Last night before starting a video about The Veronicas, I was on Instagram and saw a comment on Ashton Irwin’s (the drummer of 5 Seconds Of Summer) picture that was incredibly unnecessary.
In the video I posted below, I talked about cyber bullying and what I think of it. Although I didn’t go through everything I think about cyber bullying, because it was something I didn’t prepare to talk about–I definitely felt the need to post the video and this.
Personally, I do not participate in cyber bullying. I don’t know anyone who does. Honestly, I do not think that anyone who actually does use the Internet to bully people they don’t even know would admit to it.
Another thing I need to stress is that there is no difference in bullying a “celebrity” or a person you know or just some stranger on the Internet.
They are all human beings with feelings and emotions. Just because someone is in the limelight and a lot of their daily activities are known to the public, that is not an excuse for you to say mean things to them!
If you wouldn’t say something to someones face, why would you say it online?
OH! I KNOW WHY!
Because they can’t see you or hear you. All they can do is read the words you typed out on your laptop or cell phone. Most of the time they can’t even see what you look like because a lot of “hate” accounts have absolutely no photos of the people/person who runs them.
Another thing I just want to say is that if you are or have been a victim of cyber bullying, there is absolutely nothing wrong with you.
The people who have done this are cowards. If they had someone doing the same thing to them they would probably break down.
I know it’s probably easier said than done but: Just ignore it!
SHAKE IT OFF!!!! Haters gonna hate!! (As TSwift would say.)
Personally I have never gone through cyber bullying, so I’m not going to pretend that I know how to deal with it, because I don’t. Just know that you are still here. You are still alive. You are still living.
It will get better. You just have to surround yourself with people who love you and block out all the bad.
This is issue has been address by documentaries, films, music, interviews, conventions–any way you can think of, it has been done.
Me posting yet another YouTube video and blog about the subject isn’t going to diminish cyber bullying forever, but hopefully this will help someone who reads it.
Today amidst all the One Direction and 5SOS being on Ellen hype, I somehow missed (but not really, because I downloaded it at 10 a.m.) Selena Gomez’s new single from her new album–which I knew nothing about beforehand, so someone please let me know if she had been promoting or teasing new music!
The song isn’t a pop-y/formulated/general song that we are almost used to seeing Selena release, but it’s actually her.
In the video I did to go along with this post, I said something along the lines of how I felt Selena’s previous albums were tests of trying to find who she is as an artist. I definitely think that’s true, but I also need to add that several artists have done this.
My reasoning for artists doing this is because (most) record label don’t make time for artist development. They just want their musicians to pump out album after album without really experiencing life and gathering inspiration to create a work of art that represents them as a person and musician.
I love Sel, don’t get me wrong, but I think this album is going to blow the last few up, up and away.
She’s just so raw in this video, I feel like if she sat down next to me we could have a conversation like we had been friends for 5+ years.
I saw an article where Selena said when she showed Taylor Swift (they’re BFFs if you didn’t know) the video, Taylor just sat there and looked at her then watched it three more times.
That is the exact reaction I would have had/I sort of had.
Watching something for the first time is like walking down the street, but looking at your phone and not your surroundings. You miss so much! Things you see the first time have more meaning the second time, then oh! Did you see that?! I didn’t see that the first time it played!
It’s like an on-going lesson.
When I watched the full video for the first time, I just sat there and stared at the blank screen for a second (partly because I was all by myself and had no one to talk to about it, but mostly because I was in awe). It just wasn’t what I was expecting. I hate to say it, but I was expecting the same thing we’ve been seeing from Selena for the past few years, and it just wasn’t.
It was grown up, mature, emotional, raw, transparent and beautiful.
Something I’ve always noticed in successful artists, is that they all create their work from personal experiences. Whether they felt it themselves or they knew someone who did or they were the outsider looking in on a situation. In any case, they create their work from experiences they have seen/been through first hand.
Selena’s last album, Stars Dance, was stepping in the right direction toward this goal, but it just wasn’t there yet. She’s definitely there now, and I cannot wait to hear more from the album, For You.
On Sunday night at about 9 p.m. Central Taylor Swift’s fourth studio album, 1989, dropped on iTunes and Swifties around the world gathered on all social media to rejoice the birth of a collection their life anthems.
