Archive for the 'Current Events' Category
Is Music Worse Than It Used To Be?
Dance music's recent mainstream acceptance as "EDM" has brought about a fury from certain elements in the artistic/underground scenes, which is nothing new in itself – it happens whenever anything "underground" finds love from the mainstream.
From articles like a recent one in SPIN Magazine to those carried by a plethora of blogs, many DJs, critics, and producers have been claiming that the music has hit a creative zero. That we’ve lost that innovative spark that can do things like make one sound explode into a plethora of ideas and genres, as has happened in the past. That it’s lost its soul.
Superstar DJs: We Know You Sometimes Mime. So Why Hide It?
Lately, it seems to be a regular occurrence to see well-known superstar DJs outed for what I call “miming a set”. That is where a big-name DJ will play a pre-recorded mix while pretending to DJ at a large club or festival.
First, it was Steve Angello, and now David Guetta has been busted several times for this… both artists using the rationale that a visual / pyrotechnics show had to be in sync with the music. Even Fatboy Slim got up to a bit at the Olympics closing ceremony.
A male perspective on why men aren’t growing up
It's been all over the news and blogsphere. Modern men apparently aren't "growing up" as they go to college and never seem to leave that mentality, despite aging. They'll want to spend all their free time playing video games, watching sports, partying, looking for sexual hookups, and/or masturbating to porn.
It's also led to many female friends constantly breaking up with new boyfriends, claiming "he won't grow up". I've also seen many "experts" try to explain this, but I think too many are pulling out psychological and sociological theory rather than really try to understand the modern male and why he's not choosing to live as his father might have. My hope today is to explain it as I see it, from a male perspective.
The fashion industry has lost its mind
I don't think it's anything new that the fashion industry will have crackpots pushing impossible body standards on women. My usual reaction when I see some blurb about a beautiful woman deemed as "fat" is to roll my eyes and move on. That or laugh at a badly-done Photoshop retouching that clearly displays how fake the image is.
The other day, I saw a link posted to an article where supermodel Kate Upton proclaimed that she would not starve herself to be thin. At first I smiled and thought it was cool that she was standing up to the insanity, but when I dug deeper I was appalled at how far this drama had gone.
Chicago's city sticker and the insane controversy
So it's been all over the news and internet about the now pulled design for the 2012-2013 Chicago city sticker. For those not from Chicago, I'll lay it out simple. Every year we who own cars in the Windy City have to shell out $100 to display a sticker on our windshield, or face fines. The designs for these stickers are usually made via a contest for local amateur artists.
This new sticker though has incited controversy due to claims that the hands in the image are somewhat like gang signs. This one I have to give a hearty "facepalm" about, simply because it's such a stupid logic.
Simon Cowell's DJ X Factor: Why It Could Be A Good Thing
It's been all over the internet this week that reality show producer Simon Cowell is looking to take his talent show formula to the DJ world. From what's been leaked, this will appear to work in a similar fashion to Idol and X-Factor, only with DJs competing (rather than singers/performers).
Already the DJ world has blown up into its predictable bevy of hate and angst for anything "pop culture" that dares to invade its private little realm. I admit I rolled my eyes at first, but after thinking about Cowell's other shows, I now think that "Traktor Factor" might not be a bad thing for DJ culture after all.
