just to see how far I could get toward realizing the potentials in podcasting.
I suppose in a few weeks it will be an embarrasment, but for the moment I'm not unpleased.
Right-click here to SAVE the 18MB mp3 file (about 18 minutes) ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: blackmer TITLE: CDs in Leyburn Library ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: DATE: 11/02/2004 12:02:48 PM ----- BODY: I've extracted from Annie a set of more-or-less 'World Music' CDs in Leyburn Library.
I'm contemplating having students choose one to become familiar with and investigate
and produce a Web page contextualizing that CD... ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: blackmer TITLE: Some passages from John McDaid's brilliant story ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: DATE: 12/12/2004 09:31:43 PM ----- BODY: "Keyboard Practice, Consisting of an Aria with Diverse Variations for the Harpsichord
with Two Manuals" [Fantasy and Science Fiction, Jan 2005] "At this level, once technic rises to awareness, it falls to bits. A true
Zen emptiness is called for when engaging a repeat, which requires
subtle yet significant shadings of difference, spliced into a flawless
reproduction of the just-lived performance. 'The unconscious,' as Jacques
Lacan said, 'is repetition.'"
(the voice of an AI piano, commenting on a player's failings in executing a repeatAnd avant-garde leaders are often --perhaps necessarily always--
in a performance of the Goldberg Variations [67])
misunderstood by those not avant enough to appreciate the larger
karmic rightness of their vision. Everybody likes a fat, smiley Buddha; not so many are down with Kali. (73) Want to really inhabit a future generation's mind, gotta really do
something. Preferably salacious or exothermic. (80) You have to remember a mere hundred-odd years ago, music could only be heard
while it was being performed. [The Goldberg Variations] was not a
canonical work --it was considered technically rococo and unremittingly
cerebral. Unless you could play very well indeed, until 1934 when Wanda
Landowska recorded them, the Goldbergs didn't exist. Full stop. (81) Human life is a canon: Mind is the theme, and the populated world an
incomprehensible six billion-part modulation with physical reality as the
free bass line. (82) These tools are all writen by programmers driven by frightful agendas:
lobbying memos from marketing, quarterly marching orders from managers,
apologetic memos from engineering VPs descriing overblown promises made to
analysts by desperate CEOs, pet peeves, side bets on Easter eggs, crank
theories, smoldering resentment over midyeareviews, bad habits from
college programming courses, and the numb, looming horror of fixed
ship dates. It's a wonder any of this stuff works. Ever. (87) Bach was the first master of sampling. Canons, in a sense, are an acoustic
approximation of the delay loop. Imagine the compositional challenge of
developing a melody in real time --an interesting one, not just a
technical exercise-- while playing, listening to, and riffing off a time-shifted doop. (88) ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: blackmer TITLE: Hoping you'll succeed ALLOW COMMENTS: 2 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: DATE: 01/04/2005 07:49:18 PM ----- BODY: in posting something with such minimal instruction. To some degree it should be
plug-and-play, easy to figure out. Elaborating on a couple of things I mentioned, you might want to take a look at this report
on the blog phenomenon, summarizing the recent Pew Internet & American Life Project piece on blogs. For more on remix and mashup culture, consider Rip 'n Mix (an mp3) ...and explore Negativland . ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: blackmer TITLE: Ears of the Hippopotamus ALLOW COMMENTS: 2 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: DATE: 01/04/2005 08:38:07 PM ----- BODY: Just how BIG is this stuff that's happening in the world of portable media?
Carlo Longino is pretty convincing that its scope is just beginning to declare itself. If you've got 9 minutes to invest, this is pretty remarkable (from Negativland) ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: abplanalpk TITLE: growing big ears! ALLOW COMMENTS: 2 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: DATE: 01/05/2005 11:06:13 AM ----- BODY: Because there is an audience for everything, I feel that everyone can be
happy with the availability of opensource and commercial music.
Musicians who just plain like to make music can provide it to listeners
through opensource; musicians who want to make a profit can sell to
listeners with particular taste. For that reason, I agree that there will
always be opensource music, but the danger comes when commercial
musicians are included in there as well. I understand Larry Lessig's
skepticism in enforcement of these laws with the freedom of commerce in
copying and sharing. I would like to know how they legislate infractions of
copyright laws. Unfortunately, the link to Larry Lessig's lecture is not working on my computer. Furthermore, another legitimate fear for commercial musicians is that they
will lose their fans as they listen to the wide variety of opensource
music. I think the danger is exactly as he outlined, and to which Long
Tail alludes: as people begin to know better what music they like, more
people may venture more to opensource independent labels as they become more available.
However, as long as there is still a pool of consumers
buying into the commercial advertisements of the "hits," those artists will not complain. It's interesting looking at how this has happened with books on Amazon:
"more than half of Amazon's book sales come from outside its top 130,000
titles. Consider the implication: If the Amazon statistics are any
guide, the market for books that are not even sold in the average bookstore
is larger than the market for those that are." Similarly, "as fast as
Rhapsody adds tracks to its library, those songs find an audience, even
if it's just a few people a month, somewhere in the country." I like the availability of music online because the connectivity of the net
may eliminate the need for musicians to gain "connections" and working
their way up the ladder in commercial recording. Instead of needing
recognition from big labels to promote music, musicians can share music
on their own and connect directly with their fans rather than needing
labels to advertise them! I like this development in letting consumers
choose for themselves what kind of music they enjoy. It will make us
all grow those BIG EARS! . Again, I would like to learn more about how copyright laws are enforced and
how to ensure that consumers are still respecting and reimbursing the
musicians. So far, my favorite option is idea of magnatune.com in
offering a range of prices for the consumers to use their discretion --
along with a listen before you buy policy. I wonder what the average sale is for each record. ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: blackmer TITLE: musicplasma ALLOW COMMENTS: 2 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: DATE: 01/05/2005 04:03:27 PM ----- BODY: Try this with some of your favorite musicians/bands: musicplasma.com ...and you might check out globalFEST 2005, which has some sound clips
that might knock socks off, if you're wearing socks. ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Peter EMAIL: jonesp@wlu.edu IP: 65.41.104.246 URL: DATE: 01/06/2005 06:04:14 AM The site is pretty cool, in giving quite a few options of similar artists
who are good. But it kinda worried me... I typed in Miles Davis, one of
the most famous jazz musicians ever on trumpet. Not surprisingly, it
gave me a long list of jazz artists who had worked with him, trumpeters
who emulated him, etc. So it got the genre correct, but it missed
Charlie Parker, who worked with him and was only the most famous bebopper
ever and Dizzy Gillespie and Louis Armstrong, two more trumpet players
who are arguably more famous than Davis. Perhaps I'm missing the point
of the website, but not including either of these three in the realm of
Davis is jazz (nerd) sacrilege. Also, they have the obscure tenor saxman
Tina Brooks and Booker Ervin, but no Paul Chambers, Tony Williams, or
Wynton Kelly (from his classic quintets)... no Gil Evans (his right
hand man for 10 years), it seems just a bit sketchy. Typing in Beethoven
was even more hilarious. Who knew that Beethoven, Fountains of Wayne,
Randy Newman and Raffi were so related?
The site's content definitely needs a bit of help, but its a pretty cool concept and visual. ----- -------- AUTHOR: jonesp TITLE: Internet Music ALLOW COMMENTS: 2 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: DATE: 01/05/2005 04:42:51 PM ----- BODY: The internet has always been a double-edged sword of music distribution.
Being able to listen to Edison recordings from the 20s and the newest
hit from Britney Spears is an amazing resource. The sheer variety of
music I found on webjay was also astounding. Of course, while I was
listening to music from various streams for the past two hours, I didn’t pay
a dime. This doesn’t bother me, but it seems if I was one of the
artists that poured quite a bit of time and money into equipment, recording,
and creativity, I would like a little something more than gratitude.
Webjay bills itself as an opensource for music that is alternatively
copyrighted, and I know there are plenty of artists out there who love
people to just listen to their music. One of the tracks I listened to
was by Bill Laswell, a pioneering remix producer. The track was from his
album remixing some of Miles Davis’ fusion stuff on “In a Silent Way”
and “On the Corner.” I own this cd, so I know it was released by Sony in
1998. Bill Laswell is now a mostly independent producer and has his own
label so that he can release whatever he wants (even for free online),
but this album was certainly Sony’s. So even if he does give permission
to broadcast his music online, I’m pretty sure Sony would not.
Furthermore, Sony probably paid the Miles Davis estate and/or Columbia for
the rights to use material from the records. I’m also pretty sure that
Miles wouldn’t let his music be played for free judging from how hard he
fought for song writing credits on a couple songs in the fifties. This is
just one example of the problems of even a site like webjay which
purports to have only authorized songs. I also have a special spot in my heart for live musical reproduction, which
the internet and mp3s don’t satisfy. First of all, mp3s don’t contain
the entire musical spectrum. The webjay streams I saw were all at 128k
which is less than half of cds. The experience of listening to music
from your computer is also completely different than in a brick and
mortar venue with real acoustic instruments. No where was this most apparent
than in John Udell’s example of Schumann’s Quartet in A minor performed
by his computer. While it does take the notes on paper and make them
audible, any humanity that Schumann put into those notes is taken away.
Besides this performance, almost any recording will be different from
the live representation, which I prefer. Besides some of these limitations, I had a blast listening to a ton of music
I had never heard. Webjay opened up a huge arena of new music, and I
really liked that. That it was all free to me was nice too. ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: doughertyt TITLE: Yowzer! ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: DATE: 01/05/2005 08:07:51 PM ----- BODY: I agree with Pete - the internet is an amazing resource for music, musics,
and musicians. The webjay site was like someone ate a whole lot of CDs
and then vomited all over the page - there was such a variety of
choices. I even managed to find a concert by a band called Pinback that I'm
just getting into, and it was really awesome to have a live concert of
theirs at my fingertips when it took me forever simply to find one of
their album tracks to download from my downloading service.
However, though I do love being able to go find a piece and download it, I
also agree with Pete in that mp3s are not great quality. It is very
difficult to find a perfect mp3 that sounds even comparable to the
actual recording. I have always felt that a lot is lost in the technological
world. You may gain a whole new world in terms of communications and
gadgets and advancements, but I think that computers and the Internet
have taken a lot of humanity away - I'm one of those people who still
likes to write letters because they're much more personal. Likewise, I
would much rather see a band live or buy their CD than get their music
from the Internet. To me, music has always been intensely personal, and
I feel that the Internet takes some of that away, especially when
dealing with who actually owns the music. I love ideas like Danger Mouse's
in terms of mashups and whatnot, but there is so much legal hassle that
goes on, it almost seems as though it's not worth it. The artistic
capability is there, but there are people who try to prevent the art from
ever taking fruit. There were a few things that annoyed me with Jon Udell's program - first
off, he never let a song finish. If he's going to play something he
thinks his listeners might be interested in, he should at least play it all
the way through. His voice almost put me to sleep a few times.
I have actually seen that musicplasma before, because my best friend at home
sent it to me. I have discovered a lot of bands that way, and I love
them all. The resources that the Internet provides are excellent, but I
hope that we get to study the actual music as well as the sources of it. ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: hsings TITLE: I want it LIVE! ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: DATE: 01/05/2005 08:17:39 PM ----- BODY: After listening to the 21 minutes of Jon Udell’s Open Source Audio, one
thing became increasingly apparent to me. I cannot listen to commentary and
music by simply sitting in front of a computer with headphones. Don’t
get me wrong, I have downloaded my fair share of music from the Internet
and I am a huge fan of the availability, access, and variety that can
be found, but nonetheless something is always missing for me. When I was
sitting there listening to Mr. Udell, all I could think about was whether
or not he actually stepped away from his computer into the real
world – real air – and listened to music LIVE! Although I find the issue of copyright laws over the Internet a prevalent
concern due to the increase of sharing technology, it is one that I find
little interest in. The people who truly gain from the money earned
from the selling of CDs or downloads are the cooperate figures of music
labels, not the musicians themselves. Musicians instead seem to only
earn their money through touring and merchandise. Therefore, unless
musicians begin to actually earn their fair share of those earnings then
I find this issue to be one of little concern to me. If indeed the
sharing of music over the Internet took away from the earnings of
musicians in a drastic way, then I would probably care more, but I find that
it has actually given more musicians the chance to be heard. The only
musicians that may be suffering from this surge of technology are those
that have already earned their fair share of cash – those great hit-makers of the MTV generation. What I find more frightening is the idea that the art of live music could
disappear from the radar. As technology increases it seems as if people
are leaving the world of the tangible to one of keystrokes, clicks, and
computer graphics. If a person can find some amazing new music on the
internet with a few clicks, why will they head out to a bar, and pay a
$5 cover for some band they’ve never heard before but could possibly
love. Because, essentially what we are dealing with is the sharing of
music. What if the Internet became our only source of music exchange?
I feel something would become incredibly lost. Music is not simply the
sounds created. It can also be the connection created to a person,
place, event, feeling, ect. This discourse is lost when simply found on
the Internet and played with the click of a button. But I guess my
concern deals with more than just the sharing of music and more with the
increasing trend of technology and how our lives, and perhaps access to
reality will be changed. ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: luc EMAIL: clinitla@hotmail.com IP: 137.113.31.33 URL: DATE: 01/11/2005 11:24:25 AM No matter how many times I listen to the songs of my favorite artists, I
will never miss out a concert (IF they actually come to my hometown.. or
to the big Lex ^^). Also, I don?t think people go to live performances
only to listen to music.. at least I don?t. In live performances, music
comes across in a way that it can never come across through machines. I
enjoy live performances for the atmosphere, the company, and the fact
that I can see the faces/movements/passion of performers as they
communicate with their audience through music. ----- -------- AUTHOR: djalalievp TITLE: Open Source or not? Live or not? ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: DATE: 01/06/2005 12:42:48 AM ----- BODY: There seem tobe a few things that intrigued me in this. First, if I may speak in economic terms, I think there will always be demand
for both live and downloaded music. To me these seem to be two ways to
listen to music or to convey musical messages. "Collectively
discovered" music doesn't know any borders in the Internet-connected part of
the world. If I want to see a concert of the same band in Boston and
in D.C., I don't need to be in Boston and D.C. too. Podcasts are even
harder to describe in terms of geographical borders. We can make a parallel with globalization. Many people say that
globalization kills local cultural values and traditions. But for people
who value cultural traditions, are they really killed? Just the same
way we enjoy the benefits of global communications and at the same time
also aim to preserve cultural values by following the customs and
traditions of our families and societies, we can also enjoy the benefits of
shared open source music downloaded from online and at the same time
still go to a concert or a local bar and listen to live music. To me,
the two ways to listen to music bring different kinds of experiencs and
both have their advantages and disadvantages. The discussion about open source music brought me back to the continuing
discussion about open-source software. Is it going to survive, can we
build viable business models on top of them? For software, the answer
slowly but sure seems to be "yes." Nowadays, there is a usable open-source
application for almost any general closed-source one. New
applications are developed all the time, old ones are improved and their
release is not restricted or forced by marketing or strategic business forces. So can the same be done with music? For me for long the answer was very
unclear and was more closer to "no" than to "yes." "The Long Tail",
however, gives me an entirely different prospective - it asserts that the most
money are made in these niche markets, which Chris Anderson is
talking about , and where most open source music probably falls into.
Hence, why couldn't viable business models be built on top of the open
source music paradigm, too? To me this comes as a new idea... The
economics of open source everything has been a quite intriguing topic for me for a while... ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: blackmer TITLE: Copyleft ALLOW COMMENTS: 2 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: DATE: 01/06/2005 06:21:46 AM ----- BODY:
We'll clearly have to include considerations of intellectual property rights, and this posting from BoingBoing is a nice bit of provocation.
UPDATE: take a look at the discussion on Larry Lessig's posting today
-----
EXTENDED BODY:
-----
EXCERPT:
-----
KEYWORDS:
-----
--------
AUTHOR: blackmer
TITLE: A case in point
ALLOW COMMENTS: 2
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY:
DATE: 01/06/2005 06:48:21 AM
-----
BODY:
I have an RSS feed from http://www.blogdigger.com/media/, and the site offers a search feature.
I tried it this morning, with "Skip James" as the input. One hit:
kingblind.com ...and this one includes links to some
others from archive.org. The links don't work (why not?)...
but I'll bet we could find The Nugrape Twins-I Got Your Ice Cold Nugrape if we
explored archive.org
-----
EXTENDED BODY:
-----
EXCERPT:
-----
KEYWORDS:
-----
--------
AUTHOR: blackmer
TITLE: More on The Long Tail
ALLOW COMMENTS: 2
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY:
DATE: 01/06/2005 09:12:35 AM
-----
BODY:
This really is an interesting and widely-applicable idea. It might be
worth your while to keep track of its evolution via Chris Anderson's "public diary on the way to a book"
--a blog, of course, and therefore accessible via an RSS feed.
-----
EXTENDED BODY:
-----
EXCERPT:
-----
KEYWORDS:
-----
--------
AUTHOR: ruminj
TITLE: Bring da noise?
ALLOW COMMENTS: 2
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY:
DATE: 01/06/2005 12:10:24 PM
-----
BODY:
-----
EXTENDED BODY:
There are a number of interesting points that arise as one listens to
Jon Udell’s commentary. The first thing to notice is that some people,
myself included, do not absorb information all that well when listening
to speeches through headphones; the same goes for one’s inability to
grasp the text on a computer screen. Of course, these problems can be
countered by taking notes to what one hears or reads, just as we do in class
when taking notes on a professor’s lecture. However, I wonder whether
repeated practice can reverse this trend and improve my ability to take
in such information – in many ways, as an English major I don’t care
all that much, as I prefer books to text or information stored on a
computer. With that in mind, I began to ponder how much I really get out of
listening to music, specifically music containing lyrics. Again,
because I listen to music which I really enjoy multiple times, the point
becomes moot as I gradually come to learn and appreciate the lyrics. It
will be interesting to see what transpires in the coming years; might
we witness a further change in the preferred modes of communication
(whether speeches such as Udell’s eventually become commonplace and the
dominant mode of communication)? To be sure, as a number of people
have rightly noted, including Larry Lessig, this provides the general
public with information to which they might not otherwise have access.
At the same time, however, one must then ask whether people such as me
will really be able to absorb and appreciate their exposure to new music and commentary.
I have digressed, and would like to briefly comment on the content of
Udell’s speech itself, as it surely begs several crucial questions. As
far as online music is concerned, I don’t know a whole lot about
copyright law, although from listening to Lessig’s brief clip it is obvious
that current legislation only limits our access to music. Some
musicians overcome this problem by allowing their music to be downloaded for
free on a public domain. With such domains, many are encouraged by the
prospects of what they call “collaborative discovery,” in which others
can discover the music of obscure musicians from all parts of the
globe. Indeed, as all of the musicians (on a public domain) want their
music to be heard by as many people as possible, I think it’s a great
idea, as it grants people the ability to find their own musical “niche,”
a niche which they probably would not have found a decade ago. Because
of its nearly limitless access to these various niches of sound,
alternatively licensed music is becoming more and more popular with each
passing day, and may in fact threaten the future success of large scale
music labels (a fact explaining why these corporations are making every
move to instill legislation hindering these alternative labels). The
question then becomes, what happens to those professional musicians who
rely on such alternative labels for their income? Perhaps I don’t
completely understand how these labels work, but from my viewpoint it seems
that while some alternative labels may provide the artist with 50% of
sales (compared to the much smaller amount given to artists by large
record companies), how much will these artists make if their music is
available for free? Will listeners exhibit their charity and make a
donation to these artists despite the fact that they have access to free
music? I have no answer to these questions, and I am sure that many of
them will be answered in class. Nevertheless, it will be interesting to
see in the years ahead if, and how, alternatively licensed music labels
deal with their transformation into a larger influence in the
burgeoning online music scene.
-----
EXCERPT:
-----
KEYWORDS:
-----
--------
AUTHOR: luc
TITLE: Amazing!
ALLOW COMMENTS: 2
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY:
DATE: 01/06/2005 12:23:22 PM
-----
BODY:
It’s amazing to see how the world of technology grows every year. I
remember that a few years ago I was thrilled by a gift from my uncle: a
stereo system that allowed me to play CDs and audio files from my computer
(I’m sure we’re all familiar with this “great thing to have”). Now I am
learning about this fascinating new “tool” that can broadcast
sounds/videos/images around the globe: podcasting.
Two thoughts:
About copyright…
Whenever I hear about downloading music from the internet, the first things
that come to my mind are the issues concerning pirating, copyrights,
etc. But what about those artists who do not make their music for
profit? What if all they want is to simply have their music out there for
the world to listen? Podcasting is the perfect tool for all those
musicians who just want to have fun with their music and be discovered.
Consequently, this may drive people to explore and learn the
technologies available for sound production. Think about this.. Almost
everybody can write a text for blogs, but how many people can produce sound
files with good quality (not to mention decent video files). When I was
in high school, my friends and I created a CD with some of our favorite
songs. The project was much more difficult than what we had expected.
Even though we had decent equipment, our final result did not come out
as good as we expected, mainly because we were unfamiliar with what we
could do with the equipment (and we did not have enough time to make improvements).
If amateur musicians would like to “publish” their music and “be
discovered”, they would most likely be eager to expand their knowledge on
the recording/mixing techniques and the different technologies that are
available (I’m not talking about purchasing professional equipments, but
just to explore what’s out there that’s affordable).
About live music…
I do not think that podcasting will diminish live music performances. No
matter how many times I listen to the songs of my favorite artists, I
will never miss out a concert (IF they actually come to my hometown.. or
to the big Lex ^^). Also, I don’t think people go to live performances
only to listen to music.. at least I don’t. In live performances, music
comes across in a way that it can never come across through machines.
I enjoy live performances for the atmosphere, the company, and the
fact that I can see the faces/movements/passion of performers as they
communicate with their audience through music.
-----
EXTENDED BODY:
-----
EXCERPT:
-----
KEYWORDS:
-----
--------
AUTHOR: kosciolekd
TITLE: So much music
ALLOW COMMENTS: 2
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY:
DATE: 01/06/2005 12:57:27 PM
-----
BODY:
One line that really struck me was “Too much great music remains in
obscurity.” There are so many musics out there, and no possible way to
listen to them all. What if there’s a song that I would love, but I never
find it? These webj’s that Udell refers to, like oddiokatya, are
perhaps my key, and I probably never would have found out about them, just
like most music on the internet. In fact, I doubt many people realize
that there is this wealth of free music floating around. Mainstream
music is what reaches everyone, not pockets of obscure music on obscure
websites. Because I think the general public does not have the patience
to find music on the internet, I do not think a chart-topper will come
from an internet label, like Udell does. Certainly not anytime soon.
Udell brought up a great point about Napster and other file sharing
programs. It is not used to “explore music together,” but to get mainstream
songs without paying for them, or get one song off an album because the
rest of the album might not be worth it. That’s how I viewed it, and I
consider myself an average teenage consumer.
One very interesting point was that perhaps the future of big music business
will not come from the established bands and supergroups, but, rather,
the collection of sales from the enormous volume of music at the
obscure end of the spectrum. I think that is highly possible, and in this
case, could not happen without the internet. I don’t know what to make
of this really, but it would be interesting to see what happens to
mainstream music if the big money was being made somewhere else.
-----
EXTENDED BODY:
-----
EXCERPT:
-----
KEYWORDS:
-----
--------
AUTHOR: palazzolocm
TITLE: Musings
ALLOW COMMENTS: 2
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY:
DATE: 01/06/2005 02:55:18 PM
-----
BODY:
I have often thought about the issue of music copyrights and how they
can/should be applied to internet resources, and I must confess that I am
still torn. I can sympathize with the artist and record companies that
have an economic interest in copyright decisions, not only so that they
have an income source with which they can continue to make music, but
also so that they are rewarded for their creativity and hard work. From
a capitalistic point of view, if someone makes a desireable product that
others want to consume (aka: a popular song), he should receive
monetary reward for that.
However, I also sympathize with those who want to protect their rights to
freedom of information flow on the net and resist regulations on what
they can or cannot share or garner from the internet.
But today, there are more than just these two traditional sides to the
issue. When someone remixes a song, who's song is it? Who should get the credit for it?
Alternatively, what about those artists who do encourage free file sharing
so as to spread interest in their songs for the pure sake of spreading
the music, or even in the hope of increasing ticket sales to their live
shows? For instance, everyone knows that Metallica and other popular
bands had issues with Napster that resulted in the lawsuits and close-down
of the program and eventual change to charging customers for their
downloads. But on the other hand, would most people even know who OAR
was without Napster? Could anyone have ever heard Dave Matthews Band's
Lilywhite Sessions CD without it? And weren't both of those examples
positive consequences? One could argue that limitations/regulations
should only be put on the popular bands so that smaller bands can get
their music out there and people will be encouraged to explore those
smaller bands' music because it is free. But then that simply rewards
the bigger names and leaves the smaller names profitless and perhaps
unable to contine producing this wonderful music... Not to mention,
there are some things available now that the public should have
access to, like the Edison recordings. But that just seems to complicate
the issue even farther...
