Your Live in 3, 2, 1...

Our class took an exciting trip to Much Music in Toronto on Friday November 20th. We explored the city, had fun with our friends and enjoyed the show MuchOnDemand. The purpose of this live interactive show is to entertain youth about what is going on in the media. They bring up music, movies and controversial topics. A live show verses a taped show is more exciting and entertaining. It gives the viewers a feeling as they are actually sitting there with the audience. It also gives them a chance to bring up recent topics that are going around in the media, not something that happened a few weeks ago. CTV and Much Music make money off of this program. Other money makers are also all the workers, behind the scenes crew and everyone else who is involved with the broadcast.

This interactive show lets off the message of all the hot topics that are occurring in the media. It informs the viewers about everything that is happening with celebrities, music, movies and more. During the show the producer lets members of the audience to input their opinion of certain controversial topics. This gives the message a two-sided outlook on what they are talking about. It makes the topic more believable and interesting when you hear what others have to say. The lifestyles these VJ’s and people involved in the show have are laid back and easy going personalities. It seems as if they have not many problems going on in their lives and everything is going great. This helps to keep them always acting positive which makes the show more enjoyable.

People who watch the show are usually preteens and teens between that age group. This is the intended target audience because the show talks about certain topics which relate to their lives. The show tries to focus more on topics which are evolving in the media because that’s what their viewers want to see and hear. Parents and adults may think the show is useless and not agree on everything they are saying. They also may think it is not educational and is a waste of time. Our class got to see a bit of how they prepare for everyday’s show and what goes on such as rehearsals and behind the scenes. It was cool to interact with the VJ’s and ask them questions about MOD. I would like to know more about how they prepare each days schedule and how they figure out which segments should be aired and talked about. Our day was very fun filled and it has to be the best class trip I’ve ever been on!

"Catch Ya On The Flip~side"

The 1970’s is an era which involves many different personalities, styles and trends. My other group member Stephanie and I decided to do this time period because it incorporates the merge of the 60’s and 80’s. It was a weird time where you saw more hippie culture, disco and punk come out. We thought it would be a good era because it doesn’t get as much attention due to the repeat of other time periods. The video making was I think the most challenging part for us. At first we were unsure of what type of scenes we should incorporate. We really tried to show all types of clothing trends in our videos such as hippie and disco. For our “Lingo” category instead of just writing them out we decided to say them ourselves. This really worked out successfully because it gave more meaning and personality to the phrases.

We started out by brainstorming all the things we could use for each category. We did some research on what were the most popular parts of the 70’s and only used the most important or the most heard of. Then we made the videos we needed, edited and put parts together that fit. The last stage was organizing it all to movie maker. We put all our pictures into groups and added tiles and transitions to match. After that we added in videos and appropriate clips. Lastly, we cropped the main part of the songs we chose so they corresponded to our video.

I really enjoyed all the videos made by my classmates. It was great that each group set up their documentary different. This made each groups’ project much more interesting and unique. I think something that worked the best with other eras is making the videos we made look as close as possible to what they used to dress, say and act at the time. It looked the best when people got fully dressed up or became a character that was popular in that time period. Something that worked the least was having low quality pictures or videos. It was still effective but it was just harder to make out what was happening. I learned much more about the other eras and they even cleared up questions I had from before. I had seen and heard of many of the pictures and videos but I never knew when and where they actually came from. The documentaries defiantly make me want to be more interested in these eras. I think all the presentations turned out funkadelic.

Punk Princess vs. Power Pop Band

The identical words in Avril Lavigne's "Girlfriend" and The Rubinoos "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend" caused uproar between the two songwriters. The 1979 track with the lyrics, "Hey, Hey, You, You, I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend" and Lavigne's song Girlfriend, "Hey, Hey, You, You, I Want To Be Your Girlfriend" sound very similar. The chorus' match very closely and even sound much alike when you play them both after each other.

Both songs have the same rhythm it's just Avril's song is more modernized and sounds more like today's type of music. The rest of the song may have different lyrics but thats just enough to be considered plagiarized. The founder of the band the Rubinoos, Tommy Dunbar believes that she has taken his work and changed things to make it sound differently. Dumbar and other member of the band James Grangwer claim that the rhythm and meter are the same. The rest of the song may not have the same lyrics or tempo but the lyrics and the beat of the chorus sound very much alike. I think the copyrighting law has defiantly been broken by Avril Lavigne. She states, "I have never heard this song in my life..." but how can you get that close of a chorus if you have never heard it before? This is not Avril Lavigne's first issue with plagiarism. Chantal Kreviazuk once worked with Avril back in 2005 and claimed that she helped her write the song "Contagious" but noticed her name was nowhere to be found on the track listings.

