iPod nation: how a tiny gadget has changed the way teens listen to music.* OBJECTIVE Students should understand * the impact of iPods/MP3 players oil how people collect, organize, and listen to music. * that the ubiquity of iPods/MP3 players is affecting how people meet and socialize so·cial·ize v. so·cial·ized, so·cial·iz·ing, so·cial·iz·es v.tr. 1. To place under government or group ownership or control. 2. To make fit for companionship with others; make sociable. . * WORD TO KNOW revolutionize: to change fundamentally or completely. * TEACHING STRATEGY Ask: When you listen to music in public over headphones Head-mounted speakers. Headphones have a strap that rests on top of the head, positioning a pair of speakers over both ears. For listening to music or monitoring live performances and audio tracks, both left and right channels are required. , how much do you really pay attention to the music? How often is music just background while you do something else? Is there anything you would do differently if you didn't have the player? * BACKGROUND Podcasting has been included in the latest edition of the Oxford English Dictionary Oxford English Dictionary (OED) great multi-volume historical dictionary of English. [Br. Hist.: Caught in the Web of Words] See : Lexicography . Despite the pod part of the term, you don't need an iPod (or any MP3 player A digital music player that supports the MP3 format, which was the audio format that started a revolution in online music downloads and distribution. All portable music players, the iPod being the most popular, support MP3 along with one or more other audio formats. ) to listen to podcasts--just a computer and an Internet connection. * CRITICAL THINKING PART-WHOLE CONNECTION: How might the development of MP3 encoding (see Words to Know, p. 6) have contributed to the way we get and absorb music? (Answers will vary.) FINDING SUPPORTING EVIDENCE: Which do you think has more to do with iPod's popularity: What it does or what it looks like? Support your answer with facts and observations. (Answers will vary.) * ACTIVITY WEEKEND SURVEY: Suggest that students stand where they can see a lot of people passing (street corner, window, front yard). How many of the first 50 people they see have an ipod? If that sample is applied to the community at large, what percent of the population has one? (To get the percent, double the number out of the 50 counted.) STANDARDS SOCIAL STUDIES, GRADES 5-8 * Science, technology, and society: How scientific advances contribute to invention of products for general use, and how those products affect how people act and interact. * Individual development and identity: The impact that social trends and fads have on individual identity, and vice versa VICE VERSA. On the contrary; on opposite sides. . RESOURCES * Colombo, George, and Curtis Franklin, Absolute Beginner's Guide to Podcasting (Que, 2005). Grade 8. WEB SITES * How MP3 Players Work howstuffworks.com/mp3-player.htm * Podcasting News podcastingnews.com In 1877, Thomas Alva Edison invented the phonograph phonograph: see record player. phonograph or record player Instrument for reproducing sounds. A phonograph record stores a copy of sound waves as a series of undulations in a wavy groove inscribed on its rotating surface by the . The first commercial device for playing back recorded sound, it revolutionized the world of music. People were then able to listen to their favorite tunes in the comfort of their own homes. Flash forward more than 125 years. What would Edison think of an army of young people walking around with white plugs in their ears, carrying their entire music collections in their pockets? No invention since the phonograph has altered the way we listen to music more than the MP3 player--specifically, Apple's iPod. Introduced in 2001, ipod holds anywhere from 120 to 15,000 songs. But it isn't just a mega-Walkman. With its sleek look and white earbuds, it has also become a sign of the times A Sign of the Times was a 1966 single by Petula Clark. Written by Tony Hatch, the uptempo pop number juxtaposed Clark's driving vocals with a powerful brass section. She introduced the tune on the Ed Sullivan Show on February 27, 1966. . In fact, today's teens are sometimes referred to as "the iGeneration." "A Soundtrack for Your Life" How have iPod and other MP3 players changed the way music is played and heard? For one thing, wearing an iPod makes you a portable, self-contained music machine. "You can put all your CDs on it, which is much easier to carry around," says Brianna Harney, 16, a junior at Somerville High School Several schools use the name Somerville High School:
Alex Halavais, a technology professor at the University of Buffalo in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , has studied the iPod phenomenon; iPod, he says, lets you "basically create a soundtrack for your life." For many teens, having an iPod also means saying goodbye to the record store. "It's overpriced o·ver·price tr.v. o·ver·priced, o·ver·pric·ing, o·ver·pric·es To put too high a price or value on. overpriced Adjective costing more than it is thought to be worth Adj. and time-wasting to have to go to the store to buy a CD," says John Train, 15. Instead, says the sophomore at Mount Si High School in Snoqualmie, Washington
