Peer Review 2: Courtney Bradley Electronic Music Innovations

Hi Courtney,
I liked what you said at the end of your electronic music innovations post about being original. I agree and think that too many people in today's music industry hear a sound, see a result, and copy exactly what another artist has already done. This does not pose a problem for normal listeners though because they listen to certain artists expecting to hear a sound that is familiar. But in the long run I do agree that somebody is who is making original music that is nothing like anything else on the market will be successful on every level.

Independent Research Entry

When asked to choose a technical innovation that has impacted the music industry, I immediately think of the DAW or digital audio workstation. The creation of the DAW is in my opinion the most influential event on popular music today. Nearly every form of vocal editing is only possible because the DAW allows a space for the pitch correction software to live. Additionally, the addition of elastic audio to pro tools 7.4 allows for a fool proof method to pocket theses vocals. I think the production of vocals themselves essentially sways the music industry more than any other kind of production. I feel as if most listeners hear two different things when they listen to a song: the music and the vocals. The music is lumped up into one large category and the vocals are responsible for about 50% of that persons interpretation of the song. The DAW makes vocal editing very easy by displaying a very nice graphical readout of the waveform so that you can dissect a sentence word by word.  Almost all audio that is being edited in today’s music industry is passed through a DAW for processing or tuning. The DAW is also good because there are many useful music production plug ins in today’s market that will run on the host DAW. For example it is very simple to change between different compressors while mixing because all you need to do is click a drop down menu, no patching. On the other side of music production is the music itself which a DAW takes to the next level. A graphical display of sounds on top of each other in a window makes time editing very simple. Another very good feature in a few DAW’s like pro tools and logic is the score edit functions. It is possible to write a song using entirely midi on logic, print the score for the separate parts, and have studio musicians play the parts you wrote on your midi controller. This allows for people who do not read or write music to be more creative and still make recordable music. Some would argue that midi is a conversation in itself about the impact it had on popular music but without the DAW midi would not be as powerful as it is today. As an industry professional it bothers me slightly that music production has become more about learning software than actually making music, but my opinion is not going to slow down the hundreds and thousands of hungry producers using midi to write songs, so I must adapt. 

Electronic Music Innovations

The technical advance I am going to be discussing is the creation of the electronic drum machine. The electronic drum machine was vital in the production of most electronic music. This allowed artists and producers to sample nearly any sound and sequence them in any order, therefore opening many doors for the industry. As a producer myself, I especially understand the importance of this tool. Instead of having to track organic drums over and over again it is now possible to record a sound and resample it over and over again and manipulate it to sound different each time. Today we have tools such as Native Instruments Mashine which is essentially a glorified drum machine. Although the capabilities today far excced what they had back in the 70s this invention is still being used and there is a reason for that. It is a vital tool in the production of almost all popular music today.

Kraftwerk Blog

Kraftwerk was a german group in the 70's that changed the name of electronic music. The music was all industrial sounding, electronic driven music. All of the albums released by Kraftwerk are unique in the fact that they all follow some kind of a concept. This is important in that each of the albums are slightly different from eachother. Kraftwerk typically focused on mostly european issues and concepts in their albums. The music of kraftwerk leaves me slightly confused. To hear modern electronic music and the elements that make it up and then to listen to where these influences came from is kind of crazy. I do not like Kraftwerk's music at all. I think it is hardly audible and extrememely repetitive. It bothers me that music in the 70s was so simplistic and they were able to make money off these products. This kind of music in today's industry would not even sell 500 copies on itunes just because of it's extremely basic dynamic.

Whats Going On Entry

Marvin Gaye was involved in a band called the Marquees. It was in this musical endeavor that Gaye began singing lead vocals on records. Gaye then quickly signed to Motown where he and the label would to continue to clash over records. When Marvin Gaye was ready to release "Whats Going On" he recieved heavy disapproval from the motown label. The song was written based on first hand accounts of the Vietnam War heard from his brother Frankie, and also based on recent events of police brutality. The song was instantly labelled a "protest song". These types of songs from artists like Marvin Gaye were somewhat touchy subjects in that most people tried not to write protest songs. When Berry Gordy, the president of motown heard the record, he claimed it was "The worste record I have ever heard". The song was not released initially but was eventually after Marvin tried a career change to a football player. The Whats Goin On album was different from other motown songs in several regards. First, the instruments used on the track were not the typical big band sounding instruments. The alto sax is about the only comparable feature. Also, the message in Whats Going On is completely different from other motown hits. The song Whats Going On does appeal to me as a listener. I do like the sonic quality of the track but more importantly I like the fact that Marvin Gaye did not back down as an artist to his label. This is something we see too much in todays music industry where artists are property of a label. It is inspiring to see that if you stick to your original motives, it is possible to win and make a change to society.

Velvet Underground and Nico

The music that The Velvet Underground made was very different from anything that had already been on the market. Most importantly, the drum sounds and beats that were used in most of their songs were unusual. It is said that at one point, Tucker played shows with garbage cans instead of drums and when she did play drums it was often played with mallets instead of drum sticks. Their image was very diverse, having a female drummer for example was different. Additionally, the drummer had no formal training in the years prior to joining the band. John Cale studied music in college and was properly trained. Lou Reed graduated syracuse university with hopes of being a journalist. He then became staff songwriter for Pickwick Records. The Velvet Underground was produced by Andy Warhol who suggested Nico be involved in the songwriting process. The album that Velvet Underground recorded with Nico was a mash up of unique sounds. John Cale played viola, Reed and Nico sang in a very unique fashion, and Tucker always provided a simple drum beat. As a listener, I do no like this style of music. It sounds very unorganized and wild which is the opposite of what I would consider good rock music. In my professional oppinion, rock music should be tight and precise to emphasize all the subtle components of the song.

Revolver Entry

The beatles prior to Revolver were viewed as a mainstream, iconic pop group that were playing typical pop music of that generation. The beatles were influenced by several things concerning their lyrical content on this album. One of those things was a conversation Lennon had with Peter Fonda while using LSD. Fonda had said something along the lines of "knowing what it is to be dead" refering to an incident he had with a firearm in his younger years. Also political issues such as higher taxes played into lyrical content. The beatles include hints of this in the song "Taxman" where they are angry at the high rates of taxes being implemented on their investors. The beatles utilized different studio gear and techniques to manipulate their normal sounds into something unheard of by listeners. On this album, the beatles used a tecnique called ADT or automatic double tracking to achieve desired effects on different instuments. This is most widely used on their vocal tracks to provide perfect doubles that could be shifted out of time to provide chorusing effect. John Lennon expressed a desire for his voice to be processed in a way that it would sound as if he was "on top of a mountain". This effect was achieved by engineers by passing his voice through a leslie cabinet. As a engineer, Revolver sounds very innovative for the time of the recordings. As a listener, this album broke down any wall of limitation presented to this caliber of aritstry.