And here's another one (plus, look at how many people were interviewed for this story!) ...
(name redacted)
3 Nov. 2013
Out-of-Class Article Two
What
Do Our Songs Say?
Dog goes woof, cat goes meow, bird
goes tweet…
…And AND SHOULD BE LOWER-CASE IN THIS INSTANCE our music goes flop?
College campuses are breeding
grounds for wildly popular songs with short shelf lives – last year’s “Gangnam
Style” by PSY and now Ylvis’ “What Does the Fox Say?” are prime examples – but
why?
Due
to college students’ social media use and the rise of YouTube music videos,
songs with big beats and little lyrics are taking our generation by storm COMMA HERE said Jenna Johnson, a Higher
Education Reporter at the Washington Post.
Johnson
said that YouTube’s power lies in its low cost and ease of use.
“It’s
just very free and accessible. It’s not that much work – with one click you’re
there and you’re watching it,” she said.
Music
videos have always been artsy, but artists and producers are moving away from
“artsy” to “outlandish” in order to draw in the crowds, according to Johnson.
“It’s
something people will talk about: ‘This is hilarious,’ ‘I want to try it
myself,’ ‘this is ridiculous,’ ‘this is stupid.’ The videos become bigger than
the songs,” she said.
Johnson
said that it was Kesha’s STAGE NAME IS
STYLIZED AS KE$HA; THIS IS NOT A FATAL BECAUSE SHE USES BOTH, BUT SHE
PREDOMINANTLY USES THE GOOFY ONE music video “Blow” in 2011 that made her
realize that “this is a new age of music videos.”
Packaging
Junior JUNIOR IS NOT A FORMAL TITLE, SO
IT IS LOWER CASE. PLUS, AT WHAT SCHOOL? Amanda Ellis said that it’s through
her friends that she shares and receives new music.
“A
lot of my friends tell me to look up songs. And usually if I don’t hear it from
that, I pick it up from driving in my car or on Pandora,” AND PANDORA IS WHAT? EXPLAIN NICHE THINGS LIKE THIS she said.
Ellis
said that music is a good way to bond with people.
According
to Ellis, she shares songs she knows her friends will enjoy, but “then you have
the stupid, funny ones” – a nod to the ‘outrageous’ DOUBLE QUOTATION MARKS FOR QUOTES STANDING ALONE, PER AP STYLE factor
that Johnson mentioned earlier.
Music
videos have also become interactive, said Johnson. People, often students, want
to do their own spoofs and versions of a music video.
“College
students for all of time are a part of organized activities, have always been
doing skits and spoofs, freshman orientation... These videos are a way of
expressing that,” she said.
According
to a survey taken randomly by 15 students at Michigan State University, 11 of
those students have heard the song “What Does the Fox Say?” USING A SMALL, UNSCIENTIFIC SURVEY IS NOT
OPTIMAL; BETTER TO ASK A NEUTRAL EXPERT TO QUALIFY THIS OR PROVIDE DATA
All
11 of those 15 students were first introduced to the song by friends who showed
or encouraged them to watch the music video on YouTube.
Interestingly,
while all 15 students have heard “Gangnam Style,” only four were introduced to
it by friends.
The
majority of students heard Gangnam Style QUOTES
AROUND SONG TITLE for the first time through another media source such as
the radio, MTV, a party, the 2012 Olympics, and even at last year’s MSU-CMU
football game.
Kassandra Nalera, a Civil Engineering CIVIL ENGINEERING IS LOWER CASE WHEN
OUTSIDE OF FULL FORMAL TITLE freshman, AT
WHICH SCHOOL? said that lyrics are beginning to play the background in how
students value music.
“You
listen to what you want to hear. And they change over time, depending on what
the generation wants to hear,” she said.
Nalera
also said that song preference is determined by “what you as a person want to
associate with.”
Computer
Engineering ENGINEERING IS LOWER CASE
WHEN OUTSIDE OF FULL FORMAL TITLE freshman Ryan Siegler agrees that as
lyrics become secondary to a song’s popularity, their quality diminishes.
“I
think that if you listen to lyrics made [now], they’re not as good as the
lyrics 10-plus years ago.”
Daniel
Cortes, a Chemical Engineering CHEMICAL ENGINEERING
IS LOWER CASE WHEN OUTSIDE OF FULL FORMAL TITLE. FYI, YOU KNOW A LOT OF
ENGINEERS, APPARENTLY sophomore, said that song value changes person to
person.
“It
all depends on who the student is and their background… I’m all about rhythm,
others are all about lyrics, others are about popularity.”
Criminal
Justice JUSTICE IS LOWER CASE … YOU KNOW
WHERE I’M GOING WITH THIS freshman Alejandra Bonilla says that she, too,
prefers a song based on its rhythm, “and then I start analyzing it by the
lyrics. I like the rhythm more.”
This
isn’t a new problem though: even The Beatles were accused of writing “I Want to
Hold Your Hand” to sell to teenage girls and not to write good music, Johnson
said.
10
TEN, SPELL OUT NUMBERS AT START OF
SENTENCE, PER AP STYLE of the 15 students said social media and YouTube are
most influential means of creating song virality, while the other five students
said that the radio or TV is more effective.
Kyle
Fitton, a Chemical Engineering CHEMICAL ENGINEERING
IS LOWER CASE WHEN OUTSIDE OF FULL FORMAL TITLE.sophomore, said that social
media creates the main music buzz.
“When
I see one or two people talking about something it doesn’t really matter, but
if you see a lot of people making a big deal about something I usually go check
it out. It’s usually a pretty good gauge of how interesting something is.”
Fitton
also said that students might focus more on the artist than the song itself.
“I
feel like sometimes they don’t like it for the actual music, just who it is,“
he said.
In addition to “What Does the Fox Say” and
“Gangnam Style,” six students dubbed Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe” as another
tune that went down in fad song history.
Word Count: 817
Contacts:
Jenna Johnson 202-629-7567
Jenna.Johnson@washpost.com
Alejandra Bonilla – Fresh. Criminal Justice
(956) 240-1270
bonilla9@msu.edu
Alex Powers
powersa9@msu.edu
Amanda Ellis - Junior Packaging
(248)-778-5491
ellisam7@msu.edu
Daniel Cortes – Soph. Chem. Eng.
(561) 755-2408
cortesd1@msu.edu
Denise Cruz
cruzdeni@msu.edu
Joshua Feight – Soph. Math
(248) 974-9536
feightj1@msu.edu
Kassandra Najera – Fresh. Civil Eng.
(517) 775-7825
najeraka@msu.edu
Kyle Fitton - Soph. Chem. Eng.
(734) 239-1331
fittonky@msu.edu
Melissa Wallace – Soph. Nursing
(586) 350-4102
walla330@msu.edu
Michael Suarez
suarezmi@msu.edu
Pulkit Anand – Fresh. Mech. Eng.
(408) 893-0748
anandpul@msu.edu
Ryan Siegler - Fresh Comp. Eng.
(734) 478-2970
sieglerr@msu.edu
Sacha Velez – Soph. Communication
(956)458-1778
velezsac@msu.edu
Todd Tarian – Soph. Business
(248) 953-8904
tarianto@msu.edu
ASSIGNMENT GRADE: (grade redacted)
INSTRUCTOR COMMENTS: NICE WORK! BUT I THINK A SECOND NEUTRAL EXPERT – A
CULTURAL STUDIES AND/OR MUSIC PROF, PERHAPS? – WOULD BOOST THIS STORY EVEN
MORE.
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