2011 - The Year In Music

The end of the year is an excellent chance to reflect and I thought it would be great to take a look at the music of 2011. The following list encompasses those artists that were in the news and caught my attention (for better or for worse).


THOSE THAT SUCKED!

I like to save the best for last so it is only logical to start this list with those artists that truly made 2011 suck! So here they are the top 4 creme of the crap:

4-Britney Spears
I won't spend too much time on her because I've already devoted an entire blog regarding my thoughts on Britney. To be honest, I quite enjoyed "Femme Fatale"; the production is great and some of the beats and songs are damn catchy. However, because Britney epitomizes overly-marketed and manufactured pop-stars, she undoubtedly lands a spot on this list. Sorry Brit, "Femme Fatale" is a great dance/party album, but I'm only giving credit where it is due and I have yet to see any proof regarding your contribution towards the making of this album.

3-Rebecca Black
Now to be fair, we must give credit to the educational component of her viral hit "Friday". After listening to it, I now know that "yesterday was Thursday, today it is Friday, tomorrow is Saturday and Sunday comes afterwards." Thank you Rebecca Black for enlightening me, but your song still sucks! Oh and next time, please don't put a creepy, older rapper in your video, its just wierd!

2-Rihanna
If Rihanna's only musical contribution was her duet with Eminem "Love The Way You Lie" and her monster hit "Only Girl In The World", she would have easily secured a spot in my "Honourable Mentions" list. Unfortunately, we had to endure songs such as "What's My Name" and the Britney-duetted "S&M" and her most recent "We Found Love". Hence, why she got dragged down into this list. Word of advice Rihanna, rather than releasing a bunch of singles at once, learn to be a bit more selective. Remember, its quality over quantity.

1-Chris Brown
How poetic, the two artists that sucked the most in 2011 also dated each other. Sure he put out his album "F.A.M.E" earlier this year and scored a hit with the Benny Benassi-produced "Beautiful People", but it wasn't enough for him to fully escape his past. The reminder of his assaulting Rihanna lurked in the shadows and once again, Chris Brown made an ass out of himself in public when reports leaked that he walked out of a television interview and trashed his dressing room. Also, I found it unforgiveable how much he lip-synched in live performances this year, considering he can actually sing. Sorry Chris, until you can get your act together and learn how to conduct yourself in public you top the list of those that sucked in 2011. Better luck in the coming years.



THOSE THAT GET HONOURABLE MENTION:
This list is for those artists that made a contribution, but it just wasn't enough to make them stand out in 2011. But that doesn't mean they shouldn't get credit, hence the top 4 artists that deserve Honourable Mention:

4-Beyonce
Her album "4" demonstrated artistic and stylistic growth, she was named Billboard's Artist Of The Millenium and had a viral hit on YouTube with Jay-Z's recording of her singing in her dressing room. All of this should have been enough to place her in my Best of 2011 list. Unfortunately, her single "Run The World" was a bit under-whelming for me and her ego is starting to dim her appeal. Did anyone else roll their eyes when she showed off her babybump onstage at the MTV Awards? Also, this past year was the first in her career where she didn't have a hit single and her album's sales have been quite low. So, while she is still worthy of Honourable Mention, 2011 certainly wasn't her best year.

3-Nicki Minaj
There hasn't been much happening in the world of female rap since Missy Elliott's hey-day. That all changed when Nicki Minaj burst onto the scene last year and presented a fresh, eclectic style and hits like "Superbass" and "Your Love". She could, quite well, be the pioneer for a new era of female rap superstars. Hence why she was named Billboard's Rising Star for 2011 and deserves Honourable Mention on this list.

2-Architecture In Helsinki
This band, outside of indie-pop circles, is a bit obscure. I had the chance to interview Kellie Sutherland earlier this year and checked out their 2011 release "Moment Bends". It is an excellent batch of romantic and funky pop music. A bit quirky, gorgeously produced and melodically complex, "Moment Bends" is the perfect backdrop for a beautiful summer day on the beach and deserves an honourable mention for 2011.

