A Semester in Review

This semester has been a challenge. It has been a rewarding challenge, but a challenge nonetheless. It has been filled with late nights, stressed out afternoons, discipline, rewards, and LOTS of coffee. However, as challenging as this semester and this class have been, they have been beneficial. I have become a better writer, a better thinker, and a better student.

When we started the semester and I realized that the central theme of this class was going to be music, I was elated! Music runs in my blood. I love to listen to and create beautiful melodies and emotional harmonies that carry deep into the soul and affect us in our deepest parts. However, our “study” of music was a vehicle – a muse that gave us something about which to express our thoughts and emotions and hone our compositional skills. And boy did this vehicle take us on a journey! Starting with the rather Cerebral Aaron Copeland and ranging to the diaries of Curt Kobain, diatribes against MTV, Gangsta Rap, Emenim, The business of music, the Senate House Committee, and much more, we have gained an understanding of this industry and the heart behind it that I never thoughts possible from an English class. What I have gained from this class, not just writing skills, but new ways of thinking, will be with me for the rest of my life.

The community we shared in this class was a very interesting dynamic. I have never commented on a fellow student’s research paper before without the specific request of that student. The Peer Draft Reviews were brutal, but very helpful. It’s amazing how much you can learn about someone by reading their thoughts about certain issues. It is interesting to become so acquainted with people whom I have never met. I don’t know you by face, or even by real name in some cases, but I do know you by your heart, your effort, and your expression. It has been a real joy to be in this class with all of you even if I feel compelled to say I hated it (just on the principle of it being an English class… always my scholastic archenemy growing up… we share no great love).

I think what we have learned in this class – how to be better writers, how to think through certain issues, fun facts and figures about the music industry and how it functions, and how to thoughtfully respond to the writing of our peers will remain with us for a long time to come. These skills will come in handy in the workforce, as we become educators of others, and in our skills as husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, aunts, and uncles. We will always need to communicate with others – especially those we love. And we have learned in this class how to become more effective communicators, but to a professional audience and to an informal audience as well. And whatever the outcome, it was a semester well spent.

- Jason Clark

Writing Improvement

At the beginning of this semester I wrote a paper detailing my relationship with writing. In that paper, I contrasted my relationship with writing to my relationship with my dentist. Dr. Li, my dentist, is a very fine man whose office I enjoy visiting a couple times a year or as often as needed. My relationship with him is a good relationship that is respectful, professional, and pleasant. My relationship with writing is exactly the opposite. Although I recognized that writing is a very important part of communication and of culture in general, at the beginning of the semester I would rather have teeth pulled by Dr. Li than have to write a paper.

But now that the semester has progressed and I have learned much about writing, researching, and formatting, my relationship with writing remains just as spiteful as the day we began! Although my relationship with and enjoyment of writing has not improved, I believe my writing abilities have improved in at least a couple ways.

The first, and probably foremost, way in which it has improved is my ability to write about topics in which I have no interest. The never ceasing torrent of assignments coming at us this semester has caused me to write many a time about something that I didn’t care one bit about. It is easy for my to write about things that I like or feel passionate about, but find it very difficult to muster up the discipline or desire to write about something that I believe doesn’t matter. This semester has helped me to see that writing about these things isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but can be seen as an exercise in writing ability. I have begun to see that just because I don’t want to write about something or don’t feel any interest in the subject, it doesn’t mean that there is no value in writing about such things.

A practical way in which I believe my writing has improved is in the ability to accurately summarize research in a paper. This may not seem like the most rewarding thing to have gained, but I believe it will be very useful in my life in the future. To be able to understand and accurately repeat what someone else has said in fewer words is a skill that will serve me well in the future. I am not the most proficient person in the world by any means, but my understanding of summarizing and quoting has drastically improved.

Research Paper 'BLAHHHH's

For my research paper, I have chosen to write about the band Marilyn Manson and how they have been rightfully censured and excoriated in conservative circles for the violent, satanic, wicked, and sexually explicit included in their lyrics. So far I have several good sources including a biography of Marilyn Manson (the person, not the band), and interview with the band, and various articles from their attackers denouncing the band and their destructive content. There is plenty of material from both sides to create an interesting paper with plenty of tension.

However, there are two major problems I am facing while writing this paper. The first is burnout. I am so ready to be done with this semester that I am having an extremely hard time keeping up with this class and staying on top of assignments from which I cannot foresee anything valuable being learned. As someone who is nearing the end of my 8th semester in college, there is absolutely no motivation for me to finish this seemingly utterly useless paper than the fact that I have to finish this class to graduate with my Bachelors!

