The Bowdoin Orient

It has been about a month since the latest album from Arcade Fire was released. Since then "The Suburbs" has garnered heaps of critical praise, produced an innovative music video that was released online, and the album even hit number one on the Billboard 200. Not bad for a baroque pop outfit from Canada whose main concern is creating social commentary rather than hit singles.

This time of year is always so tough at Bowdoin. Ivies Weekend is officially behind us, finals are around the corner, and the weather keeps getting nicer and nicer, which is not conducive to studying in the least.

Over the past two decades, the music industry has undergone a drastic revolution. It's crazy to think about how far it has come in such a short period of time.

People that have gone through a Bowdoin winter are funny: the moment the thermometer reaches 50 degrees, it's flip flops and T-shirts for the rest of the school year. This year the transition from winter to spring felt especially abrupt; the sun, warm weather and reappearance of life on campus was a shock to my senses. To make things even better, I had recently found the perfect album to go along with the warmth of spring.

What do Snoop Dogg, Lou Reed, and the Lebanese National Orchestra for Oriental Arabic Music have in common? In the past few years, they all received a call from Damon Albarn to feature on the new Gorillaz album that released this week.

In early March, Béla Fleck, one of the most accomplished banjo players in the world, will perform at Bowdoin accompanied by a group of African musicians. According to Bowdoin's Web site, the concert is meant to be a showcase of Fleck's latest project, "Throw Down Your Heart," the result of numerous collaborations with African artists that occurred during Fleck's quest to find the "African origins of the banjo."

It's been 2010 for over a month now, but it just hit me a few days ago: the 2000s are the first ten years that our generation can truly claim. Yes, we were alive in the nineties but our parents were still changing our diapers when Never mind came out. In contrast, the decade of the 2000s (the aughts?) is much easier for us to recall; we all remember the Y2K hype, the advent of the iPod and, recently, the death of the King of Pop.

It's that time of year again: finals are around the corner, Winter Break is in the near future, and Hawthorne- Longfellow Library is packed full with students who are only awake because of Red Bull and 30-minute naps. That's right, 2009 is slowly coming to an end.

There's a scene at the end of "Lost in Translation" when Bill Murray chases down Scarlett Johansson on a crowded Tokyo street for a last goodbye. After Murray whispers something frustratingly indiscernible into her ear, a distinct drum pattern begins playing as the two walk away from each other forever.

No, hip-hop is not dead. Sorry Nas. A more appropriate exclamation would be, "hip-hop has changed," because one would have a hard time arguing with that conjecture.

I had big goals for this past summer: I wanted to get a job or internship, save money to buy a car, and have an adventurous summer that would culminate in a cross-country trip from Oregon to Maine. It was a slap in the face when no one back home would hire me (and when I say "no one," I mean Pottery Barn). I was forced to work under-the-table construction for a family friend and I slowly began to realize that I wasn't going to be able to afford a car. So by July, I was broke and jobless with my bike as my only form of transportation. That being said, I had an amazing summer. My friends were also jobless and we spent our time hanging out in Portland. Eventually, we all embraced our financial situations and tried to have as much fun as possible. It was a summer full of lazy days, parties and, most of all, music.

When it comes to technology I am something of a hypocrite. Just last week I found myself complaining to a couple of friends about Facebook and Twitter and how they are taking over the world. Then I went home, took out my laptop, went on Facebook and sent a few texts from my cell phone, all while listening to my iPod.