ART

Introduction

Popular music is a part of modern culture which attracts millions of fans around the world. The philosophy of music states that the best music is music that resists heavy consumption, challenging fan’s expectations and habitual modes of musical perception, thereby helping to resist community’s deeply troubling drift toward unthinking conformity, comatose passivity, and capitulation to the dehumanizing force of monopoly. Popular music that caters to easy consumption or to a common sense of togetherness is ideological: it heats fan’s awareness of the individual, of difference, and of individuality, creating an all-is-well state of mind which facilitates a kind of mass brainwashing, an uncritical consciousness totally determined by external forces (Brackett 76). Rap music is often considered as antisocial trend based on extreme violence and aggression. Rap has a great influence on society: culturally, politically and socially. Its social influence on society has some differences and similarities which had been caused by different cultural context they emerged

Rap music during 1980s

Rap music emerged during 1980s as a response to Rock & Roll and other musical trends of the period. In clubs and on the concert stage, Rap has kept the American message of liberation and freedom alive. The similarity of both trends is that they were treated as bad music which encourage bad behavior. The difference is that rap involved primarily teenage group (13-16 years old) and then youth, while Rock & Roll had a great impact on wider audience: young adults from 18 to 30. Rap culture involved not only low class adolescents, but a lot of teenagers from middle-class families Both trends had been popular among young people, but constantly rejected by their parents as “bad” taste music. Rap is associated with urban youth, while Rock & Roll represented urban and country life. Rap genres are considered as a cultural phenomenon and social change agents brining novelty and new vision of cultural norms. Rap music created social movements changing the attitudes of all involved: fans, musicians, managers, record companies executives, critics and magazine editors included (Dodd 87). Rap affected all aspects of culture in a positive and negative way. How people dress, what music they listen to, and what they choose for entertainment. The policy of aggressiveness was important because rap was one of many other styles and had to compete with hip-hop, rock, etc. It encouraged lust, sex, suicide, aggression, rebellion against authority, etc (Brackett 43).

Rap music as a social force

Rap represented social movement against poverty, mass unemployment and negative experience of black youth. It concerns with culture of “blacks ” while rock & roll represented both groups: “whites” and “blacks”. The main focus of rap was on wealth and crime, while rock & roll influenced people’s morals appealing for trendy life style. Another difference is that rock & roll did not negatively represent women and other groups, child abuse or domestic violence which became a remarkable feature of rap. In this case, rap encouraged an extremely aggressive behavior. The negative influence of both trends is popularizing drugs and alcohol as attributes of stylish life. For teenage rappers drugs and alcohol represented “adulthood”: young people treated drugs and alcohol as a stylish and trendy way of life. In any case, these cultural norms penetrated society and stimulate aggressive behavior (Brackett 76).

Critics underline that music resists comfortable consumption and popularity: it attacks the law of the modern marketplace. Popular and light music actually serves to maim consciousness. Thus, good popular music plays a crucial redemptive social function by refusing to surrender to commercialism and conformity, keeping alive some small remnant of mental and social sovereignty. And bad music serves the social end of reinforcing obedience and consistency, making the dehumanizing influences and depravities of capitalism seem not only natural and inevitable, but pleasant (Dodd 87).

Opposition to rap music

In modern society, rap exemplifies the anxiety present in the commercialization of minority voices, in the disagreement between the money to be made in a free market and the lack of control over cultural values and principles. Associated with youth, rap has always been viewed by the critics as an oppositional voice. Unlike pop music, rap does not conform into a safe, neat, commercial product. The threatening nature of rap message has always made it commercially winning (Pickering 87). Today, mass culture is the site of many battles that has less to do with social enlightenment than with the renewal of the market. Rap music is a practical commercial force, becoming increasingly popular. One explanation for the social resistance to rap is that it is a subculture transmitted to a mainstream culture still learning to read it; this accounts for the argument, the misreadings, the uncertainty of cultural codes. Positively, the message of rap, as of any subculture, is the social need of minority groups not only to be heard but to be listened to. Beyond social controls, censoring rap music can be indirect thus it is an important part of modern social relations (Brackett 54).

Rap fans are urged to boycott concerts and to refuse to purchase the music that parents and other adults have publicized as unfavorable. Businesses and discount chain mega-stores respond to communal pressures and refuse to carry the offending music, especially the music labeled obscene or aggressive. The industry can censor itself and freeze expression, no matter how financially successful. The modern rap fans, as the prime buyers of rap musical forms, have long purchased tapes, records and CDs, listened to radio, watched MTV and attended rap concerts. Besides being influenced to some degree by the youths’ musical preferences, rap music companies do react to strong parental groups who protest that meticulous lyrics are too violent or too sexually reminiscent and obscene. Some people have sued rap musicians and music businesses because of suspected effects to them and their families (McDonnell 32). The government and the state authorities react to the controversial music with moral outrage and propose laws as a means of protecting the nation’s children and the rest of community. Organized groups movements appointed and elected officials to do something under the guise of protecting youth and the society in general (Pickering 66).

Rap music and its values

Rap music works in the same way as other musical forms transmitting messages and feelings from the musician to listeners. Attempts to apply long-term obscenity or indecency statutes to rap music have failed. Those musical laws have historically been based on value judgments. Lyrics that offend one fan may appeal to another; many times the expressions are generation-bound. In creative and artistic endeavors, music is evaluated individually as to rap song, album, and performer. Traditionally, when rap music has flouted community’s norms on behavior and sounds, various internal or external powers have been instituted or the music is changed in some way to make it more acceptable. Traditional rap singers, facing record and broadcast censorship to prevent public anger, formulated new imagery to avoid the record company censors. With prevailing social racism, rap songs by African Americans, no matter how innovative, are suspect and an affront to the openly segregationist views (McDonnell 67).

Rap music, to be financially successful, black music became marginalized in the modern culture with white “covers.” Many African-American rap singers received little or no compensation when their songs were recorded by whites. The terror and fear was that African-American youth would indeed “join” and empathize with the black adolescents’ urban problems and troubles. Despite the fact that there are some white rappers, African-American artists dominated gangsta rap with black principles and street lingo explicit enough to be understood. Even though almost three-quarters of all rap albums are bought by white youth, rap music remained an African-American phenomenon. The rap lyrics confronted audiences with issues of racism, sexism, and black understandings toward white authority. Unlike some concerns about heavy metal music’s effects upon the delicate minds of a few troubled people, rap music is thought to cause a volatile reaction from total audiences. Modern society, including primarily white adults, had a horror that African-American youth are dry kindling, ready to burst into flame with any stray spark. Inflammatory lyrics such as “Cop Killer” could incite an entire race to murder the nation’s police (McDonnell 85).

The modern environment and understanding of rap shows that music cannot exist in isolation form culture and social norms, but functions as part of cultural medium. Still, the argument is that censorship is warranted; rap lyrics are of graphic nature with sadistic and masochistic images (Dodd 87). Rap music influences a wide range of listeners and becomes a weekly staple on MTV. Political at many levels, boastful and angry, rap lyrics and sounds resonated with primitive beats that emphasized conflict. Rap upset the prevailing view that the lyrics do not matter. These critics’ comments have been among the many attempts to control the rock and rap images by arguing the defense of children. The rap music may represent aesthetic and artistic liberty, but to such social leaders and many adults, the rap music also represents more than the musical sounds or the lyrics. People care much about music because it embraces attitudes about urban life and how to respond to individual relationships and what to do, to social values and what to embrace. Such popular music aimed at society has been, and will continue to be, political, with images expressing attitudes about social mores, civil rights, discrimination, war participation, sexism, the surroundings, the urban blight, police brutality, and authority (McDonnell 34).

