Friday, December 5, 2014

Taylor Swift Refuses to Release 1989 on Spotify

Bella Dougherty
Staff Writer

 Taylor Swift is leaving many of her fans confused and disappointed by not releasing her new album, 1989, onto spotify. Swift used the same strategy upon the release of her previous album, Red, by waiting months after it’s official release to allow it to be released on spotify. After selling, Swift stated that she believes her music is valuable art which should be paid for. Taylor Swift’s album sold over a million albums in its first week, which may have been as a result of her unwillingness to release her album to popular streaming sites such as Spotify and Pandora.
 Taylor Swift has had remarkable success in terms of album sales for the last three albums she released. She sold over one million albums in the first week, being the first female artist to achieve this since 1991. Swift reportedly stated that she attributes part of her success to her marketing strategies and her refusal to allow her album to be streamed from free music websites.
 1989 has received almost entirely positive feedback from large labels, magazines, and critics. To promote her album release, Swift appeared on Ellen, was on the cover of Time magazine, and had been self promoting her album release for weeks prior to the event. Many individuals were anxiously awaiting the release, and many were disappointed by the lack of access to the album.
 Swift has two million active followers on Spotify who pay a monthly membership to listen to music. She has many more followers who actively listen to her music, but do not subscribe to the site. Many of her followers on Spotify, myself included, were frustrated by her decision to not release her album on Spotify. Her response to the public regarding this issue was that she believes music is an art form, which is valuable and should be paid for. I do not disagree with this; however, I would argue that I am paying for Spotify, and that I believe her music should be accessible to all of her fans. After two weeks of waiting for her album to be released on Spotify, I gave up and purchased her album. I was not disappointed with my choice to do so, because I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the album; however, I was disappointed that I had to spend the $13.00 on it.
 After having purchased the album, I am happy to have supported Swift in her album release and her successful endeavor to sell record breaking number of albums. While her marketing strategies were viewed as annoying to many, they proved to be successful by how many albums she sold. Her fun, pop, upbeat album was not only loved, but also purchased by a majority of her fans. Her tremendous success is not only attributed to her incredible musical talent, but also her ingenious marketing strategies.

Dumb and Dumber To Doesn't Live Up

Marc Verwiel
Staff Writer


  Many fans were very excited for the release of Dumb and Dumber To, the sequel to the popular 1994 movie Dumb and Dumber starring Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels.
  Unfortunately, the movie did not receive the same warm welcome that the original movie did, receiving a score 38% lower from critics and 24% lower from readers on Rotten Tomatoes compared to the original movie. Both movies feature the same starring cast and the same director, so seeing the second movie fail was a large surprise to most viewers, however there is one major difference between the two movies; two decades. Many critics and fans blame the slacking reviews on the twenty years of evolved comedy and changing senses of humor. The things that made the original movie the comedy legend it was and still is today are not nearly as successful now. Furthermore, many people say that they were trying to replicate the original movie, making some of the well-known gags and quirky, unexpected plot that had people laughing out loud in 1994 boring and overused.
  Despite the blow of the less-than-stellar reviews, Dumb and Dumber To still made $38.1 million, blowing past Big Hero 6, another big movie that was released in the same weekend. Reviewers from both The Boston Herald and the National Post both gave it positive reviews, showing that despite the mass consensus, there are still redeeming qualities about the movie. Overall, however, the movie fell short of the comedy legend that was it's predecessor, but most people will agree that those shoes were too big to be filled by a sequel.

Christmas Movies to Make Your Holiday Season

Katie Hunt, Bernadette del Prado, & Hannah Goulding
Staff Writers

With the holidays approaching quickly and saying goodbye to the fall season, it was decided to kick off the holiday season with your favorite movies! Based off a poll, 100 students gave us their votes on their Top 3 favorite Holiday films out of 13 choices to watch during this Winter Break.

