other dangerous activity. They need excitement, adrenalin and release of our negative feelings. Moshing is just one way of doing it. The question is, if it really needs to be that violent…
You can’t play any instrument? You’re completely deaf-toned and can’t sing for the life of you? Don’t worry; punk’s not the only option for you. Your laptop will do the magic.
With the development of technology there are more ways of making music these days. Some people are highly critical of such practices, they claim it doesn’t take much to stand behind a machine that does all the work for you; and that it doesn’t require any talents at all.
To me, it is just another way for an individual to be creative and combine both music and technology. High-tech and music’s collaboration is relatively new and therefore, hasn’t been taken over by mainstream. Yet?
“As long as this kind of thing remains underground and unplucked by the very popular media, it will live and grow forever,” Washington said. “It’s a personal thing for the artists, and it does not need to become about money.”
If you’re interested in that kind of music or just curious check the Sperm Festival that takes place every March in Prague and has a great variety of electronic artists.
I’ve been fortunate enough to see a very interesting Prague-based musician called Noot in club 007 in October. Here are some pics I took. Too bad he doesn’t seem to be playing a lot lately. Here are some pictures I took.
Well, maybe punk’s not dead but hip-hop is certainly going towards it. Or, in other words, it just sucks.
The sales are down mostly because of hip-hop’s content. And yes, what are the common lyrics of most songs these days? Humps, lumps, ambiguous candy shops, drugs, money, guns, sex and all that in one song, 3 minutes pressed delivering to kids like the one dancing in the video above.
Of course, all those themes somehow have been a part of hip-hop culture since it’s very beginning but take a look at this article, especially the part with comparison of CREAM” by The Wu-Tang Clan off of 1993’s Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) and Pretty Ricky’s “Push It Baby”.
Music creates a mindset for people and hip-hop as being one of the major music industries in the world is occasionally is sending out the wrong message. Young people learn about relationships from music they listen to. Even if you take out all the beep words out, the message is still there.
Or it is our society who’s gladly embracing it without questions.
They’re getting Grammy’s for this!
Now I don’t wanna hit no women when this chick’s got it coming
Someone better get this bitch before she gets kicked in the stomach
And she’s pregnant, but she’s egging me on, begging me to throw her
Off the steps on this porch, my only weapon is force
“Drips” by Eminem
So, what we have here… Can you see the purpose of making music behind these two videos? One of it addresses a problem, and another one … ????
