Wednesday, 8 July 2020

'Don't scream and be serious' Japan theme park tells rollercoaster riders

Many people might find it tricky keeping quiet through a entire roller coaster ride, but one Japanese theme park wants you to do that - and more.

Fuji-Q Highland near Tokyo re-opened last month after its virus shutdown.

It asked riders to avoid screaming when they go on its rollercoasters, to minimise spreading droplets, and instead "scream inside your heart".

And to encourage people to play long, it's getting riders to put on their most "serious face" for the ride photo.

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They can share their photo online in the #KeepASeriousFace challenge, and those who do best will be given free day passes.

The theme park will be running the challenge until 17 July, so if you're in Japan and can hold a serious face under any circumstances - now's your chance.

The no screaming rule - in addition to the mandatory use of masks - is meant to stop potential virus-carrying droplets from flying out of your mouth at 80mph per hour.

Clearly, it'll be impossible to enforce this ruling - and according to executives who spoke to the Wall Street Journal, violations will not actually be punished.

But it's all part of measures being taken by themes park to give customers the confidence to return after the shutdowns, and assure them their safety is being taken seriously.

In response to suggestions that it was impossible not to scream on a rollercoaster, the park previously released a video of two executives riding in silence, to show to can be done.

In the surreal video, which has since gone viral, both executives are seen formally clad and in masks - one of them is even wearing a full suit and tie. He slowly adjusts his hair after the roller coaster plunges down and looks almost bored by the entire exercise.

The other clenches the safety bars tightly. You can see their bodies shaking as the ride goes on its twists and turns - but they remain absolutely stoic and silent throughout the four-minute video.

At the end of the video a message appears: "Please scream inside your heart".

Japan for months had a relatively low infection rate, though virus cases in the capital Tokyo have surged in recent days.

The country has reported more than 20,000 virus cases and a death toll of 982, according to Johns Hopkins University.

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Pop music is getting faster (and happier)

"This is my dancefloor, I fought for," Lady Gaga sings euphorically on Free Woman, a track from her new album, Chromatica.

She's not alone. The charts are suddenly crammed with pop songs that celebrate joy and sensuality and precipitous thrill: Dua Lipa's Physical, Doja Cat's Say So, Harry Styles' Watermelon Sugar and Gaga's own Stupid Love.

At the same time, music is getting faster.

The average tempo of 2020's top 20 best-selling songs is a pulse-quickening 122 beats per minute. That's the highest it's been since 2009.

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Average tempo of a hit song

Based on the Top 20 best-sellers each yearThe outbreak of euphoria is as sudden as it is unexpected.

For the last few years, pop has been getting slower, as artists like Ariana Grande and Billie Eilish incorporate the leisurely cadences and rhythms of southern hip-hop and trap music into their songs.

Lyrics have taken a darker turn, too, with expressions of loneliness, fear and anxiety becoming increasingly common.

In 2017, a Californian mathematician called Natalia Komarova was so shocked by the negativity of the songs her daughter listened to, she decided to investigate.

The rise of the 'sad banger'

Using the research database AcousticBrainz - which allows you to examine musical properties like tempo, key and mood - she and her colleagues at the University of California Irvine examined half a million songs released in the UK between 1985 and 2015.

They found a significant downturn in the positivity of pop songs. Where 1985 saw upbeat tracks like Wham's Freedom, 2015 favoured more sombre music by Sam Smith and Adele.

"'Happiness' is going down, 'brightness' is going down, 'sadness' is going up," said Komarova of her results, "and at the same time, the songs are becoming more 'danceable' and more 'party-like'."

"So it looks like, while the overall mood is becoming less happy, people seem to want to forget it all and dance."

In other words, Komorvoa had identified the rise of the "sad banger", a song whose instrumental sets you up for good times, only to sucker punch your heart with lyrics of Biblical sadness.

For that, we can thank Swedish pop star Robyn, whose hit single Dancing On My Own influenced a generation of songwriters.

Released in 2010, it documented the brutal moment you see your ex kissing their new partner on a night out, and your world falls apart while everyone around you is having fun.

Lorde called it "perfect", Christine & The Queens said she could "only marvel" at the song's emotional impact, Sam Smith observed that it made Robyn "a huge part of the LGBTQ community because we get to dance our pain away".

Turning heartbreak into a fist-pumping emotion was Robyn's masterstroke - and as the 2010s progressed, her fingerprints were all over hits like Rihanna's We Found Love, Taylor Swift's Out Of The Woods and Dua Lipa's New Rules.

At the same time, however, pop was decelerating.

By 2017, the average tempo of a hit single in the UK was 104 beats per minute, down from a high of 124bpm in 2009. In the US, where hip-hop is more prevalent on the charts, it fell as low as 90.5 bpm.

"People were burnt out on uptempo, super poppy stuff like they were with hair-metal bands back in the day," songwriter Bonnie McKee told Rolling Stone magazine in 2017.

"Then as the sociopolitical climate got darker, people just weren't in the mood to hear some upbeat bop."

Just three years later, the trend is in reverse.

Permission to feel joy

"I'm looking at the top 20 now and, if you were to play the chart in order, you wouldn't think the world is going through a crisis," says pop star Raye, who has written for the likes of Beyonce, Little Mix and Stormzy alongside her solo hits.

"You would expect political or emotional music matching the aura of the time to be more prevalent, but it's actually the opposite - which shows how we're coping in the UK especially.

"Tempo, pace, escapism: Music that draws you out of the reality of what is going on right now; and transports you to somewhere more positive and uplifting."

Music journalist Charlie Harding, who hosts the Switched On Pop podcast, agrees there's been "an important psychological change" in people's listening habits.

"During moments of great distress, music provides hope. A pop song gives us permission to access joy, even when the world is burning.

"But music is more than just escapism. It can help us imagine a different way of life. Protest anthems motivate us to keep marching in the streets even when our feet are tired. Dance songs help us blow off steam at home, especially when we can't go dancing out on the town.

"This upbeat shift happened during the great depression and during World War Two. Once again we need sounds that help us forge a path to the world we want to live in, not the one we're inhabiting today."


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Melania Trump sculpture in Slovenia set on fire on US Independence Day

A quirky wooden sculpture of US First Lady Melania Trump is reported to have been set on fire near her hometown in Slovenia, prompting its removal.

Brad Downey, the American artist who commissioned the statue, said it was targeted on 4 July, Independence Day in the US.

The Berlin-based artist arranged for the charred statue to be removed the next day.

Police told Reuters news agency they had launched an investigation.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The sculpture of Mrs Trump, which could be described as only bearing a crude likeness to the US first lady, was carved out of a tree trunk on the outskirts of Sevnica, her hometown in central Slovenia.

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The statue, which depicts Mrs Trump dressed in a blue coat similar to one she wore to her husband's inauguration and with a club-like hand gesturing to the sky, received mixed reviews when it was erected in July 2019.

Some residents branded the statue a "disgrace", complaining it looked more like the Smurfs character Smurfette than the first lady.

Mr Downey told Reuters he wanted to understand who targeted the statue and why.

He said he had hoped the statue would open a dialogue about the political situation in the US, including the fractious debate on immigration.

Mrs Trump, a model who grew up in Slovenia when it was part of Yugoslavia, came to the US as an immigrant in the 1990s.The statue in Slovenia was targeted at a time when monuments of US leaders with links to slavery are being re-evaluated as a result of national reflection prompted by anti-racism protests.

In recent speeches, including his Independence Day address, US President Donald Trump has taken a hardline against those who vandalise or tear down statues.

Since Mr Trump was elected US president in 2016, Sevnica has become a tourist magnet, as visitors search for an insight into Mrs Trump's early years

Residents have brought out ranges of Melania-branded merchandise, including slippers, cakes, and Trump-like burgers with fly-away cheese "hair".

In August last year, a wooden statue of President Trump was constructed in Slovenia, east of the capital Ljubljana. Like the rendering of Mrs Trump, the statue of her husband divided opinion.

Standing nearly 8m (26ft) tall, the statue was burnt to the ground by unknown arsonists in January this year.

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Racism, Xenophobia: Joe Biden Campaign Focuses On Challenges Sikhs Face

  The Biden campaign has launched an initiative to reach out to the Sikh community in the US and vowed to address the unique challenges, inc...