Internet in Cars

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122403137
At Electronics Expo, Hot Items Come On Four Wheels

In keeping with the technological advances of the 21st century I decided to read an article on the advances in cars concerning music. More and more these days music becomes essential in the car whether it be on long drives or 5 min down the road. I thought the latest music related developments were the satellite radios that you could tag a song and have it sent to your itunes. Remarkably there is something newer than this. In the above article from NPR, they discuss the developments made in Ford cars for music. On average, a person will buy a new car about every 4 or so years, but they buy a new phone every 2 years. So, Ford has introduced the use of the cell phone for music. How they do this is by connecting to the internet via the cell phone and use sites such as Pandora for their musical preferences while driving. To me this is amazing! Now internet is in your car, a seemingly unlikely place yet will turn out to be very useful. Where does the next development in technology take us?

Technologies of the 21st Century

One of the most interesting aspects to me that has come out of the 21st century are MP3 files, more specifically the ipod. I can remember back to when I first started listening to music. I felt so cool with my little cassette player. It was portable music, it didn’t matter to me then that I had to continuously have to rewind the tape or flip it over to hear the rest of the music. We played cassettes in the car on long trips—how awesome! Then there was the introduction of CDs. Life just got so much better! Now the CD came with art work and pictures of the artists. There was no flipping needed and you could listen to clearer music (unless you scratched the CD). The walkman was “hip”. Then, when I thought nothing could top this, the ipod came out. At first it was if you had the money for one, now everyone has one.

Now I take my ipod with me everywhere. The convenience of it can’t even be put into words. It fits in my pocket, I can take it on the plane, I can put more music on it then I could ever possible carry with me before. But is this bad? With ipods comes the use of MP3’s. But with that comes the purchasing (or illegal downloading) of songs. But not the whole collection from an artist, just the particular songs wanted. Because of this many songs are “lost in translation”. An artist trying out a new sound may fold due to lack of circulation. To me these don’t seem like big problems. The invention of easy, portable music is just another fact of life. Change comes, it’s inevitable.

Music in Movies

Music in a movie is a large part of the story line. The music helps the viewer to respond or prepare themselves for a particular emotion or reaction in the plot line. For example, take Jurassic Park. The music is especially important in this ‘thriller’. In the beginning the music is intense when the dinosaurs are first introduced. This (if it is your first time) gets you to anticipate that something may happen-a guy gets eaten by the velociraptors. Then when the main characters first arrive on the island and discover the new existence of dinosaurs, their amazement is paired with a joyous ensemble. As the movie continues, the intense scenes are paired with the more intense pieces to enhance the viewer’s reactions. It also helps in leading up to a scary part. The interesting thing is that there are no lyrical pieces in the movie. It is strictly instrumental pieces. I think this is good because then there is nothing to take away from the effect the directors wish to make on the view via landscape and action. Without words it is easier to add background music to an intense scene that contains dialogue. Music definitely adds to this, and other, films.

Music in Sports

One place that you encounter music without fail is at sporting events. The day of a game music wakes up early to energize the players (or fans). It is not the slow, relaxing kind of music but more of an upbeat, energizing sound. The music pumps you up and gets your adrenalin flowing. Before you can perform (or cheer) you need to be syked and ready to take on the world. This fast past music is kept up throughout the entire game to help pull you through the rough spots. At the end, if you win then you celebrate with songs such as “We are the Champions”. However if you lose….ouch. Sometimes playing music that is angrier helps to release the feelings of disappointment if it was a bad/close game. Afterwards relaxing music is in order. You have been hyped up on adrenalin all day and it is tiring, time to relax and rest.

In my personal experience with sports I usually start out the day of a game with a variety of music. More often than not it is a lot of today’s popular music, for example “Watcha Say” “I’m Goin In” and “Just to Fight”. During our game we have what we call walk out songs. This whenever you come up to bat a certain song will be played to pump you up and ‘intimidate’ the opposing defense. If I win it is the popular music of today that is upbeat and will keep the high going. If we lose…. it varies. I may listen to Linkin Park or Papa Roach or a harder metal band, it depends on the loss. Either way, music is vital in any kind of sporting event.

