“Distant Relatives” is a full-length collaboration between hip-hop stalwart Nas and reggae scion Damien ”Jr. Gong” Marley. These two musicians first hooked up on the highly praised song “Road To Zion” off of Marley’s lauded “Welcome To Jamrock.” Over the last 18 months, these two honed their talents on the mic to deliver a simply amazing album that serves as both a love letter to the motherland (Africa) and a wake-up call to the young Diaspora.
The first track and single, “As We Enter,” is a great introduction to the album as Nas and Jr. Gong trade bars and lay out the groundwork for the entire album. The next song, “Tribes Of War,” featuring Somali MC K’naan, spins the dark tale of Africa’s history. K’naan’s one verse features the bars “I drink poison, then I vomit diamonds. I gave you Mandela, Black Dalai Lamas. I gave you music, you enthused in my kindness. So how dare you reduce me to Donny Imus.”
The next track, “Strong Will Continue” was the first track that many people heard off of the album. It was leaked late last year and it shows off not only the superior production skills of Marley but also why Nas was called “Nasty Nas”. One very venom-filled verse takes aim at the turmoil that has engulfed Nas’ life the past year or so with bars like “How and the hell am I supposed to stay comfy when I pay child support alimony monthly. Got Maseratis and Ferraris. Only like a woman who’s a rider, but only hoes want me. Single life, crazy, niggas wives on me. I say stay faithful, they say they man corny. So I’m stuck with some married women, so fine Cheatin’ while they husband rushing on the 40 yard line.”
“Leaders”, one of the tracks that was produced by Marley’s brother Stephen, has a really trippy beat that sounds similar to anything that their iconic father would have created. The production helps the two MCs get across their message better. What also helps get their message is when Nas drops lines like “Malcolm on the podium. Shells drop to linoleum. Swipe those. Place ‘em on display at the Smithsonian.”
The next two tracks, “Friends” and “Count Your Blessings” further show the amazing chemistry that has developed between Nas and Jr. Gong. The next two songs after that, “Dispear” and “Land Of Promise” are the polar opposites of each other. The first track highlights the various dark times that the continent of Africa has faced. The bridge of the song, sung by Marley, best shows the despair that Africans from long ago went through, “Despair was a tool that was used to enslave man and mek manservant, Escape from despair and desperation becomes more urgent, Mankind needs to cleanse and wash out dem soul with spiritual detergent.” “Land Of Promise” is the flip side of the previous song. Jr. Gong’s first bar in the first verse of the song compares African cities to American cities and Nas’ first bar in the second verse, “Promised land I picture Porsches, Basquiat portraits, pink rings realistic princesses, heiresses’ bunch of kings and queens”, it shows the high hopes that Nas and Marley have for the future of Africa.
“In His Own Words” is by far the most spiritual song on the album as both Nas and Marley trade verses on their spiritual views. Nas definitely shows on this track why is arguably one of the best lyricists of all time with his verse on his spiritual views, “Through my perspective, I can see Jah reflection in the highest definition, getting high with bredrin, then I ask him why is Africans dying from circumcision, they lack proper surgeons and suffer malnutrition, underestimate the wealth of their own wisdom, it’s like it’s been exchanged for this penicillin.” The next track, “Nah Mean” is the real “party” song of the album the beat is utterly infectious but still keeps the overall message of the album.
The final three tracks of the album, “Patience,” “My Generation” and without a doubt “Africa Must Wake Up,” really hammer home the message of unity and striving for better on the album. On “My Generation,” the addition of Joss Stone and Lil’ Wayne helps the track’s poignancy. Weezy, usually known for swagger and sizzurp-tainted lyrics, pull a verse out of his ass that can hang with Jr. Gong and Nas, the highlight of the verse being , “ Last night I set the future at the feet of my son. But they thinking that my Generation gotta die young. If we all come together, Then
they can’t divide one. Don’t worry ‘bout it, Just be about it.”
Nas and Jr. Gong still bring the heat on this song as they both offer up verses that serve as great observations of today’s generation. Gong’s verse truly shows the ridiculous flow that earned him a Grammy, “My Generation it so special it will make a change because the elders sew the seed and it a germinate. So anytime dem see the progress dem a celebrate because we rising up despite of the economy and then a we a star the show like the astronomy and how we keep on breaking through is an anomaly because we keep remaining true without apology.” Nas matches the sentiment felt by Marley in his verse, “I reach ‘em like Bono, So get rid of your self-sorrow. Add some bravado, Get wealthy like Wells Fargo. It’s true that I am you, And I am proof. Surviving through, We do what we got to do.Yow we can break the cycle, Let nobody lie to you. Then maybe put our sons and our daughters in private school cause there’s a mission we gotta finish before we leave. This generation is destined to do historic deeds.”
“Distant Relatives’” closing track, “Africa Must Wake Up,” is the perfect way to end this album as Nas and Jr. Gong encapsulate their battle cry for a new and prosperous Africa and with help from K’naan singing his verse in his native Somali. You can truly tell that Jr. Gong really put a lot of thought into the production of the album, as the feeling of Africa got across in his beats but also made them fit with the very unique flow of Nas.
Nas’s work lyrically on this album was amazing. His lyrics and flow truly stands out when he focus on what his strengths are as an MC, which are relaying his highly intellectual and observational lyrics in flows are sometimes machine gun-like and sometimes like a lullaby. Him and Jr. Gong work so well together that comes across like they’ve been making music together for years.
“Distant Relatives” is a great piece of collaborative music that not only Nas and Damien Marley should be proud of but this generation of young people but generations to come. ****1/2
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
I'll Still Defend Emotion or It's An "Emo" World After All
"I must say one thing. I must say emocore must be the stupidest f**king thing I've ever heard in my entire life. But just in case you are wondering, I read in my Thrasher the other day, that in fact, what my band along with other bands in this city are playing is emocore. I'm thinking Emo Phillips, the comedian? Emocore? Emotional hardcore? As if hardcore wasn't emotional to begin with."-said Ian Mackaye during a 1986 concert.
What Mackaye, singer of the influential bands Minor Threat and Fugazi and at the time of this quote Embrace, was referring to in his mid-song banter was the label given to the music of his and other bands in his hometown of Washington D.C. were making at the time of “emocore”, which was shortened to “emo.”
This is a tag that most people today like to stick on to every band that has come out in the past 15 years or so that happens to sing about how they are feeling, like that’s a goddamn crime or something.
Bands nowadays like All Time Low, Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, Say Anything etc. much like the bands Jimmy Eat World, The Get Up Kids and Sunny Day Real Estate ten or so years ago along with bands like Rites Of Spring and the previously mentioned Fugazi ten years before them were able to reach their audience because they were just like their audience, younger people who sometimes felt alienated, had a crush on someone that didn’t like them back or simply misunderstood, therefore these bands turned into a unofficial representation of a section of today’s youth
Unfortunately, the section of society that this music reaches is small, misunderstood and ridiculed. Some of the ridicule they brazenly bring on themselves. For example, in Mexico and Chile, kids who proudly wear the “emo” badge are routinely assaulted by either skinheads or street punks.
The “anti-emo” violence got so bad in the Mexican town of Queretaro that a Mexico City-based gay rights organization, staged a silent march through the town in order to quell the violence, which the organization feels stems from homophobic sentiments felt by the groups of kids in the town.
Honestly, I feel that the march and the violence itself are ridiculously stupid. The street punks and skinheads who went “emo-bashing” are stupid for getting worked up because some dudes like wear tight pants and eyeliner. The gay-rights organization is stupid because they come across as nothing more than attention whores and the “emo” kids are stupid because they bring on all of this onto themselves by branding themselves under the umbrella of “emo”
I’m aware that I’m coming across as “anti-emo” or whatever you’d like to call it. The thing is that I’m not anti-“emo” because “emo” is a term (a stupid term, at that) used to describe a music subgenre.
What I am is anti-“people who need to be classified and/or stereotyped in order to feel good about themselves.” It not just the “emo” kids either; it’s the “punk” kids, the “metalheads”, the “drama” geeks, or the favorite here at Brookdale, the “Magic” kids.
What I’m trying to say here is like or be whatever you like and don’t let people give you crap for who or what you are. But on the other hand, don’t pigeonhole yourself either, because you’re only denying yourself or someone else the awesome feeling of experiencing or learning about something that’s foreign to them.
Going back to Mackaye’s quote, at the end when he says “Emotional hardcore? Like hardcore wasn’t emotional enough anyway,” he brings up what people seem to not realize about music. The reason that you listen to the music that you do, whether it’s Fall Out Boy or Drake or H20 or even Ke$ha is because it brings out emotions in you that make you enjoy the music you’re listening to so much more.
All music is “emo” because if music didn’t have emotion, it would suck. So yes, that would make The Beatles “emo”, Jay-Z “emo” and Otis Redding “emo”. Try to wrap your head around that.
What Mackaye, singer of the influential bands Minor Threat and Fugazi and at the time of this quote Embrace, was referring to in his mid-song banter was the label given to the music of his and other bands in his hometown of Washington D.C. were making at the time of “emocore”, which was shortened to “emo.”
This is a tag that most people today like to stick on to every band that has come out in the past 15 years or so that happens to sing about how they are feeling, like that’s a goddamn crime or something.
Bands nowadays like All Time Low, Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, Say Anything etc. much like the bands Jimmy Eat World, The Get Up Kids and Sunny Day Real Estate ten or so years ago along with bands like Rites Of Spring and the previously mentioned Fugazi ten years before them were able to reach their audience because they were just like their audience, younger people who sometimes felt alienated, had a crush on someone that didn’t like them back or simply misunderstood, therefore these bands turned into a unofficial representation of a section of today’s youth
Unfortunately, the section of society that this music reaches is small, misunderstood and ridiculed. Some of the ridicule they brazenly bring on themselves. For example, in Mexico and Chile, kids who proudly wear the “emo” badge are routinely assaulted by either skinheads or street punks.
The “anti-emo” violence got so bad in the Mexican town of Queretaro that a Mexico City-based gay rights organization, staged a silent march through the town in order to quell the violence, which the organization feels stems from homophobic sentiments felt by the groups of kids in the town.
Honestly, I feel that the march and the violence itself are ridiculously stupid. The street punks and skinheads who went “emo-bashing” are stupid for getting worked up because some dudes like wear tight pants and eyeliner. The gay-rights organization is stupid because they come across as nothing more than attention whores and the “emo” kids are stupid because they bring on all of this onto themselves by branding themselves under the umbrella of “emo”
I’m aware that I’m coming across as “anti-emo” or whatever you’d like to call it. The thing is that I’m not anti-“emo” because “emo” is a term (a stupid term, at that) used to describe a music subgenre.
What I am is anti-“people who need to be classified and/or stereotyped in order to feel good about themselves.” It not just the “emo” kids either; it’s the “punk” kids, the “metalheads”, the “drama” geeks, or the favorite here at Brookdale, the “Magic” kids.
What I’m trying to say here is like or be whatever you like and don’t let people give you crap for who or what you are. But on the other hand, don’t pigeonhole yourself either, because you’re only denying yourself or someone else the awesome feeling of experiencing or learning about something that’s foreign to them.
Going back to Mackaye’s quote, at the end when he says “Emotional hardcore? Like hardcore wasn’t emotional enough anyway,” he brings up what people seem to not realize about music. The reason that you listen to the music that you do, whether it’s Fall Out Boy or Drake or H20 or even Ke$ha is because it brings out emotions in you that make you enjoy the music you’re listening to so much more.
All music is “emo” because if music didn’t have emotion, it would suck. So yes, that would make The Beatles “emo”, Jay-Z “emo” and Otis Redding “emo”. Try to wrap your head around that.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
My Own Soundtrack (Shove It)
(Yet another piece that originally appeared in The Stall)
Everyone has those songs that they never skip over when they come up on their iTunes shuffle. The myriad of reasons that people like a particular song can range from something as mundane as a catchy bass line to more meaningful reasons like the back story of the song is just like an experience that some person may have had at some point or another in their life.
It’s been said the music that a person is an extension of their personality. My choices are no different as each song represents not only a different aspect of my personality but also a different point in my life. With all of that being said, here are my five favorite songs of all time, in no particular order.
The third single off of their 1987 album, “Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me,” The Cure’s “Just Like Heaven” is a song that manages to be both whimsical and haunting at the same time. The song is one of my favorites because not only the awesome musicianship of the band but the lyrics as well, which tell a story of real, heartfelt romance. This song also reminds me of that stupid crush that everyone had that during their freshman year of high school. The one that you hoped would last but knew it wouldn’t but when you look back on it, you can’t help but crack a smile.
Queen is an iconic band and “Bohemian Rhapsody” is their iconic song. The song was written by late front man Freddie Mercury for their 1975 album “A Night At The Opera” This song melds together rock and opera in such a perfect way that it will remembered for generations to come. This song opened my eyes (or ears, depending on how you want to look or hear it) to new and interesting genres of music and Queen is one of the few bands me and my parents agree on.
