#LEMONADE

After hearing Beyoncé’s new album #LEMONADE on Saturday I could not help myself but to run to the computer and write this blog post right away on it. #LEMONADE is causing a media frenzy. Let me back up a bit and discuss why that is. So Beyoncé drops her new album but not with only tracks, but with a VISUAL ALBUM. Let me just say it is AMAZING, but not everyone is thinking that. In Beyoncé’s one hour and 5 minute visual album she insinuates that her also famous husband Jay-Z has been cheating on her and in one of her songs "Sorry" she mentions a line saying "He better call Becky with the good hair." When Beyoncé’s "Beyhive" (name for her followers) heard this they went crazy assuming "Becky" was the girl he had cheated on Beyoncé with.  People did a little digging and started attacking another famous female Rachel Roy because they were sure she was “Becky with the good hair.” Now there are two reasons this is stirring up the popular culture world. 1) Because Beyoncé aired her husband’s dirty laundry out in her entire album plus dragged his mistress down too, and 2) People are not happy with Beyoncé’s strict focus on race in her visual album. Becky for one is a racist term for a white woman, which many people heaved Beyoncé for. In Beyoncé’s visual album she represents “the African American women in the American psyche” (Carpentier) but not just African America women she’s representing feminism. Beyoncé strictly uses African American woman, and southern locations to make her point. Many celebrities have given their input on Beyoncé’s new album so head over to twitter for some more opinions. Also if you haven’t heard it yet, I encourage everyone to go watch/listen to it and even give your opinions in the comments section. If you want to read more up on it below is a link to a website discussing how Beyoncé's Lemonade became a pop culture phenomenon.



http://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/apr/26/beyonce-lemonade-jay-z-becky-pop-culture

Masculinity in popular culture

I find I learn best about popular culture through YouTube videos. There are so many videos available involving popular culture and certain ideas that have to do with popular culture on the Internet. The video I chose to examine above is called, Masculinity in Popular culture. This video discusses how the men being portrayed in our sports games, movies, television is teaching domination and aggression.   The average young boy spends 40 hours a week watching television and 15 hours a week playing video games. All of the entertainment they are watching are portraying different male archetypes. You have the strong silent guy who is always in control, the hero type guy who is engaged in violence 24/7, the thug who is violent, and last but not least the “man-child” who is immature and funny. The video discusses how media images have an affect on these little boys who are watching these shows, movies, etc. Our young boys look to these men and think this is what they should be; how they should act, and how they should look. The men our children, brothers, cousins are watching are fictional characters that they should not look up too. Another thing the video discusses is the United States army's use of training some if their individuals for battle by video games because of the similarities. Should these little boys be getting ready for battle? The violence our male television characters and our video game characters show should not be available to our young boys. I recommend if you haven't seen the video "Tough Guise" to go out and watch it because it also touches base on this topic. 

Resource: 8-Bit Philosophy

I have been a fan of 8-Bit Philosophy for a few years now and believe it's a great resource for people learning popular culture.  The video series on YouTube takes deep philosophical topics and ideas and breaks down what they actually mean, but most often they use characters, plots, and motifs from video games--particularly old school video games of the 1980s and 1990s.  I often find myself coming to 8-Bit Philosophy when I want to get a strong and easy to understand approach to discussing a specific philosophy or concept.  Here is an example: 

This particular video helps us to understand the basics of a very complex theory: marxism.  I found it useful because marxist ideology is strongly bound informed by the development of mass-production (via the Industrial Revolution) and therefore has often used in exploring critiques of popular culture.  In particular, it makes me think about our roles as fans of popular culture, which makes us de facto consumers who often spend our limited resources (because we would often be understood as "workers" in Marxism) on elusive things that benefit capitalists.  That is not to say I entirely believe this is the case, but in looking to understand Marxism, such ideas are what stem from extending the theory to our modern life.