The second problem I am facing is the extremely dark subject matter of Marilyn Manson’s music. Reading about the band, the lives they live, and what they sing about is absolutely oppressive. I realize that writing about this band was my choice, but had I the chance to choose again, I would not choose this band. At the outset, I knew there was good reason for them to be shunned by conservatives (which I am), but had no idea how utterly dark, hopeless, wicked, and sickening their music actually is! It has become not just a battle to keep up with the assignment, but a battle in the soul.

Having experienced this type of darkness by just casually researching the band, I cannot imagine what kind of oppression must exist in those who listen to them on a regular basis. I have commented many times in my blogs this semester that I believe unwholesome music is corrupting the minds of the youth in our culture and will eventually contribute to a moral bankruptcy that will bring America and the rest of the postmodern world to its knees. I persist in this believe, but now see how much more acute the struggle is that just the battle for morality. It is a battle for the heart of our nation. I fear that, due to the influence of bands like Marilyn Manson, the youth of our culture and our world will be rendered incapable of distinguishing truth from falsehood – a tragedy that forebodes the failure of a culture.

Over the past few weeks, writing this paper has been a factor contributing in a growing awareness that I have of the spiritual warfare perpetually raging around the minds and hearts of American culture. I make no apology when I say that I pray everyday for those young hearts and minds to be protected against the pollution and toxicity being hurled at them everyday through their televisions, computer screens, and headphones. Writing this paper has helped me see how venomous this pollution really is. In a sense, then, I am thankful for being forced to write this ‘useless’ paper. It has given me a greater understanding of the challenged being faced by the youth in our culture – perhaps a far more profitable lesson than ever intended for the assignment to teach.

Piracy... Arghh

Jason Clark
Blog - Week 12

Internet Piracy

Internet Piracy is the downloading of music, movies, books, or other copyrighted material without the permission of the copyright holder to make another digital copy. Many people have disputed the definition of internet piracy and many argue that downloading music from a peer to peer network is not illegal. This dispute will carry on for a long time to come, but for the present, the unsanctioned download of copyrighted material has been outlawed.

Internet piracy is a problem that affects the movie industry, publishing industry, but especially the music industry. The problem is growing for these other industries, though, due to more of our lives becoming digitized and as high speed internet becomes more common. Piracy pertaining to the music industry especially is not a problem that will ever be solved, in my opinion. There are many ways to regulate which type of files can be shared though which sites and services, but these can be easily beaten. If 100 percent fool proof way to prevent internet piracy were to exist, it would have to monitor every byte of data that is transmitted over every internet connection in every country in the world. This system would have to be able to evaluate whether or not each exchange of data between computers is a legitimate exchange or whether it is illegal. A highly advanced artificial intelligence program would have to be used on every connection in the entire world. Simply, this does not exist and never will exist because there simply is no technology that could sustain this.

I believe the industry will never stop internet piracy. It will however, curb it. With the launch of the Apple iTunes store, the way people downloaded music changed. They were now able to get any single song off an album instead of having to purchase an entire CD. This deterred many people from illegally downloading music because they were willing to spend $.99 on a song that they would have had to spend $12 to buy as part of an album before.

The biggest losers associated with internet piracy will be the record labels. The majority of all album sales go directly to the label. The artist very rarely sees anything from album sales. I don’t believe a huge majority of artists care that their songs are being downloaded for free because they would never see any of the profits from them anyway. It serves as free exposure for the artist.

The American Drea.... Idol

Not being an avid watcher of Television, I was at a bit of a loss about how to proceed with this assignment as I am not familiar with the usage of popular bands in advertising and have never seen an episode of a reality television show. However, the way I have decided to proceed is as that of an outsider looking in on the reality TV craze. I will attempt to show that, at first glance, the reality show American Idol seems to propagate the American Dream, but upon closer inspection is actually an exploitation of this dream to create entertainment for the masses and extra zeros in the bank accounts of executives.

In attempting to demonstrate the correlation or lack thereof between American Idol and the American dream, we must first define our terms. The American Dream is the social ideal that a person of humble beginnings is able to raise their economic and social standing through hard work, friendliness, and dedication – an ideal not available in many societies throughout the world.

On the surface, American Idol appears to be a way of attaining this dream because it offers unknown musicians and those holding aspirations of grandeur an opportunity to rise and become a star performer in the mainstream of American culture. This seems to fit the definition of the American Dream because it offers a way to rise from humble beginnings to stardom simply overnight (or over the course of 24 weeks or however long the season runs).

