stevieraybarns

Hey Jamol, it is absolutely crazy to think of how far electronic music has come since iconic artist such as Kraftwerk of the 70’s and New Order in the 80’s. I think what I find most interesting about New Order is how adaptable they were as musicians to make the transition from punk to electronic music. The cost of staying relevant I guess. Later on electronic music would also be redefined once more with Daft Punk and combing electronic music with hip-hop. There are truly no limits to electronic music it seems. I myself combine electronic music with a post-hardcore in my band DONTFEEDTHEBIRDS! I really only see electronic music getting bigger from here.

Peer Comment: Erin Floyd Marvin Gaye

Hey Erin, I love your analyst on Marvin Gaye’s album “What’s Going On.” I completely agree with you when you said that you could listen to this album all day. It truly is an iconic piece of art that I hope gets carried on through the ages. I think that the theme that protests the war was a very powerful theme that really reflects the negative impact that the Vietnam War had on Marvin’s brother and America in general. I don’t feel that this album would have had near the same impact if Frankie Gaye had not been in the war to give Marvin a real inside look to how it was affecting everyone involved. I guess Berry Gordy didn’t know what he was talking about.

Peer Comment: Taylor Foster Van Halen’s 1984

Hello Taylor! I too feel that 1984 was a huge influence in the 1980’s. Guitar players all around the world still learn some of their first songs off 1984. Many sub-genres today are based off the ideals derived for this album. Synthcore, which is just a new metal version of what Van Halen accomplished with 1984, has become a huge industry and is currently one of the top sub-genres listen to today. I actually currently play in a band that takes these same elements into account when writing music. Just the fact that 1984 still has such an extreme impact on rock artist today is nothing less than incredible. Great research and great explanation, Taylor.

This is Spinal Tap

“This is Spinal Tap” is a documentary style movie that follows a fictional band called Spinal Tap, who goes on a tour 17 years after their prime. The documentary follows the band on their misadventures and includes clips of the good ole days, interviews, and backstage footage. After watching, people often thought Spinal Tap was a real band. Naturally, they decided why not and wrote original songs for an album, which was actually the soundtrack for the movie. The album included songs such as “Hell Hole”, “Tonight I’m Gonna Rock You Tonight”, “Heavy Duty”, “Rock and Roll Creation”, “America”, “Cups and Cakes”, “Big Bottom”, “Sex Farm”, “Stonehenge”, “Gimme Some Money”, and “Listen to The Flower People”. “Gimme Some Money” ended up being featured in the 1991 comedy film “Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead.” “Tonight I’m Gonna Rock You Tonight” ended up being featured in the video game Guitar Hero II. “Big Bottom”, would go on to be covered by Soundgarden. American Express would, also later use “Gimme Some Money”, for their commercials. Finally, “Big Bottom” would be aired on the 2007 Rhino Records release, The Heavy Metal Box. Even though the movie and the band started as entertainment, poke-fun type creation and the music from the soundtrack would go on to become industry heavy hitters with big companies looking for a way to market their products with something fun and relevant. The albums from the band are credited to three men; Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer who produced the music, which was then recorded, engineered, and mixed by Patrick Mcdonald. Thanks to the professional production style of the music “This is Spinal Tap”, they were able to fool America with a real sound of a fake band. This is a great example of a product going above and beyond and just goes to show, no matter if it’s a joke or not, if you have a good product, it will sell. I feel that everyone can take away from that in knowing that if you do good work there’s nowhere to go but up.

Kraftwerk

Being one of the first solely electronic acts in the music industry, Kraftwerk exploded onto the scene in the early 1970’s and paved the way for many to follow becoming one of the most iconic electronic music groups of all time. Kraftwerk had many ideas and influences behind their work, the majority being a tie to their homeland and American pop music such as the Beach Boys. Although Kraftwerk had many other influences that often they would express in small jokes such at the theme of Radio-activity whose title suggest nuclear technology going hand in hand with radio broadcasting. Kraftwerk most likely had such a large impact on the electronic music due to their music being created only with the use of synthesizers and home-made drum machines. But what would gain them popularity would overall be the themes and ideas behind each album. Each album had its own element ranging from driving on the Autobahn to themes about Germany and Europe which would become an over all them of German artist found within Kraftwerk’s inner circle of friends. For being an entirely electronic act, and being the pioneers of electronic music, Kraftwerk’s production quality had surpass most others in the early 1970’s. With instrumentals ranging from arpeggiations, synthesizers, virtual instruments, and with the help of Kraftwerk’s arrangements the would become in a league of their own while they developed their futuristic sound. Even though Kraftwerk went through many line up changes, Kraftwerk was able to put out many iconic albums including: Autobahn, Radio-Activity, Trans-Europe Express, and The Man-Machine which were all released in the early 1970’s during the prime of Kraftwerk. Later releases included: Computer World in 1981, Electric Café in 1986 and in 2003 with the even more popular Tour De France Soundtracks. As an avid EDM listener, understanding that Kraftwerk was ahead of their time impacted me in realizing how advanced and how progressive Kraftwerk’s sound and arrangements were. Today, you can’t listen to EDM without hearing one of Kraftwerk innovative discoveries. As an industry professional, understanding how they took such primitive synthesizers, home-made machines and used them to make such quality music and sounds take the technology available today and inspires you to take it to the limit.

