Final Post

In the book by Steven Johnson, Everything Bad is Good For You, brings us in by talking about how the trash or junk that we usually are trying to get rid of is making us smarter. He brings this theory from the basis of neuroscience and literal theory. Johnson claims that video games like, Tetris , Pack Man or Sim City are actually causing us to use our brains more. He also says that parent's shouldn't get so upset about their children playing a lot of video games , because it is causing them to use more of their mental and motor skills. I believe for that to be true, however, some games such as Grand Theft Auto teaches kids to be violent and think negative thoughts. Johnson doesn't think that we should think like that he says that by playing games like that will build up their cognitive skills. In addition, he says that with certain things in reading you wouldn't learn if you were not playing a video game. He wants people to see a different side to things with the media. Additionally, in the book he questions if the things that we watch or do is actually making us dumber within our culture or smarter. Back to video games, he says that now days video games are becoming more complex because of the rules and steps in which the game entails. In addition, you are learning by logic and trial and error, which can be frustrating . There for by this happening you are constantly using your cognitive skills to figure out how to get through the game. An example could be a mystery game or a game that involves adventure and that causes you to go through desicion making which is called learning. So I agree with him with that but what about the content mentally? Usually now days the content in video games are too complex and are negative and inappropriate for young children to play. This can damage the child's psych and that isn't good either. As far as content video games now day some times has sex and a lot of violence and how can that make us smarter? Video games are not the only thing that has sex an violence because TV does too. A lot of shows now days have more dramtic plots and the complexity causes us to think more. For instance shows like ER causes people to use more brain power. Diane Kristine quoted from his book that, " the aduience now has a willigness to be confused , to be challenged." However, there are a lot of shows that are just comedy or reality shows that have no depth. Those are the type of shows that don't cause us to think and in that case those shows are surly not making us smarter. There is no serious thinking or logic to them and that is where the name coach potato comes in. So with saying that this part of popular culture is making us dumber, if you are watching these types f shows for hours on end. Further, I don't agree that parents should let their children watch a lot of TV because kids mostly want to watch nosense stuff. I didn't undertsand Johnson when he said that statement. That was one of his arguments about popular culture and I disagree when he said don't focus too much on the content but in this day in age you have to. There is god knows what on TV. In fact, in the article, Pop Culture Is Brain Food. Really , by Diane Kristine says, " the prime weakness of Johnsons argument is that he almost completely is divorcing content from his thesis. Any complaints about violence, morality, or even sheer stupidity have not place in his tight focus". With reading that quote I asked my self why did he avoid those obvious issues?
So in that case I believe that popular culture needs to realize the importance of this generation and want to help the youth become smarter and think more positive. However, it really has to start in the home cause pop culture is there for itself and what ever sells is what gets put out there. Furthermore, pop culture should continue to have complex shows but at the same time allow the audience to still be stimulated in the correct way and have fun as well. Additionally, as far as the video games children under 18 years of age shouldn't be able to play video games with sex and violence because they are still learning. Children are too impressionable and they don't even realize it. With concluding that statement, there is an importance that popular culture plays in out society and it is up to the producers that our society grows to be healthier instead of more filthy.
In some ways popular culture is making us smarter when if comes to complex things and decision making but at the same time in many ways its making a lot of people dumber because very often there are those that don't like to think. If there is know strenuous thinking information is just coming in and out with no real impact. Popular culture effects us every day because it surrounds us. There is no getting around it because there is music,TV, newpapers, and magazines every where. There are even people talking about things in our culture and you are bound to hear them. It is up to people to decide how much that they are going to be influenced to and no one can make those decisions for them, but themselves.

My Blogging Experience

Over the past couple of months I have been writing about Beyonce Knowles, while covering the various topics within our class. At first I felt like the blogging assignments were going to be challenging to me because I had never heard about Blogger. In my past occasionally I would get screwed up within am assignmnet for class and I would trip out about it. Anyhow, I liked that I was able to form my own thoughts and opinions about the different topics. I enjoyed the first assignment where we were to write about our topic and how it related to popular culture . It felf like I was able to express my self I believed that some people may have learned something about Beyonce that they may have not known about. Through the research I was able to discover interesting things about how she became famous and how she is seen within the public eye. I must admit there were times when I wasn't passionate about a certain topic and I just had to do my best and give what I could. Additionally, have way through the semester the assignments did become repetitive just because I was writing about the same topic, "Beyonce". It would have been cool if we could have switched it up a bit. On the other hand, it was interesting to see other people incorporate their topics when we had more challenging assignments. Other than that I was able to see how deep intellectually wise the members in my group were, they had some very detailed and express blogs. Lastly, I would like to say that I learned a lot and it kept me focused on the importance of the assignment. However, the only thing that I didn't like after awhile was commenting on my group members blogs. I wished that we didn't have to for every blog. There were times where I didn't have the motivation honestly, and you could notice it with some other people as well, but commenting was a good touch if it were kept at a minimum. So my blogging experience was mostly postive and I would do it again if we had to and I have learned another use of technology, which is always good.

