I recently viewed the Walt Disney movie, “Tomorrowland” and in relation to the last lectorial about technology, and the evolution of mediums. It was amazing to see how much BETTER our society is with the advancements of digital devices. Tomorrowland consisted of a dimension created for dreamers and engineers, separate to the real world, to let their inventions run wild as they believed that inventors need a healthy space to let their ideas run free. Hands down, our society would never be able to live without technology, our life-span has increased due to the medical advancements, and life has become simpler, the advancement in special effects with movies! There are so much more, as we are more advanced than ever before and we should be thankful for the brains that come up with all of this stuff!
Category Archives: Personal posts
Work in Progress – Project Brief 4
Finally!!!!!
I finished my experiment for my Project Brief 4, I used this “emotion-faced clock”:
and music from soundtracks to observe what emotions each participant felt when they listened to a particular song. It was interesting to see that not all participants guessed the same as each other or what was assumed to be “correct”. It was a lot of fun though and informative about the relationship between music and feelings.
YES to gay marriage in Aus
Spending the lectorial discussing institutions and classifications on a further scale, I connected this with debate of gay marriage becoming legal in Australia. This is popular news topic in the media right now and it deserves to be! It’s stupid that our country hasn’t taken action on this topic sooner! Government is meant to be a democracy in Australia and although it isn’t meant to be based on an individual leader’s religious values, it almost seems like it is. I am a catholic, and I am so angry that catholics say no to gay marriage only through INTERPRETATION of the bible, there is no where that says “gay marriage is unacceptable”. You can’t make someone feel a certain way, and everyone deserves to be loved and be happy no matter what gender they are, or what gender they are attracted to. Australia needs to lift their game, and make gay marriage legal like they should have done so long ago.
Audience Interpretation of Sexualisation in Music Videos
Sexual objectification refers to valuing a woman dependant on her sexual parts or sex appeal, mostly aimed for the production of masculine fantasy. This has mostly being used in the music film industry as a negative portrayal for women by male artists. However, female artists have begun to take control of their sexual power and use it for their own benefit, depicting a sense of strength and independence. This is supported as Peters states in ‘Race and Genre in the Use of Sexual Objectification in Female Artists’ Music Videos’ “research suggests that female artists have certainly pushed the boundaries of acceptable norms with regard to gender and sexuality in popular culture”. However, ultimately it is up to the specific audience, their values and traditions to decipher whether they have.
The target audience for MTV is 12-34 year olds and therefore depending on the age and social knowledge will determine how they perceive songs and their accompanying videos. Libby McKenna in 2006 mentioned, “MTV is popular among young people and directly targets youth culture. Sex appeal is often used in MTV to gain popularity. The images presented in music videos are often loaded with sexual content and feature highly sexualized women.” MTV can be considered a catalyst for social development, however the youth of today’s threshold against sexual exploitation and controversy is much higher than older generations and therefore, the sexualisation of women in contemporary pop music videos of women may be considered self-liberating or demeaning depending on the individual’s morals, age and values.
In saying that, women today are taking further control of their sexuality and the act of male artists sexually objectifying women will soon and hopefully decrease. Female artists such as Beyoncé, Madonna and Miley Cyrus are examples of feminists who aim to uphold and maintain their sense of pride and independence in order to control their sexual power in the music video industry. Therefore, as our generation moves forward, the societal values of sexualisation of women will continue to evolve.
The Evolution of Snapchat
It has come to my attention that ‘Snapchat’ is taking the app world by storm. The app used to simply allow users to send photographs or videos to each other up to 10 seconds and only allow them to view it once. It now involves fancy text, videos for 30 seconds, ‘MyStory’ in which allows you to share a ‘snap’ to your friends lists repeatedly for 24 hours, and almost a new world-wide ‘snapstory’ for a particular theme. It allows companies such as cosmopolitan, CNN, and ESPN to update and share with all Snapchat users with information every 24 hours and promote and publicises particular cities and events around the world.
I feel nowadays our society is trapped in a lazy and disconnected era, and Snapchat has helped publicise and share the world with all nations. I personally haven’t heard of more than 3/4 of the events on my ‘snapstory’, or the cities, however, it’s amazing to view the world through someone else’s phone and be educated about another country’s traditions and culture.
#IStandForMercy
This week, the entire realm of media within Australia has been flooded with posts regarding the two Australian’s on death row due to the Bali 9 fiasco. 9 years ago, 9 Australian’s were convicted in bali for drug trafficking 8.3kg of herion, 7 were sentenced to life imprisonment, the ring-leaders, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were sentenced to execution, and on the 29th of April they’re lives ended by a firing gun squad. The huge argument behind this act was whether or not these two men deserved their sentence. Nonetheless, these men deserved to be punished for their act, this drug can cause ruthless effects and multiple deaths, however, they both participated in rehabilitation and were evident of improving their behaviour.
The hashtag #IStandForMercy sparked and began trending all over the multiple social networking platforms very quickly. This was a response by those who thought these men deserved to have their own lives, which I can agree with. The way in which the Bali legislation taunted and played with boys lives is completely unfair. If they were to execute them they should’t of waited 9 years to do so. These men had worked hard to change themselves, and apply to keep their lives to have it taken away from them. It was devastating to watch the families of Chan and Sukumaran plead for mercy and it was incredibly disappointing to see them be rejected.
There is now a big diversion between Bali and Australia and although these men did break the law, I stand for mercy for them, as their lives should not of been tormented for that long to have it taken away from then.