1-Kelly Clarkson
Sure, she ain't selling albums like she used to or scoring "Since U Been Gone" type hits, but it doesn't change why this girl rocks. Firstly, no other pop singer has the vocal ablity that Clarkson owns. Secondly her 2011 release "Stronger" was all recorded with no auto-tune and minimal vocal processing. Thirdly, I've always admired her for sticking to her guns throughout her career and not allowing others to make desicions for her. I don't think her single "Mr Know-It-All" is her best work, but the talent and conviction she sings with is refreshing and has earned her the top spot for honourable mention for 2011.


THOSE THAT WERE AWESOME:
So who were the top-4 artsts that really made a difference or an impact on music? Read on:

4-Lady Gaga
Yes, Gaga is everywhere and it is hard to escape her. But it is also undeniable how much of an impact she has made on the pop culture scene in her short career. Behind all the bizarre fashion, over-the-top videos and stageshows, this woman is an artist. 2011 was a great year to be a Lady Gaga fan mainly because she is one of the few pop stars that packs a bold message behind her music that people can actually relate to. When you strip down her songs, there is an almost Springsteen-esque quality to her song-writing. Tracks like "Born This Way", "Edge of Glory" and "Marry The Night" all carry an under-lying message that speak to the struggles people deal with. If that isn't enough, Lady Gaga is a fantastic singer and puts on one hell of a live show. Putting all these elements together and you have an artist who is undoubtedly awesome.

3-Robyn
I love Robyn, purely based on the fact that she came out in the mid nineties as a manufactured, cookie-cutter pop singer and walked away from it all. In that time, she started her own record label, released independent albums and is now back and bigger than ever with her "BodyTalk" album. Her albums are avant-garde pop music at its finest. Robyn is one of those rare artists that walks the fine line in creating music that is digestible for the mainstream crowd while retaining her edgy, eclectic and funky persona. But don't take my word for it, watch her "Call Your Girlfriend" video and see her turn an abandoned warehouse into a show-stopping, one-woman dance performance.

2-Foster The People
I'm sorry, but "Pumped Up Kicks" is hands-down the BEST pop song of 2011. It is quirky, melodic and so different than anything else out there right now. The band's album "Torches" carries on in this spirit and showcases an impressive range of musical styles that pushes Foster The People into the fore-front of the indie-pop music scene. In my mind, these guys would claim the top spot of this list, were it not for.......

1-Adele
Many people say that Beyonce showing off her baby-bump at this year's Video Music Awards was the highlight of the evening. I disagree. It was Adele's stripped down performance and her booming voice singing "Someone Like You" that was the major highlight. This woman dominated music in 2011. Amidst all the formulaic songs that saturated the music of this past year, Adele proved that raw talent wins everytime. Her album "21" was, refreshingly, inescapable. Her singles "Rolling In The Deep" and "Someone Like You" shows that singing with a raw and fiery passion is what connects with listeners. No other sound was more relevant in 2011 than that of Adele venting her soul about the demise of her eighteen-month relationship. Adele tops this list for putting all the other pop-star wannabes in their place and showing what true musicianship, artistry and talent is all about.

Mortal Kombat Short Story - From The Pit Floor

I am a huge fan of the Mortal Kombat video game series. Recently, I purchased the latest video game released on PS3 and it has re-activated my fascination with the storyline behind the games.

The following short story is a tribute to the Mortal Kombat storyline and characters. To all the MK fans, I hope you appreciate this.

A quick heads up: This story contains graphic and gory depictions of violence and brutality. Not for the faint at heart.

___________________________________________________________________

FROM THE PIT-FLOOR
A short story by Aman S. Dhesi

I wish I were dead!

Here, amongst the piles of rotting corpses and decaying flesh, I've remained. How long it has been? It is hard to say. Time moves at a different pace in Outworld. Days morph into weeks, weeks transform into months and pretty soon - all concept of time gets lost. Especially when you are in a situation such as my own - lying at the bottom of a ninety foot pit with a giant sharp spike coming out of my hip.

Yes, you read that correct. I am currently lying at the bottom of a giant pit, impaled on one of the hundreds of giant spikes that protrude from the ground. For the past I'm-not-sure-how-long, I've been gushing blood from my mouth and from the wound in my side. My body has gone into shock, my limbs have been flailing spasmically and in many ways, it seems like my body is trying to shut down.

