One Direction

“What is your favorite band?”

“One Direction.”

This something I've never really been able to grasp about my sister. She for whatever reason has been obsessed over this band for the better part of three years. She has gone to concerts, read blogs, and even has a cutout of Harry Styles in her room. For whatever reason I have detested them ever since I have discovered their existence. I wanted to interview my sister about this because I wanted to comprehend her infatuation and maybe get over this unnecessary hatred of them.

“Why do you like them?”

“I don’t know, their cute, and….. they are upbeat…”

My sis is not helping their cause. This is what I have always been worried about when it comes to this weird craving. I worry that it is superficial and truly there is nothing special about them. That there is nothing really to get except that they are a guilty pleasure,

                                                             “What meaning do you find in their lyrics?”

“I don’t know, I think it is that they sort of create their song so as to sing to every girl. It doesn't matter how you look.”

This got me thinking. Is One Direction taking advantage of girls? I automatically reacted negatively. Are they preying on girl’s insecurities? The way fans react to them and to artists like Justin Bieber is unwarranted and a little crazy. It almost seems as though they are on a drug or that the artists are the drug. Then again everything can be craved like this. Food, the internet, Christmas, heck anything can be used excessively. All products goal is to addict you and the best way to do that is through desires already in place.

“Why is it that girls love them and boys hate them? All bands sing about girls what makes them different?

“To me it’s because they are positive. They don’t cuss up the place and sing about things that aren’t violent. Guys are afraid of being seen as not macho. They see opening yourself up is weakness and that is not deemed what a man should possess.”

This made me think of my choice of music. Do I like certain music because I’m insecure in the same way? That is why guys like the music described earlier. It appeals to their insecurities about their own manliness. In the same way I thought One Direction preyed on the insecurities of girls my own music was doing the same trick.

                I learned during this interview to not judge a book by its cover. It may seem that certain music is lame and plain bad, but somewhere down the road somebody likes that music and that is ok. We all have are different quirks and choices on things. It doesn't have to be divisive.  

Why Is Lady Gaga a Thing?

Songs are an old medium. For thousands of years man has used songs to express the multitude of feelings that a person could be feeling. According to the Library of Congress the first step when analyzing a song or poem is to understand the background. You need to understand where the person is coming from. This is similar in art for instance, when Francisco Goya started painting the dark, horrifying paintings we remember he was being influenced by his depression and the horrible French and Spanish war around him. There is a direct correlation between environment and the material the artist produced. I find this fascinating. This led me to ask questions about popular music. Why is my generation’s music the way it is?

According to Billboard albums sales have dropped significantly. The reason for this is thought to be the new influx of technology that allows you to download music with a click of a button and a lot of the time for free, illegally of course. This has given rise to the single and the importance of getting noticed. People have an almost unlimited supply of music because of the internet. This gives people a way to get themselves out like never before. Why then does the radio only seem to play about five songs on rotation? I believe this is because songs have to be recognizable now. Artists have to result to sensational songs such as “I Kissed a Girl” by Katy Perry. This obviously is not a very artistic song but, it is catchy and people will remember it. Because there is this huge pool of songs to choose from only the ridiculous and the super talented get noticed. They rely on targeting the young and frankly, silly people to get them popular. That is why Lady Gaga and all of the loonies dress the way they dress, to get noticed.

Because these songs are what is demanded that is why they are played over and over and over again. The song may even be good but because it is on all the damn time I end up despising it. Honestly it is one of the worst things anyone can experience when a song gets stuck in your head and that is probably the goal of eighty percent of the artists now-a-days.

I have always hated radio because of this. Unfortunately we are going to be remembered for Miley Cyrus, and I may never come to terms with that. It is a direct response to the environment, especially during the Internet Age, that this is the case. It appears as if that we as a generation are mindless zombies. Fortunately though because of the Internet, I will never have to listen to the radio ever again.

