These first few posts are going to be a little broad and general. I just want to lay down the groundwork early so that you readers can understand where I'm coming from and why I'm writing the things I write about. Here are a couple genres of music that I will be focusing on in future writings.
1) Classical - Classical music is great. There are no words. It is all sounds. Strings, woodwinds, brass, percussion. For hundreds and hundreds of years, this is all the music that we had. It's a crying shame that more people don't appreciate this form of music. If you didn't do music in school or had parents that raised you listening to classical music, chances are you haven't listened to a good deal of it beyond Beethoven's 9th or 1812 Overture (Tchaikovsky) or really common things like that. Furthermore, chances are that you've heard these pieces of music and like them but don't know the name of the piece or who wrote them. I will be attempting to instruct you readers in the way of classical music so you too can understand what I understand about classical music. It is hard to put into words.
2) Rock - This is an extremely broad category. I will be focusing on the following subgenres of rock
Classic Rock. This is stuff your dad probably listens to but you don't. Change that immediately. Classic rock 99% of the time is more inventive, more complex both musically and lyrically, and generally better most popular 'rock' produced today. Whether you want to admit it or not, most of today's KCRAP (note: when I want to refer to mainstream rock, I am going to refer to it as 'KCRAP'. Why? Because this is all KROQ plays. Be prepared for a rant about Los Angeles radio stations coming soon. Maybe even next most) owes its heritage to classic rock. Many guitar techniques, vocal techniques, etc were pioneered by the greats of the 60's and 70's. Like The Beatles. Like Elvis. Like The Doors. Whether Fallout Boy (gagpuke) realizes it or not, his style of music owes its development to punk of the 80s. Punk itself owes its heritage to the rockers of the 70s, and was a reactionary development to the developing rock-metal scene going on then. More on that later
Punk. I love punk. Punk defined my high school years. It's so cliche, it's silly, it's dorky, it's simple. But that's the genius of punk. Everyone who plays guitar probably learned Blitzkreig Bob (Ramones) as one of their first songs. There's three fucking power chords for most of the song. Yet the Ramones were one of, if not the most, influential punk groups of the 80s. It was fast, catchy, and simple. And it gave voice to a generation of people who felt outside the mainstream (we see this trend again and again in the development of popular music.) Punk is to rock/metal what jazz was to classical music in the 1920s and 30s. When rockers heard the punk kids with their syncopated drum beats going nuts, its very akin to the revolutionary swing rhythm that jazz popularized running counter to the nice 4/4, 2/4, 2/2 time signatures of popular classical music. Punk is high energy. Punk is catchy. Punk is a musical middle finger. I love punk. Another related genre to punk that I'll probably write about is hardcore, sort of a punk-metal bastard child. Speaking of metal...
METAL. Metal owns. Metal is loud, aggressive, and shreds souls. People don't realize it, but metal itself has many subgenres, but I won't get into that just yet. One of the reasons I like metal is that it is extremely technically complex. Most of the world's best musicians play metal. You need to be to be able to keep up with what is being produced in the world of metal. When a metal guitarist is shredding some wicked solo, he is using the same skillset that a clarinetist uses when they do crazy wicked fast scalar runs. To be able to shred, you must have a good understanding about scales, chords, how they interplay, etc. This is why I have infinite respect for metal musicians. Metal is fast, crazy loud, emotional, and it just fucking rocks. Any guitar player worth his salt wishes he could shred like Megadeth or _________ (insert favorite band or guitarist here)
3) Electronica. This is a HUGE genre of music that is pretty unpopular in the United States. All the best electronic artists come from Europe or Asia. And pretty much that's what people in those parts of the world listen and dance to in clubs. We in the US love our rap, hip hop, and R&B. I don't. This puts me in the minority here. I am convinced however that electronica is the future of music. Classical music is dead. Rock is dead. Punk is dead. Metal isn't dead, yet. Electronica is the future, and I have my reasons for this theory. Firstly, the amount of new electronica that is being put out every year is astounding. It is an extremely prolific genre. When was the last great punk or rock release? Punk drew its last breath in my opinion around 2000 (and many would say earlier, which I would probably agree with). I don't even remember the last time a true rock band put out a good album. Maybe Wolfmother. I have my hopes for them. But electronica huge, alive, and constantly putting out new and good stuff. Case in point are the recent Infected Mushroom releases, Vicious Delicious (2007) and The Legend of the Black Shawarma (2009). While admittedly mainstream, they have brought Goa/Psytrance out of Israel into clubs and raves worldwide. They're practically a household name in discussing electronic music.
