Internet
There is a big influence of technique on our daily life. Electronic devices, multimedia and computers are things we have to deal with every day. Especially the Internet is becoming more and more important for nearly everybody. The Internet changed our life enormously, there is no doubt about that. Internet changed our life in a positive way.
You can use the Internet at home for personal. Let's come to the first. To spend a part of our day on the Internet is for many people quite normal. They use this kind of medium to get information about all kinds topics. Whatever you are looking for, you will find it. Even if you want to have very specific information, you will find it in a short time. Normally, you often have to send a letter, than you have to wait for the reception of the reply, or you have to make some telephone calls and so on.
As we all know, software costs a lot, if you buy it legal. Free software, free music is available on the Internet. You just have to download the program, the mp3-file or whatever and that's it.
The computer is a fix part of every modern office and the greatest part has also an access to the Internet Companies already present their products, their services on the Internet and so they get more flexible.
The next advantage is the faster development. Many universities and research institutions are also linked. They are able to exchange experiences and often they start new projects together. If they are linked, they can save time and money.
"Learning by doing", everybody knows this phrase and it's still an essential part concerning the Internet. Children also use the Internet, most of the time they will "play" over the Internet, but they learn to work with the computer.
Another advantage of the internet is that you can join a community. You can create new social contacts all over the world, which you could not do so easy without the internet. Such communities can also help people who cannot go out to find friends in the real life because they are disabled. Therefore they can chat with other people via the internet. Sometimes it is also easier for people, who are afraid to look into the other's face while talking, to chat with a person that they do not know.
The E-mail has replaced the traditional letter. You do not have to buy stamps anymore and it is much faster and also for free.
Another important part is online gaming. You can play with people from all over the world and share your knowledge.
Additionally, another big advantage of the internet is the easy access to information.
Besides you can learn with the internet. CBT (Computer Based Training) already exists but you can also join an internet course with other members.
The internet is a database full of information and offers us a lot of services, sometimes for free. This makes our life easier and sometimes also cheaper.
One of the most negative aspects of the impact of the internet on our daily life is, that it alters the social behaviour, habits and abilities of people. Especially children are often badly influenced by the internet.
The internet will never replace the real world and therefore it is important that children see that the internet is a great tool if you know how to handle it but it should not be a replacement for real friends, for a real life. It's the parent's duty to tell their children so.
PRESS
The British are one of the biggest newspaper-reading nations in the world.
There are about 130 daily and Sunday newspapers, over 2,000 weekly newspapers and some 7,000 periodical publications in Britain. That's more national and regional daily newspapers for every person in Britain than in most other developed countries. All the national newspapers use computer technology, and its use in the provincial press, which has generally led the way in adopting new techniques, is widespread.
In a democratic country like Great Britain the press, ideally, has three political functions: information, discussion and representation. It is supposed to give the voter reliable and complete information to base his judgement.
All the newspapers whether daily or Sunday, totalling about twenty, can be divided into two groups: quality papers and popular papers. Quality papers include "The Times1, "The Guardian", "The Daily Telegraph", "The Financial Times", "The Observer", "The Sunday Times" and "The Sunday Telegraph". Very thoroughly they report national and international news.
The distinction between the quality and the popular papers is one primarily of educational level. Quality papers are those newspapers which are intended for the well educate. All the rest are generally called popular newspapers.
In Britain newspapers are mostly owned by individuals or by publishing companies. This is not to say that newspapers are without political bias. The "quality" Sunday papers devote large sections to literature and the arts. They have colour supplements and are in many ways more like magazines than newspapers. They supply quite different world of taste and interest from the "popular" papers. Most of the "Sundays" contain more reading matter than daily papers, and several of them also include "colour-supplements" - separate colour magazines which contain photographically-illustrated feature articles. Reading a Sunday paper, like having a big Sunday lunch, is an important tradition in many British households.
