Some Digital Music Resources

Excellent posts over the last few days since my lecture. Thanks folks. You've no idea how good that makes a po' teacher feel. Anyhow, I thought that some references might be useful for those of you writing on music/sound. I've pasted my biblios from those two essays I've written this year and described in broad terms in a previous post. There might be some repetitions and apologies for the different referencing halfway through. That's coz two different publishers required their particular citation systems. And I haven't had time to sift.

There's loads of literature on sampling and tons on copyright. For sampling apart from some of the articles and books below, check out other work by Steven Feld,
Thomas Schumacher, Timothy Taylor, Mark Katz.

There's also a huge literature on copyright. I've found Simon Frith & Lee Marshall, Rosemary Coombe, Siva Vaidhyanathan quite useful.

Check out this website with many articles and audio:

Illegal Art

Electronic Frontier Foundation

Australasian Performing Right Association

I'll post other stuff as and when I find it or it gets forwarded to me. Hope this is a start at least for those of you interested. My office hours are Tuesdays 1-3 pm in Room 314.

Thanks
Nabeel

The Basement radio show
Topical Ointment blog



Bolter, Jay David & Richard Grusin. Remediation: Understanding new media. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2000.

Buse, Peter & Andrew Scott, eds. Ghosts: Deconstruction, Psychoanalysis, History. London: Macmillan, 1999.

Cooper, Carolyn. Sound Clash: Jamaican Dancehall Culture at Large. New York: Palgrave Macmillan: 2004)

Derrida, Jacques. Specters of Marx: The State of the Debt, the Work of Mourning and the New International. Translated by Peggy Kamuf. New York: Routledge, 1994.

Dissensus,“Hauntology.” 23 July 2006. http://www.dissensus.com/showthread.php?t=3020&page=1&pp=15>

Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. New York: Vintage, 1990.

Eshun, Kodwo. More Brilliant Than the Sun: Adventures in Sonic Fiction. London: Quartet Books, 1998.

Feld, Steven. “The Poetics and Politics of Pygmy pop.” Western music and its others: Difference, representation and appropriation in music. Eds. Georgina Born & David Hesmondhalgh. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000. 254-79.

Fink, Robert. “The story of ORCH5, or, the classical ghost in the hip-hop machine.” Popular Music, 24(3), 2005: 339-356.

Gilroy, Paul. The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1993.
---. Against Race: Imagining Political Culture beyond the Color Line. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2000.
---. “Steppin’ out of Babylon: Race, Class and Autonomy.” The Empire Strikes Back: Race and Racism in 70s Britain. Eds. Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies. London & New York: Routledge in association with the Centre for Cultural Studies, Birmingham, 1992. 276-314.

Glissant, Edouard. Caribbean Discourse. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1989.

Gordon, Avery. Ghostly Matters: Haunting and the Sociological Imagination. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997.

Green, Richard & Monique Guillory. “Question of a ‘Soulful’ Style: Interview with Paul Gilroy.” Soul: Black Power, Politics, and Pleasure. Eds. Monique Guillory & Richard C. Green. New York: New York University Press, 1998. 250-65.

Grossberg, Lawrence (2002). “Reflections of a disappointed popular music scholar.” Rock over the edge: Transformations in popular music culture. Eds. Roger Beebe, Denise Fulbrook & Ben Saunders. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2002. 25-49.

Gutterbreakz, “Hauntology.” 25 July 2006.
http://gutterbreakz.blogspot.com/2006/01/hauntology-whats-all-that-about-then.html

Hemment, Drew (2004). “Affect and individuation in popular electronic music.” Deleuze and Music. Eds. Ian Buchanan & Marcel Swiboda. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2004. 77-94.

Hesmondhalgh, David. “Digital sampling and cultural inequality.” Social and Legal Studies, 15(1), 2006: 53-75.

Hesse, Barnor (1993) ‘Black to Front and Black Again: Racialization through Contested Times and Spaces.” Place and the Politics of Identity. Eds. Michael Keith & Steve Pile. London & New York: Routledge, 1993. 162-182.

Landon, Brooks. “Diegetic or Digital? The Convergence of Science-Fiction Literature and Science-Fiction Film in Hypermedia.” Alien Zone II: the spaces of science fiction cinema. Ed. Annette Kuhn. London & New York: Verso, 2002. 31-49.

Latour, Bruno (1999). “On recalling ANT.” Actor network theory and After. Eds. John Law & John Hansard. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1999. 15-25.

Lovink, Geert. “Everything was to be done. All the adventures are still there: A Speculative Dialogue with Kodwo Eshun.” Nettime. 23 July 2006.
http://www.nettime.org/Lists-Archives/nettime-l-0007/msg00112.html

McRobbie, Angela. In the Culture Society: Art, Fashion and Popular Music. London & New York: Routledge, 1999.

Miller, Paul AKA DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid. Rhythm Science. Boston: MIT Press, 2004.

Radano, Ronald. Lying up a nation: race and black music. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003.
http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
Reynolds, Simon. “Web of Ghosts.” Blissout. 26 July 2006.

---. “Rogue Unit.” Abstract Dynamics. 26 July 2006.


Snead, James A. “Repetition as a Figure of Black Culture.” Out There: Marginalization and Contemporary Culture. Eds. Russell Ferguson, Martha Gever, Trinh T. Minh-Ha & Cornel West. Boston: MIT Press, 1990. 213-30.

Tate, Greg. “Hip Hop Turns 30: Whatcha Celebratin’ for?” Village Voice, 4 January 2005. Accessed 26 July 2006.
http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0501,tate,59766,2.html

---. “The Color ofhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif Money.” The Nation, 9 February 2006. Accessed 27 July 2006.


---. “Unchained Melodies: the black Atlantic Jawn.” Black Atlantic Project. 26 July 2006.
http://www.britishcouncil.org/usa-arts-music-black-atlantic-greg-tate-article.htm

Taussig, Michael. Mimesis and Alterity: A particular history of the senses. New York & London: Routledge, 2003.

Toynbee, Jason. “Music, culture and creativity.” The Cultural Study of Music: A Critical Introduction. Eds. Martin Clayton, Trevor Herbert & Richard Middleton. London & New York: Routledge, 2003. 102-112.

