Intro Blog!

This is my first blog ever (this semester)

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Hey hey! I hope that you all had a great summer. I am really excited to be starting my blog back up again as I feel as though I have figured out mainly what I want to write about. While music reviews I do find really fun, I feel as though that I don't put my best foot forward when trying to write about music, mainly because I feel like I fall into many of the same explanatory tropes of a certain genre. Not only that, but I also only really consume new music and media when I feel a particular pull towards it, so making my blog all about music was kind of forcing myself to the water that I didn't want to drink or just wasn't ready to drink. Shout out to all of my horse analogy enthusiasts, but maybe the proverbial horse just wasn't thirsty. I feel like turning my blog into a bi-weekly blog will also help me put out a lot more work that I feel genuinely passionate about, as I don't need to fit in a weekly deadline into my already tight schedule with most of the science heavy courses I am taking this semester–gotta love pre-med reqs.

[From Pinterest]

What I am going to start doing instead is funneling my personal outlet for music over to me and my friend Dan’s radio show Desert Island Records, Friday 5-6pm–check it out if you want. We’ll just be playing some bullshit on air most of the time–anything that we really want to play–because having a defined structure, I find, would be too strenuous for me because I can sometimes be an insufferable perfectionist.

Even though I won’t be writing as much about music, it does not mean that I will stop writing about it completely. Only when the mood strikes me, I suppose. I have felt the most passionate about writing when i have done more of my opinion pieces like my blog about toxic masculinity in gym culture and its relation to grooming boys into adopting far right ideologies, or the time that I wrote about the discovery of Nanotyrannus, and the Dueling Dinosaurs fossil found in Hell’s Creek, Montana. Both of these pieces have a certain commonality to them that I have just now clearly defined in my head. What makes these pieces of writing so much more exhilarating for me than a simple review of a topic or an album or genre that I find interesting is the fact that I am either a); connecting the dots to a preexisting observation that I have seen in across different interests that I have, or b); I am learning new information and applying that to what I already know about a given topic, where the information that I consume answers questions that I have about a given definition that is applicable to a given system. 

What the hell does all that mean? In short, I’m finding out what I actually want to do and in doing this, I have rediscovered a type of curiosity that I feel like I only had when I was a kid; which brings me to a more fundamental societal issue that I have seen not only in myself, but in the way in which the accruement of knowledge is treated in an age where the breadth of human information is just casually sitting in our pockets. People are not comfortable confronting their own ignorance. Now coming from me–and arguably now looking back at the words that I just typed out–it would be easy to hold the opinion that this is boring, self-serving pseudo-intellectual crap for this guy to feed his own ego to appear somewhat philosophical or esoteric. You are completely justified in holding such an opinion, especially given the fact that these words are coming from a white-male undergraduate student who’s typing this out for a college radio station blog. 

Now, what do I mean by “ignorance”? And what does that have to do  with anything that I previously just talked about? Firstly, when I say “ignorance” I am using its simplest definition; “the lack of knowledge” which is a broad encompassing term due to the fact that the magnitude of knowledge that is present today, takes people whole lifetimes just to make a dent in current academic literature–this is why PhD programs are so rigorous. Even still, it's not enough to just get through all of higher education and earn a doctorate, because your findings may end up being fruitless–no matter how thorough your work was. However, what I am seeing and experiencing today is that so many people are uncomfortable admitting what they do not know, people are scared to ask questions for fear of being looked at as unintelligent or fear of being ostracized by others who think that you are doing too much, or not enough–being able to record someone at anytime does not help when there is a pre-existing pressure to conform to a particular standard–even if your question is valid.

THERE IS NO LIMIT TO THE LARP!!!!

