Underground But Known

Invincible

Waajeed

To reflect on the class session on March 23^rd, I felt so privileged to be in the same room as Invincible and Waajeed. As I entered class and saw that we had guests, I was immediately confused and excited. I was confused and excited because I knew Dr. Raimist had something special in store for us, I just didn’t know what exactly. The guests that were in the classroom were Detroit natives, Invincible and Waajeed. They are very successful independent music artists. They were on our campus to shoot a music video with students from one of Dr. Raimist’s classes and wanted stop by and speak with us. They discussed several topics in our class time from the development of music and music video to the significance of social networking. The discussion was very informational and educational.

As Invincible and Waajeed played their music for the class, I realized how much meaning was in each lyric of the song. It is full of emotions and feelings that tackled hard topics that no one wants to discuss but should. The music was high quality and unique from music we hear on the radio everyday. To hear music with so much feeling and soul, reminded me of old school real music. I even thought about deleting half of the songs off of my iPod. They also showed us some of their music videos and the making of one video. I really enjoyed the music video and felt like the video fit well with the lyrics of each song.

Invincible and Waajeed discussed the significance of social networking like Facebook, Twitter. They even have their own individual websites. They told the class that they preferred not to use social networking but they had to for job purposes. I found this very odd because I love social networking and use it for everything as a college student. Waajeed explain that he uses Twitter to communicate with other artists to collaborate on songs. From this discussion, we realized how important social networking is to the music world.

It was an honor to sit and talk with musical and social networking experts. It was even more of an honor for the artists, Invincible and Waajeed to be successful artists even though they are independent. I applaud the fact that they refused to let record labels and money compromise themselves as individuals and their act because their art is absolutely beautiful.

Sources for Final Project

Works Cited Page for Final Project

Choi, V.Y. "Anthropology 2.0: Building Communities and Bridging Worlds Using Digital Technology." Www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086.523618. The University of Chicago Press. Web.

Snickars, Pelle, and Patrick Vonderau. The YouTube Reader. Stockholm: National Library of Sweden, 2009. Print.

Wallflower Press. Web. 22 Mar. 2011. <http://www.wallflowerpress.co.uk/product/film-media/youtube_reader>.

"Who Tube? How YouTube’s News and Politics Space Is Going Mainstream." The International Journal of Press/Politics. Web. 22 Mar. 2011. <http://hij.sagepub.com/content/15/4/499>.

"YouTube - An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. Web. 22 Mar. 2011. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPAO-lZ4_hU>.

"YouTube - Reasons "Why We Tube?"" YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. Web. 22 Mar. 2011. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmnZaSIulZU>.

"YouTube - The History of YouTube." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. Web. 22 Mar. 2011. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2NQiVcdZRY>.

""The YouTube Reader" | MetaFilter." MetaFilter | Community Weblog. Web. 22 Mar. 2011. <http://www.metafilter.com/84493/The-YouTube-Reader>.

The Video Voice

The state of online video lies in the hands of video- sharing website, YouTube.com. Online video has grown in popularity because it gives internet users the opportunity to express themselves creativity. It also gives users a voice and sense of individuality. Since any of the users can upload a video, home videos are the most popular online content. Kristen Purcell states that, “Seven in ten adult internet users (69%) have used the internet to watch or download video. That represents 52% of all adults in the United States.” These video sharing websites cover several categories that remain very popular among adult internet users. Some of these categories are humorous, educational, movies, TV shows, and political videos. All of these videos are enjoyed and watched by adult internet users with all different likes and interests. YouTube.com was created for everyday people which make the site so popular. It is even used to expose media to other media. Videos on video-sharing websites like YouTube are considered media and when viewers like certain video they usually share the video on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. Video sharing sites allow your own creations to become brought to the public from just a home, web camera. Purcell explained that, “On the other side of the camera, video creation has now become a notable feature of online life.” Video-sharing sites have become so popular that users are combining their actual life with their online life. The separation between the two has been blurred. Even though the separation is blurred, viewers are watching more than ever before. Since we have been given the opportunity to broadcast ourselves, users and viewers are taking advantage. By people taking advantage of this fact, the state of online video is very stable and influential.

Fishbook

Catfish - a diverse group of ray-finned fish.

During our last class, I was entertained and quite frankly disturbed by a movie called, “Catfish”. Catfish was basically about a talented photographer from New York City who begins a friendship with a talented, young painter from a small town in Michigan. The photographer was in his mid twenties and the girl was 8 years old. The friendship began through the popular social network, Facebook. This friendship may seem extremely odd to you but the 8 year old girl, Abby sent the photographer messages on Facebook about one of his photos in the New York Times for which she decided to paint. The photographer was so intrigued and interested by the little girl’s artwork. After communicating back and forth with Abby and the rest of her family, they all grew a strong bond for each other. Megan, Abby’s older sister and the photographer made a strong connection and developed an online relationship.  But this strong bond quickly dissolves when the photographer discovers a path of lies especially from Megan. When the lies become too much for the photographer to handle, he visits Abby’s small town for answers. The answers that he discovers are way more than he could have ever expected.

Although the film was very entertaining and caught my attention, I questioned the authenticity of the film as a whole. By that I mean, how many grown professional men have conversations on Facebook with eight year old girls? Not many at all because it is inappropriate and simply creepy. Then I felt that a man would have to have a low self-esteem or feel really lonely to begin a relationship with someone without ever meeting in person. I remember when I first started my Facebook profile; they asked whether I was looking for friendships, relationships or all of the above. I clicked on the friendship box because I couldn’t imagine myself beginning a relationship through my computer screen even in this mediated world. In this mediated world, people are changing their personality and image but it still doesn’t give anyone the right to manipulate anyone else for their own personal security or pleasure. The woman who played Angela which was Abby’s mother in the film portrayed as 15 people on Facebook. All of these people had different personalities and gender and were all friends on Facebook with the main character, the photographer. Even though this is the most interesting part of the film, I felt that it couldn’t be completely real because of the amount of effort it takes to keep this separate life intact. If it was indeed real then Angela must have some sort of mental disorder and needs medical help.