Reading Pop Culture Chapter 2 Continued

Women and the rise of raunch culture: 

There is now a different type of culture that is becoming popular. Things that in the past were bad are now starting to be more socially accepted in some aspects. For example a playboy bunny is not really appropriate but people are starting to dress more inappropriate.

Pop culture's transgender moment
How is transgender portrayed on television is different. Now television shows and movies are portraying them a lot more different than they did a couple of years ago. There have been transgender  and gender identity issues and subjects on popular shows like glee and house. These are shows that many people watch and they learn things that they do not really think they are learning because they are enjoying the shows. The stories of transgenders are being told on the internet because the television does not talk much about it. 

Reading Pop Culture chapter 2

An argument for being a poser: 
Who are you? People all go through this, I know I personally did in high school. People change who they are so that they could fit into a specific group at school or in society. The society makes people change who they are. They have to change even though society tells people to not change who they are and to be themselves. In a way everyone is role-playing because they are being or acting like something they are not.

The n-word is flourishing among generation hip-hop latinos: Why should we care now? 
Listen to any type of hip hop, there will probably the n-word at least once. People have been using it in their music, but now the ones using it more are the hip hop latinos. This is something that has been going on for a while, so the author should not be so surprised. People should not be surprised about this being the word being used.

The end of white America?
The book talked about the famous book The Great Gatsby. There was not much social mobility at that time. It also talked about how there is no more set race in big cities like Hawaii and New York City. Also the white race is decreasing by the years. Soon the white majority will become a minority with the other races increasing.

The Sports Taboo 
When people start to play a sport or just do a sport, they must learn the history about it. For example with the sprinters there have been many stereotypes. They had to learn to ignore those. For example a stereotype is that white people can not win a race. That is not true, if they practice well enough they will do good. This is just comparing both a minority and a majority of a race with sports.

Impression management in a networked setting 
Impressions are not fully about the person or thing you are seeing, it has to do with you or the person seeing it also. It is a combination of two different things. A couple of those things are norms, culture and context. Impression management has to do with the context of whatever it is.

Reading Pop Culture Chapter 3 continued

You are what you click: 
google and other websites can see what people type and click on. This is something that could be both bad and good. The bad is that people are able to see everything one looks up. The good is that google can see where people another bad  are looking up the flu symptoms so they are able to see where the flu or other things starts from. Another bad thing is that it invades people's privacy.

The IRL fetish:  
People now communicate through social media. According to the author, people do not talk that much in real life anymore like they have in the past. The author believes that we have lost the reality. They believe that everyone is focused on being connected through social media.

Reading Pop Culture chapter 3

Wall of sound: The iPod has changed the way we listen to music: 
Ipods helped change how people listen to music. Now it is easier to have more well known social movements. Even though people do not know that the social movement, they sometimes just like the music. Now everyone listens to music. Although the movements of iPod has changed to just having music on people's phones.

The judgment of Thamus: 
This is the story of Thamus who was the upper Egypt. Thamus believed that there would be many different principals that would change how Technological society. Even then, the king of Egypt knew that there would be something that would change technology a lot moe. Just like the people now know that certain things will change the technology people have now. Now the memory of people is starting to go down. This is because people depend too much on their electronics to remember things for them.

Gin, television, and social surplus
Public libraries and museums helped start the industrial revolution. These things helped people learn about new things and being able to create and improve known things. Another thing was the Television shows. The media industry had a race to see who could create certain things. Causing there to be a surplus, which is why there are so many different shows.

Love the one you're near 
online dating now is a big thing with people now and the people who are in college. This is probably because people have less time to be going out and meeting people, it is easier to have online dating. There is the pictures and profiles and its simple to see from there is one wants to talk to that person or not. Now it is a big deal. People should stop doing that and just go out and meet people.

Reading Pop Culture Chapter 6 continued

Creating the myth: 
The most popular stories are those that could be connected to everyday life. There are different types of myths there are the hero myths, healing myths, combining myths, archetypes, and many more. The hero myths are the myths that have a hero, a popular example is star wars. The healing myths is where the character must leave home or wherever that character is to become "full" or whole again. The combining myth is where there is a combination of many different myths. An example is ghostbusters. The archetypes is a character type that can change. An example is in male version a wise man and the female type is the fairy godmother. This is in many different shows and movies, one just needs to pay attention to it.

The Asian renovation of biracial buddy action: 
This passage talks about the pairs in many movies and the "sidekick" is a minority. Before the "sidekicks" were Asian, then it started to change to people of color. A popular example of this is in rush hour. Th main characters are both Asian and a colored person. The rush hour movies are to this day still very popular. I remember growing up my grandfather would always watch these movies.