The lawsuit between Queens 1981's song "Under Pressure" and Vanilla Ice's "Ice Ice Baby" also was a copyright issue. Both tunes sound extremely similar. I doesn't matter if the whole song sounds the same or just a verse; the plagiarism is still there. Avril Lavigne had no copyright permission which makes what she did wrong.

This lawsuit has not really affected Avril Lavigne's career in any way. Some people may have lost some respect for her but others may be on her side and also think she has done nothing wrong. Many of her fans are still by her side and support her through her career and personal life. The case is now over with and is not brought up too often anymore. There were no legal costs and the accusation has remained unsettled. So what do you think; did Avril Lavigne copy a 1970s hit, or is it all just a plot for money?

Click here to read the article MTV News wrote about the lawsuit incedent.

BREAKING NEWS: The World is FLAT!

Society has us freaked out by filling our eyes with bar graphs and crazy statistics about our world under global warming. They show us pictures of dying polar bears on melting ice burgs for us to believe it's our fault. But I think there's nothing more we can possibly do. Sure it would be great if we all recycled more, turned off our running tap as we brush our teeth, and flicked a few lights off. But I truly think the world is not getting warmer because of our actions.

The government has spent millions of dollars in research and has come out with new eco-friendly products so we spend extra money to "save our planet". What if society just all of a sudden told you that the world as we know it is flat, NOT a sphere. Would you gradually believe it if a few scientists somewhat proved it? We all want to make the world a better place and we'll do anything to believe that if we change some habits, it can happen. I think we should be less worried about this and put the money to better use. Helping people in the present is just as important for preparing in the future. Solar panels seem like a great answer to fix this problem, but when you see the price no one wants to pay thousands of dollars for something that may or may not help the situation.

This whole phenomenon got everyone scared to keep a light on too long when Al Gore released his movie The Inconvenient Truth. Its filled with big words, a lot of numbers, and horrifying pictures. The almost-to-be president had everyone frightened. There was the melting polar ice cap issue which stated that the Arctic was melting because too much carbon dioxide is warming our Earth. They say it's because of our pollution from cars and factories but maybe they started melting way before we had any of this. Ice melts, that what it does. The Earth could just being getting warmer because of the sun just as much as CO2.

I started out believing that global warming did exist and even dedicated my grade eight speech to it. The more I see how much it keeps getting pushed on, the more I seem to deny it. Instead of blaming ourselves we need to think positive and face the facts that no one is 100% sure if global warming is as big as an issue as it is displayed to be. John Colman stated about why this issue got so big, "...and the media which loves a crisis, loves to tell the world it's coming to a end ".

What am I? The President!?

Music is all I can ever think about; it’s my passion. My name is Sarah my life has drastically changed very quickly. I started out occasionally singing in my church quire and was a part of a small band me and a few friends decided would be fun. We loved practicing in my basement and then playing our corny songs at open mic nights. Music to me was always something I would do for fun but I never imagined it would become my profession.

Last year I was doing normal things; I woke up late and rushed out the door, and walked home from school. But the past few weeks have felt like a dream. I sang a song that I’ve been working on for a while to my band. I’m a musician but I never took myself seriously until my best friend told me to send in a copy of my song to a record label. I never believed anyone would actually listen to it, but it was worth a shot.

Early the next morning the phone rang and I decided to keep sleeping and let the answering machine pick up but this person would not give up. After a few more rings I decided to get the phone. It was Shawn Grey producer of Hollywood Records. He called to tell me that I wouldn't be going to school; I would be going straight to L.A for press on my new song. He really seemed to like it and wanted to start right away. I was shocked and couldn't stop thanking him. He said my plane would leave in an hour and to pack light. After talking to my parents they agreed we were only going if we went together. When we arrived I felt like I was living in my T.V. Everything seemed unreal. Shawn was very down to earth but he made it seem like I had no say in anything that was going to happen. The first thing we did is went to the recording studio and got a finalized version of my song. After it got released everyone seemed to know my name. I highly enjoyed all the press and publicity until it started to be too much to handle.

My nineteenth birthday was the other day so I decided to go out and celebrate with just a few close friends from back home. We started off by going shopping. This was the first real outing I had that didn’t involve me working. I was extremely excited but everything just seemed to turn into a disaster. I couldn’t take two steps out of my house without the paparazzi immediately taking pictures. All I could see was flashes and bright lights blinding my sight. I needed six body guards to hold them back just so I could get to my car. Next was a very long car ride with many close accidents, but we finally arrived. Too bad I didn’t get a chance to get in the mall! The whole parking lot was full with paparazzi waiting for me to arrive. What was I? The president? After being mobbed and followed I decided I’d had enough. Not just for today; I’d had enough for as long as I can live. I can’t handle all the following and taking constant pictures. I’ve decided to go home and keep a low profile because this was not the life I thought it would be.