“1989” is set to become the first platinum album of the year, according to Billboard.
Swiftie (n): 1. Someone who considers Taylor Swift their best friend and just wants to be best friends with her 2. Hardcore Taylor Swift fans
The anticipation of Taylor’s newest creation increased every day since the live stream on August 18 where she announced the new album and released the first single “Shake It Off” along with its music video. On Oct. 13 Taylor released “Out Of The Woods” (which she cowrote with Jack Antonff) and it became an instant favorite of mine. Favorite as in I started bawling when I listened to it..and still do. It’s really emotional but in a more metaphorical way than we’re (we’re being Swifties) used to. She also gave us a lot of details with the assumed boy she experienced these feelings with. I’ll give you one guess.
HS.
Anyway, “Welcome To New York” came out Oct. 20 and made me want to go to the city that never sleeps more than I have ever wanted before.
OKAY SO THE ALBUM! Below I have listed the track title, favorite lyric and thoughts. This is rough, let me just tell you. All of Taylor’s lyrics speak to me, so to try and designate a favorite lyric–I just feel like it should be illegal for me to even attempt to do that. My thoughts are still crazy and all over the place (mostly because I’m trying to not ignore my school work and job, because I kind of need those things in my life but I need Taylor more).
I also decided to video myself listening to the songs for the first time, because if I feel like sometimes with certain song/lyrics/beats you just have to experience the song. Sometimes it’s hard to listen to something and explain how it made you feel. It’s different if you listen to a song with someone and after you’re both just like, “Woah.” I felt like that a lot. I didn’t video myself listening to Welcome To New York, Shake It Off and Out Of The Woods because they were released before the full album was out and I didn’t include the bonus songs or the secret message, but I will in a separate post in the next few days. Sidenote: My (if you can even call it) dancing is ridiculous, but whatever. It’s fine.
Track 1: Welcome To New York Favorite lyric: The lights are so bright, but they never blind me Thoughts: HAPPY! ADVENTURE! FUN! A fresh start. Do what you want for you, not because of anyone else. Also, don’t let others get you down. ALSO LET’S GO TO NEW YORK RIGHT NOW!
Track 2: Blank Space Favorite lyric: ‘Cause darling I’m a nightmare dressed like a daydream OR ‘Cause we’re young and we’re reckless, we’ll take this way too far, it’ll leave you breathless or with a nasty scar Thoughts:Holy mother of music. She got ballsy with the lyrics in this song. I love every song on the album sosososooo much, but this is one I always start with when I listen to her album. It’s not a negative song, it’s fun and upbeat but it’s like, “oh it’ll happen maybe, but I’m not really worried about it.” Kind of and I just love it a lot.
Track 3: Style Favorite lyric: You got that James Dean daydream look in your eye and I got that red lip classic thing that you like OR You got that long hair slicked back WHITE T-SHIRTTTT and I got that good girl faith and a tight little SKIRTTT Thoughts: I CAN’T EVEN WITH THIS SONG FIRST OF ALL THE TITLE. *HeellllllooooOooOOOooOo* The beat of this song makes me feel like I’m in a John Hughes movie that is going to change my love life forever. I could write my thesis over this song. There’s so much content from her life that we can/are assume/assuming and I just…
Okay, I wasn’t going to do this but now I am, because I feel like if you don’t keep up with Taylor then you won’t understand why I’m saying there’s so much content from her life.
I’m going to start with the chorus:
From Getty Images
You got that James Dean daydream look in your eye
And I got that red lip classic thing that you like
And when we go crashing down, we come back every time
Cause we never go out of Style, we never go out of Style
You got that long hair, slicked back, white t-shirt, and I got that good girl faith and a tight little skirt
And when we go crashing down, we come back every time
Cause we never go out of Style, we never go out of Style
NGRE/AKM-GSI
So it goes
He can’t keep his wild eyes on the road Takes me home
Lights are off, he’s taking off his coat I say I heard that you been out and about with some other girl, some other girl
He says, what you’ve heard is true but I can’t stop thinking about you and I, I said I’ve been there too a few times
You got that James Dean daydream look in your eye
And I got that red lip classic thing that you like
And when we go crashing down, we come back every time
Cause we never go out of Style, we never go out of Style
You got that long hair, slicked back, white t-shirt, and I got that good girl faith and a tight little skirt
And when we go crashing down, we come back every time
Cause we never go out of Style, we never go out of Style
Take me home
Just take me home
Just take me home
You got that James Dean daydream look in your eye
And I got that red lip classic thing that you like
And when we go crashing down, we come back every time
Cause we never go out of Style, we never go out of Style
You got that long hair, slicked back, white t-shirt, and I got that good girl faith and a tight little skirt
And when we go crashing down, we come back every time
Cause we never go out of Style, we never go out of Style
Are you crying yet? Are you hyperventilating yet?