Yes, I am talking about live action role playing, and not the kind where you get to dress up as an elf or warlock. How hell is larping even relevant to this? When I say larping, I really mean feigning a level of aptitude to appear more well versed on a given topic than you actually are; which I can understand if you are trying to get a job in order to make a livable wage. However, this same principle–to appear more knowledgeable than others to achieve a certain goal or prestige–has integrated itself into interpersonal relationships regarding people who share common hobbies or identities. Due to the way that the current system is in place, socializing and building relationships is now much more important than actual skill building in a lot of professions (business and politics in particular) --introducing an age of social capital into the already highly reactive market that people must play into in order to survive. This is a struggle for those who aren't socially apt to conform to white-standard socialization norms or hobbies, which disproportionately affects those with different cultural backgrounds (minority groups) that creates yet another inherent roadblock to upwards social mobility among many systemic inequalities. This, I believe, is also another reason for the consistent gentrification of indigenous cultures, foods, and practices, taking the shape of yet another prepackaged mass consumption item that becomes a new “trend”. Due to the increasingly violent nature of the current American political and economic climate, people who have previously gatekept their culture from the white-capitalist hegemony are now having their culture commodified to appease those with capital, purely out of economic survival. This has happened a lot with West Asian cultures but others as well, notably, Middle Eastern cultures, and with a lot of Latino culture as well. 

While not a culture surrounding ethnicity, one instance of this that I can most expressly describe, is in music, more specifically “alternative” music, where the term “poser” is akin to larping. Now before anyone comes at my throat talking about the value behind gatekeeping subcultures to spare them from falling victim to gentrification or the soulless nature of for-profit/corporate entertainment, I 100% agree that there is value behind it. However, when people turn socializing into identifying symbolic markers of people by the type of media that they consume, it inherently throws away the actual person by boiling down someone's identity into average demographical information based on the preconception of the majority of people who consume that type of media. Not only do you see this happen with music, but you can also see it happen with political ideologies, sexual identity, and philosophies, which reminds me of an interesting conversation with one of my friends over self identification, individuality, and the use of labels–that will become more relevant later on. However, the same way that people boil down others to what media they consume, it is more telling of an individual’s character in HOW they consume it; use it in everyday socialization; interact with it; and how they tell other people about what they consume alongside their interpreted meaning of it. 

Whether or not someone consumes a particular genre of media is largely irrelevant, it is more so dependent on the person consciously or unconsciously deciding to attribute this media with a particular meaning or sentiment, which is indicative of their biases; or, whether or not they are even aware of them.

What I am trying to get at is the fact that the commodification of culture has turned symbols related to communities into a badge of social status based on whether or not you’re “in the know” about a popularized gentrified product that usually comes from an exploited culture. I believe that more people should get off their damn high horse and simply learn about how media, art, culture, and products are made so that they don’t bastardize a culture that isn’t theirs. Even if you mindlessly consume a product which everyone in America is guilty of by default, including me—it’s imperative to know when you are not privy to the cultural capital of it because you yourself are not a part of that culture, nor were you invited! While yes, I am mainly talking about white people when I say this, yet it doesn’t mean that someone is incapable of appropriating different cultures simply because they aren’t Caucasian. Take, for example, recent K-pop groups trying to impersonate Black American culture in their music and dance to appeal to what they believe is the contemporary American norm in commercial music entertainment for more exposure. This was just the first of many instances that came to mind, but this anecdote says a lot about how people view culture in today’s globalist lens. Now let’s narrow the scope in towards a more individual perspective of how this is applicable to everyday interactions with people. My point being, while you may be really close with people of a different ethnicity, and they may have invited you to be a part of something from their culture, it does not take away from the fact that you aren’t from that culture and that you have a fundamentally different experience. To some, this may seem like a stupid question because it seems almost intuitive, but it can be surprisingly complicated for a lot of people. How do I be cognizant about what I portray when talking about a culture that I am not fundamentally a part of?

It’s simple, talk to people of that culture, learn where things come from, learn why they come from there, ask people what their understanding is about a certain culture. In short, have a conversation you know nothing about; feel stupid for not knowing something; then, when you’ve learned something new, ask questions. 

Having the humility to be honest and upfront with someone when you do not comprehend what they are saying is something that I personally am finding to be an invaluable skill to have and is the center of what I am actually writing about in this blog. It’s helped me build trust in my relationships that I am grateful to have, as well as helping me connect with others who, at a first glance, are very different from me, but are more similar to me than I initially realized. 

