Song Critiques

Jake Loew didn't post his song so I skipped to the next one and did Jennifer Applebaum's, then Jesse Bethea's, Jesse Pontius never posted her song so I moved to Jessica Witt's song.

Brainwashed

Seth Godin’s informative piece “Brainwashed” explains the changing of the times. He tells us that we have all been brainwashed to be average and uncreative in a way. He encourages us to find our creativity and reinvent ourselves by using his seven levers. Godin’s seven levers available for anyone in search for reinvention are: connect, be generous, make art, acknowledge the lizard, ship, fail and learn.

Acknowledging the Lizard is a lever that Godin uses to explicate the resistance in us that makes us comply with orders and follow commands. According to Godin, Resistance is the panic ones gets when they are not following the rules. He also says that we must revolt against the resistance and take a risk in order to be rewarded. So rather than follow the lizard, we must acknowledge it and deny it.

This makes a lot of sense to me. I do not know one person that is happy and successful that didn’t take a chance. Acknowledging the lizard pertains to class as well. If we didn’t do all of these projects and think a little differently, we wouldn’t be creative and we wouldn’t know what we enjoy. I know that after the music project, I really enjoy producing. I am also really looking forward to this screenplay that I am writing. If I weren’t in this class, there would be no way I would be doing this. I am expressing and expanding my self, which is making me more creative in the process.

Make Art is a lever that Godin talks about that I wish everyone knew about. He says that art isn’t just painting a picture or writing a book. Art is everywhere and that everyone can do art. He says that art doesn’t follow instructions or have a manual. Instead, art is the very human act of creating the uncreated.

This is important to me because I know a lot of people that say they have no artistic ability. It makes me so angry, because they don’t understand what art is. The best definition I have ever heard of art is when Seth Godin said that is the act of creating the uncreated. This pertains to class as well. All we do is make art in class. We make music, manipulate photos, and write art. We all make art differently even though we have the same thing to do. This just shows how different everyone really is as well as how different art can be while still being art.

Soundscape Critique

The Duke of Stage Left

Sam Sucks

Shannon Mcadoo's Blog

Music Project #2

Cover Song Contest

I listen to pop punk. I love pop punk. However, I am a sucker for old girly songs, as well. Which by this blog, it is pretty easy to tell.

I’ve chosen to compare the song “Love Song” originally made by Sara Bareilles that was later covered by Four Year Strong. Although the lyrics are exactly the same, the two versions are very different. Sara Bareilles sings her version in a sassy and flirty way compared to Four Year Strong’s cover who sings it in a masculine, informative and somewhat hard way.

Four Year Strong’s version has a loud intensity with a low pitch compared to Sara Bareilles version, which has a soft intensity and a higher pitch. They both have a somewhat regular rhythm. However, Four Year Strong’s cover has a more complex timbre than Sara Bareilles original track that has more of a simple timbre. The cover done by Four Year Strong seems to have a faster speed than the other version. I think this is because of the style of music and the instrumentation. Pop punk has a faster pace with heavier instrumentals compared to the girly pop soul kind of genre that we hear from Bareilles.  Sara’s song is geared more toward the piano and her voice with more instruments in the back. In comparison, Four Year Strong’s cover version likes to use all of their instruments equally. Sara Bareilles version is also very ordered compared to FYS’s version, but the Four Year Strong version isn’t by any mean chaotic.

One of the most noticeable differences between Sara Bareilles version and Four Year Strong’s cover version is simply them. Four Year Strong is a group of huge bearded men singing in raspy voices that jump around a lot. Sara Bareilles is a beautiful swaying pianist that that makes winky faces at the camera.They are both very good versions of the same song, but to pick which one I like better is very hard. If I were comparing FYS’s cover of Nirvana’s “In Bloom” I would for sure pick Nirvana. If I was comparing Matchbook Romance or New Found Glory’s cover of Nine Days’ “Story of a Girl” I would choose New Found Glory. This cover however is very difficult for me. I like different things about each song. The only way I would pick one song over another is if I was in a pop punk mood or a old girly song mood. Since, I listen to a lot more pop punk than I do old girly songs, I am going to have to say that I like the original version better. It is only because I like so much pop punk that I wouldn’t really listen to this song as often as I would when I am in a old girly song mood. Sara Bareilles just hits the spot when it comes to old girly songs.

Relief Soundscape

Finding Your Howl by Jonathon Flaum Assignment

 Finding Your Howl by Jonathon Flaum

The story of Mumon is a great story of finding your true self. Mumon was a red wolf that had been in captivity because his species had been threatened to extinction. Once he was finally let back into the wild, all of the wolveshad forgotten how to howl. Mumon decided that he had to save his pack and learn how to howl. To learn this, Mumon went on a journey to the forest where he met many obstacles that he had to face in order to find his howl. This story infers to us that in order to find our specific howl, we must pay the price. We must sacrifice everything, do things we never thought we would have to do, and re create ourselves to the person we truly need to be. The story of Mumon shows that this is not an easy process, it will be scary and intense, but at the end, when we finally find our howl, there is nothing like it.

Audio Part of this Assignment (Click on it)

If you hear the audio, you'll know what this video is. Not there official video.

Ways to Get Ideas by Mitch Ditkoff Assignment

Mitch Ditkoff’s, “14 Ways to get Breakthrough Ideas” tells us how to think in order to get great ideas. In this short essay, I will talk about 3 out of the 14 ways Ditkoff tells us to get ideas.