Realistically speaking, I don't think that there can be much control over
file sharing and even downloading. It has spread too far too fast. I'm
not even convinced that such control should exisist in all cases. All
in all, it is a very sticky subject that, quite honestly, I have no clear idea how to handle!
-----
EXTENDED BODY:
-----
EXCERPT:
-----
KEYWORDS:
-----
--------
AUTHOR: djalalievp
TITLE: After reading the whole "The Long Tail" article...
ALLOW COMMENTS: 2
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY:
DATE: 01/09/2005 07:42:32 PM
-----
BODY:
I found "The Long Tail"
pretty interesting. I myself was probably not aware of
the big amount of "underground" music out there. I definitely like it, though.
I liked the idea of decreasing the price of music as you go down the tail,
this would lure the audience to more and more different music and at the
same time will not hurt the established music labels as much. They
seem to be hurt enough already...
Personally, some time ago I realized that buying CDs doesn't make much sense
anymore when you can just buy and download the music online, at least
for that music, which is available online. The online distribution
process clearly skips many middle-men and thus cuts the price, gives you a
lot more choice and also eliminates the need to carry lots of CDs around
when my whole music collection can fit on an external USB device smaller
than the palm of my hand. I find this new freedom quite enjoyable.
The transformation of the way we buy and listen to music can be paralleled
to transformations in many other technologies. Floppy disks by now are
or soon will be getting almost obsolete, replaced by USB memory sticks;
parts of the computer and telecommunication technologies are converging
- see smart phones, wireless technologies. In the next decades
computers will not be the same either. Bill Gates gave a lecture in MIT about the
future of computer science and technologies (and the role of Microsoft
in this). I might not have agreed with his vision of the role of
Microsoft in the future, but he said something that I fully agree with: in
the future, the personal computer will get more and more disassembled
- for example, we will probably be carrying our harddisks in our
pockets and will be able to connect them to any computer, so that we have
our data always easily accessible. Well, in that respect the future
might have come - if the iPod and iRiver were not so limited by company
product strategy (reflected in the way their software is configured and
limited) and copyright laws, they can easily serve as normal USB storage
devices - only with a lot more capacity than any other device.
So, in "The Long Tail" I find another example of revolutions in technology
and entertainment (the two are tightly connected after all).
Since we are after all dealing with music, here is what the rapper Nas sings
about this in the song "New World" of his album Nastradamus:
" What I feel is contrare:
Alexander Graham Bell made the telephone - yes,
but now we request for your e-mail address,
I might be old-fashioned, stuck in my ways,
but nothing makes me more happy than what I am seeing today."
-----
EXTENDED BODY:
-----
EXCERPT:
-----
KEYWORDS:
-----
COMMENT:
AUTHOR: John
EMAIL: ruminj@wlu.edu
IP: 137.113.161.5
URL:
DATE: 01/10/2005 10:47:07 AM
I agree with much of what Peter had to say- “Long Tail” is a very
provocative article, and it raises a number of good points. When reflecting
upon my experience of collecting both books and music in the past few
years, I definitely notice a shift in how I gain exposure to new pieces
of art. Sites such as Amazon and cdnow.com, for instance, provide me,
after I perform an initial search, with alternative selections that I
would not have otherwise found- for this, I am most grateful. For the
same reasons, I have become more and more disenchanted with the
selection of music at stores such as Best Buy, as they provide (for obvious
economic reasons) with an incredibly narrow selection of music- it is
hard enough to find the Bob Dylan CD that I am looking for, let alone
music of another country- they are all hidden behind the newest release
from America’s most famous (saying nothing of “talent”) recording
artist, Brittney Spears. So, it is nice enough to follow the “long tail”
and see what eclectic pieces of music that I can find. The same logic
follows for stores such as Barnes and Noble (and our school’s own
bookstore, if one can call it that). I am bombarded by the latest
bestsellers, which take up the space which might otherwise be reserved for
Ezra Pound, Yeats, etc. Again, Amazon helps to solve this problem,
because, as the article explains, their medium and target audience gives
them the economic wherewithal to provide their customers with an
incredibly broad range of music. That said, one cannot overstate the
relaxing, lazy feeling of stepping into a stores such as Barnes and Noble
and browsing through the shelves there, finding a book that you like,
and glancing through it for an hour or so. This is one pleasure that
Amazon cannot afford me, among others. Nevertheless, it seems clear
that Amazon and other similar sites are here to say, and as far as I’m
concerned, that’s a good thing.
-----
COMMENT:
AUTHOR: Peter
EMAIL: djalalievp@wlu.edu
IP: 137.113.76.126
URL:
DATE: 01/10/2005 12:20:50 PM
I agree with John about the limited selections on many web sites for online
music. I became a member of Columbia House - a very good deal in terms
of cheap CDs and special offers, but they would never have even all of
the hits nowadays. At some point of time, I would go there, want to
buy a CD, but I wouldn't find anything I like enough in order to buy
(I tend to buy CDs only that I like a lot and know that I will listen a lot to).
-----
--------
AUTHOR: gaiteric
TITLE: Almost free, very expensive, and the grandma test
ALLOW COMMENTS: 2
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY:
DATE: 01/09/2005 11:10:36 PM
-----
BODY:
As some j-pop is trickling into my computer @ 3 kps from a server of dubious
legality a couple of thoughts about the trajectory of digital music and
ubiquitous listing have interrupted my hovering over the precious stream.
I may be willing to scrounge all over the internet for obscure pieces of
work by my current obsession, but my parents aren’t going to ply
rotation sites or fiddle with hacked versions of kazaa. To some extent,
that’s just an issue of technology penetration. However, when my
87 year-old grandmother gets back from the golf course I don’t
think any amount of slick packaging will entice her into the
digital realm because it simply not part of the social context in which she sees music.
If I can generalize the relative influence of digital music across these 30-40
year age gaps, there does seem to be the potential for individuals to
retreat into customized musical bubbles. However there are two
structural reasons that I think will prevent this from occurring.
For all the development and all the hype about highly portable audio it
surprising how little is said about the audio itself. At this point I&#
8217;d much rather have a 128mb mp3 player with some decent pc speakers than
the equivalent amount of cash invested in ipod gigabytes. This is part
of a long standing goal in audio – to make it sound just like a
live performance. I think that new avenues for music reproduction have
confused this with access to music.
So does this mean that we will all end up with the “world’s best
audio system” $125,000 ? As the range of available (and what will be incredibly cheap)
music becomes apparent to the general population, the
real battleground will become competing recommendation engines/people as
listeners seek to minimize the time they are lost in this huge musical land.
In this case the sort of time-money balance will shift to favor
hardware investment as there is increasing pressure on human resources to
create useable access to music – taking on a role just as crucial
to experience of music as it has been in the past, just in a modern form.
So anyway, there seems to be some invariant quantities (gear, price per
song, human interaction) that determine music consumption. Digital music
may have fundamentally altered the balance of these components, but I
don’t think it has changed the underlying dynamics.
There's my audiophilic vision at the moment– agree?
-----
EXTENDED BODY:
-----
EXCERPT:
-----
KEYWORDS:
-----
COMMENT:
AUTHOR: Peter
EMAIL: jonesp@wlu.edu
IP: 65.166.9.50
URL:
DATE: 01/10/2005 12:57:35 AM
The Wilson audio stuff looked nice, but I think I would prefer this room:
http://www.royaldevice.com/custom.htm#TITOLO
Second... I'm not sure the digital realm is where we will find an
audiophilic nirvana, but I think you're right about how digital music hasn't
changed the underlying dynamics of music consumption.
-----
COMMENT:
AUTHOR: Chris
EMAIL: lookmeup@wlu.edu
IP: 137.113.108.4
URL:
DATE: 01/10/2005 01:55:21 AM
I remember reading about this in awe when the monster came out - "releasing
more than 110 dB/1W/1 meter sensitivity starting from below 10 Hz
focused on the listening position" rediculous and wonderful.
-----
COMMENT:
AUTHOR: Chris
EMAIL: willgooglepickthisup@wlu.edu
IP: 137.113.108.4
URL:
DATE: 01/10/2005 02:00:20 AM
on the subject of digital audiophilia... Allofmp3 - if you haven’t heard
about it - offers a huge selection of music at any quality in just about
any format you want for a cent a megabyte – just be sure to switch to
English from cyrilic if you go to the site. This re-export business
model it the first service I can actually see my parents using, that
carries major hits, caters to audiophiles (on a budget) and which is so
cheap it’s not worth the time to downloading the stuff for free some other way.
-----
COMMENT:
AUTHOR: Peter D.
EMAIL: djalalievp@wlu.edu
IP: 137.113.76.126
URL:
DATE: 01/10/2005 12:42:17 PM
I also agree with Chris about the unchanged dynamics of music consumption.
However, I believe that this consumption is now greatly expanding (is
expansion considered change in this case???). Before we could get
really high quality of sound at home with a superb sound system, but didn't
have mobility, now we can get both (even though not at the same time).
For example, as the mobile audio technologies mature, audio quality
will only continue to go up I think... Higher-capacity storage devices
after all can also store audio with higher-bit rate which also improves quality.
-----
COMMENT:
AUTHOR: Chris
EMAIL: yo@wlu.edu
IP: 137.113.42.9
URL:
DATE: 01/10/2005 04:41:00 PM
I agree that currently there is a trade off between storage and quality, but
at the same time it's difficult to make use of anything > 128kps on the
buds than come with your average mp3 player ( think), and which most
people keep. If you want to boil it down to marginal utility, I guess
what I'm saying is that audio gear will only increase in its value in
the face of a highly social network that provides access to massive amounts of music.
-----
--------
AUTHOR: hannonj
TITLE: Some Thoughts
ALLOW COMMENTS: 2
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY:
DATE: 01/10/2005 10:47:34 AM
-----
BODY:
I have been considering the copyright issue of downloading music for free
from various music sights. As an artist wouldn’t you want people to be
listening to the music that you created? For example, I just came
across this band called Keane, or actually it was introduced to me by a
friend.( I suggest everyone checking them out because they are talented). So
I went home and found some of their music on one of the free download
sites and made a CD from what I found. Now technically, what I did was
illegal because I took something without paying for it. But, in the age
that we live in today where more and more things are being digitized
and becoming more readily available to the masses it is crazy to think
that people use the technology that is available that allows a person to
download music for free. Honestly, I so feel kind of bad for not paying
for music, because it is someone’s work that they spent hours creating.
To make up for this I have probably told at least 30 people about this
band by now, so I feel like the word of mouth credit I am giving these
guys can hopefully make up for me not buying their CD in a store.
However, will there ever be a true middle ground between downloading for
free, or paying the 99 cents that itunes charges for downloading a song?
I’m interested in what others feel about this, and I will close this
idea with one more thought – music is created to be listened to and
enjoyed by everyone. For years it identified tribes, happy occasions, sad
occasions, the list can go on and on… But when and why did people start
placing a monetary value on music. Is this part of a capitalist society or greed or both?
Another similar thought that has been interesting to me, is if the
music industry is so worried about being compensated for each song
that’s downloaded, then why does it support people taking other people’s
songs and redoing them? For example, one of my favorite bands to listen
to is Counting Crows. They have recently remade the song Friend of the
Devil which was a Grateful Dead song. The new version sounds great and
honestly I like it better than the Grateful dead version, but when
looking at this from a legal point of view, this is worse then simply
downloading a song; it is bordering on plagiarism.
-----
EXTENDED BODY:
-----
EXCERPT:
-----
KEYWORDS:
-----
COMMENT:
AUTHOR: derek
EMAIL: kosciolekd@wlu.edu
IP: 137.113.33.56
URL:
DATE: 01/11/2005 12:34:53 AM
While I agree with you that ideally music should be created to be listened
to and enjoyed by everyone, there are still artists who create it, and
thus their music’s fate should lie with them. It would be great if all
artists created for the sole purpose of creating and sharing, but if
they want to make a profit off of it, and are good enough to do so,
that’s also their decision. If a band, after months of work, finish a CD,
distribute it freely and get nothing back for it, then where do they
stand? Without money coming in, they probably won’t be able to make
another CD. Making music has become a profession; a way to support
oneself. I think that there has to be a medium like you mentioned between
free music and charge for it.
I think the problem with these high charges for music arose when not the
artists, but their representatives, realized that people will pay a lot
to listen to music, just like they will to watch sports and movies.
The consumer culture in America has steadily grown through the years,
and why should it slow down when we will still pay 500 dollars to watch
grown men play a kids game like baseball, or 18 bucks to buy a CD.
-----
COMMENT:
AUTHOR: Pete
EMAIL: jonesp@wlu.edu
IP: 65.166.9.50
URL:
DATE: 01/11/2005 02:16:01 AM
Hey, lets not go picking on baseball. But, continue picking on Consumer culture in America.
-----
--------
AUTHOR: holcombm
TITLE: Raging Against Conformity
ALLOW COMMENTS: 2
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY:
DATE: 01/11/2005 12:00:51 AM
-----
BODY:
It seems that we live in a world that is moving towards convergence on many
levels. In the world of business, we see companies merging together to
form larger and larger conglomerations. This is evident in the media
industry where we see multibillion-dollar unions, such as AOL’s merger with Time Warner in 2000.
Convergence is also the buzzword over in the Journalism Department, where we
are watching broadcast media merging with traditional print media to
create new web-based forms of communication.
In the world of technology, we see the convergence of multiple products into
single hybrid forms. My dad just acquired a cell phone that is also a
digital camera, camcorder, Palm Pilot, text messenger, mp3 player, and
internet browser. The only thing you can’t do with it is shave with it.
Maybe in a few years they will develop one that will do that too . . .
I see this convergence being mirrored in the world of mainstream
entertainment. And not in a good way. As the business end of entertainment
media is merging, so to is the creative side. Pop music, for example,
seems to me to be melting into a single pool of homogenous, tasteless
banality. After listening to mainstream music for a while, I feel like
all I’m listening to is countless variations on the same theme. Just
look at the pop icons! They’re all the same! I’m sure we’d all agree
that Brittany sounds like Christina who sounds like Jessica . . . They
even look alike, as if they’re all clones of some secret corporate
prototype for mainstream entertainment celebrities. They’ve completely lost
whatever humanity they may have had and are now brand names---plastic
icons of a generation of insipid, one-size-fits-all music.
However, I think that the internet, the main force moving us on this path to
convergence, is also providing us with a backlash against this societal
tendency towards conformity. Within cyberspace, there is a veritable
explosion of individuality that flies in the face of the cultural
melding going on around us. As we have seen in class, any person with a
computer can set up a blog and post his thoughts and opinions to the world.
Underground artists can make a name for themselves in cyberspace and
strange and new forms of music are created by anonymous web DJs. Now,
individuals can find music that appeals to their particular, unique
tastes, as opposed to accepting the bland, homogenous fare the mainstream
music industry would feed us.
And, hopefully, this enhanced information sharing will enable our path
towards cultural convergence to be marked by the convergence, union and
integration of different individual ideas and concepts. And so, like Dad’s
cell phone, we’ll evolve into a new hybrid culture, a single whole
comprised of many unique individual parts. Instead of letting the mainstream
media mold us into a formulaic plaster cast of conformity.
-----
EXTENDED BODY:
-----
EXCERPT:
-----
KEYWORDS:
-----
COMMENT:
AUTHOR: Chris
EMAIL: yo@wlu.edu
IP: 137.113.42.9
URL:
DATE: 01/11/2005 01:16:00 AM
"They even look alike, as if they're all clones of some secret corporate
prototype for mainstream entertainment celebrities."
Zing!
I think your idea about utilizing the positive aspects of convergence to
foster an emergent mosaic culture through musical individuality is
great. It may be part of a key to developing useful distinctions between
distribution and access in music, based on where we would like to steer the industry.
What do you see as the potential role of music from “other”
cultures in effecting this revolution – and how to you see the influx
of technology into less developed countries affecting what more
developed countries pull from those different musical traditions?
-----
COMMENT:
AUTHOR: Peter
EMAIL: jonesp@wlu.edu
IP: 65.166.9.50
URL:
DATE: 01/11/2005 01:57:43 AM
In most ways, youre right... Pop culture is really bland cookie cutter
stuff, but every once in awhile something like Modest Mouse or Five For
Fighting comes along. These two bands had been way off the mainstream screen
for a long time, working hard, playing tiny clubs, releasing albums
that didn't sell... and suddenly after over a decade in the music biz as
a small fish they finally hit it big. So you never know where Pop culture is going to turn.
-----
COMMENT:
AUTHOR: katie
EMAIL: katieabplanalp@yahoo.com
IP: 137.113.14.141
URL:
DATE: 01/11/2005 10:05:35 AM
Isn't this amazing? Your dad's phone, our ipods. . I keep seeing technology
separtating from the control of industry and placing their services in
the hands of individuals. I first thought about it when I realized
that I almost always go through the "do it yourself" check-out line.
swipe your items, pay, and run! Then, when my dad bought a digital camera,
I saw it again. There was no longer a need for the camera shop to
develop film - just do it yourself at home! Now, with music, we don't have
to wait for musicians to record and produce their music.. . we can just
record a live concert and reproduce it ourselves on our cd burners.
Rather than convergence, I guess I feel like we are being defragmented in
that what used to be professional jobs are now becoming every-day,
common knowledge tasks. I wonder sometimes where this will take our society
-- this broad movement that is making us so self-reliant. As you say,
we may become a "hybrid culture, a single whole comprised of many individual parts."
-----
--------
AUTHOR: sandenb
TITLE: Music for money - come on!
ALLOW COMMENTS: 2
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY:
DATE: 01/11/2005 02:09:15 AM
-----
BODY:
In listening to Udell's thoughts about the evolution of music and reading
the thoughts of my classmates, several thoughts come to my mind. The
first is how exciting I find the spread of music during this time. I am
a music major and the availability of music to all people, I find, to
be a monumental and thrilling advantage to the day in which we live. I
am not entirely sure the world was ready for this surge of technological
power at the time it arrived, but here we are in the thick of it.
Accompanying this new-found availability, we find ourselves presented with
questions. Will bands loose money? Will people no longer attend live
concerts? Will the humanity behind the music cease with the increase of
technology as it's own instrument? Maybe I am just one with a simple
mind, but music will be fine and will healthily endure this change.
The humanity of music will survive just as it has throughout the 20th
century. Imagine how afraid the grandmothers and grandfathers of the
world were when the first radio broadcasts were being done, or the first
records were being recorded. Didn't they face the same fears of 'will
people stop attending the live symphony'? Well the symphony has endured
as will the appreciation for humanity behind and within the music. Now
if the music composed in these upcoming years lacks humanity in it's
content, that is another issue entirely and one I am not going to tackle today.
Regarding the issue of economics and a loss of money by these artists, I
guess I am not the best person to sympathize with the artist. I agree
with Justin when he cites that music has been a form of expression
throughout time, and I'll add it has only been considered a profession for
the past several hundred years. I myself am a music major and I will
be the first to tell you that I am qualified for very little in terms
of a future of big money. I study music because it has nothing to do
with the money - and I realize most any career I end up with will be far
from my major - but there is a love and a need within me to study music
that cannot be explained, understood to non-artists, OR PAID OFF. If
someone is in music for the money, I think they should find a career they truly love.
-----
EXTENDED BODY:
-----
EXCERPT:
-----
KEYWORDS:
-----
COMMENT:
AUTHOR: katie
EMAIL: katieabplanalp@yahoo.com
IP: 137.113.14.141
URL:
DATE: 01/11/2005 09:34:25 AM
I think you bring up an interesting point in looking at the history of music
and music making. The recording of music in general has not ceased
concert attendance, but rather (as many classmates have mentioned)
broadened the crowd. It's like the survival of the fittest in my mind. Now
that music has become so easily available, people will learn what they
love, and support the artists they enjoy! As an artist myself, I like
to believe that there is an audience for everything (be it one person or
one thousand). With these new resources, maybe that one person can
find a second, then a third, even as the thousand becomes ten or twenty
thousand -- as Brooke says, it's not always about the money (especially
in the arts). I may be an idealist like her - but I like to think
people listen and create things they love.
-----
--------
AUTHOR: iten
TITLE: better late than never
ALLOW COMMENTS: 2
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY:
DATE: 01/11/2005 10:30:00 AM
-----
BODY:
comments on the Udell podcast:
This podcast has left me more confused than ever, not necessarily about the
copyright connundrum which Udell proposes, but about his program in
general. At first I struggled to identify what the program was even
about... the random music clips which he talked over and read the
copyrights for their entirety were rather misleading, but finally I realized
that this was a podcast on the resources and the legality of them on the
web. But this did not cease my confusion...
Rooster Kale says that the Internet Archive is a do-able and cost effective
way to catalog all of human knowledge on the web. I have to agree with
Brooke here in saying as a music major... my god is that exciting, if
only this had been around longer, we could have seen if any of our piano
or violin greats even compared to the virtuosity of Liszt or Paganini.
However, the introduction of this tool now will only serve to allow the
music community to develop even further and reach even greater heights.
Okay, it all sounds great on paper, but what about all that crap on the
archive, which Udell plays a clip of one example. I don't know about this
stuff so maybe some one else can answer it, would it be possible for all
of this seemingly useless stuff to pile up and compound and waste
unbelievable amounts of space? Or is space on the web ever-increasing?
Regardless, who wants to hear that stuff? And who would listen to this Udell
podcast other than a scholar on the topic? He was monotonous and
boring. "too much great music remains in obscurity," but lots of terrible
stuff does too and there is a reason, if all of it is given an equal
front it could just be a recipe for wasting mass quantities of time
because one doesn't know what they are looking for.
After listening to the podcast however, I have come to one surprising
conclusion. People are human, and as much as we would like our artists to be
in it for their art, many are not. They cannot be penalized for this,
even though I am surprised to see myself type this, I fully respect the
right of the musician to sell out.
-----
EXTENDED BODY:
-----
EXCERPT:
-----
KEYWORDS:
-----
--------
AUTHOR: palazzolocm
TITLE: what's wrong with a professional musician?
ALLOW COMMENTS: 2
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY:
DATE: 01/11/2005 11:42:56 AM
-----
BODY:
i totally agree with beth. i do believe that there is such a thing as bad
music. granted, that label is relative to the listener, but i still
maintain that it is a possible label to place on a song or clip or some
random ensemble of weird sounds. and is it worth anyone's time or
energy to record, upload, name, and save someone scratching their finger
nails down a blackboard to the tune of beethoven's 5th just because it
is sound and can therefore, in a very loose interpretation, be called
music? call me crazy, but i really think there are better and more
important things people could be doing with their time.
as for the issue of a "professional" musician, one who is in the industry to
make money, i don't have a problem with that, either...to a certain
extent. people often complain when a musician starts to make money and
become popular because somehow that makes them less passionate about the
music itself. yet no scientist is ever accused of selling out just
because in grad school he was interested in cancer research but now he
is employed to develop a new, cheaper way of producing plastics. so
why is it just artists that face that kind of chastisement? moreover,
as Brooke pointed out, entering into the music industry does not
guarantee making money by any stretch of the imagination. so if someone has
the courage to pursue their dream, knowing there is a very real
possibility of living in a cardboard box on times square, then shouldn't we
be glad for them if their cd becomes a huge hit?
but, like i said, there is a limit to all this. when an artist starts to
record songs in a new style simply because he thinks that is what the
masses want and because he sees a chance to turn a pretty penny, then i
take issue with that. i guess what im saying is that i define "selling
out" in much looser terms. making money on music is not selling out.
giving up music to make a living is not selling out - thats being
practical. even someone who is not passionate about music but who is making
money from it is not selling out (it could be argued that he never had
anything to sell in the first place). for me, selling out is when an
artist becomes popular and makes money off of their original work, then
conforms to the popular sounds of the era just to increase their profit.
i guess you could say its when the artist becomes too greedy. a
little greed or ambition can be a good thing - it can motivate people. its
when people have too much greed or ambition that troubles arise...
-----
EXTENDED BODY:
-----
EXCERPT:
-----
KEYWORDS:
-----
COMMENT:
AUTHOR: iten
EMAIL: itenb@wlu.edu
IP: 137.113.41.11
URL:
DATE: 01/12/2005 04:52:24 PM
but how would we know if some one was a sell-out in your terms, how do we
distinguish that from an artist's natural stylistic evolution?
-----
COMMENT:
AUTHOR: Chris
EMAIL: yo@wlu.edu
IP: 137.113.42.9
URL:
DATE: 01/13/2005 02:05:06 PM
I think comparison of increased popularity to grad school/productive careers
for scientists is highly insightful. There does seem to be a double
standard for musicians... literally "selling out" is a good thing for a
store and the mark of sucessful business - why not a musician? I think
the schism boils down the the fact that we have a twisted idea of what
"natural" is. Namely that it exists at all.
We may see a lonesome impoverished croner as an abstraction of the ideal
musician, but the music of your average lonesome impoverished.... "musician" isn't that hot.
Obviously I'm taking an extreme example, but I think what we should be
focusing on in our analysis of originality is the kind of "natural" that we
want to create, because ultimately "natural" is only a useful human
definition of an evolved system. It would be interesting to try and set up
objective grounds for "natural" in the career of a musician... but I
don't think that's entirely possible.
-----
--------
AUTHOR: blackmer
TITLE: Spam cleanup
ALLOW COMMENTS: 0
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY:
DATE: 01/11/2005 10:12:42 PM
-----
BODY:
I went through and CLOSED the posts before 10 January, deleting more than a
dozen instances of offensive spam and banning 12 IP addresses in
perpetuity. It's probably best to CLOSE comments after a couple of days...
You do have to SAVE after changing the 'Allow Comments?' to CLOSED, so
that the entry will be rebuilt in the new configuration.
-----
EXTENDED BODY:
-----
EXCERPT:
-----
KEYWORDS:
-----
--------
AUTHOR: blackmer
TITLE: Haitian? Sudanese?
ALLOW COMMENTS: 2
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY:
DATE: 01/12/2005 07:02:07 AM
-----
BODY:
A question from Katie: did I have any sources for Haitian and Sudanese
music? My first thought was for stuff I have on vinyl, which is certainly
not current (though not without interest --got some incredible Haitian
piano, and some wonderful Sudanese oud). The next thought was that the
Haitian emigrant community might have Internet radio, one term for which
is 'shoutcast'... so I did a Google search for those words and sure
enough... the first hit in the list is Signal 42, and
one of the links there led me to heritagekonpa.com... and so on. So there IS Haitian Internet radio.
So what about Sudanese? Naaaaah, I thought... but did a Google search
for the phrase "sudanese music" and lo and behold,
900+ hits...
So the moral is: it really is the 21st century, and there really
are unprecedented affordances for us to explore and discover.
Thanks to Katie for the object lesson.
-----
EXTENDED BODY:
-----
EXCERPT:
-----
KEYWORDS:
-----
COMMENT:
AUTHOR: katie
EMAIL: katieabplanalp@yahoo.com
IP: 137.113.14.141
URL:
DATE: 01/16/2005 10:16:03 AM
wow! not only did we find some radio links, but there is also a recording
of Aristide's first response to the world after his 'kidnapping' last
year. I remember there being many obscurities at that time as to what
exactly was said on both the US and Haitian sides. I hadn't seen any
hardcore evidence until this! I don't know if any of you are up to date
on the situation, but it's been a concern of mine ever since my parish
here in Lex matched with a "twin" parish in Fond Pierre Haiti. So
here's the link for Aristide's speech (translated on radio and also typed
out): http://www.flashpoints.net/aristide_translation.html
Furthermore, when I pursued the Sudanese music, I found a great website that
has links to radio stations in Africa. WOW. it's amazing some of the
songs they have on there. If you're interested: http://www.findafrica.com/radio.html
-----
--------
AUTHOR: ruminj
TITLE: Do the "Mash"
ALLOW COMMENTS: 2
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY:
DATE: 01/12/2005 12:30:43 PM
-----
BODY:
-----
EXTENDED BODY:
I just read The New Yorker article “1+1+1=1” and am quite intrigued by
several dilemmas that arise from “mashups.” Prior to this class I had
never heard of the term, and quite frankly in the subsequent week of
thinking about mashups I was never compelled to equate them with the
remixes that we as a generation have grown up with. However, upon thinking
about the relationship between the two, I first began to wonder about
the legality of remixes themselves (this is perhaps where my utter
ignorance concerning these matters comes into play). Admittedly, I don’t
know a whole lot about remixes, not having listened to them all that
much. For me, what comes to mind is the fact that a dj take one
artist’s work (do they give notification to the artist whose song they are
using- are they supposed to?), and “re-mix” it so that the song’s melody
is still discernible but nevertheless changed, or perhaps the song’s
rhythm is altered. Is this a fair enough definition of a re-mix? I’m not sure.
If remixes are in fact legal, I see no problem with mashups (unless,
as some of my classmates have noted, they completely destroy the
original songs that they mash together). However, this small objection then
raises the question, who is it that decides if a mash is a “good” one?
As the article tells us, some artists whose songs have been used to
make these mashes, including Madonna and the Sex Pistols, “admire” the
artistry of mashups and therefore have no problem with artists using
their material. Does this mean, then, that the original artists should
be designated with the task of deciding what is “good” and what is
garbage? For if this is in fact the consensus, it provides a solution to
the problem but also obviously severely limits the number of mashups
that are out there, meaning that although I may have the technology to
do so, I could not legally create a mashup (but really, would the public
really want me to? I doubt it). On the other hand, even if mashups do
remain illegal, Temple-Morris, one individual who does invent these
mashups, encouragingly says that “We get our wrists slapped by the
record companies and publishing companies and whatever. But these days
there’s much more love, much less paranoia.”
The bottom line is that I’m sure that there are a lot of horrible
mashups out there, many of them which would waste my time- a problem which
may have no solution. Nevertheless, I believe that mashups are original
pieces of art, in some ways similar to William Burroughs’ “cut-up”
style of literature (although mashing is certainly less random than
Burroughs method), and therefore possibly worthwhile endeavors. For
instance, I am dying (if my technological illiteracy allows it) to hear the
mash of Christina Aguilera and the Velvet Underground- the prospect of
such a mash alone thrills me, and I simply must hear it. Certainly
there are a number of questions that remain unanswered at this point in time
concerning mashups, but I remain convinced that they, like MP3 players
and remixes, are here to stay.
-----
EXCERPT:
-----
KEYWORDS:
-----
--------
AUTHOR: blackmer
TITLE: responding to John's posting
ALLOW COMMENTS: 2
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY:
DATE: 01/12/2005 07:06:12 PM
-----
BODY:
I'm not sure if this is THE Aguilera/Velvet U. mashup (kinda think maybe
not), but this site does list one such remix. See also this one
for more ("dj jonny moire hops on the mashed-up bangwagon, and brings you a hearty meal of
mashed bangers ”the best banging tracks, all mashed up in jonny's big
beats blender. chunky electro with sweaty r'n'b, slick synthpop with
punky pop. mashed bangers pulverizes jonny's previous popstarz manic mix
hands down” 47 songs from 45 different artists crammed into 21 tracks
spanning 76 minutes. can you handle it?") --103.4 MB... And try this soundfile
for a come-on. The January Wired article is here.
Seems to me that many of these are being offered as slight extensions of
what club DJs have been doing for a very long time.
I see lots of remix sites out there, but I'm not sufficiently familiar with
the music being mashed to hear/recognize the artistry (it just sounds
like music-I-don't-listen-to to me). Seems to be a lot at www.engineerzofsoul.nl, but there
are many other claimants to the crown. Another: mashmix.com
-----
EXTENDED BODY:
-----
EXCERPT:
-----
KEYWORDS:
-----
--------
AUTHOR: blackmer
TITLE: What They Sang To Me
ALLOW COMMENTS: 2
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY:
DATE: 01/13/2005 09:33:15 AM
-----
BODY:
An interesting example of a music podcast, in this case an exploration of
the author's personal involvement with Bob Dylan's Tangled Up in Blue
(links directly to the mp3 file, more than 20 minutes).
It's really from the heart, and probably says more about
David Johnson than about Bob Dylan, but hey... The site What They Sang To Me
is on my RSS feeds, and I've often found his perspectives interesting and illuminating.
-----
EXTENDED BODY:
-----
EXCERPT:
-----
KEYWORDS:
-----
COMMENT:
AUTHOR: John
EMAIL: ruminj@wlu.edu
IP: 137.113.161.29
URL:
DATE: 01/13/2005 02:02:00 PM
That's an interesting take on one of Dylan's most famous songs, one that
marked his return as America's premier singer-songwriter. I don't
completely agree with Johnson's reading, but it's always nice to broaden my
perspective of any Dylan song- good one.
-John
-----
COMMENT:
AUTHOR: katie
EMAIL: katieabplanalp@yahoo.com
IP: 137.113.14.141
URL:
DATE: 01/16/2005 10:54:36 AM
Interesting perspective here - it was a hard line to draw between what
really was just what Dylan said and what was Johnson's reaction to it.
However, I like his presentation of his perspective by prefacing that he
does not mean to imply what Dylan meant, but show how the song affected him.
I want to read "Chronicles" now, and learn more about what's behind this
musician's life and lyrics. I like the quote where Dylan didn't want to
explain what he was doing, because he didn't feel like there should be a
need to explain. . . I feel like that should be true with all art, but then I think about the next quote:
"Musicians have always known that my songs were about
more than just words - but most people are not musicians." - Dylan -
. . .and I realize even more that there are some things you just CAN'T
explain. .. this definitely hits home for me, because (as I said earlier)
- sometimes I listen to a song and really don't even know what the words
are, but FEEL what it means (to me, at least). It's an amazing experience.
I also like how Johnson describes music as an extension of a self, and how
that extension can connect with people who may not even know you. In
reference to Dylan, speaking about Hank Williams:
"I didn't have to experience anything that Hank did to know what he was
singing about. I had never seen a robin weep, but I could imagine it and it
made me sad." Re: (I'm so lonesome I could cry)
We're sitting here talking about good and bad music -- well this could be a
definite test for me in defining good music: anything that I can
identify with even if I haven't experienced.
I love how Johnson describes his connection with "tangled" more than "blue"
saying that he feels"the emotion of a tangled feeling. . .close but not
there. . . glimpse of hope, then loss of hope." And yet at the same
time, all those things make up the blue. beautiful.
p.s. - anyone have "Bob Dylan biograph" that I could borrow?
-----
--------
AUTHOR: doughertyt
TITLE: Folk melodies, and ahoy to Brooke
ALLOW COMMENTS: 2
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY:
DATE: 01/13/2005 02:11:49 PM
-----
BODY:
We had an interesting class discussion on Tuesday about whether folk
melodies retooled by other artists should be considered copyright
infringement, because really, who owns those songs? When asked in class
whether or not people should be allowed to do that, my answer was, as long
as it's not crap, and to that I hold. If someone who considers themself
an artist (for this is the work of an artist, not a musician) decides
to do a techno remix of "Amazing Grace", which I'm sure exists
somewhere, though I personally don't care to listen to it, then surely they
should do it. However the muse moves you, you go ahead and act upon it.
However, if it's crap, don't allow me to hear it. Keep it to yourself.
In my personal music library, I have two very different versions of
"Amazing Grace", one by Ani DiFranco, and one by Tori Amos. Both of these
are very different - Ani brings in a whole brass section at the second
verse and keeps the other instruments to a minimum. Every artist has
their own interpretation of a song, and they should be allowed to
release that... if it actually qualifies as music. For instance, Britney
Spears's little cover of "I Love Rock & Roll"? Hardly music. It sounds
more like a little kid with a cold playing dressup and pretending to be
a badass. To me, that is not music.
Will people be offended if we take their culture's melodies and make them
into our own songs? Possibly. That is not something that I haven't
considered. I also realize, however, that you can't please everyone. If your
version of their song gets back to them, and they think it's
sacriligious/total crap, then to honor them, take it off the market. It
wasn't "your song" to begin with.
In reading the other entries, I stumbled across Brooke's entry in which she
stated something along the lines of, "If you are in music for the money,
find something else that you love." I am also a music major, and I am
most definitely in music for the money. Granted, I know it's not much,
but if I can make a couple of cents by writing a few lines, of course
I'm going to. It will be a labor of love, the fruit of which the entire
world could possibly hear. I want people to hear the music that I
create, and I want to make money from the music that I create because that
is time I could have spent doing something else, like, you know,
working a "real" job. But I chose music, because I love it, and I want to
ensure the future of the sound of music is to my liking, and what better
way to do that then to be a part of it?
-----
EXTENDED BODY:
-----
EXCERPT:
-----
KEYWORDS:
-----
--------
AUTHOR: blackmer
TITLE: Harry Partch
ALLOW COMMENTS: 2
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY:
DATE: 01/14/2005 06:47:16 AM
-----
BODY:
I first heard of Harry Partch when I was in high school, and I've been
keeping track ever since. You hafta spend some time exploring
this amazing page of examples and explanations. Partch's Genesis of
a music; an account of a creative work, its roots and its fulfillments
(ML1400 .P3 1974) and Bitter music : collected journals,
essays, introductions, and librettos (ML410.P176 A3 1991) are really
worth a look if you're interested in experimental music... or
maybe that ought to EXPERIMENTAL.
Seeing this page makes me realize that I need to spend some more class time
on instruments and the building of musical sound affordances. After the flamenco stuff, I think...
-----
EXTENDED BODY:
-----
EXCERPT:
-----
KEYWORDS:
-----
--------
AUTHOR: blackmer
TITLE: Playing around with Webjay
ALLOW COMMENTS: 2
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY:
DATE: 01/16/2005 10:24:30 AM
-----
BODY:
The general subject of social software (including but not limited to
bookmarks shared among many people, most of whom never meet except via the
medium of the Web) has absorbed a good deal of my attention in the last
six months. I haven't started messing with Webjay myself until quite
recently, and like most such environments I'm finding that its utility
grows rapidly with use. Others have been at it longer, and have
developed some really cool approaches. Take a look/listen at/to
Chris Corrigan's rolling list of world music ("My own ever-changing top 40 of eclectic world music ...).
Today I happened upon a large collection of 1940s-1950s Bollywood filmi music
and put one particularly tasty item into my newly-established
Bollywood playlist (try it out --Bogi Bogi Bogi).
I have the feeling that my playlists could grow explosively, if I turned my
attention in that direction. Would that be ...ummm... wise?
phauly (Paolo Massa) seems to be covering the bases very nicely, though I've only begun to
explore the riches he's gathered in his playlists.
-----
EXTENDED BODY:
-----
EXCERPT:
-----
KEYWORDS:
-----
--------
AUTHOR: hourenk
TITLE: music borrowing
ALLOW COMMENTS: 2
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY:
DATE: 01/18/2005 01:05:14 AM
-----
BODY:
Upon listening to the topic of the first assignment, I couldn't help
wondering about the niches of music that could potentially be the future of
the music industry. With the internet and the vast body of information
and meda transmitable to a worldwide audience immediately, I find that
it is impossible to think that MP3 files could not be the future of
music. I also think that musicians that have taken a cue from napster and
other free music sites have seen the wave of the future. It seems to me
that the web has become a constant free, virtual concert for interested
musicians interested in sharing their art more than making money from
their art. But I can't help but separate the musician from the music
business. Bach, for instance, was never a well known musician during
his lifetime, but instead an unknown, albiet prolific, church musician
later discovered by Mendelssohn in the Romantic period - some 200-300
years after his time. We now consider Bach a staple of the Baroque
period and classical music studies in general. Is it those "free" musicians
that see their art as an entity to be enjoyed firstly and bought
perhaps secondly or not at all that make discovery of incredible music
unknown? Are they following in the footsteps of all great starving artists
before them but instead cutting out the middle man - the great explorer
or discover, the Mendelssohn to our Bach? I don't know what the
internet will hold for the future of music, or the entity of the album for
that matter. But I await new developments with interest. Final thought
- in these changing times, will the internet destroy the album as our attention spans wane?
-----
EXTENDED BODY:
-----
EXCERPT:
-----
KEYWORDS:
-----
--------
AUTHOR: blackmer
TITLE: What are we to make of...
ALLOW COMMENTS: 2
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY:
DATE: 01/18/2005 06:36:20 AM
-----
BODY:
I'm always on the lookout for stuff happening at the fringes of anything
I'm interested in, and this blog posting
on an emerging media type (repurposed sound with new video
content) is a case in point. If you have no clue what "badger badger" is all about, you really must follow
the link... and then see its Potterite sequel...
The overlay of Japanese text on a Romanian pop song is surely a bizarre
facet of globalization, and we can confidently expect a rash of such ...erm... creativity.
-----
EXTENDED BODY:
-----
EXCERPT:
-----
KEYWORDS:
-----
--------
AUTHOR: gaiteric
TITLE: fractured fractals freckle
ALLOW COMMENTS: 2
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY:
DATE: 01/18/2005 02:33:54 PM
-----
BODY:
Listen to this midi - it was created with the same algorithm that generates the
mandelbrot set – not bad for something you can do with ~7 lines of code.
I’ve been thinking about the relationship of self-similarity to music
hedonics not just in a particular piece, but in music as a whole
Do fractal pattern in some sense direct the development of music within a
tradition – i.e. are minor innovations just as important as major
ones, or conversely, are major shifts not really that surprising? I
think that the answer to this question relates to the balance of
diversity and stability in music as a complex system. If this is the case,
another important question to consider is whether music is multiply or
infinitely connected.
Indeed, is the (potentially) fractal nature of music what we value about it
– that we hear all of “our” other music in each new
song? In this case it would be our interaction with music that creates
what might be termed a meta-fractal whose structure drives our
fascination with arranged noise.
Basically… is music fractal (on a discipline level), fractured (Chris,
this attempt is sophomoric), freckled (hybrid listener/music fractal) or all of the above?
-----
EXTENDED BODY:
-----
EXCERPT:
-----
KEYWORDS:
-----
--------
AUTHOR: blackmer
TITLE: Replying to Chris
ALLOW COMMENTS: 2
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY:
DATE: 01/18/2005 06:00:30 PM
-----
BODY:
(bloggery tells me I can't post a comment... so here's my entry)
I found that RealOne fetched a plugin for .mid files and played it with no
problem. What it puts me most in mind of is the work of Conlon
Nancarrow, whose medium of choice was piano rolls. I put a link to
material about him in my log file last week: A Sense of Place: The Life and Work of Conlon Nancarrow
30-minute PRI program from archive.org ...and now of course I'll have to bring in an example or two.
What a great question in paragraph 2. The writer to whom I would point for a
comment on this is Douglas Hofstadter (if y'all don't know about
Gödel Escher Bach you really should ... see the A9.com search here for more).
-----
EXTENDED BODY:
-----
EXCERPT:
-----
KEYWORDS:
-----
--------
AUTHOR: sandenb
TITLE: A discussion of cante jondo
ALLOW COMMENTS: 2
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY:
DATE: 01/18/2005 09:17:00 PM
-----
BODY:
I found the singing we heard today in class absolutely fascinating. I do
not know if those singers are just trained a different way from
westerners or if they are ruining their voices by the 'westerly trained'
definition or if their voices sound the way they do because they have
been abused, but the result is like nothing I have ever heard before.
I won't spend this whole blog talking about vocal technique, but it
definitely cannot escape mention the amount of resonance most of those
singers achieve. They are allowing their voice to use so much of their face
for the tone of the singing that the vibrations through their nose and
face creates almost a buzz in their tonality and that is a totally
legitimate, practiced and desired characteristic of western professional
singers. It is the way to get the best and most powerful tone with the
least effort and damage... that having been said - how do they make
their voices sound so "brazen, overwrought and tortured?"
I am torn in attributing this sound and style to the nature of the emotions
they are expressing, and the explanation that they are just taught to
sing that way. I feel the answer probably lies between the two which
means that we, having western ears are caught looking for emotion in the
tone, but knowing that the entire sound is different and emotional
because it is so new to us. I feel this cante jondo could be compared very
readily to opera because so much emotion IS expressed through the
sound. The way I have always understood opera is that the text is of such a
secondary importance that many people attend operas barely knowing the
story, much less having read the libretto. All the sentiment expressed
in the story is within the music - perhaps that is how flamenco songs
are meant to be explored. Perhaps the true message and rare emotion is
within the tone of the singer and the motions of the dance and not in the text at all.
If you remember the Gypsy woman who mournfully sang on top of the hill while
her little boy built a fire, we did not hear her text in English until
after the song was finished, but it was clear to me as I am sure it was
to many that she was in great anguish long before we understood her words.
-----
EXTENDED BODY:
-----
EXCERPT:
-----
KEYWORDS:
-----
COMMENT:
AUTHOR: katie
EMAIL: abplanalpk@wlu.edu
IP: 137.113.171.9
URL:
DATE: 01/25/2005 09:53:42 AM
I agree completely -- this type of connection between emotions and
projection creates a completely different gut-wrenching reaction to the flamenco songs.
This makes me question, however, where the "advancement" of music has taken
us. As you indicated once when we spoke about the rhythms developing in
more modern "western" music - I wonder sometimes if that comes at the
expense of the natural expression that the freedom of flamenco allows.
-----
--------
AUTHOR: jonesp
TITLE: cant get it out of my brain
ALLOW COMMENTS: 2
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY:
DATE: 01/18/2005 11:24:39 PM
-----
BODY:
So after seeing all the Flamenco stuff I was really jazzed up. I knew I had
heard this stuff before on a latin jazz cd I had. Its the soundtrack of
the movie "calle 54" by Fernando Trueba. The movie is much like the
flamenco movie we saw today with various "music videos/scenes." There is one
that is almost totally like we saw today, except minus the guitar and
add really harmonically advanced piano and bass playing with a jazz
drummer. In the movie you see the dancer and the background clappers, but
unfortunately no copy in the library. There was a website with short
clips but now that is gone and even the internet wayback machine can't help me.
You can listen to the really sweet clip here
piano - Chano Dominguez
singer - Blas Cordoba "el Kejio"
My other favorite track on the album from Michel Camilo's
trio with Anthony Jackson on bass and "el Negro" Hernandez on drums
sorry the tracks take a long time to download...
-----
EXTENDED BODY:
-----
EXCERPT:
-----
KEYWORDS:
-----
--------
AUTHOR: gaiteric
TITLE: responding to Hugh, responding to me
ALLOW COMMENTS: 2
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY:
DATE: 01/19/2005 12:47:37 AM
-----
BODY:
Hofstadter - what a mind. So perhaps we're fascinated by the inevitably
incomplete, and our interaction with music forms a kind of strange loop
- very roughly "freckled" - but in that case does humanity play for a cosmic ethnomusicologist?
BTW, have you ever read "Time: A Traveler's Guide" by Clifford Pickover?"
He uses music as more of a major plot element, but it's one
of the most enjoyable books about modern physics I've ever read. A few
people of the board could probably chime in on that too ;-)
Here's a brief summary of GEB
if someone hasn't read the book. And tangetially related... auditory illusions.
I'm unable to post comments as well, so my apols., this is living large...
-----
EXTENDED BODY:
-----
EXCERPT:
-----
KEYWORDS:
-----
COMMENT:
AUTHOR: Hugh
EMAIL: blackmerh@wlu.edu
IP: 137.113.104.128
URL:
DATE: 01/19/2005 12:52:00 PM
The problem with being unable to post comments is because the "include
HTML?" is turned off to discourage spammers. Not sure what I think about
that, since I often want to include URLs myself, so I've taken to just
pasting in the URL without its hyperlink anchors.
Meanwhile, I'll plug another Hofstadter book I'm really fond of:
Le Ton Beau de Marot: In Praise of the Music of Language
--which is about Translation, sort of (well, it's about Everything, because it's Hofstadter...).
Jaw-droppingly excellent.
-----
--------
AUTHOR: ruminj
TITLE: Impressed
ALLOW COMMENTS: 2
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY:
DATE: 01/19/2005 09:55:47 AM
-----
BODY:
-----
EXTENDED BODY:
First off, I am not a music major so I can't really discern the
significance/sophistication of what many of these flamenco musicians are
doing with their talents. Insofar as the singing is concerned, I am
fascinated by Brooke's comments on their approach- looking back upon what I
saw, they definitely used their facial contortions/nasal passage to
create a resonance which many Western singers lack. Likewise, the
choreography of the dancers really amazed me- even taking into consideration
the practice which goes into these dances (which we witnessed in "Carmen"),
the fluidity with which the dancers moved and their
interpertation of the music's rhythm was pretty stunning. Again, not a very
sophisticated comment, but those were my initial impressions. Having
dabbled at the guitar myself, I was most interested by the flamenco
guitarists. Their creation of the sometimes complicated flamenco rhythm
was impressive enough, but I was really excited by the close-ups of each
guitarist's fingers. The finger-picking was incredible, I know that
from my own experience I have struggled tremendously in that area.
Likewise, the rapidity with which they moved around the fretboard was as
fast as I've seen in a while. That said, could anyone tell me the name
of the last guitarist that we saw? I missed it when it was mentioned
in class and would like to check out some more of his stuff. I can't
say that I'm a huge fan of flamenco music yet- I sometimes found the
vocals hard to handle. But as far as the instruments are concerned, I
have to admire the skill of their craft and certainly left class
impressed with the innovations of this particular genre.
-----
EXCERPT:
-----
KEYWORDS:
-----
COMMENT:
AUTHOR: Hugh
EMAIL: blackmerh@wlu.edu
IP: 137.113.104.128
URL:
DATE: 01/19/2005 12:46:00 PM
The guitarist is Paco de Lucia.
http://www.flamenco-world.com/guitar/pacodelucia/pacodelucia.htm is one Web site with a lot of stuff.
His recent CD Cositas Buenas is, well, brilliant
-----
--------
AUTHOR: hourenk
TITLE: flamenco
ALLOW COMMENTS: 2
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY:
DATE: 01/19/2005 03:30:25 PM
-----
BODY:
The flamenco music we looked at in class seems strikingly similar to the
gypsy music we discussed the class before last. I find the genres most
similar in the vocal technique used. But we should all notice a trend
- these musicians tell us much about their culture and what is important
to them through the music and the especially the lyrics. The emotion
displayed through the vocal technique of each genre points to the
hardship each culture has faced, and I think that it clues us westerner's
into the difficulties of living in a largely nomadic lifestyle. There
is something very free and exciting about living a trancently, but also
uncertain. I think that the range and arpeggiatic nature of the
vocalizations is especially important to consider in conjunction with the
uncertainty of this kind of existence. The lyrics, which seemed to me
mostly about basic human relationships and specifically male-female
relationships are very important to the music and these cultures, because
ultimately they only have each other to rely upon for emotional
sustinence. I hope to find these kinds of similarities in the other genres
that we study and to explore each cultures' interest in these very
basic but fundementally important and human relationships in the future.
-----
EXTENDED BODY:
-----
EXCERPT:
-----
KEYWORDS:
-----
--------
AUTHOR: jonesp
TITLE: african drumming
ALLOW COMMENTS: 2
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY:
DATE: 01/19/2005 05:30:58 PM
-----
BODY:
There hasn't been much mention of this, but there will be African drumming
lessons in the Commons tonite at 8pm as a part of "Uncommon Grounds." should be ethnomusical...
-----
EXTENDED BODY:
-----
EXCERPT:
-----
KEYWORDS:
-----
--------
AUTHOR: luc
TITLE: love it!
ALLOW COMMENTS: 2
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY:
DATE: 01/19/2005 11:45:28 PM
-----
BODY:
All the vignettes that we watched are absolutely fascinating!!!
Flamenco.. it’s full of energy, force, and power. It’s an expression of strength, courage, and dignity.
In choir, we are always advised to NOT oversing so that we would not damage
our vocal chords, so when I watched/listened to musicians from the
vignettes, I was astonished by their vocal technique. It was amazing to see
the way in which they use their voices to tell their stories of
hardship and struggles… an intense expression of their lives and conditions.
In the film Carmen, it was interesting to see how the musicians practice—
Yes, they do need to practice because they need the physical, mental, and emotional discipline.
-----
EXTENDED BODY:
-----
EXCERPT:
-----
KEYWORDS:
-----
--------
AUTHOR: abplanalpk
TITLE: the rhythms...
ALLOW COMMENTS: 2
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY:
DATE: 01/20/2005 10:47:08 AM
-----
BODY:
I had no idea there were so many variations of the flamenco. I have only
danced it once, and that was so long ago, all I remembered was the 1-2-3.
I remember it being tricky, but while watching the videos I really couldn't keep up with the beat.
Watching the musicians, and even the singers - when they tap the table with
their hands - helps me to see the beat, but actually tapping it out on
my own was SO hard! I wonder why it is that westerners (or is it just
me) find it difficult to feel those rhythms. Also, it makes western
music look so tame. . . we think that our songs express emotion, but I
don't think they do so as much as these musicians do -- I keep seeing
images of those last two men singing. There was no need for
accompaniment, no rhythm really either. They just sang it out - our sounded
- or released. It was beautiful. That's a music with power.
-----
EXTENDED BODY:
-----
EXCERPT:
-----
KEYWORDS:
-----
COMMENT:
AUTHOR: Pete
EMAIL: jonesp@wlu.edu
IP: 137.113.171.129
URL:
DATE: 01/20/2005 01:11:23 PM
Of course, the harmonies of Western "classical" music have advanced much farther
than the harmonies of Flamenco.
-----
COMMENT:
AUTHOR: katie
EMAIL: abplanalpk@wlu.edu
IP: 137.113.171.9
URL:
DATE: 01/25/2005 09:59:06 AM
yes, I agree that our harmonies have become more technically arranged and
systematic - but do you not find awe in how they sing from this
outpouring vat of emotion and experience to create sounds that aren't read from a page but rather felt!?
-----
--------
AUTHOR: kosciolekd
TITLE: flamenco and the blues
ALLOW COMMENTS: 2
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY:
DATE: 01/20/2005 12:32:30 PM
-----
BODY:
I have never seen anything like the flamenco stuff that we looked at, and it
was absolutely wonderful to hear it, and especially see it. Looking at
the faces as they sang the songs with all the emotion really reminded
me of watching blues singers. It’s fascinating that the area where
flamenco and blues come from are so geographically far, but there are
similarities that bring them very close to one another. The recurring
phrase about “having you at my side” that seemed inserted in many of the
flamenco songs is like recurring phrases in blues songs that artists use
for years and years. When I hear a line like, “I ain’t had no lovin
since you been gone,” it makes me think, what a great blues line. And
now, whenever I hear “with you by my side” I know I’m going to think of flamenco songs.
Both flamenco and blues songs are hardly wordy, but they definitely get the
most out of what they use. I’m not sure what the view of flamenco
artists is, but I wonder if its something like old blues guys in that you
don’t want to live their life, but the lifestyle is romanticized.
Watching the younger people dance and sing was great, but what really
grabbed my attention were the two older guys sitting and singing without instruments
-----
EXTENDED BODY:
-----
EXCERPT:
-----
KEYWORDS:
-----
--------
AUTHOR: hsings
TITLE: Brilliant!
ALLOW COMMENTS: 2
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY:
DATE: 01/20/2005 02:32:25 PM
-----
BODY:
I was fortunate enough to watch "Flamenco" in its entirety and by the end I
realized it was brilliant. What struck me immediately was the stark
contrast between the vibrancy of the music – the sounds, the emotions
– with the simple, crisp backdrops. I thought it was such a strange
combination of what seemed like complete opposites. But then I thought
about it and realized that Carlos Saura was brilliant and how perfectly they
fit together. Even in our class discussions of what the terms flamenco
and gypsy brought to mind, we never hit the amazing intricacy, control,
and accuracy that is found in it. Although, the music sounds wild and
free, crazy and amazingly vibrant it still has this sense of control
that perhaps gives it the freedom that we hear. Oddly enough, it is
somewhat like ballet, extremely controlled and precise but visually
amazingly fluid and free. This is what flamenco is too! The balance of
precision and fluidity. Therefore, the simple backdrops of solid color
and solitary light seem perfect. The wild (yet controlled) motions of
the dancers, as they stomp out every single beat perfectly, against the
solid backdrops works to show this balance. I thought it was just brilliant!
On a side note: after watching the movie with my friend, he burned me a
c.d. he thought I should have. It is an album from the “group” Ojos de
Brujo. If you have ever heard of the Gotan project it’s the same basic
idea, except instead of tango, they use flamenco. So if you haven’t
heard it, it’s a mix of traditional flamenco with hip hop, jazz, and a
little electonica mixed in. It’s pretty amazing too! And a bit more
accessible to people who aren’t familiar to the sounds of traditional flamenco.
-----
EXTENDED BODY:
-----
EXCERPT:
-----
KEYWORDS:
-----
--------
AUTHOR: doughertyt
TITLE: swooshing dresses and pained faces
ALLOW COMMENTS: 2
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY:
DATE: 01/20/2005 02:48:44 PM
-----
BODY:
Those two things in my title were the things I noticed most about the
flamenco movies. The contortions the singers's faces took when they were
singing those notes were absolutely amazing, awe-inspiring, and
incredibly real emotion. I heard that come through particularly well when
their voices cracked and you could see the strain on their faces when
they tried to sing the next note. To me, that was absolutely beautiful.
But you were right - if I had heard anything like that on the radio, I
probably would have turned it off. Seeing the musicians actually do it
made it that much more compelling. It seemed appropriate for silence in
the room for two minutes after each scene simply because there was such
a heavy mood and intense expression in each dance that it seemed
overwhelming to even begin to comprehend. Each little grace note in the
voice, each little arpeggio in the guitar, each twirl of the skirt and stamp
of the foot has a meaning that the musicians and dancers pull from the
deepest places of their being. To be able to share in that experience
by witnessing a dance was definitely amazing, to say the least.
The expressiveness of the whole dance was something that really stood out to
me, particularly in the first "Bolerias". The flamenco skirt can do so
much in terms of its own vividness and movement and everything. The way
the woman's heels clicked as she moved with the man and the sensuality
that flowed between them though you knew the dance was rehearsed was
brilliant. I'll write more when class is done.
-----
EXTENDED BODY:
-----
EXCERPT:
-----
KEYWORDS:
-----
--------
AUTHOR: palazzolocm
TITLE: Flaming Flamenco
ALLOW COMMENTS: 2
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY:
DATE: 01/20/2005 02:55:09 PM
-----
BODY:
I really enjoyed watching the film on the flamenco genre. I was entralled
with the dancing, although I must admit that the majority of the
singing was a bit too guttural for me. I suppose that's my Westernized ear
speaking. But that did not prohibit me from recognizing the extreme
passion and deep emotions that they communicated in their songs. The
English subtitles helped me understand the context of the songs, but I
still would have been moved without them. Moreover, the colors were
spectacular and the beat was so infective that I found myself tapping my
hands and feet on more than one occassion. But I think what struck me
most of all about the film(s) was the effortlessness with which each
song was performed. Even in the first film when the girls were rehearsing,
there was never a question of their talent or ability to perform
the moves. It simply a question of when they would all come together to
execute the dance in unision with all the emotion they were supposed to
deliver. But the dance itself, its techniques and even identification
with the message contained in each song, seemed truly inherent in their
very beings. Watching them dance really brought out the
"inside/outside" factor we discussed in class, not because I felt I did
not understand what was taking place, but because I knew I could never
move/sing like that, and my subsequent conviction that no one but these people could.
-----
EXTENDED BODY:
-----
EXCERPT:
-----
KEYWORDS:
-----
--------
AUTHOR: jonesp
TITLE: dot com blues
ALLOW COMMENTS: 2
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY:
DATE: 01/21/2005 02:09:34 AM
-----
BODY:
Well, I stand corrected on not being able to play the blues about computers. Check out dot com blues
You also sing the blues about Tuition with "Tuition Blues"
Jimmy Smith is one of the originators of the Soul-Jazz organ-guitar-drum
trio thing. Also has great gospel influenced jazz going on "The
Sermon." This album is a sort of resurrected Jimmy Smith with a variety of
big blues names like BB King, taj mahal, etc. I have one of his other
new cds called "Damn!" which is appropriate, because he rocks.
-----
EXTENDED BODY:
-----
EXCERPT:
-----
KEYWORDS:
-----
--------
AUTHOR: iten
TITLE: the breaking point
ALLOW COMMENTS: 2
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY:
DATE: 01/23/2005 08:17:38 PM
-----
BODY:
On the flamenco film... I was loving it, absolutely loving it, until I
believe it was the second to last example we watched. It was the one which
made Hugh say afterward that if we only just heard the music and didn't
see it we would probably be able to relate to it less. I agree with
that, but that one example was just too much for me, not sounding
anymore like soulful lamentations but just whininess. Perhaps if I had more
background on the particular song, I would appreciate it more, but I
hit my flamenco appreciation breaking point there. I'm not sure about
everyone else's opinion on this particular piece, but if it was similar
than perhaps there is something that will always separate (at least
some of us) from those who can truly comprehend and perform flamenco.
-----
EXTENDED BODY:
-----
EXCERPT:
-----
KEYWORDS:
-----
COMMENT:
AUTHOR: Brooke
EMAIL: Sandenb@wlu.edu
IP: 137.113.41.2
URL:
DATE: 01/26/2005 09:40:42 PM
Yeah, Sweetie, I know what you mean but not in regards to the flamenco
music. I was still with it for the old men singing - my breaking point was
Janice Joplin in our last class. I did not know I had a breaking point
in music, but I DO! I could tolerate the other two bands we saw from
the same DVD - The Animals and The Who... I could at least stomach it,
but Joplin was over the edge. I can empathize with your broken-ness, just not in the flamenco men.
-----
--------
AUTHOR: iten
TITLE: mashup?
ALLOW COMMENTS: 2
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY:
DATE: 01/24/2005 12:15:10 PM
-----
BODY:
Found this on Boing Boing... what do you guys think, is this thing really a
mashup or is it more of a medley??
Whistler's Delight mashup mixes 22 whistling songs
DJ Riko's "Whistler's Delight" is a mash-up that mixes together dozens of
songs in which part or all of the action is accomplished through
whistling -- Andy of Mayberry theme, Sweet Georgia Brown, Dock of the Bay,
Whistle While You Work, and so on. Twenty-two songs in all, expertly
pitch-bent to the same key and mixed together. I'm really digging it.
www.djriko.com/music/DJ%20Riko%20-%20Whistler%27s%20Delight%20(Full%20version).mp3
-----
EXTENDED BODY:
-----
EXCERPT:
-----
KEYWORDS:
-----
--------
AUTHOR: ruminj
TITLE: "Weary" Blues
ALLOW COMMENTS: 2
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY:
DATE: 01/24/2005 08:47:24 PM
-----
BODY:
-----
EXTENDED BODY:
I'm really enjoying this section of the class. I've always been fascinated
by the emotion conveyed by the blues and the virtuoso of guitarists
such as Robert Johnson. Likewise, I'm interested in the impact that
bluesmen such as Johnson and Son House have had on more recent rock
musicians, and I thought that the Hendrix video clips were a perfect
demonstration of this- you have to love Jimi, both for his musical genius
and his presence on stage- the man knew how to work an audience. But
what I liked most on Hugh's log file were the numerous postings
commenting upon the details surrounding the life and death of Robert
Johnson. Admittedly, I don't know a lot about the Mississippi Delta region
and so that aspect alone intrigues me, especially his association with
other musicians such as Son House and Charlie Brown. But the myth
surrounding Johnson's sudden emergence as a guitar genius, and the
speculation (by his friends no less) that he sold his soul to the devil in
exchange for the devil's tuning of his guitar is pretty incredible. I'm
not sure what to think of it, but it is definitely provoking to read
differing accounts of this event, specifically the take that one
African American (I can't remember his name) provided concerning the
divergence in opinion between black and white blues enthusiasts; his
explanationof the way in which the "Devil" can be traced back to an African
trickster is enlightening and useful when considering the origins of
this myth- pretty cool stuff.
-----
EXCERPT:
-----
KEYWORDS:
-----
--------
AUTHOR: abplanalpk
TITLE: flashback
ALLOW COMMENTS: 2
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY:
DATE: 01/25/2005 10:14:51 AM
-----
BODY:
With all this talk of Flamenco videos and enjoying seeing it while listening
- I thought I may make a suggestion, as far fetched as it may be:
Flamenco [videorecording] / de Carlos Sauro; una produccion Juan Lebron
Producciones con la participation de RTVA Radio Television de Andalucia. New
York, NY: New Yorker Video, 1998. 1 videocassette (100 min.) [Hoak] PN1997.F57 1998 VD
I watched this last summer while I was at JMU - also a FANTASTIC video
tracing the story of a flamenco dancer (with a little love story in there as
well). It has the same brilliant-colored backgrounds behind the
dancers, rehearsals and performances, and I believe one of the best male
flamenco dancers is in it too - I knew his name at one time, but can't
remember. Definitely worth a watch. They have it at the JMU library
if you're ever up near Harrisonburg.
-----
EXTENDED BODY:
-----
EXCERPT:
-----
KEYWORDS:
-----
--------
AUTHOR: abplanalpk
TITLE: question on the blues
ALLOW COMMENTS: 2
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY:
DATE: 01/25/2005 10:23:42 AM
-----
BODY:
Last week, we outlined our impressions of the blues - and we noted that they
have their roots in spirituals and further developed into Gospel.
After the reading, however, I am confused about these connections. The
quotes about the blues sounded like they were much more rooted in the
secular, every-day workings of life. So, can someone explain this connection again?
=from the attempts to define the blues =
"The blues singer has no interest in heaven, and not much hope in earth - a
thoroughly disillusioned individual. The spirituals were created in
the church; the blues sprang from everyday life."
"Blues lyrics could be light, mocking, risque, or could deal forthrightly
with the most highly charged subject matter -- intimate details of love,
sex and desire; a fascination with travel . . . "
== I guess one connection is in the call/response? - and "praise the lord"
"yeah" interjections in blues as well as gospel? -- any other ideas or leads?
SIDENOTE: I was just introduced to an AMAZING Gospel singer - Ginny Owens.
She's a blind woman singing about her love and dependence on God.
very intimate and uplifting lyrics with amazing tone of voice. Her song
"Be my vision" is INCREDIBLE - with this intense rumbling in the
background the entire time. Tell me if you want to listen - I have it on my ipod.
-----
EXTENDED BODY:
-----
EXCERPT:
-----
KEYWORDS:
-----
--------
AUTHOR: gaiteric
TITLE: the Delta Dao
ALLOW COMMENTS: 2
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY:
DATE: 01/25/2005 07:41:39 PM
-----
BODY:
Blues performers pull emotion into their lyrics by relating it to events in
their personal past, as well as reaching out to embrace an audience
with similar experiences. Yet there is a definite emphasis in blues on
effortless performance and contrivance seems to be discouraged.
Some descriptions of the superb performances we’ve seen demand that
(like a good speaker) the performer disappears when the music comes on.
Thus the demands of an audience for a “pure” musical
experience and the personal and professional demands on the performer are,
at least to some degree, at odds.
This seems to be a case in which the Dao that can be told is not the eternal
Dao. Maybe when we perceive a performer successfully threading this
paradox we know what music is. At the same time it’s certain
possible to study how the paradox comes about.
-----
EXTENDED BODY:
-----
EXCERPT:
-----
KEYWORDS:
-----
--------
AUTHOR: doughertyt
TITLE: janis and the blues
ALLOW COMMENTS: 2
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY:
DATE: 01/27/2005 12:58:14 AM
-----
BODY:
Thank you, Hugh, for showing us the rest of the Monterey Pop Festival clip
even though you were trying to keep us on the topic of the blues. i
apologize for wanting to see more, but i couldn't help myself. im greedy when i get the chance.
i have only gone through one of the examples, but i am so excited to hear
the rest, especially the prison songs. i can't help but think that
watching the rest of the Monterey festival was, in some sense, applicable to
the topic we were covering because rock and roll has such an important
link to the blues. i would define rock and roll, or at least the very
primitive forms of it (buddy holly, elvis presley) as the white man's
blues. most early rock and roll songs are based on the same chord
progressions as the blues songs that influenced the artists, and some of the
songs are simply remakes of blues classics. so groups like the Animals
and the Who owe a lot to Janis Joplin's predecessors, if not as much as
she does herself. as i was watching Janis's performance, i couldn't
help but be reminded of a banshee screaming. it is quite clear why she
burned out so quickly. she has an extremely unique quality to her voice
that is both enticing and repulsive at the same time.
all the blues stuff that we have listened to thus far chills my spine - i
can't get enough. blues is one of those things that i know exists but
never sat down to listen to much because i didn't think it would suit my
tastes, so to speak. but everything we've listened to has tingled my
skin. just the raw emotion, heart, and soul that the musicians pour into
their playing and their singing is so much to handle - it's easy to see
why there wasn't much musical accompaniment to blues songs. the vocals
and the rhythmic aspects really shine. the prison songs especially
exemplify to me a kind of community that isn't really present in any other
form of music - they're the songs of shared hardships, and the power of
music is what keeps them sane and alive and even, dare i say,
optimistic. it's all just so beautiful.
i hope we come up with more examples we can listen to in class, because this is really fantastic.
-----
EXTENDED BODY:
-----
EXCERPT:
-----
KEYWORDS:
-----
--------
AUTHOR: blackmer
TITLE: Scratch Track and the Blues
ALLOW COMMENTS: 2
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY:
DATE: 01/27/2005 06:39:29 AM
-----
BODY:
I just ran across this band today, and I'm quite impressed as I listen in
the context of a personal binge of blues and blues-related music over
the last 10 days or so. It occurred to me last night that ALL the items
on the list I've made for you are historical --the people who
recorded them are all dead dead dead. The trio Scratch Track are very
alive indeed, and what they do owes a lot to the blues legacy. See the link to mp3 at Eclectic Bougaloo,
a site that I'll be revisiting, and it looks like there are more examples at the band's own Website.
-----
EXTENDED BODY:
-----
EXCERPT:
-----
KEYWORDS:
-----
--------
AUTHOR: blackmer
TITLE: On breaking points
ALLOW COMMENTS: 2
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY:
DATE: 01/27/2005 06:49:26 AM
-----
BODY:
I thinks it's a GOOD thing to have --and recognize and examine-- breaking
points. I pride myself on finding value in some pretty indigestible
sonic material, but even I recoil from some kinds of music, and some
excesses. Same thing with food... The image of the baby hippopotamus
(something so ugly only its mother could luvvit) is useful to me on a
daily basis. Anyway, I think it's valuable to articulate just what one
is put off by, Janis-wise or flamenco-wise or any-wise. So thanks for those comments.
-----
EXTENDED BODY:
-----
EXCERPT:
-----
KEYWORDS:
-----
COMMENT:
AUTHOR: Hannonj
EMAIL: hannonj@wlu.edu
IP: 137.113.114.136
URL:
DATE: 01/27/2005 10:55:49 AM
I want to comment on the posting made about scratch track and the blues.
One thing that fascinates me about music is an artists ability to create
amazing sounds with the use of the human voice. Scratch track is
similar to this, it is very unorthodox music production when compared to the
stuff that we are hearing on the radio. However, these guys are not
using synthesizers or layers, they are creating big sounds with their
big talents. One of my new interests that in music has become a capella
music, because you can hear different voice parts, the harmonies they
produce, and the pureness of the voice. This past weekend house I heard
three Norwegian woman singing harmonious and notes that I didn't even
know existed. I mean this is stuff that I have been thinking about since
last Sunday… its truly remarkable. Hugh, what is the name of that group?
-----
--------
AUTHOR: palazzolocm
TITLE: Got Me Wondering
ALLOW COMMENTS: 2
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY:
DATE: 01/27/2005 02:48:06 PM
-----
BODY:
all our discussions about Blues has got me wondering more about the origin
of this genre. Most experts say that the basis of the Blues is in
spirituals/slave songs. But to me (and I am definitely not an expert on
African music!), those spirituals sound nothing like any traditionally
African music that i have heard. And they are nothing like the white
music of that era. so it seems that these spirituals, the foundation
for the Blues, came out of nowhere. This in itself is surprising, but
even more amazing to me is how widespread the phenomenon was. it seems
like the Blues was a prevalent musical type in the South very early in
its origination, but how is that? did slaves really travel enough and
interact enough with other slaves to be able to teach their music to
them? or did music legitimately grow out of those trapped in the same
type of life situation and just happen to be similar/the same? i just
can't figure where exactly this music form come from!
-----
EXTENDED BODY:
-----
EXCERPT:
-----
KEYWORDS:
-----
--------
AUTHOR: blackmer
TITLE: Answering Christie
ALLOW COMMENTS: 2
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY:
DATE: 01/27/2005 06:31:00 PM
-----
BODY:
...which is probably as good an excuse as I could have to make Africa be our
next musical destination. There are certainly identifiable elements and
parallels that make sense to the ears, though the hunt for THE origin
of this or any other musical form is sort of a mug's game: the answers
generally take the form of interwoven strands of influence, leavened
with leaps of faith/assertion, and it's sort of like genealogy: people
perpetuate stories that please them, whatever the real realities might
have been. Perhaps the real answer is that it's the STORIES that are the most fun.
-----
EXTENDED BODY:
-----
EXCERPT:
-----
KEYWORDS:
-----
--------
AUTHOR: jonesp
TITLE: ubu's 365 days
ALLOW COMMENTS: 2
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY:
DATE: 01/28/2005 01:52:28 AM
-----
BODY:
We briefly looked at ubu.com's ethnomusicology page... but this site also
has a treasure of ridiculous songs in its 365 day project. A song per
day with such hits as Louis Farrakhan (former leader of the Nation of
Islam) singing calypso is a good one. My favorite is a very intoxicated
Van Morrison singing such hits as "It looks like you've got ringworm"
and "Want A Danish"... the rest of the songs are in the same spirit.
ubu web
-----
EXTENDED BODY:
-----
EXCERPT:
-----
KEYWORDS:
-----
--------
AUTHOR: djalalievp
TITLE: My first encounter of blues
ALLOW COMMENTS: 2
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY:
DATE: 01/30/2005 08:12:23 PM
-----
BODY:
As many other people, probably, the first place I encountered blues music
were the Looney Tunes cartoons - Tom & Jerry, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig,
etc... This type of music goes extremely well with these cartoons -
conveys a sense of peacefulness and playfulness at the same time.
Anybody have an idea how they chose exactly blues music for the background
of these cartoons? Is there any cultural reason?
-----
EXTENDED BODY:
-----
EXCERPT:
-----
KEYWORDS:
-----
--------
AUTHOR: djalalievp
TITLE: digital music compression algorithms
ALLOW COMMENTS: 1
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY:
DATE: 02/06/2005 09:45:30 PM
-----
BODY:
Upon one of Hugh's many pages describing this course, I stumbled upon this
article about digital music compression algorithms. Being a
Computer Science student deep in my bones, I couldn't overlook that...
Since I am looking at this from a more technical point of view, I wonder
what the others in the class think about this...
-----
EXTENDED BODY:
The article in its essence deals to some extent with one of the most
fundamental principles in Computer Science - the trade-off between space and
time/speed. When talking about digital music, this recurrent principle
is obvious (size of file vs. time for downloading), but in other fields
it is not so directly connected and still very powerful and dominant...
I can personally see a market or an audience for most of these algorithms.
WMA has strong copyright management principles, AC-2 (or AAC) might
replace MP3 in the future, OGG is open-source - vital for some business
models where paying for the compression technology would raise production costs too high.
As the article says, the most exciting news are yet to come as researchers
strive to develop algorithms combining the advantages of the existing
ones... I personally think that open-source algorithms won't quite
catch up with ones where money are being invested into research, but hey
- many people a decade ago would not (and still don't) consider open-source music a viable model either...
If you want to learn more about the different algorithms, this is a link
provided by this article: "Want to know more about audio formats?"
-----
EXCERPT:
-----
KEYWORDS:
-----
--------
AUTHOR: hourenk
TITLE: British Invasion
ALLOW COMMENTS: 2
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY:
DATE: 02/10/2005 04:57:45 PM
-----
BODY:
I couldn't help thinking about the influence of British culture on the two
samples of the Bollywood style that we saw today in class. I thought
especially of one of the opening scenes of the first Austin Powers
movie while we watched the second clip. To be sure, Bollywood seeks
only to entertain its audience. No big questions are asked. Its
viewers aren't challenged. But isn't that also the case with much British
pop music? It's simply entertainment. In both genres, there seems to
be a strict formula for success, or rather a formula that consistently
yields high returns for the industry. More than anything these
industries seek profits, not musical genius. Without the British occupation
and exploitation of India, would Indians have learned how to exploit
their own people with such highly 'packaged' goods? It seems to me
that without the British, the Indian people would never have been receptive to something like Bollywood.
-----
EXTENDED BODY:
-----
EXCERPT:
-----
KEYWORDS:
-----
--------
AUTHOR: jonesp
TITLE: old timey band
ALLOW COMMENTS: 1
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY:
DATE: 02/22/2005 02:22:52 PM
-----
BODY:
Over Feb Break I got the chance to see two old timey string bands. We
briefly mentioned Bill Monroe in class, but these groups had a different
vibe. My favorite, The Ribtips had a washtub bass, a washboard, fiddle
and guitar. They alternated between vaudevilley/jazzy standards and
traditionals done in an old style. Very cool stuff, but it made me
wonder about the relation between old blues and old bluegrass... Seems like
there is a connection, I just don't know what.
-----
EXTENDED BODY:
-----
EXCERPT:
-----
KEYWORDS:
-----
--------
AUTHOR: blackmer
TITLE: What's the innovation?
ALLOW COMMENTS: 1
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY:
DATE: 02/25/2005 06:47:38 AM
-----
BODY:
I've been thinking about Peter's question about Django's Dinah (1934),
to which my answer wasn't very ...ummm... eloquent. Seems to me that
there are interesting parallels to Armstrong's West End Blues (1925).
Both were read by contemporary listeners as announcements of something new and distinctive, and both are now
recognized as sui generis, and admired as pieces that one just can't
be ho-hum about. The electricity and lift and inspiration of the
improvization comes across 70 and 80 years later.
I can identify a number of other recordings that I feel that way about,
personally --real gobsmackers, things that got and kept my attention from
the first moment. I might even be able to persude a few others to have
the same experience of frisson that I enjoy every time I hear
them, though they don't have the instant recognition of, well, greatness
for everybody that I hear coming through in both Dinah and West End Blues.
Now surely this is all pretty subjective, and we'd like to get a little
closer to what specific features of the performances are "new". I'm
working on it. The insight I picked up from the bits of film yesterday have
to do, oddly, with the relation to the bal musette style that
Django was playing in before he and Grappelly got together, exemplified
by that button accordian segment, and we'll see this sort of
transference from one instrument to another when we look at African guitar
evolution: the right-hand patterns of the so-French lady accordianist
seem to me to be part of the inspiration for Django's approach to Dinah,
combined with the constraint of the successive notes having to be reachable by those TWO fingers.
Mystification? Maybe so. Still trying to sort it all out.
===
Addendum: Django's Forgotten Era
By Wayne Jefferies has a pretty good summary discussion of style and
innovation, including this:
During the thirties Django was at the----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: gaiteric TITLE: So spam this ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: DATE: 03/01/2005 03:10:06 AM ----- BODY: For all the RIAA faithful that maybe reading the board, may I humbly, as a
forefront of the development of the guitar in Jazz. His records had
begun to reach America, and many major American musicians would arrive
in France to record with him, spreading the word of this amazing musician
on their return to the USA. Who knows what effect he would have had
on Be-Bop in America during the early forties, had he been able to get
there, but just when he was at his peak, his career was radically affected by the
outbreak of War. Cut off from the brewing pot of Be-Bop for
six years , he was not privy to the developments of modern Jazz until
it was well along the way. By which time the movements main guitar innovator -
Charlie Christian had been dead from tuberculosis for four years!
contrite (albeit previous) consumer of $22 CD's, suggest a "business"
model that is ideally suited to your needs. (wiping out the downloading habits of individuals such as myself) Enter the spammer - lonesome, greedy, somewhere in Asia or Philly and desperately in need of
corporate strictures. Over 90 percent of all emails sent are spam, and if the RIAA could learn
to utilize this kind of indiscriminant market penetration ... oh wait... you already sue dead mac users. Because you already assault your listeners with unwanted shards of viral-like
intelligence that parasitize the lowest common denominator of
humanity it’s only a small step to evolve into a self-sustaining global
infestation. Or rather you can massively promote a mix of factors that like
any economic system is arranged to maximize marginal returns on various
products. Similarly spam is sensitive to swings in consumer spending, and then follows up the
holidays with a deluge of credit schemes. Think about it – pop lyrics roughly follow the break down
of spam into 20% adult products (love songs of all stripes) 40% pharmaceutical
products (oldies), 20% finances (brother,
can you spare a dime?) and 20% products (stuff you want if you’ve
already got youth and love, but not money). While it is understandably
distasteful to undertake any task that smacks of innovation, but remember that occasionally neurons = $$$. ----- EXTENDED BODY: Previously the main foray into the actual content of p2p networks was
flooding them with bogus files. In fact, the road to financial success lies
in giving consumers exactly what they want - just way more it. Popular
music needs to be so easy to access, so omnipresent that desire never
has a chance to lead consumers away. Why would anyone want to see
Britney Spears nude when they can see Britney Spears nude while listening to
her current hit? A large part of the recording industry functionally
creates spam - it's time it starting behaving like that and living off
scams on the viagra of sound - musical creativity. Because so many
people choose the blue pill - what they think of as free(music)dom will be
the shackles of the system. Any move to preserve the system is actually
counter productive, because by economically pushing people outside it
only leads to the discovery of other musics. Apparently it only takes four percent of the
populations clicking on these links to create a insidious social ill that
costs $50 billion world wide to control. "Insidious social ill," - now
that got your attention didn't it! You already have the material, just
look to spam for delivery methods. But wait, the most attractive part
of the arrangement is that it will enable you to devote your efforts to
phagocytosing the efforts of talented individual artists and capitalize
on high profit margins generated by music lovers desperate to hear
them. The amount of money you can accrue from selling patches to the hole
in XP that allows random mp3’s to clog a user’s hard drive more than
covers the damages claim from current p2p usage. Don't fight the
digital music revolution, don't try to adapt to it, certainly don't reduce
your prices because of it, just corrupt it. Once you have actually
created a problem, you're free to charge people to solve it. But wait, you learned how to add (and that thing where you do the reverse)
in ninth grade. What about the revenue from your current hits? Don’t
worry, just as bad money drives good money out of circulation, so will
the value of what was previously specialty markers skyrocket and enable
you direct the digital wheelbarrows of excess. Lousy music can take care of itself – by focusing of promoting excellence in
music a sizeable market share will hooked on your (sort of) product.
Oops, now that sounds like a decent business model, somewhere along the way I must have gotten off track. To find out more send me $50 or forward me Mitch Bainwol's email address and I'll send you a free i-pod. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: blackmer TITLE: The Art of the Ringtone ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: DATE: 03/01/2005 06:02:45 AM ----- BODY: So this course aspires to discourse on 21st century music...
and along comes an article in this week's New Yorker on The Art of the Ringtone,
surely one of the most ubiquitous of musical facets these days.
You really want to read this one, and further deconstruct the topic yourself. ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: sandenb TITLE: Perspective ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: DATE: 03/02/2005 12:12:18 AM ----- BODY: How is it that the Hebrew/Arabic concert was over an hour and a half and to me it just
felt like less than twenty minutes? I had such an AWESOME time listening to that
group. There were times (more often than not, in fact) where both of my feet and fingers on both of my hands were beating differing rhythms while my head was bobbing to
something else. It was all I could do to actually remain in my seat as I was
practically dancing as it was. One of the things that moved me most, however in that concert was the power of music. Did
you SEE that violinist when he was into his music? His head, shoulders, feet, legs
and face were all playing and hitting every note along with his fingers. The artists
were so passionate as you must be to portray that kind of music. But beyond the
physical hold that kind of music has upon a person, music was the unification of that room. On the stage were Jewish Hebrews and Arabic Muslims and I was listening in the audience as
an American Protestant Christian sitting next to an American Catholic and we were all
present due to our love of music and we were all at peace with one another because we
are in America. Sitting there listening to music, my favorite thing in the world,
without threat of my life for acknowledging and appreciating another culture's music
is a blessing I have had all of my life. On the other side of the world people of all
of those religions are killing each other and hating each other and the fact that we
not only tolerate, but celebrate the music of other cultures humbled me in an extraordinary way. I came out of that concert on such a natural high because of the nature of the music (the
rhythms, the drive, the instruments, the intensity...) but also feeling like the most
blessed person in the world because I have lived in such a free country all my life.
I remember in sixth grade watching a news program that was reporting on a regime in
place somewhere else in the world and music of any kind (owning or playing) was
against the law and the thought made me sick. I have never had such a choice put before me: music or jail. Even now, two and a half hours after the concert has ended, I am still just on this
natural high of feeling so grateful for the liberty and security I have entertained my
whole life, tonight included. We go to W&L and have our fair share of stressors, but
guys, there are people on the other side of the world who would try to kill us for
the amazing musical event which took place tonight. I think it is time for a little
perspective and just genuine appreciation for all the blessings which become
overlooked in the bustle of W&L life. ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: katie EMAIL: abplanalpk@wlu.edu IP: 137.113.14.138 URL: DATE: 03/28/2005 11:46:00 PM As that American Catholic sitting next to you, I can definitely identify with a lot of
what you're saying. It's strange though - how yes, in this world of such varied
experience and culture, that we can be united in music. Like a language in itself, we can
find similar tunes across the world - lullabies, hymns, popular tunes. Yes, maybe in
different languages, but all saying and feeling the same thing! Then - you have this
amazing thing of improvisation, where each one is so preciously unique! Music truly
does have a uniting power that calls us all together in a universal community without
border and division. So, we can walk away from that hour concert and say WOW.
knowing that we are feeling, maybe not the same thing - but a chord has been struck, on
the instrument and our souls. ----- -------- AUTHOR: luc TITLE: Azilut – concert ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: DATE: 03/03/2005 10:40:39 AM ----- BODY: The concert was fantastic!! Before I went to the concert, I was stressed out about the
piles of school work I had for the night. I was only planning to take a study break,
and I told myself to leave during intermission so that I can go back to do work. I’m
glad they did not have an intermission. Even if they did, I would have stayed behind
because they music was absolutely astonishing!! Actually, the one thing that I
missed was DANCE. A lot of their music was joyful and vivacious, which was very inviting
to dance. I agree with Brook, it was hard to remain calmly in the seat while
listening to their music. I also found myself stepping and beating my hands against my
legs as I tried to follow the group in their rhythm. Besides the music, the performance was also spectacular. I could definitely tell that
those musicians were really passionate about their music. During the concert, the
violinist and one of the drummers could not stay in their seats, they had to get up and
move with the music. After the concert, I had the opportunity to meet and to talk
with some of the musicians. The violinst was surprisingly shy and quiet.. I couldn't
believe he was the same person I saw on stage. While I was talking to the drummer, I joked about how they should have had some sort of
dance to accompany their music. He told me that since they couldn’t see the audience,
they didn’t know if the audience was really “into their music”. He said that if he
would have been closer to the audience, he would have grabbed some people from the
audience and taught them some steps. We were obviously joking, but wouldn’t it be neat to learn? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ps: I was curious about the meaning of the group's name ‘Azilut’. I found the following
website: http://www.yashanet.com/studies/revstudy/rev6a.htm Among many other things, azilut means “World of Unity, as it is apart from the dimensions
of time and space that exist in the lower worlds” – suits the group perfectly. ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: e15923be325 EMAIL: cqtsmebn@a4b5a253cc0b0d6274f3c4d117b4db22c.com IP: 136.142.41.13 URL: http://cb8e82.free-online-poker-000.biz DATE: 03/16/2005 03:26:20 PM c05350126890d1a22618e99e9b8ad5b9 ac6a7e7182cb547c9711090b71009. ----- -------- AUTHOR: jonesp TITLE: All music is dance music ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: DATE: 03/03/2005 12:17:03 PM ----- BODY: Interesting interview in the Onion from Afrika Bambaataa... one of the originators in
hip-hop and still rocking (unbeknownst to me). My favorite quote: "All music is dance
music. But when people think of dance music, they think of techno or just house. Anything
you can dance to is dance music. I don't care if it's classical, funk, salsa, reggae,
calypso; it's all dance music." link= http://www.theonionavclub.com/feature/index.php?issue=4109 I also definitely second the posts on the concert... What a blast! So much musical
communication and different influences, and such incredible musicians. ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: katie EMAIL: abplanalpk@wlu.edu IP: 137.113.14.138 URL: DATE: 03/28/2005 11:48:45 PM hah! I like this idea - the question then becomes, however, do we have the rhythm in our
bodies to dance to all of it!! hah! it can be tricky. ----- -------- AUTHOR: palazzolocm TITLE: confused ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: DATE: 03/03/2005 01:54:09 PM ----- BODY: i just wanted to put something on the table concerning one of the themes we touched on
during the last few classes, that of the musician being an outcast of society. i
really don't understand this delegation. i am one of those people who, when i hear
someone play an instrument or sing, am entranced. even if it's not done very well, i am
interested. when i hear a virtuoso, im enthralled. how could anyone shun people who
can produce such beautiful music? why? and why is it that american culture seems to
do just the opposite - people have a tendency to elevate the entertainer to the upper
eschelons of society. hence our obsession with brittany spears' "coming of age" and
brad pitt's love life and the next movie julia roberts is making. why has our
society taken such a different path? and have we gone too far along that path? dont we
idolize entertainers a little too much these days? the disconnect between societies
just puzzles me, and i wonder how it has come to be...and how it has lasted for so
long. any thoughts? ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Pete EMAIL: jonep@wu.edu IP: 137.113.114.25 URL: DATE: 03/03/2005 03:19:01 PM I have thought about this idea as well, but more from the point of the artist. If you are
an outcast in society, will you become more creative? The modern day United States
does seem to have a different paradigm towards entertainers and musicians.. a
love/hate relationship. I think thats more what its about than totally outcast. Gangsta
rap in the early 90s... very famous, but very controversial. Rock in the 50s and
60s... very popular, but you wouldn't want one of your daughters to marry Jimi Hendrix... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Brooke EMAIL: sandenb@wlu.edu IP: 137.113.41.120 URL: DATE: 03/03/2005 06:19:13 PM I think the ultra-famous musician/artist/entertainer is not the some situation as the
outcast which our class discusses. If you look at the non-famous people who are in the
fields of the arts, no they are not outcasts in society but they have taken a
different path. When people hear that I am a music major, their first question is of
course "What do you want to do with that?" and the truth is that I do not know. If I
wanted to persue a career as a professional harpist, I suppose I may have a better chance
of being successful than the average musician because of the low supply and high
demand of harpists, but if I wanted to become a singer (either pop or broadway or
classical) I would hardly receive encouragement from home. I would be told that singers
are a dime a dozen and I will have to struggle to make ends-meat and I will never
make it in the field. I feel like that is the same degree as the musician outcast of
the past in that their family is not quite sure what to do with them and does not
want to get stuck supporting the starving artist just as the parents are reaching a
point when they're financial burdon of the child should be ending. If the artist
reaches great fame, that's wonderful and suddenly he's a productive member of society, but
in how many cases does that really happen? ----- -------- AUTHOR: gaiteric TITLE: Bene Gesserit Gypsies ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: DATE: 03/03/2005 03:28:15 PM ----- BODY: Combine the following ingredients. Stir well. 1. The renegade place of many musicians in society. 2. Footage of female dancers we saw in the last class. 3. The dateless/timeless recitation of history by the village leader (last class too). 4. The general phenomena of capturing someone’s mind through music or musical arts that
seems to be a common theme of pride on the part of gypsies, and which forms part of a
sort of discriminatory fear on the part of the general population. Bake in your 6x8 pate for a few minutes and you have an incredible (IMHO) analogue of the
Bene Gesserit of Frank Herbert’s Dune. They too have the ability to manipulate others directly through careful training of their
voices and are despised agents of cultural change. One way they do this is through
indirect control of culture via seeding religions across the universe. These all
contains shards of the same central belief, but take on local flavor and become
property of locals who may despise the order. A large part of their power rests in the
way that the consciousness of all preceding females in the order descends on the
Reverend Mothers via the spice agony. This collective past is the source of wisdom, but
those who fail to embrace it properly cannot survive. I see this as analogous to the
way in which some gypsies talk of the way of the world that makes them not just
persecuted, but the persecuted. These skills require training from early
childhood. Additionally the Gesserit are truthsayer’s – not necessarily fortune tellers,
but adept at discovering a person’s subtle habits that betray their path. I’ve just pulled a couple of aphoristic quotes from various Gesserit “manuals” too illustrate what I mean.... Those who would repeat the past must control the teaching of history. Perceptions rule the universe. and.... We do not teach history; we recreate the experience. We follow the chain of consequences
-- the tracks of the beast in its forest. Look behind our words and you see the broad
sweep of social behavior that no historian has ever touched. Me again... I’ve tried to be very general in the terms I’ve used here in case you haven’t read the
books, but those who have can obviously interpolate some more of what I’m talking
about. So now (one of ) the question(s) is: are gypsies an inevitable result of any large
scale (or in the case of Dune fully conceived) human universe? Does humanity require
a class of people with these stereotypical skills – skills that necessarily exist
alongside a tortured consciousness and despised place in society - but a place that
members can embrace with pride? ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: hourenk TITLE: shabbat ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: DATE: 03/07/2005 02:52:08 PM ----- BODY: After the Klezmer unit, I was serindipitously asked by a friend of mine to attend the
Hillel monthly Shabbat service and reception. I was excited because I had never attended
such a service. To be fair, I know that the Jewish bible is a loose version of the
Old Testament of my bible, but that's the extent of my knowledge and experience of
Judaism. In fact, before attending W&L, I did not know any practicing Jewish folks. Yes,
it is sad that the diversity of my company increased at W&L. Leaving that aside, I
found the service to be very interesting. There were several references to the
history of the Jewish people and harships they had faced together. They were meant to
invoke a reverence for the difficulties of their ancestors and also a pride in the
strength and resolve of their people. I can best describe the service
as a calming experience. What was most impressive about the service was the sense of community shared
by the attendees. People were not shy about participating in the songs or
cerimonious duties to be performed. Also, each person took up a particular role, be it
administrative, organizational, preparatory, etc. In short, they were impressive yet
incredibly friendly and welcoming. I recommend that you all attend at least one of the Shabbat services before graduation,
for the experience (and also for the feast that follows - Bodos bagels and homemade
lox need I say more). So how does this all relate to Klezmer? Playing Kelzmer, I imagine, is a way to
participate in this rich heritage. The Jewish people are very proud of their traditions
and take care to pass them from generation to generation. To let klezmer die would be
to let a piece of Jewish history pass into obscurity. These musicians serve their
communities and ancestors in continuing to play this music. ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: hourenk TITLE: Atzilut ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: DATE: 03/07/2005 02:56:18 PM ----- BODY: Can anyone tell me a little bit more about how these two groups merged to form Atzilut?
They're some of the most talented musicians I've ever seen, but they're also
certainly geographically diverse. If you all went, I hope you participated when they
requested audience input. It's daunting to perform in front of automatons. ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Peter EMAIL: djalalievp@wlu.edu IP: 137.113.30.9 URL: DATE: 03/08/2005 04:01:15 PM We went out to the Palms with some of the Atzilut musicians, they also showed us how to
play some rhytms on the drums back at their hotel after that. The vocal for the
Hebrew songs is the manager of the band. He created the band, it was his concept, he
hires and fires musicians, he pays them. He has been working with the man who sings the
Arabic songs for an year or two I think now, but the band is pretty much
his concept and initial creation I think. ----- -------- AUTHOR: palazzolocm TITLE: The Giver ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: DATE: 03/07/2005 10:04:55 PM ----- BODY: Has anyone ever read the book "The Giver" by Lois Lowry? My mom referred to it the other
day on the phone, and it got me to thinking...the story is basically about a boy who
grows up in a contained, very controlled society where one's every action is
monitored and your future is plotted out for you from an early age on. But there are none
of the "frills" of life which we take for granted...including music (that's a very
rough-shod summary, but you get the idea: a world without music). Remembering this
got me to thinking just what such a world would be like, and while the general idea of
living without music frightened me, the more I thought about it, the more I honestly
could not fathom a world without it. Think about it. We encounter some form of
music hundreds of times every day, from the bells of Lee Chapel to the chimes of your
computer turning on to the theme song of your favorite TV show to the tune running through
your head right now, not to mention any time you turn on the radio or play a CD.
Even the hum of the classroom lights or the falling of the raindrops has a musical
quality to it. And I don't know about you, but music is my outlet. When I'm happy, I
play upbeat, fun music. When I'm down in the dumps, I play sad, sappy music. When
I'm pissed off, I play loud, angry music. You get the idea... So is it just me, or
is a world without music quite literally unimaginable?? ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: katie EMAIL: abplanalpk@wlu.edu IP: 137.113.14.138 URL: DATE: 03/29/2005 12:10:02 AM WOW! It's been a long time since I read that book, but I DO remember it. I remember
feeling the same way that you do. Someday I'd like to find out more about the actual
physical effects that music has on our mind/body. I know how it makes me feel, but like
you - I feel like there's a certain necessity for it. Like a sort of soul food. . .
like color or art for me. It reminds me of a passage from Kandinsky's "Concerning
the Spiritual in Art" I thought you might enjoy it: If you let your eye astray over a palette of colors, you experience two things. In the
first place you receive a purely physical effect, namely the eye itself is enchanted
by the beauty and other qualities of color. But to a more sensitive soul the effect of colors is deeper and intensely moving. And so
we come to the second result of looking at colors: their psychological effect. They
produce a correspondent spiritual vibration, and it is only as a step toward this
spiritual vibration that the physical impression is of importance. I feel the same is true for music. It can strike a seperate vibration from the physical.
It recalls associations of past experiences, it has the power to soothe, excite,
make anxious. . . so like you say - what would a world without music be. I wonder if
in his world of the giver - the world would be so physically grounded that
associations and emotions would be less extreme (which is what I somewhat recall from the
book). interesting. thank you for sparking that little light way back in the recesses of my memory. ----- -------- AUTHOR: hourenk TITLE: To the Giver ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: DATE: 03/08/2005 02:16:35 PM ----- BODY: I have read the book, I think somewhere around the 6th grade. But I remember it, and even
remember liking it. It is almost impossible to create a world without music. This
is kind of a redundant blog because I have the beginnings of writing about this in my
project proposal, but it's incredibly disconserting and eerie to experience a moment
of sound-less-ness. I visited the Pompideau this past summer, and an artist had created an installation in the
museum that manifests this idea. He or she (I can't remember the artist's name)
placed a player piano in a fairly large room, acoustically sound room. We entered this
room first, and heard the Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. We passed through this room
to enter a sound proof room. He placed a piano in this room as well, but the piano
was not playing music. Oddly enough, I felt claustrophobic. The air felt thick and
static, and my ears were almost ringing. In the absence of sound, my ears, it seems,
tried to create noise. It was as if my aural sensory organs were going through withdrawal. I can't imagine living in a music-less community. I imagine the citizens would be very
much like automata, as they are in The Giver. Or would the conception of what is
music change? In other words, would citizens in such a society find the screech of tires
or the noise of a fork on china aurally pleasing or at least satisfying? What do you think? ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Chris EMAIL: gaiteric@RemovethiSwlu.edu IP: 137.113.108.4 URL: DATE: 03/10/2005 02:29:15 PM It is an interesting question to ask if “music” would survive in a “world without music”
through "the noise of a fork on china" etc. In some ways this is the flip side of my
question about Bene Gesserit Gypsies. So the joint query is: are humans wired in such
as way that they inevitably create internal/Giver or external/Gypsy access to aural
stimulation that satisfy a fundamental need for said waveforms? A specific aspect
of Kate’s question I see as particularly interesting is that music is posited as
proceeding from a devoted neural process. I didn’t want to bring my argument for the
(potential) necessity of music all the way back to the brain because that opens up a whole
can of worms, but it’s also interesting to consider. This short article describes a case in which the emotional link to music – basically what I
think what Kate missed in the soundproof room - is severed. So in a sense this is technically
possible. Yet the people who wrote the study seem to think that statements like
“Accumulating evidence from functional brain imaging studies in normal individuals
suggests that functionally and anatomically separable neural networks mediate music
perception and emotion” actually mean something. Did they previously assume there was a
single music-emotion “network?” That would be disturbing. Professor: “Ahh, yes, you
hear music with your music neurons. Next question.” Basically music can be broken
down into any number of facets manifest in various parts of the brain and while you
can read interested articles about that for days, in the end I think we know very
little about music as a unitary phenomenon. Another, less reductionistic approach to the question of the necessity of music (“life
without music”) would be to look at studies of suicide rates and their relationship to
music preference. There was an oft-cited study done in 1993 that found hard rock was
generally preferred by males over pop and when it did not serve a therapeutic purpose
in females (they liked it, but didn’t feel better after listening to it) those
females had the highest suicide rate. However, further studies have not completely
replicated these convenient results. I’m not exactly thrilled with this methods of
investigating the question either which necessarily operates with a solipsistic definition of music. After this lengthy gripe, what’s my oh-so sagacious resolution of this issue? It seems
fari to say there’s not an analytic solution, but I think there is the possibility for
studying these approaches jointly and looking for emergent behavior and processing.
True, this involves some belief in micro-macro correspondence on my part. But I’ve
been funneled into this opinion by reading enough papers on optimal information
processing/evolution through a mix of stability and diversity in the neural networks to
think finding linked analogous patterns in society and music is not futile. ----- -------- AUTHOR: hourenk TITLE: Fandango ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: DATE: 03/08/2005 02:35:30 PM ----- BODY: If you haven't seen Fandango, you must. It's a movie, produced in the 1970s, staring
Kevin Costner. Apart from the title, this movie is not specifically about a latin
american dance/musical tradition at all. It is a 'coming of age' adventure story. After
graduation, five college budies embark on a journey to have a little fun before they
die, literally, since three of them are due to report to millitary duty on Monday - at
the close of the weekend and their adventure. Yes, they "find themselves" and learn
little nuggets of life lessons, although it's not presented in an offensively cheesy
way. So where am I going with this, and what does this have to do with ethnomusicology? Well, I can't tell you because it would spoil the film. But suffice it to say that
Fandango, from the mouth of m-w.com, is (1) a Spanish, or Spanish-American dance between a
man and a woman to the music of guitars or castanets, or (2) tomfoolery. Based on
that definition, I urge you to see the movie so we can discuss it's ethnomusicological
significance and other things. I recommend buying fried or pickled okra and the
champagne of beers as a movie snack. ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: ruminj TITLE: Rambling thoughts ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: DATE: 03/08/2005 02:53:32 PM ----- BODY: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Like my classmates, I can't imagine a world without music/sound. The question is, what
happens to those people who are born deaf, or even go deaf? In Beethoven's case, the
loss of his hearing didn't prevent him from creating some of the greatest classical
music ever written (still the supreme example of tragedy, however). My question is,
does anyone know of a person who was born deaf and who could nevertheless define what
music is? Could they produce it? In other words, are we born with an inherent sense
of what music is? I know that an answer must be out there, I just don't know what it
is- obviously it was created at some point, so that seems to indicate that musical is
natural to us, at least in some way. I'm also interested in one facet of Klezmer music that we looked at last class, the role
that an immigrant's experience played in the development of Klezmer- it certainly
testifies as a great example of the power of tradition (which I think Kate already
commented on) while also showing how a group's infusion/exclusion in a new culture shapes
that group's ideologies and creativity. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Brooke EMAIL: Sandenb@wlu.edu IP: 137.113.114.34 URL: DATE: 03/10/2005 02:57:22 PM I would be interested to know if Helen Keller ever spoke about the concept of music...
although come to think of it I don't think she was born deaf. Have you seen Mr. Holland's
Opus? Although the question of music and deaf link is not addressed, the son of the
composer/music teacher is deaf and it causes some interesting issues to arise. I will try to look up the Helen Keller thing later. ----- -------- AUTHOR: gaiteric TITLE: Music you will like ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: DATE: 03/15/2005 03:03:05 PM ----- BODY: "People who bought ______ _____ also bought..." That gives me almost no new information
about the music "they" also bought. It can also be downright disturbing when following
this chain of CD's quickly leads back to where you started or to some top 10
compilation. I think it's the "they" of "they also bought" that needs to dominate music
selection. Music recommendation engines are essentially 0 dimensional, generally just
heaps of similar stuff. True there is that cool site someone mentioned with the sort
of web-like connections between bands. But this is essentially leapfrogging from one
bin to the next. There is information in those gaps. I think one of the ways to
extract it is through time. Amazon, for one, needs to reorganize recommendations along the lines someone saying "I
liked this, then I liked this, and then... I came back and boy do I despise that first
thing." This is actually a structure in which you could participate and importantly,
easily diverge from onto other tracks. Each person would sculpt a musical landscape
whose predictions of what's on the horizon would not have a pixilated feel to them
because the musical topology would rely on the global process of music discovery. Try running any relationship on a kind of pin-hole frame-by-frame basis and it becomes
obvious that transmitting meaningful information that way is very difficult. Music
choice is about intensely personal relationships with music and music makers. The "I
like this or that approach" can be useful, but sometimes it masks other relationships,
linked through personal histories, that simply need to be realized. The future is
shorter than ever in the digital era. Without this framework it may rush by and all we
will have heard is a haunting Doppler wail of wonderful music that's distorted by a
freeze frame approach. This music is spot on, yet personally edgy, so that it always
opens doors, but never hangs mirrors. Time is the classic piece that's left out of neuroscience research, which is probably why
I brought it up, but I'm sure there are other interesting dimensions through which to
organize music preference that could be used to balance preference and diversity in
music. What are they? ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: hourenk TITLE: Amazon Automaton ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: DATE: 03/15/2005 07:19:33 PM ----- BODY: Who is this record keeping genius inside the world of Amazon? First, isn't is a bit
frightening that a web site is cataloguing the minutia of my personal taste. I usually
don't find Amazon's recommendations helpful, but since I shop there so frequently the
site offers a plethera of recommendations for me from cds, to clothes, to movies, to
whatever you can think of. The problem for me is that so many decent bands of today make good music in a genre
littered with bands just like them, who are making not so good music. It is the plight
of the industry. Guns 'n Roses was a great 80s rock band that enjoyed a lot of
success with its fans. Record companies scrambled to sign as many bands just like them as
they could to capitalize on and also create a kind of fad - and RCA said let there be
HAIR. As is to be expected I would still by a GnR album now, but I certainly
wouldn't consider buying Black n' Blue's self titled album released in 198-who cares. I prefer to take recommendations from trusted friends, not Amazon. But thanks anyway for
the suggestions...from time to time the Amazon catalogue finds a nugget of goodness for me. ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Chris EMAIL: gaiteric@wlu.edu IP: 137.113.108.4 URL: DATE: 03/16/2005 12:19:26 AM Recommendations from friends - agreed - but a much larger circle of them. Amazon would be
a source for a larger network for journeys with musical "friends." Time based
algorithms certainly aren't the end-all of recommendations, but they may be a way to
optimize the search patterns and enable users to latch on to trends or niches they might
otherwise miss. I don’t see recommendation engines as replacing personal
recommendations so much as needing to emulate them, but with access to a larger selection. ----- -------- AUTHOR: djalalievp TITLE: What's up with those BIG EARS? ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: DATE: 03/16/2005 11:55:05 PM ----- BODY: This course is really opening my ears. Today we were sitting in a Club Asia meeting in
the commons and somebody started playing salsa music in the common room outside.
Suddenly the meeting drifted away, my ears were all alert, trying to recognize the rhythm,
any instruments, etc. I glanced at Chris next to me and realized he was also
somewhere along the same lines. He looked at me and both of us nodded spontaneously - the
music was good! I don't know if the other people feel the same way, but my ears are
definitely growing bigger :) ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: djalalievp TITLE: The Yoshida Brothers ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: DATE: 03/17/2005 12:20:59 AM ----- BODY: Two Japanese brothers from Hokkaido (the northern-most island of Japan), at the ages of 25
and 27. They perform in traditional kimonos and play the shamisen, a very
traditional Japanese instrument (three string banjo-kind-of-instrument with a long neck),
but their songs are really nothing but traditional. I think they are really unbelievable. They use their shamisens in an unbelieveable way, and also mix the unique-kind-of-sound of
the shamisen with so many styles of music - latino, electronic, and many others I
can't readily identify. The only thing I am pretty sure about is that they intermix
music from many places and styles around the world... There is a mix of slow and fast songs, different rhytms, different instruments... I can't
really find words to describe them. More information about the Yoshida Brothers can be found at their official site at
yoshidabrothers.com as wel as in this article about them (courtesy of Chris):
http://www.theglobalist.com/DBWeb/StoryId.aspx?StoryId=3892 Will we have time to turn our attention to Japan? ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Chris EMAIL: gaiteric@wlu.edu IP: 137.113.109.8 URL: DATE: 03/17/2005 12:48:10 AM Peter has very nicely ripped the brother's 2nd CD and it can be found @ 128 kps under
K:\diamonds in the dust. I'm fishing around for their other stuff. Another more indepth article on the bros. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Chris EMAIL: gaiteric@wlu.edu IP: 137.113.108.4 URL: DATE: 03/17/2005 02:35:43 AM Should be hard to miss, but there’s some more world/shamisen music in the Yoshida folder
by Agatsuma, which is in a similar vein. My post comes back to haunt me. ----- -------- AUTHOR: hourenk TITLE: Why so similar? ALLOW COMMENTS: 2 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: DATE: 03/17/2005 10:32:02 PM ----- BODY: After we discussed the basic mode/scale/solfege of our music and of Ravi's music, was
anyone else surprised at the incredible similarities? When music evolved, what was it
about the 7 tone scale, the octave, that was so compelling? Have any of you guys studied
the evolution of music either in Western culture or other cultures? I looked up the
origins of tonality on wikipedia, but found no substantive cultural comparisons or
mentions of these cross cultural similarities. I'd love to learn more about this. I
don't think we have time, but it might be fun to touch on this during the last
class...a kind of brining it all together? Also, try listening to the entire tsunami mix
while you study. I'm enjoying it, and I think my thesis is enjoying it as well. ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: hourenk TITLE: Addressing John's Thoughts ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: DATE: 03/17/2005 10:39:54 PM ----- BODY: Musicologists or other such "experts" seem to think that music has evolved out of the
mimicing of sounds around us, specifically the human heart beat, song birds, rain, wind,
etc. I think it could be possibe that we have an innate ability to perceive our
environment. Through this sense we could then mimic what we perceive. For instance, one
can sense vibrations even if she cannot hear tones. If we grant that rhythm is music,
then certainly an individual who was has never had an aural faculty could have a
sense of music if she chooses to recreate vibrations in an organized and/or thoughtful
way. What do you all think? ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: luc TITLE: We can’t leave China without talking about the 12 Girls Band ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: DATE: 03/22/2005 01:08:38 AM ----- BODY: I saw the 12 Girls Band on TV when I was in Taiwan this past summer. The 12 Girls Band is
a group of 12 young talented female musicians from mainland China. Their music is
incredible.. a combination of Chinese classical instruments and contemporary music. Information about them on the web (from http://www.twelvegirlsband.com/bio): "The Twelve Girls Band takes 1500 years of Chinese musical tradition and makes it
contemporary. By fusing traditional instruments with modern harmonies and vibrant
performances, they create a sound that crosses all cultural barriers, bringing unique
tonal colors not only to their own compositions, but western standards as well" "All members are multi-instrumentalists, and perform with classic instruments such as the
gu zheng (ancient zither with movable bridges and 16-25 strings) pipa (four-stringed
lute with pear shaped body) yang qin (Chinese hammered dulcimer with a near-square
soundboard), erhu (two stringed Chinese fiddle) and dizi (bamboo flute) along with other
traditional instruments". Check out their music.. they're awesome!! Audio: http://www.twelvegirlsband.com/media Some video: http://www.platia-ent.co.jp/artists/joshi/disco.html (click on 'Broadband') ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: gaiteric TITLE: Different musics, different typists, same idea. ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: DATE: 03/22/2005 02:01:56 PM ----- BODY: I kind of have to agree with Katherine. I am definitely liking the Sri Lankan hop-hop mix,
and so is my thesis :))) The way in which the CD (or at least others like it) was
released as a benefit for tsunami victims, and then provided much less critical relief
to me (as I was also working on my thesis) seems to be part of a fundamental pattern
of ever expanding spheres of influence and possibilities via music. The choice of
songs was interesting...from Tupac's "Keep Ya Head Up" to Spice Girls' "Wannabe" :)
I wonder how much the content of the CD was meant to talk about the events and
people, to which the CD was dedicated. Since the CD pulled pop cultural influences
together from around the globe this brings up the additional question of whether you can
actually talk about place-specific people and events, or if music is equally about
propagating a global cultural phenomena through music which then takes on a life of its
own. Music indeed has become a lot closer to a true "citizen of the world." When it
is used in this context, it indeed has to be global - global problems require global
solutions. The evolution of the system in which music builds reciprocity between
people and cultures could be taken as a sign that music is literally much more than
waveforms - more than even a common medium or an epiphenomenal similarity across
cultures based on common needs - but motif of life. At the same time it's an emergent
property built on little things such as "How badly does this song want to make me get
out of this chair and dance?" The effect of music is indeed more than the sum of the
smaller effects it has on us. While single tunes may trigger in us specific emotions
(like feeling happy out of a sudden when you hear you favorite song) or make us do
specific things (turn on the radio, decide to go to a club), the effect of music as a
phenomena that transcends geographical and cultural bounds, could have a much larger
effect on us - make us appreciate peace or express support for tsunami and terror
victims. Yet this phenomenon emerges from formal and social boundaries we've seen in
each individual tradition. No music is completely static, but do incremental
technical changes in musical style inevitably lead to destabilization and musical
globalization? True, there are obvious instances in which external traumatic human
events lead to development of new styles, but I think that the Tsunami remix hints at a
more sophisticated interaction in which music does not "play musicians" nor do
musicians simply play music, but in which music and musicians are "equal players." P.S. Peter and I wrote this post together after listening to the remix. He would write a
line or two and then I came in with one. Just as you have different musics from
different cultures forming a collusion in the remix, here you have two different
commentaries forming a (kind of?) emergent harmony. (Hence the lack of paragraphs and the
unusual connections between sentence topics.) ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: palazzolocm TITLE: The Globalization of Music ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: DATE: 03/22/2005 02:57:57 PM ----- BODY: I really liked Chris'/Peter's idea of music becoming globalized. I think its so true
- now that countries and cultures are so connected to each other, it would be naive to
think that they dont influence each other in more ways than just economically. And
music is a perfect example of this. Who would have thought 50 years ago that there
would ever be such a thing as Sri Lankan rap music? Even today, the label sounds
somewhat paradoxical. But that's the beauty of music. It can encompass so much and
evolve and change in ways no one can predict. That's what makes music so fun these days,
trying to pick out what influences most affected the singer/songwriter/musician. Even
then it is hard because it is so difficult to pinpoint the origin of a specific
influence or to define the particular style of one' culture's music. As I said, music is
an ever-changing thing, so it would be absurd to define one culture's music with much
speificity. Instead, just sit back and listen to the newest creations and
combinations put out by today's artists. No guarantee you'll like them, but isn't that
what makes it all so fun? ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: hourenk TITLE: When a Jug is more than a jug ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: DATE: 03/22/2005 04:49:48 PM ----- BODY: I think these "homemade" instuments are great examples of fence instruments. They clearly
have two roles and stradle worlds between container for liquids and music-maker. I
particularly enjoy instruments that are made by professionals and sold for quite a bit
of money, but which are essentially glorified household items, like jugs. This
brings me to my next quesion: does it take something away from the integrity, grittiness,
raw-ness of ethnic musics when we furnish musicians with "professional" quality
istruments. It certainly changes the sound of the music they produce. Is this another
case of business butting in where people have done well enough on their own? ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Pete EMAIL: email@wlu.edu IP: 71.0.86.194 URL: DATE: 03/22/2005 11:56:37 PM Thats an interesting question because its all about the sound a musician is trying to
produce. With professional quality instruments, I think some of it is durability. A pro
quality instrument will last longer. Other times the instrument is trying to mimic an
old timey sound... sometimes a pro instrument just gets a tone that a musician likes
better... in each case I think its always less the instrument and more the musician
that gives music a rawness or grittiness. ----- -------- AUTHOR: hourenk TITLE: Frida ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: DATE: 03/22/2005 04:57:45 PM ----- BODY: If you haven't already watched Frida, watch it for this class. It's a fantastic movie and
also a great way to learn a little more about Mexican culture through one it's most
revolutionary female figures. To be sure, this is a film partly about art (an artist
and her art), but does that make it also an art film? I can't decide. It's not an
important question, but one I ask myself when I have nothing more pressing to think about. ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: jonesp TITLE: livin in el barrio ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: DATE: 03/23/2005 12:30:16 AM ----- BODY: It wasn't as similar as I thought initially... but still the same song. I think the one on
the Funky Aztecs rap was sampled from somewhere else. Listen to it though... it still rocks. Los Hombres Calientes - El Barrio ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: ruminj TITLE: Fellini ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: DATE: 03/24/2005 11:25:49 AM ----- BODY: ----- EXTENDED BODY: This is just a random plug, but in thinking about some of the movies that we have
watched/discussed recently, I was reminded of some of my favorite movies, all of which
were directed by Federico Fellini. "La Strada" is a movie which depicts the life of a
young girl, Gelsomina, who is sold to Zampano, a heartless strongman. I won't go any
further, but in a way it reminds me of one movie we watched a few weeks back, about
the Gypsy(?) singer's tragic life. Another good flick is "La Dolce Vita," a story
that revolves around a tabloid reporter, and offers a pretty insightful look at the
attention that many people pay to Hollywood stars and famous musicians. The movie
covers a whole lot more than that in its 3 spectacular hours, but again, I guess it's
kind of related to discussion that has been raised in past blogs. Finally, Kate's
comments concerning "Frida" reminded me of one more Fellini film, "8 1/2" which offers
a surreal take on art,specifically the art of movie making. I realize that this has
been a random blog, and my comments do not do these movies justice, but for those
unfamiliar with Fellini's work, it would definitely be worth your time to check out any of
these movies- I think that Leyburn has all of them. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: palazzolocm TITLE: Drugs Glorified? ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: DATE: 03/24/2005 12:52:35 PM ----- BODY: After class on Tuesday, I got to thinking about some of the music that we listened to and
that Hugh passed around, and I was having trouble understanding just why a lot of
Mexican music glorifies the drug trade. I mean, I understand it is a large part of
the Mexican underground and even the larger Mexican culture, but it also seems like a
bad stereotype that you would think Mexicans would be eager to shed. Besides, they
have to see the real danger and destruction of the trade. Yes, there's always the
"badass" quality to these drug traffickers who defy the law and don't get caught and
who get rich off of doing so, but what about the awful lives that those who get
addicted lead, the troubles these druggies face in prison and with border authorities, the
hard life of the gangs who basically organize around the trade, etc? Yet their
lifestyle is idolozed in many popular songs, which you would think would perpetuate the
truly rough and even scary lives that these people really lead. So why does the
Mexican music industry do this? ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: chris EMAIL: gaiteric@wlu.edu IP: 137.113.108.4 URL: DATE: 03/24/2005 02:17:07 PM Not that this is an answer, but these stories may provide a bit more perspective on the
questions you've raised. http://64.233.179.104/search?q=cache:TBQk5w-_9CwJ:www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/americas/02/21/mexico.songs.ap/+drugs+culture+mexico&hl=en http://www.dailystar.com/dailystar/sports/65388.php ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Chris EMAIL: gaiteric@wlu.edu IP: 137.113.108.4 URL: DATE: 03/24/2005 03:06:38 PM Semi-wild largely unsupported conjecturing on this issue... I'm wondering if there is a
fundamental complicity between drugs and music such that they mutually support one
another, or can potentially "come to the rescue" and take up the slack if their
“partner” fails. Socio-economically stressful situations, such as those that give rise to
the drug trade, highlight this relationship. Another way of looking at this is to
ask if there are formal similarities not just between the uses of drugs and music, but
between the use of drugs and the end(s) of music and vice versa. Remember all the
stories about music entrapment as something that should be avoided? I think this
traces back to a use of music as a sort of mental exercise/relaxation that leads to new
perspective. Obviously the process could spiral out of control if someone had serious
criminal intent, but in general, because this seems to be a biologically ingrained
behavior, it's most likely homeostatic. Perhaps in the case of narcocorridos, what
the government should be doing is not discouraging the ballads, but holding
competitions for the best one. Maybe addicts would find some peace then by listening. ----- -------- AUTHOR: hourenk TITLE: get up stand up stand up for your right ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: DATE: 03/24/2005 06:28:55 PM ----- BODY: I have to say that I changed my mind today. I wasn't initially excited about chinese
music. But if you don't think the musicians and music we looked at today were amazing,
then I think there's something wrong with you. What we saw today was more than amazing music, though. The Chinese were given an
opportunity to do something most of us never will have the opportunity to do in our
pluralistic, do as you please (as long as you don't step on anyone's toes) society:
discover that we love something twice, and discover why we appreciate something twice.
Falling in and out of interest with something a particular activity is nothing like
being the victim of a Communist Cultural Revolution. For musicians, the liberation
of the music culture must be like a second childhood. These thoughts may be an attempt to
make lemonade from a turnip, but I think I'm right at 6:24 today. Let me
know if you disagree now or later (or agree, of course). Moreover...where's Bob Marley? I know we don't have time for it, but I'll try to put some
on my log. I've rediscovered the man after I shelved him in high school. What have
I found - you may think you've had enough of Bob, but you haven't. Also, I'm still
thinking about Ravi Shankar and the Monterey Pop Festival. ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: gaiteric TITLE: a brief history of a thought ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: DATE: 03/28/2005 07:26:49 AM ----- BODY: which has turned out not to be very brief, so... ----- EXTENDED BODY: The thought started with a lot of trouble. I switched from writing a program (that wasn't
working) to a poem (that wasn't working) to relief when Peter said "I kind of like
how they did this." He then described a study in which researchers experiment with
various ways of describing browser security risks to students who get fake points for
fake trips to the Bahamas for doing well on fake tests at the university trying this
out. (Thinking about it now, you really had to be there/here @ 4:30 AM...) "This reminds me, Peter, passwords, I've been thinking about passwords, open-source
passwords." (This by the way, is not the thought.) Peter replied, "If you have open source passwords that sort of eliminates the need for
passwords. I mean, having passwords implies that you are keeping something from
someone." He then mentioned the sites that have keygens or lists of passwords for
software. I happen to have been to those sites many times out of purely academic interest. But what I was thinking about was more like communities formed by people who are simply
stuck together with the same password, something like Survivor in cyberspace. They
will trace out each other's lives through these portals. Reality internet. Please
don't stop reading. He had a really good point, though, about limiting access to the
password before it lost all semblance of password-idity. After all I think the idea
of gaining access to a "password" or a string of them associated with a specific
person is going to be a major draw to these communities. The main reason I was thinking about this was the
type-in-a-word-and-pictures-from-amazon-form-it website that came up in the last class.
I find the site rather inspiring and it gave me the urge to throw open the doors...
not just to some new funky combination, but to a kind wild intelligence that seemed to be
crying out to me from the page. Just to make sure I wasn't hearing things,
I showed the page to Rares Trocan.... we tend have similar reactions on when it
comes to creativity and we happily watched various words form on the screen
for a while. BTW I consider this highly productive. We both agreed
there was something buried in this that is far too rare. Which is why I started
thinking about passwords as symbols of the digital era yet also a real pain
to keep track of when any form of storage is inherently counterproductive
i.e. insecure. So, my thought was to embrace the counter productivity,
make it art, make it alive... hence open source community passwords...
(this is also not the thought, though at the time I thought it could be.) The following page or so is from Peter... there large parts of what he wrote that
surprised me, because it's not what I thought we were talking about. Then again that
does jive with my idea about emerging global blogsciousness in which meaning is
produced by streams of information as opposed to determined by them.... that I think pops
up here at some point..... "Mysteriously enough, we went to behaviors and podcasting. Here was my idea. Since ancient
times, historians have had more and more sources they can work with. In ancient and
medieval times, the only historical documents were produced by wealthy people (who had
nothing else to do, so they could learn how to read and write), most often from the
court of the current ruler or dominant people (because the whole writing process was
incredibly slow and expensive and needed a patron). With time, historians had access
to more and more documents until, in the last two centuries, they even use interviews
with common people as historical documents to study patterns in local communities, etc. So, how about a podcast? Could a podcast one day be used as a historical document? Hm...I
guess only the future will tell us that. Another interesting aspect of podcasting -- how far can it go? Hugh is recording his own
voice, so that he can capture and share ideas that come and go through his mind.
