Beat Dat Beat, all the way to the bank (mm2)

I have a confession.

It's a real confession, and it's something that you'll judge. But, I love the Jersey Shore. Everything about it, I absolutely love. These people, their culture, their view on life, what they find important, I cannot get over it. My favorite of these people, is DJ Pauly D. He is the (image source. Cast of Jersey Shore) oldest male "guido" in the house, and his signature style is his hairstyle,

his blow out.

These characters, and I refer to them as characters because in my mind, they are anything but realistic, have really taken advantage of the 15 minutes of fame thrown at them and turned it into 15 hours, so to speak. Pauly D came onto the MTV show as an already established DJ, and he uses his fame on this show as a platform to take it further. He recently released a single called (It's Time To) Beat Dat Beat. I downloaded this song, as a joke, to make it a ring tone, again, as a joke. When I hard this song, he starts off the song speaking.

"This is DJ Pauly D, being a guido's a way of life. I dont represent all Italians, I represent myself. I started this whole GTL shit, gym tan and laundry. You gotta stay fresh to death." When I heard this, the first thing I thought to myself was "wow, he is really pushing this".

When we dive into our power tools, there is only more joy that can come from Jersey Shore and this special DJ. Beginning with the brain, as music it obviously appeals to your limbic brain, and we have an emotional response. With the beat of the song, it's club/house music. With the talking in the song, it appeals to your neocortex because you're understanding what he is saying. For those that dont watch the show, you probably dont understand the references that he is making, and that causes you to have to think even more so about what it is that he's saying. Of course, people who really hate the show, or Pauly D, could argue that it enables your reptilian brain in wanting to fight or flight from the sight of this.

In terms of our shifts, I believe it fits perfectly into the aesthetic shift. I say this because of convergence. He went from being an unknown DJ, to a star of this hit TV show. He used the platform to become a household name in the entertainment industry. He endources products, is a DJ, and he has even reached out to YouTube sensation Keenan Cahill. The video below is Pauly D combining his song with the entertainment skills of Keenan. He has even dont promotional commercials for the Justin Bieber Movie, Never Say Never.

Pauly D has managed to really take his fame, and spread it into so many different things, in yet they are all brought back to the first, main point, that he is just a regular guido juice head.

Moving next into the principles, I question ownership. He is his own person, but he is a object marketed by MTV. It was by their hand that he has been able to accomplish all these tasks. So I have to wonder if he is truly the unique individual that he markets himself as or if he is a product of a corporation. Either way, I find him entertaining, but I would find him more respectful if I knew that what he did was for him, not for a company.

Finally, persuasive techniques I'm going to go ahead and say symbols. Bringing in what I said before about ownership, Pauly D has marketed himself, or has been marketed as a product, and everything he touches turns to gold. From his hair, to his music, to the way he talks, it's all an image, it's all marketable, and it's all something that we identify with.

So there you have it, my dirty secret and my dirty obsession. Pauly D will forever remain in my heart.