Music Today: What Happened To It??? And Who is Considered a "Great Artist"?

Let me just get right to the point, I think a lot of today's music is nothing really special. I mean a lot of songs are about sex, money, drugs, alcohol, etc. And its not just one genre, its basically ALL genres!!! In other words, I see a lack of creativity in music these days. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying all songs are like that. As a matter of fact, I'm somewhat into multiple genres of music, but usually if the song gives me motivation in my workouts (whether its the music, beat, the artist's style of how they do their music, lyrics, or all of the above). What I am looking at is music as a whole.

So who is really considered a "great artist"? Who actually makes good music? Well, truth is I think people define "good music" as something that is based on their own opinion. But let's take a moment and look at who is a legitimate musician and who I believe gets "overhyped".

First, let's started with the overrated artists (NOTE: This is my opinion, it may not necessarily be your opinion). Taylor Swift has won multiple awards like Entertainer of the Year, Country Vocalist of the Year, etc. But the thing I've noticed in a lot of her awards is that she won them IN COUNTRY MUSIC AWARD CEREMONIES! To be honest with you, Taylor Swift gets way too much credit as a "country singer" and she hasn't been doing country since like 2007! Actually, she's never really been true country singer, she's more of a pop genre singer. Next, let's look at Justin Bieber. Now I could just ramble endlessly on what I hate about him such as his "wannabe gangster" looks, the fact that he barely hit puberty, question what Usher was thinking in making him famous out of YouTube, or even his attitude, but there will come a time and day for that. For now, I'll just look at his music. I think his singing voice is annoying, the music is bad, and I don't even think a lot of his songs have ANYTHING to do with what he has went through! So you guessed it right, I DO NOT have "Bieber Fever"!!!

On the other hand, lets now look at who I think is considered one of the greats. This one is a bit tough because the music industry has had great musicians from back in the including Queen, The Beatles, Rolling Stones, etc. Off the top of my head, I'm thinking of Carrie Underwood and Eminem.

Since she entered the scene in American Idol back in 2004, Carrie Underwood has been able to showcase herself as arguably one of the greatest country singers of all time. Underwood, at least in my opinion, has a great voice, a well deserved American Idol winner, can be known as a role model to many people, and is a very gorgeous individual. On the other hand, Eminem creates powerful messages in his songs, raps extremely fast, and he's one of those one of a kind rappers. I think what Eminem has that a lot of modern day artists never really had was that he had to work his way to the top. In one of his latest albums, Eminem has a picture of his old house before he became famous. Aside from the language being pretty strong, the movie 8 Mile showed what Eminem actually went through before he became, as he proclaimed himself to be, a "Rap God". Here is a video from 8 Mile to give you an image of his past, but I must warn you that the following contains very strong language. And here is also a picture of his old house on his latest album.

Regardless of what we think about any artist/musicians, each of them have different life stories and whatever they have done throughout their entire lives, it has what has brought them to where they are today. As long as these artists have a fan base, they will keep doing what they love to do, and that is make music, entertain the fan base, and making a living.

How Valuable are Talk Shows? What is the "Big Picture"?

Honestly, I don't really watch talk shows very often, especially when it comes to politics. Throughout television, there are so many options that you can choose from, but which is considered a "valuable source" to look into? In my opinion, when you have one person in charge of an entire show, it's most likely that this source of information is biased. The reason for this is because one person can really only provide so much information that they might not exactly have all the details on any given situation. If you have multiple people involved in the talk show, maybe you could get more information about something, but is it considered news or is it just people telling us something that we most likely already know? 

Lets take a look at two different anchors: Larry King and Bill O'Reilly.

 

I've never really watched too much of their respected shows, but both of these guys have different ways of gaining an audience to watch them on television. Bill O'Reilly has been known for looking at politics from his own perspective and has had guests debating about the various topics, but I can't really see how this is a "valuable source" when I'm trying to figure out a dilemma in the political world. On the other hand, Larry King talked about politics for decades, but not on his OWN political view. He even talks about on this video found here! He never felt his political opinion ever mattered, and that is a rather interesting way of looking at it. Does our political opinion really matter?

Yes, we are all entitled to our own opinions, there's nothing wrong with that! But if our opinions don't really matter, why are we so worried about getting information from people that are just going to express theirs? I think we need to focus more on the FACTS! Facts provide us with information while opinion is just the way we look at the facts and what we think about it. Whatever we way look at any situation, odds are opinions might not be a main solution.

Television: What's Going On with Society?

Let me just say this...
With all due respect, I'm not a fan of reality shows. As a matter of fact, looking at a lot of these reality shows that are airing today, I HATE it! Ok, maybe not particularly hate, just more in terms of not having any interest in them at all. In my opinion, I think that there is WAY too much unnecessary drama and the shows are rather dysfunctional. I get it if this is a way to get ratings for the show, to give people more reason to watch. However, I think it's a little too much for me! Just a tad....

