Likwidfyr26's Blog

Reflecting Back on Pop Culture

likwidfyr26 — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 22:46:56 +0000

Fall quarter has come to a close and a class I will definitely miss is Pop Culture. When I first took Pop Culture I had a different expectation for the class. For some reason I thought we would only be discussing TV shows and movies…the whole time.. We did discuss shows and tv films but there was a lot more to the class than that. We also touched on a lot of concepts i had never heard of before. Though the class wasn’t exactly what I had in mind I still very much enjoyed it. I wasn’t sure what to expect from doing blogs each week but I had a lot of fun writing them because it helped me apply the concepts and ideas we learned in class to things that were happening in the world today. I never knew what memes or the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster were until this class and I had really enjoyed learning about them among other ideas we talked about.

One of my best posts was Flash Mobs: The New Form of Dance? which I put up in September. I feel this is my best because it covers all the requirements necessary, I had several outside sources including videos showcasing some flash mobs performing and I was able to relate it to an article that we were required to read for class. A post that wasn’t my finest work was The Melting Pot Still Brews. I didn’t know exactly what to say about this post so it didn’t turn out well when it was written. For this blog I would’ve elaborated more on the point I was trying to make. If I did another project like this I would make sure that I covered all the requirements so that I wouldn’t get points taken off for stuff I missed. I’d also make sure to read all the assigned readings for class so I’m able to participate in discussions with the rest of the class.

Overall, I had a lot of fun in this class. I really enjoyed discussions about articles, tv shows, movies and the latest trends stirring up pop culture. Blogging has really helped my writing ability and I would be ok with blogging in the future. I’ve learned so much taking this class and made some friends along the way and I would recommend it to others students for sure.

Woke Up This Morning…and watched The Sopranos

likwidfyr26 — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 02:22:03 +0000

For class we had to write a paper based on one of two books. The book I wrote a report about was Everything Bad is Good For You by Steven Johnson. This was a great book because it showed us a different view of pop culture. Johnson makes compelling arguments proving that video games and television aren’t bad for us like we’ve constantly been conditioned but actually stimulate are brains.One thing he talks about often are the differences between TV shows in the 70′s and 80′s and present-day TV. A show that was touched on a lot was The Sopranos.

The Sopranos is HBO’s hit series that centers around a mob boss and his family. Though the show sounds simple enough it is everything but. The show’s popularity is due to its many intricately woven storylines and multidimensional characters. Viewers must stay completely focused on the show keeping track of the cues, the many characters that come in and out of each episode and return for others as well as the events that predict foreshadowing. An article in Entertainment Weekly states the following about this hit series, “But really, at its sad, wise heart, The Sopranos illuminates the millions of moments of no action that make up the kind of life millions more of us know”. The final season of The Sopranos, season 6, was all anyone at the time was talking about and the fans who had followed the show since its birth in 1999 had to say goodbye to the italian family.

Sources:

Shwartzbaum, Lisa (2006-2007). The Sopranos Retrieved: 15, Novemeber 2009.

Foodchuck (2007). Sopranos season 6b(part 2) full trailer. Retrieved: 15, November 2009.

Johnson, Steven (2007). Everything Bad is Good for You. Riverhead books, New York.

What’s Real about ‘Real’ity TV?

likwidfyr26 — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 21:12:10 +0000

In class we talked a lot about reality tv. But is it reality? Most show on tv now a days are “reality” based. The reality show genre is quickly growing due to the success of so many others. What is it about drunken fist fights and shameful behavior that draws us viewers in? I mean that’s what most reality shows have become now, right? Shows like The Real World, The Hills and Rock of Love contain the same substance..parties, drama, and alcohol. Now I can’t complain about these shows because I’ve watched each one for multiple seasons but what is real about them?

In class we watched Charlie Brooker’s screenwipe which showed us how reality tv is REALLY filmed. Even before I watched this video I always knew that shows edited their footage to make it look however the editor or show wants it to look. Editing is a powerful tool in the tv industry. It determines how we the viewers perceive the situation. A show that had some controversy surrounding the “realness” of its content was The Hills. It started out as a show following the life of Lauren Conrad but quickly turned into a scripted series of staged catfights and two-faced actors.

Popular shows in this drama consist of the 3 things I mentioned earlier: parties, alcohol and drama. Most of these things stem from throwing random people together in a house to have them hash out their problems so they can then either win a guy/girl or make better lives for themselves. The Bad Girls Club is a show strictly designed to put girls that consider themselves “badasses” and have them ”learn” how to better themselves and communicate with other girls. Whether this technique is efficient and character building is your call but we can probably say that these edited and sometimes scripted shows fall far from the tree of realism.

