Isys100 - Final Vlog

After all the memories, it is time for Mad Jams blog to say goodbye. We hope that you have enjoyed our content and as a parting gift, have created a short Vlog for our loyal viewers.

Thank you,

Dean, Matt, Jack, Akhil.

Isys 100 - Group Report

Isys100 -Blog Report

Constantinos (Dean) Vosnakis, Matt Arnold, Jack Delaney & Akhil Arya.

1. Explain why you chose the blog topic and your decision on the final design of the blog.

Having discussed several different topics including; food, movies, television shows and sports. As a team we concluded that music is an ideal topic to explore as a team, as it would provide us with a large array of controversial topics that would encourage page views and discussion. We ultimately decided to look at a mixture of reviewing the latest or classic songs and analysing current trends in the music industry. As a team we felt that we could write content that was new, fresh and exciting to read.

The blog design is a minimalistic style design, we wanted to keep it simple, clean and elegant. From the logo and name designed with the first letters of the names of our team, to the tour bus driving in the background everything on the page makes sense relating to our topic. The colours and backgrounds compliment the overall theme of the blog while not detracting from the content.

2. How does the video in the last post relate to your blog? how does each member in your group contribute to the process of making the vlog?

The vlog portrays how the Mad Jams content is created, whether it be from listening to music while walking your dog, completing assignments or going for a drive. When music is heard and ideas are sparked it is the duty of Mad Jams blogs to provide our loyal readers with our content. You never know when or where inspiration will strike, so the vlog shows that we are always prepared and put the blog content over our daily lives on a regular basis.

Each member of the team has their own 30-40 second segment filmed by themselves, where they show how they get inspiration to write their content. Making a vlog is a challenging exercise to accomplish with work commitments often ruining plans. So as a team, we though this approach would work best for us.

3. What were the largest challenges with a team assignment?

There are many challenges that a team assignment can bring. Luckily for Mad Jams, every team member worked well together and there was no personality clashes. The biggest challenge that we faced as a team was time management and the effect that had on the constant stream of blogs being published. The majority of our group are mature age students who are working fulltime, hence it is hard to dedicate much time throughout the week on writing blog content affecting our organisation as a whole. This also impacted our ability to come into university on different days as most of us had work commitments. Considering this, we would all agree that our blogs could have been posted slightly more consistently but on the overall scale of thing, we are happy with our final product.

Another challenge we did not anticipate was the vlog itself, with each of us having little to no experience using editing software, it was difficult to firstly film content then edit it together with other content. This proved to be more difficult than first thought and required a lot more time and effort than we had originally thought. But working together we helped each other out to achieve a result that we are happy with.

4. Compare a blog that has similar content to your blog and critically analyse your site comparing to theirs (layout, usability, content, delivery style, etc). Provide a URL to their blog.

www.pitchfork.com

Pitchfork is widely regarded as one of the most influential music blogs on the internet and it is not hard to see why when examining their content. Pitchfork has similar content to that of Mad Jams but takes it up a level to include a more thorough coverage of the industry, not just music. Pitchfork looks at reviews, best new music, artists, festivals and a lot more to extensively cover the music industry.

The layout of the blog is somewhat similar to Mad Jams blog, it is not extravagant, it is clean organised and effective in portraying its content. It is set out well with easy navigation to the section you are after. Where Pitchfork differentiates itself from Mad Jams, is its usability and content, the sheer amount of diversified content is staggering and the ease of finding and accessing that content is highlighted by their use of tabs, featured articles and easy to navigate sections. This is an area where Mad Jams could improve to display our content like Pitchfork and make it easy and straightforward to use the blog. They also differ in their delivery style, they use a box model which portrays each of their different sections and diversified topics for readers to easily navigate. In contrast Mad Jams simply does not have enough content to do so and have differed by providing our stories with a sidebar allowing quick access to our other content. However, considering that Pitchfork has 35 paid employees, it is easy to see why Mad Jams with just 4 volunteers does not quite reach up to Pitchforks high standards.