Conclusion

In sum, rap music influences people’s ways of thinking and feelings. Even though this conception of rap value no longer has much controversy among theorists who interpret music socially, By wrenching rap from the number of autonomous, aesthetic insularity, critics paved the way for explanations of rap’s nature and value that challenge some of rap philosophy’s most cherished and time honored principles. As something that is fundamentally and invariably social, rap is never blameless, never pure. In fact, rap as the sociopolitical end of masking music’s social complicity, sustains the social status quo while going difficult, unexamined, and unconcealed. Rap music is powerful as it shapes human consciousness, identity, and social order. Today, rap music becomes the locus of radical and wide-ranging opposition and contestation against inequality and social differences. As a sociopolitical force, rap music supports the issues of minor human interests to resume a place of pivotal power and profound significance in the modern world of capitalism and consumerism.

Works Cited

Brackett, D. The Pop, Rock, and Soul Reader: Histories and Debates. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.

Dodd, Ph. The Book of Rock: From the 1950s to Today. Da Capo Press; 2nd edition, 2005.

McDonnell, E. Rock She Wrote: Women Write about Rock, Pop, and Rap. Cooper Square Press, 1999.

Pickering, J. Rock and Rap (Sound Trackers). Heinemann Library, 2003.

Introduction

Italian neorealism is a movement in the Italian cinema which was typical for the postwar period in Italy and which took hold in Europe, namely, it affected the movement of the New Wave in the French cinema. The techniques of the Italian neorealism can be traced in the movie Bicycle Thieves (1948) directed by Vittorio De Sica. The most peculiar features of the Italian neorealism are the period (years after the Second World War); the techniques (ambiguous meaning, location shooting, natural light and absence of booster light, non-actors in mass scenes, likelihood, dialogues and sounds are post-dubbed); the themes(working class, realism of social situation, poverty and insufficient standards of living). Most of these features can be found in the postwar movies directed by the brightest representatives of the French New Wave movement, suchlike Jean-Luc Godard, though the movie Breathless was shot in two decades after the end of the Second World War when the economic situation in the country was different from that in Italy when the Bicycle Thieves (1948) was shot.

Italian neorealism in the moviemaking is claimed to have influenced greatly the New Wave movement in the French cinematography. André Bazin can be considered one of the major and most authoritative critics in the sphere of the cinematographic history and techniques; he explains the importance of the films and basic characteristics of the Bicycle Thieves (1948) directed by Vittorio De Sica. The melodramatic features can be traced throughout the movie. As melodramas are considered to be sensitive movies for women, they naturally contain some scenes that can be regarded as those evoking the feeling of compassion, anxiety, sentimentality, and others that may be provoked by genuinely realistic emotions performed by actors. In this respect, actors play important role in the perception of the movie in terms of emotions and realism of feelings that are aimed at evoking the response in the audience.

André Bazin introduced his idea of the Italian cinema of that period with regard to the influence of different movements and techniques: “What seems to me most astonishing about the Italian cinema is that it appears to feel it should escape from the aesthetic impasse to which neorealism is said to have led” (Bazin 47). It is natural that the world saw changes after the Second World War and the changes influenced every area of the human life and activities. The importance of historical impact of international conflicts can scarcely be overestimated because of the global scale of such events as wars and epidemics. Italian neorealism and the French New Wave can be considered contemporary movements with specific techniques which faced influence of the economic, social, and political situation in the countries that overcame the hardships of war. As cinema can be considered one of the human activities which are aimed at entertaining the audience, it was natural that the realistic themes immediately after the war were replaced with more appropriate ones several decades after the war.

Comparison of Two Movies

The most appropriate for comparison are two movies; the representative of the Italian neorealism is the Bicycle Thieves (1948) directed by Vittorio De Sica and the second one is the work of the French New Wave director Jean-Luc Godard, Breathless (1960). Richard John Neupert in the book A History of the French New Wave Cinema presents the history of the French cinematography from the period of the postwar years including reasons for development of the New Wave trend in the French cinematography. The author argues about different techniques used while shooting the movies of the same decade and trends, films by different directors of the New Wave period in France. The film Breathless (1960) directed by Jean-Luc Godard is one of the movies discussed by Richard John Neupert for this movie is claimed to have been influenced by Italian neorealism in cinema, though it obviously preserves numerous features of the native national French cinema.

Neupert explains the reasons for development of the New Wave movement in cinema: “The New Wave was first and foremost a cultural phenomenon, resulting from economic, political, aesthetic, and social trends that developed in the 1950s” (Neupert 3). Though the changes have touched upon every sphere of life including cinematography, this area produced a specific way to show the changes and its attitude towards the events in the world. The French cinema techniques were influenced greatly by Italian neorealism, however, French filmmakers managed to keep the fundamental peculiarities of French cinema as it is known in the world. Realistic scenes and post-dubbing were borrowed from the Italian movement, though the male hero full of energy, enthusiasm, and charm typical for French movies of all times was presented in the film Breathless (1960) by Jean-Luc Godard where a young actor Jean-Paul Belmondo was performing the role of the main character, an energetic adventurous young man that is involved into challenging matters.

Bicycle Thieves (1948) directed by Vittorio De Sica seems to posses all distinctive features of the Italian neorealism, while the Breathless (1960) by Jean-Luc Godard differs from neorealism in its Italian perspective. The latter movie can be characterized only with some features of the Italian neorealism because a decade separates these two films and affects changes in the movement. The audience could see the life of the ordinary worker and his position in the society; the bicycle was chosen as the basic element of drama because it can be considered both an integral part of the urban life (as the action of the movie takes place in Italian city) and the simplest mechanism that could be used in order to show the differences between classes in the postwar period. The French movie does not seem to be as simple as the Italian one; its plot contains bright adventures of a man and can be easily called a fiction film because it is not likely that ordinary people experienced such events in the everyday life.

As the features of Italian neorealism can be clearly traced in French movies of the New Wave movement, it is necessary to thoroughly consider the Bicycle Thieves (1948) directed by Vittorio De Sica and the Breathless (1960) directed by Jean-Luc Godard. The most distinctive features of both movies are techniques and themes; the Italian movie can be characterized as one that is based on the story from real life and shot in the same realistic way which persuades the audience in the emotions performed by actors. As both movies use location shooting (the street in the first scene of Bicycle Thieves when Antonio Ricci, the main character is said to have found a municipal work does not look like a film studio as well as the scene in Breathless when two main characters are driving round the city and talking cannot be considered a stage shooting because one can clearly see the parts when image changes rapidly instead of a smooth transition, besides, we can hear the male character’s reply only in the beginning of the scene when he gets into the driving seat and in the end of it when we can see him getting out of the car).

