On September 28th, our class topic was history of recording. We began the class talking about time and how in 1830 every city, town, village, and farm in the United State had its own time which is so surreal with how the world is today in 2016. I had absolutely no idea that it was until 1880 that regional time zones were created or that in 1883 the U.S. organized four different “time zones”. One never really puts too much thought in thinking about how different the time zones were back then and how the world did not run on GMT yet, but it is extremely fascinating that folks put measures into their own hands to decide what time of day it was. As the 1900s approached the time of day had been organized and settled and motion pictures became common. The beginning of motion pictures approaches shortly before a new era sparks. This era is referred as “Acoustic Recording Era” which lasted roughly 20 years from 1905-1925. Something interesting I learned this class were drums and pianos typically were not used because it was too loud and would blow up the recording thus ruining it. Today’s time the piano and drums are some of the most common musical instrument that people pride themselves with playing, so it’s strange to think they were not used during this era nearly 100 years ago. After the Acoustic Recording Era came the Electrical Recording Era. It wasn’t until circa 1952 when tape recordings began, which have become CD’s in todays time. Fast forward 18 years and multi-track tapes advance and are used in the 1970’s. Much progress occurred in the history of recording within a 70 year period and still continues to this day. It truly amazes me to see where we began and where we are today. On October 3rd, the class was introduced to the history of swing beat. The class was short and spent mostly watching videos to thoroughly understand the concept. Essentially, in the 1950’s everything in North America was built around swing beat. What really stuck to me from this class was that Argentina has a lot of Africans naturally. I had literally never heard this before and it was extremely shocking to me. I had never noticed swing beat before, but after this class I will be carefully listening for it. Finally, October 5th our topic was history of genre. We began class with watching a youtube video Axis of Awesome – 4 Four Chord Song and it was astonishing. I absolutely loved what the mash up the three men created and the craziest part is all those wonderful, popular songs share the same chords. It really put into perspective that an abundant amount of songs are all built on the same chords. After viewing the youtube videos, we discussed the period of Radical Racism (1890-1910) and how many deaths occurred from lynching (never heard of lynching before this class). What saddened me was that dark town was slang for where blacks lived and how inhumane whites treated them while they are worth as much as any other human life. What I believe was a step forward in the history of genre was when Race Records was marketed to both white and black people helping lessen the divide between the two races.

On September 26, our class focused on the minstrel shows and how they were taken from the Jim Crow laws. I had explored the topic of minstrels before in a history class in high school, but honestly forgot about the topic. It’s a fascinating topic to try and comprehend why during the civil era were they minstrel shows and songs so beloved by everyone. Considering that Lincoln was against slavery it is extremely strange that he enjoyed and loved going to minstrel shows even though they belittled blacks. The oddest part of the minstrel shows in my opinion, is that before the 1900’s you could not appear in the minstrel shows if you were black you had to be white. What is even more bizarre to me is why would a black person want to partake in a show that mocks their culture to bring comedy to others. The entire topic is unusual and the shows probably would not thrive in todays time period with how politically correct society has become. It nearly shocks me how popular the minstrel shows were and how it was just successful overseas. The minstrel shows became international entertainment existing in England, France, etc. and in an puzzling way sort of connected the world with a shared interest in these shows. Seeing pictures of the amount of black paint that was put on their faces is disturbing and I can’t help but think about how much would break out by having black face. We concluded our class by listening to Mammy by Al Jolson and I felt uncomfortable during the entire song. I honestly can’t help but be thankful that I did not exist in this era as it made me feel uneasy during the entire class.

On September 14th, I learned a significant amount on the invention of information management and computers. Max Weber, whom was a philosopher, believed that information management was the key innovation of the industrial world. The topic then transitioned into Bell Labs, which I have never heard of. Bell Labs developed digital audio theory, laser, led, and cell phones. Bell Labs today is known as Nokia, which is a company I have heard of and is well recognized, but I never knew they were credited for the developments of major digital and scientific creations. On September 19th, I was introduced to “most important man no one knows about” Claude Shannon, who is the father of information theory. Shannon worked for Bell Lab as a coder and would do a significant amount of decoding. Shannon argued that information and meaning are two different things, when you put it into perspective this is a true statement. Each person can have a different meaning or interpretation to certain information. Working at Bell Labs Shannon meets Alan Turing who decrypted the nazi code. I am surprised that I have never heard of either of these names before as they are important figures in history. Without Turing it is hard to say how WW2 would have ended or the final outcome. To finish up, on September 21 (week 4) we discussed how easy it is to argue that America is military aggressive after 1960. What I learned was the military funding far outnumbers the spending and net income of all United States corporations. It really just goes to show that after WW2 how important a national defense became. The military ties in with computers because they are crucial as research involves targeting and pinpointing exact location. A crazy thought is how only 100 websites existed in the world in June 1993, when the internet is practically many peoples lives today. Also, in this class I learned about arpanet which was something I had never heard before. Arpanet was created to transmit information between lines and developed a set of protocols and became easier to manage, not to mention how cool it is that arpanet was designed to be able to stand a nuclear attack. Without the invention of the computer our military would not thrive. By taking History 390 I have learned a significant amount of information about companies, inventions, and concepts that I do not think I would have learned about without taking this class.

