Swan Song, written and directed by Benjamin Cleary, is set in a science fiction future where terminally ill Cameron Turner(Mahershala Ali) is an artist, husband to Poppy(Naomie Harris), and father to his young son Corry(Dax Rey). Throughout the movie, he experiences vigorous seizures that will ultimately lead to his death and is referred to by his physician to visit a remote facility called "Arra Labs''. They are in the early stages of cloning in biotechnology to achieve immortality. The company finds people near to death willing to download their consciousness into a genetically identical copy of themselves and allow the clone to integrate itself back into society without anyone knowing. When Cameron is given this opportunity, seeing that he's suffering from a terminal illness, he questions whether it is the right decision and if Poppy should have a choice in it. But by not telling them it would be as if nothing had happened. After finally agreeing to undergo the procedure he meets with Dr. Scott to begin the process. For Cameron's consciousness to be transferred into the replicant they must go through all his memories from birth up until now. One of the first memories he experiences again is meeting Poppy, his wife, for the first time on a train ride eating chocolate together. The memories progress to them in a relationship, to Poppy getting pregnant, to their son growing up, to Cameryn meeting Poppy's brother Andre, then experiencing his death later on. When the clone, Jack, wakes they both have a therapy session with Dr. Scott to go over the death of Andre, the divorce of his parents, and his recurring nightmares. Cameryn never sought therapy even when his wife did and that is part of the reason why he is so doubtful about going through with the process and hard for him to accept his circumstances. Dr. Scott puts Jack on a video call with the 

family as a trial and Cameryn gives this disgusted look at him in the background. He feels the chemistry he once had with his wife and becomes jealous he can no longer share those moments with her. When he abruptly hangs up the video call and gets into a fight with Jack it is actually an internal fight he is having with himself. Cameryn no longer wants to go through with it because it's not him that's going back to his family. Jack feels that he's being selfish and that it's all about him. Throughout the movie, he is conflicted with not only the grief of losing his loved ones. But also the abandonment of his parents at such a young age reflects on him as he watches the clone take over his life while he's left behind to die. 

      Benjamin Cleary's main focus was establishing the connection we have with death through the love and chemistry we have with the people we care about. He does so through the psychologically charged performance of Cameron Turner played by Mahershala Ali. Death is inevitable and something we, as humans, often have a difficult time accepting. A common concept discussed in IGN, Vanity Fair, and Screen Daily's reviews was Cameron's constant conflict not only over his death but his identity as well. They all thought that the dramatic tension between him and his identical self was a tremendous benefit to the plot.  Others stated that it was not as dynamic and emotional as the relationship between him and his wife. Entertainment Magazine's review, by Leah Greenblatt, said  "Swan largely sidesteps the tricky ethical questions it raises". Meaning it kind of ignored or did not properly emphasize the ethical decision of one's fate and reality. She believed it failed to reach its full potential by not intensifying particular moments in the plot. Regardless, most viewers found the film entertaining, especially the performance of the actors. Specifically, Cameron's memory flashbacks foreshadow his ideology throughout the movie. 

     Swan Song could be compared to the Netflix Documentary Endgame, directed by  Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman. They both share a similar concept of trying to accept something out of their control and not wanting to let go. The patients in the Zen Hospice project are all suffering from a terminal illness and the documentary focuses on not only the disease but the whole person dealing with the disease. The doctors help them transition from the world they want to the world they have. Similar to how Cameron's oncologist, Dr. Scott helped him cope and transition his mind from his fleeting body to a new one. The documentary interviews the patient's families about whether they think he/she should continue fighting or not, which is the very distinction between these two films. Endgame gives the perspective of a patient's loved ones while Swan Song does not. The conversations the doctors have with the patients concerning their relationship with death and establishing trust with it are similar to the interactions Cameron and Jack have. Jack's existence is a reflection of Cameron's fear and him resisting Jack's involvement with his family is the harsh reality of abandonment. 

