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Pop Music Website Analysis

It was December of 1992 when I attended my first Grateful Dead concert.  They played in Phoenix at Compton Terrace, for 2 days (Saturday and Sunday) and I was amazed at the experience I had. The culture just blew me away.  Dead heads everywhere, the parking lot scene, the campgrounds, the kindness, the sharing.  It was like something I had never expected.  Since that time, I went to several Dead shows, mostly the ones that were near the southwest like Vegas, Southern California and Colorado.  I was hooked on the "scene" and the music wasn't too bad either.  I heard a funny joke once, "What does a dead head say when he runs out of pot?  "God this music Sucks!"". Well, my affinity for "The Dead" continued and a few years later, the lead singer, Jerry Garcia died of a heart attack.  This was in 1995.  Around this time, I bought my first computer, logged in on AOL 2.5 with my 28,000 kbs dial up connection and started surfing the web.  One of the first sites I journeyed to was the Grateful Dead Website.

Since then, I have continued to visit the website.  The pictures on the website usually consists of banners and pictures reminiscent of some of the album covers from years past.  Here's an example of what you will get when you log into the website. Notice the lettering at the top of the page? It's almost identical to the front of their Winter land '73 album cover.  The Grateful Dead is about memories for me and seeing the lettering on their website definitely brings back memories.  The Dead play a lot of folk style music and I also feel that folky vibe coming from some of the pictures they put on their website.  The font on some of the page is really generic.  It is just there to give you the information.  However, the pictures on the page and the hyperlinks of those pictures provide an interesting backdrop to the dull text. Of course, the website always has the "Steal your Face" insignia on it.  Dead heads didn't like the albums quality so they dubbed it "Steal your Money".

The website also contains chat rooms for fellow dead heads to log into and chat with each other about various shows, memories, and future concerts of some of the spinoff bands from the original Grateful Dead group members.  Speaking of Dead Heads, the Grateful Dead has had a following of people unlike any other musical group in history.  Dead heads traveled with the band from show to show via hitchhiking, bumming rides or bumming gas to fill their VW buses. The Chat rooms allow the dead heads to meet up and stay in touch with old friends from the road.  It's truly a nice feature of the website.

The BEST thing that I love about the website is the Archive section.  It allows dead heads to find out what songs were played at what shows the dead performed.  It also lists the lyrics of their songs.  This is a MUST for Dead heads as they like to keep track of bootleg copies of shows.  

I am extremely biased when analyzing this website.  I love The Dead.  I love what message they tried to convey and I love the people that I met while attending shows.  The website is simple to navigate.  It has great information about other spinoff bands.  The gallery is extensive and the Store has some cool shirts on it.  It takes a certain kind of person to enjoy the Grateful Dead and I'm guessing it takes the same kind of person to enjoy the website.  The actual template of the website is extremely similar to the style of posters that you would find pinned up on walls informing dead heads of future shows. There isn't anything super fashionable or loud or obnoxious, but then again, that is another way one can describe The Dead. 

Lovemarks

When I was in my early 20's, I bought a candy apple red 1975 Jeep CJ5.  I bought it on a whim.  It was super cheap, too cheap, but it was PRETTY!!!  

Look at that beauty!!  I loved it!!  I was in college, going to to Rocky Point on Spring Breaks and every other chance I got, loading up the vehicle with my friends and girls and slowly listening to loud music while crawling down the beach.  Ahh, the early twenties.  I spent many weekend nights at the ASU campus just cruising with friends and let me tell you, this machine was a Babe magnet!!! 

There were other things i love about my Jeep.  After I purchased it, I soon found out that I now belonged to and elite club.  Every Jeep that i would pass going the opposite direction would give me the peace sign.  I would smile and send one right back!!  This was a common occurrence.  (I also had a motorcyele for a short stint and found out that the same is true of bikers). Not only was this my transportation, but it was also my source of excitement.  Weekends were spent 4-wheeling in my Jeep.  I loved it so much that I bought a Jeep CJ5 Haynes Manual

and rebuilt the engine by myself with the help of a friend that was a mechanic. 

After a few years of owning this magical piece of machinery, my life took a turn for the worse.  One night on my way home from the gym, I wasn't watching the road and the front left tire struck a huge rock that must've fallen out of a dump truck or something.  The tire blew out, and I fell out of the jeep just as the Jeep started cartwheeling over and over and it finally stopped on top of a parked car.  The jeep was totaled.  