America has been a draw for many people from many parts of the world for over 400 years because of the freedom offered in this land and the ability to rise above humble beginning and “make something of themselves.” And American Idol offers a shortcut to doing just that. The show welcomes many contestants to tryout to see if they have the musical ability to make it on the show. It draws hundreds of thousands of would-be stars to open themselves up to humiliation for the purpose of entertainment. However, the prize is that one lucky (and presumably talented) person will be named the winner, given a record contract, and made a superstar.

I believe this whole process is an exploitation of the American Dream. The television network is pandering to the peoples’ desire to be stars and uses this desire to fill their own pockets with the proceeds of the popularity of this enterprise. There is an empty offer of stardom for all but one person. The American Dream, in my mind, is not to simply go from rags to riches, but to achieve success in life by one’s own effort. In this sense, the one who inherits a large sum of money from the proverbial rich uncle has not achieved the American Dream, but has simply benefited from charity. In the same sense the winner of American Idol does not give someone the fulfillment of the American Dream, but uses their humiliation for the purpose of entertainment and financial gain.

As critical as I have appeared to be in this post, I do fully understand that the people who are being “used” in this process have willingly made themselves available to be so. So, I criticize and speak rather negatively of this program, but realize it is fully accepted as a part of our culture and as a legitimate source of entertainment. ( a source which I have not participated in for some reason). 

Keeping It Real

Eminem is given credit for “keeping it real” by kids from the projects because he is the embodiment of ideals. To them, he is the ideal child of an abusive parent. He speaks against his mother with such rage and brutality that he is praised for fighting against the abuse he endured. He is also praised as the ideal father for pledging his undying love and support to his daughter. These teens can identify with both the rage against an abusive parent and also with him as a father figure that they never had. For these he is praised for “keeping it real.”
However, real as he has kept it, Eminem is also a bit of a paradox. He has sworn to love and support his daughter in all things for as long as he is alive. However, at the same time he is spewing hate, anger, and rage against his mother for the upbringing he endured. These negative emotions coupled with the positive emotions of love will most likely be anything but helpful to his daughter in the future. What would a daughter think when her father is one minute telling her he loves her and the next minute rapping obscenities about his mother. It would be confusing, I’m sure. Aside from the confusion this type of contradiction can bring on a young mind, the kind of negative lyrics being rapped by Eminem are doing nothing but harming the youth of our society. His message is creating a world where it is okay to hate your family members and express intentions of doing them great harm. I wonder: Is this a world where Eminem wants his daughter to live? Would he ever want his daughter to express thoughts toward him similar to those he is expressing about his mother? I think not! If he truly loved his daughter in the way he has expressed it, would he be contributing to the moral degradation of the society in which his daughter will be part one day?
Just as Eminem has been praised for “keeping it real,” many other artists should be as well, or even more so. Reality inlyrics is absolutely essential for the song to have any real relevance to a life. Whether this reality comes in the form of life experience of the artist or simply a true principle being communicated through song lyrics, it must be present for a song to be impactful. For example, Party in the USA by Miley Cyrus is a song not grounded in reality. There is no principle being communicated, but is simply a fluff song. Some might say it’s a fun song and really like it. There is nothing wrong with that at all. They are welcome to like it, but it will not change their life. On the other hand, a song like Leave it Like it Is by David Wilcox carries a principle with it that has the power to change how somebody thinks about the world. It is grounded in the author’s understanding of life principles. He has “kept it real” and written a song that is not only musically entertaining, but lyrically poignant to the lives of his listeners. Eminem’s songs may be grounded in his feelings and life experiences, but I don’t think they offer anything constructive to society at all.

Drugs and Music... Not a Good Combination

Craig Werner has stated in his essay that many Jazz musicians are on the leading edge of musical trends and exploration. For this reason, mainstream media often rejects their music as too abstract. He also states that the reason many of these musicians run to drugs is to deal with the pain of not being accepted by most of the world. In my opinion, there is some weight to this argument. There are many musicians who run to drugs to deal with the pain of rejection, but I would argue that there is an equal or greater amount of jazz musicians who run to drugs for other reasons.
In Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories about Sherlock Holmes, the great detective would often use Cocaine when faced with an extremely difficult case that had him baffled. Holmes claimed that the drugs gave him the mental fortitude to address the problem and come up with a solution. In the same fashion, many musicians run to drugs to help them be more creative. They claim that it helps the creative juices flow because it alters their mind so that they are able to get out of mental rut and write. Many artists, not just musicians, have claimed this same thing over the years. However, I would completely disagree with them. I would claim that drugs do nothing but steal their creativity. If a musicians or artist is amazingly creative while on drugs, I can only image how creative they could be in their right mind!