Post Modernism

What I believe to be Post Modernism, is a variety of cultural positions which excludes major features of regualr thought. It is also a new way of thinking about past events and traditions.An example could be religions, politics or communism which are theories of identity. It is also like one going out side the cultural norms of a liberal society and they all can't be wrong. There can be a truth to the different theories.

As far as my semester topic with Beyonce, I believe that she does fit with the Post Modernism theory. At first I had to really think about her as an artist and decide if she really did fit within this topic . She is in the music industry and is very much apart of pop culture. If I were to buy her CD I don't have to listen to all of her songs; I could listen to just some of them. Society says that in order to fit with the mainstream its is better to know all of the songs in order to firt in with pop culture. However, most likely if I do buy one of hyer CD's I will listen to all of the songs and decide for myself what songs I will listen to or not. Furthermore, some would say if I don't buy all of Beyonce's albums I am not considered to be a true fan, but I will not be pulled into that whole system of being like a crazy fan.

Beyonce has come along way within her music she at first was in a group, but then branched out on her on. Most people thought that was not a good idea because she probably wouldn't make as much money as before, but inconstrast she actually is doing much better for herself because of her doing her own thing. The music industry likes when there are groups that get promoted and stay together but she went against that and wasw strong enough to do so. The truth is that Beyonce can go exceedingly far in the music industry as long as she gives what the people wants. Yes, she has her own style but she appeals to a variety of cultures and not just one. So bringing the subject back to Post modernism she is in her world of singing and we are like the people or objects that keep her going. With out the support of her people she wouldn't be considered to be apart of pop culture.

Other than that there are some people that do not like Beyonce and believe that she shouldn't have what she has because of past events and they are neither right or wrong. In addition, those that feel like those people are being negative are nor wrong either. Bascially, Beyonce is doing what she loves and some may like it and other may not. I believe that she is an artist that is working through the system just like everyone else but maybe a little harder because she is a black woman. Lastly, being in this society there is a pressure to give people what they want but I feel like she is doing both and still staying true to herself at the same time.

Race and Gender/ Beyonce Knowles

With Studying Beyonce Knowles, she has been quite an inspiration to the Black and African American community as well as young women in general. For one, she is young beautiful and has a free spirit about her. Within most of her songs she tries to show power and confidence and some may come across as too confident. I believe the reason is that because she is a young black woman she does have to work extra hard to be noticed and excepted by everybody in the media. However, she knows that not everyone is going to like her but her general audience are young people particularly females. In addition, as far as her identity it seems like she is trying to appeal to the white audiences because her hair was died to a very light brownish gold color. Also her skin is light so more people sadly will be more attractive to her within more races than just one. It is my reason to think that she has this look on purpose to get through the system. Other than her looks her confident song called, "Independent Women", talks about how women do not always have to have a man to feel important. The chorus to the song says, "All my independent women through her hands up at me, and all my sexy women through hands at me, and all my modeled women through your hands up at me". The song represents joy and excitement because it is letting everyone know that I am independent it is OK. Not only am I independent but I am a black woman at that. Some may not read into that but, because I am one and it is easier for me to understand the lyrics to her songs and the inspiration behind it. Additionally, within gender Beyonce's fans seem to gravitate more to the meaning in your songs and her great sex appeal. Furthermore, there is another song that shows more female Independence and it is called, "Charlies Angels". Yes, the song title is from a movie but it show that a relationship should be fifty -fifty. One of the lines says, "Question, tell me how you feel about this, I buy my own diamonds and I buy my own rings and I even buy one own celly when I am feeling lonely. Ladies! It ain't easy being independent.. Jewels on my feet I've got it, the ice I am wearing I've got it, the house I live in I've got it, cause I depend on me if I one it." Those lines are showing that she could have a man to buy her those things but she just wants him to know that she can by them herself. I like her confidence which is encouraging to a lot of young women and hopefully they will see that it is OK to be strong and an independent woman that does not no have a man.

