Press Pause Play

         

Music Technology 

In the movie Press Pause Play it is recognizable that music and art is becoming more and more democratized in where music and art that took months to make in the past, now can be done in the matter of minutes. Every year that goes by the creativity of these certain things are becoming into more of a cacophony. "When you fall into the trap of confusing the artist and the audience and believe that the audience knows more than the artist is more authoritative, is more creative, more talented then art ends. Then you have something else, you have cacophony, you have simply an apology rather for democratization and it's wrong to confuse democratization and culture political terms with the creation of art which by definition is for better or for worse an elitist business"(Andrew Keen). Today it is become so easy to create music on the internet that critics are just discovering and messing around with new internet technology that it becomes less of an art and music institution. These artists have the power; everything happens around the artist. Real artists can develop their own brands. According to Andre Stringer and Tracy Chandler who work for Shilo stated that people can self produce a music video or a song and still be very successful. "There is an essence in the world of make it happen, do it yourself, who cares what the man says, who cares what the world says, you go out on the streets and skate. It's not like a designated team to set of a baseball game and it's like you just do it"(Tracy Chandler). If people are self taught then one will be as successful as one would if they were in filming school. Some may think that people don't need film school to be successful like the members of Shilo but not according to Adam Watson. Watson differently as in when popular film producers win awards and none of them had not gone to film school and usually doesn't hear about ones that haven't been in filming school. It is easier for film students to describe the way they are filming in well known film terms then trying to describe the filming process when hadn't gone to school. Technology has made things easier to produce where people can be successful even when they didn't go to school."It's that idea of this grey gew and this idea like if you have itty bitty bio machines that can replicate themselves there's nothing to stop the world being covered in grey gew. These little things are going to replicate themselves until there's nothing left of the world except for these little machines. Our culture potentially might sicome into that same principal where if everybody is a musician and everyone is making mediocre music, immensely the world will be covered in mediocrity... People become comfortable with mediocrity which to me is the danger"(Seth Godin). If mediocrity keeps reoccurring in the future years creativity would be completely destroyed. Today, people rely on technology to make things sound and look better which then becomes an even bigger democracy in the world.

Seth Godin

   

Modern Day Music 

          When using technology when producing music it's easy to fix just about anything to where the music doesn't sound like the artist themselves. By fixing and editing major things to the music being song is not creative nor has the performance present anymore. "In our post-Industrial age, because of atomization, loneliness, the breakup of community, the way to somehow reify, or deify ourselves, is through the creative act . . . everyone thinks they have a novel in them, everyone thinks they can make a movie or write a song . . .that’s why everyone is buying camcorders and putting their stuff up on YouTube . . . It’s a reality they don’t like, but most people don't have talent…so for a serious young filmmaker these are very depressing times"(Andrew Keen). What Keen is trying to express is that the fact that great art that once was known to be great art work today will get lost in all the democratization. Also that people in this era uniquely are obsessed with themselves rather than the great artists that would be lost in all the selfish acts. When producers produce the music to the maximum perfection it doesn't sound good because it loses its meaning and vulnerability to the song and meaning itself. "I personally find perfection of music and art to be off-putting. I like listening to Billy Holiday because there is vulnerability. I love listening to Nick Drake because there's vulnerability and imperfection. I get really almost intimidated and bored by perfect digital art"(Moby). When hearing music and the emotion the artist brings along with the song it gives the audience a special connection to the song. our cultural economy may be coming to an end with the diverse music and the more high tech the equipment becomes in future years."Music today is sorta streamed to us. I people don't really sit at home with the record and listen to track 1 to track 15. We might go on Facebook, get a track on MySpace, get a track in an email. Music is this sort of stream of noise. I remember when I was a kid i went out and bought a record and it was this moment of this pure concentration and joy of listening to every bit and looking through the vinyl and watching the vinyl turn around and the needle in the groove. It's a full concentration and now is a thing where I always do something when I listen to music"(Anne Hilde Neset). In the past if you liked a song in the album by a certain artist they would have to buy the whole album. But today if there's one track that wants to be bought that can happen. The environment is not the same when just buying a record and comparing it to being at a concert. The artists try and bring others in and approach the audience in a unique way. When comparing the music and art industry from then to now it's different and challenging. As years go on they have to come up with a new way to create a form or art or music to keep the audience surprised. Music is going to keep changing as generation keep coming along.  

Record Player

Chapter 1: Culture and Communication

Elite Culture

          Cultures in our society today can be defined as many things to different people. In the earlier centuries the elite culture and the popular cultures (mass culture) categorized people in class based on their wealth. "The elite culture consisted of fine art, literature, and classical music. Folk culture consisted of street carnivals, tavern drinking, and folktales "(Culture and Communication 4). This culture was specifically referred to as the "rich and famous" culture where they came from a lot of money. During this time the two main cultures couldn't come into each other's standings. The popular culture is referred to as a society that is for actions everyone that consists of our daily actions including things that entertain and our behaviors conditions. "... our attitudes, habits, and actions: how we act and why we act; what we eat and wear; our buildings, roads, and means of travel; our entertainment and sports; our politics; religion, and medical practices;our beliefs and activities and what shapes and controls them. In other words, it is to us what water is to fish: It is the world we live in"(Culture and Communication 4). When Ray B. Browne states this he means that all the things we do on a daily bases is automatically mass culture related society. As years and generations go by the cultures become less and less categorized than they were in the 19th century. In our society today all cultures are mass-produced by the help of technology and mass media. People usually recognize businesses by different brand types when glancing at the symbols. "Most of today's popular culture is mass-produced and is disseminated through the mass media. Popular music, cheap paperback novels, soap operas, videocassette movies, and a myriad of advertised products from designer jeans to disposable razors make up our everyday environment. Stephen King novels, Levi's jeans, McDonald's golden arches are instantly recognizable symbols or icons of contemporary pop culture"(Culture and Communications 4). We recognize these businesses all around the U.S. by just the icons and signs we remember from an everyday glance. Looking back at the culture from the early 19th century to now is very liberal and doesn't depend on the class people come from. As we still view some elite culture from time to time out society today has come to become a mass-produced culture that is present in our daily actions and behaviors.