Top of the Top

To pick my top 5 favorite songs is hard….here’s my best shot (with the exception of the first, the order is irrelevant):


1: Baby Got Back Sir Mix A lot
This is by far, without doubt, my number one favorite song! As embarrassing as that may be to some, I am not ashamed. I know every word to it and it always makes me want to dance. There are so many memories that go along with this song as well. It also makes me laugh every time I watch the music video….it’s just awful!

2: Smack That Akon
This song never gets old to me. This is one of the good old rap songs that I never forget about. It always makes me want to dance no matter what the situation is. Sure it’s old and there are definitely better songs out there but to me, it’s as timeless as Christmas!

3: Stand Rascal Flatts
This song is one of those ones about life. Not the yeah yeah life is great or it’s so hard, but a really life is what you make it (and it’s sung by mature people who know what they are talking about). One of my favorite lines in this song is “Life’s like a novel with the end ripped out”. This to me is so true; for a good part of life the story is written, it’s what you do with what is handed to you that matters. This song also has a really sweet melody to it.

4: Pink Tux to the Prom Reliant K
So not only is this band pretty wicked, but this song is awesome as well. There background beat kind of reminds me of the ‘80s (ironic because this time frame is mentioned in the song). I had actually asked my prom date to wear a pink tux….he said yes but I quickly changed my mind!! The song tells a brief story about some people and it is just different.

5: The Boxer Simon & Garfunkel
Ok so this one is the hardest one to do for several reasons. First there are several possible songs that I want to put in the top 5 but there just simply isn’t room. Second, while I really like Simon & Garfunkel, I am not sure this is a good representation. This particular song is a bit sad in the sense that the narrator does not have control over his life. It is also a great homesick song, and while I am far from home it sometimes helps me when (and this is rarely) I get homesick.


So there it is. Probably a bad representation but it is the best I can do.

Least Favorite Music

I like to think of myself as a very open person when it comes to music. I will try just about anything you offer with an open mind. After doing the readings for today I find myself intrigued by the Bluegrass genre, something I may find that I like. However, there are only two or three genres that I can say without doubt I just cannot stand to listen to. These types are screamo and jazz as well as some emo. I say some because not all emo is bad. Sure the “I’m gonna slit my wrists and bleed out because my life sucks” is not very pleasant to listen to but that gets into the heavy stuff. I love this band called Kill Hannah. They are technically classified as emo, but I like to think of them as light emo. Their stuff is good and does not get to “woe is me”.

As for the genres I definitely do not like…..ugh!!! Screamo is absolutely pointless in my opinion. I listen to heavy metal sometimes and, for the most part, can understand what they are saying. But with screamo, they are just screaming stuff (mostly unintelligible) to over loud, un-rhytmatic sounds they claim as music. Along with that is jazz. Maybe it is because I absolutely loathe the sound of horns……they are, in my opinion, the most annoying instrument. I can appreciate the “come up with it as you go” theory but I just cannot stand the noise. I know that some of my music has a bit of a jazziness to it but if I had to sit thru a straight jazz concert….well let’s just say the world may have one less human in it.

Buying/Selling Music

My thoughts on buying and selling music……that is a hard question to answer. First of all, I am not a very rich person; I am a broke college student! All my spare cash goes to buying books and food while at school as well as supporting a social life off campus. After those expenses are handled, I am left with a very small balance in my banking account. Why on earth would I want to spend it on buying music that can be free??

