Alejandro had good information on the Black Keys. Although I have not listened to any of there music and I am not really into rock I feel as if he gave me enough information to make me want to listen to the Black Keys. He discussed the characteristics that the Black Keys had such as the guitar sounds they created. The black Keys sound like a band that I would definitely enjoy because they are also working with some hip-hop artist. Alejandro speaks about the drums that were recorded and how the way they recorded made the drums sound muddy and beefy.
Monday, December 19, 2011
Independent Research Entry
Marshall Mathers is one of the best selling artist in the world and one of the best selling artist of the 2000s. He is a rapper, actor, producer, and songwriter. Marshall was born in Missouri in 1972. His career has been very successful and a great asset to the hip-hop community thanks to the help of super producer Dr Dre. Marshall Mathers also known as Eminem or his alter ego Slim Shady is a solo artist but also has a group project with a rap group called D12. Eminem made D12 a part of the mainstream music that is on in our century. Marshall is also one half part of the group Bad meets evil. Mathers is one of the most influential figures in Hip Hop. The color of his skin definitely brought much controversy to the ears of listeners who later became great fans of his music. Eminem put out a variety of albums such as Infinite, Slim Shady LP, Marshall Mathers Lp, The Eminem Show, Encore, Curtain Call, and Relapse. All of Marshall’s albums were multi platinum. In 2005 Eminem was considered retired but those were wrong speculations. Instead of the retirement he came back after six years of not releasing an album with the Curtain Call Album witch was most of his hits along with some new material that he put out. Marshal is also an actor and was in films such as the wash and his film about his life called 8 mile. Eminem is an outstanding lyricist and all of the lyrics he writes have a meaning or an emotional connection with him or the millions of fans that listen to him.
As a listener I must say I am a fan and he leaves me with a hope to someday be as successful as him. His music moves me and I enjoy the songs that he composed. When I was about Eleven was the first time that I heard Eminem and right away I fell in love with the new sensation that came into the hip-hop community. As an engineer Eminem is a great example of creativity. He has many albums in witch he made skits and songs in witch he made stories. The way he performs his vocals on the beat is phenomenal and I can feel the message that he is trying to perceive. As a recording engineer I am exited on how the music has gave me ideas and ways to come about issues in the studio.
Electronic Music Innovations
Edgar Varese was a French composer who emphasizes his music in rhythm and timbre. Edgar is credited to have invented the term “organized sound”. This organized sound meant Rhythms and timbre all grouped in one. Also known as the father of electronic due to his use of new instruments and Electronic Resources, Edgar Varese was one of the most influential composers of his time. One of the tracks that Edgar composed for two fingerboard Theremins bass singer, winds and percussion instruments in the early 1930s was called Ecuatorial. This track was an orchestral track full of impact and sot of a creepy vibe. Sound almost as if it was a track for a movie. In 1934 Ecuatorial was premièred under the baton of Nicolas Slonimsky. Some of the characteristics that made Edgar Varese stand out from most were the use of the instrument the Theremin. He promoted the Theremin in his western travels. Edgar had many influences such as Medieval and Renaissance Music and composers such as Eric Satie and Richard Strauss. Edgar also founded and conducted several choirs in witch he used for his compositions. Edgar died in 1965 but his memory and influence to the Electronically world will never fade.
As an engineer I am very impressed with the instruments used in the song Ecuatorial. I am not really into orchestral music or composing music but I do see professionalism in what Edgar Varese did. His sounds make emotions pop out and seem to be very nerve moving. I like the choirs he placed in his compositions and the way that they were recorded. I am sure he used different micing techniques or maybe he just made his sounds in a unique matter. Edgar Varese partitioning of the octave in the first ten bars, initiates the beginning of a new mainstream tradition in our century.
