Guglielmo Marconi's invention of the wireless telegraph / two way radio, began laying the ground work for the shaping of radio industry.
When the Titanic crashed into an iceberg, the two way radio connected the world to a catastrophic incident far from land, shortly after it happened. The word of the event from this direct correspondence, spread like wildfire. Not only were people lives saved from such an alert, but many people followed the event, were normally they could not have. The government realized the power of such a medium, and it didn't take long for them to wield their powerful axe in the name of the "public good", and in fear of other countries getting control first. With the Radio Act of 1912, government regulation took control of one man's vision of this new form of communication.
The evidence of so many people following the Titanic disaster tipped the government off to the new wave of mass attention. David Sarnoff was an operator for Marconi who saw the potential for such a medium and wrote a memo suggesting that the radio could be used as a "household music box". Putting such a device in the homes of millions, would also spur ideas for other consumption areas, such as hardware (people having to buy the actual radio device), advertising, and ideologic commercialism. It is neither here nor there, wether or not they accurately foresaw what the future would hold. If we only knew what was to come in our immediate future, maybe we could cash in on some of that new wave of technology!
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Music: Getting Famous, Now and Then
The popularization of music is an always changing thing that has an immense effect on the framing of popular ideology. The road that musicians have to walk down, has broadened in some ways and been condensed in others, leaving those without the know how, behind.
When we think of popularized musicians today, we think of young people, big concerts, Facebooking them and buying their record on Itunes. Some musicians are talented enough to cut their own records, with their own record labels, marketing and distributing it themselves (Ani Difranco, Radiohead, etc.) Most musicians go on tour, and try to build their fan base in this way, which is also what musicians did in the early era of radio. Like then, fame can happen over night, but a musician can also wait a lifetime and never get the recognition they deserve. This process has been forever changed by the new technological era we have entered.
One example of an unsung musician that has made a deep impression on the Austin music scene, is Blaze Foley. During his heyday, he was playing his way into the hearts of many. Like most musicians, he lived a life of music, parties, and boos. He was thought of as a master singer and songwriter, but never had his own home, and refused to buy a car. As one friend of his remembered him saying, "I ain't gonna buy a car until I can afford a Cadillac." He had a huge following locally and even recorded a few songs, but being homeless and penniless made it hard for him to promote himself to the point of making a decent living. He could not keep track of his own records, resulting in some of his music being lost in time, and now most of his music rests in the minds of his friends and fans. Thanks to new technologies and the efforts of people like Lost Art Records and Sybil Rosen, stories of Blaze Foley and his unheard songs are becoming heard. His art works have been held and adored by the people he knew, over the years, but are now being brought back to the surface, so that he will be remembered forever!
http://www.blazefoley.com/
When we think of popularized musicians today, we think of young people, big concerts, Facebooking them and buying their record on Itunes. Some musicians are talented enough to cut their own records, with their own record labels, marketing and distributing it themselves (Ani Difranco, Radiohead, etc.) Most musicians go on tour, and try to build their fan base in this way, which is also what musicians did in the early era of radio. Like then, fame can happen over night, but a musician can also wait a lifetime and never get the recognition they deserve. This process has been forever changed by the new technological era we have entered.
One example of an unsung musician that has made a deep impression on the Austin music scene, is Blaze Foley. During his heyday, he was playing his way into the hearts of many. Like most musicians, he lived a life of music, parties, and boos. He was thought of as a master singer and songwriter, but never had his own home, and refused to buy a car. As one friend of his remembered him saying, "I ain't gonna buy a car until I can afford a Cadillac." He had a huge following locally and even recorded a few songs, but being homeless and penniless made it hard for him to promote himself to the point of making a decent living. He could not keep track of his own records, resulting in some of his music being lost in time, and now most of his music rests in the minds of his friends and fans. Thanks to new technologies and the efforts of people like Lost Art Records and Sybil Rosen, stories of Blaze Foley and his unheard songs are becoming heard. His art works have been held and adored by the people he knew, over the years, but are now being brought back to the surface, so that he will be remembered forever!
http://www.blazefoley.com/
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Hegemony and Debauchery, Live together in perfect harmony...