BRITISH MUSIC
Music is an essential part of Western culture. The majority of people also choose to listen to music for pleasure. Music is a powerful form of communication. It can be personal, political, opportunistic. Pop music is an important part of British culture. The Beatles first arrived on the Liverpool music scene in the early 60's creating a huge controversial craze among their fans known as Beatle Mania. British music has had a huge impact all over the world. The most famous music exports are of course the Beatles. Classical music in Britain is a minority interest. Several British orchestras, singers, opera and ballet companies and also certain annual musical events, have international reputation. In the 1960s, British artists had a great influence on the development music in the modern, for «pop» idiom. The Beatles and other British groups were responsible for several innovations, which were then adopted by popular musicians in the USA and the rest of the world. Other British artists in groups such as Pink Floyd and Cream played a major part in making the musical structure of pop music.
Since the 1960s, popular music in Britain has been an enormous and profitable industry. The Beatles were awarded the honour of MBE (Member of the British Empire) for their services to British exports. Within Britain the total sales of the various kinds of musical recording are more than 200 million every year and the vast majority of them are of popular music.
In the sense of commercial music enjoyed by the people, British popular music can be seen to originate in the 16 and 17 centuries with the arrival of the broadside ballad, which were sold cheaply and in great numbers until the 19 century. In the 1930s the influence of American Jazz led to the creation of British dance bands, who provided a social and popular music that began to dominate social occasions and the radio airwaves.
Baroque music
The Baroque era in music, between the early music of the Medieval and Renaissance was characterised by more elaborate musical ornamentation, changes in musical notation, new instrumental playing techniques and the rise of new genres such as opera. Although the term Baroque is conventionally used for European music from about 1600, its full effects were not felt in Britain until after 1660, delayed by native trends and developments in music, religious and cultural differences from many European countries and the disruption to court music caused by the British Civil Wars and Interregnum. The Baroque era in British music can be seen as one of an interaction of national and international trends, sometimes absorbing continental fashions and practices and sometimes attempting, as in the creation of ballad opera, to produce an indigenous tradition. The most significant British composer of the era, George Frideric Handel, was a naturalised German, who helped integrate British and continental music and define the future of the classical music of the United Kingdom that would be officially formed in 1801.
Folk music
Each of the four countries of the United Kingdom has its own diverse and distinctive folk music forms. England has a long and diverse history of folk music dating back at least to the medieval period and including many forms of music, song and dance. Through two periods of revival from the late nineteenth century much of the tradition has been preserved and continues to be practiced. It led to the creation of a number of fusions with other forms of music that produced sub-genres such as electric folk, folk punk and folk metal and continues to thrive nationally and in regional scenes, particularly in areas such as Northumbria and Cornwall. Folk music songs deal with almost every kind of human activity. Folk music often expresses the character of ethnic and social groups and sometimes a nation. It is the music of the people. A folk song can express political or religious beliefs, tell a story or describe history, or just provide amusement. Folk music is usually learned by listening rather than by reading the notes or words. The music is shared from person to person, from place to place, and from generation to generation. Folk song sometimes change either by accident or from a purposeful alteration. Tunes are shortened or lengthened, pitches and rhythms are altered, and portions of one song may be combined with part of another. Words of a song may also change over time. Folk songs can often be classified into different types. The ballad, a song that tells a story often about real events, is one of the main types of folk song. Ballads are in stanza form, where a melody is repeated for each of several verses, and may have a refrain that is repeated several times. Another type of folk song is those that deal with a particular activity, occupation, or set of circumstances. This group includes work songs, prison songs, war songs, and the like. There are also spiritual songs, songs for children, songs about life's stages, and many songs are just for celebration, dance, and enjoyment.
