Sharps ‘n Flats

subliminal ads

This is a quick article about the placement of subliminal advertisement pictures by advertisers. Why businesses use them and how exactly they work.

If you look across the advertising world you will see countless examples of subliminal adverts from all markets and different kinds of products. Everyone from coca cola, to McDonalds, to local Bakers are using subliminal techniques!

These adverts arguably can bemanipulative; they give an extra level of depth. Often you are not aware of the hidden suggestion, however it gets registered on an unconscious levelby your brain anyway. Other times you may see an advert wondering what’s so appealing, or wondering what is not quite right with it – perhaps you even enter a bit of a trance looking at it!

These adverts try to suck you in, to keep your attention for a longer period of time than other adverts, and to firmly lodge the image in your mind. Often the easiest way to do this is to link the product to sex. This is can be as obvious as putting a beautiful girl in the advert, perhaps even with only a few clothes on. But sometimes the message is better hidden, i.e. subliminal.

For instance there is a famous advert from Coca Cola containing a subliminal image of a nude woman. She is not naked in the regular sense, but she is made out of ice. At first look you probably won’t see her, but she will be registered by your subconscious mind – if you look closer at the image you can see the outline of the woman lying down.

In an ever so slight way you are “attracted” to the product, and the brand. It makes Coca Cola a sexy product, a lively and energetic product. Perhaps just one poster like this won’t really do that much. However when they start to build up and Coca Cola constantly refer to the female form in their advertisements then it does make an impact and the female form / sex is linked to the brand. The final outcome is that Coca Cola is seen as a young, sexy brand, used by beautiful people.

It’s not just Coca Cola using subliminal messages, they can be seen everywhere. For more subliminal advertisement examples visit our blog.

graphic novels

DC Comics had a rather tumultuous beginning. Initially named the “National Allied Publications” in 1934, several comic book series were produced, such as “New Fun: The Big Comic Magazine” in February 1935, “New Comics” in December 1935, “Detective Comics” in 1937 and finally “Action Comics” in 1938. Ownership changed hands from Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, to his accountant and publisher partners Harry Donenfeld and Jack S. Liebowitz, who called their enterprise “DC Comics” (named after “Detective Comics”). As the new owner’s first endeavor, they sifted through the pile of rejected ideas and unearthed Superman.

After “the Golden Age of comic books” throughout the 30s and 40s, the owners of DC Comics waged a massive war against the comic book industry, usurping any smaller competing publications, suing imitators and aggressively driving out competition. However, by the 1950s, there was a lull in public demand for superhero stories and many of the graphic novels centered on science fiction stories, romance, westerns and a few tame crime stories. During the “Silver Age of comic books” in the mid-1950s, writers and publishers at DC came up with a new kind of superhero, one that fused the marvel of modern science with an ordinary man to create an accidental superhero; The Flash. Picking up on these themes, Stan Lee and Marvel Comic Books built their empire based on this idea of the “very human” superhero, which gave audiences something they could relate to.

After “the Silver Age of comic books” of the 1950s and 1960s came “the Bronze Age” of the 1970s and 1980s. The Silver Age had introduced characters who were more “human” and less stereotypical do-gooders. They, like humans, hosted a range of emotions, interacted with other humans and struggled with complex psyches. During the “Bronze Age,” darker and previously-off-limits themes of drug abuse, personal vices, inner conflict and anti-hero character development entered the comic realm. Kids were no longer the only readers, so the business savvy comic book creator had to address more serious themes of society, personality defects and science.

The 1980s began what is known as “the Modern Age of comic books,” which persists today. This “Modern Age” builds off the Bronze Age but delves even further into the darker side of graphic novels, intertwining sex, drugs, vices, psychological struggles, imperfect anti-heroes, cynicism and social critique. During this time, the DC Comics Batman’s The Dark Knight series takes off, X-Men launches into the complex back histories of their characters and the Mutants went to war against the humans, and a number of apocalyptic comics graphic novels came out, threatening the end of the world.

Over the years, the success of DC Comics has owed much to the Radio/TV/Film/Video Game enterprises, which helped catapult the old comic characters back into mainstream intrigue. The adaptation of superheroes has come a long way from the 1980s campy Batman TV series starring Adam West. Today, much care must be taken in creating superhero films that impress, such as “Spiderman” or “Batman’s The Dark Knight,” rather than “Daredevil” or “Catwoman.” There is always the danger of over-saturating the market with superhero films, thus negating the box office appeal of the genre, so comic book creators are generally very guarded about doling out the rights for such projects. When done right, though, the superhero film becomes a blockbuster, profit-driving empire that Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson could have never imagined.

Thursday, April 16th, in Los Angeles, Bruce Springsteen helped to make a terminally ill fan’s dream come true with the assistance of the Dream Foundation. Ms. Karen Marquadt has ovarian cancer, and recently her doctor’s told her that she only has a few weeks to live.

Karen has always had a dream to attend one of Bruce Springsteen’s concerts and to meet the Boss in person.

With the assistance of the Dream Foundation – an organization that specializes in making dreams come true for adults with terminal illnesses – they were able to grant Karen her wish. She attended Bruce’s show on Thursday at the L.A. Sports Arena with her friends. To top off her special evening, she was also able to meet her idol in person and spend some quality time talking with him and taking photos.

Jazz was born in the United States in the early 20th century, but originated in the l9th century in the South. The Atlantic Slave Trade brought over half a million Africans to America and with them came musical influences from their native land. As African americans learned to play European instruments in the 19th century and developed their own styles of music, like the cakewalk. The Cakewalk is a combination of harmony and syncopation. It became very popular and caught on among white folk, and was played in minstrel shows.

