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Megan Didier
Erin Lewis
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Jacob Noss
Showing posts with label Jake Noss. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jake Noss. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
Making Music For 2014
For my last blog I wanted to focus on something near to my heart and will have a serious effect on my future employment, or lack of.
Music as well as film are going through serious growing pains. From the very beginning of the internet, people have found ways to use this new tool to steal/share music and films. As you might imagine, this has a detrimental effect on the creation of new music and funding of new projects in both music and film. Luckily for film, there is still a strong movie going audience that brings millions of dollars to studios by watching the movie in the theater. The problem is music doesn't have that sort of pull anymore.
Unfortunately for the music industry, most people don't need/want a physical copy of their music anymore. All they want is a file with song on it and that's it. Now don't get me wrong, I don't hold much sympathy for the industry, it dug its own grave years ago, but my point remains, that for the artists left in the money grabbing frenzy of the industry, making it anywhere in this business has just become exponentially more difficult.
Now, this grim scene does have a few rays of sunshine showing through. With the constant flow of new technology making it easier and more affordable for musicians to produce themselves, leaving the large record companies with a second problem to consider.
With this new found power musicians have moved to alternative distribution methods to get their product to the public. Websites like bandcamp.com and soundcloud.com are a few of the free sites that allow musicians to create their own hub for sales of digital as well as physical music formats, t-shirts, and whatever else they can slap together. This level of independence is huge for musicians who don't want to get trapped by the "loan sharks" in suits.
I believe this movement towards independent music creation has the ability for you as a musician or as a music lover to grow and support acts with the assurance that you are giving your money directly to the person who needs it.
As someone who aspires to create and produce music for a living, this new development in music is scary, but very inspiring. The power to build your own brand has been given back to the artist and I think can only prove beneficial for music as a whole.
I don't mean to get sappy and preachy. This is just something that I feel can only grow with time and through people spreading the word. So as someone who seeks to benefit from this new wave, I feel like I should take some part in trying get the message out to anyone who will turn their iPod down for a minute.
Music as well as film are going through serious growing pains. From the very beginning of the internet, people have found ways to use this new tool to steal/share music and films. As you might imagine, this has a detrimental effect on the creation of new music and funding of new projects in both music and film. Luckily for film, there is still a strong movie going audience that brings millions of dollars to studios by watching the movie in the theater. The problem is music doesn't have that sort of pull anymore.
Unfortunately for the music industry, most people don't need/want a physical copy of their music anymore. All they want is a file with song on it and that's it. Now don't get me wrong, I don't hold much sympathy for the industry, it dug its own grave years ago, but my point remains, that for the artists left in the money grabbing frenzy of the industry, making it anywhere in this business has just become exponentially more difficult.
Now, this grim scene does have a few rays of sunshine showing through. With the constant flow of new technology making it easier and more affordable for musicians to produce themselves, leaving the large record companies with a second problem to consider.
With this new found power musicians have moved to alternative distribution methods to get their product to the public. Websites like bandcamp.com and soundcloud.com are a few of the free sites that allow musicians to create their own hub for sales of digital as well as physical music formats, t-shirts, and whatever else they can slap together. This level of independence is huge for musicians who don't want to get trapped by the "loan sharks" in suits.
I believe this movement towards independent music creation has the ability for you as a musician or as a music lover to grow and support acts with the assurance that you are giving your money directly to the person who needs it.
As someone who aspires to create and produce music for a living, this new development in music is scary, but very inspiring. The power to build your own brand has been given back to the artist and I think can only prove beneficial for music as a whole.
I don't mean to get sappy and preachy. This is just something that I feel can only grow with time and through people spreading the word. So as someone who seeks to benefit from this new wave, I feel like I should take some part in trying get the message out to anyone who will turn their iPod down for a minute.
Monday, April 14, 2014
Passive Agressive Internet
Something that I think most of us who have used the internet can either admit to or admit to witnessing are the vague and ambiguous status updates/ tweets that riddle your feed. Personally, I have come across dozens of tweets and updates that are painfully generic and have no real substance, but you can tell from the tone that they are about something or someone very specific.
