Tag: music

Virtuosity

Monica Sloan Leave a comment

There’s a sort of air in the music realm surrounding technique and virtuosity, that the harder something is to play and the more technical skill it takes, the better it is. Not the better it sounds, necessarily, but the higher quality the piece is—and the better the player you are. There’s a certain feeling that if you want to be considered a good musician, you have to play longer pieces, to memorize them all, to play in harder key signatures, to play with wildly advanced techniques.

When you’ve been playing for a decade or so, this starts to weigh on you. When I was in high school, sending out my college applications, I took a look at the audition parameters to study piano at Juilliard. I’d been playing for about eight years at the time, so I thought it wouldn’t be anything unimaginably out of my skill level. I was wrong—they requested videos of the applicants playing three pieces or so, all memorized, all at least ten pages, and so on. It seemed reasonable on paper, but when I looked up the sheet music to the requested pieces, I balked. There were no symbols I didn’t recognize, but the complexity and sheer amount of music was enough to back me down from applying. I’d been playing for half my life, and it seemed as though even if I had started when I was eight, seven, six years old, I wouldn’t be able to reach that level of skill at that age. That was incredibly discouraging.

But you know what? If you keep playing, you can leave all that nonsense behind you, and play for yourself. Who cares if you’re no good at memorizing pieces, or if key signatures with more than four accidentals mess with your mind, or if you can’t hit those seventeen-notes-per-beat runs in Romantic pieces? It’s okay to take longer on harder pieces to get them good enough, and it’s okay if good enough for you is the standard of your “good enough.” While it’s very rewarding to learn how to do all the advanced techniques, you can’t let yourself get wrapped up in getting it perfect, at least not so much that you back off of playing at all. Give yourself time. Allow yourself to make mistakes. Tight performances only come from hours of practice, and sometimes practice has to be loose, free, and fun. We wouldn’t still be playing if we weren’t having fun…so let go of the need for virtuosity; it’s overrated anyway.

 

Scores

Jordan Brown Leave a comment

Some of the most famous songs across the world are not pop songs, or classics from the 80’s, but the film scores to some of the most popular movies around the world.  Film scores help to create a feeling for the movie and they add another level of emotion for the audience. One of the most successful film scorist is John Williams. Some of William’s most famous work is the scoring for Superman, ET, Jurassic Park, Jaws, and Star Wars.  These tunes are things that most people can recognize and hum along to after hearing just 3 or 4 seconds from the songs.

John Williams has been writing film scores for many years and in many different genres.  He knows how to evoke audience emotion with only music. Most, if not all, of his scores do not have words.  An example of the emotion that the audience can gather about a character from the scores is the Imperial March from Star Wars.  The Imperial March is what plays every time Darth Vader steps on to the screen, or is about to appear on screen. This composition is very deep, letting the audience know that the character that they are about to see is intimidating and powerful.  It also gives the audience a clue that he is a villain because the music is very dark.

Scores of movies are not only used to add another dimension to a character, but to address the overall feeling of the movie.  The scores for fun and action packed movies like to Star Wars, Superman, or Jurassic Park were designed to make the audience have fun.  The opening composition in Star Wars is an upbeat and exciting song that make the audience giddy to watch the movie and see what is in store.

John Williams also worked on the scores for very serious films like the Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan, and the Book Thief.  These movies the goal of the music was to show the seriousness and intensity of the film. In the Schindler’s List, and the Book Thief, the goal is also to show the fear of the people who went through the experiences shown in the movies.  These movies were not to have a fun and light atmosphere to gear audiences for a fun couple of hours.

Lastly, the scores of movies can be used to emphasize a situation that the characters are in.  Even in a fun movie, a specific composition can be lower and darker if the situation that the characters face is intimidating.  On the other side, if the situation is fun, then the composition is bright and exciting. An example of this is the action scenes in the Indiana Jones movies.  These scenes are a little intense, but are more so fun for the audience to watch, and the composition reflects that with exciting music playing in the background to tell the audience not to worry too much about the character.

Scores of movies help to tell the story and the feeling of the movie itself.  They help the audience to know what to feel and can help to enhance their original feelings toward the movie, character, or scene.  One of the most famous and successful score writer is John Williams. Williams has done all of these things throughout his long and diverse career with films like Harry Potter, Home Alone, the BFG, and Catch Me if You Can.

Thought Contagion: A Call-Out

Monica Sloan Leave a comment

Nearly nine months after their last single dropped, the British alt-rock band Muse finally released new content, a single called Thought Contagion. The lyrics revolve around the spread of ideas, holding that if an idea gains enough traction, then there’s no way to stop it from invading everyone’s lives, even if they don’t believe it–and even if it’s a bad idea.

Muse is no stranger to heavy-handed lyrics. Their last three studio albums–The Resistance, The 2nd Law, and Drones–relied heavily on current events for their lyrical themes, and their second-to-last single Dig Down included the line: “When God decides to look the other way/and a clown takes the throne….” It’s nothing if not overt.

At first, I was really bogged down by the heavy-handedness of Thought Contagion. Three verses of sentence-fragmented metaphors describing a dismal, apocalyptic scenario are broken by the choruses of, “You’ve been bitten by a true believer…by someone who’s hungrier than you…by someone’s false beliefs.” Not a lot of subtlety there, and it’s wrapped up in a lot of pessimism, such as, “Brace for the final solution.” Yikes.

It’s suffocating to focus on these lyrics. We all know what it’s like to have idea after idea crammed into our heads. It’s impossible to get away from hearing the ideology of people who just know they’re right. Idea after idea after idea, and they’re in our classrooms and homes and offices, in our social media and news and ads, in our movies and books and art. No one could spend a single day without at least inadvertently encountering the ideas of someone who believes they’re right with every fiber of their being. These ideas could be about religion, politics, science, philosophy, sex, art–if someone can have a belief in something for which they’d be willing to die, you can bet they’ll be yelling it loudly from all platforms of social media in an attempt to get it across to even one person.

While there’s nothing more annoying than listening to “someone’s false beliefs,” some of those false believers are getting through to other people. In a country where polarization is a driving force of media, anyone who was neutral on anything at some point has been “bitten” by one side or the other, shrinking the middle ground and forcing both sides of any issue imaginable to resort to extremes, in both beliefs and in the actions for which they call they call.

Muse can do better stylistically than the lyrics of Thought Contagion, but maybe this time they’re not going for poetic–they’re going for a call-out. They’re back on the dystopian track, taking our current situation and stretching it to its logical extreme: if we stop thinking for ourselves and let the momentous force of zealous ideologies take us over, then “it’s too late for a revolution.” Thought Contagion reminds us to take a breath, step back from the inundation of media (as much as we can), and think things through before blindly getting caught up in the storm of shouting matches before the shouting matches turn to nuclear wars.

 

BTS and the Resurgence of K-Pop in the American Mainstream

Ana Lucena 1 Comment

2017 was an incredible year for the K-pop group BTS, and as a fan who discovered them right as they broke through in America I must remind myself how much the boys accomplished in the first year of me knowing them. The seven-member boy band broke a slew of records for their genre, from having the highest-charting album on the Billboard 200 to being the first group to break the top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100 with the lead single “DNA”.

The cause of their dizzying ascent to success in America can be traced to the commercial and critical success of their previous LP “Wings”, which saw a surge in their fanbase that led to their win at the Billboard Music Awards for Top Social Artist. Though the prize was social media award, it fueled interest in the band that led to collaborations with the likes of the Chainsmokers, Steve Aoki and Fall Out Boy while becoming popular enough to be invited onto the Late Late Show with James Corden, Jimmy Kimmel Live and The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

As any seasoned K-pop stan can tell you, BTS is not the first K-pop group to achieve attention in America.  A case in point from the time before the global hit “Gangnam Style” is the tragedy of the Wondergirls’ career, who gave up a spot at the top of the charts in Korea in order to start a name for themselves in America. But despite heavy promotions on late-night talk shows and a TV movie starring the girl group that aired on Nickelodeon, the Wondergirls effectively flopped with the release of their pioneering English-language single “Nobody“. They then returned to Korea having made inroads in the States for the future of K-pop but with little compensation.

Think pieces have reached a consensus on what sets BTS apart: a down-to-earth public image, raw and sincere lyrics about the tribulations of youth, and a prolific use of social media. The effectiveness of their large social media presence can be evidenced by the fact they are the most-followed Korean Twitter account and were the most tweeted artist of the year. But what will the future bring them as they verge into territory no K-pop group has gone before?

I believe that BTS fans (called “ARMY”) will continue to support the boys as long as they continue to be true to themselves. It is the only thing that has stayed consistent in their music as their discography has morphed from hip-hop to electro-pop with experimentation in rock and R&B in-between. The way the members contribute to the songwriting of their sincere music has allowed an organic relationship to form between BTS and ARMY as both grow up, and there is no doubt seeing the work members have created on their own that they are full of more heartfelt reflections on life yet.

This band is one of the few musicians I personally follow because they inspire me to raise my voice in my own writing as a young person trying to follow my own path. Their uplifting message comes across as genuine from young men who had the odds against them when they debuted in a small company in 2013, to being on the brink of world domination as they conquer the Japanese music market (the second largest in the world after the US) as the year’s best-selling foreign artist. May their reign be long and prosperous.

Winter 2018 Olympics: Figure Skating

Jordan Brown Leave a comment

The winter Olympics are in February, and the big sport to watch is always figure skating.  There are so many variations (women, men, couples) that figure skating will be on for the entire two weeks of the Olympics.  A big change has been made to the figure skating rules that the audience will surely notice.  The skaters are now allowed to have words in their music for their routines.  This will create a new dynamic to the figure skating competitions.

Popular figure skating music in the past has been to popular music that is easy to recognize without the words.  This includes popular movie soundtracks like “Pirates of the Caribbean”, or popular songs from musicals like “The Sound of Music” or “Fiddler on the Roof”, or even popular hit songs like “If I Were a Rich Man”.  Classical music is also a popular choice for figure skaters.  These songs appealed to the crowd because they could enjoy the figure skating routine and the music.

The International Skating Union allowed for words to now be incorporated in their music to try and innovate the sport.  Figure Skating was losing viewers and made this move to try and attract some new fans.  Now the skaters can skate to new and popular music that more people can recognize. Some skaters, like Jimmy Ma, are embracing the change and skating to very modern music.  Ma has performed to an Eminem medley and to “Turn Down For What” in the past two years.  He has said that his choices of music is to bring in more fans and to show that figure skating is a cool and modern sport.  His goal is to turn some heads and get people to pay more attention to ice skating.  Others music choices aren’t so bold, they still have lyrics in their routine but nothing too modern or different for the figure skating world.

Though many are embracing this new rule, it is not a requirement.  Skaters can still skate to instrumental music, it depends on each skaters preference.

Classic Holiday Entertainment

Jordan Brown Leave a comment

From Black Friday to January first, Holiday music and movies are playing nonstop in stores and on TV.  Most of the classic holiday movies also have very popular songs to accompany them.  Here is list of classic holiday songs and the movies that accompany them:

Rudolph, the red nosed reindeer

The popular song, “Rudolph the red nosed reindeer” actually came from a book written in 1939 by Robert May.  The song was created in 1949 by Johnny Marks.  The first claymation movie adaptation was created in 1964.

Santa clause is coming to town

The song “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town” was written in 1934 by John Frederick Coots.  The claymation movie was made in 1970 starring Kris Kringle, A.K.A. Santa Claus, and his journey of becoming Santa.  A book was written in 2008 to accompany the song and movie.

Frosty the snowman

The song “Frosty The Snowman” was written in 1950 by Walter E Rollins.  The first movie adaptation was a 2D animation created in 1969.  Many more movies have been created after this showing Frosty’s life and featuring the song.  There have also been countless books that depict his life as it is laid out in the song.

Little drummer boy

The song “Little Drummer Boy” was written in 1941 by Harry Simeone, Katherine Kennicott Davis, and Henry Onorati.  The claymation movie were released in 1968.  Ezra Jack Keats wrote the book adaptation in the same year,1968.

The Year Without a Santa Claus

The classic songs “Heat Miser” and “Snow Miser” were in the claymation movie “The Year Without A Santa Claus”.  The movie was created in 1974.  Unlike the other classic Holiday songs on this list, the songs were written for the movie and become classics and popular through the movie.

Grandma Got run over by a reindeer

The song “Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer” was written in 1979 by Randy Brooks.  The animated movie adaptation was created in 2000.  This newer movie has quickly become a classic for people under 30, with the movie appearing on Cartoon Network frequently over the Holiday season.

Jingle Bells

The song “Jingle Bells” was written in 1857 by James Pierpont(not the man Pierpont Commons in named after).  The song was originally called “One Horse Open Sleigh”.  There have been many movie adaptations of this song, and many other movies have used the song to add a Holiday feeling to them.  “Jingle Bells” was the first song to be broadcast from outer space.  The two astronauts sang the song to mission control with bells and a harmonica after pulling a prank on them!