Final profolio

After doing the podcast, I found out that I have learned different styles and types of writing this year. For the first paper, it was a normal piece of writing with MLA format. Then, we are asked to use ALA format to write a statistical research paper with doing surveys. Last, we need to write a script and record a podcast. I think this class is really challenging because I have not done any similar papers like the last 2 papers. I actually learned a lot from the second paper, especially I am a financial math and stat major. Although I don't think I am going to include my third paper in the final profolio, I still think that the podcast helped me a lot in writing. First thing is proofreading. I don't really have a habit of proofreading. As I was recording my podcast after I finished my script, I found a lot of mistakes in grammar and sentence clarification. Sentence clarification has been an issue for me in this class. Recording the podcast did let me understand the importance of proofreading. Therefore, for my final profolio, I will work on sentence clarification more. For my second paper, I will try to extend my essay in the parts of results and discussion with more in depth analysis with the statistics and literature.

The Mozart Effect—Reality or Myth?

This podcast is about how the mozart effect is viewed by the public. The mozart effect is said to be helping the younger kids to be smarter by playing mozart music. The mozart music can stimulate the brain to let the brain develops earlier and more mature. However, there is no real evidence to show the positive effect of mozart effect. Instead, the author claims that playing music does help to provide some inspirations for some people. And she concludes that with Christina Aguilera's song saying that people can be inspirational by listening to their favorite songs. First of all, when I saw the script, I thought it was a little bit too long. And lots of professional terms are used in the script. When I went ahead to listen to the podcast, I found that it is a little boring. The podcast was lengthy, but there are only 3 segments of songs are used to divide the script up. I think the podcast may not be as interesting as the previous sample podcast. Another reason I do not have a great interest towards this topic is the similar topic with the reader. There is a piece of reading in reader discusses about the mozart effect in public's minds. So it seems the podcast is repetitive. However, I like how the author uses lots of resources to back up her claims to make it more convincing due to the scientific discussion. And I like the tone of the author because she makes the professional and formal topic into a more casual and understandable topic.

The Robert Johnson’s Myth, and the Reality

Debating between listening to the podcast or reading the script first, I finally chose to read the script first. This podcast talks about the deeper meaning of Robert Johnson's music and how his music reflects his personality. Including the intro music, 4 songs are played in the podcast. The first song introduces Robert Johnson to the audience and gives a taste of Robert Johnson's music to the audience. Each song is centered on a main idea. The author breaks down the song and analyze the song to bring a message behind. Also, the songs makes some connections with other musicians or people in order to tell the audience what kind of person Robert Johnson is. Since I am not familiar to Johnson, I think these songs are also significant to him in his career. Prior to listening to the podcast, I was skeptical to listen to it because I did not know who Robert Johnson was. It was difficult for me to listen to something I have no knowledge because it is easily to get bored and lost with all these unfamiliar names and terms. However, after I listen to the podcast, I completely changed my mind. It is not so plain with all the reading, but also with music in between. It feels more relaxing and informal. Aside from knowing and learning about Robert Johnson, more important is to learn the skills of blending the music in the script to make it more smoothly and the tone. I think this podcast gave me a guidance for creating my own podcast as I have never created one before.

Music of the Hemispheres: Playing Instruments Gives Brains a Boost

While Alissa Quart in Extreme Parenting claims that Mozart effect is not helping the children to be smarter, however, music does somehow help the brain to function better in different areas. First, Rachel Ehrenberg says that music improves verbal and nonverbal skills. People who received music training for a certain of time have a better sense of sound detecting. They are better off at distinguishing between some specific sounds and background noises. Music transforms their nerves to be more sensitive when it comes to listening. Also, they have a better rythem than other people. In terms of verbal skills, music trained people are able to point out syntax errors within a piece of text or conversation due to their sensitivity. This is similar to when the musicians listen to a piece a music. They have ability to point out the error if a wrong note is being played. I think that’s why musicians are better at proofreading. And there is a study saying that music actually helps us to learn a new language. Musicians are better at telling the difference between mandarin syllables with no familiar Chinese knowledge. Although Mozart effect does not make people to become smarter, music enhances the sensitivity and the ability to distinguish unfamiliar objects. I think music stimulates the brain so that more unused parts of brain are developed. This is good for children while their brains are starting to grow. However, not all of the music is good for brain development. In the early stage of a child, it is inappropriate to ask them to listen to music like heavy metal since it may damage their brain. Pop songs do not really help to grow because its repetitive beats do not give them creativity, and the lyrics always are related to sex, drugs, partying and drinking. It most likely would bring negative influence to children when they are becoming teenagers. 

