Popular Is The Way To Be To Survive In High School

The video for "Fancy" by Iggy Azalea and Charlie XCX promotes the stereotype that only being popular and materialistic is the way to be in high school to fit in. I see this as a true work of an accepted truth because, for instance, in the beginning of the video Iggy is standing in front of a class saying, "First things first I'm the realist." At that moment you can analyze that she has the conceited demeanor as  the typical High School "popular" teenage girl. This is showing her that she is more superior than the other students in that class, which one would consider the "nerds." Also throughout the whole video she walks around with two other girls through the hallways flipping their hair and strutting. This is very much like the "Mean Girl" presentation.

The Truth about HS relationships

The video I am analyzing is "lil Wayne Prom Queen." This video shows a guy who is not popular at all but wants a girl. This girl is so popular and beautiful she is the queen. Through out high school she always wanted the popular varsity guys.The tables eventually turned when she became pregnant and lonely and Lil Wayne's career took off.

You Can Always Rely On Family

In the show "Burn Notice" and the movie "The Family" it indicates that you can always turn to family through the worst things in life. The American culture really implies that you can always rely on family when the people that you trusted turns there back on you. In the show ''burn notice'' there's a guy named Michael Westen he use to be a spy then he got black listed and they put a burn notice on him then, they put in miami where his two best friends and mom lives and he tries to do everything he can to find out who burned him.

My next analysis on why the american culture says that you could count on family is from the movie ''family''. This movie is about how a man use to work for this mafia mob and then they turn on him and want him dead so he goes to police to depend on there protection program but that false and he has to rely on his family to keep each other safe.

Girls Run the World

Beyonce's song and video "Run the World" expresses that women should stand up and stop being secondary to men. In the song Beyonce says "This goes out to all the girls that's rocking the latest who will buy it for themselves and get more money later". This verse is basically shouting out the girls that basically pay for themselves and get it right back. Independently without help from a man. In the video Beyonce and a group of women behind her are like all sexy and sassy are like battling against the a group of men standing on the other side. This song is basically stereotyping that all women are leaning on men for things. Also saying that no women that has a man or is married is not independent. Which is not true at all.

It's All About the Money

In Drake's "Worst Behavior" he implies that in an American culture people in your society really don't associate with you until you make it big in the industry or have money. He shows this in this song is when he states, "They used to never want to hear us, remember? Mother f...... remember?" What he's saying is that before he became famous people never cared about what he had to say. But now everyone all of sudden is there for him.

How to Love

The Lil Wayne "How to Love" video shows two different female characters who go through a series of events based on the outcome of there decisions. One female is portrayed as a "slut" and ends up having money problems and has a STD. The image they are trying to say is that bad girls always end up with some sort of karma. The second female character is portrayed as successful because in the video she makes money and friends and is excited when she finds out she is pregnant. The music video can be true because success can most likely lead to money and pure happiness while doing drugs and bad things can lead to a bad future.

Truths of American teens

This music video by The Offspring "The Kid Aren't Alright"  expresses and also shows problems that teens have growing up in America today. http://youtu.be/VrZ4sMRYimw. This music video goes through the life's of teens and portrays teens commuting suicide, getting pregnant by having unsafe sex, doing drugs, dropping out of school, and growing up thinking that they are worthless in life. If you watch this music video closely you will see how they express each teen by gradually switching to the next person while keeping the same figure. Is this song/music video a call for help? And is it trying to make the world more aware of the problems we may not see but problems that are there and will not go away on it's own. Teens that are commuting suicide, getting pregnant by having unsafe sex, doing drugs, dropping out of school, and growing up thinking that they are worthless in life need us to help them realize the better things in life and help this problem America faces to go away. To make this problem go away we must give more attention to the teens of America.