Church music
In the early Middle Ages, ecclesiastical music was dominated by monophonic plainchant. The separate development of British Christianity from the direct influence of Rome until the 8th century, with its nourishing monastic culture, led to the development of a distinct form of liturgical Celtic chant, Although no notations of this music survive, later sources suggest distinctive melodic patterns. This was superseded, as elsewhere in Europe, from the llth centurv by Gregorian chant.The version of this chant linked to the liturgy as used in the Diocese of Salisbury, the Sarum Use, first recorded from the 13th century, became dominant in England. This Sarum Chant became the model for English composers until it was supplanted at the Reformation in the mid-16th century, influencing settings for masses, hymns and Magnificats. Scottish music was highly influenced by continental developments, with figures like thirteenth-century musical theorist Simon Tailler studving in Paris, before returned to Scotland where he introduced several reforms of church music. Scottish collections of music like the thirteenth-century 'Wolfenbiittel 677', which is associated with St Andrews, contain mostly French compositions, but with some distinctive local styles. The first notations of Welsh music that survived are from the 14th century, including matins, lauds and vespers for St David's Day.
British Musicians of the present times
James Morrison. His full name is James Morrison Catchpole. In 2006, his debut single “You Give Me Something” became a hit in Europe, Australia, and Japan, peaking in the top five in the UK and New Zealand. His debut album, Undiscovered, debuted at the top of the UK Albums Chart.
Robert Peter Williams (born February 13, 1974 in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire) is a British pop singer. Originally a member of boy band Take That, he split from the group in 1995 and launched a solo career.
Graham Leslie Coxon (bom 12 March 1969) is an English singer- songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and painter. He came to prominence as the lead guitarist, backing vocalist and occasional lead vocalist of rock band Blur, and is also a critically acclaimed solo artist, having recorded seven solo albums. His artistic and musical contribution is featured on all seven of Blur's studio albums, from 1991's Leisure to 2003's Think Tank.
British bands
One of the most popular groups in the 1960s was “The Beatles”. The Beatles were an iconic rock group from Liverpool, England. They are frequently cited as the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed band in modern history. Currently, the Beatles are one of the two musical acts to sell more than 1 billion records, with only Elvis Presley having been able to achieve the same feat. After conquering Europe, with successful tours to Germany and Sweden, the Beatles led the mid-1960s musical “British Invasion” into the United States. Although their initial musical style was rooted in 1950s rock and roll, the group explored a great variety of musical styles including Psychedelic Rock, Experimental, Ballads, Western and Indian Classical among others. Their clothes, hairstyles and instruments made them trend-setters, while their growing social awareness saw their influence into the social and cultural revolutions of the 1960s.
The Beatles were comprised of four members in the long run: John Lennon (vocals, rhythm guitar, piano), Paul McCartney (vocals, bass guitar, piano, guitar), George Harrison (lead guitar, vocals), and Ringo Starr (percussion, vocals). Lennon and McCartney were the main songwriters and singers. For years, The Beatles showed an amazing talent for writing hit after hit.
Another popular band was the Rolling Stones. By the time the Rolling Stones began calling themselves the world Greatest Rock and Roll band in the late 60s, they had already staked out an impressive claim on the title. The Stones pioneered the gritty, hard-driving blue-based rock and roll that came to definite hard rock.
The Spice Girls were a BRIT Award-winning English pop girl group formed in 1994. They consist of Victoria Beckham, Geri Halliwell, Emma Bunton, Melane Brown and Melanie Chisholm. According to the BBC, they are the best-selling girl group of all times.
They were signed to Vergin Records and released their debut single, “Wannabe” in 1996. The song spent seven weeks at the top of the UK Singles Chart, becoming number one in 31 countries and helped establish the group as an “global phenomenon”. The spice Girls have sold more than 60 million records worldwide with only three albums, landing them the title for fastest-selling girl group ever.
AMERICAN CINEMA
Films are cultural artifacts created by specific cultures, which reflect those cultures, and, in turn, affect them. The visual elements of cinema give motion pictures a universal power of communication; some movies have become popular worldwide attraction, by using dubbing or subtitles that translate the dialogue. The first man whom we should appreciate for the current sound motion picture was Thomas Edison.
