Benjamin Clementine won the coveted Mercury Music Prize and made a touching acceptance speech. He dedicated the award to Paris but was unable to find the words to express his emotions and was overcome.
What do you think of his music?
Does music have the power to bring people together?
Stealing bits of other records or 'sampling' is a big part of the music indutry particularly in some genres such as hip-hop which began by patching together loops and recognisable melodies or hooks from well known songs. Some artists have become recognised for their ability to re-energise songs and the hook is the recognition of a sound from a previous recording.
Jay Z
Annie
One could argue that this is creative use of melodies embedded in popular culture and new meaning is being created. It shows a regard for the original and popular culture is always referring to existing texts. You could also say that originality is difficult in the modern day so what harm is there in using recognisable songs and updating them for modern audiences.
Many artists are happy to have their work sampled. particularly if they get a credit and 1-5% of the royalties. It also raises their profile if the covering artist is big.
Consider the push for the band playing in Paris on Friday night to have their song at number 1 at Xmas
The Eagles of Death Metal covering Duran Duran's Save a Prayer. Who will get the royalties ?
The bigger the artist is the more likely they have lawyers and their estate can fine
you.The Rolling Stones are one of the most
litigious groups.Samples from 'The Last Time' menat that the Verve had to give all the royalties to The Stones despite creating a wonderful new song.
I don't even thing it is that close to the song. I was surprised when I first heard this case. I can hear the inspiration but I don't think it is a sample.
Try to find some other examples.
Try The Beastie Boys / Public Enemy. This quote from The Atlantic magazine raises some of the issues.
‘You suggest two influential hip hop
releases—the Beastie Boys' Paul's Boutique and Public Enemy's Fear of a Black Planet—would be financially and bureaucratically impossible
to release today, due to their heavy sampling.
Right. This is something people have been saying for a long time. My
co-author Peter DiCola and I were able to do some economic modeling to test the
hypothesis.
We figured out—song by song, sample by sample—how much it would cost to
release each record. Sticking with the example of Paul's Boutique: there are about 2.5 million units sold of
that record. Incidentally, a lot of the samples on Paul's Boutique actually
were cleared—but they were cleared at a time, 1989, when the industry didn't
really see the value of sampling yet, so the rates for copyright clearances
were much lower. Today, the rates they'd have to pay would make it impossible.
Based on the number and type of samples in that record, Peter figured out that
Capitol Records would lose 20 million dollars on a record that sold 2.5 million
units. Fear of a Black Planet
is similar. ‘
Can sampling still be done or has the cost of
clearances made it prohibitive?
And finally here is Kanye West saying goodbye to Biggie Smalls
He had to give the publishing royalties to Sting as it was a cover of The Police song, 'Every Breath I Take.'
Where do the boundaries lie in covering / sampling an existing track?
What are the copyright rules?
Use the article that I have provided to write a blog entry about the rules of copyright in relation to your own recording using your own examples. Use this to inform your pitch.
You have been asked to comprehensively explain of the purposes of music videos in a web-log.
To do this you will have to make reference to a range of music videos and show how the purpose of the music video has developed over time.
Your research should allow you to gain this knowledge and understanding and the web-log will allow you to present your findings in a creative way.
What was the first music video?
This is a contentious question and you may find differing answers.
Look at a range of 'landmark' videos and the artists who used them to market their brand.
Abba
Queen
Did the music video really begin with the birth of MTV ?
This is Buggles and the first video shown on MTV. Were his words prophetic?
Research the history of MTV and outline the impact it had on the music industry and the purpose of the music video
The 1980's and the rise of the 'music video' bands
Duran Duran
A-Ha
Michael Jackson "Thriller'
No history of the music video is complete without this one. You need to explain why this was such a landmark video. Spend some time using this as an example in your web-log.
TASK
Choose a music video from this period to analyse in some detail.
Explain the purpose, style and conventions of the music video in this era.
Sigur Ros used 'Soundscape' editing facilities rather than something like Pro Tools and I think their music can be described as soundscapes as they make huge swirling, orchestral, ambient music which, for me, means that they transcend genre. If I were to compare them to another band it would be Radiohead as their unique style doesn't bend to the demands of generic labelling in music.
They are creative and innovative often collaborating across a range of mediums. Here they ask film-makers to produce short films to go with their album 'Valtari'.
Sigur Ros are an Icelandic band whose creative genius is Jonsi who has also produced his own solo work, collaborations and soundtracks for films and TV dramas such as 'Game of Thrones'.
Jonsi sings the entire album () in 'hopelandic' which is a sort of gibberish or a new language. He repeats versions of the words 'You xylo. You xylo no fi lo. You so,' and the effect is mesmeric. It allows a focus on the sound and the melody rather than the lyrics.