     Swan Song had a nostalgic and deeply captivating storyline, with respect to a flawless performance from Mahershala Ali. The way he changes from two different emotional states emphasizes the two sides of Cameron that collide with each other. His choice, in the end, to let his family go has a suspenseful effect but does not withdraw from the intimacy in the last moment he has with them. The characters encircling Cameron should have been elaborated on more, especially from Poppy's perspective in losing her brother. The film loses momentum in a way when her internal struggle is cut short to focus on Cameron. Nevertheless, Poppy's lack of awareness about the tragedy strikes Cameron's heart the deepest but also takes away from the moral abstraction throughout the film. 

MLA: Barnet, Dr. Belinda, and Dr. Diana Bossio. “Netflix’s The Social Dilemma highlights the problem with social media, but what’s the solution?” Wednesday 07 October 2020

APA: Barnet, D. B., & Bossio, D. D. (2020, October Wednesday 07). Netflix’s The Social Dilemma highlights the problem with social media, but what’s the solution? https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2020/10/the-social-dilemma-highlights-the-problem-with-social-media/?msclkid=940d3e62afca11ecb3a9c1faa4e1b779 

This article raises the popularity of the Netflix documentary film and exposes big tech companies, such as Facebook, for their misleading content to the public. The reliability of this article is the solutions it offers against our social dilemma with the various platforms. The authors claim that Facebook misleads the public for their personal profit. Facebook stated that it is an ad-supported platform, which means that they sell ads that allow us to offer everyone else the ability to connect for free. However, Dr. Belinda and Dr. Diana say that it sounds like saying chicken food is free for battery hens. Harvesting users’ data and selling it to advertisers is Facebook’s business model. The article concludes by encouraging a legislative reform to filter the flow of personal data to digital platforms. 

MLA: B, Mark. “The Social Dilemma: Netflix Explores Social Media Ethics and Effects on Mental Health.” 10 September 2020, https://www.sciencetimes.com/articles/27254/20200910/social-dilemma-netflix-ethics-mental-health.htm?msclkid=940d1eb0afca11ecbbfd61e4e19345b3 

APA: B, M. (2020, September 10). The Social Dilemma: Netflix Explores Social Media Ethics and Effects on Mental Health. https://www.sciencetimes.com/articles/27254/20200910/social-dilemma-netflix-ethics-mental-health.htm?msclkid=940d1eb0afca11ecbbfd61e4e19345b3 

This article gives a brief overview of the Netflix documentary and brings awareness to the mental health effects people have on social media platforms today. They explain how the film covers social media’s surveillance capitalism under the world and its addictive nature. The reliability of this article is that it gives a breakdown of how the people engaged in these digital platforms are the product in the market and not the actual platform. Mark explains that we are fooled into believing all these services on the Internet are free but in actuality,  they are paid for by advertisers. The users are the products, with their attention being on the item sold to advertisers. Tristan Harris, the former design ethicist for Google and co-founder of the nonprofit Center for Humane Technology, says at the end of the article that these platforms were not made by child psychologists who intend to protect children, but that they were designed to be good at recommending the next video or filters to use with your photos. 

MLA: Naughton, John. “The Social Dilemma: a wake-up call for a world drunk on dopamine?” Saturday 19 September 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/sep/19/the-social-dilemma-a-wake-up-call-for-a-world-drunk-on-dopamine?msclkid=940cdba3afca11ec9f985e49feec060e 

APA: Naughton, J. (2020, September Saturday 19). The Social Dilemma: a wake-up call for a world drunk on dopamine? https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/sep/19/the-social-dilemma-a-wake-up-call-for-a-world-drunk-on-dopamine?msclkid=940cdba3afca11ec9f985e49feec060e 

