Millenials

Star Wars was a pop culture phenomenon that gave Generation X its noticeable and important traits. Thinking about my generation, the changes we have encountered and traits that we have, I think that a pop culture phenomenon that had a huge impact on us was the TV show Friends. It shows many important characteristics of how/what our generation (the millenials) value in life today. For instance, With the development of social media, the millenials put a lot of value into having a large social group. Friends kind of started that movement with this group of 6 people who were all very close; even lived across the hall from each other. This is different from the generations before who tended to stick to one or two close friends. Friends also pushed the idea that marriage and having children weren't necessarily the most important thing and expected of you anymore in our society. None of the characters were married until their late 20's/early 30's and some had children without being married. Casual sex was a veryyy familiar theme on the show, and was always portrayed as normal and accepted, which also plays into the themes of our generation. 

Reality TV

When Chuck Klosterman writes that real people are starting to think and act like a certain archetype when cast on a reality television show, I don't think he is necessarily right. I understand the point that he is trying to make, in that there are so many reality tv shows nowadays that people who are cast for a new show or season maybe know what to act like to get their '15 minutes of fame' from their stint on tv. Klosterman's idea of repetition is very important in making this point as well, because of all the exposure that we have to reality tv stars. But on the other hand, I don't think that it is all the cast mates' fault behind acting to encompass a 1 dimensional archetype.

I feel that the editing process takes a HUGE role in making people seem like they are 1 dimensional on screen. With the digital editing processes and technology we have, we can make people say sentences that have never even been formulated in their mind. I think that many people on reality tv shows are manipulated and edited to portray an archetype, not acting like it. I think of a reality show I enjoyed as a teenager, called The Hills, starring Lauren Conrad and Heidi Montag. I remember being unhealthily emotionally involved in the show for so long, then a few years after it was cancelled, reading and seeing so many sources that quoted Lauren saying that the 30 minute episodes were so manipulated, slanted, and warped summaries of what actually happened that she didn't even recognize most of the situations. Nowadays, I follow Lauren, Lo, Audrina, Heidi, Whitney, and everyone else on various forms of social media and I feel that they are very normal, multidimensional human beings who don't really fit into a social archetype at all.

Accidental Racist

After comparing/contrasting country and rap music in class we listened to a song by Brad Paisley and LL Cool J entitled 'Accidental Racist'. This song ended up causing quite the controversy in pop culture because of some of the words used to describe the history of race relations in America, and also the stereotypes that come along with rap artists and the hip-hop culture.

One of the topic of discussion by the media was the choice of words by LL Cool J about his gold chains, do-rag, and baggy clothes. There were a lot of people that were bothered by this because it conveys a negative stereotype about black people that many find is not true. Not all black people fall under the 'gangster' stereotype, and some feel very insulted by it. People were also bothered by the fact that LL mentioned that perhaps he could 'forget' about slavery which is wrong on so many levels.

Another topic of discussion by the media was the ideas of Brad Paisley and the fact that his confederate flag shirt supposedly was not supposed to represent slavery, just the fact that he was a fan of the southern band Lynyrd Skynrd. There were quite a few people who disagreed with that, saying that the confederate flag will always represent slavery and people need to remember that when they choose their clothing.

I personally think that this song was a good effort to patch up race relations, but it seemed so thrown together and not very well thought out. I think that they could have done a little bit better job with word choice as to avoid controversy, but it was a good idea to reach out to a very diverse and cross-over audience.

Midterm Blog

In this class I think the most important thing I have learned about is how influential the media is on pop culture and the way we live our lives. I am a Communications/Marketing major and I think that the power of television, radio, advertisements, etc., is just fascinating. We have talked quite a bit about marketing strategies (Marlboro Man) and the power of advertisements, as seen in the 'Killing us Softly" video. I think that just the sheer number of ads we see each day is crazy and have found that media communications is even more important that I originally thought when choosing my field of study. A lot of what we have talked about in class has been previously mentioned to me in other classes such as Public Relations and Mass Media Studies. Seeing the similarities between Mass Media and Popular Culture has opened my eyes to the impact that I could have on later generations if I follow the path I have chosen for myself.

Football High

In the class video, Football High, the public's attention is drawn to the downsides of the seriousness of high school football nowadays. There are multiple experts that share their insight as to how football in high schools across the country are doing more damage to the athletes playing than they even realize. The video dives extensively into the work that the athletes put in outside of just the actual football activity. There is weight training, speed training, agility training, recruitment responsibilities, and more. There is also a certain image that some high-profile young athletes must keep up if they want to be recruited by the big colleges, such as the quarterback on Shiloh's team. He is always being interviewed, contacted, watched, and that added pressure is more than just 'football'.

Another issue that has come up with the growing severity and seriousness is the issue of brain health in the athletes, with all of the trauma induced by tackling and dehydration. The issue of concussions is growing each year, and the amount of concussions seen in high school football has increased over time. Another issue with brain health is the development of CTE on the brain. Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy is a degenerative disease that is developed over time with the damage of concussions and trauma on the brain. Symptoms of CTE are memory loss, dementia, aggression, and depression, which, historically, have not shown up until many years later, after the athletes' careers are long over. The problem we are starting to see though, is that the symptoms are getting worse and showing up quicker in football players nowadays.

This is Emo

In Chuck Klosterman's article This is Emo, he explains how 'fake love' is an idea of romance that the mainstream media has created and drilled into our culture. In class we talked about how Disney Princesses and fairy tales give an unreal idea of how love and romance are in real life, by the standards they portray. Examples include the age aspect, (all princesses are young and beautiful), the financial aspect (princesses marry princes who are royal and rich), etc. We also talked about how so many aspects of pop culture show 'forbidden love' as a sort of norm to strive for when looking for romance. Movies such as Twilight, Titanic, Romeo and Juliet, and The Great Gatsby are all good examples of this.
The example I thought of that was quite a good mix of both real love and Klosterman's 'fake love', in my opinion, is The Notebook starring Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling. I think that it shows the element of forbidden love, as Noah is a poor boy who falls in love with a rich girl, but her parents are not accepting of the relationship and force it to end after a summer of romance. On the other hand, I think it does a good job of showing some very realistic elements of love. The central plot of the movie is based around the couple as elderly people, dealing with financial and health issues that come with having a family and old age. Allie develops Alzheimer's disease, and Noah spends as much time as he can with Allie trying to help her remember their life. This, to me, is an interpretation on REALISTICALLY living 'happily ever after'. 

Killing Us Softly

Watching Jean Kilbourne's speech 'Killing Us Softly' really opened my eyes to the persuasiveness of advertisements and the media. She really highlighted some of the terrible ideas that ads are transmitting about women in society, and shared some powerful images with the audience. A few of her objections to women portrayed in ads were body image issues, violence, child-like characteristics, and objectifying women's bodies, or just parts of it. This example of an advertisement I found from this year is for Ford, with the caption of 'Leave all your worries behind.' This image shows three women in compromising positions, with big breasts, and sexualized costumes and facial expressions. This is one thing that Kilbourne would object to, that attention is obviously drawn to one part of their body (the breasts). This ad also shows violence towards women, as they are tied up in bondage, with a man looking on, obviously in control. All of these things are unacceptable and should not be publicly shown, as they are degrading to all types of women.