#music discourse

[etaleah]

Not to be an old nerd on main but I really think more young people should go to classical orchestra concerts.

It is wild to me that classical music has this reputation of being elitist when in fact it’s easily the most affordable kind of concert you can go to. Classical music orchestras are desperate to get young people in the door because the majority of their patrons are elderly and when those patrons die, the art of live classical/instrumental music will die with them if younger folks don’t show up to keep the concerts going. If you are under the age of 40, there’s a good chance that your local orchestra has a discount for you, and possibly a steep one at that. If you’re a high school or college student, you might be eligible for a student discount, which could be even better. And if you’re bringing family or friends, there might be group discounts.

But even if there’s no special deal, these concerts can still be surprisingly cheap, in large part because many of them don’t make you buy through the greedy extortion clusterfuck that is Ticketmaster. I literally got a front row seat at an orchestra concert for just TWELVE DOLLARS and heard some of the best music of my life while doing it. Music that is so amazing it can move you to tears. And that kind of pricing isn’t unusual in my city. Hell, there are even some concerts around here that are FREE.

It kills me to see young people feeling like they have to miss out on the joy of live music just because they can’t afford to shell out hundreds of dollars in Ticketmaster fees when a much easier and more affordable option is right there.

Also? The idea that classical music is solely the domain of White men from the 1800s is not true. There are women and people of color in the orchestras, in conductor/director positions, and there are women and POC composers from a range of eras whose work gets played. I attend a lot of orchestra concerts and I’ve heard beautiful music from all over the world from composers and performers in all kinds of demographics. I’ve heard music that was composed within my parents’ lifetimes and music that was about being queer. And I never paid much for any of it.

It’s true that these concerts aren’t very flashy. There’s no special effects, big screens, dance numbers, or sparkly outfits. But that’s the point. You’re meant to focus on the music and the story it’s telling, with no distractions. It’s one or two hours of relaxing songs that allow you to just let your mind wander and imagine. It’s much better for people with sensory issues who get overwhelmed easily, and it lets you safely get the cheap seats without any worries that you’ll be missing too much because you don’t really need to see what’s on stage, you just need to hear it. And if the venue is any good, you will definitely be able to hear from wherever you are.

Anyway support your local orchestra and fuck Ticketmaster up its ass.

[novkovsky]

here's my ranking of found heaven almost a month late lol

Alley rose

Boys and girls

Winner

Eye of the night

Found heaven

Lonely dancers

Never ending song

Fainted love

Final fight

Forever with me

Killing me

Miss you

Bourgeoisieses

[caesthoffe]

reblog for a bigger sample size or smth idk i never passed stats class

[brettdoesdiscourse]

What a lot of people don't realize is if you want to claim you're separating the art from the artist, it has to be a conscious choice you're making. You can't go around saying "I love X" and then saying you're just separating the art from the artist when people call you out for supporting someone terrible.

You have to be aware of if you're praising the person or the person's art. Saying "separate the art from the artist" doesn't work if you're not actively separating the art from the artist.

Wrong: Oh my god, I love Problematic Musician.

Right: Oh my god, I love Problematic Musician's music.

[b-sai-des]

Deathconciousness Video Essay

I realized that I forgot to share this here. I made a video discussing the “lore” behind the album’s ideas as well as the challenge of music being so bleak in the way that this album is. I also talked about Everything Everywhere All At Once. Hope you enjoy!

[textual-deviant-blog]

How often does anyone do something with 'meaning'?

Ai generated work by me, titled: "The hands that feed you."

Earlier today, I was listening to the upbeat, lifting, somber, yet sometimes just plain depressing album BURN PYGAMALION!!! by The Scary Jokes. I somehow found myself comparing the music to another, much better known song, Rules of Nature by Jamie Christopherson- you know, the one from MGS?

