Ever since i started the Pop Culture class at the beginning of this quarter, I have constantly been blown away by how many undertones of masculinity and femininity in popular culture. The class has taught me about the advertising industry and how they target different types of people. From memes to hegemonic masculinity, I have used what I’ve learned in the class and have applied it to the television I watch. From doing the assignment, I expected to learn about how pop culture is good for us in ways not many people talk about. By blogging, I learned a new way to share what I think with people and learned a new way to interact in ways other than facebook and myspace.
I believe thatmy best blog was Advertising. Does It Influence because I have always wanted to emphasize how advertising affects us. This was also the piece that I put the most time, effort and planing to prove my point. I wanted people to know that subconsciously, advertising influences. I believe that my worst post was Does Will Kane show what a real American should be? This was my first post and I didn’t really know what to do and how to do it. I also really didn’t understand the subject matter we talked about in class so I was very unfamiliar with the format and blogging in general.
If I had to do this project again I would research a little bit more to back up my arguments and make sure there aren’t any flaws in it. THe whole blogging experience made me a smarter pop culture person. I will used what I have learned to make myself and others better in pop culture. I enjoyed this entire experience and hope to have more great classes like this one.
This is a comment to Alyssa‘s post
My dad is really into The Sopranos and I understand Alyssa’s point. She shows the dull moments in life that the Sopranos uses to show a common person, though I believe that the main plot happens in that time period of action-less scenes. The plot is the crucial part in the Sopranos and causes the action to have an even greater affect on the viewers, but they have to stay tuned in to the slow part.
I also think that the Sopranos demonstrates masculinity. Tony Soprano isn’t the most attractive person, but he gets girls and has a hot trophy wife. He is a strip club owner and there aren’t many more things that are more masculine than that. He is also a hard-ass and doesn’t deal with the bs that gets shoveled his way. The Sopranos is what Johnson would call a good television show.
This is a comment to Sam‘s post.
I agree, furniture is much more important than people on a reality television show. Many people on these shows aren’t even worth the money in my back pocket, $0. All the want is their 15 minutes of fame. Well get it, and get out. I don’t really care who fights with who on a show because they’re put on their to cause controversy. Also in reality shows, I notice that most of the people are fake. I do agree that things in reality shows get out of hand and believe that the casters could do something about that.
This is a comment to Singact13‘s post
I believe that America has become obsessed with the average chick flick. Singact13 brings up a good point about the psychology of a chick flick and guys. I agree that women make guys watch them when the guys don’t want to. The girls want to see a happily ever after and want the guy to want one too. I have suffered through my fair share of chick flicks and its okay. I don’t prefer it or dislike it. From a guys perspective, we do it to please her. Most guys i talk to hate chick flicks because there isn’t enough action. That is my proposal to you. Make a chick flick with guns, the guys will be telling girls to watch the flick.
A comment to amerikinidit’s post
I agree with Erika’s post. She uses her evidence from experience and also supports it with facts. I watched LOST for the first season and tried to start watching the second season half way through and got really lost because the plot, like Johnson argued in his book, is so intricate that if you miss one episode you’re lost, like the show.
I believe this is true with other current shows. Heroes is one that has become very intricate because i already thought they saved the cheerleader but there is still chaos about. If you miss an episode of these new types of shows, you’re bound to be out of sync with the story.
Everyone loves to listen to music. I am a fan of everything and have recently noticed that the top hits are starting to sound more and more like music that you would find at a club. As an audio major I thought why is this happening. Well many television shows and music videos show people dancing in a club. Many artists like Justin Timberlake, Timbaland, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Ke$ha, Kanye West, Beyonce, Cobra Starship, and 3Oh3 have picked up on this trend and started to make music that is pop but would still be played at a club.
These are some songs that have been on top of the pop charts. They all have some sort of dance beat and show the more entertaining side of life that everyone wants to be a part of. Pop culture, from reality television and marketing, has shown us that there’s no stopping for a break. Its go and party like the night never ends. All of these artists have changed pop in ways to make us want to go out and party and reality television backs that up.
Now we look at how the song i written out. In club music there’s bass drum hits on every beat to keep the beat when people are dancing. There are some syncopated rhythms that the synthesizer plays to confuse what the mind is hearing so that there are some interesting parts the listener can’t put the finger on and want to keep listening to figure it out. And finally, the effects make the pop music seem more “dancy”.
