General Music Discussion

[Unfound One]

I found this entertaining...

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHBVnMf2t7w"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHBVnMf2t7w[/ame]

[jayson]

Funny SJ

Now you see why the following was a manifesto for so many punk bands in the 70's...



It's certainly all the theory one needs to derive enjoyment from playing music. As my friend Joe says "anything else is just showing off."

[Seymour_Glass]

I know those chords!!

Spoiler:

[Brice]

Ashlee Simpson is the best thing to happen to music since the Beatles.

Couldn't you have just stabbed me instead of saying that.

Funny SJ

Now you see why the following was a manifesto for so many punk bands in the 70's...



It's certainly all the theory one needs to derive enjoyment from playing music. As my friend Joe says "anything else is just showing off."

I can't even manage that. My fingers refuse to conform.

[jayson]

I know those chords!!

Spoiler:

Then you have all the tools you need.

I can't even manage that. My fingers refuse to conform.

We can always tune your guitar to an open tuning and then you can just play chords with one finger.

Or you can play drums. You can count to four can't you?

[Heather19]

That was great SJ, thanks for posting it. I gotta kick out of it.

[jayson]

Here's as good a reason as any to play music, and another reason I intend to encourage Ella to do so...

http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=7050081

Want to Rewire Your Brain? Study Music
All Those Hours at the Piano Paid Off: A Musician's Brain Recognizes Sound That Carries Emotion

Opinion By LEE DYE
March 11, 2009 —

All those hours practicing the piano pay off big time by biologically enhancing a person's ability to quickly recognize and mentally process sounds that carry emotion, according to a new study.

The study, from Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., offers a new line of evidence that the brain we end up with is not necessarily the same brain we started out with.

"We are measuring what the nervous system has become, based on an individual's experience with sound," Nina Kraus, director of the university's groundbreaking Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory, said in a telephone interview.

Kraus and a team of researchers attached electrodes to the heads of 30 people, half of whom were serious musicians and half of whom had no significant musical training. The electrodes measure electricity, "which is, of course, the currency of the nervous system," Kraus said. The study revealed two major differences between the musicians and the nonmusicians.

Musicians heard an emotion-packed, complex sound with an enhanced sensitivity, and they also were less distracted by simple sounds, according to the study, published in the current issue of the European Journal of Neuroscience.

"What we found in this study is both an enhancement and an economy of resources varies as a function of the extent of musical experience," Kraus said. "The more years the person has been playing an instrument, and the earlier the person began musical training, the larger the effect."

Although many other studies have tried to show the beneficial effects of musical training, the researchers said their findings "provide the first biological evidence for behavioral observations indicating that musical training enhances the perception of vocally expressed emotion." The findings have implications far beyond the world of music.

"The same neural transcription process that is enhanced in musicians is found to be deficient in some children with language disorders such as dyslexia and autism," Kraus noted.

The research suggests that something as basic as musical training may be a useful therapeutic device, along with other more traditional techniques.

Emotional ID

"Quickly and accurately identifying emotion in sound is a skill that translates across all arenas, whether in the predator-infested jungle or in the classroom, boardroom or bedroom," said Dana Strait, a doctoral candidate in the music department and lead author of the study.

The researchers relied on an emotion-packed sound that has been used for many years by scientists around the world who have studied auditory processes -- the sound of an infant crying. That sound carries an enormous emotional load, but it is also a surprisingly complex sound.

Sound waves measured during the experiment show periods of relatively mild emotional content in the sounds from the baby -- almost a straight line on a chart -- punctuated with brief bursts of complex sounds that vary in intensity, frequency and strength.

The participants, wearing earphones, sat in front of a monitor showing nature films with subtitles. Every now and then, they heard the sound of a baby crying through the earphones. The electrodes measured the stimulus -- the baby crying -- and the response of each participant.

As expected, the musicians had an enhanced ability to pick up on the emotional cues of the sound. But the researchers were a little surprised to learn that the musicians were more attuned to the complex sounds -- those carrying the most emotion -- than to the less significant "periodic" sounds of crying. That allowed them to devote more resources to the important sounds and virtually ignore the sounds that carried little emotion.

