Interesting, Ask Amy

On Thursday, I came into my work and the women I trade shifts with was all talks about this article she read in the paper that day. Now usually I don’t get hyped up about the paper. I basically only read it for the horoscope, but this article was important to me and this class. Ask Amy seems to be a column where you ask Amy questions and she answers them for you. So an advice column. On this particular day a man was talking to Amy about the fact that his wife was “addicted to the internet”. He goes on to tell you that she wakes up at 6 AM, spends hours on the computer, goes to work, comes home and is on the internet until 1 AM. He said that the problem has only gotten worse due to the fact that she got a phone that now has internet access. (Mom prefers Facebook over face time)

Amy said that the husband and his family need to basically have an intervention on the wife. They do not know what she is doing on the internet this whole time. And she even acknowledged that being “addicted to the internet” is a serious and legitimate illness. She told the family to consider putting the wife into therapy.

This article very much intrigued me. This is exactly what we are talking about. People are constantly connected to the internet. It is not only annoying but it is costing people valuable relationships. (This couple has been married 30 years and this is becoming a big hang up.) We are becoming extremely interpersonal. I know that I personally have issues with concentration. If I have the internet up, it is almost impossible for me to achieve anything. I am constantly checking facebook, even though there is nothing new going on. I will look at Perez for hours, reading about celebrity gossip. In the end, I know a lot about people around me. But I have usually accomplished nothing. I think everyone is so connected they almost don’t even realize they are having problems. Which is a very scary thought.

Victory Records Profile

1. Description: The music that Victory Records specializes in is alternative/pop/rock. All of the bands on this label are basically alternative/rock. They all have their own unique sounds but they are basically pretty similar so they can all be under the same classification. Some of the groups or most notable artists that this label produces are A Day To Remember, The Audition, Bayside, Four Letter Lie, Hawthorne Heights, and Silverstein. If you go to Victory Records website you can click on the heading bar that is labeled Artists. It brings up a whole page of every band with a picture of the members. Victory Records slogan is “Your Music, Your Label.” They are basically telling you that they have your back as far as good music goes. Consumers can get the recordings from the Webstore on the Victory Records website but all the artists are on iTunes and Amazon.
2. Analysis: I would say that the target audience for Victory Records would be a person who enjoys rock style music with a little bit of a flavor of pop. They promote their artists not only on their website but also Myspace and sites like Pure Volume and Smart Punk which allow the artist to make a profile displaying music and allowing customers to purchase merchandise. An obstacle that a record label like this would face would be getting their name out. Most of the time these record companies do not have a lot of money because they are independently run so they can’t purchase as much advertizing. This is where technology and self-promoting websites come in handy. If you can make a page and promote yourself you have the power and you choose how much you want to put your name out there.  This label is not super fierce independent. They are commonly known in the alternative music scene as a major player because they have some big name bands. I am sure they would sell off artists if there were a bigger label that wanted to buy out the artist and they couldn’t compete with them. Victory Records seems to be a legitimately viable company. They have a great deal of artists and as I said in the world of alternative music they are one of the biggest labels.
3. Interpretation: I think a major problem an independent record label has is getting the world out about their music. When you don’t have a lot of money you cannot fund advertisement and that is a major key to being successful. If no one knows your name, your music may be awesome but you will not make money to survive. I think that independent labels will always have this problem so I don’t know if they will really ever over come it. But I think the fact that we can control the Internet and what we put on it, that will make it easier to get your name out. A blog page or a website are almost always free and if you can get people to notice that you will get fans and build up a base so that you can continue performing and making music.
4. Evaluation: I think that all of these littler independent record labels are very important to the recording industry as a whole. They make up a small percent right now, but I think that in time people will either become fed up or just want better music so they will start turning to the independent labels for that. I think that the dream about being a musician and making music for a living would be pretty stifled. If only the big companies existed music would also be very clean cut and cookie cutter. A lot of the artists from labels learn and vibe off of each other. Without the little guy, the big guy would make everything so boring.
5. Engagement: Since Victory Records is mainly all alternative rock music; I decided to call 93.3, which plays mainstream alternative music. I must say that if they say radio is dead I cannot agree. I had to try for four days before I actually got through to an operator at the station to request a song. It is not like I even just tried once a day, I was trying every ten minutes for hours. This is beside the point though. When I requested for them to play The Audition’s “Warm Me Up”, the man on the phone said to me, “I will see what I can do for you.” And hung up. This was not a very promising statement to me. I was in fact correct; I listened to the radio all day and never heard my song. (I am not super discouraged for my band, The Audition though. On Thursday night as I was watching Jersey Shore, I heard a familiar tune. “Hell To Sell” was featured on the show!) I think people at radio stations are cautious to play music no one knows about because they don’t know how the public will react. They therefore play the same music they know will keep people listening to their station. It is sad to me; I do not listen to the radio for this sole fact. Radio should be putting out new artists so we can hear new things but instead they play big name people, cause they bring in money. The radio industry honestly needs to change for the sake of music. But it probably will not change anytime soon.