These pop songs are hits but eventually could be considered dance because of the overwhelming use of them in clubs. Pop used to be like Michael Jackson’s 80′s songs and AH-HA, but now its changing.
Reality television is one of the more popular types of shows today. We enjoy them because there is just so much drama all the time. From The Real World where random people are put in a house and told to live together, to a dating show where the contenders are bad-mouthing there competition, reality shows don’t disappoint. Is there a reason for all head butts that go on in reality shows? Are the enemies really random?
In many reality shows we always see all of the different personalities. The casters say that its random, but for some reason everyone always has a problem with someone. The casters don’t make it random. They “type cast”. Type casting is finding someone that will fulfill a certain role in the show, or stereotype. In the NY Times article “Reality T.V. Becomes a Science“, David Carr shows us what casters try to do. Since drama is the only way to make a show entertaining, they try to find people that will bring the most drama. If they do that then ratings will go up.
Type casting is the way that reality shows make money. We, as the audience, only want to see people fighting because thats entertaining to us. If we saw order, we wouldn’t watch, but fighting=chaos, so we want to watch. Reality T.V. will always type cast because we want it.
This is a comment to Aschrock’s post
I agree with Aschrock280′s post “….Wow. Props.” I am a big T.V. buff and also agree that the shows you may not like are still actually entertaining shows that might be interesting after giving the show a chance.
I believe that this is the case with movies as well. Many of the movies I’ve seen are not very main stream and actiony. At first I thought that many of the movies I didn’t give a chance would be bad. But that’s the opposite. Many of the movies I’v seen, The Devil Wears Prada, The Illusionist, The Great Escape, and many others. They are really good movies that I liked and changed my impression on the whole concept of “try it before you judge it’.
Often times in Hollywood, celebrities are seen with they’re fans signing autographs and objects. They do this for promotional reasons to keep they’re popularity up. In many instances from personal experience, some seem very cocky and don’t appreciate anything they have. Actors and actresses tend to act very disgusted toward their fans and don’t appreciate that the fans got them where they are. This is what people would call arrogance.
In pop culture, we see many forms of celebrity arrogance from Kanye throwing out his own opinion on the VMA’s to a thank you speech turning into a tirade about how someone is the best. In James Scott Bell’s article, Will Arrogance Get You Published, he explains how arrogance keeps people interested in that person, whether their impression is good or bad. The masses want to see arrogant bastards just so they have someone to hate.
Many celebs have the “me” factor. This is a crucial factor to have to be arrogant. Kanye West didn’ty have to interrupt Taylor Swift but he wanted people to know what his opinion was so he took the mic from Taylor and said that HE thought Beyonce should have won it. Even though he was the most hated person for a couple of weeks, he got what he wanted. He wanted everyone to talk about his actions just so he could be in the spotlight.
Arrogance is a very powerful thing. It can corrupt people, cause them to make the wrong choices, or if they’re a celebrity, it’ll cause a pop culture controversy. Even though it’s not good to have, arrogance is key to staying in the spotlight.
Is there a reason why someone wins and someone loses in a political campaign? YES. Is it the case that one is better than the other? NO. Viral videos have a large influence on the masses. If anyone looks at Youtube, they will find videos with over a million hits. Just think if a presidential candidate used a viral video to et their views across. Obama used this concept to get an edge over John McCain. Obama launched many viral videos on Youtube.
The Daily Beast published an article explaining why Republicans can get enough votes. In the article Why Republicans Don’t Get the Internet, Mehan McCain explains that the Republican party does not know how or want to use the internet because of their conservative views.
Techcrunch is a website that makes viral videos popular. In the article The Secret Behind Many Viral VIdeos, Dan Greenburg tells us about the stratigies his company uses to get a video hits. He uses 9 secrets: Not all viral videos are what they seem,content is not king, getting onto the ‘most viewed’ page, title optimization, thumbnail optimization, commenting, releasing all videos simultaneously, strategic tagging, and metrics/tracking. All of these steps are crucial to keeping hits on the video.
This is a viral video for Barack Obama on Youtube. The amount of hits on his video shows that viral videos do work to help a campaign. Obama has started to use a new playing field for elections. These could be crucial to a undoubtable victory or an utter lose.