Furthermore, electronic music is slowly seeping into the states via rap/hiphop artists who are beginning to use interesting electronic beats in their songs. Case in point - Kid Cuti's Day and Night. Another way electronic music is seeping into the US is through the medium of mixups and mashups, primarily the latter. They'll take rap lyrics and throw them over an electronic music. More on mashups later.
Futhermore, Benny Bennasi. Everybody likes Satisfaction and I Love my Sex. True story. Even sorority girls.
This is an overview about what I will be writing about. As you can see I have a lot to cover. Genres of music that I don't like, including mainstream rap and country music will not be discussed very much at all because it's my blog and I don't have to. Look forward to a real post coming up soon
-RJW
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Friday, October 2, 2009
Opening Post: General Comments on Music
Welcome to Audiowave.
This blog will be about Music and everything related to it: music culture, music people, music instruments, music venues, music news, music everything. Get the picture? Music is a big deal. If you're a fan of music, this is the site for you. To be quite honest and frank, I have no idea where this blog will go. But what is great about this blog, which is also one of the great things about music, is that it will constantly be evolving. There are ideas right now in what direction Music is going in and right now I have ideas as to what direction this blog will go. But stick around, watch the evolution, and maybe you too will learn to enjoy and think about music in the way I have. As corny as it seems, it also seems fitting to jot down some general thoughts about why music is so freaking great at the outset of this blog.
Great things about Music
1) The human need for music stretches back a long time. A really, really, really long time. Music can theoretically be traced back to the paleolithic era coinciding with the development of stone tools, which for the non scientists (including me) means over 2 1/2 million years ago. Tells you something about human beings, doesn't it? Humans had the capacity, drive, and desire to mess around with sounds for their own pleasure or other reasons before the following things happened:
2) Music is timeless. Music was originally passed down orally from parent to child for countless generations. Once we invented writing and music notation, music was passed down to posterity reasonably accurate to how the original composer wanted it heard and performed. Think about it. Mozart died 218 years ago, but we still regularly play his pieces, or go to Mozart conferences, or study his works in higher institutions, talk Mozart with other aficionados, etc. Mozart may have died in 1791, but he is not dead because what people enjoyed back then people still enjoy.
To use another metaphor, this time from literature. Have you ever read Shakespearean comedies? Or if you're a history nerd like me which I'm certain you aren't, have you read Aristophenes (Greek comedian) or Petronius (Roman satirist)? That shit is STILL funny.I mean it's not timely and relevant like great standup comedy today, but the things people laugh about have been the same since people were people. And people have been doing people things for at least the past 6,000 years.
Another example, I remember reading Tacitus one time (bear with me on this history stuff) cramming for a paper I had due the next morning. It was like 3am, the coffee and cigarettes were wearing off, and I'm cramming through this particularly boring segment about Roman emperors and whatnot and Tacitus pauses his narrative and says essentially this, "Dude, my bad. I know this garbage is boring. It's boring to me now and I'm certain future generations like you will also find it boring. But this is what was going on when I was alive and this is what I have to work with. So I'm sorry." I LOLed in my apartment by myself at 3am because I was like, you're damn right about that and all is forgiven because you owned up to it 2,000 years ahead of time. That comment was timeless. So think about my point about music again. John Lennon is dead, but people still worship him and listen to his stuff. People still talk about it, enjoy it together, bond over it. Which leads me to my next point...
3) Music brings people together. A party is not a party without music. Otherwise its just people standing around drinking. You can't dance without music. And dancing is a big part of human culture, in almost every human culture. Some of the best conversations I've had with people are about music. Sharing a common taste in music can be an extremely solid bond between people. I know that for myself, all the people who at one time or another I considered my closest friends shared a common taste in music with me. People change, tastes in music change, but regardless I feel the closest connection with people who can relate to me on the music that I like. I feel like what genres of music a person is into says a lot about the person. I can anticipate their values, history, personality, and other attributes based on what kind of music they like. A pretty obvious example - If somebody has a picture of Bob Marley in their room, there's an extremely high probability that person smokes the reefer. And if the person smokes the reefer, I can extrapolate other attitudes about life that the person probably has.
