Becca Caddy

Types of learners: Music or film?

Yes, it’s a stupid question. No, you’ll never have to decide.

But, it’s pretty fascinating listening to people’s answers. Of course there are those that give you a disgusted look, “film over music?! NO chance”, and those who look really tormented trying to decide.

Obviously I’d scrap music, quite easily in fact. However, what I find most interesting about the ridiculous music vs. film debate (because it is a bit ridiculous and it did turn into a debate), is that in many ways it harks back to what kind of learners we were all told we were back in our school days.

Now I hope I’m not the only one who was forced to take the “what kind of learner are you?” test at school every year, which put you in an auditory learner, visual learner or kinesthetic learner camp*. Of course the teachers didn’t pay very much attention to the results and used the little quiz as a slightly more academic alternative to getting the board games out, but all of my answers still ring so true all these years later.

The main one being I just don’t really connect with audio and never have. Anything that solely relies on me listening is guaranteed to switch off my concentration in less than a few minutes. Sure I do love music in my own special way, but I find the tracks I listen to the most and have the deepest connection with were used in a film or TV show that I loved and work together with the memory of what it looked like while the music just played in the background.

So there you go, in my eyes music is a nice to have (and arguably necessary for most movies to work, but let’s ignore that small point for now), but in a battle to the death film will always win in my eyes.

What about yours?

*See part of this online book about how to teach different types of learners for more information on each.

Golden Age Thinking: Longing for a different era?

Over the weekend I finally watched Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris (2011). After a day of mixed martial arts, cage fighting and some cowboys vs. aliens thrown in for good measure, a quirky, romantic and Parisian Woody Allen movie was the perfect final addition to a very eclectic film marathon.

The beautiful romantic comedy follows Gil (Owen Wilson) on his quest to find inspiration for his new novel around the streets of Paris. Now I promise this isn’t a big spoiler, but one of the main things discussed throughout the film is what Michael Sheen’s character, Paul, describes as “Golden Age Thinking”, a dreamy, nostalgic longing to be part of an era that existed long, long ago.

Paul’s pedantic yet hilarious character suggests this manner of Golden Age Thinking is a response to the terrifying and harsh reality of modern times, but is it instead just a natural, romantic longing that people have felt throughout every decade?

Whether it’s a certain style of clothing, type of architecture from a bygone age or just the carefree attitude we often associate with a particular decade, I think it’s an important part of who we are to look at the past with that hazy longing and nostalgic mindset that things were much more interesting “back in those days”, so that we can learn from them.

In many ways I don’t doubt that this fascination may stem from a desire to escape from the things we dislike about the modern day. However, as  long as you don’t become too obsessed with the fact you should have been a playwright in the 1920s or a member of Elizabeth I’s court, it’s probably extremely beneficial to have an intense appreciation for the past so you draw from a wide range of influences in the present.

Whether we look back in history for creative inspiration to learn from, different ways of thinking to adopt, interesting figures to act as muses or style choices to work into our daily attire, as long as we all accept the fact we’re well and truly rooted in 2011 there surely can’t be anything wrong with visiting the past from time to time.

So is Golden Age Thinking natural or just a dreamy denial of the present?

Lady Gaga’s pop culture shake-up

Throughout my awkward and impressionable early teens, the papers, TV screens and music charts were dominated by the saccarine sounds and sultry smiles of Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera.

Whether you consider them to be talented, timeless, vacuous or just manufactured, you can’t deny that their cheesy American brand of pop had a huge impact on popular culture back then, from our notions of style and beauty to good music and what it means to be a celebrity, in a way that’s akin to some of the greats.

With that in mind, I find it interesting that over the past few years modern day teens (and grown adults too, of course) have passionately adopted a role model who in many ways is so starkly different to the Spears and Aguileras of yesteryear, Lady Gaga.*

Sure her outfits are tiny, she regularly sports a blonde wig and does her fair share of on-stage gyrating, but she’s different in that her lyrics, style, ethos and dedicated following of ‘little monsters’ have combined to kick out the old notion of what it means to be a pop star and have replaced it with something very very different.

Ever since Lady Gaga appeared on the mainstream music scene back in 2008 with ‘Just Dance’ she hasn’t just been well received as a talented musician and performer, but her attitude, style, creative work and strong personal views have had a lasting impact on popular culture too. From forcing us to see fashion in a different light or highlighting important political issues. Everytime she performs or we see her in an interview we talk about how unusual she is, but it seems she’s made this crazy brand of weird very much the norm now, “oh she’s dressed in an animal carcass?” Why the hell not.

She obviously has her critics (I’m certainly not a devoted little monster all of the time) and many are right in that we can’t guarantee anything she does is genuinely “real”, from her creative visions and style choices to the issues she claims she feels strongly about. But at the end of the day it doesn’t seem to really matter.

Yes Lady Gaga’s quirky outfits and strange antics may be a little irritating and tiresome at times, but you could well argue that she’s forced important issues into the limelight, changed our notions of beauty and style and given us a refreshing, well needed new role model. At least for now that is, until the next weird, wonderful and unusual pop star comes along to shake everything up again…

*Of course it’s not as if everyone across the globe has gone from adoring Britney to Gaga overnight, there have been plenty of other influential artists who have shaken things up in some way or another. But arguably few public figures over the past decade or so have had such a cultural impact in the same way as these too women.

Image via Domain Barnyard’s Flickr.