The future aim of Mad Jams blogs is to move towards a point where they can display our blog in the style of Pitchfork in terms of its sheer content, delivery style and usability.

How long is the radio going to last?

Radio, do we even listen to it any more?
When do we listen to it? at work? in the car? Me personally, i barely listen to the radio. But when i was a child i remember the radio being very prominent. As a family we would have it playing outside as the children played. Going to and from the shops the radio would be blaring in the car.

But now as i look at my day to day life i wonder..... Where did the radio go? Some people still love the radio and listen to it on a day to day basis. But as CD's and MP3's player hit the market, and now the new age of "apps" we're starting to listen less and less of the radio.

With Apps like Spotify where we can demand the music we want to listen to on the fly. Starts to rule out the need for music on the radio. The availability of "pod casts" where we can listen to 1 hour long clips of almost absolutely anything. Are these all starting to destroy the radio industry or are these giving the radio more and more content?

In my opinion based off my own personal experience. I believe it is starting to destroy the radio industry. I now find no need for the radio. I burn CDs of the music that i want to listen that I find in my music library on my computer which I access to virtually anywhere. I have thousands of songs stored on my phone that allows me to listen to any given song at any given moment.

In my day to day life I find very little need for the radio any more. Not long back i was working as a labourer and even then people were starting to not listen to the radio but more play music from there phones through the use of speakers.

So urge you to just ponder for 5 minutes. Where is the radio for you now? Do you still listen to it on a regular basis? or are you now someone like me? that really has no need for it any more.

The N word

In today’s society we account racism as one of the biggest issues. Anyone that says it no longer exists is lying. To this day we’ve been having riots over this issue, and one of the biggest “no no’s” is the N word. No one likes saying it, and nobody likes hearing it. But what happens when you hear it in all these rapper’s songs, every second line. Why is it acceptable for them?

Now as adults we know that the N word isn’t tolerable no matter what the circumstance, however, the younger generation may not, and after listening to one or two RnB songs may begin to use the word. What happens then? Who gets blamed?

Truth is maybe if we want racist to come closer to an end, and the N word to be forgotten, it should no longer be used in songs. However, a lot of people say if you’re from a ‘black’ background or decent, the n word is fine to use, and most rappers today are all from black decent. But what happens when we sing along to this music or make a cover, does it then become acceptable for us too?

No probably not, because these rappers are reappropriating the word, by which a cultural group reclaims the term that was previously disapproving by the group and making it theirs. So to the thousands of people out there who think that the word is unnecessary in rappers albums, to them it is. And that’s what rap is all about expressing yourself and your pain through your music.

Is the hate that singers receive too harsh?

Everyone has that one singer that they can’t stand. No matter how many times they listen to the artist. No matter how many of their friends like the singer. They just can’t stand the sound of their voice. Now not liking a singer is fine, not everyone likes the same music, but do they deserve the hate they get from us.

Iggy Azalea could possibly be the most hated artist in the music industry at the moment, and recently her vine of her performing DRUGS live for her fans has gone viral after she got her lines tongue twisted.

The Australian singer copped heaps of hate for this vine, with hundreds of parodies of the video still coming out every week. And being labelled as one of the worst rappers of all time.

This wasn’t the only occasion however, Iggy also went on the world renowned morning radio show, Sway in the Morning. Where she rapped a freestyle performance as an MC for the show. Moments after freestyling, the show received a call from a listener, where a male aggressively abused the rapper as being a ‘terrible rapper and should get the hell off the radio’. Now Azalea didn’t seem to react at the caller, just laughed it off and continued her interview, but man that would’ve hurt. It’s these comments that get us to question whether they deserve it.

There’s no doubt that the comments hurt. Lady Gaga took her pain to twitter when she received criticism for her new album ‘Artpop’. Personally I don’t like Lady Gaga, but that’s my opinion, others could love her. Truthfully all hate is going to be harsh, but that’s what comes to those living in the spot light. You’re going to have your fans and you’re going to have your haters, it’s whether you’re going to let them affect you that matters. Or whether you’re going to use it to your ability, and maybe make song lyrics about it.