#1 Elf with 67 votes
#2 Home Alone with 52 votes
#3 The Grinch Who Stole Christmas with 34 votes
#4 Polar Express with 31 votes
#5 Santa Clause (with Tim Allen) with 23 votes
#6 A Christmas Story with 22 votes
#7 Charlie Brown Christmas with 21 votes
#8 Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer with 18 votes
#9 Grandma Got Ran Over by a Reindeer with 9 votes
#10 Frosty the Snowman with 8 votes
#11 A Christmas Carol with 6 votes
#12 It’s A Wonderful Life with 5 votes
#13 Jack Frost with 4 votes

Box Office Hits To Come for Winter Season

Elizabeth Both
Staff-Writer

  After the closing of the autumn Film Festivals, the winter movie season comes in with a bang. Leading up to the highly anticipated televised award ceremonies in the heart of winter, movies that have been praised at the fall festivals are now glowing in the spotlight. A major blockbuster that audiences have been waiting for a year is the first installment of the Suzanne Collins rave, Mockingjay Part 1. On its opening weekend it made a record this year with 123 million at the box office. The winter movie season is always packed, especially with all the holiday school breaks, the head honchos in the movie business know our schedules and school holidays mean more movie going time. The all star Brit, Benedict Cumberbatch, has critics screaming over a possibility of an Oscar nod for his Nazi code-breaker film The Imitation Game, hitting theaters late November. December 5th breaks the barrier with the release of Reese Witherspoon’s in Wild and Chris Rock’s Paramount comedy Top Five.
 Following the next Friday of hit films, Ridley’s Scott’s cinematic experience starring Christian Bale, Exodus: Gods and Kings is sure going to be box-office buster (Even though Charleton Heston did a pretty decent job of this story before in 10 Commandments). Paul Thomas Anderson of Boogie Nights lowers the cinematic spectrum a little with his Indie based-off-a -book flick, Inherent Vice. On December 17th, the long awaited final installment of Peter Jackson’s Tolkien franchise, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is setting up to be emotional and a CGI effect mania. Two days later the family fun movie Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb starring Ben Stiller and the beloved Robin Williams,takes on its third installment since its sequel in 2009. On the same day the classic movie of Annie is now a modern remake starring Cameron Diaz, Jamie Foxx and the youngest Best Actress nominee in history: Quvenzhane Wallis. Another old school remake is the 1974 drama-thriller,The Gambler, starring Marky Mark himself and American Horror Story’s Jessica Lange, also hitting theaters on the 19th.

 Close to setting up a worldwide craze; on this years’ Christmas Day, six potential Oscar contending movies are being issued and the catch is that the four of them are based off a true story. Clint Eastwood’s staying strong with his based on a real-life thriller biopic of Chris Kyle-one of the deadliest marksman in U.S Military History- in the adaption of the late Navy SEAL’s popular 2012 memoir titled American Sniper starring Bradley Cooper and Sienna Miller. Tim Burton’s film Big Eyes, with Amy Adams and the praised Christoph Waltz, is telling the true story of Margaret Keane and her famous paintings that her husband, Walter Keane, proclaimed that he actually painted her loved art. Funny guys, James Franco and Seth Rogen stir up trouble with the comedy The Interview, about a plot to assassinate Kim Jong-Un. A different take on things is the artistic, fairy tale film Into the Woods, starring Chris Pine, Anna Kendrick, Emily Blunt, Meryl Streep and Johnny Depp as the big bad wolf. The faithful film Selma takes on the interesting concept of the 1965 Selma in Montgomery, Alabama voting right marches with Martin Luther King. Angelina Jolie is taking the ropes of being a director with the fact-based drama chronicles of the life of an Olympian athlete-turned-WWII hero who survived Japanese POW camp called, Unbroken. Winter is when some of the years best movies come out into the screen scene, setting up higher and higher landmarks for other films in different seasons to follow. On that next snowy wintery day, head over to the theater to see some of the best movies of the year.