Reading Log 6

Title: Adrenalized: Life, Def Leppard and Beyond

Author: Phil Collen and Chris Epting
Text Type: Novel/Autobiography

In this book Phil Collen the guitarist of Def Leppard speaks about the trials and tribulations of making it big in the music world. He also speaks of the hardships he faced outside of music while he was growing up and also amongst the chaos that came with Def Leppard and their rise to fame.

throughout his rise to fame, Phil Collen faced many changes and uncertainties as he shuffled through his different bands trying to make it big in the music world while also trying to juggle a normal life. This made me think about what teenagers today have to face in their years at school. While at school we have to adjust to so many different things, new classrooms, new teachers sometimes even new schools. All this change can cause a lot of stress to some people. With all the assessments we get throughout the year, eve with study, we are uncertain about how well we will actually do, and even if we'll pass. I can also relate to this on a more personal level as I want pursue a career in music after school. The music world is constantly changing and it is becoming harder to be recognised in the public eye. However even with the top 40 charts being dominated by pop artists, it doesn't mean that other genres can't thrive. Phil Collen and Def Leppard got caught in the middle of the grunge take over with bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam etc. But they didn't end up becoming a grunge band. Instead they changed their style in the complete opposite direction, not to be rebellious or make a statement, simply because that's the music they wanted to make. I believe artists today are so concerned about making it big in the music world, so instead of just focusing on the music they want to make, they believe they have to adapt and become what they are surrounded by, just to fit in. But the artists who have the longest shelf life so to speak, are the ones who change because of their own musical experiences, and not because of the current musical trends being set by others. I believe that if people, want to make music, then make music, focus on the creative outlet that it gives you. Don't focus on making it. You can set goals along the way to achieving that but the thing is, you never know what could happen. If you make the music you want to make and people start to like it, chances are you will last a lot longer and be able to share your creations with an ever growing community of fans who just want to hear what you can do on your own terms, rather than what you think you need to be or they think you need to be.

Reading Log 5

Title: AI Learns Gender and Racial Biases From Language

Author: Jeremy Hsu
Text Type: Article

In this article Jeremy Hsu speaks about how AI is learning about gender and racial biases from existing English texts and how these AI could possibly exhibit these biases found in the texts.

Part of the text says that the AI are more likely to associate words such as flower and music with being pleasant and words such as insects and weapons with being unpleasant. But the AI was also more likely to associate European American names rather than African American names with being pleasant. It would also associate women with jobs in the arts rather than with mathematics. I think this is a problem because when we eventually introduce these AI robots into our world they will already hold preconceived prejudices. This will lead to even more gender and racial problems that future generations will have to endeavour. If these AI's can pick up different prejudices that the human race holds against each other then it is possible that the racial and gender problems we have right now will only worsen. Since these AI's effectively think for themselves, these preconceived ideas that they've gained by analysing us as a race and our language, may actually become the ideas that they will follow and try to implement. If the AI's become a race of their own then they could also feed off each other's information like we do. If they did this then they would begin to form their own prejudices amongst their race against our race.

Another part of the text I found interesting was this quote “The worry is that if machine learning is replicating human biases, it's also reflecting that back at us. Perhaps it would further create a feedback loop in perpetuating those biases." I found this to be a extremely true statement. I made a similar point on my first paragraph, if these AI's are recreating these biases then they will feed off each other's information just like we do. This world is run by opinions and power, if a leader thinks something needs changing, that is their opinion and they have the power to implement that change. Prejudices are built upon opinions of other people because of their religion, cultural background, gender etc. Over the years these opinions have become preconceived thoughts that people now already know and already think are normal, because they are so common. Now since AI are picking up on all of our prejudices that we hold against each other, these prejudices will become even more common and out of control, because not only are we reinforcing them, but the AI are picking up our ideas and making them their own. Reinforcing these prejudices and only making them worse.

Link for Article
https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/robotics/artificial-intelligence/ai-learns-gender-and-racial-biases-from-language

Reading Log 4

Title: Why My Guitar Gently Weeps: the slow, secret death of the six string electric
Author: Geoff Edgers
Text Type: Article

In this article Geoff Edgers speaks about the slow decline of the popularity of guitar, playing guitar, and guitar sales. He also speaks about how the world now needs more guitar heroes to start a new generation of players. He also claims that the guitar market is not growing and that guitar is slowly declining in popularity.