Furthermore, the song not only had the first promotional video but also was the catalyst for one of the funniest scenes in Wayne’s World in addition to being one of the only songs that countless bands have tried to rip off but can’t. What do you think Green Day was trying to do when they wrote “Jesus Of Suburbia?”
The second single off of Alkaline Trio’s 2001 album “From Here To Infirmary”, “Private Eye” is the antithesis of The Cure’s “Just Like Heaven.” With lyrics like “New Year's Eve was as boring as heaven. I watched flies fuck on Channel 11. There was no one to kiss; there was nothing to drink except some old rotten milk someone left in the sink,” you can feel the loneliness that everyone experiences at some point growing up. The song also highlights the eternal optimism that comes with growing up with the line “Maybe someday I'll find me a suspect that has no alibi.”
“Hey Jude” is another song that is considered one of the greatest songs ever written. It truly shows off the sheer songwriting genius that Paul McCartney has. This song has stuck with me not only because The Beatles are the greatest band ever but also the four summers I spent working at the Driftwood Cabana Club in Sea Bright. Not only was it my very first job, I met a whole bunch of really cool people, some of which I was actually able to keep in touch with.
The reason why “Hey Jude” has become synonymous with those four summers is because one late August night where my co-worker Stef tricked me into singing the entire song. That being said, I miss that time of my life. So much hilarious stuff happened.
The final song is Bayside’s “Devotion And Desire” which is off of their 2005 self-titled record. This song really represents all of the inner anxiety and depression post-high school. The second verse of the song, which has the lines “Situation's unbearable, I've gotten vulnerable. Now anyone is free to waltz right in. My temple's been invaded and there's nobody guarding it. All over this lonely life but what's so wrong with being all alone? Alone's the only way I've ever known,” sum up best all of the anxiety and loneliness that I’ve use to feel. Feelings which held me back so far for so long.
So why like this song if it dredges up memories of old feelings, you may ask? There’s a couple of reasons. One because it’s simply an amazing and two, this will be something that I’ll have to deal with for the rest of my life and I shouldn’t have to be ashamed of all that it took to get to the point.
I guess what I’m trying to say with all this is that the music that a person likes is partially influenced by their childhood and their surroundings. Not exactly earth-shattering I know but when you think about it, it makes much more sense.
Everyone has those songs that they never skip over when they come up on their iTunes shuffle. The myriad of reasons that people like a particular song can range from something as mundane as a catchy bass line to more meaningful reasons like the back story of the song is just like an experience that some person may have had at some point or another in their life.
It’s been said the music that a person is an extension of their personality. My choices are no different as each song represents not only a different aspect of my personality but also a different point in my life. With all of that being said, here are my five favorite songs of all time, in no particular order.
The third single off of their 1987 album, “Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me,” The Cure’s “Just Like Heaven” is a song that manages to be both whimsical and haunting at the same time. The song is one of my favorites because not only the awesome musicianship of the band but the lyrics as well, which tell a story of real, heartfelt romance. This song also reminds me of that stupid crush that everyone had that during their freshman year of high school. The one that you hoped would last but knew it wouldn’t but when you look back on it, you can’t help but crack a smile.
Queen is an iconic band and “Bohemian Rhapsody” is their iconic song. The song was written by late front man Freddie Mercury for their 1975 album “A Night At The Opera” This song melds together rock and opera in such a perfect way that it will remembered for generations to come. This song opened my eyes (or ears, depending on how you want to look or hear it) to new and interesting genres of music and Queen is one of the few bands me and my parents agree on.
Furthermore, the song not only had the first promotional video but also was the catalyst for one of the funniest scenes in Wayne’s World in addition to being one of the only songs that countless bands have tried to rip off but can’t. What do you think Green Day was trying to do when they wrote “Jesus Of Suburbia?”
The second single off of Alkaline Trio’s 2001 album “From Here To Infirmary”, “Private Eye” is the antithesis of The Cure’s “Just Like Heaven.” With lyrics like “New Year's Eve was as boring as heaven. I watched flies fuck on Channel 11. There was no one to kiss; there was nothing to drink except some old rotten milk someone left in the sink,” you can feel the loneliness that everyone experiences at some point growing up. The song also highlights the eternal optimism that comes with growing up with the line “Maybe someday I'll find me a suspect that has no alibi.”
“Hey Jude” is another song that is considered one of the greatest songs ever written. It truly shows off the sheer songwriting genius that Paul McCartney has. This song has stuck with me not only because The Beatles are the greatest band ever but also the four summers I spent working at the Driftwood Cabana Club in Sea Bright. Not only was it my very first job, I met a whole bunch of really cool people, some of which I was actually able to keep in touch with.
The reason why “Hey Jude” has become synonymous with those four summers is because one late August night where my co-worker Stef tricked me into singing the entire song. That being said, I miss that time of my life. So much hilarious stuff happened.
The final song is Bayside’s “Devotion And Desire” which is off of their 2005 self-titled record. This song really represents all of the inner anxiety and depression post-high school. The second verse of the song, which has the lines “Situation's unbearable, I've gotten vulnerable. Now anyone is free to waltz right in. My temple's been invaded and there's nobody guarding it. All over this lonely life but what's so wrong with being all alone? Alone's the only way I've ever known,” sum up best all of the anxiety and loneliness that I’ve use to feel. Feelings which held me back so far for so long.
So why like this song if it dredges up memories of old feelings, you may ask? There’s a couple of reasons. One because it’s simply an amazing and two, this will be something that I’ll have to deal with for the rest of my life and I shouldn’t have to be ashamed of all that it took to get to the point.
I guess what I’m trying to say with all this is that the music that a person likes is partially influenced by their childhood and their surroundings. Not exactly earth-shattering I know but when you think about it, it makes much more sense.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Chris Morrisy Band Review (I couldn't think of a witty headline about the fact that the dude looks like Jesus.)
So I was going through some stuff on my desk yesterday and I happened to come across an unopened copy of “Ocean Avenue,” a four song EP released by The Chris Morrisy Band. In case you are wondering, the Chris Morrisy band is the band that is a Saturday night staple at Jack’s Goal Line Stand in Long Branch . The band’s is known for playing covers during their Saturday set but this EP is nothing but originals that honestly, I wish they would play instead of the same Sublime or Journey songs every single week.
The band’s sound is a mash-up of bands like O.A.R, Dispatch and The Dave Matthews Band along with the requirement that all Jersey bands have they must sound at least 5% like Bruce. On the title track, you can hear the echoes of both Bruce and Dave as Morrisy sings about speeding down Ocean Avenue with the top down and getting pulled over.
On the other songs on the album, “Picture Of You,” “Not This Time” and “Naturally”, you can really see them the theme that this EP has, one of having a positive outlook on life and love.
This EP definitely shows that The Chris Morrisy is more than just playing “Don’t Stop Believing” every weekend. It also shows that there’s definitely something there for this band to bulid on and that hard to saying for a lot of “bar bands.” ***
The band’s sound is a mash-up of bands like O.A.R, Dispatch and The Dave Matthews Band along with the requirement that all Jersey bands have they must sound at least 5% like Bruce. On the title track, you can hear the echoes of both Bruce and Dave as Morrisy sings about speeding down Ocean Avenue with the top down and getting pulled over.
On the other songs on the album, “Picture Of You,” “Not This Time” and “Naturally”, you can really see them the theme that this EP has, one of having a positive outlook on life and love.
This EP definitely shows that The Chris Morrisy is more than just playing “Don’t Stop Believing” every weekend. It also shows that there’s definitely something there for this band to bulid on and that hard to saying for a lot of “bar bands.” ***
Thursday, April 8, 2010
So Jersey or The Rising Of Asbury Park.....
This is yet another article that was first in my column for The Stall called The Static Page...........
“It takes a leap of faith to get things going. It takes a leap of faith you gotta show some guts. It takes a leap of faith to get things going. In your heart you must trust.” Bruce Springsteen “Leap of Faith” 1992
“We live our life in our own way, Never really listened to what they say, The kind of faith that doesn't fade away, We are the true believers. The Bouncing Souls “True Believers” 2001
Have you ever been to Asbury Park? I don’t mean driving down Main Street on your way to Belmar or Point Pleasant, I mean getting out and experiencing the urban renaissance taking place from Cookman Avenue all the way to the boardwalk.
The vibrant community that exists in newer places like America’s Cup, Twisted Tree, Langosta Lounge has brought and continues to breathe life into iconic landmarks like Convention Hall, The Berkeley Hotel and The Stone Pony. With all the new blood coursing through its veins, Asbury has climbed out of its proverbial grave and is showing off for the entire world to see.
The phoenix-like ascension of Asbury, like the music of Jersey’s unofficial bard, Bruce Springsteen and punk band The Bouncing Souls, is a perfect example of that certain “je ne sais quoi” that embodies the attitude of everyone that calls the great state home.
Asbury , like the vast majority of people who come from this great state, have what Jeff Raspe, the music wizard over at 90.5 The Night, calls “an imaginary chip that we Jerseyans carry on our shoulder.” For a lot of years, Asbury suffered the various indignities that came with being one of the worst places in this state. However, a different-thinking group of people saw the potential for the town as epic and sweeping changes were made to bring Asbury back to the “Glory Days” that Bruce sang about on the classic album “Born in the U.S.A.”
Amylee Sanders, a 19-year-old biology major from Manasquan, sums up the feelings that one gets from listening to Bruce Springsteen, “9/11 was a tragic event, which took a beating on our nation, if not, world, and I remember hearing Bruce played throughout the times of grievance, from the recovery concert to the memorial service for a good friend and die-hard fan. Today, I find myself at Springsteen shows, flailing my arms like those women at Baptist church in the South, because his music flows through my veins and brings me back to the greatest moments of my life. The energy, the passion, the hope. Whatever it is that keeps him kicking, keeps me kicking.”
What Sanders and all of the people who listen to both Bruce and the Souls hear is music that embodies who, what and where they are. The Bouncing Souls, much like Bruce, have been putting out music over two decades that embody that truly free spirit that resonates in the heart of every kid from Jersey.
The Souls are huge fans on Bruce’s and on their album “The Gold Record,” they wrote a song called “So Jersey” that’s probably the best Bruce song Bruce Springsteen never wrote. The song’s lyrics truly encapsulate everything that embodies the essence of being Jersey: “Stepping out of Asbury Lanes in a midnight snow, the skeleton of this old town feels like it's coming alive. Riots and corruption, beaches and Bruce, these songs were the keys to the engines of our growing up. And we wanna say thanks to the music in our lives. Forgive ourselves for all those lies. Send some love to all the lonely. Don't forget we're all one family. Thanks to the music in our lives for helping us to survive. Lost in one lonely dream, born to run and live free.”
Now, if that doesn’t sum up the fighting, care-free spirit that engulfs Asbury, and Jersey as a whole, I don’t know what does.
“It takes a leap of faith to get things going. It takes a leap of faith you gotta show some guts. It takes a leap of faith to get things going. In your heart you must trust.” Bruce Springsteen “Leap of Faith” 1992
“We live our life in our own way, Never really listened to what they say, The kind of faith that doesn't fade away, We are the true believers. The Bouncing Souls “True Believers” 2001
Have you ever been to Asbury Park? I don’t mean driving down Main Street on your way to Belmar or Point Pleasant, I mean getting out and experiencing the urban renaissance taking place from Cookman Avenue all the way to the boardwalk.
The vibrant community that exists in newer places like America’s Cup, Twisted Tree, Langosta Lounge has brought and continues to breathe life into iconic landmarks like Convention Hall, The Berkeley Hotel and The Stone Pony. With all the new blood coursing through its veins, Asbury has climbed out of its proverbial grave and is showing off for the entire world to see.
The phoenix-like ascension of Asbury, like the music of Jersey’s unofficial bard, Bruce Springsteen and punk band The Bouncing Souls, is a perfect example of that certain “je ne sais quoi” that embodies the attitude of everyone that calls the great state home.
Asbury , like the vast majority of people who come from this great state, have what Jeff Raspe, the music wizard over at 90.5 The Night, calls “an imaginary chip that we Jerseyans carry on our shoulder.” For a lot of years, Asbury suffered the various indignities that came with being one of the worst places in this state. However, a different-thinking group of people saw the potential for the town as epic and sweeping changes were made to bring Asbury back to the “Glory Days” that Bruce sang about on the classic album “Born in the U.S.A.”
Amylee Sanders, a 19-year-old biology major from Manasquan, sums up the feelings that one gets from listening to Bruce Springsteen, “9/11 was a tragic event, which took a beating on our nation, if not, world, and I remember hearing Bruce played throughout the times of grievance, from the recovery concert to the memorial service for a good friend and die-hard fan. Today, I find myself at Springsteen shows, flailing my arms like those women at Baptist church in the South, because his music flows through my veins and brings me back to the greatest moments of my life. The energy, the passion, the hope. Whatever it is that keeps him kicking, keeps me kicking.”