Well, I had no money and I scraped up enough money to buy another cheap car and since that night, I have waited patiently for the time to be right to again, purchase a Jeep CJ.  Everytime I see a Jeep CJ, I remember my candy apple red jeep cj-5.  Of course, now I have a family.  It's not practical to have a Jeep.  When I do get another one (and I will), it will be a 2nd or 3rd car for recreation only.  I've had some major fun in that jeep.  I can't wait to own another one.  Why? I guess I feel that if I ever get the chance to own another one, it will help me recapture my youth.  It will bring me back to the days when life was carefree and fun.  Hell, driving around with no sides or roof on the vehicle is pretty carefree.   The "Lovemark" that represents this for me is simply

Gangsta Raps Affect on our Society - Unpopular Culture

Gangsta Rap!!

 

In the 1970's, hip hop was introduced to America in the Bronx, New York City.  It was new, it was different, and it was exciting...it was a lifestyle.  However, since the turn of the century, Hip Hop took a turn for the worse and instead of this being an upbeat and ethnic wonder, it has slowly chipped away at the brain cells of our collective brain...especially in the music industry.  There has never been another genre of music that has affected the young adults of America in such a negative way.

When NWA came out with "Straight Outta Compton" in 1988, their music was banned on most radio stations, mostly because of the lyrics and the content in the lyrics.  Take for example, the lyrics of the song "F$%# the police", the song above, in which the group NWA encourages the listener to distrust our law enforcement because they feel that the police only arrest people based on race. Here's an example of the type of lyrics one can hear on this track by NWA. WARNING.. EXPLICIT LYRICS.

 Right about now NWA court is in full effect.
Judge Dre presiding in the case of NWA versus the police department.
Prosecuting attourneys are MC Ren Ice Cube and Eazy muthafuckin E.
Order order order. Ice Cube take the muthafuckin stand.
Do you swear to tell the truth the whole truth
and nothin but the truth so help your black ass?

Why don't you tell everybody what the fuck you gotta say?

Fuck tha police
Comin straight from the underground
Young nigga got it bad cuz I'm brown
And not the other color so police think
They have the authority to kill a minority

Fuck that shit, cuz I ain't tha one
For a punk muthafucka with a badge and a gun
To be beatin on, and throwin in jail
We could go toe to toe in the middle of a cell

Fuckin with me cuz I'm a teenager
With a little bit of gold and a pager
Searchin my car, lookin for the product
Thinkin every nigga is sellin narcotics

You'd rather see me in the pen
Then me and Lorenzo rollin in the Benzo
Beat tha police outta shape
And when I'm finished, bring the yellow tape
To tape off the scene of the slaughter
Still can't swallow bread and water

I don't know if they fags or what
Search a nigga down and grabbin his nuts
And on the other hand, without a gun they can't get none
But don't let it be a black and a white one
Cuz they slam ya down to the street top
Black police showin out for the white cop

Ice Cube will swarm
On any muthafucka in a blue uniform
Just cuz I'm from the CPT, punk police are afraid of me
A young nigga on a warpath
And when I'm finished, it's gonna be a bloodbath
Of cops, dyin in LA
Yo Dre, I got somethin to say

With the ban on the radio, kids were dying to find out Why it had been banned.    The album reached double platinum sales status, becoming the first album to reach platinum status with no airplay support and without any major tours.

This is what our youth had started to idolize

NWA

Almost 25 years later, today, there are droves of hip hop artists coming out with the same type of music.  In addition to lots of foul language, Gangsta rap groups like "The Geto Boyz" promote guns, violence and crime. For example, the song "Trigga happy Ni**a", the band raps the following:

 We needed money, so I robbed a liquor store
Down on your knees she hesitated, I kicked the whore
Wanna go for bad, bitch I go for broke
Pulled out the 9, think it's a game, she said nope
Out comes the manager, mother' thought I was bluffin him
She knew I was serious, so did he when I busted him
Come on motherf**ker I ain't playin' so give it up
She said the cops are comin', does it look like I give a f**k!
You're lucky I ain't horny, I'd be rockin' ya
She let down her hair, pulled up her skirt and said what's stoppin' ya?
Bitch you must mistake me for a lollygag
Cuz' if I get in that a*s, they'll haul me off in a body bag
Gimme the money, I'm tired of the waiting shit
She said the box is empty
I said ain't that a bitch
Back to the safe you better open it fast
I'm gettin' tired, I'm about to melt a cap in your a*s
I got all that money that I'm live, how you figure?
I'll forever be a trigga happy nigga


. In Eminem's song "Guilty Conscious", the rapper encourages the listener to rape a girl that he meets at a rave because she is on the drug ecstacy.  Again, WARNING EXPLICIT LYRICS.

Meet Stan, twenty-one years old. ("Give me a kiss!")
After meeting a young girl at a rave party,
things start getting hot and heavy in an upstairs bedroom.
Once again, his conscience comes into play... ("Shit!")