Post-dubbing of dialogues and sounds is another distinctive feature of both movies because the audience can clearly trace the music in the background of all scenes, regardless the characters talk or keep silent. Moreover, the scene in the Breathless (1960) directed by Jean-Luc Godard when two characters were talking in the car was obviously post-dubbed because it seems to have more than one take, that is why long-takes can be considered another distinctive feature of Italian neorealism and New Wave in French cinema. Some scenes in the Breathless seem to be labored after many takes; the same can be observed in the scene in the car when the female character was talking a lot and her every phrase was accompanied with different setting in terms of other cars driving along the street and buildings. Thus, the setting was changing rapidly, while the female character was producing her part of the dialogue.

As mise-en-scène is one of the most important aspects that should be considered while comparing and contrasting films of different periods, it is necessary to analyze similarities and differences of scenes in two different movies. Jill Nelmes suggested the idea of the concept of mise-en-scène as it can be commonly understood: “Probably the richest source of mise-en-scène is the performance of actors” (Nelmes 99). The author does not describe the process of shooting or dubbing for here Nelmes argues about the importance of the actors’ performance for the overall effect of a certain shot. Lights, setting, and actors’ performance make the scenes realistic and persuade the audience in the realism of their emotions experienced because of some events in lives of their characters. Some scenes in the Bicycle Thieves (1948) and the Breathless (1960) can be considered similar in terms of the meaning; though the meaning is not always clear that is one of the most important features of Italian neorealism in cinema.

The integrity of the actor and his/her character is very important because some actors can be considered inappropriate for certain type of roles, though the movement of Italian neorealism in cinema had proved that even non-actors can be successfully engaged into the shooting process. Italian neorealism in cinema is known for use of non-actors, though this tendency cannot be traced in the French New Wave movies influenced by Italian neorealism. What we can see in the movie directed by Jean-Luc Godard Breathless (1960) are well-known faces of young actors, suchlike Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg. Moreover, young Jean-Paul Belmondo was not an unknown actor unlike the main character of the Bicycle Thieves (1948) directed by Vittorio De Sica. However, even professional actors sometimes fail to produce the emotions which are required by the screenplay. Besides, long-takes are very challenging in terms of efforts to remember the text and to reproduce it properly without any difficulties; this was done because of the location shooting as well.

The French New Wave was influenced by the techniques and themes of Italian neorealism, though it had national features of the cinema which preserve the native national filmmaking traditions. This means that the plot of the Breathless (1960) can be considered purely French in terms of national features and themes disclosed in the French cinema. This happened due to the change in the perception of the essence of contemporary movies by the audience. The audience did not want to live in the postwar period; it wanted to move further and to forget about the poverty and hardships of the Second World War. People wanted to live better and to see positive changes described in movies. The living level increased as well as the demands of population towards the ways of entertainment and the themes people wanted to see on the screen. As the poverty was not appropriate to be displayed in movies, adventures and charming characters were used instead of working-class society and ordinary people.

Rene Bonnell argues the role of spectators in the changes taking place in the themes disclosed in French movies of the middle of the 20^th century: “Cinema is no longer the art of the masses or the popular entertainment it was. The social profile of the film audience is nearly that of live theater. The young well-educated ‘enlightened fanatic’ is replacing the average spectator” (Neupert 11). When the Italian neorealism in cinema was presented through the realistic scenes which lacked theatrics and artificiality, the movies of the French New Wave were shot preserving all features of the national themes typical of French movies. Thus, a male character was implied to be a hero, and adventurer, a passionate lover, and be able to cope with all difficulties encountered on his way to success including armed people that can damage his health. As a rule, such hero fights well, probably, shoots well, and has an attractive female companion who does not seem to be a calm lady.

Another distinctive feature of Italian neorealism in the French movies of the New Wave movement is ambiguity of the meaning with regard to separate phrases, words, or the context of the movie as a whole. For example, the movie Breathless (1960) contains a scene when the character of Jean- Paul Belmondo says: “Tu es vraiment degueulasse” which can be interpreted in many ways that makes this scene the most ambiguous one in the movie. Another ambiguous moment is when the female character asks about this ‘degueulasse’ and makes a movement with her finger around her mouth. What should this movement mean? It is an unclear meaning that makes this movie to be considered the one influenced by Italian neorealism. On the contrary, the Italian movie does not seem to contain ambiguous scenes that can be misunderstood.

The bed is depicted in both movies, though it appears as the methods (furnishing) to collect some money and buy a bicycle which is necessary to get a job in the Bicycle Thieves (1948) where the main character should do everything to maintain his family. The French movie contains an image of a bed with regard to the relationships between two characters; while the male character is depicted in the dressing gown, his female companion is presented in the image of a business woman. The feelings evoked by two movies are different in terms of the themes disclosed. The Italian movie makes the audience empathize with the characters when they experience difficulties. It is obvious that the economic situation in the postwar period was almost the same in all countries and the themes covered by the postwar movies like the Bicycle Thieves (1948) were similar as well. Two decades divide these two movies, though both are influenced by the Italian movement of neorealism in terms of the shooting techniques.

The light and location used while shooting the Bicycle Thieves (1948) directed by Vittorio De Sica and the Breathless (1960) directed by Jean-Luc Godard are typical for movies influenced by Italian neorealism. The light is as natural as it can be in the everyday life; no booster light is used. However, some scenes appear to be too dark in the context of the whole movie because they should have been additionally lighted. The location shooting is used in both movies, though it seems to be unrealistic. For example, when the male character in the Breathless (1960) tries to find out what his female companion is doing by spying upon her, he walks up the stairs, while the camera is aimed at the Elysian Fields and the traffic, we can see a car in front of the camera which is standing as a barrier for a cameraman.

The aesthetics of the Hollywood is rejected by the Italian movie for it discloses themes of poverty and life of ordinary people belonging to the working class. It is natural that people in the Bicycle Thieves (1948) are not presented as professional actors that know how to perform roles of poor people with regard to glamorous style of Hollywood. However, the Breathless (1960) can be considered a movie which does not reject the aesthetics of Hollywood, though combine it with the French charm. For example, the conversation between two main characters which happens in the room of the female character is very French in terms of the attitude of a man towards a woman.

Conclusion

The movies of different decades can be added to the range of works of cinematography characterized by the same movement and its peculiar techniques. The Italian neorealism is claimed to be one of the most influential characteristics of the French New Wave movies. The brightest features of the Italian neorealism are non-actors, post-dubbing, and location shooting. The French New Wave lacks neorealistic themes, suchlike poverty, and does not reject aesthetics of Hollywood. The differences and similarities of the Bicycle Thieves (1948) and the Breathless (1960) can be easily traced.

There are themes of poverty in the Italian movie influenced by Italian neorealism as the postwar period did not offer alternative themes in the economically weak society which experienced all hardships of the war conflict. The French film appears to be realistic in terms of the location shooting and post-dubbing of dialogues and sounds. The main similarities of these two movies consist in the techniques, suchlike location shooting, ambiguous meaning, natural light and absence of booster light, non-actors in mass scenes, likelihood, dialogues and sounds are post-dubbed. The brightest differences are the themes because the Bicycle Thieves (1948) describes the life of ordinary people and their poverty, while the Breathless (1960) contains scenes of adventures, love, and other themes typical for detective stories with elements of romantic movie and a thriller.