What Sanders and all of the people who listen to both Bruce and the Souls hear is music that embodies who, what and where they are. The Bouncing Souls, much like Bruce, have been putting out music over two decades that embody that truly free spirit that resonates in the heart of every kid from Jersey.
The Souls are huge fans on Bruce’s and on their album “The Gold Record,” they wrote a song called “So Jersey” that’s probably the best Bruce song Bruce Springsteen never wrote. The song’s lyrics truly encapsulate everything that embodies the essence of being Jersey: “Stepping out of Asbury Lanes in a midnight snow, the skeleton of this old town feels like it's coming alive. Riots and corruption, beaches and Bruce, these songs were the keys to the engines of our growing up. And we wanna say thanks to the music in our lives. Forgive ourselves for all those lies. Send some love to all the lonely. Don't forget we're all one family. Thanks to the music in our lives for helping us to survive. Lost in one lonely dream, born to run and live free.”
Now, if that doesn’t sum up the fighting, care-free spirit that engulfs Asbury, and Jersey as a whole, I don’t know what does.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Nevermind The 36 Chambers or What do Black and NWA have in common?
Yet another article that appeared in The Stall originally.....
Both exploded into the public conscience in New York City during the late 1970’s. Both tackled the impact that society, politics and the economy have on youth. Both are to this a day a constant influential presence on popular music. However, the vast similarities between the two are constantly overlooked simply because one is looked at speaking to a mostly white perspective while the other is perceived to look at life through a mostly black/minority perspective. I feel that both have the same outlook on things but due to the racial perspectives that each one has somewhat unfairly had pinned on them. These unfair perspectives have unfairly painted these two genres as different when in reality they are quite the complimentary pair. What I’m referring to is the genres of rap and punk.
One of these most glaring similarities between the two types of music is the way that both genres started. Both genres came from not-so-glamorous parts of NYC, the seedy L.E.S where punk rock mecca CBGB’s was located and the South Bronx where hip-hop “godfather” DJ Kool Herc threw monster block parties that spawned rap music and the hip-hop movement as a whole. The first few years of each genre spawned such iconic artists like Afrika Bambaataa, Television, The Talking Heads and Kurtis Blow.
As the 70’s turned into the 80’s, you can see the linear progressions that the two genres made. As the influence of punk and hip-hop moved west, you can the message of the two genres becoming darker, narrower and more abrasive once they got to southern California. Groups like Black Flag and The Circle Jerks popularized the hardcore brand of punk which was created by Minor Threat while N.W.A took the message that Public Enemy broadcasting and added a little Compton flair to it.
Once the 90’s came, both genres exploded into the forefront of the music scene. The much talked-about East Coast/West Coast rivalry between Biggie Smalls and his partner P.Diddy and Diddy’s Bad Boy label beefing with Tupac and Death Row Records which was owned by Suge Knight and also had Snoop Dogg signed on to the label. This feud/beef/whatever it is signed a light onto other MCs on both coast to get noticed by hungry executives who want to cash in off of the feud. Some of these MCs include Jay-Z, Nas, Warren G and Kurrupt.
On the other side of the coin, punk was becoming a moneymaker like hip-hop was, without the whole feud thing of course. The Offspring’s 1994 album “Smash”, which features the classics “Come Out & Play (Keep ‘Em Separated)” and “Self-Esteem”, became the biggest selling album to ever come from an independent label, in this case Epitaph Records. “Smash” was selling so much (over 16 million to date) that Epitaph founded had to step away from his band, Bad Religion (also selling quite well), right as they were about to sign with Atlantic Records. Also in 1994, Green Day released their major-label debut, “Dookie”, which sold over 15 million records worldwide. The success of ‘Smash” and “Dookie” paved the way for band like NOFX, Rancid and Blink-182.
The success that both genres experienced in the 90’s paved the way for what we have today. The continued success that Green Day have has paved the way for bands like Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance and other emo (and its many made-up subgenres) to have a stranglehold on the popular rock scene. The swagger emitted by Hova and Snoop has led to the South and the Midwest becoming the new epicenter for popular rap music thanks to artists like Lil’ Wayne, Slim Thug and Kanye West. Both genres nowadays, due to the constant need to be in the forefront, delved into more and more over-production (I’m looking at you, T-Pain!!) Thanks to the overly-produced sounds that these artists have gone into, there’s been a growing call for these genres to return to their roots that made them so interesting.
However, there are a couple of artists that fully embrace both genres’ similarities. Jacksonville punk band Whole Wheat Bread consist of three black guys who love Less Than Jake as much as they love Lil’ Jon (who they have covered in the past and are currently collaborating with on his solo album, “Crunk Rock”). Another one is Sage Francis, a white MC who is not only signed to iconic punk label Epitaph, but has also played on the Warped Tour and has opened up for bands like Against Me.
As you can see, the history of rap music and punk rock are actually quite similar in addition to the messages in the songs being the same, just delivered a little different. So next time you see a kid rocking a Clash shirt walking around the hall here at the Dale, don’t scoff because chances are the message they get from listening to “London Calling” is quite similar to the one you’re listening Nas rhyme about on your iPod.
Both exploded into the public conscience in New York City during the late 1970’s. Both tackled the impact that society, politics and the economy have on youth. Both are to this a day a constant influential presence on popular music. However, the vast similarities between the two are constantly overlooked simply because one is looked at speaking to a mostly white perspective while the other is perceived to look at life through a mostly black/minority perspective. I feel that both have the same outlook on things but due to the racial perspectives that each one has somewhat unfairly had pinned on them. These unfair perspectives have unfairly painted these two genres as different when in reality they are quite the complimentary pair. What I’m referring to is the genres of rap and punk.
One of these most glaring similarities between the two types of music is the way that both genres started. Both genres came from not-so-glamorous parts of NYC, the seedy L.E.S where punk rock mecca CBGB’s was located and the South Bronx where hip-hop “godfather” DJ Kool Herc threw monster block parties that spawned rap music and the hip-hop movement as a whole. The first few years of each genre spawned such iconic artists like Afrika Bambaataa, Television, The Talking Heads and Kurtis Blow.
As the 70’s turned into the 80’s, you can see the linear progressions that the two genres made. As the influence of punk and hip-hop moved west, you can the message of the two genres becoming darker, narrower and more abrasive once they got to southern California. Groups like Black Flag and The Circle Jerks popularized the hardcore brand of punk which was created by Minor Threat while N.W.A took the message that Public Enemy broadcasting and added a little Compton flair to it.
Once the 90’s came, both genres exploded into the forefront of the music scene. The much talked-about East Coast/West Coast rivalry between Biggie Smalls and his partner P.Diddy and Diddy’s Bad Boy label beefing with Tupac and Death Row Records which was owned by Suge Knight and also had Snoop Dogg signed on to the label. This feud/beef/whatever it is signed a light onto other MCs on both coast to get noticed by hungry executives who want to cash in off of the feud. Some of these MCs include Jay-Z, Nas, Warren G and Kurrupt.
On the other side of the coin, punk was becoming a moneymaker like hip-hop was, without the whole feud thing of course. The Offspring’s 1994 album “Smash”, which features the classics “Come Out & Play (Keep ‘Em Separated)” and “Self-Esteem”, became the biggest selling album to ever come from an independent label, in this case Epitaph Records. “Smash” was selling so much (over 16 million to date) that Epitaph founded had to step away from his band, Bad Religion (also selling quite well), right as they were about to sign with Atlantic Records. Also in 1994, Green Day released their major-label debut, “Dookie”, which sold over 15 million records worldwide. The success of ‘Smash” and “Dookie” paved the way for band like NOFX, Rancid and Blink-182.
The success that both genres experienced in the 90’s paved the way for what we have today. The continued success that Green Day have has paved the way for bands like Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance and other emo (and its many made-up subgenres) to have a stranglehold on the popular rock scene. The swagger emitted by Hova and Snoop has led to the South and the Midwest becoming the new epicenter for popular rap music thanks to artists like Lil’ Wayne, Slim Thug and Kanye West. Both genres nowadays, due to the constant need to be in the forefront, delved into more and more over-production (I’m looking at you, T-Pain!!) Thanks to the overly-produced sounds that these artists have gone into, there’s been a growing call for these genres to return to their roots that made them so interesting.
However, there are a couple of artists that fully embrace both genres’ similarities. Jacksonville punk band Whole Wheat Bread consist of three black guys who love Less Than Jake as much as they love Lil’ Jon (who they have covered in the past and are currently collaborating with on his solo album, “Crunk Rock”). Another one is Sage Francis, a white MC who is not only signed to iconic punk label Epitaph, but has also played on the Warped Tour and has opened up for bands like Against Me.
As you can see, the history of rap music and punk rock are actually quite similar in addition to the messages in the songs being the same, just delivered a little different. So next time you see a kid rocking a Clash shirt walking around the hall here at the Dale, don’t scoff because chances are the message they get from listening to “London Calling” is quite similar to the one you’re listening Nas rhyme about on your iPod.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
A Little Ditty About Jack & Kanye
This is another article that originally appeared in The Stall.......
When it comes to popular music, the 00’s (or Naughts or whatever the hell it is) was chock full of crappy genres like “nu metal,” “snap music” and “crunkcore” featuring terrible artists like Nelly, Brokencyde, Nickelback and Soulja Boy. However, some artists stuck out like roses in fertilizer. Artists like The Roots, The Killers, The Hives, Talib Kwali and Common, while not being as popular as their less-talented brethren, give hope for people who actually like good music. However, there were two musicians who stood out even among the crop of talented artists for flipping the script on their respective genres and changing people’s perspective on popular music. With all that being said, my two choices for “Artists of the Decade” are Jack White and Kanye West.
Both West and White are rather eccentric in their actions (In Kanyeezy’s case, when he uttered “George Bush doesn't care about black people” while the entire back-story of the White Stripes shows the warped sense of humor White has.) In addition, both men have been known to exhibit somewhat malevolent behavior i.e. the highly publicized moment when West completely blitzed a clueless Taylor Swift Rex Ryan-style at the VMAs while White caught an assault charge for beating the snot out of the lead singer of fellow Detroit band The Von Bondies. However, high jinks aside, both Kanye and Jack White, through their mind-blowing work in their respective genres, brought pop music kicking and screaming into the new decade.
Chicago-raised West first gamed fame as a top producer on both rap and R&B albums due to his artistically brilliant meshing of old soul songs and electronic music into his beats, this is most notable on Jay-Z’s 2001 album, “The Blueprint.” After being in a car crash in 2002, which left him with his jaw wired shut, he was inspired to create his breakout single, “Through The Wire,” which he recorded while his jaw was still ensnared with wire. Since then, West’s daring mix of wordplay-riddled rhymes along his signature sound, which is like Alvin and the Chipmunks singing old Aretha Franklin songs mashed up with Daft Punk, had rappers of different statures from icons like Jay-Z to up-and-comers like Drake and Kid Cudi thinking about how far they can take the “game,” as it were, to the next level. To this day, West is still thinking of new ways to be innovative when it comes to hip-hop, most notably on his last album, “808s and Heartbreak.”
West’s true defining moment was on Sept. 11, 2007, when both he and 50 Cent dropped on the same day, Kanye releasing “Graduation” and Fiddy pushing “Curtis.” Music fans all over the world called this a battle over the future of the hip-hop movement, whether it continues in the vein of the street-laden swagger of 50 or head into a more socially-conscious, experimental sound that West was at the forefront of. The people spoke loudly with their scrilla as Kanye moved 957,000 copies of “Graduation” while Fifty lagged behind with only 691,000 units of “Curtis” sold. This proved that Kanye was the future of rap and hip hop and the people were ready to follow his lead.
Much like Kanye, Detroit-reared Jack White rose out of the Motor City garage-rock scene and via the use of cattle prod-like guitar sounds and a sledgehammer-like backbeat courtesy of his partner-in-crime, ex-wife, sister, band mate, whatever it is Meg White. Their second album “White Blood Cells,” which made all of the stupid rap-metal bands take notice by overloading everyone with their raw, unapologetic and brutally honest sound. However, their follow-up, “Elephant,” with the lead single “Seven Nation Army,” turned the music world on its collective ear and on the next two albums, “Get Behind Me Satan” and “Icky Thump” both which incorporated a more bluesy sound without losing the razor-like teeth of the previous albums enforced the fact the Stripes and other like-minded bands (The Killers, Kings Of Leon, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club etc.) will be the face of rock & roll for years to come. White has only strengthened that sentiment with his side projects, The Raconteurs and The Dead Weather.
The 00’s have given us a lot of things that are either hit-or-miss, like Facebook, Uggs and Ashton Kutcher’s career. However, when it comes to music, the 00’s gave us Kanye West and Jack White, both of which gave their respective genres, hip-hop and rock ‘n’ roll, the collective kick in the ass that the two genres needed so that they can stop posturing and mean-mugging and get back to what makes both genres so compelling, well-crafted songs that move whoever listens to them. By being able to do that consistently, both men are deserving of the title of “Music Artists of the Decade.”
