Re:Bound 2

Kanye pushes the limits of music in most of his most recent songs especially everything in his latest album Yeezus that was pretty far out there. But when listening to Kanye think of Sun Ra. Nobody really understands what he is trying to accomplish but Kanye. He is a "production master mind" the beats he's able to make are second to none. Lyrically he's good but sometimes can be out there. 

The Impact of Christmas Music

It's not a surprise to everyone that Christmas music has been on for a few weeks now. The big debate is whether or not people want to hear the music this early. My opinion is, since I love Christmas, that I could listen to it two months before Christmas. Christmas to me isn't just a day, it's a season. And if people don't want to listen to the music, there are always other radio stations to listen to. I believe Christmas music being on this early just sets up the mood for everyone to get into the Christmas spirit. People are already Christmas shopping this early, so why not have the music on already? Although some people get depressed around the Christmas, I think the music does more good than harm. It puts people in the giving and cheerful mood. So while some people think Christmas music is a nuisance, I believe it does some good.

10 Unknown Commercial Songs

http://www.businessinsider.com/10-hit-songs-you-only-know-because-they-were-in-tv-commercials-2012-8

I was on a quest to find out how music executives found songs for commercials and I found this website about how these songs only became hits because they were in a commercial. It struck me as shocking because I realized it's true. Some of the songs I love I only knew about because I heard them in a commercial. It really shows how far TV reaches to its consumers. These songs would have otherwise been unknown had not the population of the world seen them in a commercial.

Now on to Eminem

Since I'm finished with my rant about Kanye, I'd like to praise Eminem and Rihanna on their new song The Monster. Eminem always releases amazing songs. The meaning behind The Monster, I'm not exactly sure. But I can say I'm in love with the sound and they lyrics. Honestly, I like everything Eminem releases and just about every Rihanna song I hear. The two are a musical match made in heaven.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDXXi19_7iE

Bound2

I'm not really one to bash an artist because I don't understand their song but I have got to say Bound2 has got to be the most idiotic song I have ever listened to. That is 4 minutes wasted. The opening isn't bad, but once Kanye starts singing in all goes down hill. "How you gon' be mad on vacation? Dutty winning 'round all these Jamaicans" "I wanna f*ck you hard on the sink, After that give you something to drink" "Maybe we could make it to the church steps, But first you gon' remember how to forget" seriously what kind of lyrics are these? There are comments on the video claiming Kanye is a lyrical genius but I just don't see it. Can someone enlighten me? That'd be great. The only good thing I can say about this song and the video is that Kim looks good after having her baby in July.
Lyrics at
http://rapgenius.com/Kanye-west-bound-2-lyrics
Video at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBAtAM7vtgc

THE MOST ANNOYING ANIMAL SOUNDS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTRhbQNIcLc

Free bird remix

We are as free as the lions in the jungle but even the lions In the jungle are caged by poachers and big game hunters trying to make a name for themselves and prove their manhood. Since we are as free and the lions of the jungle who aren't even free what are we really? Are we hunters or are we the hunted? 

-Chris Richard 

Rothenberg's birdsong CD

While listening to the birdsong CD today in class, it gave me a whole new perspective on Rothenberg's book. There's a big difference in reading about the birds reaction to him playing and actually hearing their reactions. While I took Rothenberg's word for it, it was nice to hear it for myself. It gave me the sense that the birds were actually "jamming" along with Rothenberg. I could really hear how the birds were reacting to his playing and it gave me even more proof that birds do sing and make music for a reason.

This goes out to anyone who thinks animals can't be musical....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-hQwjrzjTQ

What is Culture?

If you ask 100 random people what culture is you're more than likely to get 100 different answers. Each person has their own culture, each group of people have their own culture humans & animals have their own separate culture. Since there are so many different subcultures who is to say which is more acceptable than another? Why is one culture more weird or "frowned upon" and another praised. But that's the great thing about the world. You can have so many different people with different cultures and yet we can still come together and live along side each other and along side animals and still be different yet have the ability to adjust to each other and adapt to new cultures. The same goes for animals in the wild. They have many different cultures themselves but they survive because they live off of each other and in ways help each other. It's amazing to me how that all comes about to where you have different animals and different humans with different cultures and different can build off each other and it seems to work so flawlessly. 

