The Digital Past

Crowd sourcing, things like Wikipedia and Google, break the structure of the mass market. It’s all based around the idea that information wants to be free, so these websites make much of the information everyone looks for free and accessible. Then comes in websites like Amazon, who use crowd sourcing to fairly accurately predict things that people may like or want. Other websites do this too, especially when it comes to ads on social media, like on Facebook or Instagram. If I view a website or had added stuff to a cart, that website now appears in a lot of ads on my social media so I see it a ton, with the hopes that I would buy it. I always find this extremely creepy, but it’s a smart marketing tool. Then there is the Amazon Alexa, which while they are extremely helpful for some people, I don’t want to be listened to or tracked. Yet this one, tracks domestic habits and things you ask, then sends you offers on things it believes you would want. Again, creepy, but a very good use of crowd sourcing and marketing. We also looked at this website, “Claritas,” and looked up our zipcodes, where it showed the typical demographics of them. From there, places use these demographics to send people in these zipcodes things they would want, and then also puts those types of products in those stores. Again, major crowd-sourcing. I will say that for my zipcode, 20852, it seemed extremely accurate. Like Professor O’Malley said, this could be very corrosive of nationalism, as it seems more that our lifestyles are more important to us over where we are a citizen of. Which is sadly true, because yes I am an American citizen, my lifestyle is something I think about all the time. It’s extremely interesting to think about how much crowd-sourcing actually impacts our lives.

IT’S THE WEEK OF THANKSGIVING! WHICH MEANS A TON OF FOOD AND THE OFFICIAL START OF CHRISTMAS SEASON! Aside from that, we talked about the final project in class on Monday. It’s to create a song, roughly about 3 minutes long, and a paper to go along with it. I’m going to be using Apple’s Garageband, as he showed us in class, but I’ve never made a song before. I’m slightly nervous that it would sound terrible, but I’m also excited because it seems kind of fun! I’ll keep updating about the process as I go!

Hertz is the measure of frequency for sound. (Sadly, as I’m writing this, my ears now hurt) People with normal hearing can hear from about 50 hz to 20,000 hz. We listened to the hertz frequency in class today, starting from the beginning and going up to about 17,000 hz. I do find it interesting that as you get older, you can hear less, like how our professor could only hear up to around 12,000-13,000 hz, but most of the class could hear up to the 17,000. It has to do with hearing loss and age, and there are plenty of other factors too, I’m sure. The further you go up in hertz frequencies, the more it hurts to hear. Going up to 17,000 hurts was so painful to listen to, especially because it was a continuous sound. As I was doing research on the hertz frequency, something came up about the magic number “432,” which is apparently the natural frequency of the universe. It’s interesting to read about, and how this certain frequency seems to bring everyone together. I will say that it is a pretty nice frequency to listen to, after listening to it! Although, I never want to go so high on the hertz frequency again!

Sometimes I do find it a little difficult to follow what is specifically being talked about in class, like this past Wednesday. I really enjoy this class and the discussions though, so it’s really interesting. We talked about how songs use samples from other songs, like Cardi B’s “I Like it” song uses another song as a sample. From there, we kinda veered off. Although, now as I listen to music, I do listen for samples of other songs. Again, let’s take my favorite band, Panic! at the Disco. They have a song called “Don’t Threaten Me With a Good Time” out, and the guitar in it is great, but also very recognizable. It’s the “Rock Lobster” intro. A lot of songs sample from other songs, which makes me think if people have either lost their creativity or just had good ideas to that beat?

For our digital scavenger hunt, we had to find the earliest reference to a genre of music prior to 1990. I chose to do “rock and roll,” mainly because it’s a genre I listen to a lot so I’m curious. The first spike in the appearance of the term “rock and roll,” according to Google Ngram Viewer, began around 1953 and from there has been steadily rising until now. Searching on the ProQuest website, nothing with the words “rock and roll” prior to 1950 were related to anything with music, rather it would be recipes or about working out. The biggest thing I realized while looking for an article was that it was “rock n’ roll,” not “rock and roll.” One of the earliest articles I found on there was called “Rock N’Roll Means Big Business These Days” by Charles Herndon, and it was published on November 19th, 1955. In the article, he speaks that “it’s too loud and the beat’s too heavy” but that a lot of teenagers and young adults listen to it. He goes on to talk how well the genre is doing financially and describes a few artists. Another article I found was “‘Rock N’ Roll’ Stage Show Frantic, Noisy,” published on November 4th, 1955. I found this one funny and interesting because the first paragraph states that “it’s a violent, harsh type of music” and that a lot of parents think it “incites teenagers to do all sorts of crazy things.” That’s still kind of the view today for rock music. So many people think that kids who listen to rock music now are emo, which means they do bad things and are weird. For example, I loved rock music, dyed my hair pink, and went to concerts all the time, so people thought I was emo and would do crazy things. I think that maybe some people do crazy things listening to certain music, but it’s not the music itself that makes them do it. The people in these two articles call it noisy and harsh, which it is. I don’t find rock and roll itself harsh, unless maybe it’s screamo, but it is noisy. So I see where some of the description from back then is coming from, and they probably haven’t had much music like this before, but I don’t necessarily agree. It’s interesting looking at the way things were described in a different time period, especially because I don’t view it that way at all. Not to mention, Elvis Presley was considered Rock and Roll, an icon, and I find his music to be fun. I don’t think it’s harsh or violent, like my rock music would be considered. My rock music,maybe alternative, now is Panic! At the Disco, Sleeping With Sirens, etc. Even bands like Metallica are “louder” than Elvis Presley. It kind of makes me want to know how the people who wrote those articles back then would write one on these bands. Very interesting thing to learn and think about!