Full disclosure, I have to admit that I have committed this act of fodder distribution a few times in my life. But the interesting part of it all is that, in my case, it stopped. Without warning or consciousness, the passive aggressive tendencies of my early social media experience fell away. Now I know that sounds pretentious and sounds like I am trying to place myself above others, but in all honesty, the way I use social media has changed as well.
In my earlier days of social media, I used it as my primary source of friend interaction. Being a shy, introverted person, Facebook gave me time to think about these people and didn't force me to make split decisions on the spot. I think this comfortable atmosphere was and continues to be a very attractive aspect of social media as opposed to face-to-face interaction. But this comfort has created a new level of sharing that has been unprecedented up until now.
To make a delicate and hot topic very brief, "Princess/Super Hero" culture has created the sense that everyone needs to stand out and be special. Sorry, I didn't want to go into a deep discussion about princess culture even though I think it is a vital part of what I am trying to get at. People feel the need to be different and special and social media is a great way for people to try to flex their "special muscle" in an attempt to get noticed. This desire leads people to share more and more of their lives which can create problems if that information is sensitive or embarrassing. Now what is a person to do? If they can't share that they secretly like someone who is friends with them on social media, how is that person ever going to find out? This desire and "problem", together have formed a passive aggressive internet and in turn a passive aggressive user and human being.
Posting something like "I can't believe you don't know" is bland compared to what may actually exist online, but my point can still be seen. This ambiguity creates confusion for people who follow you and then that curiosity breeds comments and questions. "What's wrong?" and "You can talk to me" start flooding your notifications and then those commenters are caught in the guilt/confusion trap laid by the original poster. Then the poster can drag them along even more with a response like "it doesn't even matter" or even something simple as a frowning emoticon.
Now the person who sent out that tweet has received the medicine they needed. The desire to be special was satisfied by the comments from others asking how you were or how they were there to help you. Social media is filled with people with the desire for attention and sympathy and they have found a way to say nothing at all and hold your attention for their own vanity.
Full disclosure, I have to admit that I have committed this act of fodder distribution a few times in my life. But the interesting part of it all is that, in my case, it stopped. Without warning or consciousness, the passive aggressive tendencies of my early social media experience fell away. Now I know that sounds pretentious and sounds like I am trying to place myself above others, but in all honesty, the way I use social media has changed as well.
In my earlier days of social media, I used it as my primary source of friend interaction. Being a shy, introverted person, Facebook gave me time to think about these people and didn't force me to make split decisions on the spot. I think this comfortable atmosphere was and continues to be a very attractive aspect of social media as opposed to face-to-face interaction. But this comfort has created a new level of sharing that has been unprecedented up until now.
To make a delicate and hot topic very brief, "Princess/Super Hero" culture has created the sense that everyone needs to stand out and be special. Sorry, I didn't want to go into a deep discussion about princess culture even though I think it is a vital part of what I am trying to get at. People feel the need to be different and special and social media is a great way for people to try to flex their "special muscle" in an attempt to get noticed. This desire leads people to share more and more of their lives which can create problems if that information is sensitive or embarrassing. Now what is a person to do? If they can't share that they secretly like someone who is friends with them on social media, how is that person ever going to find out? This desire and "problem", together have formed a passive aggressive internet and in turn a passive aggressive user and human being.
Posting something like "I can't believe you don't know" is bland compared to what may actually exist online, but my point can still be seen. This ambiguity creates confusion for people who follow you and then that curiosity breeds comments and questions. "What's wrong?" and "You can talk to me" start flooding your notifications and then those commenters are caught in the guilt/confusion trap laid by the original poster. Then the poster can drag them along even more with a response like "it doesn't even matter" or even something simple as a frowning emoticon.
Now the person who sent out that tweet has received the medicine they needed. The desire to be special was satisfied by the comments from others asking how you were or how they were there to help you. Social media is filled with people with the desire for attention and sympathy and they have found a way to say nothing at all and hold your attention for their own vanity.
Wednesday, April 9, 2014
What is a Tumblr?
First of all I want to explain how difficult it is to have to blog like this. Like I mentioned in my first blog, I am a very "unshary" person. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy collaboration and spreading ideas, but I am more of a listener, not a talker. So this makes this blogging business kind of strange to me, but I digress.