When it comes to popular music, the 00’s (or Naughts or whatever the hell it is) was chock full of crappy genres like “nu metal,” “snap music” and “crunkcore” featuring terrible artists like Nelly, Brokencyde, Nickelback and Soulja Boy. However, some artists stuck out like roses in fertilizer. Artists like The Roots, The Killers, The Hives, Talib Kwali and Common, while not being as popular as their less-talented brethren, give hope for people who actually like good music. However, there were two musicians who stood out even among the crop of talented artists for flipping the script on their respective genres and changing people’s perspective on popular music. With all that being said, my two choices for “Artists of the Decade” are Jack White and Kanye West.
Both West and White are rather eccentric in their actions (In Kanyeezy’s case, when he uttered “George Bush doesn't care about black people” while the entire back-story of the White Stripes shows the warped sense of humor White has.) In addition, both men have been known to exhibit somewhat malevolent behavior i.e. the highly publicized moment when West completely blitzed a clueless Taylor Swift Rex Ryan-style at the VMAs while White caught an assault charge for beating the snot out of the lead singer of fellow Detroit band The Von Bondies. However, high jinks aside, both Kanye and Jack White, through their mind-blowing work in their respective genres, brought pop music kicking and screaming into the new decade.
Chicago-raised West first gamed fame as a top producer on both rap and R&B albums due to his artistically brilliant meshing of old soul songs and electronic music into his beats, this is most notable on Jay-Z’s 2001 album, “The Blueprint.” After being in a car crash in 2002, which left him with his jaw wired shut, he was inspired to create his breakout single, “Through The Wire,” which he recorded while his jaw was still ensnared with wire. Since then, West’s daring mix of wordplay-riddled rhymes along his signature sound, which is like Alvin and the Chipmunks singing old Aretha Franklin songs mashed up with Daft Punk, had rappers of different statures from icons like Jay-Z to up-and-comers like Drake and Kid Cudi thinking about how far they can take the “game,” as it were, to the next level. To this day, West is still thinking of new ways to be innovative when it comes to hip-hop, most notably on his last album, “808s and Heartbreak.”
West’s true defining moment was on Sept. 11, 2007, when both he and 50 Cent dropped on the same day, Kanye releasing “Graduation” and Fiddy pushing “Curtis.” Music fans all over the world called this a battle over the future of the hip-hop movement, whether it continues in the vein of the street-laden swagger of 50 or head into a more socially-conscious, experimental sound that West was at the forefront of. The people spoke loudly with their scrilla as Kanye moved 957,000 copies of “Graduation” while Fifty lagged behind with only 691,000 units of “Curtis” sold. This proved that Kanye was the future of rap and hip hop and the people were ready to follow his lead.
Much like Kanye, Detroit-reared Jack White rose out of the Motor City garage-rock scene and via the use of cattle prod-like guitar sounds and a sledgehammer-like backbeat courtesy of his partner-in-crime, ex-wife, sister, band mate, whatever it is Meg White. Their second album “White Blood Cells,” which made all of the stupid rap-metal bands take notice by overloading everyone with their raw, unapologetic and brutally honest sound. However, their follow-up, “Elephant,” with the lead single “Seven Nation Army,” turned the music world on its collective ear and on the next two albums, “Get Behind Me Satan” and “Icky Thump” both which incorporated a more bluesy sound without losing the razor-like teeth of the previous albums enforced the fact the Stripes and other like-minded bands (The Killers, Kings Of Leon, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club etc.) will be the face of rock & roll for years to come. White has only strengthened that sentiment with his side projects, The Raconteurs and The Dead Weather.
The 00’s have given us a lot of things that are either hit-or-miss, like Facebook, Uggs and Ashton Kutcher’s career. However, when it comes to music, the 00’s gave us Kanye West and Jack White, both of which gave their respective genres, hip-hop and rock ‘n’ roll, the collective kick in the ass that the two genres needed so that they can stop posturing and mean-mugging and get back to what makes both genres so compelling, well-crafted songs that move whoever listens to them. By being able to do that consistently, both men are deserving of the title of “Music Artists of the Decade.”
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Influence The Influence..........
This was a paper I wrote for my English 122 class. It's my take on the various media influences on society. Warning, this is quite long.
Ever since it was referred to as the “Forth Estate” during the French Revolution, the media is all of its forms, has been a huge influence on society in various ways by acting as an unofficial member of the “checks and balances” system that has helped the three branches of government run the U.S for centuries. The media has been credited over time for lifting the veil and exposing some the biggest scandals not just in the U.S but all around the world as well, one of the most infamous being the breaking of the Watergate scandal by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. The media has also been accused of on numerous occasions of using nefarious tactics of yellow journalism like sensationalism and scandal-making in addition to having a bias in order to sway popular opinion towards the opinion that they (the media) want you to have.
Television, movies, music, video games and the web have influenced the way that society thinks, especially its younger generations. Today’s youth are being blitzed by various forms of stimuli that are sometimes violent, sexual or something else that may be deemed unsuitable.
Using various sources, this paper is going to show that the media at large does have an influence on society, both good and bad. This I will prove by explaining the different forms of media then by using various sources, show examples of both good and bad influences that the various form of media has had on society. I will also show that even the negative aspect of the media’s influence on the public can turned in a positive by using the negativity as a stimulus for the public to resist negative things to which they are exposed.
When you are talking about the media and its various influences on society, you first have to show the vastness of the world’s oldest form of media, journalism. It’s common knowledge that the biggest impact on media and society as a whole was the first use of movable-type printing by Johannes Gutenberg around 1439, which sped up the process of mass producing literature to heights unimaginable in that day and age. It’s also common knowledge that during the French Revolution, the press served as a “Fourth Estate” or the truest form of checks and balances on the government. However, in the U.S, the advent of journalism, in the form of newspapers, first occurred in Boston in the year 1690 in a publication called “Domestic,” which only lastly for one issue before the colonial government at the time put the kibosh on it.
The two most impactful events that helped build American journalism were the 1st Amendment to the Constitution in 1791, which guaranteed the right of “free speech” and the invention of the steam-driven printing press by Jonas Booth in 1823 which not only took the production that Gutenberg’s press has and topped it but it also made printing en masse much cheaper then it was at the time. With the advent of those two items plus the first daily newspaper publication, the “New York Sun”, coming out in 1833, American journalism leapt forward into new heights not foreseen.
However, with all of these positive moves made by American journalists, there was something bound to happen that would leave a sour taste in most American’s mouths. This particular event is what John Therkelsen covers in his article “Joseph Pulitzer and his Prize.” In the article he talks about how in 1895 a battle was in full effect between the aforementioned Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst. Hearst and Pulitzer had been battling over readerships, reporters and whatever else was worth fighting over when they both decided that to get readers that they would give the more eye-popping stories the front page treatment while making the headlines bigger, bolder and more appealing to the public at large that they were striving for.
Both Hearst and Pulitzer kept going down this path of teasing the public, until one day their sensationalist ways, nowadays dubbed “yellow journalism” by historians due to a comic called the “Yellow Kid” which first ran in Hearst’s paper but was bought out by Pulitzer, overrode the sense of journalistic integrity that should be at the forefront of every publisher’s mind. When the USS Maine was blown to smithereens in a Cuban harbor on February 15, 1898, the vast majority of the newspapers in New York City took an approach of not jumping to conclusions. However, Pulitzer and Hearst jumped all into the jingoistic aspect of this like sharks smelling blood. Both Pulitzer’s paper, the “World” and Hearst’s paper, the “Journal”, ran with the story of a supposed “suppressed” cable message, which said that the tragedy of the USS Maine was not an accident but an attack by the Spanish. This message was proven to not exist but the two publishers got the public reaction that it desired, which was the public to become downright bloodthirsty in their demands for then-President William McKinley to declare war on the Spanish. Sadly, the negative tones and styling of the two publishers’ sensationalistic brand of “journalism” can be seen on a daily basis. Just look at the front covers of the New York Post and the New York Daily News.
A more modern example of this is exposed in Charles Davis’ article “Exposure Beats Hatemongering.” Davis’ article exposes how, during the health care debate that raged this past summer, the various cable news networks, Fox News and CNBC most notably, focused on the louder and more vocal people that said the particular political views that the networks show. In the case of the more right-leaning networks, they took a very jingoistic approach by preying on the still ruminating racial feelings of their mostly Southern viewer base.
Specifically, Davis points out how statements made by Fox News commentators like Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity used racially-toned statements to stir up sentiment against President Obama’s public opinion. Beck has openly stated that he feels that Obama has what Beck feels is a “deep-seated hatred” for white people. Beck’s statements, while obviously race-baiting, pale in comparison to conservative radio commentator Rush Limbaugh, who uses the words “Obama” and “Hitler” in the same sentence as often as Terrell Owens throws quarterbacks under the bus. The race baiting that these commentators did lead to people at town hall across the nations taking a more racially-tinged negative stance when it came to President Obama’s plan for a public option. The best example that Davis gives on this is that at one of these town hall meetings in Maryland, a man held up a sign stating the following; "Death To Obama, Death To Michelle And Her Two Stupid Kids.”
It wasn’t just the conservative media that used unsavory tactics when it came to the public option. CNBC is just as guilty of rabble-rousing but not as race-baiting as Fox News was. In his article, Davis points on that a blog called Talking Points Memo received an e-mail stating that CNBC used to go up to various Tea Party activists searching for the more vocal and uproarious Tea Party rallies, because they would make for good television (Davis n.pag.). Davis also points another e-mail that the blog received in which the following was sent to a Tea Party Google group by Tea Party Patriot national coordinator Jenny Beth Martin: "We have a media request for an event this week that will have lots of energy and lots of anger. This is for CNBC."
The overall negative tactics of “yellow journalism” or “tabloid journalism” are actually a good influence on society. The unsavory tactics that these networks have used and continue to use has forced some people to find more alternative and independent forms of getting news. In their article "Tabloid Journalism and the Public Sphere: a Historical Perspective on Tabloid Journalism", Anna Maria Jonsson and Henrik Ornebring talk about this:“This type of structural elitism in the mainstream mediated public sphere in turn creates a need for one or several alternative public spheres, where different people debate different issues in different ways.”
What Jonson and Ornebring are saying is that the people who report the have an air of being know-it-alls and that they are the only authority on current events. The effeteness of the anchors turns off some people enough that they hunt for way to get their news that not only lets them get news from outside of the selective few stories that the mainstream media shows but also gives them differing opinions that aren’t interrupted from the word go. Therefore, people are allowed to form their own opinion as opposed to being told what their opinion is.
Another positive influence that journalism has on society is that, with the advent of the Internet age, news is more accessible, instantaneous and inquisitive now more than ever. In his article, “The Changing Role of Journalism in the Internet Era,” Terry Wimmer points out yet another positive aspect of Internet journalism: “The Internet does not erase accessibility issues between journalism producers and journalism consumers, but it does increase the opportunity for feedback and exchange. It is my belief that the future of journalism links indelibly to the exploration and development of interactivity and exchange with on-line customers.”
The most positive influence that Internet journalism has on society is that it influences society to become journalists themselves. The advent of YouTube and social networking site like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter have opened up new doorways for everyday people to break a potential news story just by posting a 140-character blurb on their Twitter feed or uploading a picture from your cell phone onto your Facebook page. The Internet allows people to report the news themselves, instead of the news being reported to them.
The media’s influence on society isn’t limited to just journalism. Television’s influence, more specifically advertising on television, on society is vast and ever-changing. The Pittsburgh punk band Anti-Flag extols on the negative effects of both in the song “This Is The End (For You My Friend)” off their 2006 album “For Blood and Empire” and the video for the song as well. The song is about how the media blitzes society with ads featuring images of unattainable and borderline unreasonable stereotypes that are what the masses should fall in to.
The video for the song is of the band performing in a small basement-like venue with different facts intertwined in to the video like “The average weight of a model is 23% lower than that of an average woman.”, “Approximately one million men and boys suffer from anorexia.”, “Americans spend approximately $12.4 billion on cosmetic procedures per year,” and “By age 21, the average person will have watched 1,000,000 commercials.”
In addition to the facts presented in the video, the band, known for putting in essays in their liner notes for each song, placed an essay from Jean Kilbourne which said the following: "Advertising is an over $250 billion a year industry. We are exposed to over 3000 ads a day and will spend two years of our lives watching television commercials. Yet, remarkably, most of us believe we are not influenced by advertising. Ads sell a great deal more than products. They sell values, images, and concepts of success and worth, love, and sexuality, popularity and normalcy. They tell us who we should be ... Sometimes they sell addictions. Hollywood and the fashion, cosmetics and diet industries work hard to make each of us believe that our bodies are unacceptable and need constant improvement. Print ads and television commercials reduce us to body parts (lips, legs, breasts) airbrushed and touched up to meet impossible standards. TV shows tell women and teenage girls that cosmetic surgery is good for self-esteem. Is it any wonder that more than 80% of fourth grade girls have been on some sort of fad diet?"