   Sweaty hands. Eyes wide open. Breath held. This is a lot of people’s college experience including mine. The college process today is like a bloodless hunger games in which the applicants fight for acceptance into a “cornucopia” of knowledge and prestige that is required to succeed in today’s marketplace. I always have been very competitive and, unlike school, this competition is really motivating and invigorating. It, for whatever reason, is a lot easier for me to be motivated by this than it is by school. This is probably why I have had the Eminem song Survival stuck in my head during my past trip to Oregon to visit colleges.
 
   In the song it talks about that the rap industry is “survival of the fittest” and “do or die” invoking an image of a battle and Darwin’s theory. shadymathers.com talks about how this song is about he struggled with his drug abuse because "he wasn't ready to be a millionare", and that is a rehash of his old album MMLP which is what his new album is named after. It is a song that I would normally listen to before a sports game or driving fast in my car, but because of this sense of competition I put into the process I have been thinking about it constantly. It may seem hard to do, but for me it is easy. I feel as though I am a business trying to sell myself as a product. Just like the song was used as background music to help sell the new Call of Duty: Ghost, I would sell myself as a person willing to work. I have somewhat of an ability to talk to people of authority and interviews are usually what helps me get myself out there as a candidate. Conversations like that have always been, for the most part, easy for me. The song brings out the instinctual animal or id in me in a similar way that sports and this process has.

   Ironically, the worst part of this experience for me was trying to sell myself to coaches. It is an epic fail whenever I am presented with the opportunity. As an example, during my recent trip I met the soccer coach and had a discussion with him about soccer and hopefully playing. It was one of the most excruciating things I had to do. He questioned me ten times harder than any of the college admissions people. I felt like a suspect for a murder. This makes sense because he doesn’t have to deal with trying to convince people to join, because he has plenty of people for that spot. It left me in shock. My mom said my demeanor was that of a deer stuck in headlights. It gave me the sensations that I expressed earlier. I was turned from the predator to the prey. For whatever reason it is hard for me to talk about my abilities on a field. Maybe it is a subconscious hesitancy to playing. Maybe I am not ready for that kind of commitment. I have spent so much time on it maybe I am nervous about life after sports and what that will bring. It seems to have put me in a situation where I doubt myself and my motivations. After the interview I can’t help but question my capabilities.

   This world is survival of the fittest. It is a cutthroat society. I thought that I was ready for it, to brave into a new world but now I am sure that I am not. Fortunately I have a while to grow up before it is time to leave.

        Huey Lewis is a prophet.  He and his and his band Huey Lewis and the News is famous for their catchy songs that don’t contain a lot of substance.  That is the case with the song “I Want a New Drug.” In this song he sings about he needs a new drug that does not make him feel bad the next day. The song sounds incredibly superficial upon hearing it for the first time, but when you analyze it further it sounds like he is talking about today’s modern day drug, the Internet.
This sounds a little ridiculous. This is like saying Miley Cyrus or Katy Perry predicted the end of broadcast news. “I Want a New Drug” starts with him talking about how he needs a drug that won’t make his “eyes get red” or “One that won't hurt my head”. He then goes into how wants a drug that “One that makes me feel like I feel when I'm with you. When I'm alone with you.” He in this sentence talks about a drug that doesn’t give him symptoms an can make him feel how he is alone with a girl. The internet doesn’t have any symptoms and pornography is one of the most popular uses of it. Right now, during the Technology Age drug use is down especially, cocaine the drug of choice in the 80’s when this song came out. Is it possible that America has found a drug that can satisfy the Lewis is singing about? According to so researchers Internet Addiction affects the brain in the same way alcohol and drug addiction does. One CBS article claims it is similar to cocaine. This shows that the Internet can be incredibly addicting to the point that it is a drug.  To the newest generation it has created this drug that Huey craved. It has given him a way to feel like how he does when he is alone with you. 15% of searches on search engines today are pornographic content. So, in a way, it accomplished Lewis’s wish for a drug that accomplishes these goals.
Saying Huey Lewis is a prophet is a little brash, but he did in a way he voiced a public need that was fulfilled by the internet.  This catchy song was showing a real hole in the lives of people that was filled by the Internet.