June 2010 Archives

SONG REVIEW

Pink has long been known for her punk-rock attitude and in your face lyrics. Her short, pink hairdo has become a staple in her career. Her uncensored thoughts on love and loss have created controversy and parental advisories. Pink's new single, "Glitter in the Air," has a style all its own. It is completely opposite of her past music style, mood, and lyrics and showcases her vocal ability.
The beginning sets the tone of the song. It makes the listener reflect on the questions being asked regarding being in love before the transition to the middle of the song. At about the one minute 20 second mark in the song, Pink starts addressing the feelings of loneliness and desire for companionship. The middle gets a little repetitive with the questions and piano, but still offers insight into the message of the song, the message being a reflection into being selflessly and truly in love. The end of the song is a tranquil unwinding of the louder vocals and faster beat that can be heard in the middle. All three of these sections have extremely smooth transitions. They flow seamlessly together and are appropriately placed in the song. They are so smooth, in fact, that the transitions are not obvious to someone not listening to them.
The beginning, middle, and end are all very similar, which tends to get boring as the song goes on. There is little differentiation throughout the ballad, which offers room for improvement. Variation would give the song more personality and catchiness. There is plenty of differentiation between "Glitter in the Air" and Pink's previous songs, which were all about heartbreak and love going wrong. It is nice to hear a different message in her music. This different message got me interested in her music again, which I was bored with. I would buy this song for it's beautiful instrumentals, vocals, and heart-warming message. I believe this song will stimulate sales of both the single and Pink's entire album, Funhouse. The song has already swept through popular culture and is heavily played on radio stations. It has seen positive response, both in the U.S. and internationally. Three Grammy nominations and a number one spot on the charts are a sign of the good fit within popular culture. In concert, the song would enthrall those in attendance, and the performance of it would be a sombering point in the concert.

Student Assignments:

1. Choose a song that is very different than the artist's previous work. Analyze the differences in style and composition between this song and the artist's typical songs.

2. Research past events in the singer's life that could have influenced his or her music and analyze the artist's songs for similarities to these life events.

I found the article, "The Promotion of presentation of the Self: Celebrity as Marker of Presentational Media," to be interesting and entertaining. It was nice to read a different viewpoint of celebrity. The author, P. David Marshall, had some unique points. Britney Spears is one of the biggest celebrities out there. She has been in the spotlight for over a decade. Some of my favorite thoughts from the article follow. I have also included my reaction to the topic and its relation to Britney Spears.

• "It is ever-present and helps to maintain the duality with which we hold the overwhelming production of celebrity: collectively, we disdain the public focus on celebrity at the same time as we continue to watch, discuss and participate and thereby ensure the maintenance of a celebrity industry (2)."
o My reaction: It is so true that many people put down what celebrities are doing, yet continue to purchase magazines and tabloids, watch television shows about celebrities, and discuss them amongst friends. This seems hypocritical to me. When Britney Spears was going through her controversial, tough time, people continued to watch her every move as they spoke about how they did not care about what she was doing. The attention she created for herself made it hard for even her critics to turn away and ignore what she was doing.

• "Celebrity has been and is increasingly a pedagogical tool and specifically a pedagogical aid in the discourse of the self. For much of the twentieth century, celebrities served as beacons of the public world. They helped define the Zeitgeist of any particular moment - 'a structure of feeling' that relied in part on its mediation through film, radio, popular music and television (3)."
o My reaction: Many celebrities take advantage of this by creating their own clothing, makeup, or hair products line. They target fans that want to look or be like the celebrity. These products are marketed to fans as a way to become like their idol. Britney Spears used this marketing tool. She created a line of perfumes and marketed them using her sex appeal to suggest wearers of her perfume would have the same power over men as she had in the television commercials.

• "De Backer, for instance, divides gossip into two functions: reputation gossip, where the status of a person is redrawn based on the information circulated in a community, and strategy learning gossip, where one learns social cues and preferred behaviour through the information gleaned about others (4)."
o My reaction: Very valid point. I can see how there are two distinct functions of gossip. Both are spread in different ways. Britney Spears suffered from a damaged reputation as a result of reputation gossip. She was no longer viewed as a role model and became known for her crazy antics. She may have had an impact on the behavior of young female fans who learned social cues from her exploited behavior.

• "(About) celebrity gossip throughout the twentieth century is that it has operated on two levels:
• first, there has been the reportage that has appeared as a form of information for readers in tabloids, newspapers, television programmes and magazines - in other words, it is structured and highly mediated; and
• secondly, there has been the deployment of celebrity gossip through personal conversation and evaluation that constantly moves the highly mediated into the interpersonal dimensions of everyday interchange. The movement of this kind of celebrity gossip information into the interpersonal is accentuated precisely because of the often personal nature of the information presented about celebrities.
o My reaction: I think personal conversation spreads gossip faster than the different forms of media. While Britney Spears was experiencing her identity crisis, I often found myself in the middle of a conversation relating to the latest crazy thing Britney had done. This is an example of celebrity gossip through personal conversation and evaluation. These behaviors were made known through media, such as magazines and television. This is an example of structured gossip.

On a completely separate and unrelated sidenote, the first thing I thought about after reading this journal was Brad Paisley. He has a song entitled "Celebrity." The song has to do with celebrities setting bad examples, like cheating spouses and lack of responsibility, for the general population. Analyzing this song and comparing it to the journal would be an interesting assignment!

2 Assignments:

1) Analyze the song, "Celebrity," by Brad Paisley and compare his lyrics to the message of P. David Marshall's journal.
2) Scan the tabloids, magazines, and television for gossip that could be considered "reputation gossip". Write an opinion paper on the effects of this gossip in the various media outlets on the celebrities reputation.

Censorship Mini-Unit:

Assignment 1: "Intro to Censorship": During class time, ask students to define censorship on a sheet of paper. Have them turn the papers in anonymously. Students should include questions they may have regarding censorship. I address those questions in the class. As a class, we come up with one, recurring definition of censorship then compare it to dictionary's definition.

Assignment 2: Have students find a newspaper or magazine article on censorship in popular music. Then, have them write a 2 page opinion paper on how and if censorship impacts their favorite music, political decisions, and freedom of speech.

Assignment 3: Have students find 5 songs that have been censored within the last 5-8 years. Have them analyze the reasons behind the censorship, the appropriateness of the censorship, and the effects of the music if left uncensored.