Sam Does Music

CALL ME! (Blondie saw this coming...)

2005-10-29T10:26:00.000-07:00

Getting near the end of semester now, but I though I had time for an entry on something that has been on my mind for some time now concerning the influence of the Internet on contemporary music. I cant say whether I can call the phenomenon which is on my mind a positive or negative effect of increasing Net presence in music, but it is worth mentioning I believe.

Well, of course, in theory, for the medium, such as the Internet, to be able to have such an influence on music that it can create a new genre and actually influence modes of production should be seen as somewhat of a good thing. This shows that the contemporary musical landscape is recognising the existence and persistence of the Net, and as a result is expanding it’s horizons.

It’s just the results. They horrify me. They horrify you too. You just don’t know it yet. Before I tell you to what I am referring, let me give you some background info.

About 10 years ago, mobile phone companies such as Nokia, Samsung, Panasonic and Motorola decided that since the new technology existed, they would organise with service providers that all mobile phone users could trade in their clunky analogue phones for sleek new digital ones. A digital revolution; there were some good trade in deals as well. Anyway, these new phones had larger screens than just enough to see a number, and they had cool new features, such as snake and other games. And they had Ring Tones. That’s right, plural. You could choose; there was the British sounding ring, the German, or the stupid rendition of Beethoven’s Ninth. Time passed and some phone manufacturers even began including a feature called ‘Composer’; a feature which supposedly allowed owners to ‘create’ their own ‘music’ and use it for their ring tone.

Enter a website called BlueSkyFrog, and other similar sites worldwide. Suddenly, phone owners could gain access to a sort of notation; a series of keys and time signature needed to be pressed in order to have the Star Wars theme play every time you got a message. Thebuzz was huge; comedians raved about it, it became a cultural phenomenon. Whenever we would hear a phone ring, we would try and deduce what song we heard.

Fast forward to 2005. Not only do such ring tones still exist, but they are not even required to be keyed in yourself. They can be sent to you via SMS. And this is not the half of it. These old ‘monophonic’ tones have been outdated by realer, Atari sounding ‘Polyphonic’ ringtones, and even ‘Real Tones’, during which a tiny speaker inside the mobile plays the actual track downloaded. Now, companies like BlueSkyFrog are everywhere; what started as a small online phenomenon has expanded to the pages, images and airwaves of every media format in the country.

All of a sudden, however; songs start appearing in the popular charts from artists never heard from before, and seemingly gained the number one position overnight. Artists such as Akon, the Pussycat Dolls, etc, were topping our charts with music that sounded strangely simple even though they had no reputation and no buildup.

And then it happened.

Out of the twisted brain of a DJ from England, or Germany, or who cares where came…

The Crazy Frog.

Pop-star. Moron. Antichrist.

The Crazy Frog was a ringtone that was released as a commercial single and made number 1 on the British hit parade faster than anyone since the Beatles. The Internet had inadvertently changed the face of contemporary music forever with a Blue Frog with a helmet who blows raspberries for two and a half minutes. Now every song that appears as a ringtone before it is released commercially has made it to number one on the Aria charts, and if you don’t believe me, check it out for yourself at

www.aria.com.au

Past winners include: Akon, with his track ‘Lonely’, Mariah Carey with ‘We Belong Together’, the Pussycat Dolls with their ditty ‘Don’t Cha’, and 2Pac featuring Elton John for ‘Ghetto Gospel’.

In fact, the ring tone phenomenon is such a sure bet that later on this year it is rumoured that the archaic dinosaur road-show that is The Rolling Stones will release their entire new album in ring-tone form before it ever hits the charts. I don’t know what’s scarier, this fact or that Keith Richards is still alive.

So whether you think the Crazy Frog is a hit or a miss, there is no denying that the Internet was able to do what no other media format has ever done before; change the way that pop music is produced. This is undeniable proof that the Internet has a significant amount of influence over the field of contemporary music.

O Brother! Where Art Thou? In the Studio? On Tour?

2005-10-16T13:47:00.000-07:00

It may seem like I am ragging out on the Internet a lot in terms of how it influences the area of contemporary music and music as a part of my life.

FEAR NOT.

For here I am to tell you that the Internet has had some positive form of influence on contemporary music. I feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

In the dark ages, or the days before the Net slid in to fill our lives with meaningful information and sunshine and daisies and everything else it promised including making our lives easier, it was not impossible for musicians to communicate with the general public, but it was harder than today. We had stations like Triple J, shows like Recovery and Hey Hey its Saturday, magazines like Rolling Stone and Juice from which the discerning fan could sup from the goblet of musical knowledge.

Who was in the studio?

Who has releasing?

Who was on tour?

Who has gone on a drunken rampage/had a car accident/committed a tragic but poetic suicide?

The idea of community amongst music fans existed, but only rarely, and in a fragmented form, like at concerts, etc. The Internet has definitely changed this.

One of the readings for Cyberculture entitled Virtuality and Discontents: Searching for Community in Cyberspace by Sherry Turkle suggests that the Internet acts as a vessel for individuals in an ever colder, less community savvy world to feel as though they are part of a group, and participate in community activities they would otherwise be bereft of. For musical fans, this is certainly the case. Go to Google and type in the name of your favourite artist and I bet pounds to peanuts there will be atleast one online forum you can participate in discussing the ups and downs of everything to do with your idol. From Faithless to Fats Domino, there are people waiting online now to talk rubbish about bootlegs, B-sides and best songs. This is something that I think enhances the experience of contemporary music, because it allows fans to share knowledge and find a sense of community that for many would not exist.

As well as this, the concept of band or artist web-sites or even fan-sites are a god-send when it comes to contemporary music fans. These sites allow you unprecedented access to your favourite acts, as well as invaluable information about tours, upcoming releases, etc, that you are getting straight from the horses mouth, so to speak.

So no, I do not think that the Internet has had an entirely negative influence on the world of contemporary music; online discussion boards and forums as well as official websites and fan sites are a positive way for producers to use the medium to their advantage.

GOOD SITE: www.mono.net.au is an online music discussion board with a wide range of genres and tastes ready to be picked apart and put under the microscope.

Enjoy!

Where Has All The World Music Gone?

2005-09-14T15:12:00.000-07:00

Another quick thought that entered my mind this week to do with the influence of the Internet on contemporary music: How come is it that when the debate over illegal Internet music copying and and intellectual property theft rears it’s head, the ‘music’ that is spoken of is really only that which is accepted as popular music; music that is within popular charts or Western music that has a large number of fans. This is not to say that only Britney Spears and Robbie Williams have their music illegally copied; alternative or fringe artists such as Radiohead, Nick Cave, You Am I, etc experience theft also. The point I am trying to make is; why is (to use a loosely coined term) ‘World Music’, or music that is not inherently Western in origin never referred to in Internet property theft debates?

I understand the term World Music to apply to music from Middle European, Middle Eastern, Asian and African nations, and even Classical music. Of course, the term is constantly changing; little is it known that largely popular surf/folk singer songwriter Ben Harper was once regarded as a producer of ‘World Music’. Even so, I cannot understand why it is only pop music and not world music that is assumed to be being illegally copied, and for these reasons:

World music is music that is seen not to just slot into Adorno’s model of music as a mechanised culture industry, music that is not mass produced; that is an aural representation of a diverse cultural system, Eg; Indian music sounds VERY Indian; it represents the Indian culture. Surely because of this, World Music that includes classical music represents a form of high culture.
World Music is just as easily available for legitimate purchase in formats such as CD’s and Cassettes. For whatever reason, these sorts of music seem to be seeping into their own section in every Sanity and HMV in the country; they are less of a fetish collectable property these days. Is it so unfeasible that some people are illegally copying the sounds of Russian folk and sharing them online?
Thirdly, World Music, to some extent, means exactly that; WORLD Music. IE: the cultures that this music portrays represents a significant number of the earth’s population. Now, I know World Music exists only as a western form of providing one ‘label them all/ us versus them’ type of way to group the sounds of everything with a musical origin external to the US, but, c’mon; surely we aren’t buying all those copies of ‘Punjabi MC: Hussan featuring Hussan’.

So I did some research; I went onto Kazaa and tried to search for some World Music. I typed in ‘Punjabi MC’. Even though my one little experiment would not stand up in court; I was able to find more hits for this Indian DJ than I was for the latest single from massive US band ‘The Strokes’. I was not surprised.

So this is what I think; I think that within the last 10 years or so record companies have begun to realise the influence that the Internet can have on contemporary music. I think that these companies are in a sense feeding the same problem they are supposedly trying to fight. Similar to what Frith said about recording companies changing the flow model of media output; recording companies are flooding the Internet with music for numerous reasons; to gain publicity for an artist, to maintain that their artist is getting an equal share of attention, and even as a testing ground (think Radiohead album leakages), because they know that early exposure and any sort of scandal or attention is ultimately good for sales.

