Does it really have to be this way?

Music industry bosses formula of selling music wrapped in a sexy package. 

It is not a new thing that music is sold and marketed with an infallible strategy: sex. Music itself seems not to be enough and ever more the artist’s image gets more important and central in the music business.

Elvis Presley is considered one of the first sex symbols in the music and entertainment industry. His performance style and his looks played a huge role in the making of the so called “King of Rock and Roll”. Since then the music scene became more and more eroticized; but compared to today’s pop stars Elvis’ hip moves were quite innocents.

I am the kind of person that appreciates music in its essence: a good melody, with a nice beat, with smart lyrics. It does not take half naked (or almost fully naked) women for me to buy a cd, but unfortunately in these days it is almost impossible to find artists that are making purely music for the listeners. In instead they are competing in who makes the next scandal that will drive the horny teenagers crazy. Of course image is important and a good looking good singer is better than just a good singer, but the way things are offered are way too abusive. What we see in current pop music is a lot of talented artists that are not respecting their talents and artistry, in the name of buzz. 

Did this generation ever stop to think what message the music industry bosses are giving when almost all they offer us is booty songs with shallow purposes? Aren’t we more than sexually aroused brainless people? This system is among many things very disrespectful, first because it treats the consumers simply as horny monkeys, and the artists as a meat peace.

Light at the end of the tunnel?

Hopefully it seems like there is hope in the music industry. With her second album, 21 recently released, the british singer Adele is an exception. With a coy attitude and with a rusty but potent voice she is in all senses the anti-pop-diva.

The majority of the lyrics of Adele’s songs talk about failed relationships and of her difficulty in fitting in the society. The singer never denied that she deals with her personal life in the songs. In fact her ex-boyfriend wanted to sue her, claiming that he had a part on the royalties of the songs that he had inspired. But above all, 21 is a cd that puts Adele among the headliners of her generation.

Songs like Rolling in the Deep, Someone Like You, Set Fire to The Rain and Lovesong (a cover version of a song already recorded by the band The Cure) boosted the sells of her two albums, 19 and 21 (the numbers stand for the artist’s age on their release dates). From day to night, Adele changed from being the tearful chubby girl to, until now, the most selling phenomena of the year.

Since 1990, after Madonna released The Immaculate Collection, no other woman has stayed in the first place for ten consecutive weeks on the British top charts. Now Adele did it. In United States she overpassed the mark of 1 million sold discs and forced Lady Gaga to dispute a place on the charts, after her single Born This Way sells fell 84% from a week to another.

According to The New Yorker magazine’s music critique , Sasha-Frere Jones, Adele’s fans are mainly mid age white people, that don’t know how to download from the internet, and consequently buy the cd from the closest Starbucks shop. That justifies in part the explosion of sells.

With not much talent for dancing sexy choreographies, Adele can only do what she is really good at: sing. Produced by experienced names from the music industry such as Rick Rubin (Johnny Cash, Red Hot Chilli Peppers and The Gossip) and Paul Epworth (Cee Lo Green), 21 reached the top charts as an underdog, surrounded by Rihannas, Shakiras and Britneys.

Let’s re-evaluate

Music has always been a powerful tool in humanity, it connects people with each other and with their own feelings. I believe a huge opportunity is being wasted and this generation has been privy to experience deeper feelings that music can generate in us.

Shopping Guide 1, 2 & 3 for newbies in Jyväskylä.

The city of Jyväskylä combines a wide range of good qualities a city could claim to have. It has good universities, attracting students from all over Finland, Europe and world. Compared to Helsinki or Tampere it is quite small, and its center can be walked through in few minutes. Still the amount of options and variety it is surprising. 

To shop in Jyväskylä will not be a hard task, and one can find almost everything on the cities downtown markets, shopping centers and stores.

Sokos

www.sokos.fi

Kauppakatu 24

Localized at the very center of Jyväskylä’s center, in front of Kompassi, which is the zero mark of the city is Sokos department store. Sokos shopping centers are spread all over the country, and they are the place where one can find anything. From decoration items to perfumes and make up, from fashion brands, to sport wear Sokos sell a vast range of world top brands. Big brands such as Tommy Hilfigher, Calvin Klein, Levi’s Strauss, Nike and many others are sold on the three floors store.