For the most part, advertisers make the vast majority of their money off of self-hatred and greed. In the past few years, that has been such a backlash against these ads that advertisers have been making a more concerned attempt to wash away these stereotypes. So once again, something that has a negative influence turns to be a positive influence by making people fight against what unrealistic images are being portrayed to them.
Taking a much more positive outlook than Anti-Flag are Kyla M Day, Marina Epstein, and Monique L Ward. In their article, “Uncommonly Good: Exploring How Mass Media May Be a Positive Influence on Young Women's Sexual Health and Development,” the three authors state that all of the various sexually-tinged images throw at young women through the TV screen are actually quite esteem-building and allows for young women to find the proper ways to express themselves, therefore finding themselves.
Day, Epstein and Ward make four main points in their article. The first point they make is that nowadays there are magazines like Seventeen and Teen that are specifically for girls who are dealing with becoming a woman. Day, Epstein and Ward’s article points out that in 1996, 51 percent of girls who are 12-18 saw magazines as important when it came to finding answers to questions they may have about anything that has to do with sex. The second point that Day, Epstein and Ward make in their article is that through different types of television characters that have different types of personalities ranging from the iconic Lucy Ricardo to more modern-day female television characters like Daria, Carrie Bradshaw or Phoebe from “Friends,” it gives girls who are looking for someone, whether real or fictional, that feels the same way about life that they do. The third point that Day, Epstein and Ward make is that through the plethora of dramas that have been on television the past few years, young women has seen every plausible (and a couple of implausible) dating scenarios and therefore can expect what will or will not happen when it comes to intimate relationships with the opposite sex.
The final point that the authors brings up is the advent of something called “Girl-zines” a.k.a “grrrl zines.” These “Girl-zines” are independently-published and are read in small circles, much like the tiny zines that were published during the first wave of punk rock in the latter 1970s. The authors of these “Girl-zines” tackle many of the same issues that the television writers do. However, unlike the TV writers, the “Girl-zine” creators go over these issues with a “Riot-grrl”-like perspective, allowing girls who don’t feel that they fit in with the multiple “traditional” portrayals that they see on television these days. Alluding back to the similarity with the first wave of punk, the D.I.Y, for girls-by girls ethos of these “Girl-zines” allows the girls who read them to further the influence of the “Girl-zines” by starting one themselves. By doing that, they become one of the ones with the solution, instead of being one of the ones with the problem.
Another way that television is a positive influence on society is through educational programming. Daniel R. Anderson, a psychology professor at UMass, wrote about the many positive aspects of educational programming in his article “TV Can Be Positive Influence”. In this article, Anderson talks how when he and some of his colleagues interviewed and looked the high school transcripts of teenagers that they first interviewed when the now-high schoolers were attending preschool back in the late 1980s. What Anderson and his associates discovered was that the students who watched educational programming like “Sesame Street”, “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood” and “Captain Kangaroo” had higher grades in math, English and science. Another fact that Anderson pointed out in his article was how Bob Keeshan, the creator and portrayer of the “Captain Kangaroo” character, lobbied heavily for the Children’s Television Act, passed in 1996, which mandated that broadcasters must show a minimum three hours of children’s programming a week (Anderson n. pag.). This act paved the way for show such as “Barney & Friends”, “Blue’s Clues” and “Yo Gabba Gabba!” becoming the hit shows they are to this day and sending the little ones of today a very positive message.
However, there are some cases where people think are an expert on something just because they watch a lot of a certain type of show. In the Stanford Law Journal article titled “Investigating the 'CSI effect' effect: Media and Litigation Crisis in Criminal Law”, authors Simon A. Cole and Rachel Dioso-Villa examine the fact that with the ever-rising popularity of procedural dramas, most notably the “C.S.I” series, and movies like “Silence Of The Lambs”, people are becoming more interested into the technical aspects of crime-solving. However, there are those in the legal field who say that the popularity rise in shows like C.S.I and Law & Order influences some people too far and when these people serve jury duty, they feel like they are pseudo-experts and therefore tainting the legal process.
Cole and Dioso-Villa’s article examines six various influences, both positive and negative, that the show “C.S.I” has on society today. The first influence that “C.S.I” has on society, according to Cole and Dioso-Villa, is called the "strong prosecutor's effect”. The “strong prosecutor’s effect”, which is what the authors show as the effect that jurors who watch “C.S.I” have on cases because more and more people are being acquitted because forensic evidence which used to be strong enough to convict a person now also has to pass the muster of people who feel that because they watch shows with Laurence Fishburne and Daivd Caruso in them, they are now D.N.A experts with high standards when it comes to forensic evidence. Cole and Dioso-Villa also point the opposite of this, which they call the “weak prosecutor’s effect”, which is different from the “strong prosecutor’s effect” in the way that some prosecutors ask potential jurors if they watch “C.S.I” or not. These prosecutors also use very animated and flashy forensic evidence, like on show in order to sway these educated jurors.
The next influence that Cole and Dioso-Villa discuss is called the “defendant's effect”, which they state is the unfair lionization of the various prosecutorial witness by the jurors who see these same people being shown on their TV sets as heroes, thereby putting the defense at a disadvantage.
The next two influences that Cole and Dioso-Villa point out are the most positive ones in their article. There are referred to as the “producer's effect” and the "educator's effect”. The “producer's effect” is the term that Cole and Disoso-Villa use to describe the words that the producers of “C.S.I” used to dispel rumors that their show was upsetting the legal process. The producers said that they were using the initials “C.S.I” to educate people, not upset legal proceedings. The other counter-action taken by the producers of “C.S.I” to fend off their detractors is what Cole and Dioso-Villa called the "educator's effect”, which is what the authors’ use to describe the fact that shows like “C.S.I”, “E.R”, “Law & Order” etc. aren’t only educational to the masses but also influence people to choose the same careers that they see their favorite characters have on the TV screen.
The last effect that Cole and Dioso-Villa point out is the most negative one. They term it the “police chief's effect". What Cole and Dioso-Villa mean is that not only does “C.S.I” and other shows in the same vain not only educate regular people, it also educates criminals as well. It gives criminals the necessary info to know how to clean up a crime scene of any and all forensic evidence. To put a positive spin on this, knowing that criminals have more of an idea of how to decontaminate a crime scene now forces the top forensic scientists to come up with new and fool-proof ways to gather the damning forensic evidence that they need to put criminals away.
The media’s influence isn’t just limited to the small screen. Movies have been influencing the people who go to see them since James Dean was racing cars in “Rebel Without A Cause.” Speaking of James Dean, the movie industry has been accused for decades of making things that some people deem unsavory cool. The most glaring of these is smoking.
In their article titled “Do Favorite Movie Stars Influence Adolescent Smoking Initiation?”, authors Janet M. Distefan, John P. Pierce and Elizabeth A. Gilpin examine the possibility that teenagers are influenced by the people that they see on the silver screen. In the article, Distefan, Gilpin and Pierce analyze the data gathered from interviews with various kids to determine if they are in fact influenced by their favorite actors and actresses and present it in three different tables.
Table one shows the different actors and actresses that the kids name and the various movies that they were in and had scenes in which they were seen smoking. The most popular names mentioned were Brad Pitt, who smoked in “Legends of the Fall” and “Sleepers” and Drew Barrymore who smoked in four movies, including “Batman Forever” and Sharon Stone who was seen smoking in five movies, including “Casino” and “The Quick And The Dead”. It also showed the number of kids who tried smoking after they saw their favorite actors smoking. The number ranges from 3.6 percent of adolescent boys that were influenced to smoke by Sharon Stone to 15.1 percent of adolescent girls who said that Brad Pitt influenced then to try cigarettes.
Table two shows the discrepancy between boys and girls when it comes to if their favorite actor/actress influencing them to be open to tobacco-related advertising. The table shows that girls were much more likely to susceptible to advertising much more than boys were. Table three shows the various feeling that both adolescent boys and girls feel about smoking in general, the exposure they have to smoking and how their favorite movie stars influence them. What Distefan, Gilpin and Pierce discover is that movies, to a small extent, do influence kids to smoke but not on the level that detractors say they are.
Nowadays, the movie industry has been known to push people towards a positive lifestyle, and they use very interesting ways to do it, most notably the Jason Reitman-directed film “Thank You For Smoking”, starring Aaron Eckhart as Nick Naylor, a lobbyist for “Big Tobacco”. In the movie, Naylor suggests to his boss that they should convince the movie industry to make smoking “sexy” again by have more actors smoke on film. Naylor is subquently kidnapped and covered in nicotine patches, from which he nearly is killed do to nicotine poisioning. When he wakes up in the hospital he’s told that he can never smoke again do to hypersensitivity for nicotine that resulted from the attack.
After an article written by his then-girlfriend Heather Holloway, played by Katie Holmes, in which she exposes every secret that Naylor told her about the lobbyist community, tarnishing his legacy and leaving his jobless right before he’s to testify before the Senate in regards to a bill being brought up to vote that would put a picture of a skull and crossbones on every pack of smokes. Naylor still shows up to testify and in probably the most honest thing ever said in a movie, Naylor says that it’s not the Senate’s job to warn people of various hazards that the world has. Naylor went on to say that the real problem is that parents need to educate their children so that they can make will-informed decisions on their own. Naylor also tells the senator from Michigan that all Fords should comes with warning labels showing the risk of driving cars.
“Thank You For Smoking” was the perfect way for the movie industry to sway the public toward choosing not smoking. The director showed Nick Naylor as an anti-hero who cut through the pompous overbearing actions of Senator Ortolan Finisterre, played by William H. Macy, who was a good metaphor for all of the various organizations that want to tell other people how to raise their kids and told the public that it’s up to parents to show their kids the facts and let them make the decision. The movie was a very positive influence as it forced people to realize that their life choices aren’t made by other people, it’s made by them.
As influential as television and movies are, there’s probably no form of media more influencitial than music. In his book, “The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century”, author Alex Ross examines the various influences that music has had over the past century.
One aspect that Ross brings up is the fact that black musicians of the early 1900’s like Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Charlie Parker were allowed to perform in hallowed places like Carnegie Hall due to the color of their skin, therefore they heading out to the various clubs and bars and developed American jazz in the revered art form that it is today. For without American jazz, there would be no Motown, no hip-hop and no Chuck Berry.
Another point that Ross bring up in the book is how music shaped the moods in Russia, America and Germany during World War II. Ross’ book points how in October of 1932, Stalin commissioned various Soviet composers, in addition to other artists of the time, to created various works that would glorify the ideals of communism and its ideal goal of a social utopia, that would keep the mood of the Soviet Union positive. Hitler, unlike Stalin, was a fan of music and felt that political ideology had no place in music and that people should appreciate the work of German master like Wagner and Strauss. In the United States, the music world was turned on its ear by all of the exiles escaping from being handcuffed creatively in both Nazi-occupied Europe and the Soviet Union. Some these exiles include Igor Stravinsky and Arnold Schoenberg. These European exiles forced American-born composers like Aaron Copeland to further expand on their talents, therefore making American music becoming more and more influential by the day.
A more modern way to show how influential music is, good and bad, is the argument over rap music. Rachel E. Sullivan discusses the impact that rap music has in her article called “Rap and Race: It's Got a Nice Beat, but What About the Message?” The article shows how much rap music does affect youth, both black and white.
For her paper, Sullivan went to a mall in an unnamed town out in the Midwest and had every teenager that she came across fill out a questionnaire about the music that they listened to. Each person who took the survey was asked the following questions: How much they like rap music on a scale from 1(not at all) to 10 (favorite music to listen to)? , How many hours a week do they listen a week? And who are their three favorite rappers?
What Sullivan discovered is that the overall average rating that rap music was given by the survey takers was 7.98 out of 10. The more interesting tidbit that Sullivan discovered was that on a scale of 1 to 5 where one meant strongly disagree and five means strongly agree on the statement, “Rap is a truthful reflection of society”, the average answer given by black kids was 3.3 and the average for white kids was 3.1. showing that that there’s no racial divide when it comes to rap music’s impact on society there for rap music doesn’t have anywhere the influence on society, neither good nor bad, that people say it has.
A more recent way that the media influences people is through video games. In his article titled “Go Ahead, Steal My Car”, Bill Burke takes a very mocking with the various people, including then-Senator Hillary Clinton, who think that the “Grand Theft Auto” video game series is actually harmful to children. He sums up his feelings on the situation with the following:
“You need to be honest with yourself. Go outside and find a locked car -- or go to the back alley where missile launchers hover in a glowing light waiting for you to pick them up, or go drive down that street in your town where all the strippers hang out waiting for you to pick them up -- and see if you're tempted. But not just tempted. Not just amused or excited by the possibility of becoming a dark hero of the criminal underworld. You need to determine if you're actually willing and able to act on those temptations. You need to determine whether it's possible for you to change from whoever you were into someone completely different, someone who no longer recognizes the conditions and regulations of a society that, until you played the video game, were all you knew and believed in. That is, you need to find out just how stupid you really are.”
