The Death of the CD: Is it closer than we think?

When did you last buy an actual physical music CD? Something you could hold in your hands, nurture and cherish?

Now think about the last time you downloaded a track from the internet. I could probably bet money on the fact that 9 times out of 10, you’re more likely to download MP3’s from the internet, than buy a CD.

The fact is, this is how the current generation of teenagers acquire most of their music.

But why purchase MP3’s online? There are a whole variety of reasons we turn to the internet to satisfy our musical cravings. Mainly, because it is so easy! Us teens go round trying to make out our lives as being ridiculously busy where we have work coming out of our ears. The “ohmygod ohmygod I have an essay due in tomorrow, what am I gonna do now ohmygod ohmygod.” situation is one I’m sure many of you know too well. All this results in little spare time dedicated to travelling down to the local supermarket or record shop (bet there are some out there going: “What’s one of those?”) to check over the latest new releases in the UK Top 40 charts. But is it really that hard to get to HMV to acquire that physical album copy? Apparently it is when your just a “few clicks away” from a purchase online.

Then there is the “small” matter of money. Students are always on the hunt for that little bit of bang for their buck. Albums typically cost around £15 when you get them from places like the local supermarket. Head to iTunes, and its available either on a track by track basis, allowing us to pick and choose the tracks we want to download, as well as a cheap rate whole album download of around £10. That’s a WHOLE £5 we can use for good causes. Like partying. But there is a major problem with this "pick and choose approach". Where is our sense of discovery if we just download the tracks we know and love? If everyone just stuck with the music we love now, we’d be stuck in a monotonous loop and the word “progression” would fly out of the music industry window. Essentially, the whole of the UK would end up like Kiss or Capital FM. Playing the same 15 tracks over and over again on loop.

So MP3’s are easier to purchase that CD’s, usually cheaper… and they can’t get scratched, can be easily shared with friends, are simple to stick straight on an iPod or MP3 player and take up a lot less space in your room! With this evidence, it’s no wonder we’re all turning into the “MP3 generation”.

Back at the start of November, the Official UK Charts Company, who manages all the statistics of UK music sales, released data that showed digital albums now represented a 26.2% share of total album sales in 2011 so far, up from 17.5% during the whole of 2010. A prime example of the increasing turn to online sales was Coldplay’s latest album “Mylo Xyloto”. It sold more than 80,000 digital copies in its first week alone – accounting for 40% of the band’s first week album sales. Overall figures from 2010 state the market for CD albums declined 12.4% to 98.5m from 112.5m in 2009. All facts, that while not a major drop, suggest a slowdown in the desire for physical CD sales.

Needless to say record labels globally are getting very worried about the potential “impending death” of the CD. Illegal downloading is a major issue that the industry dedicates vast amounts of resources, time and effort into trying to eradicate. This practice reduces legitimate music sales and causes major headaches for music producers everywhere. The introduction of the Spotify software has started to reduce this problem, but the ever increasing file-sharing culture on the internet is spreading at a truly astronomic pace.

There are however a few aspects that are in favour of the CD living on. Audiophiles with extensive home hi-fi systems will always go with the higher quality that you get from a CD, compared to the compressed files that are available from the internet. Club DJ’s also use CD’s a lot of the time, but even here the move to MP3’s and laptop usage is increasing steadily. The transfer from vinyl to CD happened in the club scene around the turn of the millennium, so are we going to see something similar with CD’s being dropped for MP3’s? The future life of the CD is limited as we increasingly turn to the internet to quench our musical desires.

The demand will still be there for the purists amongst us, put whether the demand from the general public is still there in 5 or so years, is another matter.

Except for NOW CD’s. They’ll keep on going until the end of time

Author: Leigh Last 

I wish

I wish…that today’s so called ‘youths’ could be treated as equals and with respect.

From the topic ‘I wish’ come connotations, for me, of Martin Luther King’s 1963 speech entitled ‘I have a Dream’. This speech was made with change in mind; so that people of ‘colour’ could be viewed as equals in society. I wish that young adults (the term I prefer) could also be seen as equals in society. This view is not as radical as Kings was at the time, nor is it as progressive or even in some people’s eyes as important, but as a 17 year old I feel that it directly affects me and the majority of population need to understand young people’s struggle to be seen in a positive light.

The media play a large part in the stigmatisation of Britain’s ‘youths’, after the August riots in the cities of England, blame has once again fallen on our shoulders. On the rolling 24 hour news it was being reported every few minutes that masked youths were attacking police officers, looting shops and vandalising premise. These claims were entirely misleading. Firstly if they are masked, how is it known to the reporters that they are youths? Secondly it was clear that some of the rioters were older, why was that not reported?

In terms of the convictions, the Ministry of Justice reported that out of the cases where the age of the accused is known, only a mere 17% of the defendants are under 18 years old, or ‘youths’. Therefore reporting that the majority of the rioters were youths is surely slanderous.

Returning to Martin Luther King’s speech I believe that with the simple changing of ‘Negro’ to ‘young’ this passage is very appropriate for today’s current climate: “And those who hope that the [young] needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquillity in [England] until the [young] are granted their citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges”

The fact that these infamous words can still have meaning almost 50 years later shows that we will never stop fighting the battle of injustice, whether the accused is condemned because of colour  or age.

House of Lords trip

Back in June, a group of Year 12 student’s were selected to attend a talk titled ‘Politicians’ Problems and ‘Doctors’ dilemma’s. The session was held by Lord Robert Winston, focusing on his thoughts on ethical issues at the beginning and end of life. Nearly 200 students, aged 14-18 from schools across the UK attended the Robin Room Lecture, part of the House of Lords outreach programme. The aims of the programme are to reach out to different groups and communities, to encourage their interest in the House of Lords.
Prior to the session, the students were greeted by a formal reception at the House of Lords, in which they could participate in discussions with members of staff, media and students from other schools.

The event was a chance for students to gain an experience of hearing a real expert and a very good communicator talk about their selected field. A statement made by Baroness Hayman, the Lords speaker who also attended the talk by Lord Winston. 

Students William Meyer, Ben Branfield, William Sharman, Amy Evans, Zerelda Hamilton, Laetitia Ajimal and Jessica Warren were privileged enough to be selected by Biology and Politics teachers Mr Jones and Mrs Walden. (All pictured above)

After Lord Winston had concluded his discussion, the students were able to participate in a Q&A session, putting forward questions to Lord Winston.  Overall, the event proved to be a useful experience for those students, and teachers, who attended.


Author: Cameron Kilmister

Interview from around the World

This Interview around the World brings us to the Latin American country of Uruguay, often known as the heart shaped country at the bottom of South America. Its predominant language is Spanish, and is considered the Switzerland of South America due to its economic prosperity. Today, we meet a sixteen year old girl from Uruguay called María Eugenia.

You’re cooking a traditional Uruguayan meal, what would such a meal entail?

The Uruguayan national meal is the asado, which is a type of barbecued meat. My favourite dish is the dulce de leche [literally translate, dulce de leche means ‘sweet from milk’]. You make it by slowly heating sweetened milk, and the product ends up tasting a little bit like honey.  We eat it as an accompaniment to bread, cookies and various other things. 

Describe a typical Uruguayan party:

There is always lots of dancing, and it normally continues until around 6 o’clock the next morning. Parties are very common, I go to birthday parties all the time, and the girls often wear dresses. The most important party is the quinceñera, which celebrates a girl´s fifteenth birthday. For my quinceñera, I went to a special venue which supplied lots of food for the event, and I gave out party favours to all those who came to the party. I wore a white dress, and invited loads of people, including family and friends. It was so much fun! Before my quinceñera, I took a day off school in order to rest before the party, which perhaps shows just how important the quienceñera  is to us here in Uruguay. In fact, it seems really strange to us that someone would have a birthday party at a restaurant, or going to see a film. Whereas in England, people meet up in town to socialise, we always meet at parties!

What makes you proudest about your country?

Every year, we hold a large festival to raise money for children with disabilities. At the festival, we see videos of people who have benefited from the charity the year previously, and the stories are always very touching. The festivals raise millions of pesos, the Uruguayan currency, and I think it’s great to see our country coming together to help such a great cause. The charity sets up schools and facilities, and helps to sponsor families too.

                If you had to show someone around Uruguay, where would you take them?

Our country has a lot of beautiful beaches and it’s fun to go to them during the summer. Sometimes, my family rents a beach house and we go there with some friends for a little holiday. I have a great time on these holidays, my friends and I take games to play because there’s no internet connection and we go to the beach every day to swim and build sand castles, or just chat on the beach and have a picnic. From time to time, bands congregate on the beach and fill the air with their music. There is a large variety of music in Uruguay, but you might see some musicians playing tango, one of the more distinctive Uruguayan styles of music. When the bands start playing, we all get up to dance and try and sing along if we know the words. Uruguay really has so much to offer, I’m still finding things to do despite sixteen years of living here, and I hope this interview has given you a taster of why I love the country so much!

Author: Helena Kresin

Bungay High School U18's vs. Thurston Community College U18's Match Report

Bungay High School U18's vs. Thurston Community College U18's Match Report

ESFA National Cup – Round 4

Thurston's Sixth Form team, consisting of players from years 12 and 13, made the trip to Bungay for this fourth round tie. The team were in high spirits after they had seen off Newmarket Upper School and Kesgrave High School in the previous two rounds, and were looking to continue their surge in the competition. The team line up wasn't too dissimilar from the previous round, boasting a lot of experience, with the only absentees from the squad being Tom Driscoll who was still unavailable with a groin injury and Jono Dorrington who had work commitments.

Team Line Up:          Subs:

O.Whiteman             H.Turner

P.Frank                      J.Marcham

 H.Yallop                   J. Reeder

 T.Debenham           S.Cole

D.Palfrey

 J.Yallop

 D.Parkington

 G.Evans

 D.Grant

 J.Edwards

 M.Tandy

Manager: Mr S.Lewis

The game started very tense, with both teams battling and working hard to gain the early dominance. The scrappy opening ten minutes produced few chances, however a dangerous ball from the Bungay midfielder was dealt well by the commanding Whiteman in goal, seeing off any real threat. It wasn't long before the first real chance came, when after a Bungay corner, the ball deflected towards goal, only to be saved on the line heroically by Palfrey, who headed clear to prevent the home team taking the lead. However, it wasn't long before the break through did come, and it was Thurston who went behind. After a good attack from the hosts, which resulted in a viscous strike, Whiteman produced a great save, with Palfrey blocking the rebound, however the Bungay striker slipped in to casually finish the loose ball and put the home team 1-0 up. Thurston were shocked by going a goal down, but did respond quickly, with an effort from Debenham producing a controversial goal line decision, as the goal was not given when it looked to have gone over the line. From this, Bungay broke away and if it were not from another good save from Whiteman, flying through the air to palm it wide, Thurston would have been two down. This scare seemed to spur Thurston on more, and when they won a corner, which was then swung in by Evans, Edwards connecting with a lovely header at the near post to equalise. This was the goal that Thurston needed just before half time, pulling them back level with Bungay, in what had been a scrappy and tense first half.

The teams came out after half time, with Thurston confident in the knowledge they could get the win, after some inspirational words from Coach Mr Lewis. Thurston started the half on top, with the defence blocking off anything Bungay had to offer and the midfield working hard to keep possession. This new found confidence was highlighted with a Grant effort, that although was ambitious, just flew past the post. Thurston were really starting to get hold of the game, with Edwards being the most creative, producing many fine runs included one that resulted in a shot being tipped away by the Bungay keeper. Soon after, a delightful pass from Frank down the line was collected by Tandy who slipped in Parkington who was unlucky the ball didn't fall for him, as the keeper was committed and it would have been an easy finish. Thurston were starting to dominate Bungay now, and another flowing move involving J.Yallop and Edwards, fell nicely for Evans, whose left footed drive was inches wide of the post. Thurston's second goal was becoming more and more inevitable as the half grew, and when a Grant corner expertly picked out Edwards, his brilliantly timed header flew in to the back of the net to make it 2-1, much to the delight of the Thurston team, subs and coaching staff. All that was left now was to see the game out, and this was reflected when Turner came on to replace Frank in order to hold the ball up and cause a physical presence for the last ten minutes. Just when the game seemed to be over, Bungay managed to produce one last chance, as they won a throw-in right by the corner flag. The throw was darted in to the box and was firstly well headed away by H.Yallop, only for a Bungay player to win the ball back and strike towards goal, with the shot palmed away by the consistent Whiteman, and the loose ball cleared finely by Palfrey, who was under pressure to get the ball away. Moments later the referee blew his final whistle, much to the delight of the Thurston players who had dealt well with a late scare. The game was a scrappy affair, however the Thurston players put a good shift in and got the result to keep them in the competition. This was echoed by manager Mr Lewis, who was pleased to get the result and praised his team's hard work and desire. The players made the hour long trip back to sixth form on the minibus, safe in the knowledge they were through to the 5th round of the competition and down to the last 64 in the country, with the potential of a brilliant cup run on the horizon.

Author: Tom Driscoll

Hey ...

Hi There,

Just wanted to say hey to all you people on the inter-web that happen to stumble across this page.

So, It looks a little dull at the moment, but watch this space as it will soon be full of exciting articles and reviews for your reading pleasure.

This is the beginning of the TCC Journalism society going Global (well... ok, maybe not quite so large)

We hope you have a good read around, and more importantly - ENJOY!!

Cheers,

Jack Ogilvie (Co-Editor)

Hello!

Hi!

This is the tccjournalism blog. And yes it is a bit bland and has not got our stamp on it which is why we are going to start to write as soon as possible!

So watch this space! =)