Video Rhetorical Analysis

Video Rhetorical Analysis

Authority of the video: Childish Gambino, posted on YouTube on a channel called childishgambinovevo. Its reliable it’s clear that childish Gambino is the creator of this video. Its also very high in production value. Furthermore Vestal Virgins is also very credible since TED talk channel posted the video.

Authority of the speaker: The video projects the problems in America and childish Gambino as an African American has probably dealt with Americas problems first hand. Childish Gambino also is very famous as an artist and knows how make great controversial videos.

Accuracy: This video doesn’t really matter if its accurate or not because there really isn’t a main topic. Childish Gambino leaves it up to interpretation; however, you can tell he’s trying to say something about America and black men. (I think he’s trying to say everyone does illegal stuff you just cant get caught “slippin”, at that everyone has a strap on, and police are going crazy) For Vestal Virgins since Ted talk is a very credible channel the accuracy should be good.

Objectivity: On the black men and police going crazy aspect Childish Gambino is a little bias because he’s on the other side of the controversy. Also the police in the video are painted as bad. While the Vestal Virgins was just informative.

Currency: These videos both have the same currency and show when they were posted.

Audience: Childish Gambinos video was intended more for people who like art, and for there to be meaning to art. Also his fans; however, on the other hand Vestals Virgins since it was posted on TED talk has a more scholarly audience.

Coverage: The This is America video had absolutely limited coverage. Since the point of the video was more for entertainment it only focused on the bad things in America. While is Vestal Virgins they did their best to explain their situation with their community.

Uniqueness: This is America is a song more then the music video so it’s available on most streaming platforms, although the video was nominated for a Grammy. While Vestal Virgin is probably only on the TED talk YouTube channel and their website.

Purpose: The purpose for Childish Gambinos video was to make a controversial video that had Easter eggs about the problems in America that the viewer had to interpret. While the Vestal Virgins video was just trying to put light on to how these women lived in the past.

The this is America video creates a rhetoric situation that makes the audience think America is flawed. He does this by saying “This is America, don’t catch you slipping” and “I gotta carry on”. Childish Gambino also shows how greedy Americans are by saying how much they like to flex their money. The rhetoric purpose for the Vestal Virgins was in my eyes to just inform. I did not feel like the video was persuading me. These videos had different genres Childish Gambinos was to entertain and bring awareness to how he thinks of America while the Vestal Virgins video is a educational video about the past. The This is America video has a thin angle of vison from the perspective of a black male or the people who suffer from gun violence and police. The angle of vison for the Vestal Virgins is wide and tries to cover most perspective of the people of the village; however, they only successfully give the virgins point of view.

 

My experience in music literacy

Music is a type of entertainment at its core. It could make you feel all types of emotions: sad, happy, hyped, nostalgic, and many more. However, the emotion that music brings that I enjoy the most is feeling hyped and happy. Music and a fun time always go hand in hand. Music can make almost any situation better. One of my favorite things about music are the concerts and live performances the artists give. One of the biggest concerts or better said music festival is Rolling Loud. The difference between concert and music festival is how many artists go. Rolling Loud started with only a handful of performers, but has turned into one of the biggest hip-hop festivals in modern history. It is three days of people performing at all times at three different stages. The only downside is that if two artists you want to see perform at the same time, you will have to split up your time or choose who you would rather watch perform. I know this because I went to Rolling Loud 2018 also known as the greatest musical experience of my life and I’m here to give you the inside scoop. The festival gates open at 6pm and all the attendees rush to the front entrance to get their ticket scanned and choose one out of the three stages. The “main stage” is where all the biggest performers showcase their music and my personal favorite. Usually everyday I went the stage was already packed when I got there. So if you want to get to the front you have to be assertive. I’m talking about pushing, shoving, and not caring what people say. My story begins entering the crowd when Jaden Smith was performing, and the way the line up is set up the most poplar rappers perform last. As you can see from the lineup bellow.

Mind you the type of people that come to Rolling Loud are ruthless since rap is kind of about being an alpha so there are a lot of egos in the crowd. Since Jaden Smith wasn’t too big it was easy to slither your way up to the front step by step; however, the closer you got the front the more crowded it got. During the intermission when they switch performers is when you made the most ground, and when a popular song came on you had to stop in place and jump with the crowd in order to avoid getting hit in the face by someone’s arm. If it was your first time attending Rolling Loud the mosh pits might take you by surprise. A mosh pit is when a group of people push people outwards to make an empty circle and when the base of the song finally drops you run in and start bumping into people as hard as you can. I usually got treated like a rag doll in those but nevertheless it was fun. At this point I was familiar with some mosh pits and thought I could handle everything Rolling Loud could throw at me. I was never more mistaken. Smokepurpp a south Florida rapper has a ear throbbing song called “Audi” and there was two mosh pits being formed right next to each other. Smokepurpp saw this and told the crowd to combine them and they did. I had a mosh pit the size of the stage in the middle of the crowd in front of me and when the beat dropped I’ve never seen that many people gone crazy including myself just recklessly jumping into one another. A huge benefit of the mosh pit is that it filters people out. The scared ones tend to fall back, and the brave ones get an opportunity to get that much closer to the front. Luckily for me I went with a group of people and we all had the same attentions to be in the front. None of us knew what it would take to get there, especially one my female friends. With so many people there it’s a breathing oven and if you’re not tall its worse for you the lower you are the hotter it is. But, the most ass part is there are no water breaks you cannot lose your spot. This is why one of my female friends that came with me passed out mid-song in the middle of the crowd. People somewhat reacting quickly and crowd surfed her to the front, my buddies and I saw this as a golden ticket to the front. We followed her yelling “SHE’S WITH US” and people with no hesitation let us pass on to the front. She was handed over the railing to security and we were left behind at the very front. The rest of my first night was amazing I was 5 feet away from my favorite rapper Lil Uzi Vert. I couldn’t have been more happy to have gone to Rolling Loud and was excited for the rest of mother’s day weekend since I had two days left.