By all rights, I should be dead.

How I am still alive and how I ended up here, you ask? Well, to effectively answer that, I need to start at the beginning.

My name is John Carlton, but you probably know me better as Johnny Cage. I'm an actor. I've spent the last fifteen years making a career out of appearing in movies like "Shadowboxer", "Fists of Thunder" and "Karate Gold". Five years ago, I was at the top of my game and ruled Hollywood. I was an A-lister and was in constant demand. My movies were blockbusters and my name alone was a major box-office draw. That all changed when rumours started circulating that I was a fake. Apparently, some people had a tough time believeing that all the martial arts moves that I performed on film were my own. The rumours caught fire, my name disappeared from the marquee list and my career as an A-list actor floundered.

Just as it seemed Hollywood was closing its doors on me, I received a mysterious-looking invitation. I remember the day I saw it. I was on-set at my last movie shoot when I found it placed on a chair in my trailer. It was an old, dusty scroll that contained a logo of a stylized dragon in a circle and an invitiation to participate in a tournament on some island in the South Pacific. Only the best fighters around the world were invited and I was asked to participate. At first, I dismissed the idea, similarily to how I had dismissed so many movie offers in the past during my Hollywood hey day. But then I figured, what do I have to lose? If I win a tournament against the world's best fighters, that would prove to the world that I'm the real deal.

So I packed my things and accepted.

Straining my neck, I look up and can vaguely see the mouth of the pit. Across the entrance is the bridge where I was defeated by my last opponent; a woman named Mileena. She didn't waste too much time introducing herself before she leapt at me with startling speed. Looking back at our match, there was no way I could have beaten her. She moved quicker than the wind and her large, deadly samurai sais made quick work out of me in no time. I remember the final shattering blow that ended our combat. One second, I was standing in front of her preparing to deliver a crushing back-hand to her face when, all of a sudden, she disappeared. I sensed she was behind me and had just enough time to turn around and was greeted with her boot striking me solidly in the face. I staggered back reeling from the impact and had barely enough energy to remain standing. Through the blood, bruises and sweat that caked my vision, I could see her approaching me. Her purple facemask that she wore throughout the fight had concealed any emotion she may have displayed, but the coldness and malice in her eyes said it all.

She was about to finish me.

Walking upto me, she ripped off her mask to reveal a terrifying, abnormal smiling visage with a mouth containing rows of long, elongated and sharp fangs. Next thing I knew, I could feel her sinister fangs biting into my shoulder and taking a giant morself of flesh, tendons and muscle from my arm. She took a few steps back and crouched down to deliver her final blow.

Her fist flew up and connected with my chin. The sheer force and impact caused me to be flung upwards towards the jet-black sky. For a second, I remained suspended in mid-air and looked up at the Outworld moon. Cold, dark, lifeless and devoid of any luminous light.

This is how it ends, I thought.

From that single moment of stillness, I hurtled downwards, past the bridge, past Mileena and into the gaping hole of the pit. Gravity increased my speed and I fell for what felt like ages. Finally, the ground connected with my face and I felt something painfully shred through my stomach. At first, I wasn't sure what had happened, but when I looked down at myself and saw the sharp, shiny spike with my warm blood glistening from the tip, I knew.

So this is how I ended up in this pit. But it still doesn't explain why I'm not dead. Back to my story.

So as I mentioned, I had accepted the invitation to the tournament and jetted off to Taiwan to board a leaky boat that looked like something out of a bad Bruce Lee film along with a handful of other fighters. At the time, I remember feeling a certain amount of apprehension as I boarded that vessel. Something didn't seem quite right, I had thought at the time. I took a look at the other fighters and wondered what I was getting myself into. One of them had a metal faceplate over his left eye and kept playing with a crude looking dagger. Another guy, who seemed, much older seemed to crackle with electricity and could make himself disappear with a burst of thunder.

Maybe this was a bad idea, I had thought to myself.

How right I was!

