Hey everyone, this is Shizzle Rau comming back with a new post. Todays post is going to be about music as a medium, integrated into online multimedia. A medium – this extension of our body or senses or mind – is anything from which a change emerges. And since some sort of change emerges from everything we conceive or create, all of our inventions, innovations, ideas and ideals are McLuhan media. Thus we have the meaning of “the medium is the message”. The traditional definition of a medium is one of the means or channels of general communication, information, or entertainment in society, as newspapers, radio, or television.
A more radical definition is "any extension of ourselves, and the message of the medium as 'the change of scale or pace or pattern that it introduces into human affairs". It was created by a genius named Marshall McLuhan. He has written several books, but his most impressionable one would be a book called "Understanding Media: the Extensions of Man". Mark Federman from the McLuhan Institute at the University of Toronto explains McLuhan's ideas in his article, The Fifth Law of Media. There is a link to his blog under 'Readings' (what is the next message).
How can music be a part of, an 'extension of man'? I'll tell you. Well, lots of songs have subliminal meanings to it. For example, the band Iron Maiden doesn't really have subliminal messages but direct and straight forward messages. Most of which are on wars and how they are not good. Music can make a person feel a certain way. Songs like: Forget It - Breaking Benjamin can make one feel down, but at the same time aware. One must be aware of what is going on.
I would like to say that Global Kids are having a thing for the Virginia Tech victims and their families, so keep an eye out for that.
This relates because to spread the word out, one needs the media. SL, e-mail, posts and forums are exactly those types of media. McLuhan once said, " Utterings are outerings (extensions), so media are not as words, they actually are words. I think this makes alot of sense because if you really think about it, media isn't just the act of delivering information, it is what the media is delivering.Well that is all I have for today.
"I don't want them to believe me, I just want them to think." - Marshall McLuhan
I am Shizzle Rau from DAA. I hope this helps.
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3 comments:
Good post, Shizzle, but how does Second Life integrate music in its environment, and how exactly does it differ from the typical way we listen to music?
I hope Global Kids succeeds with their tribute to the Virginia Tech Students.
I like the view that Kareem posted about media. "Media in general is not like words, they are actual words... Media is not just the act of delivering information, it is what the media is delivering" This quote to me reflects on how powerful the media is today, but that power should be maintained responsibly.
I understand your idea of how songs are mediums because they convey messages, so I think what you are trying to say is that the tone of the song has an effect on the mood of the listener. Since this can be interpreted as 'conveying a message', we can verify Mcluhan's statement that "the medium is the message".
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