Underground Culture meets their Talent

Underground culture is a culture which the mainstreams of people don’t follow, for example, the ‘Black Market’ (a market in goods or services is sold illegally to the general public), this would be seen as Underground because the majority of people wouldn’t do / follow this.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_culture

Dazed & Confused a British style magazine, that covered music, fashion, film, art, and literature, which was published monthly. It was founded in 1992. In 2006 Dazed made a web based strand of the magazine called Dazed Digital. ‘Dazed & Confused is number one in its category with 205,000+ followers on Twitter and 105,000+ Likes on Facebook.’

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dazed_%26_Confused_(magazine)

Lil Internet

Lil Internet aka Red Foxx aka SLUTTT aka GodWIFI is a producer, DJ and video director. At KarmaloopTV.com (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KarmaLoop.com#KarmaloopTV) by day he is the senior director and editor. He is also a well-known DJ, producer and director who has made popular remixes for Crooklynclan.net and Kanye West. Lil Internet apparently wears many hats as KarmaloopTV talks about him. Dazed askes the question, ‘Who else can create such amazing outlandish artwork to make us LOL and take on so many monikers as to majorly confuse us IRL.’

http://mensblog.karmaloop.com/index.php/2011/05/karmalooptvs-lil-internet-x-antennamag/

 This is the type of music he makes:

As Lil Internet

@LILINTERNET- BRITNEY SPEARS ILLUMINATI GLITCH

As SLUTTT

I MADE THIS SONG FOR DIM MAK

Most of Lil Internet’s music is remixed by himself.

On Dazed Digital’s article about Lil Internet they talk about his new ‘mix’ who is about a rapper called DMX (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DMX_(rapper)). Later on in the article it tell us it ‘is a deep mix’ and only to listen to it if ‘you want to kind of meditate on it or have it in the background while you stare at the ceiling.’ This would be seen as Underground because it technically tells us that we may become bored as ‘it takes patience’.

http://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/11809/1/exclusive-lil-internet-mix



The music video above shows people getting drunk and having sex during Lil Internet’s music. This shows inappropriate scenes which are not suitable for all eyes; therefore parents may not allow their children to watch this since it is available on YouTube and has not been censored.

Some more evidence suggests that this Lil Internet is Underground by seeing the view count by the previous video shown.  The video came out on the 27^th June 2011 and since then it has made over 1,500 views. Comparing this to another song sang by ‘Britney Spears - I Wanna Go’ which also came out in June it had a bigger amount of views (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-sxSd1uwoU).

Active Child

Pat Grossi  (Active Child) makes music that is very wide ranged that it cannot be labelled as any particular genre. His music creations include sounds of the orchestra with electronic synthesisers.  He has the heavenly voice of a choir boy which he has developed into laptop assisted indie-pop. Dazed Digital described Grossi as having a ‘fascination with the mystical, mythological and macabre.’

 http://activechildmusic.com/about/

This is the type of music he makes:

‘When Your Love Is Safe’

‘Weight of the World’

As you hear these tracks, they are very calm and relaxing. You can identify the mystical presence in his music by hearing the different instruments you would hear in church; organs, bells and chanting.

Active Child may be seen as Underground because, his type of music would not be heard by the majority of people as it is unlikely that he would get much airplay. Also nowadays, I don’t think many people would listen to music with religious overtones as some would find it boring due to religious association.

Active Child may be seen as Underground as not all groups would approve of his music. For example, many religious groups may be offended by the fact that the religious music in Child's tracks have been synthesised.

Even though Active Child is fairly more popular than Lil Internet he can still be noticed as the small fry. This is because if we were to compare his songs to Mainstream artists there would be a massive difference.

Tornado blows film to the Left

The film ‘The Day After Tomorrow’ is a science fiction disaster film about the terrible effects of global warming. The factors contributing to global warming are created by people. This film implies that if we carry on destroying the environment then the disasters shown in this film will actually happen and could in fact be worse.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0319262/

Left wing ideology calls for a fairer society for all, putting an emphasis on equal rights for everyone regardless of race and gender.  This film could be seen as a left wing approach because after the disaster has occurred people in the movie are willing to help each other .This is done by people contacting and trusting each other rather than relying on the law therefore this is a left wing ideology.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left-wing_politics

One example that shows it is left wing is when a non-American woman (French speaking) struggles to get out of a taxi and then leaves her passport on the back seat. A nearby policeman does not want to help due to the speed of the on-coming wave, however a main character - Laura Chapman – who can speak French explains to the policeman why the woman wants to return to the taxi. The French woman is then escorted by the policeman into the building. Laura Chapman returns to the taxi to retrieve the document, she is seen struggling to get the document by her close friend, Sam Hall, who then decides to intervene by getting the document faster and getting Laura Chapman to safety. This scene can be seen as left wing by the main characters risking their lives to help a disadvantaged woman.