Track 4: Out Of The Woods Favorite lyric: We were built to fall apart then fall back together//Your necklace hanging from my neck//The night we couldn’t quite forget//When we decided to move the furniture so we could dance//Baby, like we stood a chance//Two paper airplanes flying, flying, flying
Thoughts: I feel like I can’t even express how this song makes me feel. Taylor said that she wanted every song on this album to sound like how she felt, and I haven’t ever felt like that and I just cried because of how strong the emotion is. Wouldn’t it be crazy to constantly not know where you stand with someone? Is it going to be over tomorrow or maybe in a month? Tomorrow?
Track 5: All You Had To Do Was Stay Favorite lyric: But people like me are gone forever when you say goodbye Thoughts: I can’t even. I feel like almost every girl or guy, whatever, has experienced this feeling. Like, hey, I was there but you left. All you had to do was stay.
This video includes: Blank Space, Style, All You Had To Do Was Stay, I Wish You Would and Bad Blood.
Track 6: Shake It Off
Favorite lyric: It’s like I got this music in my mind saying it’s gonna be alright
Thoughts: Haters gonna hate, but Taylor’s gonna slaaaayyyyy.
Track 7: I Wish You Would
Favorite lyric: You give me everything and nothing
Thoughts: I have felt this way too many times.
Track 8: Bad Blood
Favorite lyric: Band-Aids don’t fix bullet holes
Thoughts: Just watch my video.
This is a cropped screen shot from the digital booklet.
Track 9: Wildest Dreams Favorite lyric: You’ll see me in hindsight, tangled up with you all night Thoughts: This song makes me feel like I had a fun relationship that ended with me leaving the guy. But in a majestic way. The way this song was produced gives me chills and makes me want to sway with a crowd of people.
Track 10: How You Get The Girl
Favorite lyric: Broke your heart I’ll put it back together
Thoughts: Makes me want to dance… Oh wait, I did. The bridge also makes the dancing come out even if the dancing is already going soooooo…I’m basically Taylor at award shows. Which is casual. Walking to class. With 35K other students. What?
Track 11: This Love
Favorite lyric: These hands had to let it go free and this love came back to me
Thoughts: My reaction to this song has changed in the past two days since the album dropped. Now, I can’t listen to this song if I’m not in the comfort of my bedroom because I WILL tear up during the first verse even if I try with all my might to hold it back. Then I will break out into a complete sob/cry fest when the chorus plays.
The production of this song along with the lyrics is just like writing about someone special on a cloud at the happiest high of your life. I’ve personally never felt that way about a real guy, but I feel like I have after listening to this song.
I think I included the most video clips of this song in the second video. Have a listen/watch and you’ll understand me.
Look at her sweater.
Track 12: I Know Places
Favorite lyric: They are the hunters, we are the foxes WE RUN
Thoughts: I feel like any description I give of this song would be vague. It feels like a constant battle of people judging a relationship, and you’re trying to ignore them while being happy with your person.
I don’t know why people judge or try to shoot down certain relationships. If people are happy, let them be happy.
I wouldn’t want to experience what she felt in this song… I don’t think I will because I’m not a public figure, but goodness.
The world watching you and talking about you.
No thanks.
Track 13: Clean Favorite lyric: Rain came pouring down when I was drowning//That’s when I could finally breathe OR 10 months sober, I must admit just because you’re clean don’t miss you don’t miss it//10 months older I won’t give in, now that I’m clean I’m never gonna risk it Thoughts: This song. This song. This metaphor Taylor uses. It’s like she uses a drug addiction to describe how she felt about a guy and in the end she is clean of him.
This album represents a journey.