It turns out this was more than just a tournament; the whole thing was governed by the owner of the island; some old guy named Shang Tsung and not only was he the grand master of the tournament, he also turned out to be a demon sorceror that sucked the souls of his defeated victims from their bodies and kept them entrapped inside of him. The tournament itself was called Mortal Kombat and while it pitted some of the world's best fighters against each other, it also featured a host of bizarre, alien, otherworldly creatures that possessed wierd, supernatural abilities that competed against us. It turns out all these fighters were from another world called Outworld, the exact place that I am decaying in right now.

There was one guy called Scorpion for example, who had the ability to teleport and project a throwing spear from out of his hand. I remember my encounter with him and his ghastly cry everytime he threw that bloody spear at me:

"Get over here!!"

I barely made it out of that fight alive; I managed to beat him by using the back end of a bladed shield to carve him in half.

Ya, this wasn't just a simple tournament.

Within three days, the only surviving fighters from Earth were myself, a monk named Liu Kang and a blonde cop named Sonya Blade. Every other fighter remaining was from Outworld.

Talk about feeling out of place.

To complicate things even further, it turns out that this Mortal Kombat wasn't just any typical tournament. Basically, it was the only protection our world had from being invaded by Outworld and its forces. According to Rayden, (the electric and thunder guy I had described earlier), Outworld's emperor wanted to invade Earth and would need to win ten straight victories in Mortal Kombat before the Portal could open allowing Outworld's forces to enter our world.

I know what you're thinking, I didn't know what the hell a Portal was either. Basically, it is the mystical gateway between Earth and other world's that can only be opened after ten straight victories in Mortal Kombat.

Outworld had already won nine and this would be the tenth and deciding tournament.

Needless to say, this was alot more than I had bargained for.

Somehow -through sheer skill and some dumb luck - I managed to make it to the final competition. Myself, Liu and Sonya ended up following Shang Tsung into Outworld, where Liu Kang fought him in the final round of Mortal Kombat and won.

We thought the worst was over and could return home. Unfortunately, when we tried returning to Earth, we were ambushed and Sonya was kidnapped and taken to the Emperor's palace. Liu and I managed to make it back to Earth, but decided to return to rescue Sonya. Once we returned to Outworld, we realized that Shang Tsung had concocted another plan. It turns out that he used Sonya's capture to lure us back into Outworld to compete in a new tournament. We had no choice but to enter.

This meant fighting more bizarre, Outworld creatures in one-on-one combat and that explains how I wound up fighting Mileena on the bridge that I am now looking at from this dark pit that I'm stuck in.

And that pretty much brings you upto speed on my current situation.

Oh right, I forgot to mention how I am still alive.

So remember how I mentioned that Outworld has an emperor; well, his name is Shao Kahn - Shang Tsung actually works for him. If you ever saw him in person, I wouldn't hold it against you if you turned around and ran because he is terrifying. The first time I saw him, I think my knees buckled out of sheer fright. The man (if you can call him that)is a giant and wears a mask made up of human bones over his eyes. His powers allow him to keep people from dying. Before this second Mortal Kombat tournament began, Kahn placed a spell on all of us, that would keep us from dying in the tournament so that we could continue in the competition.

Ok, so now you are pretty much upto speed on everything.

Given that death is not an option right now, you would think that I would be overjoyed and bask in my new-found immortality. Quite the opposite actually!

If moving to the afterlife is what it takes to get out of my current situation, I would gladly take it. I'm not sure if you have ever experienced the sensation of a sharp object approximately the size of a beach-log sticking out of your waist, but it is far from pleasant! I can literally feel my body going into waves of shock from the trauma of being impaled.

But I can't die. No matter how badly I want to, I can't. So all I can do is wait.

As if on cue, I can make out the shape of two figures floating around the opening of the pit way above me. Their features come into view as they make their descent into the cavernous abyss in which I took my plunge. As they get closer, I can see who they are and start to tense in fear.

They are Shao Kahn's monks and they have arrived for one purpose.

Both figures are cloaked in thick, dark robes with a cowl pulled over the face so low that it looks like peering into a black void. Silently, they hover towards me and position themselves so that one is floating on either side of me. Behind them is what can only be described as a floating cot.

"I don't suppose you brought a pillow too?" I inquire sarcastically.

What can I say? Anytime I'm nervous or scared, I rely on humour to ease the tension. And the truth is in this moment, I was scared beyond my wits. I knew why they had come and where they were taking me and more than anything else, I did not want to go with them. Even if it meant staying in this disgusting pit.

I didn't get nor expected a response. Silence was their only form of communication. Both figures bent down from their floating positions to grab my impaled carcass. With super-human force they began to life me from my spot on the pit floor.

"No please!" I begged them. "Don't!"

It was no use. In one swift, smooth movement, they lifted my body from the spike and flung my useless form onto the cot.

Remember earlier, I asked if anyone has ever experienced the painful sensation of having a sharp object sticking out of their side? Well trust me, that is nothing compared to the searing, white hot, agonizing pain of having said object removed from you. I screamed bloody murder and nearly passed out from the shock. The cot was quickly stained with the rivets of blood that poured from the gaping hole in my side. I lay there in a sweaty, breathless mess on the verge of passing out from the pain. All I can do at this point is incoherently scream and groan, hoping to be put out of my misery.

"Please don't make me go back!" I screamed in a combination of pain and dread. "I don't want to fight anymore!"

No such luck! Without saying a word, the Outworld monks each took hold of one side of the now blood-stained cot and started to float upwards out of the pit, past the bridge and into the Outworld night sky.

I knew where they were taking me; back to Kahn's palace to fix me up so that I could continue competing in this forsaken tournament. How many more times I would die? I'm not sure. Lying on the cot, flitting in and out of consciousness on my journey back to the gaping jaws of Hell, I thought about all the events that led up to my current situation. Taking stock of everything; the original invitation, the tournament, Outworld, the Pit, the hole in my waist, the same recurring thought kept reverberating through my head:

I wish I were dead!

Brand Britney - The Illusion Behind The Music

Britney Spears.

For the past decade, it seems like the world has been orbitting in a pop-star universe that she created. Since her debut in 1999, Britney has experienced the gamut of mega-stardom. She's attained iconic status, fallen from grace, and mounted a successful comeback. She is to our generation what Madonna was to the 80s by acting as a lightning rod for controversy. She has been admired and scorned throughout her rise to the pinnacle of stardom, and in many ways, Britney has been through it all. She is a contradiction in the persona she has cultivated ever since she showed off her midriff in the "Baby One More Time" music video. Britney has made a career out of teasing the masses with a virgin/whore seductress and sex-kitten image contradicted by a blonde bombshell and all-wholesome all-American girl appeal. Over the past twelve years, Britney has transformed herself into not only a superstar, but a brand and an empire.

Ok, so now that I've told you everything you already know about her, let’s turn towards the main topic of this article. Is it about Britney? Partly, but it is more an observation on what she stands for and what her monster level of fame says about our current popular culture and society.

Before I get into it, I must pre-face with the following disclaimer: I got nothing against her. As an individual, she has achieved so much in her career that one has to give it to the girl. I may not be a huge fan, but I will give credit where credit is due. Britney has worked her butt off and her career is a testament to her drive and willingness to work hard. With that said though, would I call myself a Britney fan? A casual one, at best. Do I own a Britney album? No, I do not. Have I purchased some of her tracks on iTunes? Yes, I have. Would I pay to see her live? Not really. I enjoy her and welcome her presence in my life, but I keep it at a peripheral level, for the following reason.

Britney is one of the few music stars that can trigger an inner conflict when I listen to or watch her perform. It is a bit like watching something you are told to believe is real, when you know you are being duped. Or when you are dealing with a sales-person trying to sell you something you know you should not buy, but you are hooked in. It is that unsatisfied feeling you get after watching a movie that starts off promising, but you wind up feeling cheated out of your time and money.

Something about her and her relevance in the world today does not add up for me and I think the following example effectively illustrates why:

Earlier this year at the Billboard Music Awards, Britney appeared onstage to perform twice. Once alongside Rihanna for a duet version of her hit "S&M" and as a surprise guest with Nicki Minaj for the remix of "Till The World Ends". Both times that she appeared onstage, the crowd went wild, but the only thing that stuck out for me was how painfully evident it was that not one line that she sang was coming out of her mouth. It was all pre-recorded. She had a microphone and did a great job of moving her lips to the words, but none of it was real.