Reading Pop Culture Chapter 6

The imagination of disaster: 
There are many different science fiction movies. While looking at the plot of many different movies, the plots are similar. I agree with this because when we go to the movies they are similar, looking at like the superhero movies they are similar. There are the superheroes and villains and the big fight that the  superhero wins. Even though the characters are different, the plot lines are always the same.

Hollywood's love affair with surveillance: 
There are many different plot lines in movies. The most recent thing that has been in movies is the government watching over their people. The common example is the Hunger games. For people who do not know what this movie is, it is based off a book series of three books. The overall plot is that there are twelve districts that revolted and as a result there is this event every year know as the hunger games. Here they pick to kids (one boy and one girl) from each district to fight to their death. While this is going on, the president snow watched everyone from the district there are soldiers and in the games there were cameras. Back to the book, people in Hollywood have movies where there is surveillance. This is a big topic that people are okay with on the idea of surveillance. Once people found out that the United States government had surveillance on the people a long time ago, they got upset, but it is fine in movies?

Has Hollywood murdered the movies?: 
Throughout the year, Hollywood releases many different movies. The thing that is bad is different companies are buying certain things. At the moment many of the movies coming out are about marvel characters and Disney character. What about those that do not like that? What do they watch?

Seven steps to the perfect story: 
There is the repeat again, the story lines that repeat. In this case it is just the outline.
1. Understand the story
2. choose your plot
3. choose your hero
4. choose your character
5. observe the rules of three
6. choose your media
7. observe the golden rule
(Ousborne, pages 364-366).

Reading Pop Culture Chapter 4 continued

The pernicious rise of poptimism:
Poptism is the criticism of pop music. There are many people that get paid to criticize pop music. The author seems to be mad about the music. People state that the person is out of mainstream or old because they criticize this music. Poptism wants to "be in touch with the average music fans"( 242). This is impossible because everyone has a different point of view when it comes to music. Everyone likes different genres. The author talks about Miley Cyrus how at one point they did not like her music when she was starting and they criticized her. Now they really do not like her music. Now she does not care and she does whatever music she wants ignoring other people's point of view.

Concerning the spiritual in indie rock :
Music has meaning in the lyrics and in the music overall. "Music may grab for our souls by recalling the sounds or harmonic structures of devotional songs, thus reawaking our collective memory of what faith and worship feel like" (Ousborne, page 249). Music is suppose to remind people of events and people. For example, I have songs that remind me of family members that have passed away. Another example of this music is when one goes to church many of the religious music is related to the spiritual music.

Reading Pop Culture Chapter 4

Elevate my mind: Identities for Women in hip hop love songs: 
According to the author, it has been hard for women in hip hop. This seems to be true. Now there is a rise in women in hip hop. One popular topic is love. Women have to sing a less "romanticized love"because "they represent a grittier working-class view of relationships" (Ousborne page 205).
Also women seem to sing about the ride or die identity. This is where the women stick to the man no matter what. an example of this type is one that many know, Beyonce and Jay Z. one thing that stood out the most was, "Love is not the dominant focus of hip hop, but rap love songs provide an interesting look into the ways women and men are identifying themselves and relating to each other" (Ousborne page 211). This topic of love is not the dominant topic but it is popular, and it shows the different points of view.

Country music, openness to experience, and the psychology of culture war: 
Country music, now people tend to not listen to this music much. According to the author country music has a position in life. Meaning that things that are common are sung in country music. For example, first love, small towns, and other things.one thing that stood out was,"reinforce in low-openness individuals the idea that life's most powerful, meaningful emotional experiences" (Ousborne, page 216). Country music helps do many things like show how powerful things in life are.

Seduced by 'perfect' pitch: How auto-tune conquered pop music: 
Auto-tune is a big part of music but specifically the pop music. It is heavily shown in the song animal by Ke$ha. It covers up the singer's voice so when you think you heard them sing you really do not because it is auto tune. many popular artist like Lady Gaga, Maron 5, Madonna and many more use auto tune. Many do not like this because it changes how the audience sounds to the audience, many people protest this. This is probably when I have gone to a concert that the artist sounds different than when I hear them on youtube or on the radio.

Riffs of Passage: 
This passage is about the music in downtown Los Angeles, where the population is mainly latinos. One group talked about is Las Cafeteras. This is a group that blended hip-hop, folk, traditional and spoken word. three out seven are females and they play traditional instruments. These people are not shown a lot on television or anything, mainly only people in that area know them. They are a group that talk about many different issues. They say that Los Angeles has a lot of cultures. This is true, when I have gone, we went to a Placita Olivera. This is a place that reminds me a lot of Mexico and it had culture all around.