I am a CD junky. I love to buy a new CD for several reasons. One is the artwork on the cover of the album and CD as well as the nifty book that comes with it containing the lyrics to the songs on the album as well as band info. It is cool to look through all the varying artists and see what avenue they take, even between different albums of the same artists. Another reason I like albums is because they are tangible. It is hard to lose a CD, but if your computer crashes….bye bye itunes. You can also discover new songs by listening to a whole CD as opposed to just buying the song that is most popular (the number one hit). However, often times there are only a few songs I like by an artist. I don’t feel like buying a whole CD for just one or two songs. Here is where free (though illegal) downloading comes into play. I do not have a dollar for every song I like/want on my ipod….I would be more broke than I am now! Sources such as limewire or frostwire allow me to access the same songs but for free.

After reading the two online articles, my free downloads are not quite so bad to me anymore. In comparison to the label company, the actual artist is hardly receiving any of the profits. When I buy a CD (or any merchandise for that matter) I want the artist to receive the profits. I am not paying the label company for the music, they did not create it!!! I do not go around looking at CD’s thinking “hmmmm I like this record company, I think I will buy this CD.” While downloading free of the internet gives no profit to the artist, I would rather have them get no profit than have negative profit because of all the bills they have to pay off in the production of the CD because the record company and their cronies took all the profits.

Daily Music

I experience music in my daily life in everything I do. From when I wake up in the morning till I go to sleep at night there is hardly a time when I am not listening to music. When I get ready in the morning I turn the radio on more as background music so. If something comes on that I am particularly a fan of I may turn it up (slightly though because the RA is next door) and dance around to it. From there I leave my room with my ipod on and playing (for the most part) on shuffle as I go to class. This continuous music as I walk helps me to think or zone, as well as avoid talking to people if I do not feel like talking to them (rude maybe, efficient yes). Music often is just a background noise for me that only gets part of my attention. I listen to it while I work out but, unless it is a real upbeat song, I hardly pay any attention to it. I can say that I listen to music as a companion I guess. I loathe the silence and would rather have it filled in. The only times where music as a background noise is a nuisance is when I am studying or sleeping.

I feel music is an art form because it is expressive. As long as it attempts to convey a feeling or idea music is art. How it is interpreted all depends on the atmosphere. I know personally I can interpret songs differently depending on what kind of mood I am in. For example, the song “Valentine’s Day” by Linkin Park is an absolutely beautiful song. I love the sound of it as well as the lyrics. When I am sad the song makes me even more depressed because it is a song about death, but when I am happy I focus more on how it flows together. Therefore, interpretation of music varies for me.

Music Culture

In answer to the question ‘what is your music culture?’ there is not a clear answer. Culture is a knowledge acquired through education and exposure to art. Teachings learned through older generations as well as the surrounding society. I have a strong background in Irish, Italian, and German. Of these three, I have definitely gained a lot of knowledge about Irish music. From an uncle who tried to teach me to learn the bag pipe to fiddling on the accordion, attempts at learning the family instruments were unproductive. However, it did teach me to appreciate the less refined (somewhat) music. It takes a lot of patience and an acquired taste to play and/or enjoy these instruments. From my Irish background I was also introduced to Irish step dance. While this is more of dance than music, the music that they dance to is unique onto itself. It has a lively beat that makes you want to get up yourself and attempt to dance (something I do not recommend). From here I began to listen to Irish (and other nationalities) music. Not so much traditional music as much as Irish based bands such as Flogging Molly and Dropkick Murphys. While all kinds of people listen to these bands, I feel more connected to them then some because of my Irish heritage. I can personally relate to some of their lyrics because of the similar traditions in my own family. This is just one example of my music culture.
As for how did I learn about music, well…….it has been around since forever!!! Ever since I can remember there has been music playing, whether it was in the car, the house, or my mom singing me to sleep, music has constantly surrounded me. It was not until my high school years though that I began to branch out and listen to music apart from my parents (excluding the years of the Backstreet Boys, N*Sync, and Britney Spears). I pulled from friends’ playlists and the radio stations to find a genre I liked. At first it was country, but it quickly transitioned to everything. Now I range anywhere from emo to metal to soft rock and everything in between. Learning to listen to music is not something you learn, it is innate to a person.