Babyz and Vagina Guitars

On our class message board, we’ve been discussing Miss Bimbo. Klara Kim mentioned The Aberrant Gamer’s take on the game Miss Bimbo. Miss Bimbo seems like a pretty bad idea as something targeted at "tweens" (I agree with The Aberrant Gamer on the cringeworthiness of this word!). But as a social satire I think it's kind of fun.

In that article, The Aberrant Gamer mentions something that's been bothering me for a long time, that even when girls take interest in traditionally male hobbies, they are still being marketed to as Grrlz rather than young consumers.


Imagine™: Babyz

For instance, in The Aberrant Gamer’s previously mentioned column, she mentions a game called Imagine™: Babyz. Here's part of the description of the game from amazon.com:

"-As a babysitter, take care of up to six babies. Feed them, play with them, take them for walks in the garden, and keep them healthy.
-Spend your hard-earned money on new baby outfits, toys, or food, or on new furniture for your house.
-Customize and clean your house with fun mini-games: vacuum, paint the walls, mow the grass, and more."

At least Miss Bimbo strives to be over-the-top and satirical. I guess Imagine™ Babyz is just a new kind of more complex Betsy Wetsy for the DS generation, but it still bothers me that girls (girlz?) are so deeply encouraged at such a young age to regard reproduction (especially up to six kids!) as a fun play thing. Imagine™ also gives young girls (and let there be no mistake, they’re definitely aimed at girls. The covers of the game all have (mostly white) women on them, except for Babyz, which has three (white) babies on it) a digital look at four other careers “relevant to what girls in this age group have indicated they are most interested in”: Fashion Designer, Figure Skater, Master Chef, and Animal Doctor. I won’t even begin to comment on the limited scope of careers that Ubisoft seems to think young girls should be aspiring to or the fact that only the Veterinarian—erm, sorry, Animal Doctor path actually requires a college degree.


If Miss Bimbo is alarming because it encourages eating disorders and negative body images amongst a population already fraught with eating disorders and negative body images, isn’t Imagine™: Babyz just as guilty in a teen pregnancy sense? According to Planned Parenthood, one million teenagers (97 per 1,000 women aged 15–19) become pregnant each year. This is obviously not including women under 15 who become pregnant each year. Furthermore, “teen mothers are less likely to graduate from high school and more likely than their peers who delay childbearing to live in poverty and to rely on welfare.” Lucky for them, not graduating high school only knocks out one potential Imagine™ career field.


Daisy Rock Guitars

I remember talking with one of my friends back in high school about girly guitars. Our local guitar seller had a few choice items in sparkly pink and purple, much like the Daisy Rock guitars. She told me about how almost every time she went to the store whether to buy a guitar or to just pass time while waiting for her (male) friends to finish perusing the store, the store clerks would try to push her to play one of these sparkly instruments. It was more amusing than offensive at the time and we joked about it; “Look, most of the people who know me already know I have a vagina, so I don’t really need to advertise it on my instrument.”
I just discovered Daisy Rock Guitars. They have a special line for younger girls called the Debutante line:
http://debutante.daisyrock.com/
These guitars come in a wide variety of colors ranging from Bubble Gum Pink to Atomic Pink with the occasional Princess Purple or Awesome Blue (only available in daisy-shape) thrown in for good measure. There is only one guitar that isn’t blatantly girly and that’s the Ruby Red Rock Candy Electric Guitar Pack, though the Ruby Red seems a little more like hot pink to me.
The guitars come in different shapes, as well. Four years ago, my friend and I were joking about the idea of a sparkly girly guitar being a musical declaration of vagina-ownership. Now they’re actually making girly guitars in shapes of classic vagina symbols. They make heart and star shaped ones too.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the idea of encouraging young girls to learn an instrument. I just don’t see why they can only achieve this with pink sparkles.

Music and Learning

Our recent class discussion about music, culture and kids was so interesting and yet I felt a little bit overwhelmed at the prospect of introducing music clubs and discussions of Hip Hop in the school or after school setting. Also, as it was mentioned in elementary school and middle school, it might be a little difficult to bring up all the nuances and references of the songs and genre.

As I was reading a recent emailed edition of “Reading Connection, the Middle Years” from my child’s school there was an article advocating children listening to music while doing their homework. The suggestion to parents was to allow your child to listen to “certain types” of music to actually improve learning. It sparked the idea, that maybe I could start small with music and students so I decided to further research exactly what types of music to listen to for learning and how sound is currently used in education. I found that many researchers and music professionals say that listening to music/ sounds and learning are inextricably linked.