After reading that quote from Burke, doesn’t the notion of kids reenacting the things they see in “Grand Theft Auto” seem quite silly?
However, the best way to find out if kids are being influenced by video games is to ask them. Ron Leone and Erica Scharrer do this in their article “I Know You Are But What Am I? : Young People’s Perceptions of Varying Types of Video Game Influence”. For their study, Leone and Scharrer interviewed 118 different sixth and seventh graders from various types of schools and also had them fill out a questionnaire asking them about the positive and negative aspect of video games. What Leone and Scharrer discover is that the kids that are interviewed feel that the younger the kid is, the more susceptible to the more violent aspects of video games because they still have trouble drawing the line between video game and reality. The kids, in my view, feel as I do that the only way video games or any other form of media can be a negative influence on you is if you let it.
Nicholas Bowman and Andy Boyan focus on a different positive aspect of video gaming. In their presentation to the 2008 Meeting of the International Communication Association titled “Cognitive Skill as a Predictor of Flow and Presence in Naturally Mapped Video Games", Bowman and Boyan present evidence that realism-based games like “Guitar Hero” and the movement-based Nintendo Wii system not only help their hand-eye coordination but their critical thinking skills as well.
The test they did was having two subjects play the first-person shooter “Call of Duty”, one using the motion-sensitive “Wiimote” and the other using the standard Nintendo GameCube controller. What was discovered after letting them play for ten minutes then testing their reflexes was that the standard-based controller was better-suited for games like “Call Of Duty”, which test your thinking skills, while games that involve more hand-eye coordination are better suited for the Wii. This article shows what is probably the best thing about video gaming, which is the honing of skill that will help you focus better when you are an adult.
Through various sources covering the various aspects of the media from journalism in its many forms to advertising to television shows that teach, this paper shows that the media has a much more positive influence on society than people think. This paper also shows that what little negative influence that the media may have, is only negative in the eyes of people who think that it is. What it comes down to is that people can only be influenced negatively if they allow themselves to be affected by the negative. So in short, influence, much like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.
Ever since it was referred to as the “Forth Estate” during the French Revolution, the media is all of its forms, has been a huge influence on society in various ways by acting as an unofficial member of the “checks and balances” system that has helped the three branches of government run the U.S for centuries. The media has been credited over time for lifting the veil and exposing some the biggest scandals not just in the U.S but all around the world as well, one of the most infamous being the breaking of the Watergate scandal by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. The media has also been accused of on numerous occasions of using nefarious tactics of yellow journalism like sensationalism and scandal-making in addition to having a bias in order to sway popular opinion towards the opinion that they (the media) want you to have.
Television, movies, music, video games and the web have influenced the way that society thinks, especially its younger generations. Today’s youth are being blitzed by various forms of stimuli that are sometimes violent, sexual or something else that may be deemed unsuitable.
Using various sources, this paper is going to show that the media at large does have an influence on society, both good and bad. This I will prove by explaining the different forms of media then by using various sources, show examples of both good and bad influences that the various form of media has had on society. I will also show that even the negative aspect of the media’s influence on the public can turned in a positive by using the negativity as a stimulus for the public to resist negative things to which they are exposed.
When you are talking about the media and its various influences on society, you first have to show the vastness of the world’s oldest form of media, journalism. It’s common knowledge that the biggest impact on media and society as a whole was the first use of movable-type printing by Johannes Gutenberg around 1439, which sped up the process of mass producing literature to heights unimaginable in that day and age. It’s also common knowledge that during the French Revolution, the press served as a “Fourth Estate” or the truest form of checks and balances on the government. However, in the U.S, the advent of journalism, in the form of newspapers, first occurred in Boston in the year 1690 in a publication called “Domestic,” which only lastly for one issue before the colonial government at the time put the kibosh on it.
The two most impactful events that helped build American journalism were the 1st Amendment to the Constitution in 1791, which guaranteed the right of “free speech” and the invention of the steam-driven printing press by Jonas Booth in 1823 which not only took the production that Gutenberg’s press has and topped it but it also made printing en masse much cheaper then it was at the time. With the advent of those two items plus the first daily newspaper publication, the “New York Sun”, coming out in 1833, American journalism leapt forward into new heights not foreseen.
However, with all of these positive moves made by American journalists, there was something bound to happen that would leave a sour taste in most American’s mouths. This particular event is what John Therkelsen covers in his article “Joseph Pulitzer and his Prize.” In the article he talks about how in 1895 a battle was in full effect between the aforementioned Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst. Hearst and Pulitzer had been battling over readerships, reporters and whatever else was worth fighting over when they both decided that to get readers that they would give the more eye-popping stories the front page treatment while making the headlines bigger, bolder and more appealing to the public at large that they were striving for.
Both Hearst and Pulitzer kept going down this path of teasing the public, until one day their sensationalist ways, nowadays dubbed “yellow journalism” by historians due to a comic called the “Yellow Kid” which first ran in Hearst’s paper but was bought out by Pulitzer, overrode the sense of journalistic integrity that should be at the forefront of every publisher’s mind. When the USS Maine was blown to smithereens in a Cuban harbor on February 15, 1898, the vast majority of the newspapers in New York City took an approach of not jumping to conclusions. However, Pulitzer and Hearst jumped all into the jingoistic aspect of this like sharks smelling blood. Both Pulitzer’s paper, the “World” and Hearst’s paper, the “Journal”, ran with the story of a supposed “suppressed” cable message, which said that the tragedy of the USS Maine was not an accident but an attack by the Spanish. This message was proven to not exist but the two publishers got the public reaction that it desired, which was the public to become downright bloodthirsty in their demands for then-President William McKinley to declare war on the Spanish. Sadly, the negative tones and styling of the two publishers’ sensationalistic brand of “journalism” can be seen on a daily basis. Just look at the front covers of the New York Post and the New York Daily News.
A more modern example of this is exposed in Charles Davis’ article “Exposure Beats Hatemongering.” Davis’ article exposes how, during the health care debate that raged this past summer, the various cable news networks, Fox News and CNBC most notably, focused on the louder and more vocal people that said the particular political views that the networks show. In the case of the more right-leaning networks, they took a very jingoistic approach by preying on the still ruminating racial feelings of their mostly Southern viewer base.
Specifically, Davis points out how statements made by Fox News commentators like Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity used racially-toned statements to stir up sentiment against President Obama’s public opinion. Beck has openly stated that he feels that Obama has what Beck feels is a “deep-seated hatred” for white people. Beck’s statements, while obviously race-baiting, pale in comparison to conservative radio commentator Rush Limbaugh, who uses the words “Obama” and “Hitler” in the same sentence as often as Terrell Owens throws quarterbacks under the bus. The race baiting that these commentators did lead to people at town hall across the nations taking a more racially-tinged negative stance when it came to President Obama’s plan for a public option. The best example that Davis gives on this is that at one of these town hall meetings in Maryland, a man held up a sign stating the following; "Death To Obama, Death To Michelle And Her Two Stupid Kids.”
It wasn’t just the conservative media that used unsavory tactics when it came to the public option. CNBC is just as guilty of rabble-rousing but not as race-baiting as Fox News was. In his article, Davis points on that a blog called Talking Points Memo received an e-mail stating that CNBC used to go up to various Tea Party activists searching for the more vocal and uproarious Tea Party rallies, because they would make for good television (Davis n.pag.). Davis also points another e-mail that the blog received in which the following was sent to a Tea Party Google group by Tea Party Patriot national coordinator Jenny Beth Martin: "We have a media request for an event this week that will have lots of energy and lots of anger. This is for CNBC."
The overall negative tactics of “yellow journalism” or “tabloid journalism” are actually a good influence on society. The unsavory tactics that these networks have used and continue to use has forced some people to find more alternative and independent forms of getting news. In their article "Tabloid Journalism and the Public Sphere: a Historical Perspective on Tabloid Journalism", Anna Maria Jonsson and Henrik Ornebring talk about this:“This type of structural elitism in the mainstream mediated public sphere in turn creates a need for one or several alternative public spheres, where different people debate different issues in different ways.”
What Jonson and Ornebring are saying is that the people who report the have an air of being know-it-alls and that they are the only authority on current events. The effeteness of the anchors turns off some people enough that they hunt for way to get their news that not only lets them get news from outside of the selective few stories that the mainstream media shows but also gives them differing opinions that aren’t interrupted from the word go. Therefore, people are allowed to form their own opinion as opposed to being told what their opinion is.
Another positive influence that journalism has on society is that, with the advent of the Internet age, news is more accessible, instantaneous and inquisitive now more than ever. In his article, “The Changing Role of Journalism in the Internet Era,” Terry Wimmer points out yet another positive aspect of Internet journalism: “The Internet does not erase accessibility issues between journalism producers and journalism consumers, but it does increase the opportunity for feedback and exchange. It is my belief that the future of journalism links indelibly to the exploration and development of interactivity and exchange with on-line customers.”
The most positive influence that Internet journalism has on society is that it influences society to become journalists themselves. The advent of YouTube and social networking site like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter have opened up new doorways for everyday people to break a potential news story just by posting a 140-character blurb on their Twitter feed or uploading a picture from your cell phone onto your Facebook page. The Internet allows people to report the news themselves, instead of the news being reported to them.
The media’s influence on society isn’t limited to just journalism. Television’s influence, more specifically advertising on television, on society is vast and ever-changing. The Pittsburgh punk band Anti-Flag extols on the negative effects of both in the song “This Is The End (For You My Friend)” off their 2006 album “For Blood and Empire” and the video for the song as well. The song is about how the media blitzes society with ads featuring images of unattainable and borderline unreasonable stereotypes that are what the masses should fall in to.
The video for the song is of the band performing in a small basement-like venue with different facts intertwined in to the video like “The average weight of a model is 23% lower than that of an average woman.”, “Approximately one million men and boys suffer from anorexia.”, “Americans spend approximately $12.4 billion on cosmetic procedures per year,” and “By age 21, the average person will have watched 1,000,000 commercials.”
In addition to the facts presented in the video, the band, known for putting in essays in their liner notes for each song, placed an essay from Jean Kilbourne which said the following: "Advertising is an over $250 billion a year industry. We are exposed to over 3000 ads a day and will spend two years of our lives watching television commercials. Yet, remarkably, most of us believe we are not influenced by advertising. Ads sell a great deal more than products. They sell values, images, and concepts of success and worth, love, and sexuality, popularity and normalcy. They tell us who we should be ... Sometimes they sell addictions. Hollywood and the fashion, cosmetics and diet industries work hard to make each of us believe that our bodies are unacceptable and need constant improvement. Print ads and television commercials reduce us to body parts (lips, legs, breasts) airbrushed and touched up to meet impossible standards. TV shows tell women and teenage girls that cosmetic surgery is good for self-esteem. Is it any wonder that more than 80% of fourth grade girls have been on some sort of fad diet?"
For the most part, advertisers make the vast majority of their money off of self-hatred and greed. In the past few years, that has been such a backlash against these ads that advertisers have been making a more concerned attempt to wash away these stereotypes. So once again, something that has a negative influence turns to be a positive influence by making people fight against what unrealistic images are being portrayed to them.
Taking a much more positive outlook than Anti-Flag are Kyla M Day, Marina Epstein, and Monique L Ward. In their article, “Uncommonly Good: Exploring How Mass Media May Be a Positive Influence on Young Women's Sexual Health and Development,” the three authors state that all of the various sexually-tinged images throw at young women through the TV screen are actually quite esteem-building and allows for young women to find the proper ways to express themselves, therefore finding themselves.
Day, Epstein and Ward make four main points in their article. The first point they make is that nowadays there are magazines like Seventeen and Teen that are specifically for girls who are dealing with becoming a woman. Day, Epstein and Ward’s article points out that in 1996, 51 percent of girls who are 12-18 saw magazines as important when it came to finding answers to questions they may have about anything that has to do with sex. The second point that Day, Epstein and Ward make in their article is that through different types of television characters that have different types of personalities ranging from the iconic Lucy Ricardo to more modern-day female television characters like Daria, Carrie Bradshaw or Phoebe from “Friends,” it gives girls who are looking for someone, whether real or fictional, that feels the same way about life that they do. The third point that Day, Epstein and Ward make is that through the plethora of dramas that have been on television the past few years, young women has seen every plausible (and a couple of implausible) dating scenarios and therefore can expect what will or will not happen when it comes to intimate relationships with the opposite sex.
The final point that the authors brings up is the advent of something called “Girl-zines” a.k.a “grrrl zines.” These “Girl-zines” are independently-published and are read in small circles, much like the tiny zines that were published during the first wave of punk rock in the latter 1970s. The authors of these “Girl-zines” tackle many of the same issues that the television writers do. However, unlike the TV writers, the “Girl-zine” creators go over these issues with a “Riot-grrl”-like perspective, allowing girls who don’t feel that they fit in with the multiple “traditional” portrayals that they see on television these days. Alluding back to the similarity with the first wave of punk, the D.I.Y, for girls-by girls ethos of these “Girl-zines” allows the girls who read them to further the influence of the “Girl-zines” by starting one themselves. By doing that, they become one of the ones with the solution, instead of being one of the ones with the problem.
