Networks
and gaming meet online. Odd Future and I meet online too. If Dash didn’t talk
about OFWGKYA, I might be able to contribute something of worth for this blog
post, but all I’ve been doing since I saw that video is listening to Wolf Haley
and the Golf Wang Hooligans. I think I might quit school and integrate into the
collaborative rap network. This rap makes me think of Henry Louis Gates Jr. and
The Signifying Monkey. Most the
messages these guys are sending are pretty perverse, but their literary
capacity is undeniable. If nothing else, their contribution is a linguistic
one.
I’ve already considered living my
life as if it were a game before I saw these videos, but I got my inspiration
from Elder Scrolls. My life is an RPG, but most of my missions are boring. My
education is integral to my leveling up process. I actually try to treat all of
my experiences as a leveling up of skills. I'm a level 0 rapper, for example. I better work on that. I think if the leveling up and
reward system were more tangible, I might be a little more motivated, though. I’d
like it if all progress were quantifiable.
There was a brief mention of the
grade system in school and how it’s a gaming strategy, but it must be flawed
because grades give me very little fulfillment. And yet, I still try to excel
at all that I do. There is so much effort and careful consideration that goes
into academics for which grades are scarcely a reflection. Maybe we should
render achievements more visible on a day-to-day basis. I’m thinking about the
level-whatever Paladin and how much cooler the higher-leveled one looked. Real
life on campus should proceed through leveling up and visible status.
I see why WOW is a better model than
Elder Scrolls for McGonigal’s games-can-make-a-better-world concept. The
collaborative nature of it is more akin to real-world operations. The network aspect
of it ties into Chris Anderson’s idea about networks causing Crowd Accelerated
Innovation. According to McGonigal, I, having played over 10,000 hours of video
games, am likely an expert. I don’t think I’m expert at any of the 4 things she
mentions. I am certainly not adept at urgent optimism
Haha this is all really funny to me. I, too, got caught up in Dash's reference to Odd Future, so much that I didn't even want to include it in my blog post. Instead I just spent hours listening to their music and watching interviews, etc.
ReplyDeleteIt goes without saying that the music industry would be nothing like it is today without the internet. The Internet and the discovery of music now go hand in hand. I think it is pretty cool that so many good musicians are out there and that so many now can be discovered through the online world. When it comes to Odd Future specifically, I am pretty curious in what, if any, their legacy will be. I agree with you that their contribution is linguistic. Often I find myself struggling when it comes to music/lyrics and my values in how I think people should be treated. I definitely don't approve of the word "faggot" and think it is often a really cheap choice of words when including it in your art. Yet Tyler the Creator uses it a total of 213 times in his 2011 album, Goblin. He argues the not-new argument that words don't mean anything unless you put meaning behind them, the same way I believe Jay Z feels about the n-word.
Here, Tyler the Creator discusses this.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/11/tyler-the-creator-faggot_n_4254885.html
The other side of the coin has to do with creative freedom and the independence (especially in Odd Future's case) to say what you want to say, or, rap what you want to rap about. In choosing a creative path such as rap, it is not unique for artists to really push the envelope. This article is pretty though-provoking for me. Whether these types of lyrics are simply freedom of speech or instead perpetuating hate speech/intolerance and should be censored.
http://www.dailytitan.com/2011/09/odd-future-gets-a-rise-out-of-critics/