Reading Pop Culture Chapter 5 Continued

Story or Spectacle? Why television is better than movies: 
 Movies were afraid that the Television was taking away their audiences so they did not want their movies shown on television, they wanted it on the big screens so they could make more money. Personally it is easier to not watch a movie and spend all that money and wait for it to come out on Netflix. People tend to watch television shows to see how a character develops over seasons rather than just in a movie which is shorter. Personally I agree with this, people get connected to characters ( don't lie I'm sure it has happened to you also) and it is a lot better to see how they change over seasons and years. This is one reason that I still watch pretty little liars, it is because they have changed a lot so seeing that is just interesting. There is also the structure and many other components that are different between these two things. Overall yes I also agree that television shows are better than movies.

Stay unlikable-for the good of TV: 
The Mindy project it is a popular show with a South Asian American women as the first main character of  a sitcom. Many did not like her because she likes to gossip and many other things. According to the author, "She's not different from many of us, if we're being honest" (Ousborne, page 315). Many people seemed to not like her because she was too similar to them. She wanted to make Mindy become "less likable" to make her different from others. I think it is interesting to see different types of people on television because if all women on television shows were the same then that is boring. What would be the point of watching television?

Reading pop Culture Chapter 5

Television addiction is no mere metaphor: 
People tend to spend three hours of their day watching television. That is how much time we should spend studying or doing homework. People would rather be watching television than spending time with their families. When I go visit my grandfather, he is always in the same spot on the couch watching television and hen we are there talking he ignores us and watches that television. According to the book, people associate television with being relaxed. I could somewhat agree with this because when I am stressed I tend to go on Netflix and watch a bit of whatever show I am watching at that point. Television helps people distract themselves from what they are doing, causing people to feel relaxed. Not only does television help people relax, but it also sells different items to people. For example, there are commercials that sell things to people. That helps you remember the name of the product because some commercials are easy to remember, causing one to buy the product in the future.

Girls, Girls, Girls: 
Girls are shown specific ways through television. This show that the book talks about is about different twenty-year-old girls. How they are after doing their childhood "wrong". At the time this was a show that spoke to many girls during this generation. This was important because this was a show of real girls, not the perfect girls who were shown on the television that knew what their lives would be like. This is like many of us that are currently in college. We do not know exactly what we want our lives to be like.

The Apocalyptic Strain In Popular Culture: The American Nightmare Becomes the American Dream:
The American Dream is different for everyone. The common one in the twentieth century was having a family, a big house in the suburbs and having a car or two. the office jobs have left no time for parents to spend time with their kids. This is true till this day I had many friends in high school that rarely spent time with their parents because they were always working. The would have to spend time with other family members so that they would not be home by themselves. Since people are always working trying to accomplish their American dreams, now there are different television shows that show what will happen if the people cannot accomplish their American dreams for some reason. For example shows have something happen to electronics, the return of minutemen, and zombies. Showing how much more different the people's lives would change.

Netflix and the Future of Television: 
Netflix is a website that has television shows and movies that are on computers and phones that people can watch at any time. Similar to the store or old store blockbuster where people were able to rent movies and shows. Since Netflix has become more popular, blockbuster has gone out of business. I remember going to blockbuster on Friday nights with my family and renting movies and watching them when we got home or on Saturday morning. one popular video streaming website is youtube. Now almost on every device there is a way to watch television or movies. I have a sister who is now seven but she was able to learn how to use youtube and Netflix when she was about two years old. Now she probably uses it more than me. Now with netflix one is able to binge watch shows. This is when one watches a television show for hows or days straight. I have done this with many different shows.

Reading Pop Culture Chpater 7 Continued

Violent Media is Good for Kids: 
Many of the movies that recently have come out are about the superheroes. In those movies there have been many violent fighting scenes. This is ironic because people are showing the violence on screen and telling the kids to not be violent. This is what I believed. Once reading the beginning of this story I changed my point of view. The author as talking about how his son's friends would climb a tree but his son didn't want to because he didn't want to get injured. Since the son liked these stories he read the story of Tarzan then the son climbed the tree. The author is stating that the kids "need violent entertainment in order to explore these incapable feelings that they've been taught to deny" (Ousborne, page 444). Adults tell kids that violence is bad so the kids have those feeling that are stuck because they can not be violent. These violent media lets them release those feelings and act as those characters. Violent media can be harmful but it can also help kids.

Secret Skin: An essay in Unitard Theory: 
Reading comic book have helped kids "escape" from where they are.The character in the book helps kids feel more powerful. For example, when they are reading the books they feel like they are in the story and with the costume, they feel like they are the superhero. My little sisters love the Disney princesses. When they read the book they imagine that they are in the book. Once they get the dress of the princess they start to pretend that the story is real they pretend to be the princess. This is something that mostly all kids do. They pretend that they are their favorite character.

Reading Pop Culture chapter 7

On Novel Reading:
There are many different types of books that people may read. One famous type is romance books. People tend to read a lot when they are youth than any other time. For Example, I use to enjoy reading a lot when I was younger in middle school. I remember that was the time that the books Twilight were out which were kind of romance novels. My friends and me use to read those books together. Now I tend to read mainly the books I have to for school, I do not really make much time to read any other books.

