There’s money to be made from headphones now

iPod users drop tiny earbuds for better sounding headphones | Detroit Free Press | freep.com.

The main point of this article is right here:

“Not only did we want to have the best sound, we wanted to have the best-looking earbud, and we want it to come in flavors,” [P. Diddy] said when his line came out.

A truth to Belieb in

I do not like Justin Bieber’s music. There is something about bubblegum crap that tends to turn me off if it is not wrapped in a candy coated shell of gimmicky shamelessness. But Bieber is not just a musical artist – and I use “artist” loosely. There’s so much more to his career than that. Bieber is an event. Bieber is a superstar.

The nonBeliebers hate the kid based on his annoying music and current ubiquity. They also are just the types of people who must complain about what is popular in other demographics. Honestly, I find people who complain about Justin Bieber to be more annoying than Bieber’s fans. But a new entry in the saga of Bieber’s ongoing 15 minute legacy happened this past week on CSI. I do not know what exactly happened in the episode. Because of Bieber haters, I know exactly how it ended.

Macy’s Ad Dissonance -or- How Rent Sold Out

Have you seen the latest Macy’s commercial?

It is absolutely touching. Sweet imagery married to a lovely song about remembering the past year. How could they go wrong?

This was over before it ever began

“True Faith” by New Order was never one of my favorite songs, but it certainly beats out a number of its contemporaries. Heck, it even holds up well today against the sterile dance drivel that occupies the music charts. When I heard the latest cover of it by Anberlin I was immediately taken. It helps that the group sounds musically competent and the lead singer has a very distinct sounding voice. I told myself that this was a group to consider.

Kidz Bop

Kidz Bop

Saw a commercial for the latest Kidz Bop album on television the other day. These things are appalling because they’re kid-sung versions of popular songs, as if the originals were not bad enough. A few thoughts came to mind:

• We are indoctrinating our children into listening primarily to pop music, which is well known for its simplicity and vapidness.
• We are indoctrinating our children into listening to this music via the voices of other children, suggesting to them (and ourselves) that they will only be capable of understanding people in their own age group. The long term yield for parents is compromised by this mindset, by the way.
• The long term yield for record companies, though, is fantastic.
• People are comfortable with the idea of children listening to Lady Gaga. The songs included on the latest release are not too bad, but they previously had “Bad Romance” on an album. I think this is not responsible parenting.
• A Kidz Bop version of Justin Beiber’s “Baby” is redundant.

UPular

It is really hard to argue with David Byrne in light of music like this.

Who really needs coherent lyrics?

“Born Free”, but for what?

I don’t get M.I.A.’s new music video, “Born Free”. (Not even close to safe for work.) US soldiers round up gingers, take them out into a mine field, and make them run for their lives. It may be a social commentary on how the “other” is arbitrarily chosen. It may be about the US being bullies. Hell, it could even be torture porn made specifically for Eric Cartman. Regardless, I find it needlessly excessive to the point that it takes complete attention away from what is supposed to matter most – the music!

Not even a month ago M.I.A. was complaining about Lady Gaga and her image. I agreed. Lady Gaga’s persona is pointlessly weird, to the point of indulgence. Her videos take after the persona, but the music itself seems a separate entity from the oddness of Gaga. M.I.A. seems to have a chip on her shoulder because she has some political songs. However, this video seems pretty indulgent itself while the music, from what I could tell, does not really say anything. Not that I suggest Gaga and M.I.A. are similar. Gaga is indulgent; M.I.A. is pretentious.

You are what you read/watch/etc.

For the past several days I have been engaging in a conversation with a friend of mine (over Facebook…) about women in science fiction/fantasy/comic books that has served to spark my interest in why we, the readers, choose the stories and characters we do. Her longtime fixation has and always will be Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its titular character. Why? There was something inherently relatable about that character I describe as narcissistic, selfish, and written in a boring manner (she never fails and is always right). My friend is not alone in finding Buffy Summers such an enjoyable fiction character. The reasons others have might mirror hers or be something totally out of left field. But it got me thinking about my favorite characters and stories. What do these preferences say about me?

My favorite stories are rarely about specific characters but rather communities in which everyone plays a nigh equally important role as the next person. Some stories have a certain spiritual aspect about them, but the spirituality is something other than the mainstream faiths. It usually discusses the duality of mind and soul (and the balance between following our logical brains or our gut instincts) and the transcendent nature of who we are. Special note on Caprica: Our entire beings are more than what simply exists on this plane of existence in these skins. But I also have a special affinity for Spider-Man stories, mainly because he is completely relatable – especially after the One Day More storyline from a couple years back. I guess it says a lot about me to appreciate a loveable loser who is constantly down on his luck but is able to move forward because he sees that there is more to life than what he is personally getting out of it.

My friend and I are academics, though. Her studies in English are cross-compatible with my own in psychology, especially since both fields involve interpretation and looking for inner truths. We are both trained to be self aware. Other people do not take the time to think about it, nor would they necessarily know where to begin. As such, I can only look at mass American culture and what it might mean on a broad scale.