People make blogs so they can record places they have been and things they have seen (and
can never just seem to find afterwards). How about behavior? Can you podcast behavior? Let"s say I find a person that I really like
and have common ideas with. Can I view his browsing history, or at least a part of it
that he has agreed to share with similarly-thinking people" This is where Chris' idea about open-source passwords and virtual communities kicks in.
Let"s say that I am willing to give access to some of my "behavior patterns" (e.g.
browsing behavior) to people who think the same way that I do. What do I do to give them
access to these "behavior records." How" I have an open-source password. (Shared
password is really the better word to use here, I think) So what kinds of behavior can I share with other people" Well, let's say there is a
program that takes a screenshot of your monitor every half a second, builds an animation
and then shares this animation as a podcast. This could have very practical purposes
actually. I want to find out how to draw a simple line in Adobe Photoshop (which
turns out to be more complicated than it sounds). I go online, open a pod cast of somebody
working in Photoshop and there it is! This also has many less practical purposes "
for example, to reflect the general behavior of somebody. The more time people are
spending online these days, the more there behavior shows in the way they spend their
time online. Also, let's imagine there was a way to capture the process of music making in an
image/sound representation. In a way, you capture and share with other people your own
creative processes. They can observe these creative processes and maybe build on them.
You can have a "podcast", which shows how you made a piece of music. Somebody else
can take this podcast, repeat the same things and modify any steps that he thinks he
can do in another way. By sharing our creative processes and getting feedback, can we
improve them by incorporating other people's ideas? Going back to the idea of the podcast as a historical document. Could the future
historians use all these "behavior records" as yet additional types of historical
documents available to them" If behavior and creativity can develop and change, should we
keep a history of them? Me again. "I wish we had a microphone so we could record this and send it to Hugh." Peter
had just delivered an incredibly lucid expose of "my" idea of reality composed of
streams of information as opposed to nodes of information. Now it turns out he thought
it was something else. Oddly, or maybe not, my next consideration about encapsulating
creativity still hooks up to this. "I'm a lot more open in this course than I am in other classes." Usually I carry on my
private debates, but I don't air them for various reasons. This class is at least one
layer closer to what's really going on. So while... "It's an incredible thought that
you could convey pure medium-free creativity through a web-medium, there are things
in my life, and in everyone's, about which you could write pages and not have said
anything, because it's simply experiential." "What's strange is that we are always trying to deliver experience in the form of books or
whatever and we see creativity as some ephemeral quality. Ultimately pure experience
may be more difficult to transmit that creativity unless you're in the Matrix and
"know kung-fu." We said the last part of that sentence more or less together. What does this have to do with music? Well, a bit later on Peter and I both start thinking
about creativity and risk and opportunity... in music, so hold that though. In a more
direct sense, I was prompted to think about this mass because of Hugh's request for a
"What is it all about" response and being automatically disgusted with anything I
came up with and wanting to be more like the person who designed the amazon-word-search site. Even if I do come up with something as cool as that for a final project or a response, on
some level at least the didactic point behind the question is to show how much you
don't know, how little you can say. Which is itself an excellent bit of knowledge, but
a little too cute when I do really want an answer. So I thought I could examine the
underlying process of creation as it extends to music (communities/life) that come out
of specific traditions (passwords) with a certain tool: this thing, this record of
our conversation. Guess what? I don't know. That is the thought. At least it's a bit more legitimate now, not just a vacuous reply. My attempt to address
the thought is the thing we've typed here, that might be a kind of self-descriptive
backbone. Remix of a remix, now history of a history of the future. Hence the honest
wandering style. I have to write this way if there's even a chance for an answer.
Someone may follow our path and find music or laugh at us, or never get this far. It
doesn't matter. We are the stream. Just talked to Peter: "Nobody is going to read
this except Hugh." C: "It's okay, I'm not even writing it for him." We are what
music is all about. Music is not about a whole bunch of things. It's about where
individual people(s) go, in our minds and our hearts and our persons. It's me
hauling around speakers. And just because I've given a definition that's too general and
too specific doesn't mean I claim to know what music is all about. Okay, I should
stop and ask Peter what he thinks of this. And while he was typing, I was thinking
about what the journey I mentioned actually is. The journey is uncertain. On this
journey music is the steady creak -- the one that I can never fix -- that my foot taps
out on the treadle of my potter's wheel, which marks off each wobbling or splattered
or sacrificed or beautiful creation or me when I'm lost in the task. Someone in the future, someone who knows what music is, reads this and shakes their head.
And moves on. Funny, even what was going to be the last line of this piece (above) came from somewhere
specific, with a whole history behind it, now that I think about it... and so it's
not the last word, it never stops, if you could ever really wish for that. Perhaps
it is better to remain uncertain with this haunting piece/peace of music in my ears.
I do not know. PS This posting is officially copy down. "And a few more word from me now. What is it all about indeed? Well, let me complete A
loop (A loop as opposed to THE loop) and go back to the beginning of this class: we
are the music that we are listening to. Chris says: "music is all about us." And we
are all about music. Keeping my habit of intertwining things to infinity, let me tie this back to the previous
idea of historical documents and creativity. Music is obviously a creative work.
What"s more, we can view music as a HISTORICAL DOCUMENT OF CREATIVITY. Centuries ago
somebody was creative enough to use a different instrument or a different technique. How
do we keep history about that" We preserve the music, preserve the music traditions,
build upon that piece of creativity in order to see it from multiple aspects... Music is indeed a phenomena " it carries traditions and past creativity, but it is also
found in a very complex web of cultures and ethnicities. Music never seems to stop
evolving. The Yoshida Brothers" wandering into styles like hip-hop and Caribbean music
with an instrument as traditional as the shamisen confirmed that yet one more time.
Music is all about both continuity and change at the same time " just what our own
human nature seems to be a lot about. After all, we and our musics
very similar in a lot of aspects. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: jonesp TITLE: comments ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: DATE: 03/29/2005 02:27:33 AM ----- BODY: I was trying to post comments to Chris' and Katie's posts and it wouldnt let me, so here
is a new entry. ----- EXTENDED BODY: First, chris and Peters': Quite an interesting post.. don't really know where to start
commenting. I will skip commenting on the computer stuff.. But will comment on the
music stuff. One thing that is interesting about ethnomusicology is that it is sort of
the study of the historical document of music from different cultures. At the same
time... music is such a thing of the present. One performance, one instant. When
playing quarter notes at 120 beats per minute... you get 2 notes per second, thats it!
Can't ever get them back. Yet theres this huge class and body of academia
on this thing... all of these academic types crawling around jungles with tape recorders looking
for new music to catalog in the historical record, Doing research on the drum
techniques of pygmy tribesmen in africa, trying to encompass what exists in Arctic music,
etc. While it seems foolish to research a thing that should only exist in the
present, I really enjoy it a lot. As far as what music is... I refer to a quote by the Late, Great John Coltrane: "Overall,
I think the main thing a musician would like to do is give a picture to the listener
of the many and wonderful things he knows of and senses in the universe... That's what
I would like to do. I think that's one of the greatest things you can do in life and
we all try to do it in some way. The musician's is through his music." This talks
about a musician's goal, but I think it can help the listener to concentrate on the many
and wonderful things they can see through music. One last quote that is nice...
"A musician's canvas is silence" ...it always reminds me of how much music is in the
present context and is tough to bring out of the past. A comment for Katie: I too wasn't sure about the whole Chinese music thing... but WOW. Huge props to the
Chinese musicians, and Susanna.. I eagerly await your project merging their music and hip hop.. As far as the whole cultural revolution thing goes... it must've sucked for the musicians
who had to put down the music and instruments they had taken their whole life to
master and take up other jobs or play crappy music. The Daoist drummer particularly
saddened me, because he was sooo good. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: sandenb TITLE: Worldwide Emotion ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: DATE: 03/29/2005 11:40:49 AM ----- BODY: The unifying factor is emotion... ----- EXTENDED BODY: The part of the music we studied in these past twelve weeks that will most stick with me
and most inspire me to further study is the aspect of the passion within music found
throughout the world. Whether it is a flamenco woman wailing over her lost home,
Janis Joplin at Woodstock, Bessie Smith singin the blues, a Klezmer violinist, an
Asian pop star, African cymbal drums, Middle Eastern flutists or Irish harpist, there is
music worldwide and it contains passion and emotion. I sincerely did not like all of
the music we studied (I found a LARGE breaking point for myself when we were working
on the Blues) but regardless of my personal taste in the songs, I cannot deny that
there is something about the musical genre that demands emotion worldwide. Even now, as I review some of the music, we listened to in class of the various regions of
the world; I find that I most enjoyed the video clips because it allows one to see
the passion a person pours into their instrument. That Flamenco woman singing on the
hill was not a pleasant sound, but her soul was in need of music - there, on the hill
above the city, with no instruments accompanying her, she just needed to sing in
order to cope with what had happened - that is intense. The Chinese percussionist we just
recently saw… she was expressing herself through those instruments and the energy
required on her part was insane. Moreover, this list of the videos we have seen would
just continue without end if I tried to list all the video clips which demonstrated
the energy and emotion these cultures pour into their music. It is the passion behind
the different musics that most inspire me to further study from this course… what is
it about music? What release do humans find by exerting passion into music, which is
so needed that absolutely every area of the world created their own type of music to
participate in their daily lives, rituals and heartaches? Due to this area fascinating me most in this course, I have a really hard time getting at
all excited about the technological mash-ups/audacity functions/electronic overtones
that we touched on in the term. Do I find them interesting? Absolutely. Such an
interesting and unchartered direction the music field has taken but I have not had
enough exposure to this area to feel the passion of the artist in the music. I feel that this course exposed me to an overview of some of the current and historical
worldwide music and now I really want to explore those same musics from a
musicological perspective. Some of my favorite lectures were the ones that touched on the
unique rhythms of Turkish and Gypsy dances and the interesting modal scales of Asian
music. It is these more theory-based issues I would like to know more about so I can
study the parallels of western and other types of music from a more technical and
academic view. I feel that this class merely showed me that different music exists
and now I want to know, musically speaking, what makes it different. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: luc TITLE: black or white.. ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: DATE: 03/30/2005 09:50:12 AM ----- BODY: Response to Christie’s posting.. Drugs glorified? Interesting question... Let's remember that corridos are not only about drug trade and dealers, and they're not
meant to praise drug dealing just for the sake of being "bad-ass". In many ways,
corridos portray realities in Mexican society that we don't necessary learn about,
such as chaos in the cities, extreme poverty vs excessive wealth, corruption,
injustice, brutal violence from the police, etc. What about the necessity to be involved
in drug dealing due to social marginalization? I'm not trying to defend drug dealers
or claiming that drug dealing is ok, but sometimes we have to keep in mind that
things are not always black and white. Great quote from Philippe Bourgois (an
anthropologist who carried out an ethnographic study on crack selling in one of the
poorest and most marginalized neighborhoods in New York City): "Cultural relativism:
cultures are never good or bad, they simply have an internal logic". Corridos and rap... Think about rap. Nowadays, rap and hip hop has become more and more popular. Rap was not
born from the elite class, but rather from the street culture of the inner cities in
the US. Rap started as a way for people to release their frustrations and their
anger… a way for them to tell their stories and to give their voice. Rap messages do not
praise the government, but praises life on the streets… a way to gain respect in their own ways. ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: palazzolocm TITLE: What It All Means... ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: DATE: 03/31/2005 03:08:25 AM ----- BODY: I think the most important realization I came to in the past 12 weeks of this class is
that I lead a very sheltered life...musically speaking. I am definitely a Western
music junkie, but mostly because I've never really bothered to branch out of the
rhythms and styles and even instruments that I am used to. And I had the incredibly
narrow-minded belief that most "ethnic" music consisted of tribal chants or "ethnic hog-calling"
that could not possibly be of interest to me. But this class proved me
wrong. I still like my Western music, but I have come to appreciate and enjoy many other
culture's (although, I have to admit, not all...) musics. And while I know our foray
into all the different musical types necessarily had to be superficial so that we
could at least encounter music of all the genres we did cover, I still feel that I now
have a sense of where music from these different areas came from, what it typically
sounds like, and how/on what it is played. As for the most memorable bit from class, I think I would have to say hearing Django
Reinhardt play the guitar as amazingly as he did, knowing he had only 2 fingers on one
hand, absolutely blew me away. I have a profound respect for anyone who can play an
instrument well (virtuosity is awe-inspiring to me, perhaps because I am so far from
it myself), but to hear Django play it THAT well despite his handicap...wow. I'll end with a question that has been on my mind of late: does music come from the land or the people?
At first, it seems obvious that the people are who make the music and therefore it comes from
them, yet look a little deeper: the original instruments came from the land, and depending on what they
are, they inherently produce a different tonal quality than instruments native to other parts of
the world. So in the beginning, music was very region-specific, and
people were limited in the music they could
produce by the materials available to them with which to make the sounds. Moreover,
I think much of music originated from trying to mimic sounds we hear in nature
everyday, like a bird's song. And the earthly music you hear necessarily depends on where
in the world you are (in the desert, you wouldn't be as familiar with the sound of
raindrops, while in a city, many don't know what the wind whistling through the trees
sounds like). So it just seems to me that nature has given us the gift of music and
each culture has taken that gift and molded it in its own way to produce its own
variation of music, but the original source was nature, or the land, itself... I don't
know, this could all be quite a stretch from the rambling mind of someone who has been
up for too long, but it was a random thought that occurred to me that I found
intriguing so I thought I would share. ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: ruminj TITLE: "Last" Thoughts on Enthnomusicology ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: DATE: 03/31/2005 10:36:23 AM ----- BODY: ----- EXTENDED BODY: I have no idea how to approach this thing, so here goes. In this class, I have learned: -How many different kinds of music there are throughout the world, and how I’m pretty sure
I wouldn’t have been introduced to half of them if I hadn’t enrolled in this class. -That what I consider to be music differs a lot from what others consider to be music. -What Klezmer music is, and that it can either be really insightful
into an immigrant’s experience or that it can talk about getting stoned. -That Robert Johnson might have sold his soul to the devil. -That I wish that I had been at the Monterrey Pop Festival to check out Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix. -That Ravi Shankar influenced the Beatles/George Harrison more than I had thought. -That I can’t understand Japanese music as Japanese people do, because I don’t hear music
with the left/right side of my brain. -That video invariably provides me with a better appreciation of a musician’s art, and
maybe better understanding how the hell he/she did that. -That Gypsy culture is really fascinating, and how foolish I was for failing
to realize this after reading 100 Years of Solitude.
-That I can’t dance, and perhaps that prohibits me a little bit from really appreciating
how dynamic and fun dancing can be. -That I am utterly inept in any technology, but especially those pertaining to music. -That I wish I had an IPod- graduation is around the corner though, so the timing of this
realization is perfect. -That I can now present a Powerpoint presentation with music/dialogue (my own or others),
and that I can put this presentation on a webpage so that others can see/hear it. -That flamenco is one of the most beautiful forms of music I’ve heard. -That Wickipedia (sp?) could be the wave of the future. -That I still haven’t been caught up in this blog thing yet- will it ever happen?
That remains to be seen. -That music might be a whole lot more mathematical than I had previously thought (this
might be obvious for some people, but how does one relate this to innovation/improvisation?
The correlation between the two fascinates me, and yet I can’t
understand the genius behind it). -That no matter what anyone says, I don’t like stuff from Bollywood- it depresses me. -That while I appreciate Irish music, I’m not all that attracted to it. -That “Apple saved the music biz” -That Mash-ups could be one of the coolest innovations in music today (and that
according to copyright law, this might be music’s biggest contradiction) -That musicians such as Django completely blow my mind- how can he do that
with two fingers, while I struggle with my five? Incredible. -That instruments can be more than the things you buy in music stores- and that
a lot of times, incredible sounds come out of commonplace objects. -That I really want to travel to Africa one day, to hear the music there while
experiencing a culture completely different, on all sorts of levels, from my own. -That a thing called the “Dialectizer” exists. -That while I was often fascinated by the subject, I found that I could rarely
follow up the things we had seen in class with explorations of my own-
thank you senior thesis. -That Hugh has one of the coolest musical rooms I’ve ever seen. -That I want to learn to play the sitar like Ravi Shankar (good luck). -That I hope American/Western culture doesn’t drown out the originality of other
cultures, as I think it currently is. -That I hope to continue to expand my musical horizons-I am particularly guilty
of restricting my preferences to all things Western. So what does it all mean? I can’t begin to explain the things that I’ve
learned, as what I say now will probably change in about twenty minutes. There
have been too many questions that have arisen in this journey to articulate
now, and plenty of them remain unanswered. But I would say that the
biggest thing that I’ve learned along the way is that more kinds of music exist
out there than I had previously thought, which attests to the variety of
different cultures/values that exist throughout the world. So where does
this music come from? I think that I’ve learned that much of it is a
product of the culture which different peoples inhabit, which invariably means
that there are plenty of things that I am missing out on when listening to
music from India, Japan, or Bangladesh (although I don’t think different
sides of my brain have anything to do with it). I’ve also come to better
appreciate how incredibly brilliant human beings are in their search for
originality, creativity, and innovativeness- how could a person listen to
Robert Johnson, Django, or Ravi Shankar and deny this? I guess the bottom
line is that my ear is now a little more open (like Peter’s) than it
previously was. I hope that after leaving this class, my enthusiasm for music
of other cultures will continue (although I still plan on listening to
plenty of Dylan- now better appreciating the impact that Robert Johnson and
Blind Willie McTell had on his songwriting- and plenty of rap after this project
of mine) with that new IPod of mine- was this a whole lot of rambling? Do
I contradict myself? To paraphrase Mr. Walt Whitman, fine, I happily
contradict myself. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: iten TITLE: what it all means... ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: DATE: 03/31/2005 11:43:37 AM ----- BODY: i just accidentally deleted my whole entry. that makes me really sad...
here we go again... i guess.. the first one was better. what it all means... there are several things i've taken away from this class,
the first being that i firmly believe that music is the "state" language of
the world. how else can we all truly communicate and understand each other
but through music. we all speak this common language, just different
dialects. but because of the common bond of the music language, we can relate to
other cultures and appreciate their dialects as well as our own. the second
thing that i'm taking away from this class is the indescribable and
intangible aspect of music. you can dissect a piece down to its guts and know
everything that is harmonically and structurally going on with it, but
still have no CLUE about "what it all means". but at the same time you can just
listen to a piece, but unless you understand some of the harmonic and
structural elements which make it tick, you might also lack a full appreciation
for the music. these two aspects of musical analysis need to be fused
together, but it is hard to include both of them without giving an abridged
version of both... an anecdote: so in class we learned all about the twelve bar
blues, and chord progressions, and from this knowledge the fab 5 in our
group presentation were able to compose a blues song in under 3 minutes. the
time alotted aside, it is not a great song. however, what MAKES a song
great? that's the stuff taht can't be taught, no matter how many chords you
analyze and how many progressions you try, it's not the analytical aspect
that makes a sosng great, it is the emotional and intangible aspect which
does, and that's the best i can do at describing it. ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Chris EMAIL: gaiteric@wlu.edu IP: 137.113.108.4 URL: DATE: 04/03/2005 03:24:18 AM I beg to differ! It was a great song, loved it! ----- -------- AUTHOR: hsings TITLE: dynamic movement ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: DATE: 03/31/2005 12:06:51 PM ----- BODY: In the end what I have found it all means is that music is a dynamic force. It
is language, trade, and expansion. I don't even consider it a "state" of
things, because it is constantly evolving and changing. We have seen
instruments move across the world, changing appearance but holding the same
fundamental shape and sound. We have seen how cultures have created music to
speak within the community and how that has spread outward. And we now have
seen how music is ever-evovling taking in sounds from all over and creating
some new creations today. Music will never be a static thing, it will
never stand still enough for us to describe. All we can do is hope to follow
its many paths in as many directions as we can, in order to see just how
much of a force it is. And that is what I've taken from this course. Music
is running inside and outside of the veins of everything - never holding
still. ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: doughertyt TITLE: My attempt at What It All Means ALLOW COMMENTS: 2 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: DATE: 03/31/2005 02:25:26 PM ----- BODY: This is a long entry because I haven't posted in so long. So here goes. ----- EXTENDED BODY: What it all means is that music is a viable, beautiful, global means of
communication, self-expression, self-alienation, transcendence, salvation, and
any other religious ot interpersonal word you would like to insert here.
What it all means is that surprisingly enough, there is something out there that
everyone in the world can unite under - that we are all experiencing this
beautiful thing called life, and our life is not to be wasted for we have
precious little time. Today in religion class we discussed Derrida's idea
that life has no value unless it is more than life - and music makes my life
worth more than life simply living. What it all means is that the female Greek singer who has more sorrow in her
voice than I will ever know in my life has something in common with the
young African tribal men learning how to fight to the sounds of a berimbau.
What it all means is that the children playing "mama lama cuma lama" in a circle
have more in common with the Pogues playing Irish punk music than
either of
them will either recognize or possibly even understand. What it all means is that music is a positive, beautiful force, the common
heartbeat of the world that pulls us all together and unites every human. It is
a unique expression of the human spirit of each part of the world, and this
class has exposed each and every one of us students to the immense
possibilities for the creation of music, the utilization of the most modern
technologies and the most primitive (basic instruments, and of course, the human
voice, the most basic of them all) in producing noises, sounds, and the
rhythm and music of the world. One of the most memorable things from ethnomusicology class for me personally
was the time that I spent in Hugh’s house. For whatever reason unbeknownst
to me, I was entranced every time I walked into the music room. Anyone else
who has ever been there knows exactly what I am talking about when I say
that the walls were CDs and records. There were no actual walls. There was
no actual ceiling or floor – you are completely surrounded by music. Some of
the things that I heard in that room were just gorgeous (Trio Mediaeval),
some were just bizarre (the laughing tracks), and some – most of them,
actually – were just plain fun to listen to (the Music of Islam, the female
Austrian singer whose name I can’t remember, Garmarna, etc.). There are so many
things that I have missed out on that I feel like I need… I hope that
someday I too will get an awesome grant that allows me to assemble collections
like yours, Hugh. And who could forget the instruments all over the walls… paradise. As far as life-changing moments, I don’t think I had one of those in this class.
There were lots of things that I found absolutely fascinating and
definitely worth the look, but I don’t know that any of it changed my life. I
still think that African and Middle Eastern musics are my favorites, that
the blues is probably something that I won’t ever completely understand, and
Elvis was incredibly hot, but I didn’t learn or see anything that changed
my life. I was exposed to a number of things and types of musics that I am
interested in pursuing outside of class once I have the time, especially
more of the Middle Eastern musics and even some African and Chinese. I think
watching the klezmer video was part of the inspiration for our final
project, too, so that definitely was worth it. The image of the Greek woman
singing that song in the bar (I can’t remember her name, so excuse me) will be
emblazoned in my brain for a while, and I can still hear the melody running
through my head every once in a while when I am feeling particularly down. In response to Hugh’s response, I would agree in that I’m not sure how much I
got out of the technological aspect of this course. Sometimes I wish we had
had more assignments, though I don’t know that I would have had the time to
complete them adequately. I would have loved to have had an assignment where
we would have to go to Hugh’s house and find some music that we were
interested in and write a little something about our reactions to it – I really
feel that his collection is a largely untapped resource. Incorporating the
different technologies into the classroom was difficult, and I’m not much
of a computer person so I would kind of tune out those parts. Audacity
piqued my interest, but that’s not really a social software. The social software
we were introduced to, which I’m assuming are things like this blog and
Flickr, are really neat, but they’re not things that I would explore on my
own. I don’t have the time or the interest, though Flickr does seem like
something that could be useful. I agree with your point about linear
structures – something else that we covered in my religion class. This class
would not have worked in a truly linear structure, as but I feel like it could
have used some kind of greater definition. If Hugh’s goal was to get people to explore, think, experiment, and work on
their own, I feel that he accomplished that because I have definitely done that.
I don’t know if I have done that to the extent that he would have liked,
but I think our final project will show that our love for all types of music
has increased immensely. My exposure to unfamiliar types of music in this class has definitely opened my
eyes to the broader world of the musical experience. I would love to be able
to travel the world and explore different types of native musics and just
revel in the simplicities and complexities of things that are unfamiliar to
me. A basic African drum rhythm and a simple Middle Eastern flute line are
enough to make me stop, listen, and appreciate what I am hearing. In that
respect, my personal goal in taking this ethnomusicology class – a greater
appreciation and knowledge of the different musics from different parts of the
world. It has demonstrated once again to me that music is a banner under
which the world can unite, constantly pulsing and living inside each of us. ----- EXCERPT: What it all means.... ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: jonesp TITLE: its all about the emotion ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: DATE: 03/31/2005 02:59:50 PM ----- BODY: To read my final post... click ----- EXTENDED BODY: What it all means... I guess this class has taught me that I don't know all that much about World
music. We got through so many different styles and cultures, but there are
so many more that exist. Even the cultures we did explore, we only looked at
them briefly. The class has also taught me about a variety of things that
didn't exist. Dangermouse and mashups. Flikr. Arctic Music. Etc. Etc. The class also showed me the complexities of the modern situation regarding
music distribution. Copyrights, lefts, ups, and downs. Podcasts, RSS feeds,
webradio... ETC. ETC. The most important thing I learned was the universality of music. I knew it was
universal.. but now I KNOW its universal. When I saw a very old Chinese
Gin-Ju player and thought.. that could be Jaco Pastorius! It was quite a
moment. Also, hearing the blues played in Africa was one of those moments.