On the bottom floor there is a home department, where there is always new decoration and home styling objects, and also some small domestic electronics. On the same floor is located Mestari Herkku, which is a grocery store, with a more sophisticated twist, with a broad collection of cheeses, selected fruits, fresh breads and good quality meat.

On the same building you can find a Hesburger, the finnish fast food chain,a eat-as-much-as-you-can pizza place called Pizza Buffa, and also a café. In addition to that all there is a jewelry boutique and the famous british cosmetic shop The Body Shop. 
Attached to Sokos there is an entrance to the famous sports store, Stadium.

Sokos has its own parking lot, and the first 50 minutes is free to all members of Keskimaa’s bonus card program.

parking place: yes

to eat: Hesburger, Presso, Pizza Buffa and Mestari Herkku fast-food

I like it because: in one place one is able to find almost everything.

...but: it is a little bit too pricy

Forum

www.kauppakeskusforum.fi

Kauppakatu 20-22

If you are looking for some heavy shopping, this is the place to go. Specially the ladies will find very convenient Forum’s variety of fashion stores.

For the young women that want to be always tuned into what is going on the fashion scene, the swedish Gina Tricot would be the first choice. Other options are Vero Moda and Only, both  very democratic, and with clothes for all tastes. The guys shouldn’t be wanting. Jack & Jones and Jim & Jill will probably do the job, with a variety of jeans and street wear.

To the more alternative ones Forum has the “punkish” Carlings, that has a little bit higher prices than the others, but offers a more exclusive fashion with the finest scandinavian street wear brands.

The shopping center, that has just been repaired last spring, has a few new stores that will please from young parents  to budgeting students. Seppälä, Aleksi 13, Esprit,  Benneton and Your Face are other shops for a more conservative taste. 

Forum with its 60 stores, it is to be the most complete place on the city to go shopping. 

parking place: yes. But is too small, and it is often full. The cheapest of all.

to eat: Hesburger, Cafe Rento, Cafe Voca, Golden Rax Pizza, Maxi Pizza Buffet, Mummin Pullanpuoti, Pancho Villa, Banthai Deli and Red Neck.

I like it because: it has many options of clothing shops for young adults.

...but: the parking lot has too few spaces, and it is always during the rush hour. 

Jyväskeskus

www.jyvaskeskus.fi

Kauppakatu 29-31

Even though it is the smallest of all the shopping centers of the center of Jyväskylä, Jyväskeskus is a very traditional one, and offers different services, like Movie Theater Fantasia and the Italian food restaurant Rosso.

But the main “dish” of this center is the swedish fast-fashion store H&M. Famous by its very fashionable looks and unbeatable prices, this is the place where one will find a new look for the weekend, or a trendy accessory to upgrade and old outfit.

The options are not limited to this. KappAhl, Seppälä and Jack&Jones are other very good options too.
And if while shopping you have a need for recharging the batteries you can either stop by the sugary Arnolds and grab a coffee to go with donut, or then seat down at one of the cities more traditional café, Elonen that offers always fresh pastries and special coffees.

parking place: yes

to eat: McDonalds, Rosso, Submarine, Arnolds and Elonen.

I like it because: fast-food and fast-fashion, good combo.

...but: it could use a little bit of a repair work and new decoration

H&M: fast-fashion from Sweden.

President Obama visits Brazil for the first time, and leaves the country wanting more.

President Obama starts his first visit to South America last friday (March 18th).

The Brazilian government hoped that the world eyes would be on Brazil during U.S. president’s, Barack Obama’s first visit to South America. One of the expectations was that Obama would confirm his support on having Brazil as a future member of the Security Council of the United Nations. It was also expected that he would announce the end of long processing and strict bureaucracy on the visa applications of brazilians trying to enter into the United States. Those were maybe too high expectations, and his visit turned out being marked by generic appraising, modest agreements and nonetheless by the fact that the entire western world was much more interested in the intervention in Libya, that broke out Saturday (March 19th), while Obama himself was in the brazilian territory.

Barack and his family arriving at Brasília, on last friday March 18th.

