On November 20th 2006, the creators of How I Met Your Mother released the ninth episode in the second season that reached 8.85 million American views and they also released a song that became a comical hit. The music video for the song is below.
The song above, Let's Go to the Mall, is sung by a fictional sixteen year old Canadian popstar named Robin Sparkles. Lets Go to the Mall was the single that launched her singing career. After the making of the music video and performing the song at endless malls while on tour, Robin developed a serious fear of shopping malls that lasted for many years.
Lets Go to the Mall was released on Robin Sparkles only fictional album titled "Make It Sparkle!" in the year 1993.
Construction of Reality:
The version of reality portrayed in this music video is an exaggerated yet realistic view of the world. The music video creates a realistic view of the world because it shows teenagers hanging out at the mall doing "teenage like" activities (such as flirting with other teenagers, eating food, goofing around and shopping). This music video does a fantastic job in glorifying going to the mall. In all honesty, going to the mall is not anything particularly special, it is more an ordinary and common thing to do. No one has THAT much fun at a mall.
This music video also portrays a world in which it is normal for attractive teenagers to participate in a random flash mob occurrence in the middle of a mall. The directors of this music video have portrayed reality in this way for Robin Sparkles. One of the reasons as to why they must have done this is because of Robin's fan-base. Robin Sparkles fan base is mostly composed of 13 year old girls. Since most 13 year old girls love to go to the mall with their friends, many teenage girls can relate to this song.
Creeds and Values:
There are quite a few creeds and values that present themselves throughout the song and music video. One of the creeds that are presented in the video for Lets Go to the Mall is that people always have a blast when they are at the mall. This video makes it seem like shoppers will NEVER have a bad mall experience (ha! I wish!). Another creed that is in the music video is consumerism. The video shows the audience that spending money is a good thing and is an enjoyable activity.
Codes and Conventions:
Thanks to the codes and conventions in this video and the lyrics, there is not a doubt inmy mind that this song does not belong to the pop genre of music.
One
of the codes and conventions of music video of a pop song that the
music video director included was background changes. In most music
videos for pop songs, the background or setting will change quite
frequently. I recently watched a famous music video for a pop song
called Celebrity Status by Marianas Trench and counted how many
times the background or setting changed in the video. I counted 58
times! If you do not believe me, click the link below for the video out
and check for yourself!
Another
common code and convention for pop songs that are often included in
music videos are background dancers. In almost every music video for a
pop song the artist is surrounded by back up dancers. Here are a few
popular music videos for pop songs that have appearances made by back up
dancers.
Finally, the last code and convention of music videos of pop songs that I observed in the video for Lets Go to the Mall is
that whenever a member in the band playing behind Robin Sparkles had a
solo in the song, the camera man would do a close up on that artist that
was playing the instrument. This happens in many music videos for pop
songs. Check out the ones below and see if you can spot this convention!
Unlike other music videos, the music video for Lets Go to the Mall by Robin Sparkles was not created to sell the song. The music video for the song was made to further develop a character (named Robin Scherbatsky- picture on the right) on How I Met Your Mother. This music video was an effective way to develop her character because it gave the audience a sense of her childhood. On that note, the obvious target audience of this music video are fans of How I Met Your Mother.
In my opinion, I do believe that the music video fits the song. The song is very cheesy and playful and in order to have a successful music video, the video has to be just that. With the help of Robin Sparkles funky hair-do's, wacky outfits, and Canadian jokes scattered throughout the video, this music video does indeed does this song justice.
#FunFactOfTheBlog: I really really like How I Met Your Mother. Like alot.
I believe that media is extremely important in my life. Media plays an such an important role in my life because I rely on the media to do certain things everyday.
Media can be used for just about anything in today's society. With the click of a button, people can shop, catch up on a television show that they may have missed, share embarrassing photos of their dad on Facebook (to the left), and my favourite- communicate with others.
I use media for a number of different things, but I mainly use it for communicating with other people. I love interacting with as many people as I can, and the media allows and helps me do that. I come from a family who is literally from all over the world. I have family in places like England, Norway, America, Taipei, Ethiopia and Brussels! My family loves to communicate and stay in contact as much as we can.