Works Cited

Bazin, André, and Hugh Gray. What is cinema? University of California Press, 2004

Nelmes. Jill. Introduction to Film Studies. New York: Routledge, 1996

Neupert, Richard John. A History of the French New Wave Cinema. University of Wisconsin Press, 2007

Introduction

One of the industries that have had to grapple with the impact of the disruptive technology, thanks to the internet, is the music sector. Digital distribution of music has especially dealt the music industry the heaviest blow ever. For example, RIAA reconfirmed on the 28^th of April that in 2007, their sales volume for CDs has plummeted by about 20.5 percent (Seeking Alpha 2008). On the 2^nd of May 2008, Real Networks, AOL AND Yahoo were all ordered by a federal court to pay music artists a whopping $ 100 M. This was meant as a back payment, on grounds that these Internet Service Providers (ISPs) had streamed the music of these artists online.

What this goes to prove therefore is that other than the main ISPs, there are countless other online companies that have played a role in the downfall of the music industry. Apple, as a technology company has over the years turned into one of the most powerful selling points for online music. For instance, in 2008, the company is believed to have sold over 2 billion songs. By extension, the Itunes/Ipod combo is proving to be a real threat to conventional retail channels of music (Seeking Alpha 2008). As such, some of these conventional retail stores for music have also had to embrace online distribution of music. Examples here include Amazon, and the retailer, Wal-Mart. Even then , the budding storms by these companies have failed to yield the much needed impact, even after the companies settles for lower prices, in addition to providing customers with DRM-free music.

Why the music industry is falling apart

According to Gross (2003), artists have for a long time tried to compete with the downloading companies that make their music available online and despite the efforts, it is clear that there is not much success. Most people have come to prefer online music than that which is on CD, mainly because (Weissman, 2003) the downloaded songs are a selection of some of the best songs from different artists while the songs on CD tend to be specific to either a given music genre, or hit songs from a single artist.

A majority of the people are of the opinion that most music on CDs fails to provide the much needed variety, in terms of song selection. Also, the songs from the internet and other online sites are cheap and easy to obtain. The music artists charge very high prices for a CD and since the technology has offered an alternative for cheaper and more accessible music, people have moved away from the idea of buying CDs from artists to getting their favorite music through the internet. People have also realized that the music artists are slowly developing the ‘Stockholm syndrome’ and they have come to appreciate the presence of technology in the music industry despite the fact that it is resulting in big losses to the music industry. This has gone on to encourage people to take up the downloading rather than the CDs. With these ideas in mind, musicians see beyond the fact that technology has taken over the music industry. There is need to perceive the music industry differently and the musicians should play a great role in this.

Reasons why technology is overtaking the music industry

According to Gross (2003), despite the fact that technology has had a negative impact on the music industry, the music industry itself also has played a part in making this be the outcome. The technology overtaking the industry is an issue the musicians have had to cope up with for quite a while and this has been due to the following reasons. To start with, the music industry has been characterized by greed and the desire for more money by some unscrupulous players. Often times, such companies do not have the best interests of the industry in mind, as they only seek to reap super profits in the shortest time possible, even if this means putting other players in the industry out of business (Gross, 2003).

Secondly, there has been low artistic integrity among the musicians. Musicians hardly have enough time to develop their skills and most people expect that artists should be producing hit songs every so often. This has resulted in musicians producing low quality music that is slowly losing its market as people opt for other forms of entertainment. People would now prefer the internet and the video games rather than having to listen to music.

The perception that musicians do not make much from their music has also led to people going for the downloaded music and other sources of entertainment through technology. According to Weissman (2003), there has been the idea that artists have to produce lots of tracks before they can earn a substantial amount of money that will help them advance their talent. Hence, fans have now opted for downloading music because they feel that even if they bought the original CDs, their favorite musicians would still make no money.

In addition, the music industry has also gone on to produce less and less numbers of music. They are more focused on making money and they tend to produce one type of song at a particular period. People tend to go for variety from the internet rather than having to buy the CDs that have become less thrilling and monotonous. The amount of music that one can get from the advanced technology is much more than that produced by the artists. On the other hand, downloading music has become so easy that it is a matter of a few seconds and one gets all the desired music. The CDs are not as easy to get as compared to the available music on the internet and it is clear that anyone with access to the internet can very easily get all the music they desire at a very short time.

With these factors, the music industry is facing a major challenge trying to come to terms with the changes that have been as a result of the advanced technology. It is clear that the impact of technology on the industry is adversely leading to its downfall and the musicians have to develop means of reviving the industry before the technology completely takes over.

How has technology affected the music industry?

Schwabach (2005) argues that the coming of the internet era was seen as a limelight to many things in the 21^st century and it has effectively become a significant communication device. It has brought many new opportunities to the current world and it has made the passing of information faster and more effective. The world of digital revolution can therefore be said to come at a time when the world needed it most. However, despite all these, problems have come up that has made the digital revolution a difficult issue to cope with.

The laws in information technology were created before the introduction of technology and this is the same law that is guiding people. There was hardly anything like intangible products and it can be said that the technology, despite its advantages has caused major problems and confusion among people. These problems are what have led to a great war between the music producers, the software providers and the consumers who have resulted in obtaining duplicate copies of music. It has actually become so easy to make a copy of a TV show or a favorite song that people no longer find the need to buy original copies (Alexander p. 265).

When the Sony Company made its first invention of the VCR player, most broadcast TV and radio stations were worried that the player would affect the value of their movies and other shows. The introduction of the VCR player was followed closely by the digital era, which has enabled people to produce movies and music in the digital form with the desire to preserve the quality of their songs. The digital era has made duplication of songs and movies easier than even producing an original CD and only by using a modern computer it is now very easy to copy a CD or a DVD. The major challenge is that even by making a duplicate CD or a song, the quality of the CD or the music is hardly lost and therefore it is not possible to distinguish between the original and the duplicate (Heath, 2008).

According to Heath (2008), the invention of the internet has an even greater impact such that one no longer needs to buy the original CD or make a copy. Any song that is released into the market takes only a few seconds to reach all people around the globe through their friends by the use of the internet. Each time an album is released, millions of internet users get access to it and the idea of producing CDs and DVDs become meaningless as not major sales will be made. The idea of file sharing became more renowned when one Computer Science student, Shawn Fanning, developed the Peer to Peer file swapping program. The program enabled people all over the world to be able to share out their computer files with every one and the music industry became the worst hit by this. The music industry points out that, “internet theft has taken over the music industry, from the production house down to the song writers.”

Studies have shown that the sale of music in the global market dropped by approximately 6.5% in 2001, a decline of approximately $3 billion, and this has become worse in recent years. The top ten albums in the world in 2001 sold a total of 40million copies, while the previous year the sales were 60million copies. Of these ten most popular hits, none had sold more than 5million copies each and this shows that fewer customers are going for their CDs, DVDs, tapes or even the minidisks (Alexander, 2004).

Is there evidence that technology has actually affected the music industry?