“Haters keep on hating, cause somebody’s gotta do it” – Chris Brown.

Star Wars in Hip Hop

I will never hide it - I’m a huge Star Wars fan. My parents raised me on the original (and best) trilogy. I’d spend hours as a young kid pretending my flashlight or TV remote was a lightsaber. While I was to young to remember these early years, Mum and Dad tell me how obsessed I was with Han, Chewie, Luke and the gang. Then in 1999 when I was 5, The Phantom Menace, the first of the prequel trilogy was released. This trilogy didn’t end until 2005, when I was 11. This meant that I’d grown up with Star Wars an important part of my life, and definitely my favourite movie series of all time. To this day,  I’m obsessed with anything and everything star wars, and can’t wait for the new trilogy to begin in December this year.

The original star wars movie, A New Hope, debuted in 1977. That means for 38 years Star Wars has been a part of society in some capacity. There is a history of Star Wars references in almost all media, which shows the universality and popularity of the series. With the impending release of The Force Awakens, the latest instalment in the series; I thought it would be fitting to explore the history of Star Wars references in Hip Hop.

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Song: Eminem - Rainman

Lyrics: “He used to be like a hero to me / I even believe I had one of those 25-cent stickers on my refrigerator right next to Darth Vader / And Darth must have put a hex on him for later.”

Song: Lupe Fiasco - Failure

Lyrics:  “No plaque but a whole lot of cheese / This the drill / Mr. Chill gave me the green light like Yoda knife.”

Song: The Notorious B.I.G - Hypnotize

Lyrics: “Tell them ho take they clothes off slowly / Hit ‘em with the Force like Obi…”

Song: A Tribe Called Quest - Wild Hot

Lyrics: “No, ‘cause he move like the wind, in flight / Counter-attack like a Jedi Knight.”

Song: Eminem - Stay Wide Awake

Lyrics: “How you cower / Jump out on you now like I was Jawa from fucking ‘Star Wars’ / Jabba the Hutt, beddy-bye-bye”

Song: Mf Doom - Hoe Cakes

Lyrics: “Smackin rookies, he is the ‘Super!’ / Look like a black wookie when he let his beard grow”

Song: Busta Rhymes - Woo Hah!! Got You All In Check

Lyrics: “Through like G.I. Joe / ‘Star Wars’ movie deal like Han Solo / Make you bounce around like this was calypso”

Song: Inspectah Deck - Hellz Wind

Lyrics: “Lethal weapon, step through your section with the Force like Luke Skywalker / Rhyme author, orchestrate mind torture.”

Song: Method Man - Bring The Pain

Lyrics: “Who da boss? Niggaz get tossed to the side and I’m the dark side of the Force”

Song: Blow Your Mind - Redman

Lyrics: “Next to Yoda I’m a Star at War…”

Song: Rocking with the G.O.A.T - LL Cool J

Lyrics: “LL the boss, like luke wit the force / My techniques ugly, dirty like rugby / Drop jewels like yoda my young students love me”

Song: Rap Phenomenon - The Notorious B.I.G Ft. Redman & Method Man

Lyrics: Star Wars I’m Han Solo, with three egoes / And three charges, I got to “See-three-P.O.’s”

Song: Mic Check - Malice

Lyrics: “I was in the spot from the First to the Fifth / With a mean come-back like the Return of the Sith!”