Peer Comment Entry 2 (Jonathan Ball, David Bowie)
The content in this post was very interesting and was very influential. Jon did a good job on discussing about David Bowie who was and English Producer who made a large impact on popular music. His determination and all the information provided were very accurate. Also I enjoy the music that David Bowie did and that is the reason I selected this entry to comment on. I like how Jon detailed his information and included dates and facts that informed me of the talents of a genius that David Bowie had. David Bowie liked to use ideas from other bands and use them to his advantage.
Peer Comment Entry 1 (Ubong Akpan, The Beetles)
I really like your post Ubong, I like that all of the information you provided was accurate and well though out. I liked the way you wrote things and the order in witch you provided the information. Most of the post was incredible and had much of what I wanted to hear. You might say that you can be a professional blogger. The beetles are definitely a like for me because of the engineering that took place in that album. One thing that I did not like that much and that is the text you used. The reason why is because it is hard to read. Other then that your post was awesome.
Blog Entry 6-Electronic Music Entry
This was by far the most interesting type of music in this month. I enjoyed listening to Kraftwerk and the electronic music they put out. Most of the content on the album was amazing and very different from today’s music. Although I do see the connection and how music keeps evolving as we get better gear and technology. Autobahn was an album witch was theme based a road trip. It was one of the early albums. This album used a newer technology called minimoog. The band consisted on synthesizers rather then acoustic instruments. Radio-Activity was the next album that KraftWerk put out. Although this album had the same potential as the Autobahn album it was not as successful. The next album that came out was the Trans-Europe Express witch was theme based as a train ride along Europe. This was the album that led them to meet David Bowie from Kling Klan Studio. As their career advanced they came out with another album with much complex instrumentation, this album was called the Man-Machine. The Man-Machine was the first album in witch Karl Bartos was credited as a songwriter. By 1981 Kraftwerk had released another album. This album was called Computer World and was the most successful album from kraftwerk in the UK.
Some Characteristics that Kraftwerk had as far as the instrumentation was the amount of synthesizers that they used. When I heard the songs they sounded very computer like and not much of the natural sound of the instruments were audible. Another characteristic would be the lyrics. This is because they made the lyrics simple and open but the lyrics did not ask questions, the lyrics stated facts.
Kraftwerk has been a phenomenal band to listen to. I as an engineer wonder how they were able to take many different sounds that did not sound like musical sounds and placed them in a time chain in order to make musical sounds. I also enjoyed the different panning that they had going on, it was almost as if the mix was 3d.
Monday, December 5, 2011
Blog Entry 5- Whats Going On
Marvin Gaye has always been a phenomenal artist. His image was always a soul singer that brought a new flavor to the industry. One of his greatest songs “What’s Going on” is one that is mistaken for a protest song when really it’s a love song says Marvin Gaye. Most of the influence for this song comes from a great depression that Marvin went threw and the views on witch he saw the world in. Marvin Gaye was a very rebel and spiritual guy. He spoke about why so many people are dying and how young kids were separated form their families to go fight in war. Marvin Gaye just wanted to know what was going on. Some of the obstacles that Marvin Gaye went threw in his career when realizing the What’s Going On Track were issues with the label manager Berry Gordy. Berry was against releasing What’s Going On because he didn’t like the song. It wasn’t till Marvin had a rebellious scheme that What’s Going On was released. Marvin did not want to record any other songs until the What’s Going On track was released. He did not record any other song so the label had no choice but to release the track and it sold 100,000 in one day. Marvin wanted this song to be as far away from Motown as he possibly could. He had Jack Ashford on the tambourine, Eddie Brown on the bongos Earl Derougen on the congos and Jack Brokensha on vibes and assorted percussive instruments witch helped him achieve this. As a listener What’s Going On has made me think of the world now and I see that it really hasn’t changed much since that time period. I see that the lyric content is no more then feeling and thoughts all combined in an instrumental manner. As an industry professional this has helped me see how the way something is performed can change the vibe of what the song is about.