Sources:

thebadgirlzvid (2008). Bad girls club season 3 trailer. Retrieved 15, November 2009.

Reply to Interactive Terror

likwidfyr26 — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 07:19:04 +0000

I wholeheartedly agree with C.C’s blog about interactive terror. The interactive terror genre is changing and I don’t necessarily like it. As a fan of video games, especially the horror games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill, I find that the games that were once capable of inducing nightmares in its players are now all about the action.

Resident evil is a great game especially the 2nd one and don’t get me wrong the 4th is great but they have like C.C. strayed from terror and fit the more ’shoot em up’ genre. I remember when I first played Silent Hill:The Room with my family and never have I been as scared of anything ever since. I still have faith in games like this and hope that there will be more like this installment in the series because that I believe is true interactive terror.

Reply to Celebrity ‘Car Wrecks’

likwidfyr26 — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 04:07:20 +0000

I agree with Erika’s blog about celebrity ‘car wrecks’. People are obsessed with disasters whether celebrity wrecks or in the literal sense. People are naturally nosy and love to witness other peoples lives and that is why reality tv is so popular. We love to see fights, hook-ups, break-ups and everything in between.

Networks and magazines feed off of the knowlede that we love to watch the lives of other people like Jon and Kate. I am guilty of this as well because I love reality tv! But the question that we should ask is how much of it is reality?

Reply to Masculinity in Disney

likwidfyr26 — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 03:28:39 +0000

I completely agree with Meg about how Disney chooses to represent men and women. We constantly see men represented as manly and strong while women are dainty, beautiful and helpless when in distress. As a huge fan of Disney I also re-watched Beauty and the Beast and noticed some other things that I definitely didn’t pick up on as an innocent child.

I’m sure you have heard about all the subliminal messages that are lightly sprinkled throughout most of the Disney movies we watched as children. I find these messages to be hilarious and very hypocritical ( but of course not when you’re a child!) so if you don’t know where to find all of them below is a video that will show you how much ‘sex’ is actually in a movie like Beauty and the Beast

The Power of Fandom

likwidfyr26 — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 02:54:08 +0000

Fans. It’s what everyone in this culture is whether they know it or not. In class we talked about fandom and what we are fans of. Facebook has a feature where a user can “Become a fan” of whatever they like whether it be the Cleveland Indians or cookie dough. I think fandom is a huge part of the mainstream, I mean, what would television networks, films and everything else do without the fans that support them?

Dictionary.com defines a fan as “an enthusiastic devotee, follower, or admirer of a sport, pastime, celebrity”. In class we discussed the negative side of fandom but lets look at some positives. The power of fans is great indeed. Most of us saw this when CBS cancelled the show Jericho angering thousands of fans. In protest of the shows cancellation, fans went on a nut campaign and sent the network peanuts in the hopes of bringing the show back. The campaign turned out to be very successful, CBS received over 40,000 pounds of nuts and the network was convinced the Jericho still had a following so they brought the show back for another half-season.

However, Fox’s tv show Arrested Developement wasn’t so fortunate. A show with a growing number of fans was taken off the air after 3 seasons sparking controversy across the internet as online petitions and chat forums voiced their disapproval over such a decision. Though the Bluths lost everything they may get everything back…almost. There were talks of an Arrested Development movie and now that all the cast members are on board it looks like we will get our favorite dysfunctional family back on-screen. This, of course, wouldn’t have been possible without its trusty fans!

We witness fandom on a daily basis and it is the driving force behind pop culture. As MediaCom chief executive John Mandel said in the article Buying into American Idol by Henry Jenkins, ”We know when people are watching show, they tend to watch commercials more. Unfortunately, there aren’t that many shows people care about”(Jenkins,2). I think that new shows are surfacing and fans for these shows are growing. But as fans ourselves we will just keep watching for the next thing to obsess about.

References:

Drcgarrett. (2008). Jericho trailer. Retrieved 8, November 2009:

Jenkins, Henry. “Buying into American Idol: How We are being Sold on Reality Television.” In Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York, NYU Press, 2006, 59-92.

millz110375 (2009). Arrested Developement-George michael loves maeby. Retrieved 8, November 2009.

Vampires Take a Bite Out of Pop Culture

likwidfyr26 — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 20:03:39 +0000

If everyone’s like me and hasn’t been completely oblivious to what’s going on in the media then you’ll agree that there is a trend that’s got people excited. Vampires. When you hear the word you may think of bloodsucking Dracula type creatures that live somewhere near Transylvania but not as of late. Today when you hear the word your thoughts begin to swirl around a plain-looking girl living in Forks, Washington and the beautiful, undead boy she’s madly in love with. Vampires has got everyone in pop culture screaming in delight. We are all familiar with the hit phenomenon of Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight Saga, the book now brought to life by the movies and the success of such an idea has sparked more ideas to bring sexy vampires to the scene.