I came upon a couple of websites that I will discuss here that offer ideas, resources, and theories of how and why music and education should be linked.

Firstly, I found that most music and brain neuron specialists agree that music alters our moods and this can affect our attitudes toward our environments. If that environment includes homework, or a classroom, it will make that task or place have a more positive feeling and we will relax and be able to focus on content. While relaxation and mood enhancement is key, the process of listening to music can also create physical changes in our brain that allow us to be in a zone, so to speak, where our short term memory is improved. This is great news for kids (or us) doing homework.

The types of music recommended for task oriented learning such as homework is background music at a level that is not distracting. For writing type assignments it is suggested that more upbeat music be used to keep the brain in a lively state.

Other types of music helpful in learning are types of melodies or rhythms that enhance the process of rote learning. Teachers are beginning to value and use music such as rap or rhyming songs to help teach students facts and memorization. I think we have all done this ourselves, created little jingles to help us remember facts for a test; but what is different here, is that teachers are beginning to implement this type music in the classroom as a teaching tool to deliver the subject content to students.

The first website represents a company called LifeSounds which provides resources for teachers. There is some interesting information on the site, however, not all the resources are free. Ms. Chris Brewer, the company founder is dedicated to providing “music you can use” and strongly believes in the correlation between music education and music in the classroom as a necessity to teach the whole child. Her website offers an array of CD’s for sale that are meant to be used for various types of learning in a traditional education setting. The music available ranges from that intended to create a positive environment while children enter the classroom or walk through the hallways to specific categories labeled as “Energizing and Attention”, “Creating and Reflecting”, and Sound Breaks”. The latter is lively music designed to give students a ‘rest’ from learning akin to a physical break like stretching. There are also categories of music called “Concerts”. “Active Concerts” imply active teaching use, to be used in conjunction with storytelling, dramas, emphasis of quotes or words. There are also “Passive Concerts” that are designed for listening aesthetics and for cultural exposure. There is also music available that is to be used for health and healing purposes. The founder strongly advocates the ‘Mozart Effect” and firmly believes in the theory that music enhances learning while doing homework.

Remember moms playing Mozart to their children in utero to grow their brain cognition? The ‘Mozart Effect’ has been well studied and some have concluded that it is related to mood changes and positive feelings, hence improving learning capability short term, while other studies have more dramatically claimed that listening to such music actually expands IQ.

For any teacher wanting to a more hands on approach for teaching children about music and its effects is this great website that offers information about music and sound is The Musical Brain that offers Neuro Science for Kids, explanations of the Mozart effect, and a great resource for teachers to learn everything you need to know about how sound is created, and how it becomes music by the vibrations created. It explains the science of vibrations causing tone and the effect that music has on our neurons. That part got a little technical, but visuals were provided and the language used very readable. It was fascinating to learn how our brains and bodies respond to the vibrations made by instruments. The site explains the various types of instruments and gives the reader samples of different genres of music. There is also a great lesson plan that develops listening skills while listening to water.

The site is also kid friendly with graphics, colors and detail explanations. This site has several audio (long ones) clips that are very useful for listening to experts in the field of brain studies and music. One is Dr. Frances Rauscher, one of the original researchers that studied the ‘Mozart Effect.’ She actually debunks the idea that listening to music makes one smarter or learn at all.

What she says has been proven is that there is a correlation to learning to play an instrument and certain intelligence growth. I think most of us have heard that learning how to play an instrument or reading music notes aids proficiency in Science and Math subjects. There have been many studies on this. Some had rejected the idea because it was felt there was a bias toward children that were from higher economic backgrounds. It was originally concluded that the typical child that takes music lessons, also comes from a home where the parents are more educated and aesthetic pursuits are valued. Further research, however, does show that specifically learning an instrument affects the temporal lobe in the brain where spatial comprehension is expanded. This then is useful in other non-musical applications where there are complex levels of comprehension needed.

Ms. Rauscher points out that actual brain systems are enhanced by children that take up an instrument at an early age, and the enhancement is significant. In addition, a Northwestern University study released a year ago called Research finds music training 'tunes' human auditory system “is the first to provide concrete evidence that playing a musical instrument significantly enhances the brainstem’s sensitivity to speech sounds." The article strongly indicates that not only do kids develop the ability for “sound coding” in music, but in language as well. What is great is that it doesn’t just help those children that are musically inclined, but all students.