My grandpa and I were talking just the other day about creating a website for the family to use and stay in contact with. We both believe that even though we all live so far away from each other it should not stop us from communicating. Recently I have been searching for websites to use for this project and then sharing the information I find with my family members.
The video to the right is just one example of how I use the media to communicate with my family members.
There is an infinite amount of types of media, and many of them are important to me. The three most common mediums of media that I use are as followed:
1- Videos/ Movies 2- Music 3- Social Media
My World Through Videos
Everyone who knows me is aware of my passion for creating videos, it is something that I am always doing. I make videos for just about anything. In fact, one time when I was ten years old, I made a video about a game show that I made up called "Who's Is It Anyways?". The game featured my dog and cat and I would hold up items that he took from us in front of the camera and ask the audience who they thought it belonged to. I found the footage a few weeks ago, and I am trying to find a way to burn it.
As I said before- I LOVE making videos. I believe that it is a very creative way to inform people on a certain subject and can also be used for entertainment purposes. One of my latest projects, Salole Invasion of Europe is a YouTube series made up of footage that I recorded while on a recent trip to the United Kingdom.
I also find it super easy to express myself in front of the camera. I like presenting and speaking to audiences. In my opinion, presentations with a video included in them makes the presentation more exciting to watch and listen to.
I like to think that I put a lot of thought into the videos I make. I love the creative process, I like starting at the drawing board and developing creative ideas or themes for videos.
#FunFactOfTheBlog: Every video I create includes my 12 year old brother without a shirt on. The picture to the right features Aidan as Kasier Wilhelm from one of my previous videos.
Magic That Comes From Music
Music. What more can I say? Many people all over the world are influenced by some way or another by music.
I grew up listening to the music that made it on the Top 100 Board. I listened to pop songs by artists like Kelly Clarkson, Miley Cyrus, Jason Derulo and Taio Cruz. I had this insane idea in my mind that if I listened to the "popular" music, then I would be considered cool. I remember driving to school and my dad would play some of his music and I would quickly shut it off because he listened to "old people music". When I entered high school, I realized that I did not like the music that was on the billboard, and I found myself listening to bands and groups that my dad liked. That is how my taste in music started. Currently, I am listening to bands and artists that were popular in the past such as The Doors, The Beatles, Flight of the Choncords and Paul Simon. Later on in this blog, I will talk more about my passion for music.
I strongly believe that one of the many incredible uses for music is unity (essentially, music brings society together). An example of when music has brought society together happened in the year 2010.Many famous Canadian pop stars recorded a song titledWavin' Flag. The song originally came from a young artist named K'naan who lived in Hati at the time of the hurricane. Wavin' Flag instantly became a huge success, and was used to foundraise money which was then used to help get Hati back on their feet. The song also gave the Haitian people a sense of hope. It made them believe that other people and countries cared for their well-being and would help them re-build their community. The link below is the music video for the song Wavin' Flag. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nB7L1BIDELc Social Media
"We started to look at digital as not just as a medium, but as a whole different way to build relationships." ~Dan Wieden
Social media is such an important thing in my life, and I am very passionate about it. As I said before, I love communicating and interacting with people, and social media lets me do that (regardless of the distance between the other person and I). Personally, I like to use Facebook to communicate with my friends and family.
One of the first major social networking sites I joined as a teenager, was facebook. I like using Facebook for communicating with others, because I find it extremely easy and simple to work with.
During my years at the high school I attend, I have found out that creating Facebook groups with classmates is an easy and efficient way to stay in contact with group members and classmates.
One of the major Facebook groups that I am involved in is called "Laurier Kids Unite". This Facebook group is for the kids in my grade associated with the Laurier Program at BCI.
Quite often, I will get a notification from the Facebook group after a member posts a question that they have about the homework that was assigned in class.
Other times, a member of the group will make a post that is about complaining or stressing about a project.
Students in the Laurier Program will often have competitions to see who is the biggest procrastinator.