Teen literature and fan culture:  
Many fans of books like to think about the "What If" question. Remembering when I was younger with those Twilight books we use to make somewhat the plot twist stories. One way that many people talk about the books and other things related to it is the internet. It helps bring people with similar interests together.

The Art of immersion: fear of fiction: 
Many people think that the only way to read is to have a book, now people have different ways to interact with books which are similar to reading.  Now people can act them out. This reminds me of the comic cons my friends attend because they dress up as characters and act out some scenes. Another example is video games. They have many characters some from books.


My zombie, myself: Why modern life feels rather undead:
In the past forty years, there has been an increase in zombies. This is shown on television, in the television shows and the movies. One popular example of this is the new show the walking dead. On of my aunts does not watch much television except for the walking dead. She just loves that show so before the season finale she watches all the episodes. She also loves talking about that show and wants everyone to watch it. I agree with the author when they said that "Because of Twilight series it's easy to manufacture an argument in which zombies are merely replacing vampires as the monster of the moment" (Ousborne, page 425). Most books now have a monster that becomes acceptable because of these stories. At the moment it is zombies because of television shows and book. In a couple of years it will be something else.

Escape from the matrix: 
Smartphones and social media are part of our society now. Since this is the case it is easy to share news with others. Social media updates fast now creating the fear of Missing Out. This is where one can not put their phone down for a long period of time because they are afraid of missing out on something new and important. Personally, this has happened to me. For example, in high school, I would always be on social media trying to keep up with everything that happened over the weekend so I would not be left out on Monday at school. For example, the new television shows or award shows, because if I didn't watch these things people would look at me weird and ask why I did not watch something. The fear of missing out is everywhere, people go through this which is why people our age are always on their phones, trying to look at everything on social media and not miss anything important.

Why video games should be played with friends, not online with strangers:  
Before there were video games, there were arcades where people would play games with others. slowly it started to change to the video games at home. There are now different games that one might play together. For example, there are the new virtual games that have the controller and they play using that. They are in the video game playing. It is something that a big group of friends can do together. This is important because now video games are important and this way people can be playing games but socializing with their friends. For example, when my friends and me get together we play just dance and even though we are playing a video game we are not just sitting on the couch playing. We are standing up having fun and socializing. This is better than talking to strangers through a microphone when we are just playing a video game.

Reading Pop Culture chapter 1 continued

Snaps to riches: The Rise of snapchat celebrities:
The new app snapchat is becoming famous and states the history behind the application. There are snapchat celebrities which get paid a lot of money for a picture that lasts for a day on the application. personally, I use that application a lot and it is good having a way to show family things for a day then having them get deleted,. It shows people the fun one has. One can save those pictures if they really do like it.

Public Displays of transaction:
There are new forms of social media for example in this section they talk about venmo. These different social media affect how people see others. this section is advertising the use of venmo.

Reading Pop Culture Chapter 1

Overselling Capitalism with Consumerism :

 There is always new things many companies come up with. As consumers we all "need" the newest objects to be able to fit in in society. But people do not stop and think if it sis really necessary to purchase these objects. For example when I go shopping I usually just go to buy one or two things but once I am already in there I stat to buy more things. This is often because of advertisements that make me want to buy other things I do not really need. Also buy new technology things affect the way people ask for help. Before kids would go and ask their parents for help, but now people go to you tube for help. 

With these words I can sell you anything:   

  Have you been watching a television show then heard about the newest item? Even though you just bought that so called item last week? Well that is because companies try to sell their products in different ways by tricking people. These use many "weasel words" to convince the buyers to buy their products. A few of those words are: help, new, improved,virtually, acts and works 

Toys:

 Think back to when you were younger what did your toys look like? Well the French have toys that are similar to "human objects".Their toys are made out of wood. Meaning that if one was a girl they probably had tea sets that looked like the ones their mothers would have. Similarly my little sisters have clay pots that people from Mexico have. Similar to those that our family in Mexico use.  

Craving The Other: 

 In the beginning, one starts to see how once a food type becomes popular, people assume if one is that race that it is their favorite thing For example in the book it is that the person likes pho because they are Vietnamese. Similarly, people assume that I love spicy things because I am Mexican and the food is always spicy. People tend to stereotype and be okay with the food one eats once it is popular.

In praise of Chain Stores: 
When walking around different cities one might see the same chain stores. For example one might see about two Starbucks about twenty feet from each other. These chain restaurants seem to help the economy because people buy more items

The hard sell: Advertising in America: 
A simple way that people advertise several objects is by having catchy slogan. an example of a popular coca cola slogan in1992  is " the pause that refreshes". Many restaurants and even events have slogans. another important part are the brand names, for example the soda brands.