In the previous paragraphs, I was talking about “culture” more in the indigenous sense–the cultures of groups who have always had to face systemic inequalities–but this open-mindedness can be applicable anywhere and everywhere because there are types of cultures about everything, which I find so exhilarating. The same way that you get a different vibe going from a rave or a house show with a local band as opposed to a large concert at a venue; acting a different way at a wedding than you do a funeral yet still dress in formal clothes; or how the style or color palette of clothes of people changes depending on which part of town you visit; or how differently you write an email to your TA for missing discussion as opposed to writing an email for research opportunities. All of these are examples of culture that surrounds us, no matter how well versed a person may be in one expertise, culture, skill, hobby, or career, there is always someone who knows something they don’t know; which is why I have such a big problem with the current era of symbolism that we are entering. Meaning is getting condensed faster and faster in order to consume enough information in order to keep up with a type of mainstream culture, the use of abbreviations and symbols to convey complex ideas–while a natural form of how communication and language develops over time–is increasingly losing meaning when the pace of processing information and retaining it hasn’t changed much–as it is a physical limitation (some people could argue there are things you can do to change it but I'm talking generally). This brings me to the discussion that I had with my friend that some of you have been wondering “will he actually get to that or did he just forget about it?”

So here we are in and were are talking about identity where my friend says: while they don’t necessarily believe in gender norms, as most of it is a socio-cultural construct, they don't consider themselves nonbinary because when you identify as nonbinary, it’s still a blank, identifiable space in the patterns of 1s and 0s, but whenever someone asks them, they just say they’re nonbinary, even though they just want to appear androgynous. I ask them in what situation do you actually tell someone your thought process behind it?  Not only that, when do you determine that someone is well enough versed in this type of vernacular or subject of gender identity to actually explain your own idea or definition of your identity? Their response was that well if they’re in a rush and they don't have the time or energy to explain themselves then they just say their nonbinary as it's the closest thing that they can accurately describe themselves as. I asked myself at what point do people sacrifice important, detailed information about their own thought processes in order to conserve explanatory time at the expense of others categorizing them into a preconception of a group that they don’t fully agree with? I know that this may sound like a slippery slope fallacy for all the pretentious people who did debate in high school (you can do debate and not be pretentious, I know) but the cost of condensing your beliefs into one label provides efficiency and arguably safety in numbers–depending on the group–at the cost of being misconstrued with something that you don't actually believe until the word loses its actual meaning. 

The same thing happened with the word “alternative” and now it's just a buzzword that's used to convey that you dress a certain way and like a particular genre of music. Hot take, nobody is alternative, nobody was ever alternative, you can like a genre of music, but you’re not that genre personified and people just start saying the lamest shit of all time because they think they're the next Kurt Cobain. Soooo you just want to be famous to feed your own ego is what I'm hearing correctly, yes?? Like good lord some of these people know nothing about how record labels work, how entertainment is run by people in suits who decide what is and isn't profitable, it has nothing to do with the art/artists at this point, it has to be about some "existential message” like fight the system or some bullshit while they are actively drooling at the limelight with cartoonish dollar signs for fucking eyeballs. Media literacy people, media literacy. However the same thing happens with political ideologies in the sense that people cling onto a political theorist like Karl Marx and hail him as the prophet of leftist politics, and while yes I believe that there is very valuable material inside his books and people should probably read if they want to learn about socio-economic political theory, why the fuck are people calling themselves communists while they live in America–the most privileged capitalist country on Earth? I find more and more that people latch on to symbols and people like leeches instead of actually having anything of substance to say about what they just consumed in a contemporary context. Yes, there should be extreme social reform in the United States, but posting Mao Ze Dong and Che Guevara edits on TikTok and Instagram reels isn't going to incite any ratification to the current system and Das Kapital is not a fucking cookbook recipe for a utopia. I am only bringing up examples from the left side of the political spectrum instead of the far right because I assume that an example of idolizing/mindlessly claiming a political identity from the ladder would just speak for itself–more like shout–especially if you’ve ever glanced in the direction of any news heading in the past 10 years. 

After all of this writing I am happy to say that this is the last paragraph that my thought process has led me down but I had a lot of fun writing this and hope that many–or some–of you enjoyed at least one part of my extensive rant, and I know that this isn't much of a conclusion but I am tired and its late at night so I’ll end it here before I get too ahead of myself. If anyone has anything to say remotely about what I say or claim here, don't be shy to reach out as I am always open to other people's perspectives, and it would make me really happy if someone talked to me about my blog.  :)