I compared their depth- as in, the true meaning behind the song- and found Rules of Nature to be rather shallow. Even though, it's one of my favorite songs. Analyzing it more, it makes sense. Sure, not every lyric contributes something to the overarching 'narrative' it might be compelling, but it has emotion, and it has a beat. Both catch. Music doesn't need a real 'meaning' besides the one our ears attribute to it.

Even so, it makes you wonder. What if music artists as a whole began to give as much thought to the theme or narrative that The Scary Jokes does, despite their chaotic style? What if we applied this to other mediums?

Movies and TV shows are right out. Not because they don't, but because they already do to a major extent- I mean, story writing makes up a tiny sliver of the production budget, so it would make sense to get that right whenever possible as it's still something critical to the movie.

Art, meanwhile, is so individualistic it would be difficult to try to make a case for applying narrative to everything. There are subtleties, additions- always more to add, to give the piece it's own sort of environmental storytelling, but not every piece necessarily benefits from that. And that doesn't even touch how each piece of artwork could be interpreted in so many ways that gives it it's own depth by default.

So, with Novels being the default, I suppose this means that Music happens to be the only medium with this dilemma? It's perhaps to do with the reduction in the popularity of dance clubs and bars, which, as a result, reduced the amount of songs whose focus happened to be on making people dance, and instead just writing music that sounded good. Today's more 'zoomer' music can be considered almost unrecognizable if you compare them to songs from the 70's, even the 90's, such as FNF's soundtrack. Imagine attempting to dance on beat to music like that.

Another reason also comes to mind; the classic 'video stars vs. audio stars' conundrum. From Netflix to Steam, we've massively streamlined the process of watching movies and playing games, while, for much longer, we could listen to music on those same devices. The audio star is now much more inclined to make something marketable; usable in games, movies, and tv shows. That sometimes can be considered to be a song without vocals. Songs with an underlying 'meaning' become vastly harder to make without vocals, so far fewer even try. Due to the same reasons music artists have declined in net worth, software has become far easier to use than it is to actually sing.

'meaning' has lost focus in music because it's something that requires intent, when many just ride along. Focus has shifted from being interesting and steady enough to dance, into something far easier; just something that sounds good.

Music artists that continue to push narrative has become the minority rather than the majority, and we'll likely continue to see this trend as the years pass by. Perhaps another trend will join it, perhaps it will devolve, but most evidently, songs with 'meaning' will reduce in popularity as the older and older generations cease to be.

[daisy-mooon]

It always confuses me when people say that nobody has listened to the music famous artists make... Like yes people have listened to the music famous artists make... That's why they're famous... I understand that you are not obligated to watch trendy stuff... but trendy music is trending because people are watching it...

[pansexualkiba]

is it cringe to say more popular songs need a thematically appropriate guitar solo nowadays. because they do. it's the only thing that can save top 40s radio in 2024.

[astral-the-space-traveler]

The literal worst thing that can happen to any song is being used in a commercial and it's not even close.

[novkovsky]

Conan takes

Conan Gray takes bc as much as I love him, I'm also his biggest hater 🫡🫶

Used to be to be a yours hater but now its one of my favorites 🫶

Kinda glad conan hasn't returned to the sound of kid krow. Something about that album sounds super millennial pop and kinda immature and angsty (not inherently bad)- like i get that thats the point, but it definitely sounds like a debut.

Best friend should have been cut from the album. It's not a bad song but it def detracts from the overall album experience. Like what is the purpose of the song being on an album like superache?

Used to be a telepath hater bc of how much it sounds like it was meant to blow up. It feels like it was manufacted and producted in a lab to be a hit single (derogatory) but- I have to admit that it's super catchy.

Little league is overproduced, and I hate it (WHY DIDN'T DAN PRODUCE THIS TRACK!?!?) Like it builds, but then there's no drop!? Honestly, i would like it better if it were much more stripped back and didn't sound like a 2016 Ellie Golding track.

