Creativity

Creativity and new media go hand in hand. As the world has slowly become more digitally connected, collaboration and unique ways of utilizing related technologies have evolved with time. Whether the purpose is for one’s personal amusement or professional workplace, new media has changed and advanced the way that we engage with the web as well as with others around the world. For instance, as explained in the article “Twitter Serves Up Ideas From Its Followers” by The New York Times, Twitter gains immense feedback from its users through the internet just like technology companies do in order to improve their services and products. For instance, Flickr was created after it was discovered that users wanted to quickly share photos with one another. In a similar way, Twitter noted that users wanted to see all of the posts linked to one specific event in a hashtag and decided to hyperlink hashtags. Furthermore, the desire to show others a specific person’s tweet by retweeting it is now easier to do and is shortened to “RT” on the social media platform. Twitter has creatively and successfully collaborated with its user base to create the popular and simple to use social media app it has become today. Companies even use Twitter and other social media sites to gain feedback and insight on consumer preferences on its products and services from consumers’ engagement and responses to posted questions and online campaigns. These methods of customer communication can help in driving up interest in the company as well as its sales.

Creativity and new media have also made its way into the music industry. The rise of sampling and remixing songs in the 1990s brought iconic individuals in pop and hip hop together in collaboration. One of the best examples is Mariah Carey’s remix of “Fantasy” featuring ODB in 1995. Real remixes in music has given real acceptance to mashups that have also risen in notoriety. Mashups are generally two or more songs that are put together after adjusting factors such as the key, bpm, and the beats to create a new tune. As stated in the article “1 + 1 + 1 = 1” by The New Yorker, the most widely recognized mashup is an album entitled “The Grey Album” by Danger Mouse released in 2004. The vocals come from Jay-Z’s 2003 album “The Black Album” and the music comes from the Beatles’ “White Album.” This unlikely combination demonstrated that with the right edits, anyone has the ability to create a unique remix of sorts in an unofficial “collaboration” between artists. Finally, new memes can come from these mashups. This is seen in the creative mashup of the Kirby theme song and Snoop Dogg’s “Drop It Like It’s Hot.” The internet expedited the spread of this meme back in the mid-2000s.

It can be concluded that anything that is web based can be used in unique ways. The growth of Twitter, Flickr, and musical mashups both in the music industry and as a funny internet joke are just a few of the numerous ways that creativity has been encouraged in this digitally intertwined world. The possibilities of what can be produced, used, or shared are endless when new media tools are used as well.

References:

https://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/26/technology/internet/26twitter.html

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2005/01/10/1-1-1-1