Modern Day Propaganda

So first, what is Propaganda? My definition of it would be an organization/group trying to persuade the public with advertisement. Back in war times, there was propaganda for World War 1. There were ads made to try and get males to enlist in the war. They often made the males feel guilty by saying things like "Protect the women." There were also ads showing female soilders at work as if to say everyone can pitch in to help protect the country. The communication of propaganda has gone from ads to radio and TV. Nowadays, war isn't the big deal. I feel as though the big focus of propaganda now is on physical apperance like make-up, clothes, shoes, colognes, alcohol, and cigarettes. For make-up and cologne, there are often commercials that have both female and male in them using the product to try and make themselves more appealing to the opposite sex. There are celebrity influences in clothing and shoe advertisement, basically saying "If you want to be like so and so, wear these clothes." Alcohol and cigarettes have both a postive and negative propaganda to them. This meaning that there are advertisements out there persuading people that alcohol and drugs are bad like Live Above the Influence. Then there are the other ads that show these rich looking people sitting in clubs with females/males surrounding them smoking or drinking. Propaganda is also in the music that we listen to. Music about being rich, having cars, having females, being pretty, and partying all night. Teens and maybe even adults strive to be like these artists when reality, it's probably not even like that. Because of the way things are presented to us in the news, we automatically go off of that one view and critque that one view. News stations choose which perspective they want viewers to see a story, also propaganda because from there they persuade you that what they're saying is correct. I think that propaganda will never die. There's just too much competition and striving to be best in this world.

Hip-Hop!!

I love music. Majority of the music that I listen to now is influenced by hip-hop. You know, Run DMC, MC Hammer, Tupac, Dougie Fresh. All these people are the platform for today's music.There are four elements of hip-hop. They are: Graffiti, Rap, Break-dancing, and DJing. Graffiti is looked at in such a negative way and always has been that way. Its seen as vandlizing and territorizing when really its art. Just because its big, bold, and not in a museum does not mean that it should not be respected. People look forward to graffiti. For some, that may be as far in the art industry that they will get and who are we to under estimate them?
Rap. Hahaha. Rap is looked at as a stereotypical feature, meaning when most people hear or think rap, they think Black people. The reason being I would assume is because blacks are the founders of rap music. However, this does not restrict rapping to one race. A great example, Eminem. My favorite rap artist. Absolutely postively love him. Eminem is one of the last real rap artists today. His lyrics actually have meaning to them unlike some others whose names I won't mention. The evolution of rap is crazy. It has gone from the Sugarhill Gang's:
 have you ever went over a friends house to eat
and the food just aint no good
i mean the macaroni's soggy the peas are mushed
and the chicken tastes like wood
so you try to play it off like you think you can
by sayin that youre full
and then your friend says momma he's just being polite
he aint finished uh uh that's bull
so your heart starts pumpin and you think of a lie
and you say that you already ate
and your friend says man there's plenty of food
so you pile some more on your plate
while the stinky foods steamin your mind starts to dreamin
of the moment that it's time to leave
and then you look at your plate and your chickens slowly rottin
into something that looks like cheese to Lil Wayne's:
Shawty said the ____ that she with ain't s___
Shawty said the ____ that she with ain't this
Shawty said the ____ that she with can't hit
But shawty I'm a hit it hit it like I can't miss
And he can't do this
And he doesn't do that
Shawty need a a refund, need a bring that ____ back
Just like a refund I make her bring that a__ back
And she bring that a__ back
Because I like thatBIG DIFFERENCE!
Break-dancing is still here. It's still amazing and the evolution of break dance was not nearly as disappointing as the evolution of rap. Break dance now is just more modern but the concepts are still the same. I wonder how breaking managed to survive but rap couldn't...
Last but not least, DJing! Andddd...it has changed. DJing used to actually be scratching up records but not DJing has been modernize by technology. You can make whatever beat, sound, noise, remix, you want on a computer with the right material downloaded. I guess you can say the concept of DJing is still the same but the way it is delivered is different.
Hip-Hop is not alll the way dead, yet. Its just...modernized.

Wright's Cravings

Is Richard Wright alone in his cravings? No not at all. I don't know if this is directed to anyone specific but I''ll just relate this to myself. I'm going to talk about the craving for attention. I wouldn't really call myself trying to be the center of attention but I guess at a younger age, I wanted people to know that I existed. Me being the oldest of three, I always had all the responsibility while the other two got the attention of being "cute." I never set a house on fire but I did always try to exceed my brothers. If somebody thought my brother was cute, I would do something cuter or I would just sit there and cry. After awhile I felt like the family only knew me as being the oldest and the only girl. Thus leading me to doing great in school. Everytime I did good in school, I got a "Great Job! Now you have to show your brothers!" And I would feel good because for once, I did something better than them. Another example is when the oldest of the boys and I entered an oratory contest every year. He would always get a place above me thus leading him to more praise and more criticism on what I could do to get there. This lead to me writing more and in 5th grade one of my poems were published. I'm pretty sure by 5th grade I wasn't so concerned about attention but it was still there. Now, I could care less. :) An 8th grader and a kindergartner no longer affect me. Now they're just annoying.