Various researches have been carried out regarding the relationship between the introduction of the internet and the sale of music. According to one research carried out by a Harvard University professor, Felix Oberholzer, it is clear that file swapping does not have a major effect on the sale of music in form of CDs or DVDs. Despite the fact that people engage in downloading music, Heath (2008) argues that, these people would not have bought the original albums even if there was nothing like file swapping. A study by Felix and his counterpart in the University of Carolina, Koleman Strumpf, states that it would take a download of about 5,000 songs to be able to displace the sale of one physical CD and therefore, even with the high number of downloading of music, the impact on the sale of albums is not significant.

According to Wilson (2004), the music industries and other recording companies like the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has responded to this issue brought out by the scholars by portraying how the sales have continued to decline as more technology is being implemented through internet and as more people are able to access the downloaded files. It is, however clear that the increase in the price of CD and DVDs would also have led to the decline in its sales. As the music industries desire to increase their revenues, they have, over the past few years, increased the selling price per album and this has resulted to most people going for the downloaded music that is much cheaper and of similar quality. Hence, despite the fact that the internet and other forms of technology have affected the growth of the music industry, it may also be caused by other factors, which may have then led to people going for pirated music as a result.

Another factor that may be related to the decline in the sales and subsequent rise in the use of technology to retrieve music is the fact that the music industry has failed in creating proper labels for its digital music. According to the Music Bill of Rights, there is the need to ensure the best quality music is provided to customers and every producer should ensure that their music is well labeled and satisfies the needs of its customers. However, the original digital music has not seen much progress and this has resulted in the greater majority going for the downloaded music due to the proper implementation of music rights (Heath, 2008).

But on the other hand, according to Schwabach (2005), the internet has not had a totally negative impact on the music industry. It has in a way promoted the sale of music by creating awareness to a large number of people. Despite the great hardships experienced, there is a positive side of the technology. The music industry should, however, come up with ways of overcoming the challenges that come with technology and this is to enable it to get back to gaining trust from its customers and increasing its sales.

The major issues that have come up in the music industry since the invention of technology

The major issue affecting the music industry is the greed for wealth that has taken up the minds of most musicians. The musicians are trying to compete very hard with the internet service providers to ensure that they also benefit from their music and this way, they neglect the main idea of producing good quality music. They are more focused on making money from their business and they try to gain markets from all over the world without taking into consideration the response it is likely to get from its customers. This is the reason why the Music Rights have not been observed in producing music, all because of the desire to be better than the internet providers (Gross, 2003).

The technology has also led to a larger number of people gaining independence for the production of music, whether it is copyrighted or not. With the ability to have access to all kinds of music through the internet, individual producers have had the freedom to make money independent of the music industry. More and more people are producing albums on their own and creating their own markets and this having a negative impact on the amount of revenue obtained because few customers are able to gain their trust (Gross, 2003).

The invention of digital music has also resulted in the Apple music company dominating the digital music market. It has become the greatest provider of iTunes music that has overtaken every other music. The internet has enabled more people to download the iTunes into their phones and computers and this has made them lack the need to use other kinds of music. The Apple Company has therefore led to the traditional music dropping their music and adopting the digital music distribution to compete with the other producers.

What the music industry is doing to overcome the downfall

According to Alexander (p. 223), it is clear that technology has had an adverse impact on the music industry and despite efforts to incorporate technology into the industry, there is need also to look into the major solutions that can be implemented to help overcome the major downfall that has been experienced. The technology may not change its impact on the music industry, but the industry may try to enhance suitable correlations with technology so that it may promote its sales while at the same time improving the quality of music produced.

The music industry may re-define its regulations so that they cater for the needs of its customers. This may be through establishing means of cutting down the high prices while still maintaining sufficient revenues (Alexander p.222). One reason why people opt for the downloaded music is because it is cheap to obtain it rather than having to buy the CDs or the DVDs. Hence, if the prices were lowered the music industry would thrive and maybe outdo the technology companies. Weissman (2003) notes that, the music industry also needs to take into consideration the fact that technology will keep on advancing and it is upon the industry to enhance the quality of its music and take advantage of the technology to enhance the talent of the musicians. The musicians should learn that quality is more important than just the number of songs that they produce.

Conclusion

The advent of information technology has dealt a tough blow to the music industry. This is because today, there are several sites from which one may download music online, free of charge. These online companies such as Ipods by Apple are proving to be a real threat to the conventional CD sales companies, with the effect that their sales have plummeted extensively in recent years. The fact that a federal court last year fined some online companies a whopping $ 100 M as a back payment following the streaming of music by a number of artists, goes on to show that the future looks bleak for music artists. Given that technology is here to stay, what the players in the music industry should now be focused on is trying to identify ways through which they may work together to ensure that technology doesn’t in the long-term escalate the downfall that is already being felt in the music industry (Bricklin 2002).Rather, what the players in the music industry should be looking out fro is a harnessing this technology to augment their sales while at the same time giving customers a value for their money.

Works Cited

Alexander, A, and Carveth, R. Media Economics: Theory and Practice: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2004. Web.

Bricklin, D. (2002). The Recording Industry is Trying to Kill the Goose That Lays the Golden Egg. Web.

Heath, C and Liu, K. Copyright Law and the Information Society in Asia: USA; University of Michigan, 2008.

Krasilovsky, W and Gross, J. This Business of Music: The Definitive Guide to the Music Industry: USA; Watson-Guptill Publications, 2003.

Microcomputer abstracts: Learned Information (Firm); Learned Information, Inc. 1994.

Schwabach, A. Internet and the law: technology, society, and compromises: ABC-CLIO, 2005. Web.

Seeking Alpha (2008). Music Industry Downfall: The rise of social Streaming. Web.

Staff, B. Variety’s Film Reviews: 1949-1953: USA; University of Michigan, 1989.

Weissman, D and Jermance, F. Navigating the Music Industry: Current Issues & Business Models: UK; Hal Leonard Corporation, 2003. Web.

Wilson, Lee. Making it in the music business; the business and legal guide for songwriters and performers. New York: Allworth Press, 2004. Web.

The three artworks discussed – Bernini’s The Ecstasy of St. Theresa, Caravaggio’s The Calling of St. Matthew, and Rembrandt van Rijn’s Resurrection of Christ are now analyzed for their resemblance with the typical artwork of the baroque period in terms of form, content and subject matter. Baroque art of the 17^th century is associated with drama and complexity became the hallmark of the artistic creations of the period (Gardner, Kleiner, & Mamiya, 2006).

Bernini’s The Ecstasy of St. Theresa show distinct character of Italian Baroque and adhere to the conventional trend of not being “defined by spatial settings” (Gardner, Kleiner, & Mamiya, 2006, p. 576). Bernini’s sculpture is full of theatrical elegance with the manifold textures and the use of the light. The proponents of the movement believed that the recreation of spiritual experiences would increase piety among viewers. So Bernini used recreated the ecstasy of the saint through a mingling of the spiritual and the physical passion. This suggests that the theatrical design and treatment of the art was useful in setting the counter-reformation goals into place. The setting of the art is in a chapel.

In the painting of Caravaggio, too the didactic presence is imminent. The life of the saint is shown in the painting. The choice of the saint is the spiritual message reflecting through the painting. The painting represents a modern Roman setting as if Christ and Mathew lived in Caravaggio’s own time (Harris, 2005), showing the Baroque tradition of inspiring piety through depiction of spiritual incidents. His work too is based in a chapel.

