Vocal Art or Not.

Art. Everyone has a different definition, interpretation and idea of it (excuse the generalization here). That is what makes art unique. Vocal art is music and our interpretation of music. This can be your own interpretation of a popular artist’s song. However, there is a limit as to how “unique” vocal art can truly get. Thanks to media, such as YouTube, we are able to view different interpretations of popular music.

An article from Jezebel.com titled, Yoko Ono’s Cover of Katy Perry’s ‘Firework’ Is the Best Thing Ever, stirred up my curiosity of how good Yoko Ono’s interpretation of ‘Fireworks’ could be. I was extremely curious as the author, Madeleine Davies, wrote that the Yoko’s rendition of ‘Fireworks’ is her “favorite” and has “a lot of spirit.”

Here you be the judge:

I linked this video to my friends and here is their response, verbatim. “Christine, Wth did I just watch?!” and “at the beginning i thought she was having an orgasm…” If your reactions were anything like my friends [as opposed to the author from Jezebel.com] than I am glad we agree on something. I just hope and pray the author was exhibiting some heavy sarcasm when she posted that article. Personally, I was horrified at what I watched and felt that I lost 30 seconds of my life that I would never get back. When I referred to “unique” vocal art, I was thinking more along the lines of artists who have made a name for themselves through YouTube.

Alex Goot (video above), Jimmy Wong, Jason Chen, Sam Tsui, Boyce Avenue are only a couple of the YouTube vocal artists that garner about a couple million views in the videos they make. These YouTube sensations truly have amazing talent that may rival music made by well known artists. Sometimes I would prefer YouTube artist’s rendition of popular culture song over the original singer’s. Mike Tompkins is one of the YouTube artists that utilizes his voice and mouth to create all the sounds for his videos. Below is Mike’s creative rendition of ‘Fireworks’ by Katy Perry.

Media and the internet has given us a new outlet to express ourselves. The use of twitter, facebook, and other social media outlets have brought us closer to our favorite celebrities. The same media outlets has also given us new ways to express art. So now contemplate this: is Yoko Ono’s screaming considered to be art? Is it art if the person who created is a celebrity? What is considered art?

Extra:

Below is the original song ‘Fireworks’ sung by Katy Perry for all my friends who have not heard the song before.

Halloween & Its Distorted Image.

What is Halloween? Well, Caitlin Doughty from The Order of The Good Death can answer that from her episode of Ask a Mortician:

From this description of Halloween, it can be concluded that Halloween has been constantly morphed into different definitions as time went on. Samhain (allegedly) being the origin of the holiday known as Halloween, went from a practice of honoring the dead to a day where we celebrate the best costumes, candy and parties. However, how did the over-sexualized costumes for women ever become part of Halloween? Why has there not been costumes that are over-sexualized for men?

Over-sexualization of Halloween costumes can be a ploy to capitalize on Halloween, a holiday known for the parties that occur. However through this capitalization, it becomes harder for women to find costumes that do not cause their boobs, ass or other parts of their body parts to be shown. This over-sexualization of women and their bodies can be seen as part of objectifying women. Why is there a need for women to be sexy?

Taken from GeekAlerts.com article of “12 Super Sexy Halloween Costumes”

In the post, Have Women Become the New Trick in ‘Trick or Treat’?, fellow blogger says: “Halloween should be an escape from female, body objectification and yet it has only enforced it by making it into a contemporary tradition.” Which is true! Traditions have changed over time as Samhain traditions varies greatly from the Halloween we celebrate. The  Halloween parade held in NYC every year is a good example. The parade is an exhibit of the hard work, time and creativity people have placed in creating their costumes. I remember one year I attended the parade and was astounded by the amazing costumes!

Winner of the NYC’s 2011 Costume Contest at The Village’s Halloween Parade

Over-sexualized Halloween costumes is just an excuse to objectify women while capitalists profit off the holiday. If we are screaming outcry because Jessica Simpson dressed her daughter in a bikini. Then why are we not screaming foul when teen girls and women are dressing up in extremely sexy costumes that accentuates certain parts of their body? Today on Jezebel.com, I came across this appalling piece of “art” also known as the pornkin. It essentially is a carve your own porno! (I am not going to continue…)

As my fellow blogger said, Halloween SHOULD be about an escape from the female objectification. How to do this? Well, pranking someone IS an option, as Halloween IS known for its pranks. Another option is to walk through a Haunted Houses being one…  Niagara Falls Haunted House seems like a great way to spend Halloween. Walking around a haunted house while testing your ability to stay calm, may be a good way to celebrate the day of the dead.