Which brings me to another thing I have been thinking about quite a bit lately – Lady Gaga. To be honest, I appreciate her music. It does not earn its own playlist on my MP3 player, but it finds a place on certain playlists. For me the reason why is simple: She or her producers have successfully captured the elusive earworm and planted some of its eggs directly into her tracks. That and sometimes I like music that does not require much thought.

Simple aesthetic is what people tend to fall back on when discussing music. “I like it because it sounds good,” is a completely acceptable answer, although it does not get deep enough for understanding. Asking why generally yields little, and even someone who studies music would be hard pressed to really describe what makes it sound good aside from mentioning musical terminology. “Why does it sound good to you?” I want to know what people are personally getting out of the music. Aesthetics are makeup. They add to the overall presentation, but that does not explain what differentiates certain songs from their sound alike contemporaries.

It gets easier to understand when looking back at the top ten singles for the past few years and noticing certain trends in song content and performers. Yes, I know it is a no-brainer to mention the overwhelming trend of sexuality in music. The easy, and valid, assumption is that people like sex. That does not solve the mystery for me. If people did not like sex, procreation would predominantly be practiced by intellectuals instead of the reality of the situation. My thought is that people enjoy the freedom of sexuality advertised by these artists. Despite our being a considerably free country, we are still very much sexually repressed. Discussion of sex is taboo, and even certain acts are instilled in us as taboo in the privacy of our own bedrooms.

That helps to explain some of the interest in Lady Gaga’s music. I think the rest is how weird and therefore mysterious she is.

But what about everyone else? What about Taylor Swift? Considering her single, I would say that girls who think they are a good girls find it completely relatable – and guys want to think that they will always eventually end up with the good girl. What about a good majority of rap music? Essentially they are popular due to male power fantasies. Guys are fulfilling their desires to be objects in pure control – hence the common “bitches and money” theme.

When it comes to movies, we find a number of romantic comedies in existence. Like I have previously mentioned, romcoms exist and persist because they imbue in some viewers the notion that real and true love does exist. (The other side of it is to set the mood for sex, which is why so many people put up with these generally poor films.) Then we look at the action films, which are usually more male power fantasies.

What it tells me is that people in my culture generally feel powerless and alone, with men generally more concerned about power and women more concerned about companionship. Definitely did not take a psychologist to point out these things, but I thought examples would be nice. I have also only scratched the surface. Television, video game (“Why do you spend more time playing Warcraft than you do experiencing your own life?”), and literary trends (“Why are you reading Harry Potter for the seventh time?”, “What do you get out of Twilight?”) were not touched. That would require watching Glee and Lost, which sounds painful (like sugar-rotting-teeth painful) on one end and time consuming on the other. I would also probably have to watch more reality television, but my guess is that reality simply is not real enough for people anymore. Probably due to a lack of truly living by the audience.

In the end, though, this is a fun exercise for those of us who like to think about the meaning behind our own choices. Our entertainment choices generally do say something about us. What do your choices say about you? How do you relate to the characters? What is being fulfilled?

“We Are the World” 2.0 = Disappointing, Shameful

As much as it pains me to be in agreement with Jay-Z, the new rendition of “We Are the World” is disappointing. I do not think that the original is somehow untouchable in its perfection, since it is a pretty annoying song. (It’s long and repetitive.) It’s just that remaking the song strikes me as insincere. While I am almost certain that most of the celebrities involved were there to help raise money for Haiti, there will always be concern that some were their for face time. Helping Haiti is a good image booster, and someone who buys the MP3 is in a good place to follow-up with an album or movie download as well. Not to mention that all those involved are covering an old song, which means little effort was necessary.

The parts that really get me are when the autotune guys show up and the rap breakdown. The song transitions from being middling but honest homage to embarrassing and, ultimately, poorly dated. I am not comfortable with people looking back on this song and thinking that the best we could offer was robot voice and the worst rap offerings available. Something more original and more inspirational should have been offered up for Haiti.

Andrew WK to release a Gundam album

I read on io9 that Andrew WK has another album scheduled for release in the future, and it will contain covers of various themes from Gundam’s Universal Century timeline. The individuals reporting and responding were all lauding him for taking on this effort, but he’s hardly the first. Richie Kotzen, formerly of Poison and Mr. Big, already released an album of Gundam cover songs a few years ago. And you know what? He’s a tough act to follow.

Andrew WK’s cover of “Soldiers of Sorrow”:

And Richie Kotzen’s cover of the same material:

Decide for yourself which one you like better. I kind of think that Mr. WK is kind of a mook, so there’s an obvious bias working against him. I came across a video of Kotzen’s cover of “Go Beyond the Time”/”Sign of Zeta” mashed up with footage of the then-released second Zeta Gundam film a couple years ago, and I immediately downloaded and then bought the album. WK definitely doesn’t stand up to Kotzen in my view.

Here’s an abridged version of my favorite of Kotzen’s songs, "Blue Star”: