Teen Drinking, Is It The Norm?

I chose to do this blog because I not only do I think that I have a good amount of knowledge on this topic being that I am a freshman in college and also because I was just wanted to raise some awareness of this topic. Drinking has always been a big thing in America, even during the times of prohibition, drinking still flourished because people found there way around the law and because there was always alcohol available even though it was illegal. The same goes for today. Although drinking is legal at this point of time in America, It is not for a certain age group, and the group I am talking about is teenagers. This group of people, just like the people during the times of prohibition, have found away to obtain and drink alcohol despite the law that frowns upon it. Drinking is so common for teenagers because it is virtually at any given party that you go to and because it makes the night that much crazier and more wild. People at this age aren't really looking to have a romantic dinner at night, or go for long walks on the beach, they are looking to get wild and party and this is exactly what alcohol helps to achieve. In my eyes, I do not even see this ever changing because there is no way to stop it no matter what the law or people try to enforce. 

Obtaining alcohol is definitely not the issue because many teens have fake i.d.'s or many teens have freinds that are of legal age to drink that help get them the alcohol. This will never change though because there is no way to stop it. Furthermore, I cannot be the only one aware of this, in fact I am not the only one aware of this because i know vast amounts of parents and adults that know about this and are fine with this because this is what they did when they were at that age so it really does not seemed to have been a big issue for anymore except the law enforcement, and they cannot even enforce it. It is like a cycle that seems to be on going that is always going to remain. I do question the law sometimes though because anyone who is 18 years old is allowed to vote, enlist in the military and die for ones country, serve jury duty, pay taxes, and in the state of California, a 14 year old can even have an abortion without telling her parents. What constitutes someone who is 18 to be eligible of all this but not sound of mind to drink? Well, who knows, it does not really matter to me, i am just making the subject more aware to people. I have contemplated if anything would change if they the law lowered the drinking age to 18, but I could not really come up with an answer because I do not necessarily think it is a solution, rather something that makes legal the inevitable. That could help or hurt our country but I think in the long run it would be fine. 

Point being is that alcohol has just consumed teens from the ages of 17-20 and everybody knows about it but does not really take action in putting an end to it. It is an ongoing cycle that seems to keep repeating as the years go on. It was arguably the most renown trend in America is you look closely at the topic. 

Rap and Hip Hop

As Music seems to have been a apart of everyones life and kept fueling our mind-states due to its ability to influence on the way we act and feel, one aspect of music really seems to have propelled to an outstanding part of society and really has become a norma in our culture, and that is Rap And Hip Hop. Do not get me wrong, rock, reggae, blues, metal and all those genres keep progressing and developing into new styles as time goes on, but rap and hip hop has seemed to do it more so then all these other genres. Anywhere we go now, we seem to here hip hop, in cars driving by booming there huge basses to the beats of hip hop, in clubs it is the music that we all get down to, on television, on the radio, and so on and so forth. The list can keep going. This music style has hit are culture so hard that it is just completely engraved in our society. Sure, the senior citizens might not be approving, but they are not the ones that keep music going and exploit, it is the younger generation and these are the people that is this music genre has completely surrounded and engulfed.

I myself, do listen to a lot of hip hop and rap. I love the genre. Although I was not raised on it because my mother was a hippie and listens to predominately the oldies, I got into it in late middle school, early high school. At this time, rap and hip hop was still going on its upward slant and making its way into our society as a norm. As i got more into it, I learned about its origins and where it really started gaining notability and I searched deeper into it. You had groups and artists like Public Enemy, Run DMC and Funk Master Flex introducing this funk and groove to our culture. It became a culture shock and people started to listen to this music. Then in the late 1980's and early 1990's you had an artist named Dr. Dre and his group NWA who really pushed rap to the next level. Dre really incorporated this funk style to his rhythm and it was like nothing anyone had ever heard before. After his group NWA had a fallout, Dr. Dre went on to produce his own raps and find and make music for artists like Snoop Dogg and Tupac. He was pretty much the one who was solely responsible for making rap what it is. As time went on Artists like Tupac and The Notorious B.I.G. and several non mainstream artists began to push hip hop and rap even further into our society. It was becoming of the norm. Soon after, you have An artist named Eminem, who Dr. Dre took under his wing and provided music for his raps, that would propel rap and hip hop to another level. Eminem was the first real white rapper and he gained lots of criticism for his unique and vulgar lyrics but fans and people seemed to love it and went crazy. 

From there on, more and more artists seemed to have been getting into this industry and making more of this music. It has changed though because it has become more about the music rather then the lyrics. The music is being made to boom in cars, be played in clubs, and be played at parties. It has become so large that it is a must have whenever you go somewhere where there is a lot going on. People like Kanye West, T.I. and Lil Wayne have had such an influence on the sound that so many people have become so obsessed with it. It is really quite astounding if you look at it to really realize that this genre has done to our population. It has singlehandedly taken over and become a part of our everyday life whether we choose to acknowledge it or not.

Basketball in America

Basketball. I have grown up watching this game ever since I was a young lad. All throughout my childhood and till this exact point in my life, I have been a huge Laker fan. I always thought it was super exciting to watch due to the fact that it is very rapid paced and the incredible skill displayed in some of the amazing players and what they are doing on the court to win is so beyond me. But growing up I noticed something, I noticed that basketball was kind of in a slump. It had people like Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Karl Malone, Gary Payton and Michael Jordan fueling it throughout the years and making it more exciting to watch because these players were flat out amazing. After Michael left the league though, I think that something happened, i feel as if basketball in America became very overlooked and people started to not think to much of it. Baseball and Football seemed to just be dominating and fueling sports more than any others. 

As I watched basketball go in to this slump, I kept watching the Lakers, but it seemed as if no one wanted to every watch a game with me or every wanted to get involved in the exciting nature of it anymore. it astonished me but I was a little to young to really take this into account, I am just looking back on it. Soon after, a player who had been receiving a vast amount of attention, really jump-started his career and put a throttle on basketball, his name is Kobe Bryant. Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers got teemed up with Shaquille O'neal, who had already been an all-star, and they pushed basketball to a new extreme. These two players would make history after playing in some of the most exciting series of games that basketball had every seen. These two players carried the Los Angeles Lakers to 3 back to back championships and made the league a lot more interesting to watch. After these golden years, Shaq would go on to get traded from the Lakers, but even though he had left and the championship run came to an end, more players started entering the league and making it become more exciting and the playoffs started getting very competitive. The San Antonio Spurs went on to win 3 championships from 2005 to 2007 which were very exciting games to watch also. 

Now basketball is very exciting and has regained its audience and has got itself out of this slump. Players in the league right now are becoming to big and so talented that talent is very widespread throughout the NBA and the league as a whole is very fun to watch. We have players like Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, Dwight Howard, Chris Paul, Carmello Anthony and so on, who are all on different teams who are all making the sport very exciting and thrilling to watch. Basketball has almost become sort of a culture shock to America in these past few years because so many extremely talented individuals are playing the game now and it has become so competitive that Americans are becoming fixated on it. I am glad to see this regain of faith in basketball and i hope to see it keep flourishing as it is right now.