Friday, April 24, 2009
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Chapter 8 Synopsis: Postmodernism, Indie Media, and Popular Culture
Chapter 8: Postmodernism, Indie Media, and Popular Culture
This chapter discusses postmodernism, indie media, and popular culture. It explains what each concept means and how it can be related to the world around us. It is said that postmodernism was developed around 1968. One definition of postmodernism emphasizes the formative role of economic and political conditions, including post war globalization, the emergence of new information technologies, new flexible forms of production, and the breakdown of the traditional nation-state, in the emergence of postmodern modes of cultural production (311). Another definition of postmodernism is a set of styles which create a creative explosion of style and surface image in reaction to the rigid attention to form and underlying structure in modernism. This definition has been criticized because it is argued that the definition implies that postmodernism is only a style that an artist or producer can choose to embrace or reject rather than a cultural trend that is integral to changes in culture, the economy, and politics (311). Postmodernism is a response to conditions implied by late modernity. This is also linked to the later stages of capitalism. Postmodern and modern are hard to tell when they start and end. It has been said that postmodernism intersects the period of late modernism. This period of intersection is known as the Enlightenment period. During this time, liberalism, modernization, and progress continued to improve on many developments of the poorer and less developed nations through science and technological advances. There is however a way to distinguish between post-modernity and modernity. Modern is described as the knowledge of forward looking and positive belief that one could know what was objectively true and real by discerning the structural relations that underpin social formations and natural phenomena (312). Postmodern, on the other hand, is defined as the questioning of the supposed universality of structural knowledge, as well as skepticism about the modern belief in the universality of progress. The questions asked are “Do we really know that progress is always a good thing? Can we really know the human subject? How can any experience be pure or unmediated? How do we know what truth is?” (313). Postmodern is a style. It can be used to describe fashions and politicians who define themselves and generate their identities through media images and text.
An example of the postmodern media would be the point at which animated studios changed the appearance of many cartoons. Snow White and Sesame Street are perfect examples to show this change in animation. Also, Astro Boy, The Transformers, and Mobile Suit Gundam all show examples of this new style of production. Each of these shows showed robotic characters with superhuman powers. Children who used to associate themselves with the old style of cartoon began to associate themselves with these non-human cartoons. These characters were “artificial computerized life” (317). In the 1990s, Pixar began to release movies that were only CGI “computer graphics imagery” (320). These movies included Toy Story, Shrek, and A Bugs Life.
“The world of images today consists of a huge variety of remakes, copies, parodies, replicas, reproductions, and remixes” (328). Pastiche describes the culture and how everything is an imitation, remake, or parody. Pastiche can also fall into the category of parody. Right now, many forms of media are considered to be in the category of genre parodies. The Simpsons for example uses parodies to play off the codes of film and cultural history.
Critiques say that postmodernism ignored history. Hutcheon says that postmodernism “suggests no search for transcendent, timeless meaning but rather a re-evaluation of, and a dialogue with the past in light of the present” (332). Photographs play a key part in this. A photograph symbolizes memory and history. The ideas of photos show that “the past remains within the present” (333).
Postmodernism is not only from changes in the popular culture and the art world. Postmodern culture is also created through the changes that take place in production, dissemination, and marketing of media forms (334). The internet and indie films play a huge part in postmodernism. Modernity changes concepts of space and time because of the rise of urbanization and communication technologies that create a separation of time and space and a distinction between space and plane. Postmodernism space creates a new kind of experience. Programs that include simulations dominate the themes of postmodernism. SecondLife is an example of this. In this program there is a virtual world of people and identities, virtual societies, economies, cities, building, and legal systems (337). This is a replication of the real world.
The world as we know it does not live in a time of postmodernism but there is many tensions because of modernity and post-modernity. These two ideas are both active and present in our time.
This chapter discusses postmodernism, indie media, and popular culture. It explains what each concept means and how it can be related to the world around us. It is said that postmodernism was developed around 1968. One definition of postmodernism emphasizes the formative role of economic and political conditions, including post war globalization, the emergence of new information technologies, new flexible forms of production, and the breakdown of the traditional nation-state, in the emergence of postmodern modes of cultural production (311). Another definition of postmodernism is a set of styles which create a creative explosion of style and surface image in reaction to the rigid attention to form and underlying structure in modernism. This definition has been criticized because it is argued that the definition implies that postmodernism is only a style that an artist or producer can choose to embrace or reject rather than a cultural trend that is integral to changes in culture, the economy, and politics (311). Postmodernism is a response to conditions implied by late modernity. This is also linked to the later stages of capitalism. Postmodern and modern are hard to tell when they start and end. It has been said that postmodernism intersects the period of late modernism. This period of intersection is known as the Enlightenment period. During this time, liberalism, modernization, and progress continued to improve on many developments of the poorer and less developed nations through science and technological advances. There is however a way to distinguish between post-modernity and modernity. Modern is described as the knowledge of forward looking and positive belief that one could know what was objectively true and real by discerning the structural relations that underpin social formations and natural phenomena (312). Postmodern, on the other hand, is defined as the questioning of the supposed universality of structural knowledge, as well as skepticism about the modern belief in the universality of progress. The questions asked are “Do we really know that progress is always a good thing? Can we really know the human subject? How can any experience be pure or unmediated? How do we know what truth is?” (313). Postmodern is a style. It can be used to describe fashions and politicians who define themselves and generate their identities through media images and text.
An example of the postmodern media would be the point at which animated studios changed the appearance of many cartoons. Snow White and Sesame Street are perfect examples to show this change in animation. Also, Astro Boy, The Transformers, and Mobile Suit Gundam all show examples of this new style of production. Each of these shows showed robotic characters with superhuman powers. Children who used to associate themselves with the old style of cartoon began to associate themselves with these non-human cartoons. These characters were “artificial computerized life” (317). In the 1990s, Pixar began to release movies that were only CGI “computer graphics imagery” (320). These movies included Toy Story, Shrek, and A Bugs Life.
“The world of images today consists of a huge variety of remakes, copies, parodies, replicas, reproductions, and remixes” (328). Pastiche describes the culture and how everything is an imitation, remake, or parody. Pastiche can also fall into the category of parody. Right now, many forms of media are considered to be in the category of genre parodies. The Simpsons for example uses parodies to play off the codes of film and cultural history.
Critiques say that postmodernism ignored history. Hutcheon says that postmodernism “suggests no search for transcendent, timeless meaning but rather a re-evaluation of, and a dialogue with the past in light of the present” (332). Photographs play a key part in this. A photograph symbolizes memory and history. The ideas of photos show that “the past remains within the present” (333).
Postmodernism is not only from changes in the popular culture and the art world. Postmodern culture is also created through the changes that take place in production, dissemination, and marketing of media forms (334). The internet and indie films play a huge part in postmodernism. Modernity changes concepts of space and time because of the rise of urbanization and communication technologies that create a separation of time and space and a distinction between space and plane. Postmodernism space creates a new kind of experience. Programs that include simulations dominate the themes of postmodernism. SecondLife is an example of this. In this program there is a virtual world of people and identities, virtual societies, economies, cities, building, and legal systems (337). This is a replication of the real world.
The world as we know it does not live in a time of postmodernism but there is many tensions because of modernity and post-modernity. These two ideas are both active and present in our time.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Journal #5: Money As Debt
Money as Debt Synopsis:
The main issue being discussed in this film is money: what is money and where does it come from? The question of what is money cannot be answered to this day, but the question of where does money come from can be answered: the mint and banks. The money produced by the mint is what is produced by the government. This money only makes up about 5% of the total money available. The other 95% of the money is made by banks.
The story of the goldsmith tells about how banks came to be and how the first bank began. The goldsmith made a vault for all the gold that he had so it would be safe from everyone. People began to want to rent out space in his vault for their gold also. The goldsmith allowed this to happen, by charging for the space used and for interest. He then began to make an income from the depositors. After people would leave their gold in the vault the goldsmith would give them a paper receipt known as a claim check. These claim checks were then being used around the marketplace because they were much easier to carry around than the larger, heavy sacks of gold. The goldsmith began to lend out gold as loans, but then realized it would be better to lend out the claim checks instead of gold. More and more people began to ask for loans. All of the major depositors did not ever come back to pick up their gold. When the loans were paid off, the goldsmith would make tons of money. He became very rich. Suspicions around the village grew. People thought that he was using their gold to become rich. All of the depositors threatened to take back all their gold, but he was able to prove them wrong by taking them to the vault. He still had everyone’s gold in the vault, but he was just making claim checks with money that he did not have. This was the beginning of banking, although this is not how banks still work today. The demand for loans became greater, and the goldsmith kept lending out checks for gold that did not exist. The interest that was being paid on the gold that did not exist made him very rich. Suspicions grew again. All of the wealthy depositors wanted their gold back, but he did not have enough gold to pay them back. It became a “run on the bank.” This is what every banker dreads. This in turn ruined the individual banks and the trust in all other banks.