Weheliye, Alexander G. “‘Feenin’: Posthuman Voices in Contemporary Black Popular Music.” Social Text, 71, 20 (2), 2002: 21-47.

Weheliye, Alexander G. Phonographies: Grooves in Sonic Afro-Modernity. Durham: Duke University Press, 2005.




Berry, E. M. (2003). The last hustle. The Village Voice, November 26-December 2, 2003. Retrieved April 13, 2006 from http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0348,berry,48963,1.html.

BMI (2006). BMI forecasts U.S ringtones sales to hit $600 million in 2006. Retrieved April 13, 2006 from http://bmi.com/news/200604/20060403a.asp.

Chadha, T. (2003, July 2-8). Mix this. The Village Voice. Retrieved April 13, 2006 from http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0327,chadha,45230,1.html.

Cooper, C. (2004). Sound clash: Jamaican dancehall culture at large. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Deleuze, G. & Guattari, F. (1987). Translated by B. Massumi. A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and schizophrenia. University of Minnesota Press.

Gilroy, P. (1993). The Black Atlantic: Modernity and double consciousness. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Hemment, D. (2004). Affect and individuation in popular electronic music. In I. Buchanan & M. Swiboda (Eds.), Deleuze and music (pp. 77-94). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Howard-Spink, S. (2005). Grey Tuesday, online cultural activism and the mash-up of music and politics. First Monday, 9(10). Retrieved April 13, 2006 from http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue9_10/howard/ .
Ilx. (2002). June 5, 2002. Retrieved April 13, 2006 from .
http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
Jones, L. (1967). Black music. New York: Morrow Paperback Editions.

King, J. (2001). Rap and Feng Shui: On ass politics, cultural studies, and the Timbaland sound. In T. Miller (Ed.), Companion to cultural studies (pp. 430-453). Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.

Kraidy, M. (2005). Hybridity, or the cultural logic of globalization. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

Latour, B. (1999). On recalling ANT. In J. Law & J. Hansard (Eds.), Actor network theory and after (pp. 15-25). Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.

Manuel, P. (1993). Cassette culture: Popular music and technology in north India. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Maira, S. (2002). Desis in the house: Indian American youth culture in New York City. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

Melwani, L. (2002). Desi Flava. Little India. Retrieved April 13, 2006 from http://www.littleindia.com/june2002/Desi%20Flava.htm.

Miller, K. (2004). Bolly’hood remix. Newsletter, 33(2). Retrieved April 13, 2006 from the Institute for Studies in American Music, Conservatory of Music, Brooklyn College of the City University of New York Web site: http://depthome.brooklyn.cuny.edu/isam/S04Newshtml/Bollyhood/Bollyhood.htm.

Mitchell, T. (2001). Global noise: Rap and hip-hop outside the USA. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.

Oswald, J. (2004). Bettered by the borrower: The ethics of musical debt. In C. Cox & D. Warner (Eds.), Audio culture: Readings in modern music (pp. 131-137). New York & London: Continuum Books.

Prashad, V. (2000). The karma of brown folk. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Radano, R. (2003). Lying up a nation: Race and black music. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Reynolds, S. (2004). Lost in music: Obsessive record collecting. In E. Weisbard (Ed.), This is pop: In search of the elusive at Experience Music Project (pp 289-307). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Schloss, J. (2004). Making Beats: The art of sample-based hip-hop. Middletown, CN: Wesleyan University Press.

Sharma, N. (2005). Musical crossings: Identity formations of second-generation South Asian American hip hop artists. Institute for the study of social change fellows working papers. Retrieved April 13, 2006 from University of California, Berkeley Web site http://repositories.cdlib.org/issc/fwp/ISSC_WP_02/.

Sharma, S. (2003). The sounds of alterity. In M. Bull & L. Back (Eds.), The auditory culture reader (pp 409-418). Oxford: Berg.

Smith, C. H. (2003). ‘I don’t like to dream about getting paid’: Representations of social mobility and the emergence of the hip-hop mogul. Social Text, 21(4), 69-97.

Taylor, T. (2004). Some versions of difference: Discourses of hybridity in transnational musics. In T.G. Oren & P. Petro (Eds.), Global currents: Media and technology now (pp. 219-244). Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University Press
Weheliye, A. G. (2002) “Feenin”: Posthuman voices in contemporary black popular musicin. Social Text, 20(2), 21-47.

Wolk, D. (2004). Compressing pop: How your favorite song got squished. In E. Weisbard (Ed.), This is pop: In search of the elusive at Experience Music Project (pp. 212-222). Cambridge, Mass. & London: Harvard University Press.

Zuberi, N. (2002). India song: Popular music genres since economic liberalization. In D. Hesmondhalgh & K. Negus (Eds.), Popular Music Studies (pp 238-250). London: Arnold/New York: Oxford University Press.

Music Genre = Identity ?

Ok I read the reading by Sean Ebare and for a little while I agreed with his idea that "expressions of youth identity are inscribed in music fan culture and style".
He used examples of punk, hiphop and goth to back this up, which I thought were very valid...but then I got to thinking (this may just be me twisting the real intention of the argument) :
What happen's if you like bits of everything, i.e. music from different genres?
Does that mean you're classified as everything (punk, goth, hip hop lover, pop follower, etc)?-yet you're not really any of these...or at least not to the extent where you'd wear your hat on the side or black eye liner.

I think that punk's, goth's, hip hopper's and the new trend of "emo's" are people that intentionally express their love for a certain music genre through their appearance and style. Thus, by choosing to do so they appear to have formed a pretty distinct and defined identity. I mean when you look at someone that dresses like a punk, you're automatically going to think they like punk music (It's pretty rare to find someone that dresses like a punk *full time* that likes...say the pussycat dolls).

I personally like a bit of everything, ranging from Rock to Pop. I don't really think my identity relates that much to music because of this. Then again does this also mean I don't have a defined identity because I haven't stuck to a specific music genre?
So really, I don't believe that Sean Ebrare's theory is true in my case.
What does everyone else think?
Do I represent the Majority or the Minority? (In liking a range of music from different genres)

-Elaine

In the Middle East, we don't hunt foxes, we hunt jackals. And we don't use foxhounds, we use royal harriers.