This video includes: Wildest Dreams, How You Get the Girl, This Love, I Know Places and Clean.
This album was so beautifully written and produced. I feel what Taylor felt as she was going through these situations and I know that’s what she wanted to accomplish, and she just completely did.
I’ve never been more proud of an artist in my life. She’s made a complete transition from the 16 year old girl singing about the teardrops on her guitar.
Let me just start by saying I got the notification this video was released at approximately 10 a.m. Central time and I may or may not have left my Intro to Film class to go watch it outside the building… I totally did do that.
It was an easier decision than it should have been considering I have a test in that class on Monday, but music video premieres just take priority. Actually, almost anything having to do with music takes priority… I don’t know if that’s a bad thing or not, but it’s fine.
Getting out of the room was almost
Screen Shot of One Direction’s Steal My Girl music video.
a sign that I shouldn’t be leaving the room, because I couldn’t get the door to open and it was being so loud that I could feel people in the class looking at me, but I didn’t care.
Little did they know I was leaving the room not to go to the restroom, but to watch five of my favorite guys lip sync to one of my favorite songs at the moment.
So this is the first One Direction music video that was not directed by Ben Winston, but by Ben Turner! If you’re in the One Direction fandom, you know what this means; if you are not, just know the excitement of a new director was almost if not equal to the level of excitement for the music video, period.
The boys, boys being Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik (from left to right in the picture above) for those of you who may not be too familiar with 1D, said “Steal My Girl” is about their fans and how they never want to lose them. *Awhhhh*
Me being me and a Directioner, completely had a fangirl moment when the song was released and then another when I read what they said about the song.
Following the songs release was a lot of criticism because the opening melody sounds similar to New Found Glory’s “It’s Not Your Fault” BUT THEN if you listen to the NFG it sounds similar to Journey’s “Faithfully.” You can read the article from Billboard here.
The song went on to sit at the top of the iTunes chart for a few hours before making it’s descent. Right now it’s at #17 on the iTunes chart, and yesterday it was sitting at #30, so the video helped them climb a few spots higher.
I and quite a few others are not entirely sure what the concept of the video was supposed to be. My best guess is the boys/directer wanted to include various cultures and types of people AKA their millions of fans.
The boys have fans all over the world, in every country (I’m assuming) so maybe they wanted a fun video (as always) that wouldn’t make a culture feel left out? Maybe I’m thinking too hard about this? Who knows, but, as you can see from these screen shots, there was plenty going on during the entire video.
First of all: Danny DeVito appeared in it as the director and I think it’s kind of hilarious and iconic that One Direction got him to make the appearance.
Like, I am so curious to how that happened, and I don’t know if we’ll ever know which is a little depressing.
Second: The editing/cinematography was ON POINT! My only issue with the entire video is during Zayn’s high notes, he’s not focused in on. For some reason the director choose to feature Harry during these parts. While Harry is singing, I just feel that because Zayn’s high notes are so powerful (and what almost every girl in the fandom *world* swoon over) he should have been what the camera was showing. Also, when he was featured during parts of his high notes, the entirety of the frame isn’t very appealing.
Okay, so maybe I have another problem with the video…
Third: I can’t even list out all of the different components that made up this video. Which is not my problem, my problem is this:
The frame is just so busy you kind of lose the boys. Some solutions I thought of that would have avoided this are to have the boys were clothing that separating them further from the background and characters, have the camera angled differently (maybe a high/low shot), the use of lighting could have made a major difference in this as well. (I’m pretty thankful for my Intro to Film class right now.)
Other than those things, I loved the video.
I am anxiously waiting for the arrival of Four on Nov. 17, but I am also anxiously waiting for a music video that has a little more meaning. Or maybe more of an obvious meaning.
Sometimes when I watch music videos I feel like there wasn’t a real concept that correlated directly to the song, but then sometimes I think I may have just completely missed it.
If you have any thoughts about this video, please share!
Screen Shot of One Direction’s “Steal My Girl” music video. (See, this angle and shot also makes the boys blend in, but not as much as the above photos.)
Happy listening,
Ashley x
P.S. 1D’s music video for “Story Of My Life” is the only video they have that I think has a deeper meaning.
Also, this is pretty funny.
Collage Of My Mind 