Toward the end of the 19th century, a new style of music emerged called ragtime. After the abolition of slavery, opportunities to learn opened up to many African americans. However, there were not many job openings. Many talented African-americans took jobs as musicians in minstral shows, in bars and clubs. Ragtime was created in the red-light districts of New Orleans and was a modifcation of the march, characterized by polyrhythms and syncopation. It was very upbeat and perfect for dancing. Ernest Hogan was a black entertainer who first recorded ragtime on sheet music in 1895. It became very popular new music and was even adopted by white musicians in America and in Europe. The ragtime is considered the first type of jazz music.

The ragtime carried its popularity into the 20th century. Small jazz groups began to travel and eventually spread the music from coast to coast. Jazz even traveled across the seas. During World War I, the “Hellfighters” infantry band carried ragtime to Europe. By the 1920’s Jazz had become the dominant genre of music in America. Jazz was associated with parties, extravagent behavior and drinking. The peak of Jazz music in the first half of the century lasted from 1920 to 1933. Many believed it was the cause of moral decay in American society. This period was the dubbed “The Jazz Age.”
By the 1930’s, ragtime had lost its novelty. A new grand and exaggerated form of jazz was introduced, the big band swing. Big band or swing jazz was composed of a very large section of brass and reed instruments and was headed by a bandleader or an arranger. Two of the most famous bandleaders were Duke Ellington and Glenn Miller.

In the 1940’s Swing Jazz introduced a string section and vocals to the big band. Swing jazz was broadcasted over the radio and soon travled to other countries. During World War II, for example, a collection of dissenting german youth known as the swing kids adopted swing jazz and swing culture. They would dance and play swing music in defiance to Hitler. He had forbidden any Swing Jazz or swing dancing because of its ties with African Americans and Jews.

During the 1950’s a type of jazz called “cool jazz” was preferred. The 1950’s was a decade of conservatism and the jazz music of the period definitely reflected that. Cool jazz was a toned-down version of jazz, where the big band reduced in size and sound.

The 1960’s and 1970’s saw a new form of jazz with the introduction of Latin cultural influence, rock and roll and soul. In the 1960’s, Afro-cuban jazz became popular, but was soon replaced by Brazilian Jazz. Latin jazz combined traditional jazz with unconventional instruments like bongos, morracas and different types of flute. Into the 1970’s soul jazz was formed from a mixture of soul, blues and gospel music. The unique thing about soul jazz was that the solo instrument was typically an organ, which was very new to jazz music. Finally, the 1970’s saw an explosive rise in rock and roll. Jimmy Hendrix was famous for infusing jazz with rock and roll and established a form of jazz – jazz infusion. In the recent history jazz has been experimented with and a plethora of subgenres have emerged like, pop fusion or “smooth jazz,” jazz rap, nu jazz and even vocal jazz.

The Romantic Era was the music of Western civilization in the 19th century. Some of the most notable composers of the Romantic Era were Beethoven, Berlioz, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Schumann, Schubert, Chopin, and Wagner. Beethoven is the most difficult to place because much of his earlier compositions were in the classical style, while his later compositions were romantic. The ultimate goal of Romantic music was to attain freedom of design to express powerful human emotions through music.

Romantic music had its foundations in classical music, or music written in the classical style. Unlike much of the rock music of today, Romantic composers did not seek to create a new sound or stray from classical form, but to manipulate the rules in order to create more expressive and passionate new music. The structure of the classical form was very strict and limiting with what the composer could do musically. The romantics appreciated the form, but broke the limitations, adding or expanding sections of music that would not normally be allowed. Beethoven, for example, was the leader of separating from the classical form and tradition. In his controversial Symphony No. 9, Beethoven introduced vocalists, and a chorus into his final movement. In the classical form, this would not have been allowed. If a piece began as an instrumental piece, it was to remain and end as an instrumental piece.

The Romantic era did not only try the limits of classical form, but it also changed the form of the orchestra. As the musical range of work increased, the size of the orchestra increased with the addition of new instruments and larger sections. The tuba was added to the brass section. New valves for brass instruments were introduced and utilized to give the instruments a more flexible sound. The string section was enlarged to accentuate the sound and dramatic richness of the strings. Bongos and other less conventional percussion instruments were added to the orchestra as well.
Another aspect of Romantic music that separated it from its predecessor was its integration of literature and art into the pieces. This was called Program Music, or music that tells a story. There are three types of program music; the program symphony, the concert overture and the symphonic poem.

The program symphony is characterized by a recurring theme, as in Berlioz’s Symphonic Fantastique where a young man dreams about a woman who comes in the form of a melody which recurs in his mind indefinitely. The concert overture is a one movement piece intended for a performance at a concert. An example would be Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, or Romeo and Juliet. The final type is the symphonic poem. The symphonic poem was invented by the romantic composer Franz Liszt. It is a one movement piece for orchestra, but the main theme is transformed (thematic transformation) in mood and character. The piece which introduced this type of program music was called Hamlet.

Two very popular forms of music during the Romantic Era were suites and waltzes. Suites were related pieces gathered together for a performance of a play, such as Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, The Nutcracker and Sleeping Beauty. The waltz was the most popular dance in the nineteen century, so the composers responded to demand and produced many.

The chief characteristics of the Romantic Era are the dramatic contrasts of dynamics and pitch, large orchestra (due mostly to brass), the freedom of powerful emotional expression, new shape and form from recurring and transforming themes and nationalism.