In regards to piracy with particular concern to digital music,

With the digitisation of music it became considerably easier to copy and distribute music. I understand this is why the big corporations are upset, but copying and disrtibuting of music has predated digital technology and will most likely continue despite the best efforts of copyrighting.

I remember growing up bringing parcels down from the letterbox to my mother. What was inside these parcels? Cassetes. For years she received the latest reggae, ska, drum and base, and all the inbetween on cassete from her friends in the UK through the post. When CD burning was available she started to receive CDs. When she went to Jamaica she made many friends and traded music also. Funny thing is many of the people she lived with took a particular liking to New Zealands Goldenhorse. So she posted them a couple of albums and apparently she has received reports from friends still there that her host plays Goldenhorse in his Stereo system across the valley to the village every morning. Sharing music can help to link and unite communities that live thousands of miles apart. Plus I'm also pretty sure that Goldenhorse have no idea they have a growing fanbase in Jamaica, (and I hope they'd overlook my mums breach of copyright, but it would have been too expensive for her to purchase multiple copies of their albums and sent them to all those people when it's so much cheaper to burn a CD for a dollar)

But what I'm trying to say is that the sharing of music is something that has been around for a while and I'm sure it will not be going away anytime soon. Technology will always be developed by people with the motivation.

Instead of trying to prevent the pirating and distribution of music, why don't artists and corporations accept that it has always happened and always will, and instead try to adapt. This may save everyone involved much time, money, and heartbreak.

I propose the idea of "added value". This is not my idea, I know I got it from somewhere, but I like it and am going to run with it.

By adding "value" to an album consumers may be more inclined to purchase that album.
What do I mean? Well by adding something that you cannot get in digital form or on an mp3.
A small example could be limited edition keyrings, stickers, or posters with album sales.
I know that when I purchased The Smashing Pumpkins: Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness back in high school, I did so because
1) It was a f*cking good album
2) It had added value to boot!
I was impressed by the art on the CDs, but I was especially impressed with the accompanying booklet. It contained the lyrics to each song, photographs and crazy artwork. Maybe you could scan the artwork and replicate your own booklet but are you prepared to do that for every album? Do you have that much time?

The booklet was an experience you don't get from listening to the songs and certainly something that the mp3s don't have. Mp3s are impersonal, they don't have the analogue feel and nostalgia of vinyl, or a funky booklet I can lie on my bed and flick through while listening to the album. They simply provide audio, when there is so much more to the musical experience than that. Concerts, t-shirts, fan-clubs, stickers, posters, so much more corporations should be focussing on. The modern Movie industry doesn't make its money from ticket sales anymore, they make it from dvds and merchandising. Less time spent on pinging people, more time spent on selling me merchandise =)

So in order to get us out there and purchasing albums, there needs to be more "quality" added value, and I'm not talking about re-releasing the album 6 months later with 2 new bonus tracks I can locate and obtain free of charge, I'm talking about providing something I cannot download.
How many mp3s turn into posters you can stick up on your wall?

Caleb (a.k.a Mr Hasler since 2002 and still going strong)

[PS: Just a last comment. I have actually come to expect a lyrics sheet in every album I purchase, and when there isn't one I'm sorely disappointed. Maybe I take it for granted but it's one of the main reasons I buy the album and don't download. Why the heck do I wanna buy an ugly CD that hasn't been adorned with artwork for $30 when I can get the mp3s for free? The corporations need to take a harder look at what they're selling us.]

Exploitation?

A few weeks ago I purchased a Telecom mobile. I already had a Vodafone. Many of my friends did this long ago, I guess I was too lazy to get about getting one sooner. Telecom and Vodafone are the only two options for cell phone users in NZ, and compared to other countries around the world the costs of the phones, usage, and plans is unbelievably expensive!!
So now, like many, I use $10txt during the week, and Vodafone's free txting on the weekend, I join those others that are to a certain extent exploiting both companies for personal benefits. But hey, why not right? It works out a lot cheaper! 500txts vs. 50txts for the same amount of money, who wouldn't choose 500?
Us who have two phones are essentially exploiting both companies. Sure it’s legal, but it is a form of exploitations is it not? I have come to think that by and large our generation has become much more accepting, and willing to perform such acts of exploitation upon large companies. I was talking to my grandparents (in their 80's), and they showed alarm at what I was doing. I can see what I'm doing, but I in no way find that wrong, in fact I think not to take advantage of the situation is stupid, and thinking of all the money I've wasted with 20c-a-txt-Vodafone, I kick myself for not taking the leap sooner.
But this is not just limited to cell phones. Last year Harvey Norman had a promotion. You could get 10 free digital prints with slips of paper that they were handing out, or that you could get from the counter (as many as you wanted). The idea behind the promotion was that if you got, lets say 25 prints, you'd get 10 free. However it didn't state you had to get others. So time and time again I went back and got just 10 photos printed, for free. In total I think I got about 90 prints, all free. I did feel a bit embarrassed going into the shop knowing they all knew I was taking advantage, but hey, I’m just a poor student legitimately abiding by their promotional terms and conditions, and not doing anything wrong at all, right? That's not how my grandparents saw it. To them that is being dishonest.
I guess it's a generational thing. In an age where money-making is so much more focal, and companies bombard us with advertising, specials, and promotional deals, we have become more conscious of what we can do to get the most for our buck. My question is how much advertising has helped in this societal change? I would say quite a bit.

Not counter hegemony but understanding technology.

I would like to suggest that rather describing those individuals that participate in “illegal” downloading of files over the Internet as counter-hegemonic, but rather suggest that these individuals are simply taking full advantage of what the Internet offers.

Record companies have blamed the fact that they are increasingly loosing money on the account of people downloading music, but as discussed in tutorial when CDs first came out people would have bought what they already had on vinyl or cassette that in tern achieved high levels of revenue for record labels. Now that people have done this it is not surprising that sales have dropped.