 

 

 

Final Synthesis paper

Will be up tomorrow morning at noon, sorry for the delay guys just isn’t good enough yet a couple more revisions

Pre- notes

Has the growth of technology hurt the music industry?

Yes, Now that the main way people listen to music is through streaming or piracy
artist are not making what they should. Although people are willing to pay a lot are
willing to enjoy for free.

No, The demand of music has never been at an all time high because of technology.
However sales of the physical product have decreased since its easier to reach.
Technology allows the artist different ways to expose their music to the consumer.

I both sides of the arguments and they have their points; however, I personally feel
like technology helps the artist get exposure and allows the artist name to circulate
among the consumers, and this is a fair trade-off for losing some revenue in sales.

Has the Growth in Technology hurt the Music Industry?

Imagine taking out your CD-player and your pouch of your favorite CD’s to listen to your favorite music. If you still do this you must really like being a hipster, don’t want to conform to change, or you must live under a rock. Now a days music is mostly listen to digitally thanks to the rapid growth of technology. But thanks to all this new found technology and streaming platforms music has become cheaper to listen to. Artist all over the world are getting their music illegally downloaded or streamed for free and are losing revenue. On the other hand since music so easily accessible to the consumers the demand for music has significantly increased. Technology affecting the music industry has its pros and cons, but I think because of the exposure it gives to new upcoming artists it does more harm than good.

Growth in technology is inevitable and its only going to rise, but this is the issue at its core. The growth in technology has allowed thousands of new websites to arise “The number of music streaming websites available to users is growing every day at an astronomical rate” (Paradise). This has made music easier to access, but caused it to be a lot cheaper to the public. What drives any industry is money and with the physical sales of music being decreased due to digital music all parties feel like they are being under paid. “The monetization of digital music streaming has complicated what profits technology companies, artists, songwriters, record labels, and music publishers are entitled to” (Paradise) this leaves artist feeling like they’re getting cheated. One of the reasons this is happening is because there is no legal salary for how much an artist should be making off of streams “regulation for how much each party involved in digital music streaming should be compensated has not been legally set, leaving many players to fight, literally, for themselves” (Paradise). The digital music take over clearly has affected the music industry financially.

Although digital music has created legal and financial problems for the music industry the demand for music is at an all time high. In this day in age you are one click away from all your music “Everyday there are millions of people downloading music online. It has become the new method to acquire music” (Valencia) because of technology music spreads faster among the consumers. Having your music heard is the best thing that can happen to an artist and that’s what digital music provides. The more people listen to your music the bigger you get “The Internet provides an immeasurable stage for an artist to distribute and develop direct relations with the consumer” (Valencia). Technology also bring along social media. Artist capitalize on social media to interact with their fans and keep content flowing to stay relevant.

It is no secret that digital music is affecting the music industry “global music piracy causes $12.5 billion of economic losses every year” (Valencia). Artist do lose revenue since people would rather enjoy their music for free than to pay, but what they lose in that they gain in the ability to spread and become famous. Technology has given artist multiple new opportunity’s to grow their fan base. Your fan base as an artist is much more valuable than the money you make from your music sales. As an artist only a portion of your money is made through music sales. Artist make profit off of tours, merchandise, and even ads for other companies. Most of the problem digital music creates affects the middle men in the music industry who profit of off the physical sales. Digital music allows the artist to directly release music to their fans, but artist still need labels to brand them and market their music. This is why the whole music industry is going to turn upside down they have to find a new way to make money and some platforms are already on that path. Platforms like Apple Music, Spotify, and Soundcloud all charge a flat fee a month and give you access to all the music the have legal rights to, and makes it easier to track streams.

At the end of the day the answer to the question “has the growth in technology hurt the music industry” depends where you are in the music industry. As the artist you lose some revenue due to your music being so easily accessible, but you gain exposure and have a better chance to become a popular artist. However, as the middle men in the music industry digital music is your nightmare making it almost impossible to profit off an artist, but thanks to some music platforms the middle men are able to profit more and more off of streams. This isn’t perfect but it’s a step in the right direction to adapt to this new growth in technology.

Work Cited

Valencia , Jazmine A. “The Impact of Technology on the Music Industry.” DeShaney v. Winnebago County Department of Social Services, fau.digital.flvc.org/islandora/object/fau:4299.

Paradise, Kaitlyn. “Digital Music Streaming in the 21st Century: the Music Industry Becomes Radio-Active.” DeShaney v. Winnebago County Department of Social Services, fau.digital.flvc.org/islandora/object/fau:13692.