Have you ever been to a live show? Ever been to a hardcore/metal/punk show/been in a situation where circle or mosh pits happen? People beat eachother senseless in those things. Especially in a very special event called "a wall of death" most often seen at Lamb of God shows, but we won't get into that just yet. In these pits, sometimes people get hurt. Sometimes people fall. And shit like that is dangerous. I know I've fallen and been crushed in pits and every single time I fall, somebody random picks me up. People look out for each other. I always thought that stuff was great. Beating people to pieces is not the primary goal - enjoying the music through (I use the word loosely) dance together is the goal. Moshing in my opinion IS dance in certain musical scenes. And like I said before, you can't dance without music.
4) Music can express emotions without words, and reaches people in ways literature doesn't (anymore). Case in point is classical music, which a lot of people don't have any exposure to, which is a huge travesty. The message I get from a lot of popular music these days is that the average person needs lyrics or words combined with background music in order to extract meaning from the song. As a classically trained musician myself, I actually prefer music without words because I believe that they are not always necessary to convey the artist's message. When there are no words or lyrics with a song, the listener is forced to focus on the intricacies of the melody, harmony, pitch, timbre, and other tools an artist may use to convey meaning. I don't mean to say that I dislike music with lyrics, because that would mean I'd be hating on some of my alltime favorite groups like Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan, and Led Zepplin (expect lots of posts on these groups soon) where not only the instrumental music is key, but the lyrics are very thoughtful and complement the audio perfectly. The point I am making though is unlike written word, music has the ability to convey meaning without words, and can create meaning inside of people of any language background. That's pretty awesome in my opinion.
I really could keep going on and on with different reasons why music is fantastic, but I feel like this is a good place to conclude this opening post. As this is my blog, I am obviously going to be writing about music that I like and not writing on music that I dislike. If this becomes a successful blog, I may recruit a writer to write on topics that I'm unfamiliar with but for now it is just going to be me writing about things I like. No worries, I have a pretty eclectic taste in music that is part mainstream and part underground. On the topic of electronic music for example, you'll see me writing about well known mainstream groups like MGMT as well as lesser known trance groups like GMS (Growling Mad Scientists). You'll see me write about Metallica but also lesser known Canadian guitarist/producer Devin Townsend and his groups Strapping Young Lad and The Devin Townsend Project/Band. I hope you enjoy reading about things that you know something about as well as being open minded about things you haven't.
-RJW
This blog will be about Music and everything related to it: music culture, music people, music instruments, music venues, music news, music everything. Get the picture? Music is a big deal. If you're a fan of music, this is the site for you. To be quite honest and frank, I have no idea where this blog will go. But what is great about this blog, which is also one of the great things about music, is that it will constantly be evolving. There are ideas right now in what direction Music is going in and right now I have ideas as to what direction this blog will go. But stick around, watch the evolution, and maybe you too will learn to enjoy and think about music in the way I have. As corny as it seems, it also seems fitting to jot down some general thoughts about why music is so freaking great at the outset of this blog.
Great things about Music
1) The human need for music stretches back a long time. A really, really, really long time. Music can theoretically be traced back to the paleolithic era coinciding with the development of stone tools, which for the non scientists (including me) means over 2 1/2 million years ago. Tells you something about human beings, doesn't it? Humans had the capacity, drive, and desire to mess around with sounds for their own pleasure or other reasons before the following things happened:
- Cave paintings (earliest known painting - 32,000 years ago)
- Agriculture (earliest forms of planting for the future probably occurred 6,000 years ago)
- Domestication of livestock (earliest signs of domestication probably 4,000 years ago)
- Civilization (modern civilization requires the advent of cities, which started in Mesopotamia , China, and probably Egypt 4000-3500 years ago)
2) Music is timeless. Music was originally passed down orally from parent to child for countless generations. Once we invented writing and music notation, music was passed down to posterity reasonably accurate to how the original composer wanted it heard and performed. Think about it. Mozart died 218 years ago, but we still regularly play his pieces, or go to Mozart conferences, or study his works in higher institutions, talk Mozart with other aficionados, etc. Mozart may have died in 1791, but he is not dead because what people enjoyed back then people still enjoy.
