Today we talked about classification of things and how it is nearly impossible to classigy everything. I agree with this statement fully because it is very hard to classify everything. For example let’s look at dance. There are different dance moves that are unique to each particular dance style but almost all of them can be rooted in ballet. Ballet is the basic form of all dances so no matter what someone is dancing, such as hip hop or contemporary, there will always be that root in ballet. It’s impossible to classify what a dance move is because it touches on all different sorts of dancy styles. So like dance, I believe that it’s hard to classify everything in the world.

I found it very interesting when we were talking about copyrighting and music. I found it most interestingly enough that it was not legally possible to copyright cord changes but also understand it. I had never really though about it so it never crossed my mind. Now that I think about it, it is impossible to copyright cord changes and there is a limited number of them. This makes me wonder if there is a limited number of songs that can be written. Music is a huge part of my life so I would like there to always be a new song from a band I listen to or a new piece of music for me to sing. Not copyrighting cords of musical instruments will help with that.

Today we talked about the changing of space and time. I found it very interesting that people thought the concept of space and time was changing as much as it has been since I myself have not really thought about it. The railroad and the telegraph made significant strides in the way we talk to one another. It changed the way that we viewed seasons since diets used to be restricted to what was available to eat. With the railroad people were able to ship whatever they desired whenever they wanted. This was also around the time that the four time zones started being used as well as the concept of daylight savings time.

The railroad was only the beginning of the changing of space and time. As technology developed motion pictures and phonograph recordings also changed how the world was. With movies certain images of certain people or things were altered as well. Hollywood was very influential in this since they were starting to become the movie making capital of the world. Since people began to be recorded on screen, singers didn’t have to project their voices as much which I found interesting as well. I am a singer and am constantly told I have to project my voice to make it stronger and the idea of not projecting is odd to me.

Today we continued to talk about the European beat as well as the “Sing” feel. I have heard a little bit of swing music and danced to it as well. The beat itself is interesting to dance to because your body naturally goes with the rhythm. We finished with that and then talked about Darktown  which were nicknames given to places where black people lived and was used by blacks and whites. I found this interesting that everyone used this phrase and there was no “politically correct” term. Knowing there was a time when terms like this were acceptable makes me wonder about how much America has changed and how much it still needs to change.

Today we talked about how the beat in music is equally emphasized in European traditions on beats 1 and 3. African music and now popular music has the beat emphasized on beats 2 and 4. I found this very interesting to talk about since I’ve been singing since I was eight years old and am now a music minor. I have sung in choir for 9 years and have sung a variety of different styles. However I have sung a lot of traditional music in foreign languages, mostly Latin, French and German. I noticed that the beat is emphasized more on the first and third beats. I have no idea why but I could pick this out a lot easier than I imagined I could in class. That being said, I have also sung a lot of pop style and contemporary songs as well and noticed the emphasis on the second and fourth beats. In fact we sometimes are required to tap the beat and just naturally depending on the style of the piece determines which beats are harder. I’m not sure why but this is the case for me and I can easily hear when the beats are being emphasized be it in an old piece of music from the Renaissance era or a song on the radio.

Today we discussed the Minstrel Show. This show was performed by white people with black faces and made American internationally famous. I found it appalling that people about a century ago found it acceptable to paint their faces black and perform in shows. By today’s standards, it’s very offensive to African Americans; especially in a country that is having somewhat of a resurgence of civil rights issues. Out of everything I saw I couldn’t believe that stars such as Judy Garland and Shirley Temple did shows in ‘Black Face.’ Hollywood was and still is very influential so having stars such as them and many others perform in black face made it seem socially acceptable to do so. The idea that people were okay with doing this and made money off it stumps me still especially in a country that prides itself on acceptance and diversity.