"What we need is guitar heroes" This is a quote from the article. I don't think the world needs guitar heroes because in my opinion there are already so many new guitar heroes out there and all of the old ones from the old school bands such as Led Zeppelin, AC-DC, Van Halen etc. are still inspiring the new waves of players. Also I think that everyone has someone that they look up to, who inspires them. So whether or not there are internationally recognised guitar heroes I think is irrelevant because there is always going to be people learning to play guitar or any instrument for that matter who are inspired by their favourite players, their music teachers, and even friends and family who play their chosen. For me when I hear an awesome piece of music, I am instantly inspired to grab my guitar and start playing and if I find a new artist I constantly play their songs and it influences my playing style. I think people are always going to have personal guitar heroes, people that they aspire to be like and people they look up to regardless of whether or not the musical community considers them a "Guitar Hero."

I think this article also relates to the social media world everyone is caught up in now and how there are so many new trends that just come and go. This is because in the early 2000s when the video game guitar hero came out, music that had guitar in it became so much more commercially accepted, because there was easier access to it, it was trending. During this time guitar sales were at an all time high and the guitar industry was booming. But all trends die off eventually so as time passed, over the last ten years guitar has gotten a lot less popular according to sales of officially licensed guitar stores. These sale statistics don't from online retailers such as amazon and Ebay, so maybe the trend of playing guitar hasn't died. I think this because there are so many ways to get a guitar now, second hand shops online and even from friends and family. So even though trends die there is always someone keeping them alive, there is always someone who absolutely loves whatever is trending and can't get enough of it. It's like when a song get into the top 40 charts. A lot of the time it will stay there for a few weeks then slowly drop off, and this cycle repeats, constantly circling songs through the top spots on the charts. But this doesn't mean everyone stops listening to them. Someone who really enjoys this song may look at the rest of the artists back catalogue listening to all of their songs, and then that artist becoming a long standing listen for that person. So even if guitar is slowly dying, it will never be non existent and there will be times when the popularity spikes, from my point of view in my chosen genres to listen to, guitar is a long way from dying, it just needs to be used in new, interesting ways to attract more listeners and grow the popularity of the band/genre for more people to listen to and see what they are doing with their guitars and other instruments that makes it so appealing.

I think this article has a lot of good points but doesn't properly address the issues faced by the guitar world today. We don't need guitar heroes, we just need to be able to view the music we like from a different perspective and really appreciate what people are doing with the instrument. Also there are so many similar bands out there but there are also so many bands that experiment with their instrument, exploring new ways to play and perform. I think that the world of guitar may not may be booming like it did in the pre naughties but it is definitely not dying, people just need to realise that there is so much out there to be inspired by and so many great people doing great things, you just got to look at it as a whole rather than just a few facts here and there to really get the full view of what's going on.

Reading Log 3

Title: Kalik
Author: Jack Lasenby
Text Type: Novel

Kalik is a story of Ish who is introduced to a society driven by cruelty lead by Kalik and Lutha. The Shaman, Lutha's father has recently passed leaving Ish with all his knowledge. Ish soon finds himself taking care of the salt children and realising it is not a safe place for any of them. Ish needs to get out but cannot leave the children alone in the presence of Kalik as they would surely be turned into slaves or even worse left without the proper care and food and left to die. So he helps them escape.

I think this book is showing how some people feel unsure and worried about the leaders in which they have to trust. Ish is not sure about Kalik. Ish knows that Kalik is a great leader, but he is also a cruel one who will let nothing stand in his way of power. Ish is ashamed of how Kalik treats the salt people (who are enemies that are captured and turned into slaves). Kalik has an island in which he sends Salt people to cut down trees and do other hard labour. If they do something not up to Kaliks standards he would punish them. He worked the slaves for very long hours and worked them extremely hard with little rest. showing how cruel he is to people because of his preconceptions of the salt people. Ish has seen the fear that Kalik instills in the salt people and feels as though he is too harsh on them and Ish begins to worry what Kalik would to to him if his drive for power becomes stronger. Ish cares for some of the Salt children and he tells a story of a donkey who is treated cruelly so he escapes and makes some friends along the way to help him on his journey. This story shows us that Ish and the children are wanting to escape the cruelty of Kalik and will do so one day. I think this relates to the current President of the United States of America. Donald Trump is a Leader who does not like it when things don't go his way and he doesn't like anything to stand in his way. He does not like immigrants coming in to his country because of the preconception of what their religion or race is linked to. Just like Kalik he does not give them a chance to prove themselves instead just casts them out and treats them like abominations who deserve nothing. Just like Ish did in the book, people revolted against this and tried to get justice for everyone that Donald trumps drive for power and preconceptions of these people has affected.