Another way that television is a positive influence on society is through educational programming. Daniel R. Anderson, a psychology professor at UMass, wrote about the many positive aspects of educational programming in his article “TV Can Be Positive Influence”. In this article, Anderson talks how when he and some of his colleagues interviewed and looked the high school transcripts of teenagers that they first interviewed when the now-high schoolers were attending preschool back in the late 1980s. What Anderson and his associates discovered was that the students who watched educational programming like “Sesame Street”, “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood” and “Captain Kangaroo” had higher grades in math, English and science. Another fact that Anderson pointed out in his article was how Bob Keeshan, the creator and portrayer of the “Captain Kangaroo” character, lobbied heavily for the Children’s Television Act, passed in 1996, which mandated that broadcasters must show a minimum three hours of children’s programming a week (Anderson n. pag.). This act paved the way for show such as “Barney & Friends”, “Blue’s Clues” and “Yo Gabba Gabba!” becoming the hit shows they are to this day and sending the little ones of today a very positive message.
However, there are some cases where people think are an expert on something just because they watch a lot of a certain type of show. In the Stanford Law Journal article titled “Investigating the 'CSI effect' effect: Media and Litigation Crisis in Criminal Law”, authors Simon A. Cole and Rachel Dioso-Villa examine the fact that with the ever-rising popularity of procedural dramas, most notably the “C.S.I” series, and movies like “Silence Of The Lambs”, people are becoming more interested into the technical aspects of crime-solving. However, there are those in the legal field who say that the popularity rise in shows like C.S.I and Law & Order influences some people too far and when these people serve jury duty, they feel like they are pseudo-experts and therefore tainting the legal process.
Cole and Dioso-Villa’s article examines six various influences, both positive and negative, that the show “C.S.I” has on society today. The first influence that “C.S.I” has on society, according to Cole and Dioso-Villa, is called the "strong prosecutor's effect”. The “strong prosecutor’s effect”, which is what the authors show as the effect that jurors who watch “C.S.I” have on cases because more and more people are being acquitted because forensic evidence which used to be strong enough to convict a person now also has to pass the muster of people who feel that because they watch shows with Laurence Fishburne and Daivd Caruso in them, they are now D.N.A experts with high standards when it comes to forensic evidence. Cole and Dioso-Villa also point the opposite of this, which they call the “weak prosecutor’s effect”, which is different from the “strong prosecutor’s effect” in the way that some prosecutors ask potential jurors if they watch “C.S.I” or not. These prosecutors also use very animated and flashy forensic evidence, like on show in order to sway these educated jurors.
The next influence that Cole and Dioso-Villa discuss is called the “defendant's effect”, which they state is the unfair lionization of the various prosecutorial witness by the jurors who see these same people being shown on their TV sets as heroes, thereby putting the defense at a disadvantage.
The next two influences that Cole and Dioso-Villa point out are the most positive ones in their article. There are referred to as the “producer's effect” and the "educator's effect”. The “producer's effect” is the term that Cole and Disoso-Villa use to describe the words that the producers of “C.S.I” used to dispel rumors that their show was upsetting the legal process. The producers said that they were using the initials “C.S.I” to educate people, not upset legal proceedings. The other counter-action taken by the producers of “C.S.I” to fend off their detractors is what Cole and Dioso-Villa called the "educator's effect”, which is what the authors’ use to describe the fact that shows like “C.S.I”, “E.R”, “Law & Order” etc. aren’t only educational to the masses but also influence people to choose the same careers that they see their favorite characters have on the TV screen.
The last effect that Cole and Dioso-Villa point out is the most negative one. They term it the “police chief's effect". What Cole and Dioso-Villa mean is that not only does “C.S.I” and other shows in the same vain not only educate regular people, it also educates criminals as well. It gives criminals the necessary info to know how to clean up a crime scene of any and all forensic evidence. To put a positive spin on this, knowing that criminals have more of an idea of how to decontaminate a crime scene now forces the top forensic scientists to come up with new and fool-proof ways to gather the damning forensic evidence that they need to put criminals away.
The media’s influence isn’t just limited to the small screen. Movies have been influencing the people who go to see them since James Dean was racing cars in “Rebel Without A Cause.” Speaking of James Dean, the movie industry has been accused for decades of making things that some people deem unsavory cool. The most glaring of these is smoking.
In their article titled “Do Favorite Movie Stars Influence Adolescent Smoking Initiation?”, authors Janet M. Distefan, John P. Pierce and Elizabeth A. Gilpin examine the possibility that teenagers are influenced by the people that they see on the silver screen. In the article, Distefan, Gilpin and Pierce analyze the data gathered from interviews with various kids to determine if they are in fact influenced by their favorite actors and actresses and present it in three different tables.
Table one shows the different actors and actresses that the kids name and the various movies that they were in and had scenes in which they were seen smoking. The most popular names mentioned were Brad Pitt, who smoked in “Legends of the Fall” and “Sleepers” and Drew Barrymore who smoked in four movies, including “Batman Forever” and Sharon Stone who was seen smoking in five movies, including “Casino” and “The Quick And The Dead”. It also showed the number of kids who tried smoking after they saw their favorite actors smoking. The number ranges from 3.6 percent of adolescent boys that were influenced to smoke by Sharon Stone to 15.1 percent of adolescent girls who said that Brad Pitt influenced then to try cigarettes.
Table two shows the discrepancy between boys and girls when it comes to if their favorite actor/actress influencing them to be open to tobacco-related advertising. The table shows that girls were much more likely to susceptible to advertising much more than boys were. Table three shows the various feeling that both adolescent boys and girls feel about smoking in general, the exposure they have to smoking and how their favorite movie stars influence them. What Distefan, Gilpin and Pierce discover is that movies, to a small extent, do influence kids to smoke but not on the level that detractors say they are.
Nowadays, the movie industry has been known to push people towards a positive lifestyle, and they use very interesting ways to do it, most notably the Jason Reitman-directed film “Thank You For Smoking”, starring Aaron Eckhart as Nick Naylor, a lobbyist for “Big Tobacco”. In the movie, Naylor suggests to his boss that they should convince the movie industry to make smoking “sexy” again by have more actors smoke on film. Naylor is subquently kidnapped and covered in nicotine patches, from which he nearly is killed do to nicotine poisioning. When he wakes up in the hospital he’s told that he can never smoke again do to hypersensitivity for nicotine that resulted from the attack.
After an article written by his then-girlfriend Heather Holloway, played by Katie Holmes, in which she exposes every secret that Naylor told her about the lobbyist community, tarnishing his legacy and leaving his jobless right before he’s to testify before the Senate in regards to a bill being brought up to vote that would put a picture of a skull and crossbones on every pack of smokes. Naylor still shows up to testify and in probably the most honest thing ever said in a movie, Naylor says that it’s not the Senate’s job to warn people of various hazards that the world has. Naylor went on to say that the real problem is that parents need to educate their children so that they can make will-informed decisions on their own. Naylor also tells the senator from Michigan that all Fords should comes with warning labels showing the risk of driving cars.
“Thank You For Smoking” was the perfect way for the movie industry to sway the public toward choosing not smoking. The director showed Nick Naylor as an anti-hero who cut through the pompous overbearing actions of Senator Ortolan Finisterre, played by William H. Macy, who was a good metaphor for all of the various organizations that want to tell other people how to raise their kids and told the public that it’s up to parents to show their kids the facts and let them make the decision. The movie was a very positive influence as it forced people to realize that their life choices aren’t made by other people, it’s made by them.
As influential as television and movies are, there’s probably no form of media more influencitial than music. In his book, “The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century”, author Alex Ross examines the various influences that music has had over the past century.
One aspect that Ross brings up is the fact that black musicians of the early 1900’s like Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Charlie Parker were allowed to perform in hallowed places like Carnegie Hall due to the color of their skin, therefore they heading out to the various clubs and bars and developed American jazz in the revered art form that it is today. For without American jazz, there would be no Motown, no hip-hop and no Chuck Berry.
Another point that Ross bring up in the book is how music shaped the moods in Russia, America and Germany during World War II. Ross’ book points how in October of 1932, Stalin commissioned various Soviet composers, in addition to other artists of the time, to created various works that would glorify the ideals of communism and its ideal goal of a social utopia, that would keep the mood of the Soviet Union positive. Hitler, unlike Stalin, was a fan of music and felt that political ideology had no place in music and that people should appreciate the work of German master like Wagner and Strauss. In the United States, the music world was turned on its ear by all of the exiles escaping from being handcuffed creatively in both Nazi-occupied Europe and the Soviet Union. Some these exiles include Igor Stravinsky and Arnold Schoenberg. These European exiles forced American-born composers like Aaron Copeland to further expand on their talents, therefore making American music becoming more and more influential by the day.
A more modern way to show how influential music is, good and bad, is the argument over rap music. Rachel E. Sullivan discusses the impact that rap music has in her article called “Rap and Race: It's Got a Nice Beat, but What About the Message?” The article shows how much rap music does affect youth, both black and white.
For her paper, Sullivan went to a mall in an unnamed town out in the Midwest and had every teenager that she came across fill out a questionnaire about the music that they listened to. Each person who took the survey was asked the following questions: How much they like rap music on a scale from 1(not at all) to 10 (favorite music to listen to)? , How many hours a week do they listen a week? And who are their three favorite rappers?
What Sullivan discovered is that the overall average rating that rap music was given by the survey takers was 7.98 out of 10. The more interesting tidbit that Sullivan discovered was that on a scale of 1 to 5 where one meant strongly disagree and five means strongly agree on the statement, “Rap is a truthful reflection of society”, the average answer given by black kids was 3.3 and the average for white kids was 3.1. showing that that there’s no racial divide when it comes to rap music’s impact on society there for rap music doesn’t have anywhere the influence on society, neither good nor bad, that people say it has.
A more recent way that the media influences people is through video games. In his article titled “Go Ahead, Steal My Car”, Bill Burke takes a very mocking with the various people, including then-Senator Hillary Clinton, who think that the “Grand Theft Auto” video game series is actually harmful to children. He sums up his feelings on the situation with the following:
“You need to be honest with yourself. Go outside and find a locked car -- or go to the back alley where missile launchers hover in a glowing light waiting for you to pick them up, or go drive down that street in your town where all the strippers hang out waiting for you to pick them up -- and see if you're tempted. But not just tempted. Not just amused or excited by the possibility of becoming a dark hero of the criminal underworld. You need to determine if you're actually willing and able to act on those temptations. You need to determine whether it's possible for you to change from whoever you were into someone completely different, someone who no longer recognizes the conditions and regulations of a society that, until you played the video game, were all you knew and believed in. That is, you need to find out just how stupid you really are.”
After reading that quote from Burke, doesn’t the notion of kids reenacting the things they see in “Grand Theft Auto” seem quite silly?
However, the best way to find out if kids are being influenced by video games is to ask them. Ron Leone and Erica Scharrer do this in their article “I Know You Are But What Am I? : Young People’s Perceptions of Varying Types of Video Game Influence”. For their study, Leone and Scharrer interviewed 118 different sixth and seventh graders from various types of schools and also had them fill out a questionnaire asking them about the positive and negative aspect of video games. What Leone and Scharrer discover is that the kids that are interviewed feel that the younger the kid is, the more susceptible to the more violent aspects of video games because they still have trouble drawing the line between video game and reality. The kids, in my view, feel as I do that the only way video games or any other form of media can be a negative influence on you is if you let it.
Nicholas Bowman and Andy Boyan focus on a different positive aspect of video gaming. In their presentation to the 2008 Meeting of the International Communication Association titled “Cognitive Skill as a Predictor of Flow and Presence in Naturally Mapped Video Games", Bowman and Boyan present evidence that realism-based games like “Guitar Hero” and the movement-based Nintendo Wii system not only help their hand-eye coordination but their critical thinking skills as well.
The test they did was having two subjects play the first-person shooter “Call of Duty”, one using the motion-sensitive “Wiimote” and the other using the standard Nintendo GameCube controller. What was discovered after letting them play for ten minutes then testing their reflexes was that the standard-based controller was better-suited for games like “Call Of Duty”, which test your thinking skills, while games that involve more hand-eye coordination are better suited for the Wii. This article shows what is probably the best thing about video gaming, which is the honing of skill that will help you focus better when you are an adult.
Through various sources covering the various aspects of the media from journalism in its many forms to advertising to television shows that teach, this paper shows that the media has a much more positive influence on society than people think. This paper also shows that what little negative influence that the media may have, is only negative in the eyes of people who think that it is. What it comes down to is that people can only be influenced negatively if they allow themselves to be affected by the negative. So in short, influence, much like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.
Friday, February 19, 2010
How To Fix The BCS (By Completely Getting Rid Of It.)
This is another article I wrote that was published in The Stall.......