Blog Entry 4- The Velvet Underground
The Velvet Underground is one of the great rock bands of the 60s and early 70s.Event thought they only played for 4 years and only put our 4 albums, their names will never be forgotten in the history of music because of the influence it made on other genres and artist. Their image was a dark style rock band that was also a part of Art. This was due to Andy Warhol. Loe Reed and John Cale were responsible for most of the bands lyrics and success. Loe was a rock and roll artist from Long Island and John was a great Musician. Together they created and led the band with their songwriting and instrumentals talents. Andy Warhol promoted the Velvet Underground band. Andy was an artist in painting and a pop artist. Andy and the velvet underground combined video, picture, and audio. The velvet Underground was a band of much success, this was not pre assumed because they did not care weather they made it big or not. Their lyrics had no moral stands and they had an amateur sound. As a listener the Velvet Underground is a great band to listen to because they all had unique qualities. Weather they were playing different sounds with the guitar or just the use of the drums even thought their drummer had no past training. As an industry professional I believe this definitely has a great performance and great creativity. I listen to these and think of the possibilities you can do with sound. Also I like how they were able to contribute almost all arts in their music. I listen to the Velvet Undergrounds tracks and each of them has a different personality. The lyrics have a great move on the crowd because they aren’t just words they are stories.
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Blog Entry 3 - Revolver Entry
The Beetles have always been a great band. The Beetles was known as an R&B band in the late 60s. The Beetles were influenced by drug intake as their creative guide. They started experimenting with LCD in 1965. The Beetles were great at what they do in the sense of artist, a listener and a creator. They used the recording studio as an instrument by using magnetic plates to slow down the tape and make new sounds. Also they used a Guitar Cabinet as a microphone. A speaker and a microphone are essentially the same thing. They used this technique on the bass witch gave it a way warmer sound. The beetles were one of the first to use compression on the drums witch made the drums more alive and made them stand out in the mix. Also they invented double tracking witch is doubling of voices to make one denser voice. This works because the voices are not exactly the same but are a few milliseconds apart from each other creating that double sound that we are referring to. The Beetles gave me a great impression as a listener with their one of a kind mixing strategies like panning all the vocals to one speaker and all the instrumentation dispersed among the other speakers. This kind of gave the mix a 3 dimensional environment. As an industry professional, I really like the techniques they used to create the sound that they wanted and how they used deep meaningful lyrics. I really like how they placed reversed vocals on a track to make this unique affect. This shows the creativity of the group but also has gave me a great impression that they really know what they were doing and that they knew exactly on how they wanted to sound.
Blog Entry 1 -Welcome Entry
Hi my name is Christian Andrade, I enjoy composing music and recording my friends when they make music. I initially got interested in music when I was about 8 years old playing with my toy piano. My background of music is Hip-Hop but i like to listen to all kinds of music.
Blog Entry 2 -The Beach Boys Pet Sounds Entry
The Beach Boys were definitely a great sensation during the 1950s and 1960s as they progressed with their music. They where a surf style band that did rock and were know to be a California sunshine band. Their image was a surfer like image. Before the Pet sounds album the Beach Boys were viewed as the California sound. Brian Wilson was the leader and songwriter of the Beach Boys. He was a great Artist to be able to push the band up to the top. Brian was influenced by psychedelic drugs and crated the album Pet Sounds. Two great characteristics that Pet Sound brought was overlapping instruments witch were used to make new sounds by adding two separate instruments and combining them in order to make one single sound. Also they brought metaphorical lyrics with are still used in today’s music. As A listener Pet Sounds has a distinct but classic feel to it. The way they used the instrumentation shows the way a creative artist works and how you can never get to creative when it comes to music. My first impression was that the record felt a little corny but that’s because it’s not in my time. As far as the instrumentation and the way it was recorded I think that this is one of the best compared to the Beetles Revolver Album. As an industry professional I view this project as a great creative piece of work not only in the instrumentation but also on the vocals or lyrics. The harmonies that were provided were phenomenal and different throughout the entire album.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)