To Rate or Not to... Protect

In response to the question of whether or not record companies should post parental advisory warning labels on the music they distribute, I think that record labels should post warning labels and even intensify the extent to which they protect the listener. Music seems to be the only mass media marketed that does not take extensive lengths to protect the listener/viewer from objectionable content. The movie industry has the MPAA rating system. Television also has a rating system. The music industry, however, only has “parental advisory” stickers. These stickers are, in my opinion, largely ineffective. A better system of rating music and protecting the listener is needed.

To purchase tickets for an R rated movie, one must be at least 17 years of age and possess proof of that age at the time of purchase. This effectively prohibits immature audiences from seeing and hearing things that they ought not to observe. This does not mean that there is nothing objectionable in movies possessing something lower than an R rating, but simply that most objectionable content is unattainable without the assistance of someone older. I have two comments about this in relation to the music industry. The first is that the music industry needs a more effective rating system than simply “parental advisory.” This offers very little guidance except to say that there is something objectionable on this album. The movie industry, however, has no less than 4 rating which are given to movies for varying degrees of objectionable content. The type of objectionable content in the film is then listen below the rating so that they viewer knows what is contained in that movie to give it that rating. The music industry has nothing comparable to this. A several tiered rating system similar to the movie industry with an explanation of the type of content contained in the music would be a helpful guide for both listeners and parents. That way parents could gauge what type of content is contained in their kid’s music.

My second thought relating the movie industry’s rating system to the music industry’s lack of rating system is that even the movie industry’s rating system is somewhat ineffective because measures that need to be taken to enforce the system, such as checking IDs before selling tickets to an R rated movie, are not taken. Not only does this need to be remedied in the movie industry, but effective measures need to be taken to make sure music with objectionable content is not distributed to those that should not be listening to it. I would propose a 3-4 tiered music rating system in which content is rated based on very similar criteria to which movies are rated. This would, hopefully, significantly reduce the amount of music containing foul content that is being distributed today. If this content really does have an affect on the behavior of our youth, which I am of the opinion that it, along with other media, does, then this would curtail a lot of the violence stemming from the music that our youth are listening to. I cannot see anything negative coming from increasing the rating system by which our music is evaluated. An outcry might arise from the record industry if a change of this nature were to be implemented, but that is only because it would hurt them in their wallets.

Response to Bloom

In his essay in Music and Culture, Mr. Bloom argues the point that young people today are so engrossed with their music that they are unable to truly experience passion and intellect in anything other than their rock and roll.

I would partially agree with Mr. Bloom. He makes the point that rock music “ruins the imagination of young people and makes it difficult for them to have a passionate relationship to the art and thought that are the substance of liberal education.” I would disagree with his statement that it is just rock music that does this. I would submit that an overindulgence of popular media, of which rock music is part, causes this atrocity to come about.

In our day and age there is very little that goes on in peace and quiet. When we are home, our stereos and televisions blare throughout our dwellings. When we drive in the car, we listen to the radio. When we go into a restaurant or a store, there is music playing or a television in the corner. There are very few places in life where we are not constantly being entertained. This overload of the senses, I believe, has a similar effect to what Mr. Bloom has mentioned in his essay. There is no time for thinking anymore. There is no time to contemplate art, literature, and faith. What this has led to is a generation disinterested in using their brains. We consume media in such large quantities that there is hardly any room left to have what Mr. Bloom calls “a passionate relationship to the art and thought that are the substance of liberal education.”

This overindulgence of popular media has left us ignorant of the great minds and artists of the past. I believe this is what Mr. Bloom is trying to say when he says that this generation finds that “they are deaf.” Now I understand that by saying “we” I am making a gross generalization of this generation. I am agreeing with Mr. Blooms points understanding that his essay was written during the Reagan administration and that many of the youth he was speaking of when he penned this essay are now well into their 30s and 40s. However, I believe that his critique of the youth in the 80s is even truer of us today.

I really enjoy rock music, but I find that the point of rock music has precisely the effect upon the mind and soul that Mr. Bloom describes. However, I believe this effect is not exclusively brought about by rock music. It is the product of many forms of mindless entertainment. A glaring example of this is the laxity and uncaring attitude I see in students today, including myself. There are many times when I would rather watch a movie or listen to music instead of building my mind through my homework. It was quoted to me once by a fellow student that “education is the only commodity with which consumers are satisfied to pay more and receive less.” I see this principle creeping into my thinking quite often. I also see it in many of those around me. If we are to not be a generation that is “deaf” to those that have come before, it would do us well to lessen our intake of popular media and increase our intake of things that cause us to exercise our minds and thus cause us to grow.