The internet has provided many positive outcomes in regards to better customer services for business, new businesses developed, the development of community groups and so on. No doubt record companies have benefited from the Internet also.

File sharing is such a small aspect of what the internet can provide. People have been copying things ever since it became possible. Wether it be VHS movies, mix cassette tapes or CD burning. What’s so different about the Internet then.

Thoughts?

computerised post-modernism

Being a young musican bred on Sabbath, The Stones, Jethro Tull, etc. I used to dispise the idea of the 'dj' as i found it to lack musical creativity and come no where close to the master musicianship possessed by Ozzy and Mick. I maintained the idea that music had to be written by someone and a new song would be created in each work. The guitar, piano, flute, voice to name a few were the only things capable of creating 'music'. Then i discovered the computer and its use past word. Ironicly for this paper I have never been one whom has grasped the technological rhelm with great ease or appeal (i had only discovered what a blog was just before taking this paper). Things seemed to make a lot more sense on pen and paper. Yet the computer with the more i understand of it each day continually progresses my thinking into the postmodern. My younger brother showed me one day fruitloops and what he had created using a mouse, screen and and whole lots of 0's and 1's. Within this creation i heard and saw a montage of beats and rythyms layered with Freddie Mercury's voice belting out Another One Bites the Dust. It hit me like a bird flying into glass. Music is everywhere. It doesnt matter if it is not created in the conventional way with four people sitting around with different instruments throwing around chords and harmonies. Music is an artform and has no boundries. The introduction of music in the techological age allows for not only new works to be created, but also old to be transformed into something new. If it wasnt music then why else would so many people have fallen into the rave culture and today still the busiest clubs are those packed with electronic music.

Where is the RIGHT? Where is the FEE?

The recoding medium had come through by those steel wires, films, tapes, CD to now the digital music and wireless download. Which was from a incredible high profits to now pay nothing and get as more as you can for free. This overlade advancement is making the digital music getting worthless.

Well you can see the people walking running with the walkman 20 years ago, then you see they changed to CD player or MD player, 10 years ago…and now, IPod and mps player or cell phones with the earphones all over the streets…
So…
Who is the dealer? The digital music was done a huge impact job to the media society, many people used the free download music/filed sharing internet, display and published their own music, and this effect makes them becoming famous and pop, on the other side, it damaged the business of music companies.
And…
How free is free? Many sits are using sign up first, and then download for free. But the thing is, is that necessary to pay the fee or not? Without those sites, we have kazaa, BT, emule…and what’s the point for join in those websites?

Music in the Digital Age

We are experiencing a digital age music revolution in the way the music industry operates. Digital music has influenced and is changing the way people purchase music, and changing the way musicians approach creating albums, writing songs and the forms of packaging, production and distribution.
Digital music gives the opportunity to purchase a song you like – without having to purchase the rest of the album. Artists and Record companies are both going to have to look at how music is released, and if it is worth producing an entire album if people aren’t going to buy it. The major record companies have lost the power or dominance they once had in the music industry and musicians are losing profit and money from record sales, due to the digital age, which has dawned upon us and seen a new era of music. The issue of piracy and downloading illegal music is a major issue in the music industry and the measures they have taken by putting laws in place, but with the advancement of technology; “technology always appears to be one step ahead of the law. Some companies have found success offering music downloads for a price, but this practice only enforces the concept of downloading one or two songs from an artist, and not buying the entire album”. Technologies itself in the forms of ipods are symbolic of downloading one or two songs of an artist. The growing trend shifting towards catering to peoples tastes and a more personalized approach with CD’s and personal play lists. The approach by artists could subsequently see the focus on one song instead of creating new albums. The fear of this is we could experience a revival of One Hot Wonders who would oust out real talent and who would dominate
Billboard charts reaching no.1 and control the air waves.

Mixing it up

After Wednesday's lecture on Music in the Digital Age I was reminded of a remixed track I heard on the radio the week before. This particular track was a mix of the 'Rolling Stones' music and the 'All Saints' lyrics/voices. I do not know who recorded this mix or whether any permission to do so was sought/granted but regardless, as an unlikely a combination this sounds like, it actually worked very very well. I'm not usually a huge 'All Saints' fan (or necessarily a 'Rolling Stones' one at that although I do think their music is classic) but I did like this! I tried and tried to find a copy of the song on a URL to put with this post but was unfortunate, however, take the lyrics out of a 'Rolling Stones' song (which one was played in this particular case is unknown) and the background music from the 'All Saints' song "Beaches", put them together and you can get the drift. The slowish music composition with the strong guitar and piano influence and the smooth, easy-going sound of the 'All Saints' voices all really complemented each other in my opinion! I will continue to search for a copy of this as it is nice easy-listening music.

Another example of the music mixes demonstrated in the lecture on Wednesday the 13th of September is one a friend of mine downloaded on Limewire a few days ago which consists of music from the Spice Girls, Britney Spears, the Sugababes and other various girl bands (goodness help us!). Not liking any of the individual bands or artists in the first place aside, this was an example of a mix NOT done well! I think that I could honestly have done a better job of mixing up a piece of "music" myself, having had no experience in the field what-so-ever. Usually, if placed together well, anything can sound half-decent. This sounded like someone had just randomly picked bits from the pop songs, in an attempt to make a hip dance beat, and thrown them together in no particular order and failed to make it flow in any way! Again, I will try and get hold of a copy of this music, if one permits to call it that, as the mix just really does not work - as a dance mix or anything else!

Both examples show how even within this mix of different genre music, it seems there is almost separate genres we didn't really categorize before - I wonder if this will be the genres the next generation totally grow up with as it is already such a big part of our sound today!

sociology of the mobile phone

Jim Guigan’s article ‘Towards a sociology of the mobile phone’was relevant to my own experiences and perceptions of mobile phone use.
He sees the use of mobile as having huge cultural and social significance and that a ‘recent luxury has become a current necessity’, that it was possible to keep in touch and make arrangements with friends without a mobile phone, whereas his kids say they cant live without them. Before I had a mobile I managed somehow but now I cant imagine not having it to keep in touch with everyone. We can literally be more mobile I guess so we don’t have to sit at home waiting for a call.