Trueblood came next with its telepathic barmaid who gets wrapped up in vampires, shapeshifters, maenads and all things paranormal. This I am an avid fan of and the show is already become the 2nd most successful show on HBO under The Sopranos. But what is it about vampires that has everyone’s panties in twist? An article in USA today believes they have the answer: “One reason for the intense teenage interest in newer stories, especially Anne Rice’s “The Vampire Chronicles,” “Twilight” and “The Vampire Diaries,” is the sense that the vampires are outsiders among us. In “True Blood,” they’re simply trying to fit into society.” I completely agree with this and the fact that is is now considered “cool” in pop culture. Malcolm Gladwell said it best when speaking of how things become cool in his article The Coolhunt, “The act of discovering what’s cool is what causes cool to move on.”(Gladwell, 2) Vampires are now an extremely cool concept!

The CW is also trying to cash in on the success of vampires in the media. The network’s new show The Vampire Diaries has become an instant hit. There’s no other explanation for this except that America is in love with vampires and the sex appeal these dark creatures bring to the table.

References:

Gladwell, Malcom. (1997). The Coolhunt. New Yorker. Retrieved 25, October 2009.

Truitt, Brian. (2009). Our deep, dark obsession with vampires. USA weekend. Retrieved 25, October 2009.< http://www.usaweekend.com/09_issues/091025/091025cover-vampires.html>

clevertv (2009) New moon official trailer #3. Retrieved 25, October 2009.

HBO(2009) True Blood season 2 trailer. Retrieved 25, October 2009.

Johntfolden (2009). cw vampire diaries tv series pilot promo trailer. Retrieved 25, October 2009.

Religion: The Trend

likwidfyr26 — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 00:33:36 +0000

In class we talked about religion and whether we thought that this country is religious. I think that our society is a mesh of all kinds of religions (Christian, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Muslim) but there are still a lot of Americans that consider themselves “spiritual but not religious” or non denomination. According to a poll done by USA Today/Gallup in 2002, half of American adults consider themselves to be alienated from organized religion.

In recent years religion seems to have become more of a trend in our society. Does everyone remember the Kabbalah craze? Because it seemed to be what was hip in the celebrity world people started embracing it as their religion as well. Scientology was another religion that was brought on the map because famous advocates like Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes declared it as their beliefs. According to an article in ethePeople.com, a fast growing religion is actually a neopagan religion known as Wiccan or Witchcraft. According to American Religious Identification Survey, In 2001 the number of Wiccans had grown to 5.4%.

We had another discussion in class about a particular…..religion? Religion wouldn’t be the right word to describe the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster but fad would be. We talked about CFSM and the impact that it has had on all types of people religious or not. Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster isn’t an actual religion as so many believe it to be. It is simply a parody of all religions to make a point of religious beliefs. CFSM has its own Facebook and this ties into the reading we were assigned this week.

Soul Searching on Facebook by William Wan was an interesting read because it looks into what people are saying about their religion on Facebook, “ The religious views box, however, was created with one key difference: a free-text format that let users type in whatever they wanted. [It proved so popular that Facebook later made its political views box free-text as well.]“( Wan, 2). No matter what you believe, we live in a country that allows freedom of religion and that is worth living here in America. Below is an interesting video about a conspiracy theory titled the Mind Control Hypothesis, about religion.

References:

“American Religious Identification Survey,”(2001) by The Graduate Center of the City University of New York, at

jeagle33. Febrauary 26, 2009.”Wiccans in NM” Retrieved October 24, 2008.

kingsize566. May 17, 2007. “Religion: The mind control hypothesis.” Retrieved October 24, 2009.

Reply to (All the Single Ladies and…Gentlemen?)

likwidfyr26 — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 23:40:16 +0000

I completely agree with Sam’s post. What is with everyone and the Single Ladies song? Particularily guys? Youtube is flooded with videos involving this song and guys dancing to it. But why? I believe because it is such a women empowing song including the dance in the video that it has captured the attention of men everywhere. As Sam said it is now under the category of internet meme.

I had a similar post about how guys in the media seem to be embracing their femininity. Guys who are macho dancing to the single ladies song seem to be what people find humor in and guys like that they can show off their girly sides but still be confident in their sexuality. I found an interesting article in Salvo Magazine about “girly men” written by a man who believes feminisim is “harming are young men”. Very interesting.

References:

Karnick, S. T. (Winter 2008). Girly Men: the media’s attack on masculinity. Retrieved: October 12, 2009.