Who We Are, What We Have Done

That reflects an increased economy of resources -- don't waste energy listening to something that says nothing.

"Enhancements, reflected by larger time -- and frequency -- domain response magnitudes, were most evident in musicians' responses to the most complex portions of the sound, with economy (smaller amplitudes) seen in their responses to the periodic portion," the researchers report.

The findings might seem open to the chicken-and-egg debate. Did the musicians perform better because they are naturally more sensitive to sounds, and thus more likely to study music? Or did their nervous systems change because they were exposed to music for more than a decade?

The researchers feel confident the correct answer is the latter.

"With musician studies you always wonder if the person was just born with a more accurate sensor," Kraus said. "And there's probably an element of that. We're all a combination of nature and nurture."

But the fact that all the musicians performed so much better than the nonmusicians clearly shows that the study of music -- not an innate musical aptitude -- literally changed the way the musicians' brains processed sounds, the researchers concluded.

"Our results provide evidence for a subcortical role in the processing of emotional cues by showing that auditory brainstem responses to emotionally salient vocal sounds are dynamic, shaped by life-long, multisensory experience with auditory signals," the researchers note. "These responses are not hardwired but malleable with extensive auditory training."

In other words, we aren't just who we are. We're also what we have done.

[tamez]

Ok so i've had Eminem Relapse for a couple days now
upon review i find it kinda stale.

best tracks are Same Song n Dance which is nightmarish
and sorta awesome.

Medicine Ball is my fave though.

the highlight of the entire album for me
is the Christopher Reeves spoof. in Medicine Ball.
you guys gotta hear it 'cause that shit is funny
some prime rhymes right there baby

as a whole though, i find Slim Shady
to be getting rather tiresome
and the beats are annoying on some of the songs
but that's Dr. Dre for you. he goes out on a limb
and it doesn't always work out.

[flaggwalkstheline]

Ok so i've had Eminem Relapse for a couple days now
upon review i find it kinda stale.

best tracks are Same Song n Dance which is nightmarish
and sorta awesome.

Medicine Ball is my fave though.

the highlight of the entire album for me
is the Christopher Reeves spoof. in Medicine Ball.
you guys gotta hear it 'cause that shit is funny
some prime rhymes right there baby

as a whole though, i find Slim Shady
to be getting rather tiresome
and the beats are annoying on some of the songs
but that's Dr. Dre for you. he goes out on a limb
and it doesn't always work out.

American hip hop is creatively stagnant for the most part, even eminem cant completely escape it, its like metal in the late 80s prior to nirvana

I listen to mike skinner, jamie t and dizzy rascal
grime-hop kicks way more ass than our stuff

[tamez]

for the most part i agree
i think with a different producer MM
could be stellar
technically his lyrics are spot on
and tight. he is a good writer

but he is just stuck with the same topics
over and over and he knows it
you can tell when he's all
"I guess it's time for you to hate me again"
and "My mom my mom
I know youre probably tired of hearing about my mom
Oh ho! Whoa ho! "
so dude, if you know you're stale change it up!
i think he should separate from Dre.
i'm tired of Dre beats

as far as american rap goes
I agree, it's not in it's heyday of course
but my fave atm is Z-Ro

[Brice]

I think essentially the problem is the majority of his fanbase doesn't want him to change. If he changes too much he risks a lot of money and I'm not sure he's prepared to do that. He should be approaching it like he's broke again. I've yet to hear the new album though.

[Seymour_Glass]

Man, fans are such bitches.

[flaggwalkstheline]

I think eminem is VERY good but he's being like ACDC in that he keeps releasing similar stuff without evolving and its all entertaining to be sure and the music video for We made You is AWESOME but he's starting to get stagnant
hmmm hopefully in his next album he does something nobody expects
most rap fans wouldnt like it though, theyre as bad as punk fans

[Brice]

He needs to not give a fuck whether anyone likes it or not.

[flaggwalkstheline]

He needs to not give a fuck whether anyone likes it or not.

what makes it really ironic is that not giving a shit is a cornerstone of his whole shtick

[Brice]

I know...I know.

