Concerts

If you have ever been to a big concert of any kind I'm sure you could agree that there are few better ways to have a great time and meet new people then by attending one. Going to a concert is an over all great experience, and is yet another solid example of how pop culture can bring all kinds of people together. Take for example my experience at the Kenny Chesney concert last year. It was scheduled to start at 7:00 on Friday night, and my friends and i all wanted to go, but we knew there was no way any of us were going to be able to go up to Merriweather Post Pavilion together and still be able to operate any kind of motorized vehicle on the way back. So we decided to improvise by planning on renting a bus to take us there and back. However, this was going to be very expensive and we couldn't afford it by ourselves. To fix this we decided to put the word out to other kids who went to other schools around the same area as my high school. Some of them we knew pretty well, others we didn't know at all, but we finally got enough people together to pay for the bus so that it wasn't too expensive. So on the night of the concert we all met at a parking lot in the middle of our home town and piled into bus for our hour long trip.

At first it was a little bit awkward between me and the people i knew and the ones I didn't, but it didn't take long before people who were once complete strangers to start talking about how sick this concert was going to be and how much fun this drunken bus ride was. I met a ton of kids that i had never known before and made some great friends that i still keep in touch with today. So to make a long story short, we got to the concert, had an amazing time, and cruised back home with about thirty new friends each. And this may sound stupid but if you ever get a chance to go to a big concert, rent a party bus and fill it with booze and new people outside your own circle of friends. I bet you'll have a sweet time.

Music & Barriers

For as long as music has been around, people have found many different uses for it. They have used it to express themselves, relax, or just simply enjoy.But music can also be used as a great tool to bring people together and break down social barriers. A great example of this occured in 1986 when the song "Walk This Way" by Run-D.M.C., featuring Aerosmith's Steven Tyler and Joe Perry was released. At the time rap music was largely still underground and had never been included in what most people would consider popular mainstream music. It was not until the release of this song which peaked at number 4 on the Billboard top 100, that people started to look more closely at hip hop music. But more important then the ranking on the charts was the idea that rap music, which had predominantly been thought of as only part of black culture could be enjoyed by all people. In a sense, "Walk This Way" was a way of not only bringing different music genere's together, but also different ethnic groups.
The music video for the song symbolically placed Aerosmith and Run-D.M.C. in a musical duel in neighboring studios before Steven Tyler literally breaks through the wall that separates them. It appears as if the director of the video was trying to symbolically display the barrier between black and white communities being broken through by using music. Not to mention the fact that "Walk This Way" practically paved the way for other hip hop artists and groups to break onto the music scene, and create the great variety of music that can now be heard playing everyday in America and around the world.Go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8A0rhVG91U to watch this great landmark video and see musical and cultural barriers being broken down for yourself.

Movie Time

Is it just music? Or can all other forms of pop culture help provide people a common ground to stand on, or at least argue on. Movies are also a great way to bridge gaps or social differences between people. There are so many different forms and genres of cinema out there one would be hard pressed to not find something they could enjoy. I mean common: comedy, horror, thriller, musical, silent film, action, kung fu crouching tiger hidden dragon type shit. Whatever one’s taste might be, there is certainly something out there for everyone. So watch some movies, that way when you go out into the world and you meet someone that you have absolutely nothing in common with, and you think there’s no way in the world you would ever be able to get further then a “Hey what’s up?” conversation, ask them if they’ve seen a recent movie that you have watched.
Or you could try talking about movie stars. Even if you don't care about their pathetically over glamorized lives, it seems we always know every detail in them. try asking someone, "so did you see the Oprah when Tom Cruise went nuts, started jumping all over the furniture, and tried to kill Oprah?"(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRbhE3GRiUE)

Write Like Britt: How Music Classifies You

Do you love music? If so, what does the music that you like say about you? After all it's a pretty important thing in our lives, music can be used to express yourself, relax, party, or just simply enjoy. How many kids do you see walking around college campuses these days jammin' out to i pods? I always wonder what they're listening to. Sometimes i feel like i could guess what song it was, or maybe what artist it could be.
I think the type of music people listen says a lot about who they are. I say this because for the most part people generally listen to music that speaks to their mood. For instance, if your feeling kind of run down or tired,you most likely wouldn't be listening to some crazy techno song. Just like if you were getting ready to go out to a party, you definitely wouldn't want to listen to a really slow downer song. But whether you play music, or just love listening to it one thing is for sure, your music says a lot about you...so don't listen to crappy music!

Pop Culture: hate it or love it

When most people hear the words pop and culture together they automatically think of trendy fads and famous celebrities. Some people might be into that type of stuff, others may not, and that’s ok either way. But whether or not you care about, like, dislike, or absolutely hate the idea of pop culture, one thing is for sure, and that is that pop culture is the single most unifying topic in the world. Now, when I say pop culture I don’t simply mean People Magazine and the E channel. I’m talking about the numerous different aspects of our society that make up our pop culture. Some of these aspects include but are not limited to: movies, music, fashion, sports, politics, television, radio, dialect, and many others.
These are the topics and issues of our day and I believe it is nearly impossible to be unaffected by them the world round. Take for example my family vacation to the Dominican Republic this past Christmas. All of my brothers had brought their girlfriends down with them and the only person I had to hang out with was my uncle Richard. Don’t get me wrong my Uncle Richard is a really cool guy, but he’s about 54 years old and can’t exactly hang out too late into the night like I wanted to do. So naturally I started looking for some kids my own age to hang out with while I was down there, the only problem was that almost no one was from the U.S. At first I felt a little strange about that because I wasn’t sure I would be able to relate to, or have anything in common with many of the Europeans kids who were there at the time.
But as it turns out, somebody decided to blast some “It’s Too Late to Apologize”, by Timbaland ft. One Republic, and the entire place blew up and all the sudden everybody started dancing and talking to each other about things like the music they liked, who their favorite artists or bands were and that lead to other conversations and so on and so on. The point is, it didn’t matter that almost all of the people there were either from a different country, or didn’t speak another person’s language perfectly. We were all able to relate to each other through a form of pop culture, which I why I believe that pop culture truly is the most unifying topic in the world.