Song: Booby Trap - RZA

Lyrics: “Pocket fat be Jabba the Hutt”

Song: NYC Crack - Wu-Tang Clan (RZA)

Lyrics: “Deep in space like the Millenium Falcon”

Song: Drink, Smoke & Fuck - RZA

Lyrics: “Her cousin Tawanna, she’s hairy like Chewbacca”

Song: Bob N’l - RZA

Lyrics: “I’m in the clouds like my man Calrissian (and) Lando, bust shows like Marlon Brando”

Song: U-God - Coke (Raekwon)

Lyrics: “You know we cool and we Darth Vaders / Always in black uniforms, rocking Clarks and sharp gators”

Song: Black Friday - Mellowhype (Tyler, The Creator)

Lyrics: “So much fucking white make Darth Vader have a dimmer force”

Song: The Stand - Childish Gambino

Lyrics: “I keep a lightsaber like I fuck around with Greedo”

Song: Happy Valentine’s Day – Outkast

Lyrics: “Han Solo till I’m hit by the bullet, so may the Force/Be with you, and I’ll hit you when better time permits.”

Song: Shaolin Worldwide – Wu-Tang Clan

Lyrics: “The Jedi only use The Force if ya force me / Shaolin What? Don’t get it fucked up and cross me.”

Song: Do It – Beastie Boys

Lyrics: “Like gravy on potatoes / Luke to Darth Vader / I’m a souped-up sucker and I’ll see you all later.”

Song: Gone – Kanye West

Lyrics: “If they ever flip sides like Anakin / You would sell everything, including the mannequin”

Song: Change Clothes - Jay Z

Lyrics: “Let I breathe, Jedi Knight;/The more space I get the better I write/Whenever I write/But if ever I write/I need the space to say whatever I like”

Song:  Feel It – House of Pain 

Lyrics: “So catch me if you can, you know I’m the man like Chewbacca knows Han…  Solo”

Song: Party No Mo - Ludacris

Lyrics: “And I keep the hood with me like Obi-Wan Kenobi”

Song: Get By - Talib Kweli

Lyrics: “We sell, crack to our own out the back of our homes / We smell the musk at the dusk in the crack of the dawn / We go through ‘Episodes II,’ like ‘Attack of the Clones’ / Work ’til we break our back and you hear the crack of the bone”

When you imagine Star Wars fans, I bet I know what comes to mind. An overweight middle aged man, balding, a tight shirt accentuating his man boobs with the crumbs from his devoured chip packet coating his belly; below his greasy, acne ridden face.  Living in the basement of his mother's house, spending all day playing video games and abusing people on the internet. This imaginary Star Wars fan probably visits comic book conventions too, hiding his dishevelled frame inside a Stormtrooper outfit.

This article shows that Star Wars breaks through all barriers, when rappers - who I'd say are probably the functional opposite to 'nerds' in that the former are generally regarded as 'cool' people embrace the movies. I just implore you not to discard the thought that when you think of this imaginary star wars fan, remember, it could be your favourite rapper hiding under that stormtrooper helmet.

Do good looks matter in the music industry?

We see all of these music competitions on TV, on a regular basis now days, X Factor, American Idol and The Voice. Where new contestants audition each year and are chosen to sing against each other to become the next international sensation. Every year somewhere throughout the series they have a makeover segment, to remodel the contestants to match their singing genre more. Is this segment of the show really necessary? Do we really categorise singers to their looks?

What happened to music being for the ears? Now we have ever musician making music videos to go with the song, sometimes not even having anything to do with the track. Is this making it harder for musicians that are insecure about their looks, or is it possible, just a lot harder for them to become big?

We’ve got Ed Sheeran and he’s not the best looking guy, but man do his songs sound good. Straight from the heart for all those young lovers out there. He really does show that music comes from the heart and looks don’t matter. He’s got a huge fan base behind him too. He doesn’t dress that flashy either, just simple t-shirts and casual hoodies, which everyday people wear. On some level him not dressing to match his wealth is good, just means that he’s successful for his singing and not his looks. Lorde isn’t the most gorgeous girl either, far from it actually, but her success is off the charts at the moment. The winner of 2 Grammy awards, for song of the year and best pop solo performance, quite prestigious awards. Maybe it’s just the singing and the vocals that matter. Then why do all these TV shows, give their contestants all these makeovers?