This album was recorded near Reykjavik in a place called 'The pool', a building which housed a swimming pool and allows the band the creative space and infuses the recordings with a sense of the wild open spaces of Iceland. In the mountains open bright space offers inspiration and a connection with roots.
Ken Thomas is the producer and he had worked with punk artists, Queen and Indie bands which led to working with Icelandic singer Bjork and her band the Sugar Cubes
Their second album is called () or untitled or the Bracket album
Production characteristics include ;
No acoustic treatment on the building which once housed a swimming pool allowing reverberation
Playing the music live and experimenting, improvising and then recording in the studio
The songs begin with a band performance recorded live, which is later edited and overdubbed.
Used a Neve console with compressors on every channel. It is a quiet album in places so the recording captures the lows.
Keyboards are intergral to the sound from a Hammond organ to a range of synthesisers such as the Yamaha RS7000 which has a sampler so that sound and voice can be captured and used.
Microphone choice -Russion Octav mics are used for overhead 'they are really good and cheap'. They are not very sensitive but fine for ambience
-'The Neumann U47 is a really good tube mic.
When you put this in front of a vocal, it will take only everything that
it's supposed to. There's no extra bottom or hum or bass or extra top,
it's just perfect, no EQ needed' (Jonsi)
"I think mic placement is really important.
I spend quite a lot of time just moving mics slightly to get the right
sound. You have to experiment with mics all over the place. We had mics
up in the roof, up close, all in different places. We're always moving
the mics slightly to get the sound that we like. It's all done very much
like we're recording for the first time. It's good fun; we're
experimenting. It isn't like we're in a room in Westlake Studio or
something where everything's going to sound sweet. It's sort of a little
bit garage-y and rough-and-ready. That's very much what they're about." (Jonsi)
Playing the guitar with a bow as seen here on Glosoli for BBC 6 Music live
Sound sculptures
They had a mission to change music and some see them as pretentious but others as avant garde or visionary. Used a lot in television and film such as this BBC advert for Planet Earth
Their next album Takk really allowed them to break through and discover a global audience. More commercial with recognisable songs rather than a collection of soundscapes some of which are introverted and brooding, Takk allowed them to gain popular appeal.
This article from the trade journal Sound on Sound explains how the band and the engineer produced and recorded music.
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jul02/articles/sigurros.asp
Sound on Sound also has a glossary of technical terms
http://www.soundonsound.com/information/Glossary.php
Heima DVD
This is a beautifully shot DVD which includes stunning images of Iceland and provides an insight into the ethos and roots of the band.
Put some of you own opinions in
Develop a personal response to the recording
Why do you like it?
Which parts are worth noting in particular.
Make sure that you pull out recording characteristics.
Identify at least there secondary sources.
Radiohead
Another band who are hard to pigeon-hole are Oxfordshire's Radiohead who have experimented with musical styles and instruments and broadened their range of recordings as they have developed as musicians. Early recordings include the single 'Creep' which although popular became a song they would not play live.
Always searching for new sounds and trying to innovate, they also looked for new models of distributing their music in the online age. They offered fans the option of paying as much as they thought it was worth for an album. A new relationship with their fan-base and a voice for action on issues such as climate change have been forged through their endeavours. Now the band follow side projects and solo projects such as composing soundtracks, DJ sets and collaborations, whilst delivering challenging and innovative music to audiences.
Just
Their music videos are further examples of their collaboration with the creative community.
Paranoid Android
No Surprises
And my favourite 'Weird Fishes' from the 'In Rainbows' album
Production characteristics
Nigel Godrich is the producer and likes a lot of analogue recording equipment. I found an intersting article in 'Sound on Sound' about the way that Thom Yorke's powerful and often high pitched vocals are recorded.
'If you've ever seen Thom Yorke play live, you'll have noticed that he
tends to open his mouth quite wide and tip his head back so that he's
roughly pointing his nostrils at the mic's diaphragm. By doing this,
he's brightening the sound of his voice reaching the mic, because high
frequencies are bouncing off the roof of his oral and nasal cavities and
beaming towards it.
There's a lot of low-frequency energy there, which gives the vocal a
real weight, but there are also a lot of extreme high frequencies as
well (above about 16kHz), which pulls the voice right to the front of
the mix
You could do a lot towards achieving this kind of sound while recording.
You should look for a condenser mic with an extended low-frequency
response and an extreme high-frequency boost. AKGC12 By putting a very dull reverb on the lead vocal, Godrich has encouraged
the listener's ear to interpret what it's hearing as a bright vocal in
an otherwise tonally balanced track, rather than just an over-bright
track, for which it would try to compensate. The result is that the
vocal remains subjectively bright (and therefore up-front) even as the
ear acclimatises to the overall sonics of the track.'