Racsim within the Black Community

For several centuries black people have been discriminating against one another. It is such a incredible problem that many blacks have been come quite aknowledgeable. My answer to why their is discrimination within our culture is because of what black people have been told. Black people come in different shades from really light skinned, to light skinned, to Caramel, bronze brown, to brown and finally dark skinned. Our culture has taught us that having dark skinned is ugly and that the lighter that you are the more accepted you will be. It is just simply ridiculous to have people do that to each other. In the slave days the lighter skinned people were allowed to work either near the front of the house or inside the house. I believe that is what started the problem and so many other blacks felt inferior if they weren't light skinned and some do. Not to point the finger or be judgemental but the slave owners implanted that seed of inferiority into the black culture. It is crazy and ob sered to worry about who is lighter or who is darker. This whole prejudice continuum just infuriates me so much! Black people for many generations have been beaten down by the dominant people in society and many blacks have been brain washed to believe that they are below another group of people or above another. It just is not right, why is skin color such a major issue in our culture? I have never dealt with someone looking down on me because I was either lighter or darker than them, however I have been guilty of having prejudice thoughts.I wish that I didn't have those thoughts sometimes, but I know that I am not perfect and that I am only human. In addition, it is sad that lighter skinned people are more liked over darker skinned but is the dominants people's ignorance that have made it difficult. We all are special people and if you really think about it skin color is a silly issue to divide our selves over. I am not a perfect human and as long as we live in an imperfect world racism will continue to exist. Humans are always competitive against one another;instead of us all working together positively we end up drawing barriers. Like I said before we live in a fallen world and problems like these seem to be expected.

Beyonce/ Marxism

It was difficult at first to think of how Beyonce fits into Marxism's view of Popular culture. Marxism was interested in what is happening within society when it comes to the working class producing objects for consumers. He feels like the working class are alienated form the dominate classes when it comes to income. Additonally, with Commidy Fethism the object is worth much more than what they end up selling it for. The money ends up spreading to the store in which the object is being shipped to and the employee who sell the object. However, very little of the money goes to the people who create the object and who shipps the object. Marx feels like that is a major problem. As far as Beyonce she course is incredibly rich and most of her income comes from touring. I found that when she toured with Alicia Keys and Missy Elliot her income was 19million dollars and she is worth 16.1million. Her last allbum called, Danergously
inLove sold over 1.4 million copies and her annual income is always over 250,000 dollars! The problem that Marx has is how much do the CD factories make with creating these blank CD's for artists to use? He feels like the working class who create these CD's in the factories are not being paid fairly. A lot of times society does not realsize that in order for things to work for themselves there is always someone that behind the operation. Further, Marx feels that Capitlaism is exploiting the factory workers and that they should know about the issue. Now with Beyonce she probably has no ideas how abblivious she is when it comes to the means of production. All that she is knows is that her producers help her make her allbums and she gets paid for singing. Other than selling CD's Beyonce also has a franchise selling, perfume and clothing. However, than again who makes the bottles for the perfume and how much are these people paid to construct a bottle? Society is cut of by knowing that part of information because it seems insignificant. Also, there is a shipping cost and of course these people are paid but money goes to everybody but the working class doen't get nearly as much as they should. As for the clothing there are people that make the fabric and construct what Beyonce wants are clothing designs to look like. The designer gets paid a lot but what about those that made the variety of fabrics do they get over looked? Everything within production is spread through the ruling class and Marx talks about how his definition of ideology expresses his meaning. In addition, over all he talks about how the economy controls the ideas of production and therefore, the top group exceeds the subordinate class. Futher, those that are helping with the Upper class such as Beyonce, they are going to do what ever they can to make sure she is paid what she wants. Lastly, this way of production has been going on for a long time now and it is now that I realize that the people who make these objects should recieve more recognition instead of being partically ignored.

Use Clean and Clear Facial Cleanser

The signifier are the two women
What is being signified is the product which is the cleasner and the two women smiling (concept)
The sign is the facial bottle itself.

This product is being sold by having two pretty women with flawless skin that smile infront of ther camera, which engage people to want to look like them.
What the add is saying is if you want to look like these women and have smooth skin then, buy this product. Also I believe it is saying in order to have a refreshing day, use "Clean and Clear."The reason that they are saying this is to get people to buy their product regardless if it will work for you or not.
This add causes some people with bad skin or normal skin to want to look perfect like the women and buy the product. What people are really doing is giving into the perception of popular culture, which says if you want to be "in" buy this.
In the Essay the Myth, talks about how you can get a meaning out of the contex from sigmiotics.Barte says that anything that imparts as a meaning is language. So the cleasner in the add is a symbol and it represents apart of language and within that language there is always a meaning behind it. Lastly, Barte looks at the political meaning which is another way of ideology and to understand it you need again to understand the language. With out words or an image there is no signifier therefore, there is no concept to understand which is called (signified).