I agree with Guigan that some users put more value on the phone as an object rather than its use. I know many people who flash around their phones with its countless features like a little toy, almost as a sign of status.
He notes that the mobile is a means of protection and bonding device. I do use mine as protection when by myself and feeling vulnerable and as a way to overcome shyness to text things I couldn’t say face to face.

Iv'e missed you, where have you been all these years?

Kiaora all!


This is my first time embracing this community of talented University students with my unfocused and scattered piece of writing. I will try my best to make it as clear as possible. All feedback or disagreements will be welcomed with open arms:)

Today I was surfing the internet clicking my mouse around the usual websites that I gain addictive pleasure from, that being, Trademe and Myspace, when I stumbled across www.oldfriends.co.nz. Now I’m sure many of you are pondering why I am so late to discover this web sites existence since it has been around for ancient times and what not. Therefore, I state that it is due to the very essence of my lack of computer skills and restricted mobility in cyberspace.

Firstly, I became really fascinated in the main purpose of Oldfriends, that is, to reunite the many New Zealanders that have lost contact with class mates and work mates over the years. I guess this first initial physiological feeling of belonging and nostalgia for my past school years came over me. I started searching through people from my old kinder garden, primary school, intermediate, high school, and old work places ( haha New World, *cough*) discovering what all my friends were up to these days. It’s amazing how people change over the years and keeping that in mind, I was stoked on what amazing things I could tell people about my life today.

This brings me to my second point. In the lecture when we were discussing “virtual communities” and “virtual identities”, it dawned on me that this old friends website is quite complex in its nature in comparison to a popular ‘virtual community’ such as Myspace.

Oldfriends in similarity to Myspace presents the same notion of virtual communities in cyberspace. People on Myspace feel like they have a community of friends and interests. The use of extended networking adds a lot more emphasis to a larger virtual community that Myspace provides, that is the many different countries and music bands all over the world. Whilst a lot of people over the whole of Myspace know each other outside of cyberspace; the ‘real world’, a lot of the relationships in this online space lack the proximity of a personal relationship. More simply, I am arguing that if you met an American friend and joined in conversation for many years, you would still lack the closeness because of their ‘virtual identity’. Therefore, what I discovered about the nature of Oldfriends was that it took this concept of once knowing, seeing and talking to a person, and then created a new representation through a ‘virtual identity’. For example, my best friend from kindergarden, Samantha, was now living in England and practicing to be a surgeon. My memory of Samantha and I playing with the spaghetti play dough machine was now replaced with Meredith Grey from Grey’s Anatomy.

In conclusion, I guess I am puzzled by the fact that ‘virtual communities’ and ‘virtual identities’ have such a huge impact on how we see and realize things. Every individual is existent in this world outside cyberspace and has the opportunity to be whatever they want in the ‘virtual world’ of the internet. It still ponders me to think that even though to yourself you are a physical person, you could still just be this virtual concept to someone else.

Anywho, I hope I wasn’t to confusing :)

Take care guys and have a mean ass weekend:)

Rachael :)

War of the Worlds: Video Blogging

Not sure if this has been blogged about already (I haven't read every post), so I apologise in advance if it's been said:

A group of filmmakers used YouTube to post up video-diaries for a 'fictional character' Lonelygirl15 (Bree). Very interesting stuff, kind of funny in it's simplicity, it's almost completely legitimate 'fictional episodic filmmaking' so to speak. I'd like to see this concept used to create fictional personal text blogs - and then for these entire blogs to be published into one book as a novel (and similarly, for the 'quality fictional video blogs' to be released as DVD's? Hmmm, who knows. Lonelygirl15 is pretty basic, but there are a lot of possibilities for this form).

Links:
LA Times
Chicago Tribune
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=lonelygirl15

Retro Tech

Hey,
Knight Rider's cameo in the lec on Wed reminded me of a few retro tech items I stumbled across a few weeks back. Here's a fairly hi-tech cell phone masquerading as a novel brick on trademe, yeah, I know, trademe, but the interest shown kind of ties back to Nabeel's idea of old tech merging with/informing the new. Not too sure about the quality though, haven't heard of the brand the seller mentions, if anyone has any info that would be much appreciated. Here's where you can get your Luddite T-Shirts. I'm not too sure if there's anything like this locally, although there has been a trend here towards ironic-nostalgic fashion over the past 18+ months. My fav shirt would have to be the 'System Disk' even though I only have very faint memories of the floppy. I love the 'Non-Stop Rock X-Press' cassette pop-up on the site, the Luddites sure know how to remediate! I guess I'm a kind of audio-Luddite with my analogue LPs and cassettes, and contrary to popular opinion, some records certainly do sound better than a tinny MP3 or CD transfer, but it depends on the pressing. It's interesting that Luddite Enterprises advertise on the Internet, I guess it's a way of carrying the irony further and maybe even converting a few back to analogue mode...maybe...the Luddite lifestyle has its allure.
And to David W re: your comment on Sarah Mc’s “Sex Sells?” a month back - if you haven’t already, be sure to check out NOW DIG THIS, it’s the rock & roll mag with the most for kool kats in the know!
Stella

The Internet as an identity-prison - Yikes!

Here's a thought: the Internet binds identity into discreet and separate units, rather than engendering a more fluid and unbouded sense of identity. That's what Lisa Nakamura reckons, against people like Sherry Turkle. Lisa suggests that some sections of the web, such as the web portal interface, make assumptions about users' race and identity. The 'clickabke-box' format means that you must choose one from many, which may not account for one's heterogeneous interests. Excite, for example, lumps gender, sexual orientation, religion and age together with race. Significantly, 'white' is not a category: it is apparently the default.
There is some truth to what Nakamura says, but I think that she downplays the importance of the 'windows' format. I would argue that what we have is predominantly an 'Ironic Essentialist' structure of consciousness, where one follows different identity models in different windows, with a certain self-consciousness. It is about playing a role well, in the right context. In this way, we are able to experience and understand different identity-roles, and see differing positions relativistically. In this way, every discreet identity model becomes an ironic tool to employ.
Sam