Mass Culture

         There's a significant amount of time that goes into a communication process in which some people don't know about but hear about daily. There are different types of communications including intrapersonal and interpersonal communications but the steps to communicate an interpersonal takes a lot more exertion than intrapersonal. It takes several people to be able to communicate a news report starting with the source then the messenger, to the channel, and followed by the receiver."When communicators select symbols for their messages, they must keep in mind that each person has a different frame or reference and, as a result , certain symbols may mean different things to different people"(Culture and Communication 8). When sending a message to a big audience it is important to pick specific pictures that mean the same meaning to different types of people. When communicating to other people, pictures do a better job of understanding the message being applied than words. The receiver getting the message from the messenger sometimes has a hard time understanding the concept of the message being sent causing misunderstanding usually from the description of the pictures shown. If the message is misunderstood there's a feedback person who corrects the receiver if he/she has gotten the concept wrong."...a word takes on connotations or emotional meanings that are based on experiences rather than on the word's dictionary meaning. Take the words liberal and conservative. These words mean different things to different people, based on individual political points of view"(Culture and Communications 10).  If one thing means a certain thing to another person it might mean the exact opposite to a different person. We all think different things. This process can have some issues concerning communication noise. There are three different noises that could make everything go wrong. The three including the channel noise, semantic noise, psychological noise, and selective exposure which all lead to misunderstanding and miscommunications in between the communication process. "... we expose ourselves to information that reinforces rather than contradicts our beliefs or opinions... Selective exposure also helps to explain why people with extreme political views have difficulty getting their ideas across to the general public..."(Culture and Communications 11). When certain people have strong political views it can change the way the receiver will receive the message being delivered.

Smoke Signals

          Victor and Thomas are two young adults that live on an Indian reservation in Plummer, Idaho and connect through Victor's father, Arnold that Thomas calls a hero. Throughout this film Smoke Signals there are several symbols that appear to be based around the whole story. Since the fire had happened Thomas always called Arnold a hero for saving him but for Victor he always had trouble getting along with his father. "You know there are some children who aren't really children at all, they're just pillars of flame that burn everything they touch. And there are some children who are just pillars of ash, that fall apart when you touch them... Victor and me, we were children of flame and ash"(Smoke Signals). Fire and water is very symbolic throughout this film because the way fire can help with protection but can also hurt and kill things. As it is the opposite for water it embellishes the fire also a source in protecting and healing things from burning. Another symbolic appearance in the film is when Thomas compares Victor's father to a salmon towards the end of the film. Since July 4th, the day of the fire Victor and Thomas has never got along well. "Thomas I wish that fire had killed you"(Smoke Signals). Victor always hated Thomas because he thought that Arnold had saved Thomas instead of his own son but then finally realized towards the end of the film that he saved both of them. When it finally came to dumping the ashes in the river Victor gave some of his dad's ashes to Thomas like he was a brother to him."Victor I am going to make one more trip to the river and I am going to toss these in and your Dad's ashes will rise and rise into the heavens, just like the salmon. Funny I was thinking about doing the same thing myself. I mean I never thought of my dad like a salmon but it would be just like cleaning out the attic, like throwing things away when they have no more use"(Smoke Signals). When Thomas relates Arnold to a salmon because of how salmon swim upstream and spend their whole life swimming upstream and get beaten against the rocks. With Arnold being a native and growing up around natives they struggle daily through these obstacles about being different from other people. Like salmon, Natives spend their whole life trying to fit in because of what other people think of them but in reality we are all the same. 

         

          Natives are known to have a certain stereotype of being alcoholisms but that can be present with any other race as well. Throughout the film Arnold always found alcohol to be a pain reliever from what had been done in the past with him being in the war and setting the house on fire killing Thomas's parents. "Thomas you don't even know my father. Did you know that my father was the one that set your parent's house on fire? Did you know that my father beat my mother? Did you know that my father beat me too? All I know is that when your father left your mother lost you too"(Smoke Signals). Victor and his mother were the only ones that saw the true Arnold and the main reason of why he left. Arnold was very violent towards Victor, his mother, and even Thomas but Thomas only looked at him for being a hero. It was hard for Victor to like his dad as much as Thomas did and that's why Victor would get mad at Thomas for saying those things. "I never had a drop of alcohol in my life, not a drop. What kind of Indian are you?"(Smoke Signals) This is an important quote from the film because Natives are known to drink all the time and being a son of a native Victor didn't want to become like his dad. When sheriff asked if he drank he was very surprised that he had never drank before in his life because of the stereotype that natives have. "Do we forgive our fathers in our age or in theirs? Or in their deaths, saying it to them, or not saying it? If we forgive our fathers what is left?"(Smoke Signals) This last quote that Thomas said in the film was that even when our closest loved ones sometimes may be violent and mean we can always find a way to forgive them.