Today we talked about narrative, hypertext, authority/author and CERN. Everything was really interesting but I really enjoyed talking about CERN which is the European Organization for Nuclear Research. I liked talking about this most because I watch The Big Bang Theory and the characters talk a lot about the CERN equipment. However we also talked about hypertext links which allow people to click on something on one page and it takes them to another page. I found it interesting that anyone could construct a hypertext and hypercard but I still don’t understand how it works overall. I understand Meta-narrative, where you don’t know if something exists, you just assume it does, a lot better. If you assume it exists that you accept there is an explanation for it and makes the events tell a story.

After talking about this we moved onto the Internet itself. The World Wide Web makes it very easy to steal and share it is a subdivision of the internet itself. It is based on a set of communication protocols. A URL is a uniform resource locator and I was really happy to finally know what URL stood for. I also learned that HTTP stands for hypertext transfer protocol  and HTML stands for hypertext make up language. I found the concept that if it is on the internet it belongs to the world. Because usually if you post something on social media you assume it belongs to you since you posted it. However anyone can see it so in a way, anything you post does belong to the world. All in all the internet was born out of  large scale government funding and the idea of free information to be shared.

For the digital scavenger hunt I decided to look at the term “Bluegrass.” I decided on this term because my father plays the mandolin and I grew up hearing the music in my home. Bluegrass today is most associated with country style music, although not the same style. It is often played on the Grand Ole Opry by musicians such as Alison Krauss, someone who I have seen perform live before. It is often said that is has an “Old Southern Sound.” The oldest reference I found of Bluegrass music was in 1923 from a Wall Street newspaper issue. At the time no one had really heard of Bluegrass as many record companies did not sign any artists that played the style. It was written by Gail King, a woman who was based in the Ohio Valley area. She interviewed Bill Monroe for a Bluegrass Mecca who had said that the style of music was called something else before it was referenced as bluegrass. What it had been called before no one really knew. The style of music was originally from the old south so it used instruments like a banjo, mandolin, fiddle, bass and guitar. This is where the origins of the sound came from and those who played the music in the south and slowly transformed it to what the genre is today.

Today we talked about the military’s ties with technology. The military doctrine: MAD or mutually agreed destruction came to height during the Cold War. This was a time when both the United States and Soviet Union was working with the newly discovered nuclear power. There was a tense air between the two nations and they began to fight Proxy Wars such as The Korean War and the Vietnam War. It was during this time, specifically the 1950s that the United States became a prominent international military power. And in order to keep up with the Soviets as well as other potential rivals, a lot of resources was put into computing.

The ENIAC or Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer became the first computer ever invented. Along with this invention, Lee DeForest was the inventor of the Audion which allows amplification and variable output. This invention, along with transistors which were smaller, created less heat and were more efficient helped further the computing field. Transistors were mainly used in defense related research since wars spur innovation. Through this innovation DARPA or Defense advance research project agencies began to appear. DARPA Net was created and scientists used it to communicate with one another all over the country. This was a distributed network and was the result of the Cold War. The Cold War was very important for technology growth since it pushed American inventors and scientists to their limits in order to make America the number one country on the planet and more importantly, ahead of the Soviet Union.

Today we talked about rationalization. A key innovation of the industrial world is information management and record keeping. When this occurred the world became rationalized and information was put together and written down in a way that it could be organized and understood better; therefore rationalized. I had never thought of information being like that before. It makes sense to have a certain way of keeping information together in order to save time and make it easier for others to know what they are reading. I think that it was a great step in the right direction to make the world an easier place to understand.

Then we moved onto hypertext which is when a link is clicked and the reader is taken to another page or wall of text/ information. It makes sense to to do this because with hypertext, people can connect two pieces of information. One seamlessly flows into the other and makes for a wonderful train of information. Hypertexts avoid the trap of specialization which is good because information is not confined to one webpage or small bit of text in the corner of a page. Hypertext and rationalized work together to make information easier to understand and well as being able to comprehend it. Without hypertext information would be less rationalized and the world may not have the internet as we know it today.