Birdsong Definition

I looked up birdsong and I found it interesting that dictionary.com defined it as "the musical call of a bird or birds." The definition actually uses the word music instead of subtly defining it as the calling of birds or some other scientific definition. This led me to wonder what Hamilton would make of this definition. I believe he would try to debunk this definition and chalk it up to simple wording to make for better understanding. He wouldn't agree with this definition because birds aren't actually musical in the human's sense of music.

Sounds Organized for Their Own Sake?

Sir John Tavener

As an Englsih composer of spiritual music his compositions are very soothing and push the human voice to its highest limits. At times it pushes the higher pitched voices to become even higher and vice versa for the low pitch voices as to resemble the highest of the heavens and the lowest of hells. When asked if he made his music for God Tavener said that when composing that he started out making music for God and the church as his main influence but it would be foolish for him to believe that after hearing it performed over the years. Out of all of the artist that we have listened to this semester Tavener is high on the list for me. He gives sense of peace and calm which I like. 

Tweet Tweet Little Birdie

So many people always tend to go back and forth between the idea of if birds make music or are musical. I personally thing that birds can create music. Yes I know a major argument that we have read in class that can quickly go against that is that birds don't have a language or culture. I don't think that should be a big reason behind music making. I think birds can make music without it. Birds just seem to have a lovely sound to them and sounds like a song at times. So I am kind of interested in seeing what Rothenburg has to say about birdsong.

Bird Song According to David Rothenberg

      In the videos we watched in class on David Rothenberg he was playing along with the birds while they were singing along with him. He also did this in the first chapter of his book. So my question is, if us and birds have a common understanding and can play together, then why do we have so much trouble understanding their language. There must be some similarities between their language and our music or else we wouldn't be on the same page when it comes to "jamming" together. Is it possible that they only way we can communicate with birds is through our music? Or maybe we aren't communicating at all; we're just playing and their just mimicking the sounds they find familiar. Our music is made to sound like their songs, but they aren't actually their songs.
       We know that birds are born with some set of music for different purposes, yet others develop music through their lifetime. So how is this any different from humans? Some of us develop music over our lifetimes and it's considered music. Why aren't bird songs considered music. It's because we have an understanding of what music is because we made up the definition in our own language. Maybe birds are musical in their own language, we just don't understand it in ours.

Survival of the Beautiful

The bower bird is a very interesting animal, it makes art for non-practical reasons. It creates lavish tents and other nest like sculptures that are for the soul purpose of attracting a mate. 

Hump back whales are a huge mystery of the ocean. They sing and have songs that scientist first thought were to attract mates but they aren't. They sing for pleasure as it doesn't effect any of the female whales. The males come together and sing and evolve their songs over time. Birds don't do that, birds compete with each other in order to out do each other and they don't come together to improve on their songs. 

VCDC Review from All About Jazz

VCDC: Insult (2013)

By 

EYAL HAREUVENI, 

Published: November 6, 2013

The sophomore release of the Norwegian-American free improvisation quartet VCDC (following the self-titled album, Hispid, 2011) features the quartet as a highly inventive and playful unit. Clarinetist Frode Gjerstad, one of the forefathers of the Norwegian free jazz and free improvisation scene; cellistFred Lonberg-Holm, who in the last years collaborate regularly with Scandinavian musicians as Gjerstad on other projects or the Swedish-American quintet Seval; drummer Ståle Liavik Solberg and vocal artist Stine Janvin Motland, who work together as the duo MotSol—recorded two extended improvisations at the Galleri Sult in Stavanger, Gjerstad's hometown. 

Both improvisations are anarchistic and eccentric in its spirit. The only rules oblige careful listening to the other musicians uncompromising attempt to expand the sonic envelope with inventive nuances and unconventional usage of the instruments, and maintaining an arresting level of intensity. The parts where Motland sets the tone challenge the other players to accommodate with her imaginative vocalizations, full of humor, drama and emotion with a stunning range of voices. She has a unique approach of using her voice as an instrument, different from other fellow Norwegian vocal artists as Sidsel Endresen or Eldbjorg Raknes, at times closer to Maja S.K. Ratkje noisy, experimental employing of the voice as raw sound. Gjerstad uses extended breath techniques to answer her and to push further the sonic palette, while Lonberg-Holm and Solberg enrich the thick sonic stew with surprising colors, strange, subtle sounds and changing pulse. 

The two improvisations progress patiently. The second one in particular, "Sultan For Seitan," is more theatrical and uplifting. Motland begins with chirping and later ecstatic vocal utterances, Gjerstad joins with brief, poetic blows on the clarinet and unhurriedly the quartet even manages to articulate a fragile rhythmic outline through this chaotic interplay. This improvisation unfolds slowly as a detailed dadaist story, told as by four creative storytellers. 

Masterful and arresting.

Track Listing: Glutton For Insults; Sultan For Seitan.

Personnel: Fred Lonberg-Holm: cello, electronics; Frode Gjerstad: clarinet; Ståle Liavik Solberg: drums, percussion; Stine Janvin Motland: voice..

Record Label: FMR Records

Chris Brown

Chris Brown has another assualt charge because he reportedly punched a guy in the face on 10/27/13. The victim says he photobomb a picture Chris was taking with two female fans, Chris went crazy and said, "I'm not down with that gay s..t, I feel like boxing." and hit the guy in the face and broke his nose. It was reported that the victim will need surgery and will press charges against Brown. He is still on probation for the Rihana beating so this may conflict with his probation and could spend up to 4 years in prison. According to TMZ, Police are looking at video footage from busnisses around the area that the fight suposedly happened at. Police have found nothing yet. The whole Rihanna thing really hurt Chris's image and now he's wrapped up in another violent scandal? Will this affect his music? No one likes a crazy person that beats everyone up, lets remember that he has also fought with Drake and a heated argument with Frank Ocean. His most rececnt fight has nothing to do with his music but I think people will use this to in a way boycott his music.

http://www.tmz.com/2013/10/27/chris-brown-arrested-felony-assault-washington-dc/
http://www.tmz.com/category/chris-brown-fight/

Life-changing music

In class last week we were talking about the woman who left her family and her whole life after hearing the Gregorian chants. This left me wondering is there some music that has the ability to change my life? And if so why haven't I heard it yet? If music has such a power to make someone forget their whole life, then why isn't it common knowledge to the whole world? There's always been music that has given me goosebumps, but I'm usually finished with it two weeks later. I've gotten bored and moved onto something else. Then I got to wondering if this music exists, but it's my body and mind that doesn't have the ability to absorb it fully. Maybe my mind is so full of preconceptions and stereotypes that my ears can't hear the music for what it really is; I just hear another boring piece of music. So, what if these preconceptions and stereotypes didn't exist? Maybe my mind was just not developed to feel what music makes others feel. Maybe there are a select few that music can really get deep into their soul and change their whole thinking and outlook on life. So, the big question is whether it's the music that fails to move me or my mind that fails to absorb the music. How depressing it must be to be able to listen to life-changing music, yet your body won't let you react the way it's able to.

Work it Out

Working out at the gym is apart of my daily routine. A major thing that affects my work outs is the music I'm listening to. If I'm lifting weights I need music that has a fast tempo and somewhat "hard" music. Some of my favorite songs to listen to while lifting weights are Rap God by Eminem, Breaking News by Machine Gun Kelly, Party Up by DMX. If you know these songs or listen to them you'll know what I mean by them being "hard". On cardio days I like to listen to, I guess softer, easy flowing music such as Beware by Big Sean, French Inhale by Wiz Khalifa, and Go Out Tonight by Mansion Boys. Different songs are better for one or the other for me. When I'm lifting I like to feel like a beast lol and music like the ones I've listed help me get in the mood to lift. And for cardio I like to run at the pace of the music and keep going until I can't anymore, the music I've listed above helps me do that. Different music gets me into different moods and mentally helps me perform my best while working out. Here are some pictures that I have on my phone for motivation!

Sun Ra

Sun Ra is a very interesting person & musician. He claimed to have never been born & denied all of his past from where he was born (Alabama) to being trained in classical music which he was. His thinking was more far out than anything that I've ever heard. In learning about him I was under the impression that he had to be doing heavy drugs in order to come up with the ideas that he came up with but he wasn't. He claimed to be abducted by aliens & probed so he can transcend from being a basic human & now he believes that he is not of this earth. What gets me the most about his music are there crazy costumes that look like Egyptian royalty robes mixed with outer space Star Trek type clothing. With all that said & understanding how far out he was & how disconnected he sounds like he is from reality & society, Sun Ra was a very big impact on the black community during his time.