sample dis preserve dat

Copy-writing is a necessity in terms of preserving and re-dispersing old art, music and culture. Early Bulgarian folk music was sung, unrecorded by paper or machine, whilst sowing fields, planting, washing clothes, at weddings and celebrations and during different seasons. The only way the people could preserve the songs and keep them dispersed throughout the generations was by learning, copying and following their predecessors. This also occurs in the Aboriginal culture, where passing songs and hymns to other aborigine is a strong cultural activity and also preserves ancestry.
Although the culture, scene and economic circumstances are somewhat different to your average music production, i think that the preservation of music by these people should be followed. Sure, if they wrote the music down, they could still preserve it, put the lyrics on www.lyricsearch.com, or upload it to their mp3 files. However, the chances of remembering that song 20 to 30 years later just by reading it or a chance listen doesn't really maintain the beauty of the music that can define historical era's.
My dad has a brilliant record collection, this meant i grew up with an extensive music knowledge for my age and my generation. At ten, whilst most girls had their hearts set on Nick Carter, Howie.D or the smooth Peter Andre, i was going to marry Sam Cooke regardless of the fact he died decades earlier-no i was not a nacrophiliac, or Cat Stevens. However, when i tried to share my interest, my friends thought i was kidding and didn't recognise his sound at all, but how could they? During high school i started to get a taste of the 'mashes', Tupac's 'Changes' mashed with Dr Hook's 'When You're in Love With a Beautiful Woman' and legends like Bill Withers having their music sampled as a basis for hip-hop. This re-generated a once popular music to popularity again in a whole new structure and people around me suddenly knew who The Marvelettes or Elton John were. At this web-site http://www.hiphopmusic.com/archives/001836.html Bill Withers, whose songs have been sampled hugely, explains his feelings toward it. Hip-hop wasn't the only genre of music recreating songs from the past to appeal to the new generations and times, Artists like Me First and The Gimme Gimme's were covering songs from the fifties and sixties and turning them into punk rock. Boy and Girl bands of pop were doing the same, Westlife with Billy Joel's 'Uptown Girl' and Atomic Kitten with Blondie's 'The Tide Is High' and so forth. My take is that if they do the song justice and keep that music in the knowledge of up-comers by sampling and re-creating than its great. It doesn't ruin the musical integrity of the composer but it credits them or sometimes pays homage to them or their era, said because a common action after downloading the 'mashes' is to download the original version. Therefore preserving incredible music such as 'Georgia on My Mind' by Ray Charles recently sampled by Ludacris .
That said, recreation can replace the history of a song when it's uncredited and unpreserved. Naivety can lead to songs like 'Emotions' sung by Destiny's Child, being linked to only Destiny's child instead of the more worthy Bee Gee's. That is a downer of maintaining old songs- difficult topic. Not quite sure how i've rambled. please consider i havent drunken any water recently...dizzy or you might respond deluded.

How Spam Saved My Day

I’ve just had a surreal experience that relates to email spam, of all things. A few moments ago I was checking my ‘junk’ email box- something I keep in order to have an address to enter into all those ‘email address required’ boxes on random websites. I occasionally receive meaningful messages at this address so I do check it from time to time.

So my eyes were scanning through the subject titles of my junk emails when they suddenly stuck to a message from Yahoo! or MSN or something or other News reporting on a shooting in Montreal- my hometown. I immediately closed the window and opened up to the website of The Globe and Mail- a large Canadian newspaper- to verify that the terrible news reported in a subject heading in my email spam, was true. To my horror it was. There have been casualties. The shooting occurred at my friend Shannon’s school.

If it hadn’t been for the junk mail message (not to mention the Internet) I don’t see how I would have learned about what happened in Montreal this afternoon until (and if) I sat down to watch the news tonight. By that time it would have been too late in Montreal to call Shannon and I would have wrung my hands all night. Because I did receive that email, though, I was able to call Shannon’s cellphone (which she’s had only a few months) at a decent hour on my cellphone (my first, which I’ve had 6 weeks), and find out that she got away from the shooting in time and is safe and sound at home. I never expected to say this but thank you, spam.

Me on sampling

Well I have very little wrong with sampling, as long as it creates something new and doesn't just ride on the success of whatever it is sampling. Although I am not a fan of dance, hip hop or music with an annoying beat... and to share my view I have grabbed this clip from Dylan Moran's Monster for you all to watch. I just wanted to see if I could do it and share my favourtie comedian with you all... if you want i coudl upload black books aswell...

If it gets taken down because it screws up the blog please just click on the title, it's linked there.

Enjoy

"Get your freak on" Lyrics

Apparently the lyrics at the start of that song are:

KORE KARA MINNA DE MECHAKUCHA ODOTTE... SAWAGO SAWAGO!
(in English: "From here on, everybody's gonna be dancing a little fucked up... make some noise, make some noise!")

This is a slightly different meaning than what was being discussed in class.
Taking this into account and remembering that it is a Missy Elliot song (in this case a shallow and highly self promoting ' club banger' of a single) I dont know if we can really draw any deeper meanings (without creating really tenuous links). Im gonna have to agree with the guy in class who said it was probably just a cynical use of Japanese kitsch which they thought sounded cool...

Japanophilia

In response to the question about the Japanese spoken in the intro to Missy Elliott's video for 'Get Ur Freak On' raised in class: Whether she intended it or not, this could be read as a device for alienating (for once!) an audience that is accustomed to having everything spoon-fed in 'plain English' all the time. Sure, it could just be that a weird/spooky/cool guy speaking a language we don't understand looks and sounds good, but maybe Missy (or the image-makers around her) are making a comment on intercultural misunderstanding. Maybe this guy's remark that "everyone is speaking incoherently" is a criticism of neo-Orientalist assumptions proliferated on websites like engrish.com and syberpunk.com that everything Japanese, for example, is there for us to goggle and laugh at. Take Gwen Stefani and her 'Harajuku Girls' for example. And read this: http://www.kissui.net/mt/archives/000964.html.

Sampling the performance, or the sound?

