Why Music?

Let me take a second to step back and explain the reasoning behind subject of this blog.  I chose music because it is something that will never stop blowing my mind.  There is an incredible sense of power to it that, to my understanding, still hasn’t been completely explained by science.

Music is something that not many have a formal education in, including myself, but almost everyone has a level of appreciation for.  Why is that?  What makes a song happy vs sad.  Music theory can explain a lot to answer that question.  The theory can explain how octaves work, and the difference between harmony and dissonance, but if you asked a random person walking down the street listening to his or her iPod what these terms mean, most of the time they wouldn’t be able to answer correctly.  Still, that same person probably has an emotional connection to the music they are playing on their device.

There’s something spiritual in music.  We have a weird sense to be happy when we hear a certain noise.  We also use that same sense to be sad for example when a song is in a minor key.  Some songs make us excited, and use them as a tool to boost productivity.  Some songs console us, and we tend to play them on repeat after a bad break-up.  Some people feel a sense of calm listening to a slayer track, while others daydream to the sounds of Bach.

This is why I love music.  It is the common art and language that speaks to us all.  Even though our tastes may vary from person to person, it would be an almost impossible endeavor to search for someone who’s never heard a single piece of music in their life.  Also, if civilization were to collapse tomorrow, music would cease to exist alongside us.  Music is something that formal science can measure in detail, but the philosophical and psychological experience that comes with it is much more powerful in my opinion, and that’s why I chose it as the subject of my blog.

Blog Post #8: EDM is dead…or is going to be

I’ve been following electronic music for a while now as I remember first stumbling onto Dubstep way back in 2008.  Today I am sad to see the current state of electronic music and the rise of EDM, or electronic dance music.  What used to be a creative and fun genre has become an overly popular plastic manufactured piece of scum.

Now let me be clear, Electronic music is nothing new.  Electronic music has been on this planet longer than I have.  When I use the term EDM, I’m referring to the rise in domestic popularity that the genre has seen in recent years.  Electronic music has been a well established genre for a lot longer outside of the United States.  This has allowed for it to stay in equilibrium with other genres and not grow into such a large fad like it has here in the US.

By my own experience, I saw the rise of Skrillex mark the beginning of the trend inside the United States.  Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites swept the nation, being on the playlist of almost every teenager boy in high school.  I’ll admit that I was one of these people, but to my defense this was not my first baptism with the sub-genre.  What first got me into the scene was listening to British radio stations playing the likes of Skream, Rusko, and Caspa.  If you compare Skrillex’s sound to Skream, you’d notice a strong difference.  Skream was trying to do something new that expanded on dub and grime, two sub-genres that also originated from the UK.  To be fair, Skrillex was also trying to do something new, but I feel like his goal was to make the sound popular, speeding up the drops and adding in way more flair.  He definitely succeeded.  Now, if you go on YouTube, you will see a hundred videos for every Skrillex video of some ammeter trying to recreate the same sound.  Now this is the biggest issue that I’m about to get into.

Dubstep definitely had a large following inside the US for a while, but that is nothing compared to the sub-genre that is big room house.  Almost everyone has heard of an artist from inside the genre, from Avicii to Calvin Harris to Paris Hiton’s boy toy Afrojack.  Paris Hilton herself has even started her own DJ career, which I can’t wait to [not] see Afrojack b2b Paris Hilton.  My biggest issue with big room house is my biggest issue with EDM in general, it all sounds the same!

It may be the hipster in me, but I love to see music move in a constantly changing direction.  With any art form, doing too much of the same thing will make it boring.  Imagine if after the Mona Lisa, every artist in Venice was painting portraits of a single women.  Art doesn’t work if everyone is doing the same thing.  Music works the same way, and EDM especially does as well.  Electronic music is awesome, because it opens the floodgates to the possibilities of sounds that can be generated and altered, but it does no good if everyone is working on trying to make the same kind of “drop”.  We can see evidence of this because no one listens to dubstep anymore.  The “big” genre in EDM has moved around in the past several years, with examples like moombahton and trap being the next sub-genres to take over after dubstep.  This is most likely due to a select group of visionaries that are willing to push the limits on what is music and try to create something new.  Then everyone wants to be like the visionaries and get rich & famous and make exactly the same sounding music.