Pick a landmark music recording and explain why it is influential in the development of sound recording.
Use Sound on Sound magazine as a resource to inspire you. The magazine has a section each month where they analyse a classic track and you have access to the archive and many back print copies.
Some examples of 'classic tracks' explored in detail in the magazine include;
A landmark in British house music, particularly the acid house scene which was very much a cultural as well as musical sub-culture with its own summer of love. Graham Massey used his love of synthesiser music, the 808 being a ROLAND TR808 drum machine, to become an essential part of the 'Madchester' scene. He is now a 'musician, composer, producer and engineer' according to Sound on Sound. Massey was a student at the UK's first audio engineering studio, Manchester's School of Sound Recording which allowed him to develop a knowledge of MIDI technology. The influnec eon artists such as Aphex Twin
This makes a good comparison to 808 State as they collaborated together and this is also a classic track in Sound on Sound.
Future Sound of London - Papua New Guinea
The songs above influenced a number of artists who made other landmark songs in a similar musical genre and style
Secondary Source - The Ambient century (Mark Prendergast)
This band took a BTEC course in music at Penwith College a few years ago and they now make a living from their work and playing festivals such as the Isle of Wight. They are also gaining a reputation on the 'bluegrass' circuit which is quite niche but has a knowledgeable audience and global reach.
You will be using video and audio to record and brand a band.
Look at their web-site and this video to see how they have branded themselves.
Have a look at their Twitter feed to see how they spent this summer working in the industry
Before the first films people experimented with moving images with zoetropes.
You must research the following pioneers of early cinema:
Thomas Edison (USA) Kinetoscopes 1888
Edison invented a motion picture camera and projected images for exhibition. The Kineteoscope was like a peep-hole device we find on piers which viewers put a coin in to see moving images projected. Edison is often cited as inventing cinema although it is more likely that he was the first to patent the technology.
Lumiere Brothers (France) Arrival of a Train 1895
These brothers found a commercial angle and were trying to sell the technology to a new generation eager to discover more about the possibilities of film cameras. They were often large cameras and unwieldy therefore they often used long takes with no edits. The technology allowed people to start making films. Try to imagine the impact on audiences watching a film like the one below for the first time.
Melies fantsastical explorations of the possibilities afforded by these new cameras that the Lumiere brothers had invented provide the origins of editing. This film includes 30 separate shots and includes dissolves. Melies was interested in illusion which was see as a magicians trick an this link between editing and magic can be developed as editors play with time, representations of reality and narrative continuity. Like Orson Welles it is often those seeking to bring in new ideas and uses for the technology that push the boundaries of the art form. rather than just capture reality Melies wanted to explore the magic of film and the possibilities of cinematography.
Edwin Porter (USA) The Great Train Robbery (1903)
Porter is seen as a pioneer as he introduced the idea of separate shots connected together with cuts between them. He created a narrative through continuity editing rather than one long take. He also experimented with dissolves and cross cutting.
In the context of the time period Porter is interesting as he worked on travelling fairs as a projectionists and the film 'the Great Train robbery' became a favourite of audiences throughout America as it toured with these fairs. Imagine an audience who had never see a film before packed into a screening of this Western, seeing a moving image narrative for the first time. the film is 12 minutes long and has a range of shots and really signalled the future direction of film-making.
DW Griffith (USA) Birth of a Nation (1915)
Griffith is seen as a landmark director as he pushed the boundaries of film once again. At the outbreak of WW1 he was putting together this film about America which includes references to the KKK and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Many consider Griffith to be the most influential film-maker ever as he set the rules for narrative film-making that were copied henceforth. He created genre films with early shorts like the gangster film 'the Musketeers of Pig Alley' 1912 and pioneered developments in lighting and camera placement, types of shot used and narrative techniques.
This scene is particularly offensive in a number of ways and shows the power of film in representing groups. the influence of this film cannot be understated in 1915 due to the awe inspired by this new medium. People would not see the acting and the make-up and the film divides opinion. Some compare Griffith to other later propagandists like Hitler's favourite Leni Riefenstahl.
However, this was the first film over an hour long and created the feature film. It was possibly the most popular film ever in terms of box office as it was the first feature film that most of the population of the time would see.
Eisenstein (Russia)
Strike 1925
Eisenstein is credited with introducing montage. the juxtaposition of a series of images or shots to build an abstract idea out of the narrative. The Russian civil war informed his work and his background in theatre allowed for development of mise-en-scene.
The Odessa Steps is the most famous sequence from 'Battleship Potemkin' which is seen as a landmark in film history.
In this clip a Professor explains the influence of Eisenstein on the development of editing
Many director's reference the Odessa Steps scene in their own work. This is a comparison with De Palma's Untouchables