An interesting point raised today by Hank Shocklee (I think that was his name) was the distinction between sampling someone's performance versus sampling the sound. A consideration of this distinction in copyright law would result in an enormous improvement in the related legal issues. In the sound clip played in the lecture today, George Clinton and Shocklee use the example of a snare drum. Can Tama, the manufacturer of drumkits and percussion instruments, copyright the sound of their instruments? Or can Fender copyright the sound of their Rhodes piano? If they can not legally do this, then shouldn't consumers of commercially-released music be allowed to dissect that particular sound, say, a snare hit or trumpet stab, from its context, and then place it within their own musical creation?

As an amateur music composer, I frequently listen to my favourite CDs to find samples of instruments (say, a single piano note, a closed hi hat, etc.) that I can use in my own compositions. For me, as for many other musicians and particularly hip-hop DJs, I am looking for a sound that I can make my own. I am not looking to rap over a sample of a well-known Beatles chorus, for example, to make a gimmicky top-40 hit. I am merely looking for 'pieces' of music with which to craft an aural collage. As I write this, I am listening to DJ Shadow's 1994 album Endtroducing, which is crafted exclusively with samples from old records. I would challenge anybody to identify any of the samples on this album. I can't. In fact, almost all of the samples are from artists that couldn't even be classified as one-hit wonders, and who would probably never be heard again, were it not for this album. Why should the musician/DJ/artist have to pay for an element from a song, an element that is so insignificant it is perhaps unidentifiable outside of its original musical context?

This calls attention to a further distinction that is somewhat murkier: how identifiable is the sample? Shocklee explained on the sound clip how he can take a brass stab from a particular song, then manipulate it with modern digital technologies to create something wholy different from the original sample, that doesn't even sound like a traditional instrument anymore. I think the line of 'identification' occurs somewhere between where individual notes become melodies or riffs. In the case of vocals, copyright perhaps needs to be more stringent. It is far easier to differentiate between human voices than instruments. For example, the typical James Brown grunt is absolutely distinctive, even when compared to the facsimile grunts by his back-up vocalist Bobby Byrd. In the case of mash-ups, sampling is at its most obvious and self-conscious, and vocals form the focal point of the composition. Due to the inherent nature of mash-ups as pop-music artifacts spliced together with minimal overt manipulation, the elements that constitute the original, individual songs are readily identifiable, and it is this identification that causes the biggest problem with relation to the status quo of copyright law.

Watch the excellent film about turntablism, Scratch (Doug Pray, 2001), to see an interview with DJ Shadow and other turntablists.

Pirating Our Way To Higher Ratings?

Long time no post. But ok - let's talk about piracy, again. Today in our tutorial Caleb (hope I've got the right person) talked about how piracy is in a way almost free advertising, and I absolutely agree. I've witnessed and been part of it in so many instances, and thought I'd just make a case study out of BitTorrent...


BitTorrent and downloading TV Shows

Many of you may already know what BitTorrent is - it's a protocol for file distribution that has really taken off in the last few years. Basically how it works is, there are 'trackers' and 'torrent files'. All you have to do is have a BitTorrent client, and then download small torrent files, which in turn connect you to trackers, and then you can start downloading and uploading files. One of the main features of BitTorrent is that instead of uploading stuff 'from your library', all the people under a node are concentrating on downloading and uploading one file, or one collection of files. These days it is the primary protocol used in pirating movies and tv shows.

Now, we all know NZ gets American TV shows wayyy later than when they actually air - so it's becoming commonplace to download TV shows weekly as they air overseas and watch them before they even start airing here. Now, you'd think (and they'd tell you) that ratings would be harmed, but I think the opposite happens (I don't have the stats to back it up, but I don't think they do either).

For example, when I saw an episode of the new season of a hit show - I went and told around ten more people about how cool that episode was. Some of them don't even watch the show. But by the time the show came to NZ, they were all watching it - I was generating hype freely.

Of course, what they're scared of is that I'll burn copies of the show for all my friends, and that by the time the show gets to NZ - everyone'd have seen it and it'd be old news. Well, not quite. In fact, the opposite happens: Several people I know have rejected watching downloaded TV shows, preferring to wait for it to air on TV. Why?

"I love the way you have ad breaks in between... it's a different experience, it's the flow of TV, and watching downloaded TV shows screws that up."

"I like knowing about what's gonna happen next at the same time as everyone else - I get to enjoy being part of that community of people who - while all sitting in front of a different TV, are finding out at the exact same time that ___ dies in ____ episode. You just don't get that feeling when you're watching a TV show by yourself on your computer - and when you're free to press pause at any point."

The interesting thing however is, while they shut their ears from spoilers and reject receiving DVD-R's full of this stuff - they still ask with heightened curiosity, 'So? How was the episode? Is it good?' 'Oh yes... it was awesome.' 'Ooooooo... I can't wait...'

Sure, I guess the same applies to TiVO - but the point I'm making is that this BitTorrent thing is not a crisis like it's made out to be. In fact, several people I know who download the shows - by definition, are big fans of that show anyway (i.e. they have enough motivation to use what little bandwidth they have on our crappy broadband to download it - so it must hold a certain value for them). Therefore, they are more likely to be the type who watch episodes more than once, sometimes multiple times.

Most of the people I know who download TV shows actually still watch the show when it airs - they love sitting in a room being the ones who know just a bit more than the others. There are so many reasons why watching TV on TV is appealing, and I just don't think piracy is gonna kill that.

So, what do you guys think?

Myspace: ANTONYM modesty

The narcissism of Myspace.

If reality T.V has taught us anything, it's that certain people will do almost anything in an attempt to become famous. If Myspace has taught me anything, it’s that pretty much everybody will do almost anything to be famous.

I too have recently taken the plunge and joined Myspace, and while I appreciate that it was originally conceived as a medium to keep in touch with friends, meet old acquaintances etc and can form the grounds for a vibrant online community. But for many I feel that these more practical and noble concerns have passed them by. Myspace has instead become the perfect vehicle to self promote, a grand stage to perform and soak in the narcissistic pleasures of self indulgence.