Rembrandt’s too in his painting showed the spiritual light. In the painting Resurrection of Christ there is an angelic light which appears around Christ. Here Rembrandt like Caravaggio and Bernini used the depiction of light to show the appearance of the divine. In the painting, the use of light, which represents divinity, is remarkably distinct. In this painting, like Caravaggio Rembrandt uses a dark background and uses light to pick up the main characters (Acton, 1997). The light appears from top left in similar fashion as that of Caravaggio. However, the departure in theme and form from Caravaggio or Bernini is in its theme, which is more emotional for Rembrandt than dramatic.

Bernini’s erotic description of St. Theresa was conflicting with Rome’s description of eclectic art. Still Bernini chose to depict it even when he was a devout catholic, which is a characteristic of the Baroque art. Even the use of light and dark in paintings is a special character of baroque paintings extensively used by Caravaggio and Rembrandt. This play of light too was incorporated in Bernini’s sculpture (Barber, 2008). In Rembrandt’s Calling when Christ enters to recruit St. Mathews, there enters St. Peter the “prototype of papacity” i.e. all calls are from the church but the use of light clearly shows on the miraculous as Peter is not reflecting that light (2008, p. 300).

The religious theme and character of the artwork is clear in all three paintings. All three artists used light to depict the divinity and spirituality. Bernini used the light through the chapel window on his sculpture, Caravaggio and Rembrandt used light on their painting and a dark background. The theme is religious even though the stories are different. All the three works show a space where there is an amalgamation of the mortals with the divinity. In Bernini, it was the angel and St. Theresa, in Caravaggio St. Mathews following Christ and in Rembrandt it was Christ and mother Mary and Mary Magdalena. Further their art styles especially that of Caravaggio and Rembrandt were characteristically similar due to the tones of light used in their painting.

References

1. Acton, M. (1997). Learning to look at paintings. New York: Routledge.
2. Barber, J. (2008). The Road from Eden. Palo Alto, CA: Academica Press,LLC.
3. Gardner, H., Kleiner, F. S., & Mamiya, C. J. (2006). Gardner’s art through the ages. Belmont, CA: Cengage Learning.
4. Harris, A. S. (2005). Seventeenth-century art & architecture. London: Laurence King Publishing.

Cinema/film industry has become a very conspicuous form of mass entertainment. The extent of cinema’s popularity, influence, and proliferation has been phenomenal. Artistic expression and development via technological expediency has made it an unequaled facet of visual/fine arts since the inception of the 20^th century. The immemorial film cadre by iconic British filmmaker/producer, Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (August 13, 1899 – April 29, 1980) exudes an indelible influence on the cinema/film industry – past and present. With more than fifty feature films to his credit and a career spanning six decades, Hitchcock was a leading pioneer in suspense/ psychological films. With his trademark cameo appearances in his films, Hitchcock’s use of other cinematic devices included suspense, ordinary person/wrong man/wrong woman paradigm, sexuality, audience as voyeur, the charming sociopath, blonde women, and the MacGuffin technique (narrative revolves around a minor detail).

Hitchcock’s U.S. directorial debut as well as prolific career in Hollywood commenced in 1940 with the classic psychological thriller, Rebecca. Diverse in nature, Hitchcock’s films of the 1940’s ranged from courtroom/suspense/murder dramas, romances, to comedies. Rope was released August 23, 1948. Its distinguished ensemble cast included legendary/popular actor, James Stewart, and newcomers – John Dall and Farley Granger. The adapted screenplay, based on Patrick Hamilton’s (English playwright/novelist) play of the same name, was written by Hume Croyn and Arthur Laurents. The real life-murder in 1924 of fourteen-year old Bobby Franks by two wealthy University of Chicago students, Leopold and Loeb – obsessed with committing the perfect crime without consequences – served as the thematic impetus for the play/film. According to acclaimed film critic Roger Ebert, “Alfred Hitchcock called ‘Rope’ an ‘experiment that didn’t work out,’ and he was happy to see it kept out of release for most of three decades. He was correct that it didn’t work out, but ‘Rope’ remains one of the most interesting experiments ever attempted by a major director working with big box-office names, and it’s worth seeing (Ebert).”

Dall (Brandon Shaw) and Granger (Phillip Morgan) play two young brilliant aesthetics who at the onset of the movie murder their fellow classmate, David Kentley (Dick Hogan), in their apartment. As an arrogant and celebratory display of their accomplishment, they hold a dinner party with David’s parents, fiancé, and other fellow classmate as the invited guest and the chest, containing David’s body, used as the dinner buffet table. Also among the guest is Rupert Cadell (James Stewart) their former erstwhile prep-school housemaster and now turned publisher. Cadell is credited with fostering the two protagonists’ obsession with the intellectual art of murder. At the core of this art, are the intellectual philosophy/concepts of German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, who advocated aristocratic superiority. Brandon, in particular, feels that Cadell will approve of the murder since he is the impetus for it. David’s strange absence exudes throughout the movie, deeply troubling his parents and fiancé. Various enigmatic as well as sarcastic hints from Brandon coupled with Phillip’s nervous and morose demeanor; lead Cadell to suspect that something is wrong. The movie embarks upon a cagey cat and mouse game between the three men culminating with Cadell discovering David’s body. Horrified at the murder and even more so because he inspired it, the movie ends with Cadell firing three shots out the window in order to alert the police of the crime.

Although story, direction combined with music is vital to a film’s success, cinematography, lighting/color, editing and sound are essential components as well. They contribute to the visual image which exudes the unique aura of a film. Rope is considered Hitchcock’s earliest technically innovative film in terms of color/lighting, cinematography, editing, and sound. Hitchcock’s fist color film, Rope was shot in Technicolor. From 1922 to 1952, Technicolor was the most widely used color motion picture process in Hollywood as evidenced by lavish color films such as The Wizard of Oz, The Adventures of Robin Hood, Joan of Arc, and Fantasia. In using Technicolor, which is known for it use of saturated levels of color, the color and lighting work hand in hand to give Rope a hyper-realistic look, a consistent trademark of with Technicolor films.

Cinematography contributes to a film’s mesmerizing aura. A cinematographer’s job is to create the ambiance and look of the film that correlates with and interprets the director’s idea. The director may have decisive control over the visual image, but it is the cinematographer’s job to actually record that image. Sensitivity to space, shot versatility, and bringing visual images to the surface that the story does and does not say exemplify cinematography at its best. Under the direction of American cinematographers, William V. Skall and Joseph A. Valentine, the film’s running time was 81 minutes, due to the film being shot in real time thoroughly carefully planned/ choreographed 4 to 10 minute shots which ran continuously without interruption. Rope has the appearance of being shot in one take, truly revolutionary for its time.

Hitchcock filmed each scene in segments lasting up to ten minutes (the length of a reel of film at the time), each segment continuously panning from character to character in real time. Several segments end by panning against or zooming into an object (a man’s jacket, or the back of a piece of furniture, for example) or by having an actor move in front of the camera, blocking the entire screen; each scene after that starts a static shot of that same object. In this way Hitchcock effectively masked some (but not all) of the cuts in the film (economicexpert.com).