Money represents debt. Now a dollar is equal to a dollar. You cannot pay in two different kinds of currency. There is one currency for the whole country and that is what you can use to pay with. The policy used to be gold is equal to the same value in a claim check. This is no longer the case. The government and banks create money. The amount of money available used to be limited to the quantity of what the money was, for example, gold, silver, or fish. Now, money is created as debt. Whenever a loan is taken out more money and more debt are created. In 1957 the total American debt was $5 trillion. In 2006 the total American debt was $45 trillion. Money is created when debt is created. Every time a banker loans out money to a person, more money is made. In order to take out a loan, you do not need to have any money in the bank and there is no limit as to how much money you can take out. The banks need to make user that they have 10% more in deposits than in loans; otherwise they will be shut down.
Banks can make as much money as we can borrow. The government mints only make 5% of the total money available. The rest of the money is made by loans and created by the banks. When a new loan is made, the old ones should be repaid. The government plays a big role in the money system: 1. the government makes everyone use the US currency (1 US dollar), 2. Private Banks can pay out in government currency, and 3. Government passes regulations to protect money systems functionally and credibility with the public without telling the public where the money comes from.
There is never enough actually money to lend out. Loans just make more debt. The more debt, then the more money there is. If there is no debt, then there is no money. If everyone were out of debt, there would be no money to spend. This would be very bad for the economy and for everyone. If there were no more loans, then there would be no more money. This is what happened during the Great Depression. If we do not want to have this happen to our economy again, then bankers need to keep giving out loans.
Banks create a principle not an interest. Only the principle is paid off. Interest money is money that does not exist. The bankers get the money from the overall principle money, and borrowers are in the same position. More new debt money is needed to increase the pay interest. The time lag between the money owed and the money created is good because if there was no time lag then everyone would be bankrupt. What can be done to help the system? Four questions have been formulated to come up with a response to this question: 1. Why do governments CHOOSE to borrow money from private banks at interest when governments could create all the interest free money it needs itself?, 2. Why create money as debt at all? Why not create money that circulates permanently?, 3. How can a money system dependent on perpetually accelerating growth be used to build a sustainable economy?, and 4. What needs to be changed to allow the creation of a sustainable economy?
Monetary reform advocates have debated whether changing the system is good or bad. They argue that the system needs to be replaces and that the old systems worked better. They argue that we should return to the gold based money system. The rebuttal to this argument is that no one will want to carry around huge, heavy sacks of gold when shopping. These monetary reforms will not come easy; it will take a long time if they ever do get passed.
Marshall McLuhan, media ‘guru’ says, “Only the small secrets need to be protected. The big ones are kept secret by public incredulity.”
The main issue being discussed in this film is money: what is money and where does it come from? The question of what is money cannot be answered to this day, but the question of where does money come from can be answered: the mint and banks. The money produced by the mint is what is produced by the government. This money only makes up about 5% of the total money available. The other 95% of the money is made by banks.
The story of the goldsmith tells about how banks came to be and how the first bank began. The goldsmith made a vault for all the gold that he had so it would be safe from everyone. People began to want to rent out space in his vault for their gold also. The goldsmith allowed this to happen, by charging for the space used and for interest. He then began to make an income from the depositors. After people would leave their gold in the vault the goldsmith would give them a paper receipt known as a claim check. These claim checks were then being used around the marketplace because they were much easier to carry around than the larger, heavy sacks of gold. The goldsmith began to lend out gold as loans, but then realized it would be better to lend out the claim checks instead of gold. More and more people began to ask for loans. All of the major depositors did not ever come back to pick up their gold. When the loans were paid off, the goldsmith would make tons of money. He became very rich. Suspicions around the village grew. People thought that he was using their gold to become rich. All of the depositors threatened to take back all their gold, but he was able to prove them wrong by taking them to the vault. He still had everyone’s gold in the vault, but he was just making claim checks with money that he did not have. This was the beginning of banking, although this is not how banks still work today. The demand for loans became greater, and the goldsmith kept lending out checks for gold that did not exist. The interest that was being paid on the gold that did not exist made him very rich. Suspicions grew again. All of the wealthy depositors wanted their gold back, but he did not have enough gold to pay them back. It became a “run on the bank.” This is what every banker dreads. This in turn ruined the individual banks and the trust in all other banks.