Another way the film is seen to be left wing is when people from America started to flee to a foreign country to get away from the tragic disaster.  The Americans are seen in the news report to be crossing the border into Mexico illegally, where it is expected that they would be allowed to stay.  This is ironic as foreigners are often seen trying to enter America but now Americans are trying to enter another country. Later on in the film a news reporter states that, ‘the traffic is now moving smoothly from South America into Mexico because the president was able to negotiate a deal to forgive all Latin America debt in exchange for opening the boarder.’ This could result in mixed feelings from the Mexicans as some may be welcoming (left wing) and some who were refused entry into America may be hostile towards the Americans entering their country.

This film can be seen as a left wing because the majority of people in the film are willing to help each other out to get through the tough times that they are facing.

Mass Effect 2 has a Mass of uses.

Mass Effect 2 is a science-fiction role-playing action game, the main mission taking place in space visiting many planets.  In the game the player is Commander Shepard, (Shepard's gender, appearance, history, combat-training and first name are determined by the player before the game begins) is on a mission asked by ‘illusive man’ (http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Illusive_Man) who is head of ‘Cerberus’ (http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Cerberus), to save mankind from the ‘Reapers’(http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Reapers).  The ‘Reapers’ have programmed the ‘Collectors’ (human sized bipedal insects) to abduct human colonies for their scientific purposes.

http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Mass_Effect_2

Mass Effect 2 offers a spectacle perspective by having it in outer-space. One of the aspects would allow you to see various life forms, such as aliens (the picture on the right shows the different types of aliens in the mass effect game). You are also able to visit different planets which are non-existent to our knowledge outside our galaxy. Since the game is set in the distant future technology is tremendously advanced, which means that we will not be seeing it anytime soon. Therefore the player in this game is able to see something that cannot be seen in real life.

In the game there is a specific mission called ‘Reaper IFF’, in this mission gamers must attempt to obtain a Reaper IFF, this is a device needed to pass through the Omega 4 relay safely and is found on derelict Reapers.   This task will give you an immense adrenaline rush as there is many ‘Husks’ to get passed. Husks are synthetic zombies that are highly dangerous, they run at you and attack you physically. This task can be extremely tense as the Husks can surround you leaving you no escape route.  You must kill quickly or be killed.

In this game you can have an emotional relationship with a specific crew member of your choice depending on gender.   You therefore develop strong feeling for someone that is not real. If you put in time and effort in to your relationship it can blossom into a full relationship.  Depending on the outcome of the game sometimes your squad members can die. Therefore this could happen to the person who you have a relationship with. This can then have a devastating effect on the player because the player feels that the relationship is real and their emotions then take cover the game. If the player doesn’t want a serious relationship then you can have a mutual friendship but it can still have the effect of losing a friend.
http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Romance

Mass Effect 2 delivers many uses and gratifications that can please its specific audience, this is because it has many aspects.

Jaws doesn't get me running

Jaws logo

Jaws is a 1975 American horror-thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg and based on Peter Benchley's novel of the same name. It is about a Great White Shark who is terrorizing a beach near a nearby resort town called Amity Island.  After having a few shark attacks Chief Martin Brody played as Roy Scheider suggests that something must be done about the shark before more lives become at stake.

Jaws was a huge success having won three Oscars; Best Film Editing, Best Music, Original Dramatic Score and Best Sound. Making over $260,000,000 it shows that many people enjoyed it and those who did probably saw it more than once.

Numerous film critics believe that it is a classic film. Flim4 a top critic agrees with what almost everyone says, Jaws is a classic. In their review they start telling us the history of how the film emerged.  Then go on to tell us ‘Jaws became the biggest box office success ever, until the release of Star Wars the next year’. This supports the figure in the paragraph before. Film4 suggest that ‘The cast is top-notch’, the three main stars are very popular. A statement in their review states that ‘the film's real master stroke - keeping the monster unseen for as long as possible’ which is very true because all we see is the camera zooming in from the underwater to the monster’s victim. The only time we see this ‘monster’ is when it attacks a boy on the beach, we only get a quick glimpse of it but we can see it is big (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2Ecwm7Alrc skip to 3:18). Finally Film4 says in their verdict of Jaws that it is ‘A classic. Tense, engrossing, scary [film]’.  A commenter to this review said ‘it is one amazing film and one of my best’ this can imply that this person has seen this and thought, I need to see this or this person is one of the many who love this film.