Marvin Gaye

I could not begin to explain how Marvin Gaye was a revolutionary artist in the funk and soul music era. Before his release, “What’s Going On”, Marvin Gaye was known for his love songs, which shaped soul and funk music in the 60’s and 70’s. However at this point Gaye was mostly putting out singles. With, “What’s Going On”, Marvin Gaye wanted to shed light on a subject of a completely different paradigm. It would go on to be his first concept album. The majority of 60’s and early 70’s themed music was love and peace, however, race was a huge problem still in the states and the Vietnam war became a discredit to America due to what was supposed to be a time of peace. Gaye wrote the album through inspiration from his brother, Frankie Gaye, who had served in Vietnam and suffered through what common day would be called PTSD. Frankie’s story along with the help of songwriter, Obie Benson, who would later write the song, “What’s Going On”. Found in, “What Went On”, and article “The Guardian” by Ben Edmonds, Gaye asked his brother, Frankie, what he could do to help. Frankie told him, “Your Music”. Marvin did just that. At first, most were against it. Motown, the record label Marvin was signed to, would not release it due to disagreements between the owner of Motown and how Marvin felt about singles vs. concept albums. But Marvin knew in his heart that “What’s Going On” would be a great success. So, while waiting for it to be released, Gaye refused to record any more songs. To pass the time Marvin even attempted to become a professional football player for the Detroit Lions, a dream that would be short lived. Marvin faced much controversy from Berry Gordy, as Gordy wanted Gaye to release, ”What’s Going On”, as a single, which Gaye refused. Gaye fought through many struggles including being completely broke, which Gordy was sure would change Gaye’s mind about releasing the song, he was wrong according to Edmonds’s article. And just as elaborate as its content, “What’s Going On” was also a masterfully produced album as well. With doubles on the lead vocals, which was never done before on a Marvin Gaye album before “What’s Going On,” and backgrounds, the album had a fresh production style never used before on the previous albums. Further more, Gaye could have no chosen more talented musicians, and example would be the notorious saxophone solo being recorded as just a warm up from Van Depitte. As an aspiring professional in this industry, this album gave me a whole different out look on what an album actually means. Both beautiful and tragic, “What’s Going On” hits close to home with such impact that anyone listening can feel the emotion.

Grammys Part II

In 1959, Frank Sinatra won album of the year with his record, “Come Dance With Me”. In 1987, U2 won the same award for their album, “the Joshua Tree.” Both albums are classics, both albums were appropriate for their era, and yet very different in their production, genre, and theme. Frank Sinatra sang a big band style in a jazz genre, which was still the dominant style at the time. U2 had a new age/alternative vibe, which just like the Sinatra album, was the dominate style in the late 80’s to early 90’s. Both artists shaped the industry, as Sinatra and his use of appearances in movies and collaborative efforts with other artists and The Rat Pack. U2 shaped the touring world with their 360 tour back in 2011. It is still considered one of the highest grossing tours today. While there was no producer award for 1959, Dave Cavanaugh would had been a shoe in for his work producing on the Sinatra album. For an album to win album of the year, it has to be better than everything else out at the time and take producing to the next level. So, it would only be practical for the producer of that album to win the award for producer of the year. U2’s producer for The Joshua Tree did not win producer of the year in 1987, instead the award was given to Narada Michael Walden, Aretha Franklin’s producer. Although they did not win U2 producers, Brian Eno & Daniel Lanois had been nominated. Had they won, it would have only been more of a highlight to the fact that the album was in all aspects as iconic as any album to previously win album of the year. Even though they did not get the recognition that I feel like they deserve U2’s production is still a standard that is up held today.

Grammy Part 1

Heavy Metal is and always has been a underdog that often times is swept under the rug. Despite its level of difficult melodic runs and fast paced back beats, heavy metal hasn’t always been a shoe in for the Grammy’s. According to the, “Past Winner Search” document, metal has only had 3 actual awards given since 1958, to 2012. These awards include Hard Rock/Metal awarded to Jethro Tull in 1988, Metal Performance to Metallica in 1989, and Hard Rock/Metal Performance to Foo Fighters in 2011. Not only are these awards vague, but two of the three were awarded to what would be more considered alternative hard rock rather than actual metal. If you take the currentin account with all the sub genres that have derived from heavy metal. In the Late 90’s Nü metal arrived on the scene. Nü metal bands include Slipknot, Korn, In Love and Death, and many more. This genre pays tribute to bands that revolutionized sounds, waker make-up, and stage performances. Nü metal has won its Grammy’s as well, Korn being the earliest in 2002 with best metal performance for the song, “Here to Stay”. Progressive Metal, being another sub-genre out of the heavy metal roots, would bring pioneers such as Meshuggah and Dream Theater. Rush, although more rock than actual metal, was also extremely influential with progressive rock acts such as Tool. Periphery, and the Veil of maya being some of the more recent heavy hitters, came on to the metal scene with double dropped tunings and odd-metered drums, facilitating their listeners with a texture that they have never felt before. Many of the bands just mentioned however have not won a Grammy and Dream Theater has only more recently been nominated for one. Who knows, in a matter of years perhaps these bands will finally get the recognition they may or may not be waiting for.