Money represents debt. Now a dollar is equal to a dollar. You cannot pay in two different kinds of currency. There is one currency for the whole country and that is what you can use to pay with. The policy used to be gold is equal to the same value in a claim check. This is no longer the case. The government and banks create money. The amount of money available used to be limited to the quantity of what the money was, for example, gold, silver, or fish. Now, money is created as debt. Whenever a loan is taken out more money and more debt are created. In 1957 the total American debt was $5 trillion. In 2006 the total American debt was $45 trillion. Money is created when debt is created. Every time a banker loans out money to a person, more money is made. In order to take out a loan, you do not need to have any money in the bank and there is no limit as to how much money you can take out. The banks need to make user that they have 10% more in deposits than in loans; otherwise they will be shut down.
Banks can make as much money as we can borrow. The government mints only make 5% of the total money available. The rest of the money is made by loans and created by the banks. When a new loan is made, the old ones should be repaid. The government plays a big role in the money system: 1. the government makes everyone use the US currency (1 US dollar), 2. Private Banks can pay out in government currency, and 3. Government passes regulations to protect money systems functionally and credibility with the public without telling the public where the money comes from.
There is never enough actually money to lend out. Loans just make more debt. The more debt, then the more money there is. If there is no debt, then there is no money. If everyone were out of debt, there would be no money to spend. This would be very bad for the economy and for everyone. If there were no more loans, then there would be no more money. This is what happened during the Great Depression. If we do not want to have this happen to our economy again, then bankers need to keep giving out loans.
Banks create a principle not an interest. Only the principle is paid off. Interest money is money that does not exist. The bankers get the money from the overall principle money, and borrowers are in the same position. More new debt money is needed to increase the pay interest. The time lag between the money owed and the money created is good because if there was no time lag then everyone would be bankrupt. What can be done to help the system? Four questions have been formulated to come up with a response to this question: 1. Why do governments CHOOSE to borrow money from private banks at interest when governments could create all the interest free money it needs itself?, 2. Why create money as debt at all? Why not create money that circulates permanently?, 3. How can a money system dependent on perpetually accelerating growth be used to build a sustainable economy?, and 4. What needs to be changed to allow the creation of a sustainable economy?
Monetary reform advocates have debated whether changing the system is good or bad. They argue that the system needs to be replaces and that the old systems worked better. They argue that we should return to the gold based money system. The rebuttal to this argument is that no one will want to carry around huge, heavy sacks of gold when shopping. These monetary reforms will not come easy; it will take a long time if they ever do get passed.
Marshall McLuhan, media ‘guru’ says, “Only the small secrets need to be protected. The big ones are kept secret by public incredulity.”
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Journal #4: The Day the Music Died
Frontline: The Day the Music Died Synopsis
The music industry is a very hard business to get involved in as a singer or song writer. Many people who have experienced the hardships of the music business will suggest that you do not try to get involved in the business. About 30,000 records are released annually and only about 100 turn out to be hits and make the top 100 on the Billboard Charts. This is about an 85% fail rate and about 9 out of 10 people fail. People who do get involved with the music business love what they do. Most singers and songwriters love to write and sing music so that their voice can be heard. It is their dream to get to sing on stage and get to the top. This is only a dream for most people. The business is a nasty one. You never know how much money you will make, or when your top songs will drop. For example, when rock first came out all the kids loved it, but parents hated it because they could not understand this new type of music. The same happened when hip-hop and rap was introduced. These genres of music became popular for a few years and then were dropped. The record companies used these artists. As said in the film, the record companies “used them and abused them and then threw them away.”
When the baby boomer generation grew up cassettes and CDs became available. These people began to buy less and less records, but they began to replace the records that they already had with these new inventions. This caused a problem because no new artists were being sold, but most companies were prospering from this excess buying of CDs. Because the record companies began to make so much money in such little time, the international conglomerates became interested in buying the companies. These international conglomerates ended up buying out some of the record companies.
Business in the 90s was good for record companies, but the increased use of the internet downloads and files transfers. The free music downloads available dented the amount of record sales. Also, one person could buy a CD and then transfer files to friends, whether it be to one friend or 100. The sales went from 40 billion down to 28 billion. The main argument that people who downloaded music off the internet is that they would go out and buy a CD from an artist they liked for one song and then the rest of the songs would be bad. Therefore they wasted their money on buying just one good song. When they download over the internet they could pick exactly what song they wanted to download and would not have to deal with all the other music that they did not enjoy listening to. The lead singer in Outkast explained that he feels that the free music downloads are not the problem. He thinks that the music industry is not producing “good” music anymore. He goes on to say that when people hear good music they will go out and spend the money to buy the songs. This is backed up by the amount of record sales of popular artists: Outkast sold 8 million, Eminem sold 8 million, 50 Cent sold 6 million, and Nora Jones sold 6 million.