Learning New Skills
Due to my absence in my last tutorial for Media, I missed out on learning how to use one of the cameras offered at RMIT for rental. One of my friends was kind enough to offer how to work the camera assigned for us to use as a potential option to use for our Project brief 3 during our lunchtime. I also used the tripod, and this small microphone that can be clipped to your shirt, it was very easy to use and I really loved the microphone as it picked up the quiet whisper and cancelled out a lot of the background noise so you could focus on the voice that was speaking, I don’t think I’ll use the camera for my Project Brief 3, however I do intend to rent a microphone.
Pop Music Videos and their Intentions
During my Pop culture seminar today, our group was focusing on the evolution of Pop music videos during the 21st century. There is such a wide diversity in the way in which an artist aims to create and portray their music through film. However, it never seems to be your simple and basic film clips that draw attention, nowadays artist’s are aiming to spark controversy and think far outside the box by utilising special effects, costumes, and extras to make their film clip the most outstanding.
What surprised me was the major change in presentation and intentions for music videos today in comparison to the early 2000s. The famous American singer, actress Britney Spears music video, “Oops, I did it again” (2000) is a representation of what most female music videos appeared as, the main singer in revealing clothes with back-up dancers, moving and miming to the beat and lyrics of the song. Similarly, boy bands such as ‘N Sync, have group choreographed dances amongst them, and most of their film clips and songs focusing one running away or to one girl such as “Bye Bye Bye” (2000)
In today’s society, majority of musicians in pop music are aiming to stand out with their music video, with the update in technology and special effects, and access to the world’s biggest and greatest dancers and choreographers, artists have the ability to really step up their music video game. With saying that, music artists have gone above and beyond to excel in the music video industry, pushing boundaries, testing social values, and including irrelevant footage in their films that are either outrageous or stupid to get viewers attention.
The film clip “Anaconda” by Nicki Minaj (2014) implies that male only wants women bigger women, women with “buns”, she acts derogatory towards “skinny bitches” and overly sexualises all bigger woman at the same time. She is incorporating the classic, female artist who mimes her lyrics with back-up dancers, but they way in which she dances and interprets herself and her words are reaching a new a level. We are stuck in an age where women are constantly fighting a battle between their sense of self confidence and society’s expectations, and Nicki is here trying to insult skinner women by having many “larger” women twerking and grinding throughout the entire music video. The song itself is not appropriate, however, many younger women listen to her music and all children at any age are exposed to her video as it is not on a parental block on YouTube.
I feel musicians (every celebrity actually) are entitled to express themselves, however, where is the simple art in music videos anymore? Don’t get me wrong, there are still many artists who provide this (Taylor Swift, Jarryd James etc.) but major artists such as Nicki Minaj, Justin Bieber and 5 seconds of summer, lack connection between their music and their videos, and are trying way too hard to create a movie rather than a simple video aesthetic for their song to be played over. So, sorry no Kanye, a 34 minute music video is stretching it.
Is Social Media Drawing Us Together Or Apart?
Nowadays if you don’t have any form of a social media account and you are under 30, then you are excluded from society’s social norm. I can honestly say that I am separated from social media for no longer than 30 minutes. The only time I would be separated from it for longer would be if I was working, or my phone died and therefore I am forced to not use it. The question is though has this negatively or positively impacted our society?
I would say that without social media I would not be as connected and close with my friends. It’s not necessarily using the platforms to speak to one another but it is used to observe another’s life, and feel involved and up to date with them. Instagram allows me to see where my friends went out to, or exciting stories that have occurred in their life. Twitter keeps regular discussion between my friends and I, and snapchat makes conversation easy to start and end without having to say “hello” or “goodbye”. Facebook overall shares relationship statuses, photographs and text. It’s like I don’t actually need to speak to a person to know what’s happening with their life.
This is where the question about real connection is drawn. If I don’t have to speak to people in my social circle to understand what’s going on with their lives, am I really connected to them at all? Or am I just observing their life from afar? When you think about it, I can understand and observe what happens with any celebrity but I wouldn’t call them my friend, we don’t have any personal connection at all.
Although, I believe that social networking has kept my friends and I closer, especially family. Some of my family lives overseas and therefore the only way to keep connected is through a phone call or social networking. Utilising social media platforms has allowed me to keep connected with those I don’t see much more in person. The phenomenon has its peaks and its lows, however, overall, i believe it has created a more connected community, we have the option to keep track of friends and loved ones without the struggle of finding time to catch up.
Natalia KILLS on New Zealand X factor
It’s amazing how fast news can travel across the globe. X-Factor is an internationally recognized reality television series but usually most people stick to watch their own countries series. However, the one small part of the New Zealand 2015 season has spread very quickly around the globe, and it’s not for a positive reason. Natalia Kills (I think her surname is giving a major hint) abuses a contestant not because of their performance but because of their appearance. She is “embarrassed to be sitting [t]here in [his] presence” as she “respects creativity integrity” and is “disgusted” how contestant, Joe Irvine could copy her husband’s “look”. These are new and vulnerable artists trying to make their name in the music industry, and she was confident enough to act as a big bully on TV. I am really impressed with the response that has been received from this incident, and that these judges were punished for their inappropriate actions. I am glad to hear that New Zealand television has a strict policy against bullying and that this message was shared globally. It was even better to hear and see the positive responses shared from other artists and countries from around the world.
Here’s the video below: