Elon Musk and Nelson Peltz Are Stealing Disney From Right Under Bob Iger’s Nose︱Business
By JackOnReality
Coming off one of his company’s worst years in history, Bob Iger faces a new challenge as Disney CEO, and it comes in the shape of three people: Elon Musk, Nelson Peltz, and Gina Carano. Musk and Peltz are, in essence, Bonaparte-ing Bob Iger in a genius attempt to take control of Disney. Peltz has bought many shares in Disney, enough to land him a spot on the board of the company. Needless to say, he is unhappy with the company’s position. Elon Musk, meanwhile, has made several public statements hinting that he plans to takeover Disney. He has even vulgarly insulted Iger. Musk knows the old phrase: “Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” His assault on Disney has become more tangible than words. Allow me to elaborate.
Gina Carano was fired in 2021 by Disney from the show, The Mandalorian. This came after Carano made several political tweets, one in 2020 saying, “Put laws in place that protect us against voter fraud. Investigate every state. Film the counting. Flush out the fake votes.” It isn’t hard to infer from this that Carano is a Republican, which she discussed in other tweets. Carano is now suing Disney over her firing, and guess who’s supporting her? Elon Musk and his army of lawyers. And they might win. It would appear Disney targeted Carano for her political beliefs, since other Disney stars were making similar tweets, but in favor of the other side of politics. So Disney are in trouble.
This case could be extremely costly for Bob Iger. A loss in court for Disney might just be what Musk and Peltz need to get Disney and Iger doubled over on the floor. If Musk and Peltz continue to hammer the company after that, we might very quickly be looking at a new Disney. The question is, will this Disney be any better?
Obviously, no one likes Disney as it is. One of Disney’s major problems right now stems from a focus on politics, and not storylines. Musk, Peltz, and Carano are emphasizing that problem, which might be a key to their success. But Musk is also very open about his political beliefs. So there is a chance that if Musk and Peltz take over, the pendulum of Disney will swing to the opposite side. Disney could go from being too liberal to too conservative. That future isn’t any better than what we have now. I think the best option would be if Peltz, who seems to be more in the center of the political spectrum, took the majority of control over Disney. Then we might finally have a Disney that sticks to its trade. Now, this might all be speculation based on rumors. Maybe Musk and Peltz are just bluffing. But if they are not, they are stealing Disney from right under Bob Iger’s nose.
The Forgotten Art of Sampling︱Business
By JackOnReality
Recently, I was called an “old soul” for liking the hip-hop group the Wu-Tang Clan. And that got me thinking. One can consider today’s genre of music hip-hop, which is what the Wu-Tang’s music definitely is. So why do people today dislike music of the same genre? Well, the hip hop of old, and the hip hop today sound very different. And the hip hop of old sounds a whole lot better than the generic and boring hip hop of today. This is mainly because of the beat. While hip hop beats today all sound the same, the beats of old were exciting and innovative. This was thanks to the forgotten art of sampling.
Sampling is a musical tool in which parts of other songs are put together to create a new beat. It was extremely successful; some of the most famous hip hop songs used sampling. These included “Hypnotize,” by the Notorious B.I.G., “The Next Episode,” by Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, and “C.R.E.A.M (Cash Rules Everything Around Me),” by the Wu-Tang Clan. Each beat is unique and exciting, and much more artistic than anything you would hear in today’s music world. Now, sampling may seem uncreative. After it all, it uses other artist’s work. However, it still takes strenuous musical imagination. Sampling artists need to listen to many songs again and again, just to use one specific part. They need to decide which part of one song goes with another part of some other song. This requires incredible knowledge of the music world and music history. So sampling is anything but uncreative. New music, however, is.
The hip-hop genre has been commercialized. It has been stripped of its creativity, and left with the dribble that executives think makes money. This can be accredited to the emergence of AI, but mostly greedy executives. This is the same story for many other genres. Now and Then (2021), the last Beatles’ song, was made with AI, for example. This is a nightmare case where the executives teamed up with AI. They created a generic song, which does not deserve to be attached to the Beatles’ name.
It is sad but true. Music is boring now. To change this, we need to look to the past, and remember the good old days–the days when sampling dominated the music world.