This article gives a comparison of two movies to provide an insight into how two sides of the same coin caused chaos to erupt in the 21st century. The two movies are The Social Network, which shows how a Harvard dropout named Mark Zuckerberg created a powerful and highly profitable company; and The Social Dilemma, which is about how the business model of this company turned out to be a threat to democracy that 21st-century humans once enjoyed. John goes in-depth by explaining the goals of both films. Both movies are instructive and entertaining, but the social dilemma leaves one wanting more. Its goal is admirably ambitious: to provide a compelling, graphic account of what the business model of a handful of companies is doing to us and to our societies. The article also talks about the film’s flaws like its inability to accurately explain the engine driving this industry that harnesses applied psychology to exploit human weaknesses and vulnerabilities. When people view the phrase “surveillance capitalism” they are fixated on the “surveillance” part of the term, but overlook “capitalism”. The business model of social media is not really a mutant version of capitalism: it’s just capitalism doing its job, which is finding and exploiting resources from which profit can be extracted. The real problem is why we continue to allow it to do so.

MLA: Shead, Sam. “Netflix documentary ‘The Social Dilemma’ prompts social media users to rethink Facebook, Instagram, and others.” Friday 18 September 2020, https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/18/netflixs-the-social-dilemma-results-in-people-deleting-facebook-instagram.html?msclkid=940c6b39afca11ecbaed6dae6fa04913 

APA: Shead, S. (2020, September Friday 18). Netflix documentary ‘The Social Dilemma’ prompts social media users to rethink Facebook, Instagram, and others. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/18/netflixs-the-social-dilemma-results-in-people-deleting-facebook-instagram.html?msclkid=940c6b39afca11ecbaed6dae6fa04913 

This article shares the immediate reaction from the public after watching the film and how the majority deleted all social media and silenced their app notifications. However, despite the public reaction, Tech analyst Benedict Evans thought it was hilarious how manipulative and misleading the documentary was. He thinks it will have zero effect on digital platforms. Timothy Armoo, chief executive of Fanbytes, a company that helps brands advertise through social video, told CNBC that most people already know many of the things that the show discusses. The older generations might view it and think twice before posting or getting on social media. But this generation does not care so much. 

MLA: Sokol, Tony. “This Is Pop Review: Netflix Documentary Unpacks Pop Music.” 22 June 2021, https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/this-is-pop-review-netflix-documentary/?msclkid=162cfd8fafce11ec8c12c51ed83e348d 

APA: Sokol, T. (2021, June 22). This Is Pop Review: Netflix Documentary Unpacks Pop Music. https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/this-is-pop-review-netflix-documentary/?msclkid=162cfd8fafce11ec8c12c51ed83e348d 

This article explains how the Netflix documentary tells the story of Pop music being integrated into society and influencing many different cultures. This Is Pop does not just depict how music was a great way to unify people regardless of their background,  race, faith, or sexual preference. It also shows artists dealing with real issues and social injustice. One part of the documentary talks about Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit” as a way for people to mourn the pain of racial violence to understand it from the inside. This article is necessary for my research proposal because it  is a good representation of the different perceptions of pop culture at the time. 

APA: Larsen, P. (2021, June 16). Netflix docuseries ‘This Is Pop’ explores the making of music from Abba to Zapp. https://www.dailynews.com/2021/06/16/netflix-docuseries-this-is-pop-explores-the-making-of-music-from-abba-to-zapp/?msclkid=162c39eeafce11eca43ad9ad75480d31 

MLA: Larsen, Peter. “Netflix docuseries ‘This Is Pop’ explores the making of music from Abba to Zapp.” 16 June 2021, https://www.dailynews.com/2021/06/16/netflix-docuseries-this-is-pop-explores-the-making-of-music-from-abba-to-zapp/?msclkid=162c39eeafce11eca43ad9ad75480d31 

This article looks into the documentary series as individual stories intertwined with each other rather than just the broad aspect of pop culture itself. Peter explains how the origin of Pop music was not just something that was created at a party or event like hip-hop or rap. It has many different origin stories from many countries that overlap with each other. For example, “What Can a Song Do?”, which includes artists like Arlo Guthrie and Chuck D, talk about the history of protest music and its power to promote change. Each episode addressed a different style of pop music. This article is essential for my research proposal because it gives a better insight into the artists from each episode and their struggle in the world of pop culture. 