To use another metaphor, this time from literature. Have you ever read Shakespearean comedies? Or if you're a history nerd like me which I'm certain you aren't, have you read Aristophenes (Greek comedian) or Petronius (Roman satirist)? That shit is STILL funny.I mean it's not timely and relevant like great standup comedy today, but the things people laugh about have been the same since people were people. And people have been doing people things for at least the past 6,000 years.
Another example, I remember reading Tacitus one time (bear with me on this history stuff) cramming for a paper I had due the next morning. It was like 3am, the coffee and cigarettes were wearing off, and I'm cramming through this particularly boring segment about Roman emperors and whatnot and Tacitus pauses his narrative and says essentially this, "Dude, my bad. I know this garbage is boring. It's boring to me now and I'm certain future generations like you will also find it boring. But this is what was going on when I was alive and this is what I have to work with. So I'm sorry." I LOLed in my apartment by myself at 3am because I was like, you're damn right about that and all is forgiven because you owned up to it 2,000 years ahead of time. That comment was timeless. So think about my point about music again. John Lennon is dead, but people still worship him and listen to his stuff. People still talk about it, enjoy it together, bond over it. Which leads me to my next point...
3) Music brings people together. A party is not a party without music. Otherwise its just people standing around drinking. You can't dance without music. And dancing is a big part of human culture, in almost every human culture. Some of the best conversations I've had with people are about music. Sharing a common taste in music can be an extremely solid bond between people. I know that for myself, all the people who at one time or another I considered my closest friends shared a common taste in music with me. People change, tastes in music change, but regardless I feel the closest connection with people who can relate to me on the music that I like. I feel like what genres of music a person is into says a lot about the person. I can anticipate their values, history, personality, and other attributes based on what kind of music they like. A pretty obvious example - If somebody has a picture of Bob Marley in their room, there's an extremely high probability that person smokes the reefer. And if the person smokes the reefer, I can extrapolate other attitudes about life that the person probably has.
Have you ever been to a live show? Ever been to a hardcore/metal/punk show/been in a situation where circle or mosh pits happen? People beat eachother senseless in those things. Especially in a very special event called "a wall of death" most often seen at Lamb of God shows, but we won't get into that just yet. In these pits, sometimes people get hurt. Sometimes people fall. And shit like that is dangerous. I know I've fallen and been crushed in pits and every single time I fall, somebody random picks me up. People look out for each other. I always thought that stuff was great. Beating people to pieces is not the primary goal - enjoying the music through (I use the word loosely) dance together is the goal. Moshing in my opinion IS dance in certain musical scenes. And like I said before, you can't dance without music.
4) Music can express emotions without words, and reaches people in ways literature doesn't (anymore). Case in point is classical music, which a lot of people don't have any exposure to, which is a huge travesty. The message I get from a lot of popular music these days is that the average person needs lyrics or words combined with background music in order to extract meaning from the song. As a classically trained musician myself, I actually prefer music without words because I believe that they are not always necessary to convey the artist's message. When there are no words or lyrics with a song, the listener is forced to focus on the intricacies of the melody, harmony, pitch, timbre, and other tools an artist may use to convey meaning. I don't mean to say that I dislike music with lyrics, because that would mean I'd be hating on some of my alltime favorite groups like Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan, and Led Zepplin (expect lots of posts on these groups soon) where not only the instrumental music is key, but the lyrics are very thoughtful and complement the audio perfectly. The point I am making though is unlike written word, music has the ability to convey meaning without words, and can create meaning inside of people of any language background. That's pretty awesome in my opinion.
I really could keep going on and on with different reasons why music is fantastic, but I feel like this is a good place to conclude this opening post. As this is my blog, I am obviously going to be writing about music that I like and not writing on music that I dislike. If this becomes a successful blog, I may recruit a writer to write on topics that I'm unfamiliar with but for now it is just going to be me writing about things I like. No worries, I have a pretty eclectic taste in music that is part mainstream and part underground. On the topic of electronic music for example, you'll see me writing about well known mainstream groups like MGMT as well as lesser known trance groups like GMS (Growling Mad Scientists). You'll see me write about Metallica but also lesser known Canadian guitarist/producer Devin Townsend and his groups Strapping Young Lad and The Devin Townsend Project/Band. I hope you enjoy reading about things that you know something about as well as being open minded about things you haven't.
-RJW
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