French filmmaker/critic, Francois Truffaut further elaborates in his book Hitchcock/Truffaut

(1967): The walls of the set were on rollers and could silently be moved out of the way to make way for the camera, and then replaced when they were to come back into shot. Prop men also had to constantly move the furniture and other props out of the way of the large Technicolor camera, and then ensure they were replaced in the correct location. A team of soundmen and camera operators kept the camera and microphones in constant motion, as the actors kept to a carefully choreographed set of cues (Truffaut).

Editing trims and pieces a film together thereby making it more artistically concise, complete, and artistically illusionary. For all intents and purposes, Rope’s editing accolades lies in the fact that not much editing was needed because of the cinematographic process. The sound of cars in the background is demonstrative of busy city life. Not a great deal of music is used. That music which is present such as the piano tune played by Phillip, serves to soothe his remorse for what he has done. The sound rests heavily on the dialogue. Rope, like its predecessor Lifeboat (1943), illustrated Hitchcock’s experimentation with developing suspense in a confined area. Aside from the opening street scene shot, the apartment, with an extraordinary cyclorama in the background, is the sole film location. The largest ever used on a soundstage; the cyclorama consisted of numerous chimneys, neo signs, buildings with lights as well as models of the Chrysler and Empire State buildings.

Consistent with his unique cinematic style, Hitchcock utilizes these elements to convey a vast array of themes. The entire infrastructure of people’s culture (political, economic, artistic, educational institutions, etc.) is interwoven with personal impressions, ideas, emotions, and prejudices. American-Armenian author, William Saroyan once stated “Does art reflect life? In movies, yes. Because more than any other art form, films have been a mirror held up to society’s porous face (Saroyan).” The visual/fine arts realm is no exception, Hitchcock’s film likewise. Homo-sexuality, although considered a societal open secret, was a highly controversial at the time and Rope’s homoerotic glaring undertone was indeed revolutionary for the 1940’s. Leopold and Loeb were homosexuals, so one can only deduce that Brandon and Phillip were likewise. After strangling David in the opening scene, both men, especially Brandon, seem sexually exhilarated.

Consistent with his unique cinematic style, Hitchcock utilizes aforementioned cinematic elements to convey this theme and a vast array of others. Intellectual and lascivious justification of murder, the grotesque, arrogant and hypocritical nature of the elite, among other things makes Rope deeply disturbing. Referring back to the opening scene in terms of lighting, the backdrop of the apartment is dark with the exception of the light coming from behind the window curtains. Brandon, Phillip, David, and the burial chest are in vivid color. Hitchcock exposes the hypocrisy of the perfect murder theory. Evil in essence, hates light. As arrogant and supposedly superior they profess themselves to be, Brandon and Phillip are too cowardly to commit their sinister/heinous crime in the light for everyone to see.

As previously stated, Technicolor uses saturated levels of color to give a hyper-realistic appearance. Through this particular use of color, Brandon and Phillip grotesqueness -mental/ spiritual deformity as opposed to physicality – permeates exceedingly. They are saturated with repugnant traits – egotism, self-righteousness, aristocratic bigotry, to name a few. Cadell’s suspicion that something has happened to David comes to fruition when Brandon accidentally gives him David’s hat. Cadell leaves with the other guest only to return under the false pretense that he left his cigarette lighter. He then proceeds to make known his suspicions about David’s precarious whereabouts. Finally, through inference he replays how David might have been killed. The scene reveals the powerful cinematic effect of the long shot – skilled cinematography at its best. The panning of the camera, etc. gives one the sense of David’s presence. Via Stewart’s dialogue and the cinematography, the audience relives David’s final moments.

The thoughts of a person do not go unseen for their thoughts are soon revealed in the substance of their deeds. Thoughts constitute a person’s morals – principles of conduct or a system of beliefs which they live by or are governed accordingly. A person’s morals distinguish theirs character. The physical world is a mirror of the human mind/thought. The plethora of ills plaguing the planet and the human family today is the result of a world morally and righteously void. The long take shots and homoerotic nature of the film, made Stewart somewhat uncomfortable in the role of Rupert Cadell. In lieu of Cadell’s paradoxical and multifaceted nature however, one could see why Stewart accepted the role. In his Colombo style detective wit, Cadell figures out the crime. Most importantly, he is the initial perpetrator of Brandon and Phillip’s heinous thoughts. Brandon and Phillip take Cadell’s thoughts – perfect crime, inferior subjected to the superior – and puts them into action. Stewarts’ Cadell only further intensifies the irony, suspense, and theme of the movie. Cadell didn’t understand the power of his rhetoric. He does not divorce himself, however from the crime. Cadell realizes that he is just as guilty as Brandon and Phillip for implanting the seed. He accepts his role, alerts authorities of the crime, and remains with Brandon and Phillip for judgment. He becomes, in essence, the moral conscience of the film.

“Hitchcock could have chosen a more entertaining subject with which to use the arresting camera and staging technique displayed in Rope” stated Variety magazine in their 1948 critique of the film(Variety). The film was not one of his most well known. Suffice to say, the cringe-inducing traits exhibited by the main characters, maintain a certain level of interest to the audience. Through the lens of these deeply flawed/ grotesque personages – without being overly moralistic and literal – Hitchcock highlights the disturbing psyche of the so-called elite. Prompted by inhumane philosophies such as eugenics, bigotry, and the like etc., Rope is Hitchcock’s profound expose on human savagery at the highest level. For someone of Hitchcock’s stature, Rope should therefore be viewed as more than cinematic technical exercise.

Bibliography

Ebert, Roger. “Rope”. Web.

Saroyan, William. Web.

Truffaut, Francois Hitchcock/Truffaut: New York: Simon and Schuster, 1967.

“Rope”: Web.

“Rope Review.” Variety Magazine: Web.

Introduction

There is no specific definition on the word Jazz. To understand it better, many authors propose the use of broad definitions to incorporate all major definitions of jazz ranging from its origin, composition and its style of performance. The origin of Jazz music can be traced back to the late 20^th century around 1895. Some authors allege that Jazz was formed as a result of the emergence of African American population in the North. Others argue that Jazz was formed to bring in a new flavor to music and reduce the monopoly of music such as Ragtime and Blues. The first Jazz music was played by African- Americans and the Creole. They were initially slaves before migrating to New Orleans where they mixed their African music with the European music to form Jazz music. There are various factors that influenced the formation of Jazz music; for instance urbanization and the migration of black slaves to the North.

Origin of jazz

Jazz, is said to have originated from the black population that existed in the early 20^th century in New Orleans. The black Creoles from New Orleans were French and Spanish speakers whose origin was West Indies. They were poor, uneducated and lived on the streets. They entrenched their sub-culture into the America culture and their settlement in America gave birth to the formation of jazz music. Jazz is believed to have originated from a combination of African rhythms and European rhythms where, the African rhythms supplied the strong beat while European rhythms provided the dance rhythms. The combination of the two resulted into the swing style employed by jazz.