Of Musicians and Authors...

After reading several excerpts from the writings of Copeland, Etheridge, and Kobain I have formed an opinion on styles of writing which should and should not be used to convey information.

I will start with Aaron Copeland. Mr. Copeland’s essay was in the form of a lecture. It was very well written, cohesive, and cogent. He began by introducing his topic and then systematically covered all that he had to say by bringing up various arguments in favor of his position to help his readers understand what he was teaching. I think this form of writing is a good way to present information to a reader. It is easy to follow and can be understood very easily. A downside to Mr. Copeland’s lecture is that he was very abstract and intellectual. What I mean by this is that he expects his readers to have a certain knowledge of his topic before he starts lecturing. I did not completely understand the intellectual processes behind everything in this essay, but did enjoy reading it as a whole. I believe a lecture style is a powerful and useful way of presenting information to an audience.

The second essay I read was by Melissa Etheridge. Ms. Etheridge’s essay was in the form of autobiography – she was telling the story of her life to, hopefully, teach her readers lessons she has learned. I believe this is a very effective way of communicating information. I try to be, as I believe everybody should be, an astute observer of the lives of others. I observe their successes and their failures, the things that bring them joy and the things that bring hurt, and how they have been wise or foolish. The way Ms. Etheridge wrote about her life was ripe with lessons to be learned. I believe life lessons can be learned much more easily if we can see an example of a success story or a failure rather than just being told that to do such-and-such is a mistake. Ms. Etheridge’s account of some of her life accomplishes this very well and thus, I believe, uses autobiography as an effective form of communication.

The third entry I read was by Curt Kobain. Mr. Kobain’s entry was not an essay, but rather a collection of excerpts from his journals. I must start by saying that I did not enjoy reading this collection of journal entries. They were very disjointed, not very well articulated, and sparsely punctuated. However, these dissatisfactions with Mr. Kobain’s journals aside, I believe reading journals are a great way of learning about a person. Just as autobiographies are a great source from which to observe lessons, journals may be even more so. An autobiography is a person writing about what they did, but a journal is a catalogue of thoughts, emotions, and ideas. We can learn, not only about one person, but maybe a lot about ourselves through reading the journals of others. They may have insights into feelings we are having or struggles we are facing that we haven’t had yet. People often write about their successes and failures in a very personal way in their journals. This is a source for learning that could be even better than autobiography.

I believe all three of these forms of communication (lecture, autobiography, and journals) can be very effective. Just like with anything else in life, some authors resonate more with some readers than others. We may enjoy reading some authors more than others but we should not discount those we don’t like because there are many lessons that can be learned from them.

The Influence of Music

I believe music has been a very powerful instrument in the formation and shaping of who I am and who I am becoming. When I was in junior high school, if I had to describe myself in one sentence, it probably would have sounded something like “I’m a Christian 13 year old that plays guitar.” From a very early age, a love for music has been engrained into who I am, largely by my Father who is an active and very proficient musician. My Dad used to play his guitar for hours on end when my sister and I were growing up. One of my favorite times that he would play was after my sister and I were in our rooms going to sleep. He would sit in the living room playing and we would drift off to the beautiful melodies of his acoustic songs. To this day one of the most comforting and peaceful sounds to me is a solo acoustic guitar. It makes me think of my Dad and the comfort and safety of knowing he loves me and also reminds me of the influence he has been on my life.
I believe that the study of music has taught me a lot about how to think critically, solve problems, and express myself. Music theory is very mathematical in nature and demands the use of the technical side of the brain to understand and analyze. However, the creation of music itself is a very expressive endeavor, requiring the use of the creative side of the brain. Both of these elements blend beautifully together to exercise the entire brain. When composing a piece of music, one must understand the workings of music theory, but also listen to the music they are creating and evaluate the emotions being evoked by the blend of melody and harmony. Learning to play and compose music has helped me develop both sides of my brain.
I also believe music has been and still is a powerful tool in the formation and development of society and culture. To my knowledge, there is not a culture on planet earth from the past or present that does not have music in some form. Everywhere from the jungles of the Amazon, to the mountains of Mongolia ring the echoes of rhythm, melody, harmony, and lyric. These essential elements of music blend together to influence the development of thought and heart in as many diversities of people as the styles of music they play. As long as we have music, it will continue to be a part of who we are and who we are becoming.