Another message in this book I think is the power of knowledge and how some people are afraid to use it and some people are afraid of the other knowledge people hold. Ish has been taught everything he knows by the great Shaman, he has learnt of the power of healing and the knowledge of how to read his thoughts also how to read and write and how to teach these skills that are so rarely found within the world he found himself in. In the book there is a battle in which many soldiers come back wounded meaning they are open to infection. Ish is knowledgeable with medicine and healing but when he tries to help the people tending to the wounded they do not listen. Also when Ish is around Kalik, He believes Kalik can read his mind so he thinks of things other than all of the knowledge that he gained from the Shaman. The Shaman once told Ish "Don't dismiss all dreams the art is in learning which one is telling you something. Offering an answer to a problem. Learn to recognise the true dream." This reinforces the idea that knowledge is a very powerful asset and you must use it wisely to make sure that you are solving a problem rather than creating one. I think this can closely relate to all of the innovative scientists such as Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawking, Nikola Tesla etc. These were scientists that had absolutely brilliant ideas and used there knowledge to create theories and inventions that were highly innovative and at times insanely difficult for the ordinary mind to comprehend. A lot of people thought these great minds were insane, because they viewed things differently. People were afraid of what could possibly a brilliant leap in science and human evolution so people began to dismiss these inventors knowledge.

Reading Log 2

Title: Day/Day
Writer/Performer: Angelmaker
Text Type: Song

This song is about the struggles that some people have to face on a daily basis, whether it be a mental or illness, or just having a difficult to life to live sometimes it is very difficult to get through the day especially when you wake up thinking "here we go again." This song is also about the realisation that your life is in turmoil but feeling powerless against it.

One of the most powerful lyrics in my opinion is "torn from nirvana" (nirvana is a state of peace in Buddhism.) I think this because if you were to be in a state of peace in your life and then suddenly be taken out of that a lot of things in your life would change and you would have to adjust, and going through all this you would experience a lot of mental and emotional turmoil. I think everyone can relate to this because everyone has their good and bad days but then every once in a while you experience something that changes everything and leads you to living your life a whole new way, or even just cause you to think differently, and this can be stressful for some people. I also believe this lyric could relate to overthinking because you could be in a calm state of mind but then something happens that causes you to second guess what is going on. You can begin to get stressed and find it hard to stay calm so your mind wanders to places you don't want it to and some people find it hard to face their own thoughts. I can relate to this because I often second guess myself and overthink even the simplest of things and sometimes it gets very overwhelming when it's actually just unnecessary thoughts and feelings I've provoked myself. In my opinion if you are experiencing this you should take a deep breath and take a look at the situation, and if it is worth worrying about do something about it but if not, try and forget about it because it is not worth fighting with yourself, and causing yourself stress over an idea you've put in your own head.

Another Lyric I think has a good message is "Sick of the patterns I have forged with my own intent." This lyric is speaking about going through your life with the same routines that you put in place with your experiences and hardships but not being happy with who you are and what your life is all about. I think that this is a very powerful lyric because there often comes a point in your life that you need a change but you are to scared to take that leap because you have already worked so hard to get where you are just to end up being unhappy. A lot of people I think experience this once coming out of high school or university. You get your qualifications and hit a wall. All of that work and you end up thinking to yourself "what do I do now?" I can relate to this lyric because at times I feel like I need to be doing something more with my life rather than just being at school. I feel like I should be focusing all of my time trying to make a career out of music instead of being at school getting qualifications even though I know it is important sometimes it doesn't feel right for me. I also think this lyric could relate to an change in religion. This is because if you grow up while experience a certain religion there may come a point in your life when your beliefs change and you struggle find to find meaning in everything that you have grown up with.

Reading Log 1

Title: 570
Writer/Performer: Motionless In White
Text Type: Song

This song is about the dedication to being a musician on the road away from friends and family, sacrificing everything to follow your dreams, and believing that you can do anything as long as you put the hard work in.
This song opened my eyes to the possibility that whatever you put your mind to you can do with a little determination.

"If you mean it, you will make it" is a lyric from the song. This lyric means that if you work hard enough and you dedicate enough time to doing something you love, you can make a life out of it and continue to do so for a long time as long as you are willing to make sacrifices along the way. Another lyric from the song is "I've been to hell and back with no promise of return" This made me feel like that I should take more risks in life and continue to pursue my passion for music. This is because you never know what life may bring unless you take the first step and experience it for yourself. You may have to make sacrifices but in the end the experience you could gain is far more valuable than what what you would lose. Also you can go through a lot in life without any expectation that you will get what you want. But as long as you are determined you will make it through the hardships you face.

 This song is very relevant to the world at the moment because a lot of people are so afraid of taking risks because they don't know what will come of it but I think that's the beauty of it. Also people do not stand up for what they believe in and/or are passionate about which means that they end up either being walked all over because they don't speak up or just generally unhappy because they are not brave enough to take the first small step in fighting for what they believe in. I also think that the line "Forget me not 'cause I've not forgotten what this means" has a very good meaning. This lyric is speaking about how people can dismiss you and your dreams and not accept you for who you are and that no matter what you shouldn't let those peoples opinions affect the way you are because you are who you are and no one can do anything to change that.