So why succumb to the social pressures to dress sexily when you do not have to? Go out there and have fun! Enjoy the costumes at the Halloween Parade (sadly due to Hurricane Sandy it was cancelled this year) or find a Haunted House to walk through! There are plenty of things to do without having to dress up sexily. If you really want a costume, then make it yourself! Over-sexualized costumes are overpriced anyway!

Fun Fact:

Did you know the word “Marauders” were known as ‘resurrectionists’ who were grave robbers? During the time where there was a major need for corpses to be used to study anatomy, marauders would rob graves for bodies. The significance? The Marauders were a group of school-aged kids from Hogwarts who constantly pulled pranks on their peers. However, they mostly pulled the more malicious pranks on (alleged) Death Eater associates. Ah, the brilliance of J.K. Rowling!

Walking Pieces of Meat

Above video is called Meat, a short 3 minute video made by Samantha Riddell and Shanika Powell. Through this video, they take us on a journey of role-reversal between men and women. By showing how it feels for women to be on the streets while being objectified. Objectification of a woman can occur anywhere and everywhere by anyone. So through this role-reversal of the cat-calling, the staring and the harassment, we are given a whole new perspective of street harassment. What would it be like for men to be the ones being objectified and cat-called upon?

This short video illustrates street harassment with a twist in perspective. Although it is made to be comedic, we must delve deeper into the issue that is being exposed: street harassment. Street harassment is basically what is shown above. However, some may ask what is so wrong about that? It is wrong on so many levels. There are many ways to show your appreciation to a women and objectifying them by their body parts is one of the paths that should NOT be taken. (In Meat, it would be “Jordan.”)

Hollaback! and Stop Street Harassment are two of the many websites that is dedicated to fighting against street harassment. Through these sites, anyone can spread awareness of sexual harassment by sharing their stories and experiences of street harassment. There are also apps to help people have a safety net through the use of their smartphones. Circle of 6 and bSafe are two apps that promote one’s safety and protection from harassment of any type. Just with a few touches on your smartphone and your family members or friends will know how to help you when you need the help.

Street harassment will always occur anywhere, anytime, and regardless of who you are with at the moment. Tell your story and do not let your harasser get away by making you feel like a walking piece of meat.

Internet Personified.

In New Media and Internet Activism: From  the ‘Battle of Seattle’ to Blogging, Kahn & Kellner says,

This is the internet as a living, historical force and one of the keys to understanding and shaping the political and cultural life of the present age.

The Kahn and Kellner piece was written in 2004, however, this quote talks directly into present time where the internet has become a major part of daily life. It is mentioned that the internet is a living historical force, Josh Harris refers to it as, “technology” when he says, “there’s a new boy in town called technology.” How is this relevant? Josh Harris from We Live In Public, masculinizes the internet by referring to it as a ‘boy’ this personifies the internet as being a male. However, the internet is not masculine nor feminine, but a representation of the tech-saavy generation.

Feminist Meme taken from Women’s Rights News Facebook Page

In the documentary, We Live In Public, Josh Harris started an experiment called “Pod Hotel” where people were filmed doing everything and anything. One of the citizens said, “it would inspire people to do things they wouldn’t do outside.” In a sense, the Pod Hotel and its surveillance became a disembodiment of societal expectations. Pod Hotel gave its citizens a break from societal rules and judgment to do whatever they wished. Citizens of Quiet saw Pod Hotel as a opportunity for a chance at a new beginning and a escape of the real world.

The above video is an Australian advertisement that plays with the idea of people doing anything they want while alone when no one can judge them. It is similar to the Pod Hotel experiment, where the citizens acclimated and forgot about the surveillance in their environment. However, there are people who are under constant surveillance due to them being celebrities. Jennifer Aniston is one of these celebrities that is often under surveillance and has to combat through rumors all the time.

What better way to poke fun at all the rumors about her than make it all into an advertisement? Many celebrities, like Jennifer Aniston, constantly combat criticisms, rumors, and hordes of paparazzi just to go about their normal routine. While the celebrities gain nationwide news coverage, important feminist politics and resistances would be neglected. We often do not hear about the feminist rallies and picketing that happened that afternoon and will not learn about it until possibly late at night through YouTube.  Although we live in a surveillance culture, we do not scrutinize the social media hard enough as we do not know how to protect ourselves from being scrutinized.