http://www.film4.com/reviews/1975/jaws

Not many other people believe that it isn’t a classic. After searching through a lot of good reviews I found a review which visibly believes that it shouldn’t be a classic. Bad Movie Knights is a group of people who review only movies which are considered bad in their opinion (http://www.badmovieknights.com/about.html).  As you start to read the bad review ‘How anyone calls this a classic is beyond me.’ it plainly shows that, what I said in the beginning of this paragraph is true for some film critics. As you carry on to read the writer gives Jaws some credit, ‘Steven Speilberg's greatest achievements and propelled the young film maker to legendary status’ but then it is put down by saying, ‘in reality this movie should have been a lesson in what not to do, and the last film he ever made.’ This could be seen very harsh to Jaws but not to the others in the series as their ratings fell dramatically.  As you continue to read on, the criticism carries on.  In their verdict they describe that, ‘Jaws is a complete and utter disaster from beginning to end’ meaning it ‘should be avoided at all costs.’

http://www.badmovieknights.com/2007/02/review_jaws.html

Before I say anything about Jaws, I would just like to say when I watch movies I like to see realism to an extent.  In action films such as ‘Spiderman’ there isn’t much realism however this is expected as Spiderman has superhuman powers which makes it exciting to watch and doesn’t necessarily have to be real.  Whereas thriller films such as ‘The Day After Tomorrow’ include some parts in the plot which made me think, am I supposed to have sympathy for these people?

This then leaves my opinion. Unfortunately, I’m not one of the many whom really like Jaws therefore I agree with the statement from Bad Movie Knights when they state in the beginning of their review ‘How anyone calls this a classic is beyond me.’ This question was going around my mind during the film and also when it had ended, because I liked some parts of the movie they encouraged me to keep watching until the end.

For what it’s worth there are some parts of the movie I did enjoy. The main part I liked in the movie was how the camera acted as the shark; it was like the audience were the shark by being in the first person perspective until about an hour in. This created and built up the tension, as we were not aware of what the monster looked like. 

I also liked the part of the abandoned boat, the scene first started off silent as the scuba diver was underwater. The scuba diver then encounters a moment with a tumbling head from the abandoned boat. As the tension grew the music started, this helped build up the apprehension and danger.

(Unfortunately I couldn’t find this scene but those who have watched Jaws will know which part this is)

I thought the plot was quite strong as it made sense and was a basic theme that every audience could enjoy. It can be viewed as a family film as well as a thriller. Therefore the idea of having contrasting genres enhances the number of audience types.

Now for the parts I disliked.

Firstly I don’t think there were believable characters, such as the Mayor Larry Vaughn played by Murray Hamilton who insists on keeping the beach open even though there is a vicious monster in the sea killing people. He only kept the beach open as it was getting near to summer and he felt that keeping the beach open would be good for business. He decided to keep the beach open after a shark attack had already taken place. This is unbelievable as it shows lack of empathy because not many people would put human lives at risk for money. A shark was captured by the bounty hunters however a shark expert identified it as not being the shark that was responsible for the attacks. The mayor did not trust the expert’s advice and decided to keep the beach open. It makes me laugh at how even though he was aware of the deaths he only decided to close the beach once he saw an actual shark attack himself.

Another aspect of the film which I disliked was when Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss went out to kill the ‘monster’. What I can’t seem to understand is, if the Shark has been terrorizing the resort for about three days and three nights why has the Great White all of a sudden gone way out in the middle of nowhere? Now, if I was in the shark’s position I wouldn’t leave the island to go somewhere far because there is food (humans). It is like as soon as the Shark heard what everyone was saying about killing him, he just went to the middle of nowhere where the Shark probably thought that no one would find him.  Speilberg probably made this scene how it is because it builds more tension, since we haven’t fully seen the Shark yet and we don’t know where it is or where it is coming from (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwdGYMM2bHM&feature=relmfu). Don’t get me wrong but, it’s good Speilberg has done this but realistically I don’t think it would so far away from Amity, if we could at least see the coastline in the background then I would probably of related to the film better.

Near the end of Jaws Chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) kills the monster after having few attempts of shooting its mouth since he had thrown a gasoline tank into his mouth.

Then after the Shark has been blown to pieces, Chief Martin Brody and Matt Hooper use some wreckage of the boat as a raft to get back home. (Skip to 2:31)

What I dislike about this is they make their way home then the credits come up, which I find quite annoying.  Unless this type of ending was an interpretation of your own, but in my opinion for a movie like this I think they should of gone back to Amity and seen everyone congratulate them. It just seems to me that these men have just killed a killer ‘monster’ and their work was for nothing in the short term because we didn’t see them get their praise.

In conclusion I think that Jaws was an okay film as it had its good and bad. If Jaws had me wanting me leaving the room in fright afterwards I would have called it a classic but unfortunately it didn’t happen. As a result I would recommend it to others as it made a huge success but for me once was enough. Therefore I would give it the rating of 6.7/10.

Thank you for reading as this is my first blog, writ any comments you want and thanks again! :)