My little research project gave me great spin-off ideas. Why not have certain days of the week where a certain genre of music gets played. Why can’t we have a perky melody going (mild Hip-hop) during Science experimentation? Why not play the music from the Harry Potter movies during writing assignments? I also got more and more ideas for having kids bring their own favorites for “genre days”. Kids could take a turn at critiquing their favorites, and maybe even brainstorm as to what types of stories would go along with it? It also reminded me to keep the music going on at home. We have great music for “chore times”, Sundays, jumping around with the dog, and so forth. It makes home seem happy and welcoming, too.

The research is there that music, listening, playing, and moving can be a key to expanded learning at a higher level. So I am excited to get listening, moving and thinking!

Auditory Illusions

Check out these cool illusions at New Scientist. Go ahead: freak yourself out a bit.

Losing the Cool

So last night's class on rap and hip-hop got me thinking about when, exactly, we become uninformed about new music (or other cultural things like it). I mean, I was never the kind of person who was really into the underground scene, though being a teenager in Southern California I did manage to get into groups that were not mainstream (at the time, at least)--Oingo Boingo, Jane's Addiction, Smiths, etc. I mostly listened to what was on the radio or what my older sister was into until about the age of 16 or 17, and then I became aware of the idea that being into what was "popular" was not the same thing as being into what was "hip," hence my passion for Sinead O'Connor looooooong before anyone had ever heard of her. Anyway, that is all to say that I liked mainstream music, knew all the pop songs, but was also aware of this whole other scene while not really being into it.

Then I went to college, then graduate school, and somewhere along the way (I think when I was a TA in the mid-90s) I realized that I was not familiar with the names of groups and musicians my students were into. Granted, most of my students were "alternative" types (students majoring in art, film, new media, etc) and prided themselves on being on the fringes, but still . . . I was surprised and saddened to be so out of touch.

Now, in my mid-30s and with no students and only a one-year old child in the house, I feel *completely* out of touch. I mean, I know the names and music of people who manage to get airplay, but listening to Amy Winehouse is not exactly the same as listening to Ministry back in the day. So this got me to thinking about when it happens, this whole becoming uncool. Losing the cool ain’t cool, and not just because it makes you feel old. It is distressing because it becomes its own form of cultural illiteracy. Not listening to hip-hop, not knowing the different artists and slang and related connections all becomes a form of exclusion from a large part of a cultural movement. I may have the critical skills necessary to deconstruct a video for its misogyny or appropriation of blues standards, and I may be able to articulate an opinion about why we are fascinated with Kanye’s criticism of the President post-Katrina, but that does not make me fluent (literate) in the texts of this generation. And while this makes me sad, it also, in a weird way, is a huge relief—I no longer feel the need to keep up with everything and everyone, I no longer feel like an idiot when I don’t get a reference. I just feel like a stranger in a strange land, hoping someone will take me by the hand and teach me, but not worrying too much about it if they don’t. And *that* is the saddest, most uncool part of it all—the relieved resignation, surely the first sign of having lost the cool.

Video Reflection For Week 6

Here's my reflection on our assigned readings this week about music. This is the first video I've ever edited, so please forgive some issues with volume changes and weird cuts where I've taken out my prolific and protracted ummm's and uhhhh's.

Hip hop and women

Since we talked about the topic of women in hip hop, I wanted to post this kinda sad song that talks about women in a more respectful way. Although, as I said, the song's depressing. Hope I don't get in trouble...

boomp3.com

Music in message, new media

I'm looking forward to our discussion on music tomorrow. Every time I've ever had a discussion in class about music, it turned out to be really interesting. Music and audio seem to be really amazing ways to spread cultural messages, as our various short samples for this week show. No matter what the message is, if it's accompanied by music, it'll most likely be more successful. I thought juxtaposing Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes with Radio Disney was really interesting, since in a number of ways they are opposites. One is a grassroots critique of the effects of the industry buyout of a musical genre, the other is a musical story written by the industry itself. One is a genre that originated in African American culture and is sharply aware of race and class, the other portrays itself as generally white and largely ignores race and class issues. Yet they both appropriate music to attract a larger audience.

I also wanted to point to the interesting ways that new media have affected the distribution methods of musical content. The point made in Hip Hop about the fact that record labels today don't want to sell positive, inspirational, revolutionary rap music got me thinking about more underground labels. While they can't get their music onto MTV or Clear Channel for the most part, many of them do have a very large audience through the Internet. And they often distribute free content, perhaps partially as an eff you to the money-mongering music industry. So although they may not get a spot on TV, more people get a chance to hear their stories now than ever before. (We'll see if this changes as big companies figure out ways to buy up the Internet too.)

VH1's "I Love the 1790s"....

I'll be the first to admit that I am really, really not up on music culture. Aural literacy is not my forte. But this comedian makes his point about music and derivative works so even I can get the point (and he's very funny):