Beyonce / structuralism

Well since I previously picked Beyonce Knowels as my topic; I realized that I was going to have to dig deeper with in the thought of structuralism. Many would agree that to be famous there are a view issues that will arise with that type of life style. I would say that Beyonce is pretty level headed young women and has a gift of creating songs and performing but not everyone such as critics would say that she is a great super star. In the article, "The Structure of Myth/the Western Film", by Will Wright, talks about, when to characters are in a binary structure meaning is virtually forced to be both general and easily accessible because of the differences between them. It also says that the situation is usually difficult which makes it hard when dealing with the social attitudes and they are not mutuially exclusive. An example of that might be a hero and a villian and the hero works hard to keep the people safe so he has to conquer the villian. So with Beyonce she is like the part of the opposition who people want to root for in the public eye. The importance is for her reputation to stay well balanced and not to be bashed. She will do what ever she can to make it clear to her fans that she cares and that she has reasons for doing things. On the other hand the other side the critics or villian would be trying to find any type of information to make her look bad. Sometimes the critics are successful with bringing down a person but also if the person is strong and doesn't let the negative talk get to them it should make them stronger. In addtion, Beyonce has done a good job with not letting all of the negative talk get to her, she just keeps making great songs and ignores the negativity and that is great. I am very impressed to see that a young famous black woman is able to stand up to what she believes is right for her regardless of what others may percive of her.

Interview on Beyonce

My younger sister Tina has always been a Beyonce fan since Beyonce's first song came out called, "No, No, No". My sister remembers me and her dancing in our bedrooms and were inmitaing Beyonce within the goup, "Destiny's Child". Beyonce stuck out specifally to my sister because she thought that Beyonce had the best voice out of the group members and she thought that she was also pretty. My sister told me in her interview that Beyonce is like every young girls romodel. What she meant was that Beyonce has style and her music genre is what she can relate to. Tina loves the clothes that Beyonce wears and that her mom designs her outfits because each out fit is to die for. In addition, she said that is what ables her to stand out as a young black singer. Beyonce's style and music has surely is fun and wasy to relate to. For instance, she has this boyfriend that she is crazy in love with and when Beyonce came out with that song she laughed because it related to her feelings for her boyfriend. Tina says that wanting to listen to some of her songs can effect other girls in popular culture.
With the consumption in popular culture in general she says that people will do what ever it takes to get a hold of what they want. Also she says that she is very much involved within consumption of popular culture. When ever Beyonce or another of her favorite artists are performing with in the area she wants to go. Tina is so funny because I remember I didn't have money to go to Beyonce's last concert so my sister paid for me and it was eighty three dollars per ticket. She said, Natalie please, please I want you to go, I will even pay for you". I siad alright and I was happy especially since I didn't have to pay her back. At the concert they played so many songs.
Beyonce's last concert was so much fun, and my sister asked our dance group to go. Of course they all wanted to go because most of the songs that we dance to is song by Beyonce. Tina was so excited when her favorite song, "Baby Boy", came on. She says that the song has a cool beat and she gets in a zone when ever she hears it. My sister says that Beyonce seems very down to earth and would be nice to meet so, she definitly see her self liking her in person. She also says a lot of her friends that are not black love Beyonce as well.

Tina's friend Ali, who happen to be white,loves Beyonces music and wishes that she could

sing and dance like her. She says that her friends like Beyonces style and poise. There is just something about her that attracts of people. In fact, that is a way that she stands out in popular culture. Also that Beyonce always comes out with number one hits and she never has a song that sucks. Tina, gilled as she said that and she wishes that Beyonce will never have a bad CD. Everyone wants to be happy in popular culture and Beyonce happens to be very popular.

In the article, Getting to Know Us An Introduction to the Study of Popular Culture, by Jacke Nachbar and Kevin Lause, says that, " Popular culture is about "Satisfaction" all right, but its major concern is ensuring that people can get what they want regardless of whether they need it or not." So that line that article basically was saying that people always wan the next best thing and that satisfaction keeps people happy. For my sister she just assumes that Beyonce is always going to come out with another great hit. Popular culture sadly defines many people and she know that she is a victim of it. She doesn't want to be but when ever something new comes out that is better she usually wants to have it. Lastly, Tina feels like the Media for the most part portrays Beyonce pretty fair and doesn't really try to bash her. When ever there is confusion there was always an article with Beyonce explaining her self and let her see that she does have respect for her self as an artist. Beyonce especially has not done anything questionable like drugs or having multiple marriges.

In conclusion, my interview with my sister was very interesting because I really was able to see another side of her and see how she associates herslef with popular culture.

Also I found out that her favorite singer is indeed Beyonce and that her music surley makes her feel like she can have fun see how popular culture does in some aspect shapes her idenity.

Ethnography Questions

I am going to interview my younger sister Tina. I know that she listens to Beyonce because she has her CD. Also she is in my dance group and we usually do a least one song by her. She will surely be a fine person to interview.


1) Can you identify your self with Beyonce and if so how? If not what are somethings about you that are different?
2) What makes her stand out more than any other women music artist?
3) How long and why are you a fan of hers?
4) What do you like about her and not like about her?
5) How do you think she identifies herself with the music in american popular culture? Also how do you think the media portrays her within popular culture?