BIGGEST OVERDRIVE HATER EVER. WHY DOES THAT SONG HAVE SIX FUCKING WRITERS!?!?!? Like genuinely it sounds like it was pulled off of a shelf and it doesn't sound like a conan song at all. Actual generic mediocre radio pop.

[our-lady-of-haymakers]

More songs should have bits where the singers faff about and gossip before and after the performance. Not even in a particularly intimate, parasocially encouraging way. I'm talking bat shrieks and ogreish rumblings and cult mutterings and wisecracks in accents from the armpits of Lemuria.

[music-art-things]

album of the month - iii

the album i’ve been obsessed with the past month:

Fear - John Cale

genres: rock, art rock, art pop, singer-songwriter.

all of the songs are written by John Cale.

released on 1974.

as i researched more about this album, i stumbled upon this review:  "Cale has the voice of a chameleon. It's never great singing but his deadpan Welsh-American accent gives it just the right edge. (...) " - Mick Gold in Let it Rock. there’s nothing else much to say. his voice seems to mold after each song, giving it an incredibly unique feeling to the vocals. his lyrics are simple & spot on, yet the overarching theme of this album is most definitely something anxious. not anxiety, but something that’s anxious. still give it a try! why not? 

my favorite songs from the album are ‘’Fear Is a Man's Best Friend’’ and ‘’Barracuda‘’. leaning more towards the second one, though! 

track listing:

"Fear Is a Man's Best Friend" (3:53)

"Buffalo Ballet" (3:29)

"Barracuda" (3:48)

"Emily" (4:23)

"Ship of Fools" (4:38)

"Gun" (8:05)

"The Man Who Couldn't Afford to Orgy" (4:35)

"You Know More Than I Know" (3:35)

"Momamma Scuba" (4:24) The Island Years bonus track 1. "Sylvia Said" (Remix) (4:09)

i am not here to judge music or give a ‘’classic’’ review, rather, i am here to share some of my favorite songs / albums since i have way too many saved and not enough people to share ‘em with. hope you groove to it as well!

[cutebathookedtoaspinningfan]

Music is indeed not a universal language but I am far more likely to captivate an audience of different languages with music than speech. Although it may not be able to be understood by all it can be appreciated by a person with any language. I love Japanese 80’s pop music and I do not speak a lick of it. Vibes are the universal connection. Not language but close enough

[b-sai-des]

A New Frontier: South Asian Fusion

In terms of any actual formal music knowledge, I come from the side of Carnatic music, the Indian classical music style, having been learning the mridangam for around ten years under my guru, Sri T.S Nandakumar. I am always eternally grateful for all that he has done for all of us students, and one of the many things I admire about sir is his willingness to explore unconventional avenues with the mridangam. The mridangam is a two-sided barrel drum usually played as an accompanying instrument in a Carnatic piece that may feature vocals or violin, and veena as well. Nandakumar sir is a renowned accompanying artist, but he’s also given his students many opportunities to perform like chamber concerts and arangetrams. One really unique thing he’s done is a large orchestra of mridangams and other Carnatic percussion instruments at the Cleveland Thyagaraja Festival, which he’s done for multiple years and encouraged even younger students to practice and perform there. It’s unusual for the mridangam to take such a center stage like that, where you have around 100 players playing together in an epic display alongside veena and violin. It was also cool to see Nandakumar sir bringing in western drums into those performances as well, along with drum pads there and in other performances. Having that exposure from a young age really opened my eyes to the potential of Carnatic music elements in contexts that you don’t normally see, and I got curious about what else is capable. Carnatic music for example utilizes many, many different talams (time signatures) apart from just 4:4 (Adi in Carnatic music), and it would be really interesting to see how that could be utilized more generally.

