MA 260 / Week Two Discussion: Music Piracy

       Neil Young has famously defended illegal music downloading by referring to it as "yesterday's radio against recording." Do you agree with Neil Young? Why or why not?

MA 260 / Week Two Discussion: Music and Racism

       Like the birth of the filming industry, the beginning of sound recording was inevitably embroiled with racism, as was our nation at the time. How has racism been played out in the history of music? Please cite evidence to show how pop music contributes to democratic conversation and the progress of racial equality in our society.

MA 260 / Week Two Discussion: What's Wrong with Big Labels?

       Big labels control the music industry like the mafia controls the community and state. They have made CDs obscenely expensive. They determine what music can reach the market. They exploit the musicians because they have a monopolistic control of the music business. However, the Internet, especially, crowd-funding platforms, has started to change the game. Tell us your music consumption experience. Do you find big labels objectionable? What do you think about big labels' domination of the music industry and their "gangster" behavior in John Travolta and Uma Thurman's movie Be Cool?

COM 325 / Week Two Discussion: Encoding-Decoding

Watch the video below first.

       Our communication with others has never been simple and easy. Often, we talk and listen in "code." Intercultural communication is more complicated because of the different meaning systems (the arbitrary match of the signifier and the signified ) among people raised in different cultures.

       Tell us about a time or instances when you needed to carefully encode your message to get your message across, and when you misinterpreted and wrongly decoded another's message and, thus, ended up with communication breakdown.

MA 260 / Week Two Discussion: Hip-Hop Music

       Hip hop music is praised as a way of empowering minorities in joining our cultural conversation. In the same time, some hip hop artists, such as Snoop Dogg, are criticized for demeaning women in their music. What's your take on this issue?

MA 260 / Week Two Discussion: Is There Too Much Music?

       Read this article: Is There Too Much Music. Tell us if you agree or disagree with the author's claim that music in modern society is more like "cheese-cake."

COM 325 / Week Two Discussion: Identity: What Exactly Is It?

       Identity is huge in one's life. People sometimes die for "who they are" and "what they stand for." Yet, identity is not innate, it is something we cultivate in our mind over time. Sometimes, it could be very trivial, vanity-related, and even empty. We can get rid of the concept of identity without losing the true value of the self. To me, identity is an embellishment and a mask I learn to get rid of day by day as I age; what do you think?