This was an incredibly interesting article, which related to what we had been talking about in class perfectly. It linked to the blues, country/folklore, and minstrel songs that we had talked about in class. He talks about how music was segregated, like how southern music got split into the genres of blues, which was primarily African American, and country, which was primarily white. He then goes on to explain how folklore studies, as well as the music industry, created a segregated “musical colour line,” also known as the Jim Crow South. This creates this divide where people are more judged by the music they listen to, as opposed to who they are. That’s an interesting statement, because it is so true about today. Around here, many kids listen to rap or hip-hop. I listen to rock, country, and pop. Every time, people are like  “you listen to country? I wouldn’t have guessed.” So it was interesting to hear it be compared to that kind of music and time period as well, although I’m not sure why I found it surprising. Anyways, it was a great article to go along with the context of the class! I enjoyed it!

This week, we talked about music again! Although I will say, sometimes I feel incredibly lost in this class. I do enjoy the class a lot, as it expands the knowledge I have on music, but sometimes it doesn’t really flow. Anyways, we started out talking about beats again, like how rock music often has an ahead of the beat feel, so I was like “yes my kind of music!” Then he switched to bluegrass and country, which again I still like. I never really pay too much attention to the beat pattern, as I just kind of enjoy music and don’t read too much into it. Unless it’s the lyrics, I love reading into those. We listened to the music of Jimmie Rogers, the Benny Goodman band, and Buck Owens to focus on country music, and I honestly enjoyed them. I never thought I would like old country, like I thought Toby Keith was as far as I could go, but it was interesting as we listened and analyzed the music. It was incredibly interesting learning about how different cultures affect the music and genres too, which brings in that American music is shared through forms and songs. At the end we brought in Elvis Presley, who I love, but I will say hearing how segregated it was back then hurts, but I’m sadly not surprised either. So far really enjoying the music!

Music is the displacement of people according to Professor O’Malley, and I am finally starting to agree. I love music, but I listen to a lot of fairly modern music, where I feel the displacement isn’t apparent unless you have studied previous music. Like I love country music, and I never would have thought before that it was like minstrel show music, until I took this course. So I do now agree that music is the displacement of people and a lot of things, as music is meshed and copied in different ways. The most interesting thing we learned today though was how the European Tradition emphasizes “1” and “3”, while the Afro-New World tradition emphasizes “2” and “4.” Like he said, once you hear it, you can’t unhear it. All night I’ve been listening to music while doing homework, except now as I’m watching the Caps game, but all I can pay attention for is the beat. I also have been to a ton of concerts and thinking about it, the clapping is almost always off beat. Although I haven’t seen Justin Bieber live yet, and no other artist has actually pointed it out.. so never knew! I’ve listened to music my whole life, and I’ve loved it. But after the things I’ve learned in this class, I will definitely be listening to music in a different way, probably with an even greater appreciation too.

On Monday, we talked about minstrel shows, which are popular shows performed by white actors in blackface. My initial reaction was confusion, and honestly the posters we saw were terrifying. As we talked about it more and learned the name of characters, like Jim Crow, things again started clicking. Jim Crow was a popular character, later used for segregation laws. There was also the comparison of Mickey Mouse to a minstrel, which sadly I can see and it was shocking, I never would have thought about it that way. Personally, I feel like the minstrel shows were meant to be racist, as they kinda looked like creepy clowns and were meant to be funny. The most fascinating comparison of minstrel shows that really shocked my mind was the movie “Get Out,” and it makes perfect sense. The white people in the movie are inserting themselves into the bodies of black people for their physical strength and such, just like how white actors put on a black mask. I personally am shocked about minstrel shows and how they are still kinda present today, like Yodel Boy singing how the minstrels would sing, even though he probably doesn’t even realize. My only question is why? Why whites in black face? Why can’t the white actors just perform? Why is something like this possibly present is Disney? I wish I knew!

This week took a different turn in the class, as now we talked about the beginnings of the radio, TV, and internet. It followed last week on the Cold War a bit, in the sense of new inventions that forever changed our lives. The information I found most interesting in class, most likely because I can relate to it, was information about the beginning of the internet. As Professor O’Malley said, information wants to be free, as it should be shared and free of hierarchy. One of the best ways to effectively share this information with everyone would be the internet. Tim Berners-Lee was the inventor of the World Wide Web (WWW), which was the first web browser. The acronyms for things are what I found really interesting, because all kids my age should recognize them. I never realized when I typed in a website as “www..,” it stood for World Wide Web, but it makes sense. Next there are the protocols, like “HTTP,” which stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol, and “URL,” which is Uniform Resource Locator. Again, these are acronyms I recognize, because when you type a website’s URL, it used to begin with the “HTTP.” There are a few more too, but I was fascinated that I could relate to this and recognize what we were really talking about during the history of technology and stuff. I’ve never been too into the history of technology, but it’s a good thing to learn as they are such a large part of daily life now. I couldn’t imagine my life without a radio, TV, or the internet, which is kinda sad when you come to think of it. Although, I am really excited for the class to turn back towards music next week!