The Science of Hit Songs

In order to make a hit song, repetitive beats and catchy lyrics are two main necessary features.  Aside from the production aspect, the high popularity of a pop song is essential to create a success for the song. It is important for music listeners to constantly listen to a song so that the song would expose through different media more often. It seems that the key is to increase the people’s attention of a song. Based on the research of Matthew Salganik (2006), a sociologist at Columbia University, we know that music listeners’ music choice often influences by other exterior factors such as their friends and previous data of the songs. He conducted an experiment which he assigned two groups, “independent’ group and “social influence” group. The result shows that people with previous resources of a song would tend to pick the songs which more people listen to. He claims that since there are too many songs in the music world, people do not have time to listen to all of them. An easy way is to follow what others listen to in order to decide if they like it. Also, he mentions that hit songs are like a trend. They indicate what the most popular fashion and beats recently. Lots of people would choose to listen to the hit songs in order to communicate with their friends. I think it is reasonable because people’s taste does affect by the surroundings. For example, since we live in the same house and cook together everyday, my roommates and I are influencing each other in terms of living habit and eating taste. This all reflects that we are trying to convert ourselves to create a living style that is suitable for us. We sometimes did not even notice we changed under other people’s influence.

Accounting for Taste

Different taste in music is directly affecting with personality. In the article, the authors make different assumptions that if that person likes certain kinds of music,  he/she would most likely end up having an corresponding behavior or personality. There are some points they suggest are interesting. For example, there is a part about visual effect. "Sensation-seeking people didn't just enjoy the movie more; they actually salivated more, indicating higher levels of alertness and cognitive processing." This is an interesting fact that people who are described to be sensitive does not have to be a negative comment. Sensitive can be said to be more caution and better information or image reception. I think using horror movies to bring the this result is quite surprising. However, there is a debatable part about the linkage between music and personality. They have an interpretation of different music types resulting a specific type of personality. It mentions, "We assume fans of mainstream popular artists are uncreative and conventional, for instance, or that fans of energetic vocal music are gregarious and sociable." The assumption of pop music listeners is not accurate. I don't think that listening to pop music means that it is not original. There are a lot of creative people who love pop music. It seems to be a bias or even discriminated against pop music listeners. As well as for the fans of energetic vocal music, they are not necessary to be upbeat and sociable. If the writers decided to make these assumptions, they should provide more information to support their ideas. Lack of examples and evidence makes this part to be the weakest part of the whole article.

Relationship between degrading lyrics and sexual activities

After reading the article Exposure to Degrading Versus Nondegrading Music Lyrics and Sexual Behavior Among Youth, I can see that the authors are trying to make one main point - degrading music lyrics is directly influencing the teens' perception of sexual activities in a negative way. It means that these degrading lyrics brings teens into active sexual activities earlier than they should be. It encourages teens to be more active in sex because this should be the norm of the society. I agree that the more exposure of degrading lyrics to teens creates an high percentage of early sex activities because teens are curious at that stage, especially sex. And music is the most common and easiest thing they are in touch with. Automatically, all the doubts about sex they have will link to the music content.Due to the fact that some teens do not have proper guidance from school or parents, they follow whatever they perceive from the surroundings. Another scenario will be teens' worship of some specific singers who do have degrading music. Teens will start to do what the lyrics said because they look up to those people. I think deep down in their hearts, they have already been influenced by these suggestive degrading lyrics. The article has also mentioned that the music video has a huge relationship with the early sex behaviors. It states, "Adding a visual portrayal of sex may reinforce sexual lyrics not only by increasing the number of sexual cues in the message but also by aiding the interpretation of the meaning of a song and clarifying ambiguous lyrics"(68). Clearly, music video emphases the sexual content and even visualized it. Even though the teens who do not know what the lyrics is about can easily imitate the behavior in the music video. Foe example, Rihanna and Lady Gaga are two of the most popular singers among the teens. Their songs are widely heard by more teens or even children. But some of their songs contain degrading lyrics such as "Rude Boy" and "S&M" by Rihanna, "Love Game" by Lady Gaga. These songs are highly popular among people but the lyrics seem to describe the sexual actions of having intercourse. I think this would make the teens want to try it, especially the ones who never have sex before. So these songs are sex encouraging.