The Digital Past

The medium of the message carries over to almost everything we encounter. Even learning about history in elementary school. Growing up we never thought to question the textbook, it was seen as superior and since we didn’t know better we just went with it. Also to question the teacher was seen as disrespectful or annoying because we are told they are superior to us. However,  nowadays we need to question everything because anyone can gain access to information and use it to support their arguments. It is never known if something on the internet is 100% true. How do I know that what I am being told in this class is accurate? As individuals, we have to question everything that we are told and think for ourselves.

Miller’s book, Segregating Sound brought the “musical color line” to light, highlighting segregation and how folk music falsely depicted life in the south for a black person. Folklore was not an accurate representation of the southern sound according to Miller because it altered the sound and style of authentic music in the south. He claimed folklore was a part of a bigger, political movement, which included the Jim Crow segregation.”The cultural component of segregation, typified by the musical color line, was in some ways more successful than its legal counterpart, its narrative of discrete racial and regional cultures remaining ensconced long after the doctrine of separate but equal ceased to be the law of the land.”(Miller, 7) This means that the cultural aspect had a much bigger impact on the segregation of blacks and whites than the political aspect did.

I agree with Miller that the cultural component has more of an effect on how different cultures view each other. If you think about it you are more entitled to listen to what members of your own cultural think, and you would also pick up on their stereotypes towards others.

Segregation is a topic in general that frustrates me and that is hard for me to grasp. The color of someone’s skin should not have anything to do with how they are treated, but this is not the world we live in. Political segregation was much stronger than popular segregation in the past, therefore, I believe music was one of the things that helped to bring people together.

As we discussed before, the minstrel shows were meant to show the black culture through their music. I believe this was a step towards integrated cultures. Even though in my opinion the shows were insulting to the black culture and amplified the stereotypes put on black people. Another way music has helped to bring cultures together is the instruments, which were native to other parts of the country. Like the steel guitar from Hawaii.

The media is the message can definitely apply to music and how different styles have their own twist/sound. The song “Honky Tonkin’ “is sung with a heavy accent or known as yodeling to make it clearly sound like country music, however, the lyrics have nothing to do with anything to what “the country” is. What the message is, does not matter, it is how the message is delivered.

The history of the swing beat, just like minstrel music is present in a lot of modern music. The swing beat just is not as obvious/easy to pick up on throughout the song. It all depends were the emphasis or accent is on the beat. Is it on the 2 and 4 or the 1 and 3? It was interesting to hear the song “Oh Sweet Child of Mine” by Guns n Roses sang in a different cultural style, imagining the original sung in a swing beat is quite odd, but as I mentioned earlier most popular American music has swing beat undertone.

I was very interested in the steel guitar and the culture and history that comes along with it. The “sacred steel’s” roots come from Hawaii. In addition to this information, I also learned that white country music has taken this and integrated it in. Along with African roots as well.

Since we take different types of music and combine them together is that the same thing as clicking and dragging in a track on Garage Band? In my opinion, taking clips that have deep cultural meanings and throwing them on a random track is unethical. Also, as an individual who played an instrument for four years, I think this devalues the skills of musicians since anyone can just type in the word “drum” and simulate the real thing because I know what it is like to put in the time in order to learn how to play an instrument and read music. Therefore, Garage Band takes away the effort put in by others who actually have a passion for music and play an instrument.

Minstrel performers took music from black performers and made it their own. In order to be a successful minstrel performer, you had to be authentic. Many claimed they traveled to the south and had heard first hand the black musicians play their music. The black men used what resources they had to make their music, which is why it was so authentic. For example, instead of a drum, they would use their hands and feet to create a beat. In a sense, the white man “stole” their music and made it popular. Many would dress up as black men and perform. This would put an emphasis on their “whiteness”.  Also, the posters that advertised the shows would make the white men who were painted black look strange and unnatural, this would draw people in. The sound of white people imitating black people eventually turned into what we know today as country music.

Today in class we talked about how the internet is not owned by one company/person and it does not have a core. No one is really filtering what goes on the internet; anyone can share their there information. This makes it easier for people to gain knowledge and access an unlimited amount of information at your fingertips. Originally, the internet was made this way as a precaution so no one person/country could use it against us and wipe it out.

In my opinion, this is very important. I don’t believe that any one person/company should be able to have a complete monopoly over something that is as powerful as the internet. Although many argue that we are always being monitored by the government through the internet. This is both comforting and kind of just creepy. On one hand, it is comforting because so many people want to attack the United States and many attempts are detected and put to a stop because the government monitors the internet. On the other hand, it is alarming because it seems like we are always being monitored. If you think about it our iPhones are always listening, waiting for the command “Hey Siri”.

I was very intrigued by our discussion of how Google works. The meaning of the message does not matter it is the patterns that matter. Such as letters frequently next to each other like vowels.  I never knew or really put much thought into how search engines work. It is mind-blowing how fast search engines receive the message, interpret it, and then give results. In multiple languages too! Because the information doesn’t matter it makes the message receiving more efficient for multiple languages. However, reducing everything to information and taking the meaning out can affect how the message is interpreted. For example, using clips from gospel music and throwing them onto a track in Garage Band may offend some people because the meaning is taken away.

Can our generation get through a whole book? Some argue that today’s technology soiled our ability to read things without getting distracted by our surroundings. I find this somewhat true. Personally, it is hard for me to completely unplug and give something my undivided attention. I spend way too much time on my phone. Even when I am doing homework I have it next to me and frequently check it when I get bored with the material. I will try to make more of an effort to spend less time on my cell phone and to apply myself to my work.

It was very interesting to see how different computing was in the past and how it has evolved. The size of the machine they used was incredible. However, compared to what we’re used to nowadays it seems very inconvenient because of how massive it is and was tedious to use, due to the fact that multiple people were required to use it. Also, these machines cost the government millions during the Cold War (“Military Industrial Complex”). Another way the computing machines differ from computers we have today is how we put them to work. During the Cold War time period, the analog machines were used to calculate information needed to assist the military. Computing has evolved from being analog to digital, which is more efficient.