The availability of music on the Internet is a revolution in itself. With Apple's itunes, for example, users can purchase up to 1.5 million songs legally at the click of a mouse. (The music industry gets a portion of the profits.) If you don't want every song on a CD, you can buy just one or two songs individually. Mere Background Noise? On the other hand, does an unlimited stream of songs playing in your ear 24/7 cause music to become mere background noise? Is the iGeneration using its personal soundtracks to tune out the rest of the world? Some people think so. "Riding on the [school] bus used to be a time to meet new people and exchange casual remarks," observed an editorial in the student newspaper at James Madison University “JMU” redirects here. For the university in Liverpool, England, see Liverpool John Moores University. For the public-policy college at Michigan State University, see . in Harrisonburg, Virginia Harrisonburg is an independent city in Rockingham County, Virginia. The population was 40,468 at the 2000 census. It is the principal city of Rockingham County and is included in the Harrisonburg, Virginia Metropolitan Statistical Area. . "[Now,] the ever-present white earphones end conversations before they start." Hearing experts also caution that listening to iPods or other portable music devices at high volume through earbuds puts kids at greater risk of hearing loss later in life. Worse, iPods have been the objects of a new rash of thefts, and sometimes violence. Recently, a teen in Brooklyn, New York, was murdered for his iPod. Pod People Despite such concerns, iPod remains the "in" thing. It has even helped popularize pop·u·lar·ize tr.v. pop·u·lar·ized, pop·u·lar·iz·ing, pop·u·lar·iz·es 1. To make popular: A famous dancer popularized the new hairstyle. 2. a new form of communication, podcasting, which is giving teens a creative way to express themselves. John Train is a podcaster. "My podcast is the epitome [ideal example] of teenage life," John told JS. "I talk about all of the things teenagers live day in and day out Adv. 1. day in and day out - without respite; "he plays chess day in and day out" all the time ." The craze has even reached commercial radio. In fact, many stations are making their shows available as podcasts. Now, listeners can hear programs whenever and wherever they want. Of course, no revolution lasts forever. A hundred years from now, iPod will have gone the way of Edison's phonograph. But for no, Pod people rule. Just ask them--though you may have to ask them to turn down their iPods first! Words to Know * MP3: a form of digital music storage that greatly compresses (reduces) the size of files. * phonograph: a record player. * podcasting: a method of publishing audio broadcasts via the Internet. EXPLOSION IN MUSIC DOWNLOADS In just a few years, downloading songs from the Net has boomed worldwide. The numbers below are for downloads from just one site. Add all the other sources of downloadable music worldwide, and the numbers are astronomical! April 28, 2003 iTunes Music Store (iTMS) launched; first song sold September 8, 2003 10 millionth song sold: "Complicated" by Avril Lavigne Avril Lavigne Whibley,[1] better known by her birth name of Avril Lavigne (IPA: /æv.ɹʌl lə.vin/), (born September 27 1984) is a Canadian rock/punk-pop singer, musician and actress. December 15, 2003 25 millionth song sold: "Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow!" by Frank Sinatra July 12, 2004 100 millionth song sold: "Somersault" (Dangermouse remix re·mix tr.v. re·mixed, re·mix·ing, re·mix·es To recombine (audio tracks or channels from a recording) to produce a new or modified audio recording: ) by Zero 7 October 14, 2004 150 millionth song sold: "Ex-Factor" by Lauryn Hill December 16, 2004 200 millionth song sold: a song from The Complete U2 album by U2 July 17, 2005 500 millionth song sold: "Mississippi Girt girt 1 v. girt·ed, girt·ing, girts v.tr. 1. To gird. 2. To secure with a girth. 3. To measure the girth of. v.intr. To measure in girth. " by Faith Hill Your Turn THINK ABOUT IT Do you think that iPod technology does harm, good, or both? Why? * Write the letter of the correct answer on the line before each question. --6. Which of these was the first commercial device for playing back recorded sound? A. cassette audio tape B. phonograph C. tape recorder tape recorder, device for recording information on strips of plastic tape (usually polyester) that are coated with fine particles of a magnetic substance, usually an oxide of iron, cobalt, or chromium. The coating is normally held on the tape with a special binder. 7. MP3 is a form of digital audio storage that does what? A. allows users to scroll quickly through a playlist A file that contains an index to a selected group of music files on the computer. Using digital jukebox software such as iTunes and Winamp, playlists are created by the user by dragging and dropping titles from a master index. The software may be able to create a playlist automatically. B. easily arranges files into a playlist C. greatly compresses the size of files 8. What do hearing experts think may damage the hearing of young people using iPods and other MP3 players? A. infections spread by wearing someone else's earbuds B. music played through earbuds at high volume C. the pressure of earbuds on the eardrums 9. Podcasting is a way of broadcasting what? A. audio broadcasts via the Internet B. high-definition images to iPod screens C. ring tones from MP3 players to cell phones --10. Which of the following statements about iPods is false? A. They are not MP3 players. B. They have been the object of some crimes. C. They have helped popularize podcasting. 6. B 7. C 8. B 9. A 10. A |
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