New Orleans music

New Orleans music had a strong contribution to the emergence of jazz music. Notably, the establishment of Storyville in 1897 saw the surge of live jazz bands in the legendary red-light district. This street was filled with prostitutes and their clients who were eager to be entertained. Therefore, jazz band was in high demand in bars and brothels along the Red light Street. This led to the formation of many band groups to accommodate the demand. In addition, New Orleans music had marching bands that employed various instruments such as the brass and reeds which were tuned to form European 12-tone scale and drums. These bands used to perform in African- American organized funerals. These instruments employed in the bands were later incorporated to form instruments of jazz music. Traveling by the black community to perform the New Orleans music in various shows further contributed to the emergence and spread of jazz music. Jazz spread as far as northern and western cities due to the influence of New Orleans music. Jelly Roll Morton who begun his jazz career in Storyville is among some of the beneficiaries of New Orleans music. His music which was published in 1915 introduced many more musicians to New Orleans style that eventually led to formation of jazz music. Two years later, Original Dixieland Jazz Band made their debut with “Lively Stable Blues” hence becoming the earliest jazz recording. This led to various other bands recording with songs with the word ‘Jazz’ as their brand name. This shows how New Orleans music was influential in the formation of jazz music.

Complexity of music

Jazz, combined elements of Blues, marching band music, Ragtime, Hymns, and spirituals and work music. However, it differed from the rest due to the element of improvisation which required interpretation of the tune by the singer. Jelly Roll Morton claimed to be the inventor of jazz in 1902. He argued that the complexity in jazz was brought about by his introduction of a swinging syncopation in non-jazz music such as the blues and ragtime. He introduced many improvisational ideas such as the Scat singing and the 2-bar break. Conversion of non-jazz to jazz involved what he called “application of a strong underlying 4/4 beat to 2/4 beat.” This was the complexity of jazz music that further contributed to its expansion. Due to the uneducated nature of the Creoles, Jazz provided ground for the exhibition of their talent. Music used to be complex in that it was structured around memorization and written work. It required that an individual must have had basic education. However, jazz paved way to the Creoles who were uneducated to participate in music. Jazz required individual interpretation of tunes and was not aligned to a given pattern or involved repetition of tune in the same way. Therefore, creativity rather than pattern characterized jazz music.

Socio-political

In 1894, the racial discrimination law forced Creoles to live in the street. This discrimination act resulted to Creoles living on their own on a different street with other white Americans. They became poor, illiterate and uncultured. Therefore, they resorted to formation of bands to sing in order to entertain at the same time earn a living. They resorted to sight reading and correct performance as a form of their learning and music style. Contrary to their counterparts who were educated and performed well organized music such as blues, gospel music and work songs they had no organization in their music. Soon, the Creoles music caused a spark in the American music industry with the formation jazz. Ferdinand Lamenthe explains how Jazz piece such as Tiger Gag emerged out of dances such as French quadrille, the waltz and the polka during that period of racial discrimination (White, 46).

Cultural factors

Jazz was perceived by the elderly to be immoral and that it led to the erosion of their culture. On the other hand, the youths, who were in there twenties perceived it as a modern trend of music. This led to conflict of interest between the youths and the elderly. Particularly, banning the sale of alcoholic drinks in the United States resulted during the Prohibition years (1920-1933) resulted into formation of Speakeasies. Speakeasies were organizations that were formed illegally to sell alcohol during the Prohibition period. During this period, it was illegal to produce, sell or distribute alcohol. These speakeasies encouraged live bands among other things. It is worth noting that, prostitution and other criminal activities were done in these speakeasies. Therefore, entertainment was required leading to emergence of jazz bands to perform in the speakeasies. Though jazz established itself as a result of these speakeasies, the elderly population perceived it as immoral music that would erode their culture. However, the youths enjoyed it leading to its further growth (White, 46).

In conclusion, it can be asserted that jazz began with the African-American population who were initially slaves. It combined European rhythms with African rhythms to form jazz. Various factors helped in it the evolution and spread of jazz such as socio-political factors, cultural factors, music complexity of jazz and above all New Orleans. Over the years since its inception, jazz has undergone various transformations

Works cited

The Red Hot Jazz Archive. 2009. Web.

White, Avron. Lost in Music: Culture, Style and the Musical Event. Taylor & Francis, 1987. 12-50

The abundance of products makes producers add you create products with added value (it is often associated with the concept of fashion). It is clear that customers are not ready to spend their money on some goods, but they are now looking for fashionable things. It is possible to identify several trends that were topical in 2014 (see table 1).

Table 1. Fashion Trends in 2014

It is necessary to note that the trends were quite successful during the year. More so, most of them have entered the new fashion year. As for apparel, light-hearted 90s forms have been topical this year. It can be explained by people’s desire to look young and active as well as trendy. Geometric forms (square cardigans and coats) have also been trendy.

It is unusual and quite comfortable. Celebrities wear such things and promulgate these trends. It is possible to assume that people are seeking for comfort and some unusual details. This trend is likely to remain the same as fashion shows of the next year have similar trends with only a few deviations.

As for accessories, massive jewelry and leather and fur bags /purses/shoes have been in fashion this year. Huge stones and metal necklaces were a good and bright detail for geometrical forms. These details help people reveal their personalities, which is very important for contemporary people.

The trend is likely to remain in fashion as people are still eager and will be eager to reveal their personalities and identities through meaningful details and bright accessories. It is also important to add that technology has penetrated this sphere as well. Accessories for cell phones and other devices have become very popular and are likely to remain in fashion next year.

As far as home furnishing is concerned, brass and metal (or polished) surfaces have been popular this year. It is possible to assume that this trend has been in fashion due to its practical value. Such surfaces are very practical and very stylish. Colorful accessories and patterns have become the necessary frame for the brass and metal trend. Eastern patterns are also becoming more popular due to interactions with such cultures as Japanese and Chinese. People are opening these cultures to themselves and trying to add some patterns to their homes.

Finally, trends in cars also reflect the trends found in society. People try to personalize their cars through tuning, rimming, and adding details to their wheels. Cars have become an important part of people’s lives, and they also are seen as objects that may reflect people’s features of character.

The new trends that are coming next year in the world of apparel fashion are 90s forms and flowery patterns (“Spring 2015 Ready-to-Wear”). It is possible to note that the trends will be successful in 2015 (especially flowery patterns). It is possible to develop certain criteria to evaluate the successfulness of the trend (see table 2).

It is clear that trends are cohesive. In other words, trends replicate or become a contrast to previous fashion canons. Coverage is also very important, as the more people will be able to follow the trend, the more successful it will remain. Finally, the concepts of timeliness are also important, as some trends can possess an aspect, which will always be in fashion.

Table 2. Criteria for Trends’ Evaluation

It is possible to conclude that the two trends are likely to remain quite strong in 2015, but flowery patterns will be more successful than the 90s forms. The criteria of successfulness helped identify some aspects of the flowery patterns that make them more resistant to the change of trends.

Works Cited

Rufca, Sarah. Five Hot Home Décor Trends for 2014. 2014. Web. 11 Dec. 2014. <http://www.chron.com/life/home/design/article/Five-hot-home-decor-trends-for-2014-5565293.php>.

Spring 2015 Ready-to-Wear. Web. 11 Dec. 2014. <http://www.style.com/fashion-shows/spring-2015-ready-to-wear>.