It’s no wonder a lot of people inside the game are saying that electronic artists and DJs need more marketing skills using social media than actual talent these days.  People just want to hear the next big drop and don’t care if it really is no different from the last drop they heard.

Well, I’m not one of those people.

Disclosure: Analysis of Rhetoric

My argument is mainly based of logic and prior knowledge with the flair of emotion tied to it.  My logic is pretty much entirely based off of circumstantial evidence and subjective logic.  Most of the music knowledge if strictly from my avid following over the past seven or eight years.  I really tried to add in my frustration that is tied to the argument.  I am highly opinionated on the issue so I used that in my favor.

About Me

I created this blog partly to express my views on music, which is a big passion of mine, and for a project for English.  I’m currently a junior, even though my age doesn’t agree, attending Iowa State University.  Before that I was a student and division I athlete in swimming at the State University of New York at Buffalo.  Computer Engineering is the degree I’m currently chasing after.  I love anything that has to do with art merging with science and plan to use my future degree to peruse something in that field.  In my free time you’ll find me trying to make my own music and art.

Blog Post #7: The Public Defender: A step towards totalitarianism?

http://www.jstor.org/stable/25719533?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

Edward J. Dimock discusses in his article the dangers of appointing members of the bar to act act as counsel American judicial system.  He writes that the fact that the defenders are paid for by the state, they will be in too close of relations with the state and not represent their clients well.  The article also discusses the dangers of the more popular public defender system, which he views will put the country one step closer towards totalitarianism.

Edward J. Dimock discusses the dangers of the current legal system, appointing members of the Bar to act as legal counsel for public defendants.  Dimock views that this does not work well for the defendants and the current remedy of the public defender puts the country one step closer towards totalitarianism.

Edward J. Dimock discusses the dangers of the current legal system of public defenders and how the current system does not work well for the public or the country in general.

Blog Post #6: Are we approaching the death of music?

It’s hard to not have a discussion about the music scene these days without someone mentioning that it all sucks compared to what it once had.  This attitude does seem to hold some weight when artists like I LOVE MAKONNEN, Taylor Swift, or J Beibs is mentioned.  However, holding the view that music is dying is somewhat alarmist.  There are two main points that need to be addressed.  The commercialization of music in the age of mass production is the first potential cause that needs to be addressed, and that the quality of music has lowered lately is the second.

The first artists that anyone would mention towards the commercialization of music is the artists in the Billboard top ten.  Even though the majority of people must obviously like this music for it to be placed in the top ten, there are some points to be made that can explain why they are in the top ten.  These tracks are the songs that are played constantly on the radio, played in commercials, making it almost impossible to not be heard by everyone.  The greatest benefit being that these artists are most likely to have the largest following simply by playing the numbers.  Hiring analysts to predict “what’s hot” is another tool that money provides to the biggest artist.  Also there’s product placement like Taylor Swift’s newest fragrance line.  The point that needs to be made is that this is nothing new.  Even from not living in the decades, I know that Beatles memorabilia and Kiss movies exist, which is a big counter point to the new rising pop stars inventing selling-out.

The idea that the quality of music is going down is a hollow point.  I’m sure with every generation, older people have issues with the music that is liked by younger generations.  Today it is only easier to see other people’s opinions to reaffirm their own ideas.  Go to a Rae Srummund track on YouTube and look at the comments.  Tuesday by Makonnen may be the most liked, yet most hated track made this decade.  The point is that there still have to be enough fans to allow these artists to break out from the underground.  Makonnen did not start out as a millionaire, he started as a young adult with a vision living in the poorer area of Atlanta.  In an interview with Noisey, he pretty much states that he knows his music isn’t anything special, he just wanted to contribute with his own vision of having fun making music.  I am interested to see what songs and artists will be known as the biggest artists of the 2010’s.  We are still a little too close to the past decade to make an analogy, but I have a feeling that there was a group of people in the past century that believed Guns & Roses marked the death of music.