1.  Take a Break

This idea can be the most helpful and hurtful depending on the circumstances. I am a huge procrastinator. I always take breaks to avoid what needs to be done, and end up doing it right before it needs to be done. However, procrastination comes with stress. When I have a lot to be done, I don’t try to do it super-last minute. I try to give my self some time so I am not completely overwhelmed. Regardless, I am a slow worker and a perfectionist. I get overwhelmed easily and I often feel as if my brain has turned to mush. This is when I use breaks positively. Normally, I will have a snack and watch old television shows on Netflix or take a nap. By doing this, I relax and relieve the stress I put on my mind. When the show is over or my alarm goes off, I feel brand new, as in relaxed and refreshed.

2. Define the Right Challenge

Although this was the shortest of all the subsections, I feel that the idea of this is one of the most important and easiest ways to come up with a “breakthrough” idea. It makes sense right? Figure out what is wrong and fix it or make it easier. For example, I am a picky eater. When I eat pasta, I like to have the noodles, sauce and cheese not touching at first. Instead, I like to dip the noodles into the sauce and then into the cheese. Since it is pretty hard to do this on a normal plate, I was ecstatic when my mom brought home the plates with 3 separate sections. Can you say perfect? Although I know this plate like utensil wasn't specifically designed for my strange eating habits, the essence of this wonderful product begun with a question: How can one ensure that food will not touch? Every single object I am looking at in my room has a question behind its creation. Think of a problem you personally have. Then think of a way to fix it. This is how everything has been made.

Examples: Bag: How can I carry all of this stuff more efficiently? Book light: How can I read my book without my roommate complaining of the light? Photos: How can I remember this moment by looking at a part of it in the future?

3. Tolerate Ambiguity

This is one of the ways that I wish I could do easily. Ditkoff explains that breakthroughs are often the result of an evolutionary series of failed experiments. He also tells us that we should treat failure as a learning experience. If only it was that easy. This idea talks about absorbing and fully taking in failure. For someone like me who doesn’t do well with failure, this idea is probably the most difficult out of the 14. Although I try to think optimistically about things, failure is just not acceptable for me. One would think that when I finally do fail, I would try to fix it, but I am the kind of person that doesn’t like to be reminded of failure so I try to forget about it. Reading this subsection of this article helped me realize what I could do if I didn’t just forget about it and actually tried to learn from my failure.

Activity #4

  Nouns   Verbs   Adjectives
1. Computer-move-silently
2. Band-jumps-ferociously
3. Eye-tick-striped
4. Wall-vibrates-loudly
5. Marker-yell-perfectly
6. Chest-sing-descriptively
7. Slipper-moisturize-beautifully
8. Photo-talk-friendly
9. Homework-times-purple

10. Lion-nibble-softly

Who influences you as a creative person?

I really wish we didn’t have to use these terms, because I don’t base my influences and admiration on things like tension and release or active and didactic tendencies. However, these terms did help me realize certain things about SOME of the people I admire.

I am a music girl. I am not a video game fanatic, I don’t go too in depth with movies, and I really a lot on stick figures. However, I love my N64, I watch way too many movies, and I paint a lot! I just get most of my creativity through music. I play music, I make music, I listen to music. My life and future revolves around music. So for this blog, I am going to talk about music influences.

Defiance, Ohio. I started listening to Defiance Ohio when I was in high school. Like most high school kids, they are immature. I will not lie, I used to be one of them, until I started listening to Defiance Ohio. I just made them sound ‘cult-ish’, but they aren’t. Defiance Ohio is a DIY punk band from Columbus, who created a new version of punk music. Defiance Ohio is a great example of contrast and affinity in music. They still have a punk-ish sound, punk vocals, punk lyrics like any punk band would have. In contrast, they use folk instruments like the violin, cello, banjo, upright bass, and acoustic guitar. This difference of instruments compared with the similarities of the punk style created a whole new genre: folk punk.

I admire Defiance Ohio for many reasons. First, they take risks and make wonderful music. They don’t make mainstream bulls**t music just to get paid. Their music is real and talk about real things that everyday people face. They give there music away for free, because they know not everyone can spend money on it. They care about their fans and want t reach out. They refuse to play on a real stage because they don’t want to be like everyone else. I admire them more many reasons, but mostly because I don’t want to turn into a ordinary, capitalistic, drone that isn’t happy.

Defiance Ohio also uses a great deal of text and subtext in there lryics. For example, the song Sweet Dudes and Sweet Ladies says that if they were to die today, they would have lived it the right way and that nothing would change. They talk very generally about how they friends are good people, and people in general. However, the implied meaning goes more in depth.  The song is about being honest to the people you are close to, facing your fears. There is a slight call to action in this song as well, it is be the person you want to be.

The second artist I want to mention is a pop punk band called Set Your Goals. There music has changes the way I think. I admire them strictly because of how brilliant they are. They are respectful and don’t try to impress anyone, but somehow one of the most popular pop punk, hardcore bands in the US. They tell it how it is.

Set Your Goals’ songs range from active to didactic. For example, the song An Old Book Misread gives them hints on what they are talking about, but never fully tells you that they are talking about the bible and religion. This shows an active theme in this song. While for instance in SYG’s song, Gaia Bleeds, they are telling the listeners what is going on in our world, “the rising of septic tides as refuse litters the Pacific Gyre”, and that we are doing nothing about it, “Cover your eyes and ears”, “turn the other cheek and pretend” or that we are making it even worse, “Killing like we’re allowed”. This shows a didactic theme. 

PS. I really recommend people to listen to both Defiance Ohio and Set Your Goals if you are looking for something new to listen to. 

Playing Around For a Year