[Eminem]
Now listen to me, while you're kissin her cheek
and smearin her lipstick, I slipped this in her drink
Now all you gotta do is nibble on this little bitch's earlobe..
(Yo! This girl's only fifteen years old
You shouldn't take advantage of her, that's not fair)
Yo, look at her bush.. does it got hair? (Uh huh!)
Fuck this bitch right here on the spot bare
Til she passes out and she forgot how she got there
(Man, ain't you ever seen that one movie _Kids_?)
No, but I seen the porno with SunDoobiest!
(Shit, you wanna get hauled off to jail?)
Man fuck that, hit that shit raw dawg and bail..

Afroman promotes drinking and driving in his song "I drive better when I'm drunk" by rapping

" I don't know what you've been told
I've been drinkin since 12 years old
Started in 1988
Hangin at the liquor store real real late
I drunk a swallow, I drunk a cup
Drunk the bottle, I threw up
Over the years, I learned to pace it
Get kinda tipsy, but not that wasted
I like beer, but I love malt liquor
Cuz malt liquor, get me drunk quicker
Stop on the freeway, take a whiz
Hop in my Cadillac and handle my biz
I drive better drunk than I do sober
Cuz when I'm sober right
I think I can make through the, red light
Go, go, go, I hope I'm not dead right
But when I'm drunk, I know I can't
So I ain't, I drive like a saint
Drinkin is a class I did not flunk
I'm a Colt 45 certified drunk"

What started out at Rhyming and BeatBoxing, soon turned out to get darker and deeper into the corruption of our society.  How would you like to run into these hip hop enthusiats?

 It is no secret that the Youth of America are extremely influenced by our athletes, our music stars, and our television stars.  They are trend setters and they make impressions on society.  My concern about gangsta rap is that it glorifies unhealthy behavior and the impressionable youth of America can be swayed by the Bling they see on their favorite rappers and want to be like them.  So listening to their stories of the rappers encourages the youth to want to act in the same way that the songs they listen to promote. 

I really need to put a disclaimer in this Blog.  I listen to hip hop, and not all of the people that listen to hip hop turn into gangsters or wannabe gangsters.  I've gotten to the point where I can enjoy music, or sports or movies and not have to emulate the people performing them.  If you like hip hop, great!!!  Just don't go out and start dressing like you are some sort of rapper-you look ridiculous. 

My Mets Tweeps

So, all of my "Tweeps" on my blog are somehow New York Mets related. 

Kevin Burkhardt aka @KBurkhardtSNY 
He's a journalist that follows the New York Mets ball players.  He does in-depth interviews with the team, the management, the opposing teams and in the off-season, hosts several shows about transactions the Mets front office makes.  He graduated from William Patterson University with a degree in broadcasting.  He worked at several radio stations and for the most part, his roles involved sports.  Growing up he was a New York sports fan and so his involvement with the New York Mets organization was a dream come true.  As a loyal New York Met fan myself, I have had the privilege of meeting him several times over the last 8 years.  I truly enjoy and welcome him into my living room every night we turn on a New York Mets game.


Justin Turner aka @redturn2
Justin is a utility player for the New York Mets.  He basically plays infield.  He's played every position available in the infield except Catcher.   He played collegiality for Cal State fullerton and in 2006, was drafted by the Cincinnati Reds.  After a short stint with the Reds, he moved into the Baltimore Orioles organization.  Then, in 2010, Turner moved into the New York Mets organization and since then, he's done well as a substitute for the regular players that are either injured or need a day off.  I chose to add him because he tweets a lot and I truly enjoy reading his tweets.


Sandy Alderson aka @MetsGM
Sandy is new to twitter however, he is not new to baseball.   Ever seen the movie Moneyball?  The main character, Billy Beane, was taught by Sandy.  Sandy has been an executive of several baseball teams in the Major Leagues.  He graduated from Dartmouth College and served in the Vietnam war.  After his tour, he moved on to Harvard Law School.  His first employment was with the A's organization.   He was hired by a former law office partner who had moved onto the A's organization prior to Sandy being hired there.  Basically, his former law partner hired him and Sandy worked in the minor league system and built up the strength of their minor league organization.  After his stint with the A's, Sandy worked for Major League Baseball in the commissioners office.  Before joining the Mets organization, Sandy spent 4 years with the Padres.  He was hired by the Mets because the owners of the Mets (the Wilpons), lost a lot of money as a result of their ties with Bernie Madoff.  With little to no money to invest in new talent, the Mets organization hired Sandy to clean up a Mets Mess with limited funds.  


R.A Dickey aka @RADickey43

He's the only Knuckleballer left in Major League baseball.  He climbed Mr. Kiliminjaro in the off season to benefit human traffiking in India.  He played college ball in Tennessee for the Volunteers.  He studied English Literature and graduated with honors.  Really Smart, really funny, absolutely LOVES Star Wars and frequently tweets various things with a Star Wars motif.