Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Blog #8

The first quote i liked is "We're left with the ability to make our own interpretation of a given framework, and are invited to run with it as a kind of game 'system'" (97) When listening to stories, seeing a hug between people, cooking a favorite food that contains a memory, or petting a cat that looked like ours growing up, everything we associate with has a given framework we have created for ourselves.

another one of the quotes I picked was "the selection of sound becomes a narrative" (85)Music is existential in and of itself. It can mean something different to each of us and not change in its form. Even faster beats will encourage us to get up and dance, while slow beats relax and calm. the 4/4 beat is the closest to the heartbeat and provides comfort we may not even recognize. The sound can then narrate our lives or the words can narrate or influence decision making in regard to our emotions.

"the sense of living in a racially divided culture that has lost the ability to think about anything but media entertainment"(109).
This is really true. We are more concerned with the quick dollar through being involved in the money making entertainment industry and all of the fame associated with it. It is interesting to note how we have our 'token' characters however, that are supposed to represent the different ethnicity's. So in some small way it may unite us, but only if the standard of living is equalized between the races. When we have an equal amount of diversity on each ends of the spectrum, then i think we will be equal. However, the focus on entertainment, does not solve these problems. I think they create a false sense of idea that we are all considered equal in this country, through equal media and entertainment representation. Some may argue this isn't even true.


It is not a surprise that Miller like Duchamp and his famous urinal fountain. The Urinal represents everything Miller is trying to convey. Existentialist thought and Miller are alike in that they seek to question the status quo and redefine what is considered acceptable. Duchamp sought to question what art really is and push the boundaries of what is considered a conventional art movement. I think it really is art because he was the first one to think of it and prompt the question, what makes REAL art?

The song i chose to look at was Cupid's Chokehold by gym class heroes. It is a pretty much direct sampling of Supertramp's 'Girlfriend'. The words are even the same, with a tweaked beat. The chorus

Take a look at my girlfriend
She's the only one Igot
Not much of a girlfriend
Never seem to get alot

and Gym Class Heroes

Take a look at my girlfriend
She's the only one I got (ba ba da da)
Not much of a girlfriend
I never seem to get a lot (ba ba da da, ba ba da da)

Ya. They are pretty much the exact same, except for some Badadada's and an 'I'. It is brought up to date but gets more detailed than the classic supertramp version.

5 comments:

  1. He quotes Duchamp's statements in fact regarding "art that is not a work of art."

    Found art, collage, DJ culture, it's a progression which challenges the definition of what creativity means in the Western world. I have a feeling sampling doesn't make such high waves in other cultures, but the European sense of entitlement and strong ideal of ownership and independence makes it a huge issue in the US and Europe.

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  2. I noticed that Miller brings up race a few times, often when discussing individuality. He (and you) make a good point about mass media glossing over the racial inequalities that still exist in our society. We demand that the media tell us pretty lies about our world so that we don’t have to try and do something about it. We seemed to have nurtured an obsession over celebrity trivia, when keeping informed on “real” (I hate to use this word, it’s so vague) issues would serve us better.

    @Tom – You are probably right about copyright etc. not being as huge an issue in non-Western societies. I work in an ESL program and the teachers always explain plagiarism to the students carefully, because in some societies unattributed quotes of other works is simply showing that you are well read about the topic. Which can cause them a lot of problems in Western academia.

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  3. nice find on the gym class heroes! I had a suspicion that song wasn't original but I never took the time to go look it up. Which actually gets me thinking about where that suspicion really came from. During Doc Adam's lecture he was asking us how we make our judgements on originality in music and a lot of us didn't really have an answer for him, but I guess for me it's more of a hunch than anything else sense I don't have much musical knowledge in my background.

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  4. Similar to lnbeckr's comment, I too enjoyed the Gym Class Heroes find. I actually thought they were the original but now I know otherwise. Do I like them less because of it? Surprisingly, not at all. The fact that they affected me positively by having a unique beat to the lyrics, I give them even extra credit for taking a song and making it better. If artists really believe that they can have this effect on originals, then by all means bring it on!

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  5. Ok job, but you didn't quite fulfill the prompt (close, but just didn't quite hit all the required notes). Thanks.

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