Blog Post 3: Radio & Technology

          Technological changes greatly influenced the radio industry during the 1920's by creating a way for popular music to reach the masses of society. In 1887, Thomas Edison introduced the speaking phonograph, which later David Sarnoff transformed into 'a household music box', which teens today use to blare Kesha and The Jonas Brothers through in their bedrooms. In 1924, with the advent of popular radio play, record sales in the U.S. declined by half of their previous sales. Families went throughout their daily routines constantly listening to the radio because the technology at the time allowed them to do so.

wired.com

         During the 1920's, people were enthralled by the radio because they could listen to their favorite songs over the airwaves for free. This technological advancement had the same effect on society at the time, that television would have on future generations. Music technology is as important today as it was during back then too. The Internet has made it so that people can torrent or illegally download their favorite songs today for free, which has also led to a decline in record sales. It is the music industries responsibility to keep up with the growing technological advancements that occur everyday. If they do not, they will not be able to survive.

poplicks.com

On an unrelated note, here is the new trailer to a movie that I wrote & directed this past summer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBfaOQR20bM

Blog Post 2: Social Learning

I think the concept of social learning accounts for the large number of teenage pregnancies in America today. The notion of social learning asserts that audiences imitate the types of behavior that they observe in the media. The messages and lifestyles portrayed in television, movies, and music often shape what audiences recognize as responsible and acceptable behavior. For this reason, the media has a large responsibility in determining the type of content that it allows to entertain us.

In recent years, there have been many television shows that portray single teenage mothers in society such as MTV's Sixteen and Pregnant and The Secret Life of the American Teenager. Consequently, 750,000 teenagers become pregnant each year in the U.S. (courtesy of http://www.pregnantteenhelp.org/articles1.html). Sex is portrayed in these shows as being socially acceptable, and therefore the teens who watch these programs are mimicking what the see. Even Bristol Palin, daughter of prominent U.S. politician Sarah Palin, has become famous in the U.S. due to her recent teenage pregnancy. What other qualifications would justify her being a contestant on Dancing With the Stars? It's sad that these programs and individuals make teenage pregnancy seem so casual and nonchalant when it's really an epidemic that is a hardship for many families around the country.


Here is a clip from MTV's Sixteen and Pregnant (courtesy of youtube):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12MrdhGohk8

Hegemony In Classical Hollywood Cinema

     Hegemony helps me understand why men are portrayed as always being so strong and virile in Classical Hollywood Cinema. Hegemony allows the most powerful individuals in society the ability to shape and control the way that everyone else thinks about something. Quite often, the rest of us are blissfully unaware that we are even being manipulated in such a grotesque misuse of power. The ruling elite make it so that what they tell us is socially correct and therefore left unquestioned. Throughout Classical Hollywood Cinema, people were taught to believe that men should act like Humphrey Bogart and women should look like Audrey Hepburn.

Picture Courtesy of austinchronicle.com

           In the Alfred Hitchcock film Notorious, Carey Grant exemplifies the archetypal heroic male figure that Classical Hollywood Cinema praised. Throughout the movie Grant rescues Ingrid Bergman time after time and is never seen without a suit and tie. Hitchcock made it so that even when confronted by Nazis in the climactic final scene, Grant's character never shuddered or strayed away from the level-headed, stoic character that Hollywood demanded he play. The men of Classical Hollywood were told to be bold and daring, which in turn instilled that in ever common man around the country who watched their films. 

The Final Scene of Notorious (courtesy of youtube)