On September 12th we discussed a topic I had never really been introduced to before; that the central problem in western philosophy is idealism vs realism. Idealists were defined as religious people that seek and believe in a divine, while realists are rather skeptical. I find myself stuck between both philosophies because I am not overbearingly religious, but I do like to think that there is an eternity and after life that I as a Christian will enter once I pass on, but I also relate to realists because I make the best of what I have and do not feel the dire need to always strive for perfection. I think it is possible to be a little of both because there is a certain hope and relief you feel knowing a loved on that has passed away is in Heaven, but also can be a realist because although you believe in a ideal, perfect place you still are skeptical of much and if a Heaven really does exist. In class it was said it is easy to mock a realist because they have no major aspirations, which I disagree with. Just because you’re a realist and do not feel the desire to seek the ideal does not mean you do not try or put in an effort to make a good life for yourself. I do not find it fair to label only idealists as optimistic, when realists can be hopeful without believing in an ideal. The topic is very open to personal opinion and obviously not everyone will agree that you are either an idealists or a realist.

Since class began on August 29th, I have been exposed to new ideas that I never thought about in the past. In History 390, I have been taught different stances on a handful of things I never put much thought into. I never really compared music from the 60’s to the present besides the obvious, such as how much more vulgar, sexual, and “pop” style it is today. As time evolves so does music and it was interesting to learn how digital media today has no limit for how loud a track can become versus a record. With the evolution of technology it makes it cheaper and easier to create music from a laptop instead of hauling a group of musicians into a studio to record an album. It makes me respect musicians and artists from 40 years ago because they put in the time and effort to entertain society, while today not nearly as much work is being put into a song and it is worth more now than it was in recent years. Comparing Adele to Aretha Franklin and Mahalia Jackson and seeing how they built up their voices throughout the song and you can hear that is it not as massively compressed is an interesting eye opener for our modern society. It was discussed in class that Adele’s “Hello” is bad art because it flattens and deprives human emotion compared to the emotion you feel and hear from Franklin or Jackson. Compressed music is far too common today, which is interesting since louder is often perceived to be “better” then I question myself why prevent music from getting too loud? After this discussion in class it saddened me to realize modern music is almost all the same with a boosted base and treble and hardly any flat frequency curves that you can hear in famous Frank Sinatra records. Thankfully, on a positive note modern technology allows society to look up and enjoy the classics and the recent music within minutes. Besides learning about the history of music throughout the years I also learned about what the internet has done to us as a whole. In a captivating book by Nicholas Carr called “The Shallows” I learned how in the time period of the 60’s society was blind and deaf to the power of technology. Carr noted how the computer is our servant yet our master at the same time because of how we as people rely on the internet and how the way we think has changed because of the internet. The Shallows explained how philosophers and historians believe technological progress is the primary force and influence to humans control and I could not agree more. I personally find myself influenced by technology, because it is always there, and essentially becomes a backbone to you. Carr believes that we often “map” our lives, social spheres, or even our ideas based on the influence of the internet, which is an interesting topic to discuss because in recent age people often go to certain places just to take a photo to publish online as proof they went there instead of engaging in the actual experience. This book put into perspective how growing up in the age of where the internet was truly born affected my life, such has how once an aol subscription only allowed you five hours of internet a week and now it is limitless. I can hardly remember a time when videos would stutter or the voices did not match the image because of how advanced technology has become. An economist named Tyler Cowen said, “when access to info is easy we tend to favor the short, the sweet, the bitty” because honestly who doesn’t prefer the short cut and that is why the internet is such a dominant force in today’s society. Carr discussed how the internet commands our attention with far greater insistence than the tv, radio, or morning newspaper did. I agree with this opinion of Carr’s because I often find myself watching tv, but not actually watching, because I am on my phone scrolling through social media. The internet has been a blessing too many making life easier, but unfortunately has the negatives such as how printing publications has decreased since everything is now on the internet. Personally, I do not think our generation has dumbed down because of the internet, but has boosted our general intelligence because if we ever want to learn a new fact we can easily go online and research it. I have enjoyed these past few classes where I encountered new ideas that I never put much thought into before!