When it comes to hegemony, don't get me started!! From childhood, I've always had this eerie feeling that the load of crap I was being fed, was a load of crap. It turns out, it's called hegemony. Over the years I have constructed my own ideas by questioning authority. Most of my ideals would be considered ludicrous, but they have been solidified through our class reading assignments. In my own words, hegemony is the deep seeded system that is being re-enforced continually by big money players, through big media.
I have chosen neither side of the political debate on the issue. However, I continue to seek out the truth of our current status as individual people and a collective country. I do this by paying attention to information from both sides of the fence. Below, I provide an example of each.
Right after President Obama was elected into office, all angels of the media projection were going crazy with an influx of campaign propaganda and mudslinging. In and effort to understand those who are historically and constantly in power, I was listening to a program broadcast on 1230 AM. It was far from pretty. I would listen to Micheal Savage regularly to see how ruthless he could get, and one of the things that he said really stuck in my mind. I am paraphrasing here, but it went something like this: Why don't we take all people who are currently on some kind of government aid (food stamps, tanf etc.), remove their voting rights until they repay whatever they have used, and then see if our new president would still have been the winner of the election? I'm not sure how this makes you feel but ouch! This is a low blow of the worst kind.
I, for the most part, have weened myself from mainstream television. I'll watch the occasional Animation Domination on Sunday, but find most everything else hideous. I do however, tune into John Stewart on Hulu. Now, I'm not saying that the guy doesn't propagate lies, by pretending to out the ridiculousness nonsense that goes on in congress, but he comes closer to the truth than anyone ever has had the balls to televise.
The point is, that anything we watch is going to have its own agenda, propelled by unseen forces that manipulate our airwaves and minds. Republicans watch what they want, Democrats watch what they want, and they each pass their ideas down through their lines of descendants. In this way they are able to re-enforce their ideological hegemonies. It is up to each of us to decide what load of crap we are going to buy into. Me? I'm not buying in.
http://www.michaelsavage.wnd.com/
http://www.thedailyshow.com/
I have chosen neither side of the political debate on the issue. However, I continue to seek out the truth of our current status as individual people and a collective country. I do this by paying attention to information from both sides of the fence. Below, I provide an example of each.
Right after President Obama was elected into office, all angels of the media projection were going crazy with an influx of campaign propaganda and mudslinging. In and effort to understand those who are historically and constantly in power, I was listening to a program broadcast on 1230 AM. It was far from pretty. I would listen to Micheal Savage regularly to see how ruthless he could get, and one of the things that he said really stuck in my mind. I am paraphrasing here, but it went something like this: Why don't we take all people who are currently on some kind of government aid (food stamps, tanf etc.), remove their voting rights until they repay whatever they have used, and then see if our new president would still have been the winner of the election? I'm not sure how this makes you feel but ouch! This is a low blow of the worst kind.
I, for the most part, have weened myself from mainstream television. I'll watch the occasional Animation Domination on Sunday, but find most everything else hideous. I do however, tune into John Stewart on Hulu. Now, I'm not saying that the guy doesn't propagate lies, by pretending to out the ridiculousness nonsense that goes on in congress, but he comes closer to the truth than anyone ever has had the balls to televise.
The point is, that anything we watch is going to have its own agenda, propelled by unseen forces that manipulate our airwaves and minds. Republicans watch what they want, Democrats watch what they want, and they each pass their ideas down through their lines of descendants. In this way they are able to re-enforce their ideological hegemonies. It is up to each of us to decide what load of crap we are going to buy into. Me? I'm not buying in.
http://www.michaelsavage.wnd.com/
http://www.thedailyshow.com/
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