South Asian fusion is a huge, diverse space that’s hard to really pigeon-hole because of how many types of South Asian music there are (Carnatic is just one, there’s also Hindustani, Sufi music, folk music, Bhangra, etc.), along with different genres that they are mixed with like jazz, rock, pop, etc. You had mingling in the past, like Ravi Shankar and The Beatles. Later on it grew, definitely a more recent phenomenon and likely accelerated due to immigration and assimilation in the west. Younger generations are really at the forefront on it  – you see a ton of high school and college clubs doing Indian music or dance fusion. Rutgers has many, including RU Dhol for example. Some of these student clubs lean more on the side of Bollywood-oriented stuff, and there are times that can overshadow other ways to explore the genres – my sister sometimes talks about how the South Asian fusion club she’s part of really neglects classical dance forms like Bharatanatyam or Kathak. In that club it’s seen as the less hip thing, and people will say “it’s cool that you’re so confident to perform that” rather than actually having an interest in it and the people who want to share it. Then again, I'm talking about high-school pettiness here – it's not like this everywhere. RU Dhol combines South Asian instruments and styles of playing with western equivalents. This performance places electric guitars next to the Indian classical violin style in a really fun way.

One of my biggest experiences with South Asian fusion is with Brooklyn Raga Massive. My aunt is a Bharatanatyam teacher, and in 2018 or so she had collaborated with a theater director for a production of Jungle Book, where her students performed Bharatanatyam in a song. After the show, we had met some of the other musicians involved in the show, since my cousin learns Carnatic singing, my sister Bharatanatyam, and I mridangam, and we talked to a percussionist who was part of Brooklyn Raga Massive. He had told us about them – they do daily events at a Prospect Heights venue along with bigger events and performances, and he encouraged us to come on a Thursday where they hold an open mic jam session. We definitely got excited about this, and we went one evening.

The venue was a real hole in the wall type bar with a small stage and seating area in the back, and there was a decent and rather diverse crowd of people. Dim lights and creaky wooden floors, very aesthetic. It’s interesting because now they’ve grown immensely as an organization, and I don’t believe they still have events at this place. It was really cool to see the really different talents displayed there – one woman performed a really interesting singing performance which now I can’t pinpoint what style it was. You also had more traditional classical instruments like tabla and sitar. What’s really cool is that even though I was only in eight grade and my cousin was only in ninth grade, they gave both of us the opportunity to play with them, and they were super friendly and inviting, even despite any mistakes or hesitation I had. There were no judgments, just the spirit of experimenting and playing. I still look at that night with a lot of fondness. 

What I played that day, it was really incredible to get that opportunity and for it to be so low-key and welcoming. My cousin is also there on the stage (dressed in white), he’s an incredibly skilled Carnatic vocalist.

Recently I was inspired by all this and for my midterm assignment for the class I’m writing this for, I made a music track with mridangam and electronic effects in Ableton (free trial came clutch). I initially spent a lot of time worrying about doing it right and perfectly planning everything, but it only came together when I just let go of that and just messed around, re-arranging recordings of me playing and layering effects. Just doing it was fun, and I learned a lot from it.

shameless plug to my video

There’s a free-ness with something like this that’s a really different experience from traditional Carnatic music. At the same time, there’s a level of playfulness with Carnatic music too, as when you’re playing on stage you don’t practice with the other artist beforehand, and what happens there is often unexpected and exciting, and I’m reminded of that when I see jazz music too. To me says a lot about the inherent commonalities in what makes music so rewarding to make and experience.

[psifitopia]

it's me

I'm just going to admit it. I'm the backward one! The songs I want to be bops are generally sung slowly and songs I want sung slowly (or at least with gravitas) are sung as bops.

How Great Thou Art, Come Thou Fount, and When We All Get to Heaven? Those should be bops!

God Ye Rest Merry Gentlemen? NOT. A. Bop!!

In the secular genre, Never Gonna Give You Up should ALWAYS be a bop! Some chick sings it slow and spooky and it does not work! It's annoying! I know she's trying to get out of Rick Astley's shadow, but she's trying a bit too hard, imho. Grr.