Painful Perfection

Beyonce's video for "Pretty Hurts" calls attention to how American culture views beauty. This video shows the reality of beauty pageants and how society's depiction can affect someone. A lyric from this song, "perfection is a disease of a nation" and "its the soul that needs the surgery" explains how society is so focused on perfection that it puts an impact on someone's mind, soul and how they view themselves. It refers to how girls at a young age are taught to be pretty and not focus on their life goals. A scene in this music video shows Beyonce's character being asked the question, "What is your aspiration in life" and she responds by saying, "I wasn't expected that question." this reinforces the fact that girls particularly in a beauty pageant to think about their life goals and just focus on being pretty or perfect, since the whole point of the pageant is to vote on which woman is the prettiest, but not based on what their life goals. This video shows some truths of American culture but does not enforce them, but instead shows how bad these depictions are

Stereotypes of Women and Men in American Pop Culture

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTHNpusq654

Katy Perry's Hot N Cold music video and song displays stereotypes/ideologies of women and men in American culture. For instant in the beginning of the music video Katy is getting married to a guy. When Katy is asked if she will take him as her husband she responds with "I do," right away. But when the guy is asked he stands their quietly. They even put in a shot of just his neck, and you see him gulp. I believe that this is a stereotype that is seen a lot in todays pop culture. The girl is overly obsessed with the guy, and the guy does not care about the girl at all. The guy "Alexander" gets cold feet and runs out of the church. The whole song is basically about how guys jump from girl to girl all the time or how guys are players. Which is a stereotype of men, and is not always true. Katy chases him out of the church like a crazy person, which goes back to the stereotype that women are obsessed with mea and love. The song, I believe also talks about how girls crawl back to guys easily. When she says, "You don't really wanna stay, no." That refers to guys moving from girl to girls quickly and getting bored easily. In conclusion this song is another of the girl chases the guy stereotypes songs just like many others.

The Old Days vs. Now, Which is Better?

Miranda Lambert's "Automatic" video talks about how the American culture used to be. The song brings up how things, and the meaning of them were worth more before things became quick and manufactured. In her song, she says,
"Hey, whatever happened to, watin' your turn
Doing it all by hand
'Cause when everything is handed to you
It's only worth as much as the time put it
It all just seemed so good the way we had it
Back before everything became automatic."

What Lambert is saying is that before we had the technology that we have now, whatever we were doing was more meaningful. Mailing a letter or "cranking" a car window down instead of emailing someone or pushing a button for the car window to work takes a little more time and effort. Yet, at the same time, without that kind of technology, our generation would find life more time-consuming. We are used to texting, emailing, and downloading music instantaneously instead of talking to someone on the phone, sending a letter, or recording music on a cassette tape. Her song is a nostalgic reflection how American culture used to be, today some would like to return to this time. The current generation likes its technology and convenience.

stereotypes

                                                                      Stereotypes

8/23/14

In this video the stereotypes of violent black males are being promoted. Its promoting violence with guns and other weapons. Its promoting drugs, alcohol and being wild and out of control.

Being Wronged by the Social Media

I would say the accepted truths or dominant ideologies I see the work of social media (when they're advertising products or in movies/trailers) or just participating on, is the simple mistakes or wrong doings made by the social media. What the social media say within commercials, trailers, and movies basically give off the same message; which is that there is no perfect woman. Within the commercials they say "your not the perfect person until you buy our product". It effects the self esteem of the viewers, and alters their thought process into thinking, "Maybe I should buy this product." The social media even realized that there is no perfect woman out there. So they alter the bodies in order to give you the illusion that there are perfect women out there. The social media uses sex appeal most of the time when advertising for guys; making some women feel insecure about themselves.

Due to the social media, these young women in this video feel insecure about their personal image. They feel that they're not good enough, they don't look good enough, "they're too fat." The social media is no help either, by the women on their commercial ads, they make the men judge too cruelly of the physical appearance of the woman. The "good girl" never gets the guy, and is therefore not popular enough. Yet the girl who sleeps with a guy, is considered "slutty" and is publicly ridiculed. Everyone is victim to a commercial one way or another, whether you realize it or not.

My point is people need to realize that you could look good without buying all these big brand products. It's the social media that gives you the thought of "In order to look good, I should buy this product." Material things may be fun to purchase, but it shouldn't play an important role, or that big of an influence in your life.