President Obama’s agenda in South America still includes visits to Chile and El Salvador. The president who is traveling alongside his wife, Michelle, daughters, Sasha and Malia, and an entourage of more than 1,000 people left America on a very delicate moment. His major concern is how to prevent the dictator Muammar Gaddafi continuing with the massacre of civilians without it seeming an unilateral action of the country that in the past years, with the help of a few other countries, led controversial wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

This was in fact one of the themes of his first public agenda in Brazil, just few hours after landing in Brazil’s capital city Brasilia. Although the agreements signing with Brazil were a topic on the agenda of Obama and Brazil’s president Dilma Rousseff, in the Planalto Palace, Obama used much of his time to talk about the action in Libya, which would be triggered shortly after. And it was after his first speech there that he gave green light to begin the operations in Lybia. 

Brazil’s economy growth and future partnership with the U.S.A.

While most of the world is consumed with debts and unemployment, Brazil is trying to figure out how to manage an economic boom. Brazil was the last country to enter the great recession and the first to leave and it is very close to get to the world’s 5th largest economy, overpassing Britain and France. In 2010 Brazil created about 1.5 million jobs. Brazil has the world’s largest cattle industry, it produces 14% of the world’s fresh water. Brazil has a very green economy, 80% of its  electricity comes from hydropower. The most sophisticated biofuel industry in the world and the world’s largest export of beef, chicken, orange juice, coffee, sugar and tobacco. Brazil’s biggest economic partner in the past years turned to be China, in instead of the U.S. 

Another agenda on this visit by the north american president was to strengthen the commercial and economic relations between Brazil and United States. Obama had a meeting with business men both from America and Brazil, targeting to find solutions on how to reduce departmentalism and decrease the taxes on importation and exportation.

Another reason why Brazil is lately receiving so much attention is because 240 km of the coast lie what is believed to be the largest discovers of oil found anywhere in the world in the past 35 years. It is estimated that it will produce 6 million of oil barrels a day putting Brazil as 4th largest oil producer of the world. So it is no wonder why North America would not be interested on having Brazil as their economic partner.

Hysteria, and first-lady fashion

Obama , his wife and daughters also visited Rio de Janeiro, where they visited a favela, the Christ statue ate Morro do Corcovado and president Obama gave a closed speech to few brazilian politicians and artists at Rio de Janeiro’s Theatro Municipal. 

Children of a public school getting hysterical meeting the presidents.

The security scheme was huge, but well justified. There were people everywhere trying to see the presidential family, including many Obama imitators and activists. Mrs. Obama also visited one of Rio’s samba school with her daughters, and once again the first lady caught a lot of attention with her outfits.

The Obama family and Dilma Rousseff, Brazil's president at the Planalto Palace, Brasília.

All the fashion specialists have praised Michelle’s style and elegance. The general comment is that the history has never seen a first lady that has such a unique style, feminine, modern and in the other hand so right. “It is not only about dressing adequately, but Michelle also shows personality in her style” says fashion editor of UOL Notícias, Carolina Vasone.

Overall the visit of the America’s first black president, to the brazilian first time ever women president Dilma Rousseff, proved to all that the times we live now are different, full of new nuances, and things that 10 years ago would sound impossible, now are more real than ever. It is a good time to be alive.

hard news: Young couple gets married on july 15th of 2006.

On the sunny saturday of 15 of July of 2006, at 12:00 am finnish young student Saara Vatanen, 21 got married with brazilian Rodrigo Campos, 21.

The wedding ceremony took place in North Carelias Joensuu’s Lutheran Church, right at the center of the city. 

Were present to the occasion both the groom’s and the bride’s families and close friends as well.

The religious ceremony was celebrated by Rev. Jukka Lammanen, and featured several music numbers.

After the ceremony, all the 180 guests were welcomed to Lehmo Cuisine, a local catering company localized by the river Pielisjoki.

The wedding program was ver concise and the guests enjoy their companies and the nice summer weather.

By 18:00 pm, the bridal couple left the party and were taken to a summer cottage were they spent they had a nuptial chamber awaiting.

photo by Mariana Campos

1,2....1,2.... testing

Hello world!

This is a new blog for my Journalism Course at JAMK University of Applied Sciences.
On the future I will be posting some stories of my own.
It is gonna be good :)

But for now that's all,

-Rodrigo Campos