I suspect his not giving a fuck doesn't apply to his own financial success. Honestly though he's made enough money he can afford to REALLY not give a fuck about that either.

[AlishaRiley]

Oh, man, you guys need to listen to Scroobius Pip.

[jayson]

... theyre as bad as punk fans

some of us punk fans understand and expect an artist to change, but i do exactly what you mean though, it's really not exclusive to rap or punk fans.

fear of an artist evolving seems a pretty well-populated position across genres. listen to some stanley crouch's famous articles dismissing miles when he branched out into adding elements of rock and funk to his music. listen to people like ken burns and wynton marsalis who think that jazz is a very specific form of music that is to be played in very specific ways lest it ever change. when bird and dizzy and their colleagues started be-bop, the jazz purists then said the same thing. later it was the hard-bop guys saying that ornette and trane and albert ayler and the other "free jazz/new music" weren't playing jazz (some said it wasn't even music). the folkies went ballistic on dylan when he dared to pick up an electric guitar and back himself with the likes of the Hawks.

I was listening to a live interview/performance show with the Black Keys who were talking about recording their most recent album with producer Danger Mouse who is more known for producing artists like Jay-Z and Gnarls Barkley than a heavy blues rock band like the Keys. They said they were getting a lot of crap from fans who were afraid they were going to change and become something else. Patrick Carney, the drummer said something to the effect of "sometimes fans are idiots," and he couldn't be more right.

Ideally, a musician wants people to like their music, but also ideally, a musician doesn't care if they do or not. If they do, it's a great bonus and can be financially rewarding, but pleasing fans shouldn't be much of a motivating factor, and fans that think it should be are the first to be disappointed every time.

[Frunobulax]

I saw Kill Yr Idols on Monday. Great doc about No Wave. Made me think about how much we've homogenized and commercialized the ideals of proto-punk. Suicide would called fucking synthpop today, Contortions some version of indie rock, Theoretical Girls noise rock. Shit, Ponytail and Marnie Stern may be the last No Wavers who understand what it means.

[jayson]

As usual, I couldn't agree more Fruno.

At least NYC got to see some authentic No Wave last week during the week long Ribot retrospective. He did shows with all of his old projects (the ones for which he was leader) so these included shows by Shrek and Rootless Cosmopolitans, two bands firmly rooted in that scene in both sound and membership.

[flaggwalkstheline]

Made me think about how much we've homogenized and commercialized the ideals of proto-punk.

I have but one response to statements like this (which are for the most part right)

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnSPPnUPyLA"]YouTube - Mindless Self Indulgence "Shut Me Up" music video[/ame]

[Seymour_Glass]

I've come to the conclusion that pop-punk is over, now that Green Day is all huge and ambitious and blink-182 is gonna try their damnedest to sound like the Cure.
Thank God.

[Frunobulax]

Green Day started sucking since day 1. Dookie was a decent album, then stuff happened and the overly ambitious and almost pretentious American Idiot dropped. Then they became just pure loads of ass. I know people are gonna be angry at me for saying that, too. Pop-punk was never a valid scene. Most of the bands were just emoshits posing as punks to try to gain credibility and earn respect.

[jayson]

I'd propose The Ergs! as a band that makes highly listenable pop-punk played by three guys that can actually play the shit out of their instruments.

If you want a pure pop-punk album with no pretension, I highly recommend their Dorkrockcorkrod. If you like that, they have others, but that's the best place to start.

[flaggwalkstheline]

Green Day started sucking since day 1. Dookie was a decent album, then stuff happened and the overly ambitious and almost pretentious American Idiot dropped. Then they became just pure loads of ass. I know people are gonna be angry at me for saying that, too. Pop-punk was never a valid scene. Most of the bands were just emoshits posing as punks to try to gain credibility and earn respect.

I disagree, I find dookie and kerplunk to be rather overly simplistic and childish but from warning forward green day have been that rare band that is as good as they are popular, I have listening to 21st century breakdown almost constantly since I got it and I really like it, though your right about pop punk as scene being fake and pretencious, though green day havent been pop punk for a while now...