Are you starting to see where the conflict comes in?

For a woman who can get up onstage and radiates a thousand-wattage of star quality, yet does not demonstrate anything that can be considered musical showmanship and have millions of fans worldwide is a bit unsettling. Anytime I hear Britney being referred to as an 'artist' or a 'singer' I have to cringe. Britney is none of these things, yet she is celebrated all over the world as such. This is where my contention with Britney lies.

None of this changes the fact that I find some of her tunes catchy and hard to resist. I will admit that some of her songs (most notably "Til The World Ends" and "Criminal") are on my regular playlist, but, nonetheless, my intelligence feels insulted when I see her performing onstage with that ridiculous headset microphone wrapped around her ear. It is so blatantly obvious that she is only using it for show, that I would rather her not wearing that it at all. It would be more authentic, if she were to take it off and do the show lip-synching, because she is not fooling anyone.

I know I'm sounding harsh on Britney, but I’m only pointing out facts. Truthfully, I don't fault her for any of this because her music and performances rely on theatrics and spectacle. Just like her pop-star peers, she needs to rely on backing vocals to dance and maintain the endurance for the over-the-top shows she is known for. However, while most other notorious lip-synchers combine some live singing in their stage-show, Britney does not seem to care. She continues singing along to pre-recorded vocals knowing that the crowd will eat it up.

Why do I take issue with this? Because, I don't like being lied to and that is what it feels like when I see Britney onstage. I almost find myself waiting for her to say "Gotcha!" because the idea of her as an artist, musician or singer is such a joke.

So, I decided that it is time to shed some light on those responsible for this big sham. So that begs the question, who is to blame?

The obvious answer would be the girl herself. But would it be accurate to say that Britney Spears is entirely at fault here? It would be very simple and convenient to blame her, but there is always more to what meets the eye. As easy of a target as she is, the blame does not lie in Britney. I mean really, cab we blame her for following her dream and making it happen? No one can blame her for having the drive, gusto and energy to enter the music industry. Britney may have played her part, but she is not to blame.

But if not Britney, then who?

In order to answer that, we have to look past Britney Spears, the pop star. Behind the illusion of the icon and singer is a team of music industry professionals and marketing executives working towards promoting a product.

Bingo! Now, we are starting to unravel this mystery. Britney Spears is first and foremost a product. She is the face of an elite fleet of highly-paid music industry executives, top-notch DJ's and producers that have all come together to create an audio and visual product with Britney Spears as the physical package.

So now the answer becomes a bit clearer.

This makes it a bit easier to reconcile the inner conflict I mentioned earlier, simply because I know where the credit goes. It is the producers and sound mixers that deserve the honours and accolades. It is the team of back-up dancers, choreographers, lighting crew and sound board professionals that provide her onstage magnetism and create the image of Britney the singer and artist. The truth is that Britney Spears is a cog in a web of workers that have created a final product.

I like to call this web Brand Britney.

What is Brand Britney? It is like a multi-national corporation. Its main product is the packaging and dissemination of a global pop star in the form of Britney Spears. What is Britney’s role in this? Well, just like how every Starbucks product has the green-lady logo, Britney is the face and logo for Brand Britney. So when we purchase tickets to go see Britney Spears live or spend our hard-earned money on her music, it is not accurate to say that we are buying HER music, we are buying a product created by Brand Britney.

But is it fair to say that Brand Britney is solely responsible for this illusion? Again, it would be very simple and convenient to point the finger, but if Brand Britney is a corporation selling a product, they could not have gotten successful without a public that buys into it. So as much as we can rant against Britney Spears and how she is the overly-marketed face of a corporate machine, we must also recognize that we have also played a part in this.

Britney Spears, the performer and the brand may be a product created by Brand Britney, but she is also a reflection of the cultural values of our society. Her rise to stardom mirrors the overall central dumbness that has been permeating through so many aspects of our culture. Going back to my original question of how did all of this happen? Well, it is because we let it.