The radio also makes the music industry tough. It is very hard for new artists to get their music on the radio. Radio stations rarely play new music because they stick to the music that they know is popular. The radio station may listen to 20-30 new CDs each week, but makes the decision on what to play by what’s hot and what will be hot. Getting onto the radio is like getting into the “eye of the needle.” There are 32,000 records put out each year and only about 4-5 records are able to be played in a week. In order to get on the radio as a new artist you need the “right song” that the radio station believes has the potential of being a hit single. The radio business suffered in the early 90s. This was because Congress passed a law that raised the amount of stations a conglomerate could own. This in turn became a monopoly. Clear Channel is an example of this. If this company did not want something to be aired on the radio, then it would not be aired.
MTV is also plays a big factor in getting artists songs out to the public. If an artist was aired on MTV then they were famous. MTV used the idea of marketing over substance. When you were on MTV you had 3 minutes and an image that you had to make and make people like it. If you did not have a good image, such as a music video, then you were not worthy to be on MTV. Therefore, in addition to the music, you needed to have a good music video to go along with it. MTV also has the same problem as radio, they cannot show every artist. They had a limit on the amount of time they could contribute to music per week. All artists were not able to be shown. As long as you made a “boom” with a new song then you would make it. All others who were just average would be pushed aside.
The music industry is a very hard business to get involved in as a singer or song writer. Many people who have experienced the hardships of the music business will suggest that you do not try to get involved in the business. About 30,000 records are released annually and only about 100 turn out to be hits and make the top 100 on the Billboard Charts. This is about an 85% fail rate and about 9 out of 10 people fail. People who do get involved with the music business love what they do. Most singers and songwriters love to write and sing music so that their voice can be heard. It is their dream to get to sing on stage and get to the top. This is only a dream for most people. The business is a nasty one. You never know how much money you will make, or when your top songs will drop. For example, when rock first came out all the kids loved it, but parents hated it because they could not understand this new type of music. The same happened when hip-hop and rap was introduced. These genres of music became popular for a few years and then were dropped. The record companies used these artists. As said in the film, the record companies “used them and abused them and then threw them away.”
When the baby boomer generation grew up cassettes and CDs became available. These people began to buy less and less records, but they began to replace the records that they already had with these new inventions. This caused a problem because no new artists were being sold, but most companies were prospering from this excess buying of CDs. Because the record companies began to make so much money in such little time, the international conglomerates became interested in buying the companies. These international conglomerates ended up buying out some of the record companies.
Business in the 90s was good for record companies, but the increased use of the internet downloads and files transfers. The free music downloads available dented the amount of record sales. Also, one person could buy a CD and then transfer files to friends, whether it be to one friend or 100. The sales went from 40 billion down to 28 billion. The main argument that people who downloaded music off the internet is that they would go out and buy a CD from an artist they liked for one song and then the rest of the songs would be bad. Therefore they wasted their money on buying just one good song. When they download over the internet they could pick exactly what song they wanted to download and would not have to deal with all the other music that they did not enjoy listening to. The lead singer in Outkast explained that he feels that the free music downloads are not the problem. He thinks that the music industry is not producing “good” music anymore. He goes on to say that when people hear good music they will go out and spend the money to buy the songs. This is backed up by the amount of record sales of popular artists: Outkast sold 8 million, Eminem sold 8 million, 50 Cent sold 6 million, and Nora Jones sold 6 million.
The radio also makes the music industry tough. It is very hard for new artists to get their music on the radio. Radio stations rarely play new music because they stick to the music that they know is popular. The radio station may listen to 20-30 new CDs each week, but makes the decision on what to play by what’s hot and what will be hot. Getting onto the radio is like getting into the “eye of the needle.” There are 32,000 records put out each year and only about 4-5 records are able to be played in a week. In order to get on the radio as a new artist you need the “right song” that the radio station believes has the potential of being a hit single. The radio business suffered in the early 90s. This was because Congress passed a law that raised the amount of stations a conglomerate could own. This in turn became a monopoly. Clear Channel is an example of this. If this company did not want something to be aired on the radio, then it would not be aired.
MTV is also plays a big factor in getting artists songs out to the public. If an artist was aired on MTV then they were famous. MTV used the idea of marketing over substance. When you were on MTV you had 3 minutes and an image that you had to make and make people like it. If you did not have a good image, such as a music video, then you were not worthy to be on MTV. Therefore, in addition to the music, you needed to have a good music video to go along with it. MTV also has the same problem as radio, they cannot show every artist. They had a limit on the amount of time they could contribute to music per week. All artists were not able to be shown. As long as you made a “boom” with a new song then you would make it. All others who were just average would be pushed aside.
Friday, April 17, 2009
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