What I really wanted to talk about was Tumblr. For another class of mine, I have had to create a study of people on Tumblr, specifically how they use it within their "fandom." A "fandom" is a community of people who discuss and share ideas and media for a specific show. Sorry, for people who are apart of "fandoms" as a person who is pretty far removed, that's the best I could do.
Anyway, the study asked questions about why they chose Tumblr over other social networks and also asks what kind of stuff the users post or "reblog."
I am not a person who uses Tumblr or knows much about it so again, if anyone actually reads this, uses Tumblr, forgive me/inform me if I say something that isn't true. As the results came in I found something very interesting. In the words of one of the people who responded, there is a sort of paradox as to what draws people to Tumblr. Users enjoy the anonymity allowed on Tumblr. They say that you don't have to tell people who you are and a lot of people feel like that is something refreshing compared to other sites like Facebook and Twitter.
The other common answer given in the study was that they enjoyed the "small village" community feel that they get from other users on the site. I found this interesting because like I mentioned before it kind of goes against the whole anonymous thing. It was explained that even though people may not know your name, they may recognize you from the content you post.
I think this sort of community feeling, is something that Facebook and Twitter lost a long time ago. While Facebook constantly tries to make you easier to find, asking for more details about your life, Tumblr gives you the option to make your identity virtually invisible. I know that you don't have to put all your information on your Facebook page, but I think the creative style of Tumblr gives the opportunity to make the focus about the content and not who is posting it.
What I really wanted to talk about was Tumblr. For another class of mine, I have had to create a study of people on Tumblr, specifically how they use it within their "fandom." A "fandom" is a community of people who discuss and share ideas and media for a specific show. Sorry, for people who are apart of "fandoms" as a person who is pretty far removed, that's the best I could do.
Anyway, the study asked questions about why they chose Tumblr over other social networks and also asks what kind of stuff the users post or "reblog."
I am not a person who uses Tumblr or knows much about it so again, if anyone actually reads this, uses Tumblr, forgive me/inform me if I say something that isn't true. As the results came in I found something very interesting. In the words of one of the people who responded, there is a sort of paradox as to what draws people to Tumblr. Users enjoy the anonymity allowed on Tumblr. They say that you don't have to tell people who you are and a lot of people feel like that is something refreshing compared to other sites like Facebook and Twitter.
The other common answer given in the study was that they enjoyed the "small village" community feel that they get from other users on the site. I found this interesting because like I mentioned before it kind of goes against the whole anonymous thing. It was explained that even though people may not know your name, they may recognize you from the content you post.
I think this sort of community feeling, is something that Facebook and Twitter lost a long time ago. While Facebook constantly tries to make you easier to find, asking for more details about your life, Tumblr gives you the option to make your identity virtually invisible. I know that you don't have to put all your information on your Facebook page, but I think the creative style of Tumblr gives the opportunity to make the focus about the content and not who is posting it.
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
Hipster Hate
The phrase hipster never really entered my vocabulary until my sophomore year of high school. That year in my, American History, I made a new friend. Derek was somebody who, at first glance, might be a little intimidating at first. He had long hair, his ears were pierced and he wore black band t-shirts regularly. To make a long story short, we bonded over our love for music, and we began a friendship that has lasted to this day.
One thing I learned early on about Derek was that he really hated "Hipsters." At first I pretended that I knew who he was talking about, but I honestly was completely oblivious to where this hate came from.
The thing that struck me as odd, was the constant use of the word "hate." Hate is such a strong word and I felt like it was really strange for someone to hate another person they didn't know for something that wasn't painfully obvious to everyone.
The more I hung out with Derek, the more of his story of disapproval I received and it started to make sense to me and I began to build this "hate" for these people just because it felt like they were an easy group of people to single out. This made me realize how easy it was to follow a trend of hate without actually holding any of those feelings.
Looking back on this time of unjustifiable anger made something quite terrifying very clear. Hate is a group activity. When we watch movies about how people committed disgusting acts of hate against African-Americans during our country's past, we think "I would never do something like that" but we do, however, find it okay to write blogs, and use social media to criticize and ridicule these people.