The first US feature film to be shown in its entirety was H. A. Spanuth's five-reel production of "Oliver Twist" (1912). The four-reel silent costume drama "Queen Elizabeth" (starring Sarah Bemhardt) was the third film to be shown whole, in its US premiere in July at the Lyceum Theatre in NYC. The five-reel "Richard III" (1912) is thought to be the earliest surviving complete feature film made in the US. Although US production and exhibition of feature films started slowly in 1912, the next few years demonstrated tremendous growth when foreign competition (with often superior products) encouraged development. Some of Hollywood's best directors, John Ford, Frank Capra, John Huston and William Wyler, made Signal Corps documentaries or training films to aid the war effort, such as Frank Capra's "Why We Fight" (1942-1945) documentary series (the first film in the series. Prelude to War was released in 1943), "Ford's December 7th: The Movie" (1991) (finally released after being banned by the US government for 50 years) and the first popular documentary of the war titled "The Battle of Midway" (1942), Huston's documentaries "Report From the Aleutians" (1943) and "The Battle of San Pietro" (1945), and Wyler's sobering Air Force documentary "Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress" (1944). The 1970s opened with Hollywood experiencing a financial and artistic depression, the decade became a creative high point in the US film industry. Restrictions on language, adult content and sexuality, and violence had loosened up, and these elements became more widespread. The hippie movement, the civil rights movement, free love, the growth of rock and roll, changing gender roles and drug use certainly had an impact. And Hollywood was renewed and reborn with the earlier collapse of the studio system and the works of many new and experimental film-makers (nicknamed “Movie Brats”) during a Hollywood New Wave. After the innovations of the 70s, films in the 80s were less experimental and original, but more formulaic, although there was a burst of films eager to capitalize on new special effects (CGI) techniques - now available. In 1990, Kodak introduced the Photo CD player. And in 1992, the Second Edition of the 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary, was also made available on CD-ROM. By 1992, broadcast TV was beginning to lose large numbers of viewers to cable-only channels. By 1997, the first DVDs (digital video discs) had emerged in stores, featuring sharper resolution pictures, better quality and durability than videotape, interactive extras, and more secure copy-protection. In just a few years, sales of DVD players and the shiny discs proliferated and would surpass the sale of VCRs and videotapes. Today there are a lot of different approaches in American cinema. Now filmmakers have so many possibilities to shoot film with many different effects that we even can't see in our dreams.
Hollywood industry
When people think about of Hollywood, they probably think of film stars like Marilyn Monroe, Gary Grant and James Dean. Hollywood is the center of the international movie industry and American movies are distributed all over the world. They are made in English but often dubbed into other languages. In some countries 90 percent of the movies that people see are US production. There were several reasons why film makers went to Hollywood. Firstly, there was a lot of space; secondly, California's warm sunny weather was ideal for making films outside. Thirdly, there was a variety of locations for filming: ocean, mountains, deserts, villages, woodland and rivers. During the so-called Golden Age of Hollywood, which lasted from the end of the silent era in American cinema in the late 1920s to the late 1940s, movies issued from the Hollywood studios like the cars rolling off Henry Ford's assembly lines. Most Hollywood pictures adhered closely to a formula—Western, slapstick comedy, musical, animated cartoon, biopic (biographical picture)—and the same creative teams often worked on films made by the same studio.
The American companies that dominated the film industry in the 1920s and 1930s were Paramount, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Wamer Brothers, 20th Century-Fox, Universal, Columbia and RKO. Each of these companies formed a "vertical monopoly" - that is each was involved in all three areas of modem industrial enterprise:
-Production (the film studios)
-Wholesaling (film distribution)
-Retailing (theatrical exhibition).
Today the Wamer Brothers Inc. is the largest film studio in America. In 2008, Wamer Brothers broke all-time studio record, grossing $1.753 billion breaking the previous record of & 1.711 billion set by Sony in 2006. It is responsible for the Harry Potter film series, one of the highest grossing film series of all time. Wamer Brothers is also responsible for The Dark Knight, the 2008 Academy Award-winning Batman film that eventually became the studio's highest grossing film ever with over $1 billion.