So basically what I’m saying is to take a deep breath and relax and enjoy the music for what it is.  If it’s not your type of music, don’t listen to it, but don’t go around bashing other people for their taste in music.  Except country music, because that s#&t sucks!

Analyzing Tidal’s logo

With a clean black & white ad, Tidal launched itself into the competitive world of online music streaming services this year.  A minimalist logo on top ads to the overall feeling of modern minimalism Tidal wants to market itself after.

This year marked the launch of the new music streaming service Tidal.  Tidal was relaunched by Jay-Z with several other big name artists, and is marketed as a new alternative to streaming services like Spotify and Pandora.  Tidal pushes their higher fidelity audio and better pay for the artists hosted through their service.

The new logo for the service reflects this.  With a grayscale background and white lettering, attention is brought to the logo, name, and main feature of the service, which is “high fidelity music streaming”.  The logo itself is very minimal, with four boxes making up the letter “T”.  An analysis suggests that maybe the logo is supposed to represent artists banding together to publish their music, which is what Tidal has marketed itself after.  The grayscale background shows a pair of headphones resting on a table on top of a booklet of sheet music.  Most likely this would be from the artist’s recording studio, further suggesting the artists connection with the company.

The design of this ad is very clean and minimal, which gives myself a feeling of sophistication looking at it.  A feeling of modern arises as well, making me think that this service is very fancy and clean.  With that feeling one can hope that their application would be similar to the ad itself.

All in all this ad seems to do a good job at promoting what the service wants to offer.  I would definitely consider looking into the company further and maybe become a potential customer.

The Legacy A$AP Yams left behind

In January, David Drake posted a stunning eulogy for the late Steven Rodriguez, better known as A$AP Yams.  Drake writes about how Rodriguez was a visionary for the hip-hop industry, relying on a vast reservoir of knowledge about the industry to bring up artists such as A$AP Rocky, and the rest of the A$AP Mob.  The eulogy covers Rodriguez’s uprising, from starting a Tumblr blog covering the industry, to becoming one of the top businessmen in the industry and discusses the legacy he will leave behind.

Drake, David. “The Short Life and Long Legacy of Hip-Hop Tastemaker A$AP Yams.” Pitchfork. Pitchfork Media Inc., 20 January 2015. Web. 7 May 2015

Dan Deacon made a new album!

This month, Noisey published an article discussing Dan Deacon’s new album with the artist himself.  Dan Deacon has been a big name in experimental music for over a decade now.  Last week marked the release of his latest Album, Gliss Riffer.  The new album marks a big shift in Dan Deacon’s music, focusing more on what his lyrics mean instead of sound.  The same applies to almost every aspect in his album.  Dan Deacon’s first several albums stem from his live material, incorporating the themes into an album.  Dan Deacon admits that Gliss Riffer is his first album where he concentrated more on the content and space, rather than feel.  Featuring lines like “Happiness takes time / I have no time / Am I still alive?” in “Mind on Fire” instead of the more traditional distorted vocals that are almost impossible to comprehend.  Deacon’s interview with Noisey covers everything from the biggest details of his newest release to Bill Murray, which makes for an interesting read.

The Movement of Music From Analog to Digital

Over the past decade or two, the music scene has adapted to using new cutting-edge production software and instruments.  Some have said that this has lead to a decline in the quality of current music, typically responding with the “anybody can make music these days” argument.  Critics will say that the ease of acquiring music production software & hardware gives any person the ability to make the newest big hit.

What critics fail to realize is that there is beauty in anyone having access to what only a select few did in the past.  What whole recording studios could do twenty years ago can be done with a laptop today.  The critical part is that even though music has never been easier to make, not everyone can become a famous rock star or produce a radio hit.  There still exists a special talent that is needed to captivate an audience, which can’t be replicated on a computer.  Lower costs and more complex equipment can allow any talented individual to emerge without the great costs that used to be associated with buying equipment like a new analog synthesizer.