One of the biggest "Aha!" moments came when I was practicing for the
performance today. Everyone was a bit down in the dumps about exams and all the
work we had to do. We got the chords together for Float On and launched into
it. It was a glorious moment and everything clicked. In that moment I
learned a bit about how music is not about instruments or cultures or notes on
paper. It was all about the people in that room, at that present moment. I would like to conclude with a quote by John Coltrane: "The main thing a
musician would like to do is to give a picture to the listener of the many
wonderful things he knows of and senses in the universe. Its what everyone tries
to do and a musician just does it through their music." ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: hourenk TITLE: Last Class ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: DATE: 03/31/2005 03:01:05 PM ----- BODY: 1. I've realized that we're not so different. Maybe I've been thinking about
biological diversity, Nietzsche, and the characteristics that make someone
human all too human, but I think that the study of music shows that we're
actually very similar. It's a connect. We all make music (as cultures) and
we all enjoy music (collectively). The 7 tone scale (Do-Do) is
particularly cross-cultural. We see it in all Western music, but also in the
Indian music that we studied. There blues were a great fusion of the 7 tone
scale and the more elaborate scales we saw in other cultures. But they're
just frameworks, conventions, after all. Music is more than a convention
of a culture, thought each culture has musical conventions. Music is one of
those thigs we all have in common. 2) particularly intersting bits: the Video on China, studying the Frida artist,
the African dance video (you know what I mean), the Django section, Martin
Scorsese's the Blues, and Monterey Pop Festival with the sitarist. Yes, I
like movies and documentary style movies quite a lot. 3) Questions: why didn't we do much on bluegrass (Documentary on Larry Keel in
the library is a good one)? How could we study scales of each culture and
apply the characteristics of the scales to characteristics of the cultures.
How different do our musical sytles show that we are? Could we model the
differences? What happens to forgotten musical traditions? How much
effort should we put into preserving these traditions? Is music like language
in that respect? Is it even important once it's gone? - I'd like to study the music (if any) of the crusades and/or of Attic tragedy. ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: holcombm TITLE: Reflections at the End of the Course ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: DATE: 03/31/2005 04:54:42 PM ----- BODY: Well, it has been a wild trip. Traveling the world from the heart of Africa to
the Far East in search of that intangible thing that compels humans to
articulate the uniqueness of their experience through sound. A number of highlights of this trip stood out for me. One was the hauntingly
evocative Pygmy lullaby, Rorogwela, and learning how this song traveled
across continents to be reinterpreted by different musicians in different cultures. Another highlight was simultaneously exploring the relationship between American
blues and Flamenco singing. I would never have assumed these singing styles
from such different cultures to have anything in common. Yet, the raw,
visceral singing qualities of these styles sounded fascinatingly similar to one
another, as if pain and hardship sounds the same in any language and culture. Perhaps the most fascinating element of this course was looking at how the
Internet and the blogosphere is giving voice to previously silent individuals,
allowing them to express their views on music, share sound files, and
encourage one another in their exploration of musical interests. The tremendous
size of the information exchange going on here is very inspiring, as it is
breaking across cultural boundaries and continents, uniting us in what we
have in common with one another. Because it seems that whatever the style, the inspiration for music is the same
anywhere. The pain and agony in a Flamenco song has the same pain felt in a
prison song from the Mississippi Delta. The exuberance and vitality of an
African tribal dance has the same joyful abandon as seen in the Brazilian
carnivale or in an Indian Bollywood film. We become aware of the differences
in cultures from studying their different sounds, instruments, and styles;
however, the main thing we are left with at the end is how much all these
different cultures have in common. The technology developments of the Internet are furthering this cultural
exchange in many interesting ways. The results of this are allowing humans to
better understand themselves, their place in the world, and what we all,
ultimately, have in common with the other inhabitants of this planet. I will be very interested in seeing what directions music will be taking in the
next decades. I think we will only see more of the cross cultural sharing
that is going on now. New, hybrid forms of music will continue to emerge;
forms that incorporate different styles and instruments from different
countries. I will be watching with interest. ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: kosciolekd TITLE: Final thoughts ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: DATE: 04/01/2005 11:14:42 AM ----- BODY: After watching the great show today in Du Pont, it struck me how amazing
live music is. I don’t play the harp, the electric bass, the upright bass,
or the flute, but listening to everyone do their thing made me want to get
up there and rock out. I couldn’t tell you what instrument I would play,
but I could hear the melody in my head. I had such an itch to pick up a
guitar, and as soon as the class ended that was what I did. Live music
inspires me more than anything, because I can see myself up there. Off a CD, it
seems so far away, so hard to do, because you can’t see it. But when the
people are right there in front of you, even doing complex things, there is
a sense of a possibility. “Well hey, I can see it happening, so it
obviously can be done. There are no recording tricks. I can see the fingers
moving. Why can’t I do that?” I think to myself. And I don’t necessarily think it has to be live. I just think that it has
to be seen. A great part of Hugh’s class was that he showed us things. It
is amazing to see Bukka White slap his guitar up and down the fret board,
or gypsy singers pack so much emotion into a body, or Janis Joplin tossing
her head around on stage while screaming, or an old Japanese flutist
exhausting his body of breath to get his sound, and so many other things that I
can’t even think of right now. Something is lost when you can’t see what is
happening. If I have had an epiphany, then it has been that music is not
just sound, which is something I definitely would not have said before
taking this class. It really is an experience, pardon the cliché, and it is
unfortunate that most of us, surely most people that I know well, don’t look
at music in this way. I’ve heard that some people believe a photograph
steals part of your soul. For music, maybe recording it steals some of its
fire, or power, I don’t really know how to explain it. Another thought that has leapt into my head is that making music may not
always be an end, or a goal. Before this class, when I imagined people
writing or composing music, I pictured them trying to write a song for the
purpose of making music, and calling on an emotion to do so. But after seeing
and hearing things from around the world, things that I could never have
imagined, it seems that people want to convey a certain emotion, feeling,
or story, and just use sound as a means to do so. We then put the label of
“music” on it. The hundreds of men in circles yelling and grunting,
depicting the flying monkey army, definitely did not come about because they
were looking to make a dance. They wanted to tell the story, and decided to
do it that way, I think. I can’t really say for sure though. What I do know is that there is so much music out there, and I have
learned a lot of tools to get at it. There is also a lot of information out
there, and cool websites on the internet, which I never would have
discovered. Then again, the more weird and cool stuff you find, the more you
realize you will never find it all. Is that disconcerting or reassuring? I
haven’t decided yet. Finally, in terms of concrete projects, I would really like to see what
happens when new instruments enter a society, like a guitar spreading. We
saw some of it, but I think it would be really interesting to look at other
instruments and see what sort of uses other people, with a completely new
perspective, have come up for them. One more thing. Hugh, you said that the log would not be there forever.
I did not get a chance to look through it with as much detail as I would
have liked, and this summer, I know I will have time, and would like to
look through it. You said we could save it somehow. I don’t really know
how, but if you could help me I would appreciate it. ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: katie EMAIL: abplanalpk@wlu.edu IP: 137.113.14.138 URL: DATE: 04/02/2005 12:31:44 PM Oh man - you hit so much on what I was feeling when I was up there singing!
Even as a performer, I am constantly inspired by the artists around me.
Especially when the other performers are my age, a big "WOW. I CAN DO THAT
TOO!" hits me and I want to go find out how it's done and try too. Obviously,
as is the case with talented performers - they always make it look easier than it is. When I was working with Brooke on the song float on and trying to sing the
lyrics at the same time, it was a true challenge for me. Moving the pedals at
the right time to the correct place, and then singing on top of that - man,
it was just too much. I can't imagine having to worry about strings with
my hands. It all comes with practice, I know, but I was so impressed at the
talent of the musicians up there with me. I also have to respond to the part about making music as being part of telling a
story. That is a gut feeling I have been trying to put into
words/art/music for about a year now. It is what my art thesis is about. I am
realizing that all art, music, performance is about telling a story - about
a feeling, event, or just a stirring. I hope that everyone can find that
voice or movement that releases the essence of that spirit we all have
inside. It gets to the core of who we all are and what we are all doing here.
We all have so many stories to tell, and regardless of whether it is what
we expect or want, fear or enjoy - it is our story. That same thing is
reflected in the creation of music and art. We don't always produce the
sounds or shapes we imagine, the chords or lyrics we have written down, or
the feeling we intend to produce. Sometimes, though - what comes out is
better than what we expected. It is more true that what we plan or desire
- becuase it comes from that core of the unexpected and unknown. Maybe you
will all read this and think I'm crazy, but if you perform, I think you'll
know what I'm saying. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jenny EMAIL: luc@wlu.edu IP: 137.113.31.21 URL: DATE: 04/03/2005 05:30:52 PM About live performance.. Same here.. I know how to play piano, so when I saw that the piano was sitting there all
alone while, I felt the "itch" to go up there and play. By the way.. I was
impressed with our talented classmates on the stage.. they did a great job! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Beth EMAIL: itenb@wlu.edu IP: 137.113.114.153 URL: DATE: 04/03/2005 07:51:46 PM i really liked the comparison of the photograph stealing your soul to that of
recording stealing the fire of the music... i was thinking about this the
other night as i bought tickets to go see a concert down in norfolk.
although i've listened to the cds of the gruop i'm going to go hear so many
times that i know every breath. every inflection, i still find myself compelled
to go see the real thing, reproduced in front of me. i'm not exactly sure
why, but i definitely know what you're saying man. ----- -------- AUTHOR: blackmer TITLE: A scheme for redistributing/archiving ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: DATE: 04/01/2005 03:36:41 PM ----- BODY: As I mentioned on Thursday, the /limit/ folder will disappear at some point in
the not too distant future, taking with it 1.6GB of music in mp3 and other
formats (most of it linked via my logfile page). It occurred to me that I
could ...ummmm... repurpose that content by putting it onto a DVD, along
with the various other pages that I generated for the course, in one big
interlinked environment (just slip the DVD into an Internet-connected
computer and open its files in a browser, then follow links to *files on the DVD
and *Websites...). Derek mentioned that he'd be interested in revisiting
some of the territory, so he'd be a candidate for a copy of that DVD. I
could make other copies for others who expressed an interest... ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: abplanalpk TITLE: the finale: a rumination ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: DATE: 04/02/2005 02:50:33 PM ----- BODY: I want to begin by relating this class to an amazing dance. It’s a bizarre
introduction, I know, but I feel it is appropriate once you get through it. The
class has been incredible – but one of those experiences I don’t grasp
fully until looking back and seeing the entire performance as a complete show.
Sometimes in the middle of the dance/class, I felt like I was spinning in
circles, not knowing where it was all going, but having a great time and
getting that rush of the world flying past. So here’s the thoughts on
dance/class/life: Dancing is like living. You learn the steps, the combinations, the movements,
and you relate them with the music. . . just like we are all in college
learning the basics to life and preparing for the job and positions we will have
after we graduate. But then when you get out there on stage. You enter
that "real world." All of a sudden, the music is new and unknown. We can
try to predict what will happen and work with the music we are given to
create the best flow of movement with that music, but really- we can't worry too
much about following the steps exactly. They will bend with the notes;
they will change into movements we never planned before or could imagine.
And isn't that sometimes more beautiful than standing in first position and
beating your leg in and out, up and down, to a rise and hold? Well, I think so. This class did the same thing. It took me off-guard because
I expected a predictable organization - a typical warm-up at the bar- a
common or parallel explanation of each type of music, its intention, its
structure, its culture. But we didn't have that. Each presentation was
different, and really- that's what made it so beautiful. Hugh's energy and
confidence in improvisation made the class its own. It was hard for me to
grapple at times, and I found myself constantly asking the questions, "Where
are we going?", "What is he expecting of me?", "How does all this internet
stuff relate to music and culture?" - But now, looking back, I am able to
see this beautiful, improvisational dance. For, like music and life –
sometimes you don’t know where it’s going, but you just have to take it one step
at a time. Secondly, maybe there doesn’t have to be anything expected of
me other than enjoying the music and all the knowledge Hugh throws out. And
finally – wow – a realization that all this technology and internet is our
culture right now. This class has taken me places I never dreamed of visiting, shown me tribal
dances with moves that made my insides vibrate, flamenco singers that made me
breathe deeply and meaningfully, blues soul that that made life feel
precious, and rockstars jamming in a their own world that I wanted to enter. I wish I had been available during one of the days to go to Hugh’s house. This
music room sounds incredible. Many people have said that watching live
performances makes recorded music even more meaningful. Well, I say that making
music is really at the core of my connection with music. I would have
loved to see and maybe even try playing some of those instruments Hugh has in
his house. If I have to say what it all means – I agree with everything said already. . .
but furthermore, I think that what I’m taking away from this class is a
challenge: to find what it is that makes me feel, express, and share myself
as intensely, rawly, and honestly as the performers I have seen and heard
in this class. I leave with a challenge to find my way to express those
things and to DO IT. This world has such powerful energies in it – energies that make us feel alive
in all their extremes and moderates. There is no reason to sit and watch it
all, disconnected. I want to be in the middle of it. Someday, I want to
be on that stage sharing that core of my being with people who feel, or want
to feel, or just are. I want to hold onto other musicians and be a part of
this miraculous universal connection called music and creation. ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: blackmer TITLE: LOTR Badger Scene ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: DATE: 04/03/2005 01:14:23 PM ----- BODY: For those who need MORE: here they are... ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: ruminj TITLE: Response/Comment ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: DATE: 04/03/2005 03:53:53 PM ----- BODY: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Before I start off, I'd like to say for all of the things that I've learned
about technology in this class (and it has expanded my technological knowledge
significantly), I still can't post a comment to another person's blog, so
I'm responding to Theresa and Derek's blog here, because they used their
blogs to express what I initially wanted to. I think that one themes which
keeps arising in everybody's "final thoughts" is the assertion that music
is universal- I agree with this statement, but at the same time, I can't
pinpoint why. It's truly amazing how a person from India, a region which I
have no knowledge about, can create music on the sitar which I can "rock"
to, thousands of miles away and decades removed. Indeed, music is perhaps
unique in its ability to induce people to create music of their own, as
Derek says (I doubt that many people read a book, for instance, or watch a
movie, and immediately go off and try to create their own artistic piece).
All you have to do is go to a concert, any concert, and one would see a
majority of people singing, dancing, or clapping, or if the setting does not
permit such explicit participation, one would see feet tapping away, at the
very least. But what is it about music that makes it universal- the
emotion behind it? rhythm? harmony that we find beautiful? lyrics? As Kate
says, we "all have music in common." My question is, why? I haven't reached
any verdict on this issue, and perhaps I never will- perhaps music's
universality is a product of its being indefinable (contrary to what any
dictionary might tell you about it)- or maybe it isn't. Anyways, this is a
question that this class has gotten me thinking about, among many others, I'd
love to hear what others have to say about music's universal appeal. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: luc TITLE: last words.. ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: DATE: 04/03/2005 05:18:40 PM ----- BODY: This course was quite a journey! Everything from the roots of blues to polar
music (polar music? I guess). Here are some of my final thoughts.. Growing bigger ears, Peter? You bet! This course really expanded the word
music for me. One thing that I love about this course is that it took me out of
my comfort zone (speaking about music.. of course), and exposed me to all
sorts of music that I had either not heard before or didn't even bother to
find out. I realized that I don't have a lot of music. I didn't really make
an effort to explore different kinds of music. Even when I had the chance
to be exposed to something different, I was not willing to do so. For
example, I remember that a few years ago, when my mom was watching a program
about Chinese opera on the television, I refused to watch the program with
her. I was irritated by the high pitches in the singing. Another example:
one of my favorite Spanish bands always includes one song that has a
"different flavor". For example, one of the albums has a flamenco piece,
and what do I do when the piece comes up? I skip (shame on me.. I know).
Compared to the other songs on the album, this piece is a lot slower, and
really sad. I didn't really have an ear for it. However, while we were
studying flamenco in class, I thought that it sounded like the song on my
CD. I went back to it, and I had a different feeling about that song than I
did before. I guess that after having some background about that specific
"genre", I could appreciate it more. Actually, flamenco is one of my
favorite stops in this course. It's striking to see how the vocal techniques in
flamenco singing reflect pain and suffering, but at the same time it
expresses strength, fierceness, and energy. I would say that this class has reminded me that listening to music goes beyond
tunes, melodies, and rhythms.. music tells stories.. music expresses
feelings.. music reflects culture. ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: blackmer TITLE: Smithsonian Folkways browser ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: DATE: 04/04/2005 06:16:47 AM ----- BODY: Now THIS is really cool: a geographical interface to the immense Folkways catalog,
and the means to buy MP3 tracks at $.99
with no DRM... I can feel the giant sucking sound on my finances. ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: hannonj TITLE: My Thoughts about College ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: DATE: 04/04/2005 03:22:55 PM ----- BODY: I feel like you hit the nail on the head when you said that students don’t
become consumed or passionate about the material they we are learning. As
a student, it is easy to fall into the mentality of “what do I need to do
to get a good grade? The reason for this is because our success and growth
as individuals are measured by numbers and letters. We see that when we
enter the real world that people want to hire or accept candidates that have
high grade point averages, because they know that they are capable of doing
the work that they will be asked to do. Because of this, classes become merely a means to an end rather than an area
where true interests and passions can be explored. I feel that this is a
main reason why kids in our generation are so unsure of what they want to do
after graduation. We don’t allow our minds to wander freely, because
truthfully we focus on accomplishing tasks rather than enjoying the subject
material that we are learning about. I know that I am taking somewhat of an
extreme view on this, because each student here has found teacher’s and classes
that interest them, but the emphasis still largely is on what kind of grades
you are getting in the class, or what is your grade point average.
For a class like Ethnomusicology to work to its full potential, the students
need to come into with merely and open mind and a passion to learn.
Through our studies this year I have discovered many different types of music
that I never knew existed, because we are fed mainstream pop and rock
through mediums such as MTV or the radio. However, our learning and interests in
most classes are normally not measured in the ever so desirable A that will
boost our gpa .05 of a point which could make the difference of graduating
with honors or without them. Our quest for good grades has created a narrow mentality, and has formed a life
defined by deadlines, rules, and regulations. College should be a time in
our lives when growth, both personal and educational, should be happening
at rapid paces. New ideas should be explored, where students should not be
afraid of sitting and thinking about a topic that interests them. ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Brooke EMAIL: Sandenb@wlu.edu IP: 137.113.41.120 URL: DATE: 04/06/2005 10:49:51 PM I totally agree with you, Justin. For as amazing I feel Washington and Lee is
academically, for how happy I am here, and how extremely challenging the
work is, I feel that all that comes at a cost (moreso than what we pay for
tuition). The work is never actually done here... like finished. Even if
you are taking a day off, it is not because your work is done because there
is always something you COULD (or most of the time, should) be doing for
academics. This creates the risk of kids feeling actually guilty when they
do take breaks (like needed, give-your-mind-a-rest, breaks). My roommate
and I have been encouraging each other all year to rest our minds without
guilt because that is not the environment to which we are accustomed but
brains actually function more efficiently when they are given a chance to
process what they have been given. Okay, where am I going with this? We (students) don't really have time to
ponder the things we are truly passionate about (or really DISCOVER what we are
truly passionate about) because we rarely have time to breathe as it is.
Yes GPA and internships and plans for the future contribute to our driving
forces, but one doesn't have the chance to realize that they sincerely
enjoyed a particular subject or subset to a course if they never take the time
to sit still and reflect on what they just learned. I won't make any enormous and deep generalizations that this fact will indeed by
the downfall of our generation or anything like that, but I believe for as
many kids can tell you EXACTLY what they love and what excites them, just
as many have no such understanding of themselves or blazing fire within
their hearts... and I find that very sad. ----- -------- AUTHOR: palazzolocm TITLE: response to derek ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: DATE: 04/04/2005 09:30:34 PM ----- BODY: i totally agree with your acknowledgment that live music is more compelling and
meaningful than recorded music. for me, it is not so much because i see
the possibility of producing such wonderful sounds myself but instead
because i admire the musicians and feel so attached to the song itself precisely
because i know that i cannot imitate them. to me, it is hard to listen to
live music and not see/hear the beauty in it. think about it - when someone
has the guts to actually get up on stage, even if their playing sucks or
their voice wobbles or they forget the words, don't we usually applaud and
otherwise encourage them to continue? i guess for me it is that rawness,
that reality that a live show is infused with, and the realization that it
is a real person creating these sounds (not just some producer with a
computer making noise) that truly fill me with awe. i cant tell you how many
concerts ive been to where, whether i knew the music first or not, and if i
did, whether i wasn't the biggest fan beforehand or if i really liked the
band prior to hearing them live, i ALWAYS came out absolutely LOVING them.
i am so excited that bands are starting to redicover the joy and even
prosperity of performing live shows once again. that amazing experience of a
live show is the one thing that, even if you have a recording of a concert,
napster and the like will never be able to replace. hearing that great
band in the moment, seeing them up on stage, and swaying to the music (or
moshing to it...depending on who you go to hear...) with the rest of the
audience, everyone united in the melody...does it get any better than that?
i think not. ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Hannonj EMAIL: Hannonj@wlu.edu IP: 137.113.152.121 URL: DATE: 04/06/2005 11:19:58 PM I agree with Derek as well. In short, live music is levels above recorded music.
I will tell you why I think this. First, one of the things I find most
interesting about music is how the musicians are making the sound. Like, when
Cater Beaufort of Dave Matthews, arguably the second best drummer in the
world ( if you can even rank musicians) starts beating away making sounds
that drums normally aren’t supposed to make at award rhythms that somehow
fit into the beat pattern, then that is live music. Watching the Counting
Crows pianist’s hands when playing a rendition of “Raining in Baltimore, or
hearing and seeing an accomplished Jazz pianist go off on his own tangent,
playing what he is hearing in his own mind, playing to his own mood in his
own key, then that is music. There is just something about being there and
seeing genius at work. It makes you a part of what you are hearing. I am
not saying that listening to records is bad, its just a completely different
feel and gives you a different mood. Because while you can imagine a smoky
bar room with saxophones blaring and soloists belting their lungs out, its
not the same if you aren’t there. ----- -------- AUTHOR: hourenk TITLE: better attempt at what it all means, and what I will take away from this course ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: DATE: 04/06/2005 04:05:20 AM ----- BODY: I liked John's format, so I'm going to respond in kind with what I've learned. -I've learned that music is important to all of us but in various degrees -I've learned that not everyone is as curious as everyone else when it comes to
musical exploration -I've learned that everyone has a specific musical biography, and I loved
reading all of yours. -I've learned that I really enjoy music of Madagascar, Tango, and Flamenco. -I've learned that the best music has nothing to do with training and everything
to do with sincerity. -I've learned what Lark in the Morning is, and I like it. -I've learned that it's very difficult to find the Grey Album, but that there
are so many more great mashups out there. -I've learned what a blog is, what Wikipedia is, and what Flickr is. -I've explored more than I ever have in any other class. The fact that we had
no "syllabus" other than cover as much ground as we can in 12 weeks was very
fruitful, I think. -I've learned that Ravi Shankar will leave me speechless, and that I wish I had
been able to catch the Monterey Pop Festival. -I've learned that my tastes and preferences in music are so tragically narrow. Many of us ruminated on the pitfalls of the capitalistic, competitive,
structured, robotic way students approach school and learning. While I think
this is certainly true, and also that all parties are somewhat to blame for
this, it doesn't mean that we have to succumb to such nonsense. I think
what's really the case is that we have trouble merging two identities that
we create for ourselves. There's the self who relaxes with friends, has a
good time, participates in a little healthy tomfoolery; and there's the
"presented" self, the self who gets the job done, creates the professional
reputation, etcetera. For a great, and dare I say more elloquent account of
what I'm getting at see www.philalawyer.blogspot.com, entry entitled "Ten
Percenter." He cuts the cheese, and it smells so sweet. I'm sure that I
don't have a clue what it all means. But I do know that if I can do
something that merges my two selves, I will be a very very lucky individual.
This is our task, and I think we can create such a situation for ourselves
if we simply pay attention to what's around us and what's going on within
us. So, it's about paying attention and caring enough to explore. ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: hourenk TITLE: smithsonian ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: DATE: 04/06/2005 04:07:22 AM ----- BODY: This is great. Thank god mom and dad wouldn't spring for the ipod. Or else,
that great sucking sound would be coming from my wallet, too. ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- --------