Anyway, when you look at reality shows as it pertains to the world outside the cameras, does it actually affect the way we behave towards others? The way we talk? The way we react to what others say right to our faces? Or even the way we live life in general? There are so many questions that come into play in regards to what we see on our television screens!

Before I make my further observations, I just want to point something out that might find interesting (if you don't know about this). When I was taking a Sociology class last year, my teacher's church actually had someone from the Desperate Housewives (I don't remember which location or who it was) that came to speak to the public. She stated that some of the things they did in the show were actually "scripted". I can't remember anything else beyond that, but I'm willing to assume it was to just build their "character" for the show and was a creative way to have the audience love/hate them.

Even though what I just said is a little bit different in comparison to the real world, you can't help but wonder what people think of these reality shows. I think these television shows have affected our society in many different ways! Take shows such as Keeping Up With the Kardashians, Desperate House Wives, Total Divas, Girls Next Door, etc. People actually LOOK UP to different actors/actresses on each show. Putting all the pieces in this puzzle together, the way human beings react nowadays is based off of example from what is happening in front of the television screen and I think it's very concerning! With that being said, I don't think you can just put these shows off the air, but I think people need to show more respect towards others and gain better discipline. That's all I have to say about that...

Newspaper: Are They Really Worth It Anymore? The Rising "Sun" and the Falling "Eagle"

  For many generations we have been getting the latest news from newspapers to television to even our mobile phones. But the thing is will we actually be getting news from newspapers in 20 years? 30 years? Or even 50 years? It's doubtful, but life is very unpredictable that there are no guarantees! As the number of people that actually read the newspaper rapidly declines, is subscribing or purchasing ANY newspaper really worth it? If you read it everyday like my grandparents do, probably so. If you don't read it at all, its probably not worth wasting money for it. Take a look at this article of how big of a decline newspapers has become by clicking here.
Let's look at the perspective of two of Maryland's newspapers, The Baltimore Sun and the Dundalk Eagle. Which one has a better chance of still being around in 20 years and which one will crumble and completely shut down? You can make an argument for both, even if you don't read either of them at all! This is what I think...

  I believe the Baltimore Sun has a rather significant edge over the Dundalk Eagle, in my opinion, for obvious reasons. The Baltimore Sun has a better chance of attracting a larger amount of people in the area than the Dundalk Eagle, hence Dundalk being a smaller location than the city of Baltimore. Baltimore Sun can also keep us up to date on what happens around the state of Maryland such professional teams, big events, Inner Harbor, and so on. Since Dundalk Eagle is only a local paper, it can only provide so much to the community reading their newspaper leaving with a likely clear disadvantage in comparison to the Baltimore Sun.
  Though nothing is never "set in stone", something is bound to happen in 20 years. And when it all comes down to it, WE essentially control the fate of the newspaper. After all, people did INVENT the newspaper in the first place!

Magazine and Insecurity Blog

       

       Every day many people will walk into a bookstore, grocery store, or even a library and find themselves in an aisle filled with magazines. Magazines have a different kinds of interests for people such as the latest on pop culture, sports, fitness, nutrition, etc. But what may catch people's eye is who is on the cover of that magazine. In our modern day society, we are given a certain degree of standards and pressure to have our bodies look a certain way so we can feel confident about ourselves. However, is society really trying to make us feel more confident or rather more insecure about what we look? Insecurities are what make us human, what defines our true character. Somewhere along the lines, we want to change something about ourselves, but what we don't know how to change it.
       According to Mark Tyrrell from the Uncommon Knowledge Ltd, in the United Kingdom, "Anything which increases the focus on the self (poor self-help books for example), makes it less likely that we will be successful in developing self confidence or a good self image. In a social situation, for example, self consciousness is the opposite of what we need." (Tyrrell 2014) The fact is every human being is perfectly fine the way that they are! So why should people try to bring us down because were not a "certain size" or how we look? As long as we're happy, who's got the right to tell you otherwise? If you are truly happy about who and what you are, embrace it! If not, do something about it! Life is too short to be worrying about what society wants us to feel/look like. Odds are, if people have a problem with any of your characteristics, they are often jealous of what you have! Whenever other people are unable to have certain things that they couldn't have, they want to tell you that you can't have anything you truly desire for. In the end, YOU have the power to determine how you want your life to be! So, go make it worthwhile!


References Used: Uncommon Knowledge Ltd.; Scotland, UK; Mark Tyrrell; found on http://www.self-confidence.co.uk/articles/insecurity/

Images found on: http://kickofjoy.com/insecurity-step-self-destruction/
http://theresa-foreverours.blogspot.com/2013/09/insecurities.html