Introduction: Hello everyone, my name is Dayln Kinard-Johnson. In this presentation, I will be discussing my pop-culture music research regarding its significance and influence on people from different backgrounds who listen to different types of music. 

Preliminary Topic: Netflix Documentary “This Is Pop”

The Netflix documentary “This Is Pop” is an eight-episode documentary directed by Jared Raab from CTV Television Network. In this series, they explore the origin, development, and evolution of different music genres and artists that made it happen. In the fourth episode, “When Country Goes Pop”, the film explores the authenticity of country music and what makes a song fall into a particular genre or category. In the second episode “Auto-tune”, starring T-Pain, they interview him and other music technicians and producers. They discussed his side of the story on how his using auto-tune, not only challenged the authenticity and uniqueness of music in general but also strengthened and gave birth to a new era of pop-culture music. 

Narrowed Topic: The Virality and Controversy of Pop-Culture Music

Before I get into my research on the documentary I wanted to give a brief overview on what exactly auto-tune is. The science behind auto-tune is seismic data from different sound waves. Dr. Andy Hilderbrand, the inventor, found a way to manipulate the sound waves produced by artists and change the tune of their voice.  

As I started watching the documentary I realized society did not only backlash against auto-tune itself but also the artists using them, especially T-Pain. Everyone just hated him for changing the culture of music even though he was not the first to do it. It was during the same time when social media had evolved. People used social media to amplify their opinions and criticism, which in turn made it seem like he was getting more resentment than the other artists using it in the previous decades. 

1980s: the vocoder era, which was similar to the upbringing of auto-tune, but had a robotic effect when processed with an audio signal such as an artist’s voice. The song “I can make you dance” by Zapp & Roger gained a lot of popularity and Roger Troutman hypnotized his audience whenever he used it. Although some people during that time did say it sounded gimmicky, he didn’t care. 

It was something that was so widely different from what people within pop culture were used to hearing that it naturally had backlash and resentment.

1990s: Even when Mark Taylor, the music producer behind the song, “Believe” by Cher released in 1998, auto-tune was still something that was so closely guarded that nobody could find or use it. 

2000s: It was not until T-Pain rediscovered auto-tune in 2001 when his fame and resentment from the people grew. When Kanye used it in 2007 on his album “808s & Heartbreaks”, everyone within the Pop-culture community respected and viewed him as a creative inventor. But when T-Pain used it before him, everyone viewed him as the guy that ruined music. 

Research Question: The question that is the foundation for my research is “How did the different music genres clashing with Pop-Music influence Pop-Culture and is auto-tune destroying what makes music authentic?”

Justification for the Research: 

Consequential: This is a consequential question because Pop-music has gained popularity over the years and has attracted mostly young teenagers & adults who grew up listening to traditional genres of music. 

Debatable: This is a debatable question because some people throughout the decades criticized the different variations of pop-music and auto-tune by calling it bland, stale, and boring. Others supported the change and evolution of music culture but only after realizing the benefits that came from it.  

Plausible: This is a plausible question because my research from the documentary presents how artists did not care about the authenticity of traditional music, as long as it made them feel and sound good then it would resonate with the right audience. 

Further Research: 

My further research will focus on the opposition and popularity of pop-culture music in the documentary “This Is Pop” and entail how the new instrument of auto-tune led to the public dispute of artists using it as an enhancement for their career or a brace. I will find scholarly articles on Jstor, provided by Bloomfield College’s Library database, that identifies the times in history where there was major controversy in the adaption of music genres and how people reacted.