It's the one that say's Bad Mother F*cker!

In class this week we discussed how The Empire Strikes Back defined Generation X. Chuck made the argument that Luke Skywalker was the quintessential Gen Xer due to his outlook on life. He is a whiny kid who has knowledge in things that would have no practical purpose in the real world. Chuck argues that these views are mirrored in the movie Reality Bites. I think that every generation can pick a movie that defines them and my generation is no different.

I think that one of the movies that defined my generation is Pulp Fiction. I think that this movie is one of the greatest of all time and it would be hard to find many people from my generation who haven't seen it. My friends and I watched it in the theater multiple times and would quote from it incessantly. It immediately altered the way that people talked and acted. Everyone wanted to be like the characters in that movie. They were so cool! It also changed the way that new film makers looked at movies.

Country vs Hip Hop

Country music and hip hop have both changed a great deal over the last two decades. I think that it would be a pretty safe bet to say that those who were the inovators in the genres would have a hard time recognizing their genre today. I will start by talking about hio hop because it is the younger of the two and I believe that it's evolution into what it has become came much more quickly than country's transformation. Most people usually point to the Sugar Hill Gang as the first hip hop group. Their single "Rappers Delight" was released in 1979 and the style quickly caught on. My first memories of hip hop music featured lyrics that were more political and focused on discrimination and living poor. The first time I heard NWA's straight out of compton blew my mind. While it was still focused on the same themes as previous rap albums is was more raw and angry. And they swore a lot which I thought was cool. From there rap seemed to morph into more of a party music that focused mostly on getting drunk or stoned. And then it began to get very misogynistic. Today it seems like the only thing that main stream rap cares about is money, girls and money. While there are still a lot of great hip hop artists that rap about political issues they certainly are not the artists that are getting radio play.

Country music's evolution seems to have happened over a longer period of time. Of course this might be because I have not been alive for the majority of country music's life span like I have been for hip hop's. I remember listening to Johnny Cash, Hank Williams and Willie Nelson with my uncle when I was young and thinking that it was great. And then country music started to change. I think that country started to change because the new artists were starting to become influenced by other genres than just other country. It started to become more mainstream. Today many country artists are played on several different formats, not just country stations. I think that this is happening with all genres of music though. It has all become so homoginized that there is little difference between country and rock and pop music making it easy for the masses to injest it. I'm pretty sure ole' Hank would not be happy.

Heres some Hank III. A bit of a throw back.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vd7sM0iiAUs&feature=related

The Power of Play

This week we discussed the role of play in popular culture. In the article Bootleg Culture the author states that "Bootlegs inject an element of playfulness into a pop music scene that can be distressingly sterile". This indicates that people instinctivly want to have fun while creating. While writing music is not somthing that everyone cand do anyone, with enough practice and technical savey, can blend two existing sourses together. It is apparent when listening or watching these mash-up's that the creators were having fun when the were making it. The episode of "The Super Friends" dubbed with vocals from an episode of "Friends" illustrates this quite well.
Billy Sim discusses our cultures desire to "play God". In the game The Sims the player creates an alternate life in a computer game. While playing this game the user is in total control of their alternate self. This seems to be the draw to gaming. The individual playing is in control and has a goal to complete. Through practice we can become the best that we can be. Through games we also find social interaction through shared interests. This has become an important part of our culture.