What Happened to Real Music?

What does the fox say?  We've heard the answer over a hundred time in Ylvis' new video that has gone viral over the past month.  We've seen this pattern occur before with Psy's "Gangnam Style" video.  A no-name artist makes a catchy song with unintelligent lyrics, and after a few days on YouTube, this former irrelevant figure in music becomes the latest world celebrity, making millions of dollars.  All because of one song.

Whatever happened to making quality music?  Thousands of artists spend years perfecting their crafts, attending music schools, working under successful musicians, and spend years playing small gigs in bars; and the vast majority of these people never end up making it big.  But now it only takes one person with a computer that can computerize their vocals for their comical lyrics to make millions of dollars and achieve instant fame.  I think this is a very upsetting trend that is becoming more and more common in today's world.

What do you think of this new trend in music?  Do you think it's here to stay?

Vandalism or Virtuosity?

One of Banksy's many works of graffiti that appeared this month in NYC

Every day this month, New York City has been greeted by a new work of art courtesy of world renowned street artist Banksy.  Each day, the people of the city have woken up to find a new masterpiece by Banksy, in which he has used every corner of New York City as his canvas.  Thousands of New Yorkers have been flocking to see his latest work and to take pictures with his sometimes humorous work.  But, not everyone in New York is thrilled to have Banksy taking a "residency" in their city.

New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a press conference that "...graffiti does ruin people’s property and it’s a sign of decay and loss of control...
I just think there are some places for art and there are some places [not for] art. And you running up to somebody’s property or public property and defacing it is not my definition of art."

First of all, I do understand that rules are rules, and by law, graffiti is illegal, and I understand that.  But, I really think that in this instance, New York should tolerate Banksy's work.  They should be grateful and honored that the most famous street artist in history has chosen their city as his canvas for the month.  Also, I do not think that he is "defacing" the city of New York because frankly, his work is really good.  It's definitely an improvement to any of the dirty, rusted urban structures he utilizes as a canvas.  New York is one of the biggest cities in the world, and is known for its incredible art scene, so it makes even less sense that there would be criticism or opposition to having one of the best artists in the world giving away free work to the city.

Do you think New York and other cities should be more tolerant of graffiti?  Do you think graffiti laws should be changed?

There's a Storm A Brewin'

Nevin Shapiro with a former Miami football player

After three long years of intense investigation, the NCAA has finally reached an agreement on how to punish the University of Miami for committing, "...a wide array of the most serious violations in the NCAA Division 1 Manual", according to Ivan Maisel of ESPN's recent report. 

These violations include:

• Bylaw 11, involving impermissible compensation to coaches;
• Bylaw 12, involving amateurism of athletes;
• Bylaw 13, involving improper recruiting activity; and
• Bylaw 16, involving extra benefits to athletes

In addition, former Miami athletics booster Nevin Shapiro, pictured above, was accused of giving a large portion of these benefits to players in the form of nights out to clubs, cash, and other expensive gifts.  At the time the initial report came out in 2011, NCAA president Mark Emmert said, "If they're found to be true, it appears we've had a third-party individual have a really pernicious impact on a huge cross-section of student-athletes. The breadth of that would be pretty shocking."

Yet when the NCAA finally issued its punishments upon the University of Miami, the country was shocked at how little Miami will actually be affected for committing some of the biggest violations in the history of college athletics.  Their punishment is the reduction of nine football scholarships and three basketball scholarships over the next three years.  That's it. So for years of repetitive violations of the rules of the NCAA, Miami will lose having a few of their benchwarmers in each sport be on scholarship.

In its defense, the NCAA has said that the reason for seemingly soft penalty is that the University of Miami was cooperative with the investigation, and also gave itself a two year bowl ban.  While that is a slightly significant penalty, it seems like the punishment could have been somewhere around a 6 year bowl ban with seven scholarships removed a year instead of three.

The NCAA has no regulations on how they do their investigations and punishments, and this is just another example at the injustice that the NCAA has served college sports for years.  Something needs to be done sooner or later, or else the world of college sports could be in the midst of a colossal revolution.

What do you think needs to be done to fix the broken system of the NCAA?  What do you think Miami's punishment should have been?