Myspace as the name alludes to is all about the individual, people who choose to live their private lives in public. Chris DeWolfe, a cofounder of MySpace.com recently told Vanity Fair "This generation wants to be known, they want to be famous," Myspace provides the platform for anyone to try and gain their 15 minutes. Myspace also provides an almost microscopic focus on self and in tow the promotion of that self; often in desperate and gratuitous ways like posed photographs, skimpy clothes and outrageous debauchurous behaviour.
What has happened to the ideas of privacy, humbleness and modesty? Do people no longer feel slightly uneasy about having a whole page on the net devoted solely to their (often inane and uneventful) lives? It seems not and more people are falling victim to their own grandiosity as they crave the attention of others

I feel this narcissism plays a large part in why many find Myspace so addictive, we are judged by our pages this leads to embarrassment of having a crappy page and the desire to constantly improve and add to it. People in this community are judged by how their page appears, who their friends are, how many friends they have.


Is the Myspace phenomenon and in fact blogging culture just a reflection of a wholly more self-absorbed generation, craving praise and attention more than ever before?



An interesting article I found on this issue:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/22/AR2006072200946.html

Comments welcome : D

Would YOU like to be interviewed?

Hey everyone,

I'm a FTVMS 201 (live studio production course) student and we are looking for 2 people to interview tomorrow between 2-3pm at the KMC.

So if you:
want to see how a live studio interview works
or
want to talk about yourself/a strong view you hold for 5 minutes (probably less) and have an audience
or
would like to munch on milk bottles with me (I've recently come into possession of a large bag of yummy milk bottles :P)

Please offer your interviewee services and contact me before tomorrow:
wonderingmist@gmail.com
or
comment/reply to this post

P.S. This is really a call out for anyone. No experience needed.

-Elaine

Fighting was the only thing I was good at, but at least I always fought for what I believed in...

Ok,

it's half an hour to my next lecture and I've got some time to rant.

I guess I'm continuing from my last post on Digital information. The digital era that is upon us has deep impacts on our culture and history. Should all this digital information roam free in cyberspace? Shouldn't there be "gatekeepers" to regulate what our children are seeing and hearing, like there are librarians to make sure children don't get their hands on Pornography in our public libraries? Should we have the uncensored "Freedom" to put whatever we want into the digital space to be seen by the next generations. For obvious reasons not all human history is passed on to the next generation. Only a small percentage of the whole is selected and passed on.

"but in the current, digitized world, trivial information is accumulating every second, preserved in all it's triteness. Never fading, always accessible. Rumours about petty issues, misinterpretations, slander... All this junk data preserved in an unfiltered state, growing at an alarming rate.

It will slow down social progress, reduce the rate of evolution. The digital society furthers human flaws and selectively rewards the development of convenient-half truths. Just look at the juxtapositions of morality around you. Billions spent on new weapons in order to humanely murder other humans. Rights of criminals are given more respect than the privacy of their victims. Although there are people suffering in poverty, huge donations are made to protect endangered species. Everyone grows up being told the same thing

"Be nice to other people"
"But beat out the competition"

"You're special" "Believe in yourself and you will succeed."
But it's obvious from the start that only a few can succeed...

People exercise their "Freedom" and this is the result. All rhetoric to avoid conflict and protect each other from hurt. The untested truths spun by different interests continue to churn and accumulate in the sandbox of political correctness and value systems.

Everyone withdraws into their own small gated community, afraid of a larger forum. They stay inside their little ponds, leaking whatever "truth" suits them into the growning cesspool of society at large.
The different cardinal truths neither clash nor mesh. No-one is invalidated, but nobody is right.
Not even natural selection can take place here. The world is being engulfed in "truth".

The individual is supposed to be weak. But far from powerless...a single person has the potential to ruin the world, and the age of digitized communication has given even more power to the individual. Too much power for an immature species."

Something to think about...

Caleb (Anime Geek)

PS: props to those who know the people who made this speech =)

A Question on Counter Hegemony

Hi, just looking for an answer on this question I have as I try to better understand hegemony.

Does a counter hegemony eventually become the dominating hegemony when all the major assumptions of the counter hegemony become common sense?

Thanks in advance

read book on line

One day, my friend brought a famous book, and cost her about $40 dollars. Three days later, I read the whole story without cost money!
People can find anything they want to read on the Internet, is that legal?
I used to read a long story on a BBS, but I did not read whole text, because the writer found people removed her/his story without permit, and then deleted all. In fact, the writer did not earn money from that story, the person, who “copy” the story, indicated the name of that writer and where the story from. So, why did the writer so angry with that? He/she did not loose anything, and on the other hand, just because that person, he/she became a very famous writer!
In my opinion, the copyright is not only a law, and is more associated with people’s mind! We need to respect the right of the writers, and their knowledge!

Me, MySpace and I

Personally I’m not very internet literate, but after learning all about this entire world out there I did as I’m sure many of us newbies in FTVMS 203 did, and logged onto the internet colossus MySpace…that’s right, I am a MySpace virgin no more…
However, I must admit that I did it in sort of a backwards way. Instead of hopping on and broadcasting all my preferences and other details out to the world and creating this web of connections, I kept sort of anonymous and just searched for people that I already know in the ‘real world’. Is this some sort of sacrilege? I’m really not sure. I felt sort of creepy looking at people’s pages (and how many people I that know have them! I never knew!) But I guess that’s the point right? If you don’t want people looking then you wouldn’t put up a page (a la moi), however out of all the peoples pages that I did find not one of them had ever mentioned having a MySpace account…is this because its now considered the norm? Or is there still a little bit of shame associated with dedicating an entire page to me me me?

One for Shaun

Shaun, I just thought I would let you know over here so everyone else knows you love the Rockstar:Supernova fad...
Supernova are on Epic which holds... wait for it...Shakira, Jessica Simpson, Natasha Beddingfield, Jennifer Lopez and Jamiroquai...
So so rock and roll!
and Epic is a subsection of Sony, so bascially the three 'rockers' are so completely washed up that they are signed to a major corporate label that controls there every move and song title... again... so rock and roll..

have you heard the singles? They are terrible!
I'm sorry, I'm being childish, but I thought you should kno where Supernova will really go, in to the budget bins at the warehouse along with ben lummis, that chick and everybody else...