Category Archives: Media

Cre8ive Abstract, Media, Popular Culture

Michael Jackson Abstract fan art

June 26, 2009 d dot b 3 Comments

R.I.P. Michael Jackson

R.I.P. the King of Pop Michael Jackson (1958-2008), a lot of my current musical tastes, and even my moves in the clubs (when I get down) are heavily influenced by Michael. Some of the most key songs that I play when I hit those emotional states will be a MJ song; and listening to them this morning, I realized that how masterful those songs are – the Off the Wall album is very timeless as those songs don’t really sound old. Everything from the vocal arrangements, the percussions, production, and to LYRICAL CONTENT, MJ was way ahead of his time – and today’s striving musician should take some music history lessons … its not hard, just listen to that album and you will be a better artist.

Looking out at today’s average R&B/pop/hip-hop artist, it is clearly evident that Michael influenced them all. It is sad though to see the many flashbacks of Michael from childhood to adulthood; as a change is evident, and the ‘machine’ behind him & his rising popularity to iconic status – influenced him very muchso. He never really had a childhood; which as an adult, he grossly overcompensated – but with all the allegations and such, I truly don’t believe he did what was alleged, his heart and intentions were always in the right place – just by current social standards, his actions raised eyebrows.

So f— the haters, this weekend celebrate his life, his memories, and his message of world peace, and let the celebration continue forever. So here is some great abstract fan art:

A bit more about Michael and his accomplishments from Wikipedia:
In the early 1980s, he became a dominant figure in popular music and the first African-American entertainer to amass a strong crossover following on MTV. The popularity of his music videos airing on MTV, such as “Beat It”, “Billie Jean” and Thriller—credited for transforming the music video into an art form and a promotional tool—helped bring the relatively new channel to fame. Videos such as “Black or White” and “Scream” made Jackson an enduring staple on MTV in the 1990s. With stage performances and music videos, Jackson popularized a number of physically complicated dance techniques, such as the robot and the moonwalk. His distinctive musical sound and vocal style influenced many hip hop, pop and contemporary R&B artists.

Sales of over 750 million records worldwide, making him the world’s best selling male solo pop artist.

Thriller sold over U.S. 28 million copies

.:: R.I.P. Michael Jackson

Logic, Media, politics, Social

Abstracted Fear

June 9, 2009 d dot b Leave a comment

Priming Fear

How we interpret ‘fear’

Fear is an emotional response to threats and danger. It is a basic survival mechanism occurring in response to a specific stimulus, such as pain or the threat of pain. Fear can be described with different terms in relation to the degree of fear that is experienced. It varies from mild caution to extreme phobia and paranoia. Fear is related to a number of additional cognitive and emotional states including worry, anxiety, terror, horror, panic, and dread. As an individual emotional state, fear can affect the unconscious mind, where it can become manifested in the form of nightmares. Fear may also be experienced within a larger group or social network. In this way, personal fears are compounded by social influence to become mass hysteria – exactly what the media does. So I thought it would be fitting to show some several emotions and feelings that produce fear and how the media uses these tactics to deliver news:

Loneliness

by lonelypierot

Life seems to be about connections and relationships with family, friends, co-workers, lovers. The media does a good job of promoting this basic human ‘need’ of ‘not being lonely’ – with relationship studies, tips, and tricks.

Aggression

by Uribaani

Always makes for a good news stories; news channels love showing protestors clashing with police, protestors getting arrested, throwing rocks – makes the protestors seem like the only way they can vent their frustration is through angry methods.

Uncertainty

by Silvair

Lou Dobbs is classic for this, he will say something like “China just increase their defense budget by X amount of dollars”, and then questions their motive for doing such – creating uncertainty in the mind of the viewer of what China may be planning to do. When news channels report stories that seem to be very vague, they are almost doing it so the viewer can piece together the ‘implied correlation’, they create casual dots that force the viewer to draw the connections.

Conspiracy

by b0nkers
News channels always love a good conspiracy story because it allows the viewers imagination to run wild. Imagine, just saying “talks were held between government officials from Iran and North Korea”, the automatic response thought turns to negative thoughts of weapons of mass destruction – when it could be trade.

Only through education, enlightenment, and empowerment can we see through the ‘fear’ and face reality.

.:: LiBM ::.

Hip-Hop, Media, politics, videos

O’Reilly defends Palin and the Right over Eminem lyrics

April 10, 2009 d dot b Leave a comment

O’Reilly defends Palin over Eminem lyrics

What is interesting about this is that O’Reilly goes in a tirade about liberal attacks on the right by using a song by Eminem (who does not subscribe to liberalism). Trying to make a mountain of a mole – only thing he is accomplishing is generating more buzz for Eminem. Only been 80 some odd days and the right is losing their mind over their loss of power.

Media, politics, videos

Jeezy goes hard @ O’Reilly and Miller

January 30, 2009 d dot b Leave a comment

Young Jeezy ft. Jay-z – President is Black (remix)

Young Jeezy goes at Fox News pundits Bill O’Reilly & Dennis Miller. Jay-Z steals the show though, as he spits a few lines that really have to make you run the track back a couple of times – I am not hating though, because that is what HIP-HOP should make you do …

Oh yeah, here is what ignited Jeezy’s response, getting past the arrogance and the hate, they do have somewhat of a point, but in show business, you gotta play to your audience.

Seems like the leaders of the right are still trying to rally their base.