Now I understand that these two situations are drastically different and one has a much larger cultural impact, but the emotion behind both are very similar. Hate is Hate no matter who you direct it on or how you go about promoting it. Even though I think some people may be a little annoying and fit the stereotype of a hipster perfectly, we have to step back and realize that we are hating a human-being. Regardless of who it is directed towards, it's not right and we should really look at how we treat people who are different from us.
One thing I learned early on about Derek was that he really hated "Hipsters." At first I pretended that I knew who he was talking about, but I honestly was completely oblivious to where this hate came from.
The thing that struck me as odd, was the constant use of the word "hate." Hate is such a strong word and I felt like it was really strange for someone to hate another person they didn't know for something that wasn't painfully obvious to everyone.
The more I hung out with Derek, the more of his story of disapproval I received and it started to make sense to me and I began to build this "hate" for these people just because it felt like they were an easy group of people to single out. This made me realize how easy it was to follow a trend of hate without actually holding any of those feelings.
Looking back on this time of unjustifiable anger made something quite terrifying very clear. Hate is a group activity. When we watch movies about how people committed disgusting acts of hate against African-Americans during our country's past, we think "I would never do something like that" but we do, however, find it okay to write blogs, and use social media to criticize and ridicule these people.
Now I understand that these two situations are drastically different and one has a much larger cultural impact, but the emotion behind both are very similar. Hate is Hate no matter who you direct it on or how you go about promoting it. Even though I think some people may be a little annoying and fit the stereotype of a hipster perfectly, we have to step back and realize that we are hating a human-being. Regardless of who it is directed towards, it's not right and we should really look at how we treat people who are different from us.
Monday, March 17, 2014
I don't share well.
Blogging is a hard thing for me to do. I figured for my first post I would try to describe why I don't feel comfortable doing it because I need to find something to talk about for once.
Firstly, I am pretty quiet person. I really only spoke when spoken to and in some instances it could take weeks or even months for me to say anything. I feel that today people want to share everything through instagram, vines, twitter, facebook and honestly I don't feel the need to do so. I am an incredibly closed person who really only shares with close friends or family and even then, it's because I feel they could benefit or learn something from what I have to say.
I think that communication is such a powerful thing and now we can do it in so many different ways, all day every day. I'm curious what people can be talking about all the time that is so important. I don't feel my life is something worth bragging about. Not that I am depressed or anything, but I mean a sandwich is a sandwich no matter what kind of filter you put on it.
We have talked about in class about how people want to show off their lives on social media and give their audience a highlight reel to make their lives seem more glamorous than they really are. For me personally, I think taking pictures of every moment, special or not, takes away from whatever it is you are trying to document. I think this over-saturation of content makes special events like concerts, weddings, or other memorable moments seem common and therefor less special. This is why I feel like sometimes sharing events online pulls you away from the event because you are spending the moment finding the perfect hashtags or filters.
Overall I'm a pretty quiet person and I find all this online sharing confusing and unnecessary. On the other hand, there are a lot of positive effects found through sharing pictures and stories online. It's just not for me and that's why blogging is kind of difficult.
Firstly, I am pretty quiet person. I really only spoke when spoken to and in some instances it could take weeks or even months for me to say anything. I feel that today people want to share everything through instagram, vines, twitter, facebook and honestly I don't feel the need to do so. I am an incredibly closed person who really only shares with close friends or family and even then, it's because I feel they could benefit or learn something from what I have to say.
I think that communication is such a powerful thing and now we can do it in so many different ways, all day every day. I'm curious what people can be talking about all the time that is so important. I don't feel my life is something worth bragging about. Not that I am depressed or anything, but I mean a sandwich is a sandwich no matter what kind of filter you put on it.
We have talked about in class about how people want to show off their lives on social media and give their audience a highlight reel to make their lives seem more glamorous than they really are. For me personally, I think taking pictures of every moment, special or not, takes away from whatever it is you are trying to document. I think this over-saturation of content makes special events like concerts, weddings, or other memorable moments seem common and therefor less special. This is why I feel like sometimes sharing events online pulls you away from the event because you are spending the moment finding the perfect hashtags or filters.
Overall I'm a pretty quiet person and I find all this online sharing confusing and unnecessary. On the other hand, there are a lot of positive effects found through sharing pictures and stories online. It's just not for me and that's why blogging is kind of difficult.
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