2015: Living in a Digital Nation

I think that by the year 2015 we will all be so wrapped in technology. I think that everyone will have a smart phone or some device that it is capable of video chat. People will become less personal and this will be our primary way of communicating. I also think that a lot of jobs will change. With the video chatting capabilities, people will not need to travel as much and they will not go into work as much.  I think this could be a good thing because everyone is so worried about the planet and our carbon footprint. This way cars will not be used as much and the ozone can get a breather. (Literally and figurately). But I also see the education of people going down. With constant access to technology I think people will lose sight of things like writing. If you can call or video chat with someone why would you send him or her a text message or write him or her an email. Video chat I think is probably the biggest deal and it will become our primary source of communication. You can even see commercials of classrooms where the teacher is on a computer screen and the class is learning that way. I think in 5 years technology will have made us very isolated people. Soon we won’t even have to leave our homes for anything. We will be able to order everything from the Internet or device we may not even have to get out of bed to go to work. Do I think this is a bad thing? Yes and no. I think it scares me that we could live in a world all by ourselves because honestly with the way technology is advancing you won’t need anything else. I think it is bad for health not only physical but mental. What will happen when we don’t have to walk to class? What will happen to our brains when everything we look at is a screen? But I also think it is exciting. Technology is a way of expression and I think it can demonstrate people’s ability to think of new things. No matter what you think of technology, we live in a world surrounded by it. And it is only going to get fiercer in the coming years. I think if we allow the Internet and everything surrounding it come into our lives we need to understand the affects it will have on us personally, mentally, emotionally, and physically.

Talking with Grandma O

Rachel Webster

Doris Overton

83 years old

Grandmother

Sound Recording:

Sound was played on a thing called a Victrola. Doris told me that in order to get sound you had to turn it with your hand. As if cranking it. The Victrola could be found in the living room. (When I asked her if it was located in a family room of some sort she informed me that people didn’t have things like that back then. It was funny because I meant a living room, but the term family room meant something different to her.) Frank Sinatra was a big recording artist and almost everyone knows him. It was fun to listen to records and music, but you were considered extremely lucky if you got to go see someone live. There were only a select few artists who were popular, so everyone essentially listened to the same thing.

Radio:

Music became more public and mainstream when people got radios in their homes. Funny comedy talk shows were highly popular and music became more diverse. You could hear new bands and artists. Radio made a lot of people famous simply because it was the only form of entertainment for a while. Baseball games were always fun to listen to.

Television:

1956 was when my grandma got her first TV. She was just starting a family and this was an essential to any home. Television changed how the family dynamic went. Often you would find your family eating around the TV watching their favorite sitcom. Some popular ones were I love Lucy and Dick Clark’s dance show. She said mainly the TV seemed to target toward the children and teenagers. Shows that were on back in the day were “wholesome” and not “filthy”. Everything was a little bit simpler and not many provocative things ever got talked about, especially for the whole world to see.

Movies:

As soon as I brought up movies my grandma got very excited. This was the form of entertainment that she said was the best. Everyone went to the movies because tickets were $.10. Movies were absolutely hilarious. Because people had to rely on their actions a lot she said the actors were more talented and well rounded. As sound became important, in order to be in movies you had to be able to sing and dance and also look good. Shirley Temple and Charlie Chaplin were big names that came up in the conversation and most people know them now. Gone With The Wind (My grandma told me, I simply must watch it because it is the best movie of all time) said that this movie was the start of a revolution. Not only did someone say a curse word but also there were “colored” people that got fame from the movie. It was a wonderful tale about life in the south.

My Grandma O told me to put at the end of this that although she may not remember a lot of things she tried.

🙂