The objectification of woman

lil wayne "she will" feat. drake , This song shows how men objectify woman. Most of the time talking about getting girls, and having woman as bystanders and somewhat like servants. "now jump on that d*** and do a full split". is the first line just objectifying woman for sex.

Guys are Loyal To

Guys are Loyal To

The song "Stay With Me" by Sam Smith goes against the Ideology that guys are players who get all the girls. Sam Smith has broken up with his girl and instead of moving on and getting another women, he's asking her to stay with him. It shows that the stereotype that men are player's isn't always true. In the video we see Sam Smith begging the girl to be with him and he pours his heart out to her. This  video is a perfect example of men loving women as much as women love men.

All Girls are Different

In the television show Finding Carter they promote and participate in the traditional stereotypes about teenager girls. The show portrays two very different types of girls.  Carter is a "typical teenager" and her sister is a "nerd". Carter goes to parties, drinks, and gets all the guys, on the other hand her sister is a nerd, and doesn't do typical teenage things. Carter has black hair and dresses scandalous, while Taylor has blond hair and dresses more modest. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finding_Carter

Changes Caused by Technology

The song "Automatic" by Miranda Lambert is in between promoting stereotypes and breaking stereotypes. It promoted some stereotypes, like how the world was a better place without technology.  Lambert sings, "It all just seemed so good the way we had it, back before everything became automatic."  This line says how it was better before technology. It also broke a couple stereotypes, like how driving along the highway with the windows down with your friends is a lot better than being at home on the computer or watching TV.  It also said "Cause when everything is handed to you, it's only worth as much as the time we put in", which is saying if you worked hard for it, it feels much better to have. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ksWKOy665o

The Difference is Money

In The Purge, they support the ideology that people of higher class are discriminatory towards anyone of the lower class. They show this when the Charlie lets in the random man who was being shot at. The Parents automatically assumed that he was a bad guy. They took the kids to safety and hunted the man down within the house. In reality, the man was a soldier. The dad then left the man alone and decided not to return him to the killers outside. The point is that he automatically assumed that the man was a bad guy due to (most likely) his skin color and his apparel. This is not a true ideology because there are many wealthy people of color and successful people of color. Any person of and race and ethnicity can do anything any other person can do.

"Same Love" By: Macklemore and Ryan Lewis - Cultural Analysis

Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’ music video for “Same Love” rejects the dominant ideologies that gay people are wrong and should change because society does not accept them. Gay people are ridiculed and it has become normal to use gay slurs on the Internet. It says in the chorus

I can’t change

even if I tried

even if I wanted to.

When it’s not gay people who need to change, it’s the hard headed people who don’t accept them and stand between them and their happiness.

Have you seen the YouTube comments lately?

‘Man that’s gay’ gets dropped on the daily

We become so numb to what we’re saying

The normal use of these terms has grown dramatically, and it’s mostly teenagers that say it. It’s cyber-bullying which can easily lead to suicide, and has many times before. It is a very sad truth in our county’s youth.

Bud Light Super Bowl Commerical

Bud Light "Up For Whatever" Super bowl analysis.

This commercial revolves around incredible things happening to a guy who thought he was just on a date. He is taken to a car filled with females and Reggie Watts who sing to him. He then finds himself getting a free suit and getting styled up by Minka Kelly. He goes on to have people cheer him as he beats Arnold Shcwarzenegger in ping pong. The whole commercial is trying to make drinking beer seem fun and cool ignoring the hangovers and the damage to health beer has. This commercial was aired during the Super Bowl and one could question if the advertisers were targeting a younger audience showing all these famous people.

Blogging American Culture since 2004!

Yep, it is the 10th Anniversary Blogging Year for my American Studies/American Literature classes.

This year, because of the school's adoption of all things Google, I converted the blog into Google's Blogger platform -- so it's all shiny and new. But if you are curious about what it's looked like in year's past ....

For the past five years we've had a continuous blog running: Critics and Builders of Culture.

To find the first five years -- and maybe some older siblings -- check out the Blog Archives.

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