Complaining about school is also a popular topic to post about
And sometimes, we like to pretend that we are a humourous bunch of children who make funny jokes.
Welcome to Laurier 101, taught by yours truly.
Pop Culture?
To be completely honest, I do not particularly like pop culture. Do not get me wrong, I do like some things about it, for example I do like the excitement I get when I see a new trend evolving. However, I think the problem with pop culture is that it introduces trends way too quickly and they soon get over saturated and the trend looses its individuality. An example of this is the song Happy by Pharrell.
The song was released at the beginning of this year and now has 429,494,012 views on Youtube. Many people have admitted that they are tired of hearing the song and have expressed that they feel that the song is over played.
I believe that pop cultures will seek out trends that are developing and being introduced to the world and then soaking up the idea or trend until it looses all of its originality.
As I said before, I use media for many things but mainly for communication purposes, but I also use it for many other things as well, and I use it often. I hate to admit it, but the first thing I do when I wake up is check my Facebook notifications, refresh my Instagram feed and go to Twitter to tweet about how much I hate mornings. I also use media to shop and check the balance in my bank account. I also use media to kill or waste time, by watching NETFLIX. Right now, every day after school I come home and waste hours of my time on netflix watching "one more episode".
And in case if you are wondering, one more episode turns into one more season nine times out of ten.
Music Part Two
As I have said before, I LOVE music. It helps me function.
I have not always had the taste in music that I do now, in fact I listened to music that is the complete opposite of what I listen to now.
In middle school, music had a huge influence on my life. I was always listening to music, just like I do now, only I did not enjoy the music I was listening to.I had this insane idea in my head that the only music that you could listen to was the music that was on the pop charts, and that if you listened to any other kind of music, you would not be considered cool. My dad always listened to groups and artists like Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Doors and Paul Simon and whenever he tried to play their music on the car ride to school, I would turn it off as soon as I could (I was worried that his "old people music" would infect my ears).
As I grew older I realized that I should be listening to music that I enjoy, and not just listen to music because everyone else is listening to it. Believe it or not, I started listening to the music that my dad and mom like to play. My music taste is a combination of the two.
I love music for so many different reasons. I use music to help me calm down when I get stressed (which is quite often actually). Music helps my nerves go down and helps my mind focus on only one thing at a time which make it easier for me to complete my homework. Another reason why I like music is because if you play it loud enough through your headphones, you can not hear your parents yelling at you to clean up the mess you left in the house.
Music I like:
As I said before, my music taste is a combination of both my mom and my dads (which is weird because their music tastes are completely opposite of each other).
I love listening to country music, rock music, old school music, indie music, alternative music, rock music and whatever kind of music Panic! At The Disco is.
I really enjoy discovering new artists to listen too, so my list of artists that I listen to is constantly changing. But six of my all time favourite artists and groups to listen to are:
As you can see, I do not limit myself to just one type of music, I like to listen to unique and different music that pop culture has not meddled with yet. I use music to express myself, if I am having a good and happy day I will put positive songs on repeat all day long, but if I get into one of my teenage sassy moods I will replay Panic! At The Disco over and over again.
I also use music to remember certain things. If I need to memorize something, I will ALWAYS create a song to remember it. If you need to remember the order of the provinces or the avoir verb endings for french come and see me and I will teach you the songs I use to remember them.
I find that music the comes out in today's society is all the same. The messages of the songs are the same, they all have the bass etc. I believe that is the reason why I tend to listen to older music, because it is all different from eachother.
The song above, Let's Go to the Mall, is sung by a fictional sixteen year old Canadian popstar named Robin Sparkles. Lets Go to the Mall was the single that launched her singing career. After the making of the music video and performing the song at endless malls while on tour, Robin developed a serious fear of shopping malls that lasted for many years. 
Unlike other music videos, the music video for Lets Go to the Mall by Robin Sparkles was not created to sell the song. The music video for the song was made to further develop a character (named Robin Scherbatsky- picture on the right) on How I Met Your Mother. This music video was an effective way to develop her character because it gave the audience a sense of her childhood. On that note, the obvious target audience of this music video are fans of How I Met Your Mother. 