By breeding a culture where we settle for flash rather than substance, we played a part in the creation of Brand Britney. We live in an age where everything revolves around instant gratification and it has drastically dulled our ability to engage critically and intelligently with the world around us. So no, it is unfair to point the finger entirely at Brand Britney because all they are doing is giving us exactly what we want.

Looking at the whole topic of Britney Spears from this perspective makes me see her in a different light. When we seperate Britney Spears, the individual from Brand Britney, it is hard to ignore the toll being taken on her. Look her up on Youtube under "Britney Spears, paparazzi" and observe how viciously she is hounded by photographers. Watch her documentary "For The Record" and the measures she is forced to take to ensure some normalcy in her life and the detached reality she lives in. Now I can see how she suffered a very public and embarassing meltdown a few years ago. Britney Spears, the individual, may have made her dream of being a star come true, but it has come with a very heavy price.

When you look at her lyrics, there is a strong parallel to her life. Many of her hits, like "Slave 4 U", "Gimme More", "Me Against The Music" and "Piece Of Me" contain a theme suggesting she is a slave to something demanding more out of her. At the core of many Britney tracks are messages of relinquising control and releasing her inhibition. In her music, Britney does not want to think, she wants to party and be a slave to the music. This is the under-lying message that Brand Britney is filtering to all the Britney fans around the world because they do not want people to think. They want people to remain easily duped and complacent and disseminating generic pop music with subliminal messages is an effective way to do this and the alarming thing is that we are allowing this to happen.

So when I think of my original question about Britney Spears and how all of this happened, the answer lies beyond what her music and celebrity image presents. Britney Spears as an internationally renowned pop-star is a giant illusion created by a corporation looking to gain power and keep us asleep. Rather than buying into this illusion of Britney Spears, I say that it is time we shake ourselves awake and start engaging with the world and everything around us with a more critical lens. Had we been doing this all along, we wouldn't have Britney Spears and all the other useless celebrities out there (Kim Kardashian and the entire cast of Jersey Shore to name a few), nor would we live in a world where we are so distracted by celebrities, tabloids, reality television and the countless other things in our lives that take up so much of our priorities and attention. Simply put, we could focus more of our time and energy towards the things that really matter.

I'm just sayin'

My name is Aman Dhesi and I am a writer

My name is Aman Dhesi and I am a writer.

I've tried my hand at many things in life, but after dabbling in this-and-that over the years, I've realize that first and foremost,

I am a writer.

I'm good at it, have been my whole life and it seems to come naturally to me. As a little kid, I would sit in my room for hours and write with a vibrant and endless sense of imagination.

As a kid, I was a writer

As I got older, things started getting in the way like school, friends, trying to fit in, career, etc. Life started getting busier and I no longer had the energy nor desire to write. The writer inside of me got shelved. Over the years, the dust collected.

I stopped being a writer

At some point in my early twenties, I had a conversation with a friend who said that happiness lies in doing what we love. Happiness. Something so sorely lacking in my life at the time. I spent the next six years trying to figure out what it meant to me. It took me on a journey that led to many wrong turns and misguided desicions. I was trying to find happiness, but wound up unhappy.

I forgot what it was like to be a writer

Today, I still haven't gained the answer, but I know I am closer. For the first time in my life, I have gained something I never had before; wisdom and awareness. It has taught me that we find happiness in one of two places: where we least expect it or it was there all along and we were looking in the wrong places.

I made a choice to become a writer

What really makes me happy is something that has been there all along, I've just been unaware. I've started writing again. There is nothing more satisfying than sitting in a cafe and letting my thoughts and imagination come to life on my laptop.

I re-discovered myself as a writer

Maybe this is what has been missing from my life. It's time to pick up my writing from off the shelf, wipe off the dust and write my heart out. Write about things that I am passionate about, who I am and what I want to say with only a blinking cursor standing in my way.

I found my happiness as a writer

On a grander level, I suppose, I want to make a difference or have some impact on the world, however small that may be. Maybe, this will be my start.

I ask you to come with me on this new journey I'm about to embark on. Where it will take me, I don't know. Will there be challenges and mistakes along the way, I can almost guarantee it. But I know that with every word I write, it will get me closer to the writer lying inside that I am meant to become.

My name is Aman Dhesi and I am a writer.

Welcome and enjoy :)