The shooting of 'Titanic' in 1997 brought people flocking to the cinemas. It has become a blockbuster and brought big profits to the producers. The reasons are, on the one hand, the thrilling plot of the film, depicting the first of the greatest disasters of the 20th century, and, on the other hand, new technologies of film making, used by James Cameron. Everybody wanted to see if the film was really worth eleven 'Oscar' awards. Another famous film which associated with the style and fashion up to now is Blake Edwards's "Breakfast at Tiffany's". Its budget made up about $2500000 and box-office receipts arranged in the USA $ 8000000. Telling about classical cinematography it is worth mentioning David 0. Seiznick's "Gone with the wind". David 0. Seiznick created the film based on Margaret MitchelPs novel. The casting of the two lead roles became a complex, two-year endeavor. Many famous or soon-to-be-famous actresses were either screen-tested, auditioned, or considered for the role of Scarlett. But only two finalists, Paulette Goddard and Vivien Leigh, were tested. For the role of Rhett Butler, dark Gable was an almost immediate favorite for both the public and Seiznick. Today people are fond of different genres of motion picture, making in America. But mainly most films are designed for the masses. Still there are many producers who make their films, using unusual plots and technologies. Such films are usually for those who like enjoying "complicated" art.
Oscar and other awards
The Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers. The formal ceremony at which the awards are presented is one of the most prominent film award ceremonies in the world. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences itself was conceived by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio boss Louis B. Mayer.
The 1st Academy Awards ceremony was held on Thursday, May 16, 1929, at the Hotel Roosevelt in Hollywood to honor outstanding film achievements of 1927 and 1928.
The official name of the Oscar statuette is the Academy Award of Merit. Made of gold-plated britannium on a black metal base, it is 13.5 in (34 cm) tall, weighs 8.5 Ib (3.85 kg) and depicts a knight rendered in Art Deco style holding a crusader's sword standing on a reel of film with five spokes. The five spokes each represent the original branches of the Academy: Actors, Writers, Directors, Producers, and Technicians.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), a professional honorary organization, maintains a voting membership of 5,829 as of 2007.
Today, according to Rules 2 and 3 of the official Academy Awards Rules, a film must open in the previous calendar year, from midnight at the start of January 1 to midnight at the end of December 31, in Los Angeles County, California, to qualify.
Rule 2 states that a film must be "feature-length", defined as a minimum of 40 minutes, except for short subject awards and it must exist either on a 35 mm or 70 mm film print or in 24 frame/s or 48 frame/s progressive scan digital cinema format with native resolution not less than 1280х720.
The major awards are presented at a live televised ceremony, most commonly in February or March following the relevant calendar year, and six weeks after the announcement of the nominees. It is the culmination of the film awards season, which usually begins during November or December of the previous year. This is an elaborate extravaganza, with the invited guests walking up the red carpet in the creations of the most prominent fashion designers of the day.
Black tie dress is the most common outfit for men, although fashion may dictate not wearing a bow-tie, and musical performers sometimes do not adhere to this. (The artists who recorded the nominees for Best Original Song quite often perform those songs live at the awards ceremony, and the fact that they are performing is often used to promote the television broadcast.)
There are others American awards in the cinema industry. The most famous and prestigious of them are Emmy and Golden Globe Award.
The Golden Globe Awards are presented annually by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) to recognize outstanding achievements in the entertainment industry, both domestic and foreign, and to focus wide public attention upon the best in motion pictures and television. The formal ceremony and dinner at which the awards are presented is a major part of the film industry's awards season, which culminates each year with the Academy Awards.
The Emmy Award, also known as the 'Emmy', is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and Grammy Awards.
They are presented in various sectors of the television industry, including entertainment programming, news and documentary shows, and sports programming. As such, the awards are presented in various area-specific ceremonies held annually throughout the year.