The first college football game was played on Nov. 6, 1869. Since then, Division I college football has grown into one of the fabrics of this country. However, Division I college football does have one big glaring problem that has been a thorn it the side of not only the sport but its fans as well,the way that a national champion is crowned.
Before 1998, there were numerous co-champions crowned due to certain teams being tied up in various bowls games and the different polls (The AP and ESPN-USA Today) each having a different team ranked number one. The clamor was deafening for a new system that would guarantee a true national championship. So in 1998, former SEC commissioner Roy Kramer created a new system called the BCS, or the Bowl Championship Series.
To determine a national champion, the BCS uses a myriad of formulas to determine the best teams in college football so the top two can play for the BCS National Championship. The problem with this system is that it places far too much emphasis on the different computer rankings and by giving automatic bids to certain conferences, it doesn’t provide a level playing field for undefeated teams from smaller conferences to get a shot for playing for the national title. Teams like TCU and Boise State (who perennially gets shafted by the BCS), who come from these smaller “mid-major” conferences that don’t necessary have the perennial powerhouses that other conferences like the Big Ten and the SEC have, therefore they have to face each other.
Much like the clamor that brought on the BCS, there’s now clamor for a new way to determine a national champion that doesn’t depend on computer formulas. The vast majority of these detractors point out the one thing that every other college sport has to determine the champion, a tournament. I’m one of these people so I’ve come up with an idea for a 32-team tournament that will give the mid-majors a truly fair shot at the national title.
There are 25 conferences in both Division I-A (aka The Bowl Sub-Division) and Division I-AA (aka The Championship Sub-Division). They are also teams in each of the two sub-divisions that don’t belong to a particular conference, most notably Notre Dame. My first plan would be to have each independent school join a conference that would make sense for them geographically, for example, Notre Dame would join the Big Ten, and Navy would join the Patriot League.
Once the independent teams join conferences, my idea for a 32-team tournament can take form. You can fill up 25 of the 32 seeds with the 11 champions from Division I-A and the 12 champions from Division I-AA. To fill up the other seven spots in the tournament, you would take the top seven teams from the AP poll that were not conference champions. By doing this you are now guaranteed not just the 32 top teams for the National Championship Tournament (working title) but a good mix of bigger schools, like Texas and Alabama, and the mid-majors like Hofstra and Appalachian State going for the true Division I National Championship.
One of the arguments that detractors use against the idea of a tournament is that there is the bowl system that has been in space since the 1902 Tournament East-West Game, which evolved into what we know today as the Rose Bowl. However, out of the 29 bowls that will be played, there are only seven that have any significance: the Rose, Sugar, Orange, Fiesta, Peach (Now known as the Chik-fil-a Bowl), Gator and Hawaii Bowls. My plan would call for eliminating all the bowls save for the previously-mentioned seven. From there, we would go back to the old ways of decided what team plays in a particular bowl by the bowl’s ties to certain conferences. For example, to this day, the Rose Bowl has the Big Ten champion play the Pac-10 champion. However, since the champions of each conference would, for the most part, advance far in the National Championship Tournament, the runners-up from each conference would be in the bowls.
Another purpose that the bowls would serve is that if a marquee team like USC gets eliminated in the first or second rounds of the tournament, they, being the Pac-10 champions, would slide into the Rose Bowl slot. By keep the seven marquee bowls open for teams who got upset, it would allow another game for them to play but not at the cost of a smaller school who rightfully beat them.
The main complaint that the higher-ups in college football have with implementing any sort of a playoff system is the money that would be lost from the eradication of most of the bowls. They couldn’t be farther from the truth since the amount of money that they could get from the networks just for the rights to air the tournament. To get an idea of the money this tournament could get, ESPN just bought the airing rights to the BCS from 2011 to 2014 for $125 million a year just for the five BCS games a year. The rights to not only air the tournament but the seven “Marquee Bowls” could garner double that. And that’s not even considering the ad spots, which could honestly rival the Super Bowl or the Oscars when it comes to ad rights.
What it all comes down to is that there is no reason at all not to do a tournament. The NCAA is insane and/or stupid for refusing to have two insanely massive lucrative and ratings-owning tournaments instead of just March Madness. It comes down to sheer unabashed stupidity, laziness or that these commissioners of the larger conferences and the NCAA are so in cahoots that they don’t want to change a damn thing. So, when you think about it, the higher-ups in college football do have a couple of reasons for not having a tournament. Those reasons are greed and laziness.
The first college football game was played on Nov. 6, 1869. Since then, Division I college football has grown into one of the fabrics of this country. However, Division I college football does have one big glaring problem that has been a thorn it the side of not only the sport but its fans as well,the way that a national champion is crowned.
Before 1998, there were numerous co-champions crowned due to certain teams being tied up in various bowls games and the different polls (The AP and ESPN-USA Today) each having a different team ranked number one. The clamor was deafening for a new system that would guarantee a true national championship. So in 1998, former SEC commissioner Roy Kramer created a new system called the BCS, or the Bowl Championship Series.
To determine a national champion, the BCS uses a myriad of formulas to determine the best teams in college football so the top two can play for the BCS National Championship. The problem with this system is that it places far too much emphasis on the different computer rankings and by giving automatic bids to certain conferences, it doesn’t provide a level playing field for undefeated teams from smaller conferences to get a shot for playing for the national title. Teams like TCU and Boise State (who perennially gets shafted by the BCS), who come from these smaller “mid-major” conferences that don’t necessary have the perennial powerhouses that other conferences like the Big Ten and the SEC have, therefore they have to face each other.
Much like the clamor that brought on the BCS, there’s now clamor for a new way to determine a national champion that doesn’t depend on computer formulas. The vast majority of these detractors point out the one thing that every other college sport has to determine the champion, a tournament. I’m one of these people so I’ve come up with an idea for a 32-team tournament that will give the mid-majors a truly fair shot at the national title.
There are 25 conferences in both Division I-A (aka The Bowl Sub-Division) and Division I-AA (aka The Championship Sub-Division). They are also teams in each of the two sub-divisions that don’t belong to a particular conference, most notably Notre Dame. My first plan would be to have each independent school join a conference that would make sense for them geographically, for example, Notre Dame would join the Big Ten, and Navy would join the Patriot League.
Once the independent teams join conferences, my idea for a 32-team tournament can take form. You can fill up 25 of the 32 seeds with the 11 champions from Division I-A and the 12 champions from Division I-AA. To fill up the other seven spots in the tournament, you would take the top seven teams from the AP poll that were not conference champions. By doing this you are now guaranteed not just the 32 top teams for the National Championship Tournament (working title) but a good mix of bigger schools, like Texas and Alabama, and the mid-majors like Hofstra and Appalachian State going for the true Division I National Championship.
One of the arguments that detractors use against the idea of a tournament is that there is the bowl system that has been in space since the 1902 Tournament East-West Game, which evolved into what we know today as the Rose Bowl. However, out of the 29 bowls that will be played, there are only seven that have any significance: the Rose, Sugar, Orange, Fiesta, Peach (Now known as the Chik-fil-a Bowl), Gator and Hawaii Bowls. My plan would call for eliminating all the bowls save for the previously-mentioned seven. From there, we would go back to the old ways of decided what team plays in a particular bowl by the bowl’s ties to certain conferences. For example, to this day, the Rose Bowl has the Big Ten champion play the Pac-10 champion. However, since the champions of each conference would, for the most part, advance far in the National Championship Tournament, the runners-up from each conference would be in the bowls.
Another purpose that the bowls would serve is that if a marquee team like USC gets eliminated in the first or second rounds of the tournament, they, being the Pac-10 champions, would slide into the Rose Bowl slot. By keep the seven marquee bowls open for teams who got upset, it would allow another game for them to play but not at the cost of a smaller school who rightfully beat them.
The main complaint that the higher-ups in college football have with implementing any sort of a playoff system is the money that would be lost from the eradication of most of the bowls. They couldn’t be farther from the truth since the amount of money that they could get from the networks just for the rights to air the tournament. To get an idea of the money this tournament could get, ESPN just bought the airing rights to the BCS from 2011 to 2014 for $125 million a year just for the five BCS games a year. The rights to not only air the tournament but the seven “Marquee Bowls” could garner double that. And that’s not even considering the ad spots, which could honestly rival the Super Bowl or the Oscars when it comes to ad rights.
What it all comes down to is that there is no reason at all not to do a tournament. The NCAA is insane and/or stupid for refusing to have two insanely massive lucrative and ratings-owning tournaments instead of just March Madness. It comes down to sheer unabashed stupidity, laziness or that these commissioners of the larger conferences and the NCAA are so in cahoots that they don’t want to change a damn thing. So, when you think about it, the higher-ups in college football do have a couple of reasons for not having a tournament. Those reasons are greed and laziness.
Friday, February 5, 2010
En el buen camino or On the right track
So I decided to start to throw up stuff on here I wrote for class or The Stall for people who don't read that. This first one was an essay I wrote on Bilingual education for my English 122 final....
"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled mass."
That quote is etched onto the Statue of Liberty which once greeted every immigrant who came into this country. My grandparents, dad & aunt were some of the people who were once greeted by the iconic statue. Granted they emigrated from England in 1951, so they didn't have to deal with a language barrier. Hell, they spoke better English than the people born here! However, I can't fathom enough how difficult it would've been for them if they came from a country like Estonia or Argentina.
Bilingual education is quite important for those who whole-heartedly want into assimilate with American society. However, I feel that it could use some work. Micheal Gonzales echoes my sentiments in his article "The Bilingual Ed. Trap."
In the article, he feels that bilingual education programs were used either as a crutch by some students or a dumping ground for American-born students who are fluent in Spanish. Another person who sees a flaw in the system is Jorge R Mancillas, who states in his article,"Bilingualism: Assimilation Is More Than ABC's," that the bilingual education program only teaches the basics so the students can just get by. However the ones, like Mancillas, who go on to college and are completely mind-fucked by the ridiculously long words in college textbooks.
I agree completely with the concerns raised by Gonzales and Mancillas. Those ideas in mind, here is the way that I would improve the system; Yearly competency testing for every ESL student to see how far their English has advanced over the school year. I'm sure some form of this is already in place but there should be a honors-types ESL class that does tech them more advanced English but there still having the safety net of their native tongue to fall back on.
However, there's some people, like Dudley Barlow, who feel that the "ESL" programs are doing just fine. In his article, "Melting Pot or Tossed Salad," Barlow takes a romantic look at the immigrants who are here and are trying their damnedest to learn English so they can pursue that ever-elusive "American Dream." Barlow points out that the ones who come to this country just for their children and their children's children to do better than they did, therefore, all they need is enough English to get by and that is what the ESL programs provides. He also points out that various forms & information packets are printed out in multiple languages for the people quite haven't gotten the hang of English yet.
What this all comes down to is that the ESL or bilingual program is necessary for the people who need it. However, there should be different options for different people who are on different wavelengths when it comes to mastering the English language and there making it easier to get that "American Dream".
"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled mass."
That quote is etched onto the Statue of Liberty which once greeted every immigrant who came into this country. My grandparents, dad & aunt were some of the people who were once greeted by the iconic statue. Granted they emigrated from England in 1951, so they didn't have to deal with a language barrier. Hell, they spoke better English than the people born here! However, I can't fathom enough how difficult it would've been for them if they came from a country like Estonia or Argentina.
Bilingual education is quite important for those who whole-heartedly want into assimilate with American society. However, I feel that it could use some work. Micheal Gonzales echoes my sentiments in his article "The Bilingual Ed. Trap."
In the article, he feels that bilingual education programs were used either as a crutch by some students or a dumping ground for American-born students who are fluent in Spanish. Another person who sees a flaw in the system is Jorge R Mancillas, who states in his article,"Bilingualism: Assimilation Is More Than ABC's," that the bilingual education program only teaches the basics so the students can just get by. However the ones, like Mancillas, who go on to college and are completely mind-fucked by the ridiculously long words in college textbooks.
I agree completely with the concerns raised by Gonzales and Mancillas. Those ideas in mind, here is the way that I would improve the system; Yearly competency testing for every ESL student to see how far their English has advanced over the school year. I'm sure some form of this is already in place but there should be a honors-types ESL class that does tech them more advanced English but there still having the safety net of their native tongue to fall back on.
However, there's some people, like Dudley Barlow, who feel that the "ESL" programs are doing just fine. In his article, "Melting Pot or Tossed Salad," Barlow takes a romantic look at the immigrants who are here and are trying their damnedest to learn English so they can pursue that ever-elusive "American Dream." Barlow points out that the ones who come to this country just for their children and their children's children to do better than they did, therefore, all they need is enough English to get by and that is what the ESL programs provides. He also points out that various forms & information packets are printed out in multiple languages for the people quite haven't gotten the hang of English yet.
What this all comes down to is that the ESL or bilingual program is necessary for the people who need it. However, there should be different options for different people who are on different wavelengths when it comes to mastering the English language and there making it easier to get that "American Dream".
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