The reason I feel then that pop or Western music is seen as the face of Internet file sharing instead of the equally popular World Music lies with the producers/promoters. World Music is not made to sell units or recoup expenses, it is done to creatively express a culture. Sounds romantic. If only it sounded better.

The Grateful Dead Provoke My Head

2005-09-10T18:26:00.000-07:00

Hi all.

It occurred to me the other day that much of the debate raging over the influence of the Internet on contemporary western music is to do with the fact that illegal copying of music can be done, and then people from all over the world are able to steal a copy of said music, therefore robbing the performer of album sales royalties. (Well, truth be told, this didn’t just occur the other day, but a long time ago, about year 11 I think….anyway, not important).

However, something I read in a magazine got me thinking about the whole intellectual property/copyrighting the Internet debate. The article I read was in a major mainstream music publication, and it told of how the band ‘the Grateful Dead’ employed such a form of live performance that they didn’t care if they saw people in the crowd at their concerts recording their live show with cassette recorders. The ‘Dead’ were a group who released quite a large number of albums, but were known to constantly use their live performances as a sort of jam session. They would play new songs, they would improvise on old ones, they would screw around with different instruments, making their show quite a sight to behold by all accounts. The reason that they didn’t care if there were obviously bootleggers at their shows was that the recordings these individuals made; due to the unique spontaneous nature of each show, would be out of date and rendered useless as a consumer item by the end time of the ‘Dead’s’ next concert.

What a great idea!!

Anyway, this got me thinking; “Yea, of course performers are going to be a bit pissed if they are having their intellectual property stolen online, but how come it is so bad today and wasn’t such an issue back in the day? (Grateful Dead example aside). How come it’s not an issue to tape songs off the radio, or tape shows off TV, or even not such a comparatively big deal to burn a legitimately bought CD for a friend.’

But then I realised; “You idiot, it’s mostly because of the scope of the theft online. When Metallica sued Napster and numerous individuals, causing a string of court cases against mainly US college students over illegally downloaded tunes, the sum total of songs stolen online by less than 20 individuals was around 50,000. People are doing it every day, it’s quick, it’s easy, and it’s relatively guilt or consequence free, especially in small doses.”

This internal dialogue caused me to really imagine if I were a singer or a band member and what I would do if my intellectual property was stolen online. Sure, the faceless nature of the net as a form of communication makes such theft more difficult to punish, but it isn’t impossible. So what would I do if I were in the shoes of Radiohead or Metallica? If I could identify a culprit; I gotta say I’d follow along the lines of the Metallica album entitled ‘Kill ‘Em All’.

And Frith Said...Something Important

2005-08-30T12:29:00.000-07:00

I came across a piece of academic literature this week that I had from a previous course, and it enabled me to gain a fairly up-to-date understanding of how the exponential growth in technology over the past 25 years (including the emergence of online technologies) has excercised a growing level of influence over the popular music industry. Simon Frith, in the book The Cambridge Companion to Pop and Rock (Cambridge, 2001) gives the reader an overview of the very recent contemporary music landscape in the chapter entitled The Popular Music Industry.

Frith examines ideas such as Musical Storage; the ascent from Vinyl through to the MP3 and how this has been reflected in terms of our increasing detachment from music as an art form, as storage units become less so much physical objects.

Frith also looks at how supply and demand have changed in the world of contemporary music. He suggests a society now exists that has made expectations of media supply extremely high because of promises made by technological advances.

Another one of Frith’s suggestions is that such supply and demand is now shaping industry; the notion that whereas once the music industry used media formats as a vessel to communicate with audiences, and when new technologies arose, the music industry could take advantage is now dead as industry is struggling to create new media solely for conveyance of music media output.

Frith also claims that the idea of the record companies and the music industry overall being gate-keepers of sorts is being challenged. He suggests that ‘records do still reach the public by passing through a media network, but there is no longer that constant sense of banging against blockages. Fewer records are released these days without record companies ensuring that the gates are open in advance; marketing strategy etc…’ (Frith, 2001).

This last claim somehow made me think of the so-called ‘betrayal’ of Radiohead, and that the fact that the early leakage of their album onto the Internet preceded the release of their most popular, most commercially successful and most critically acclaimed album to date. Methinks a rat I be smellin…

Overall however, Frith made some points that really opened my eyes to the extent to which the contemporary music world is changing, not least of all as a result of the Internet and online technologies.

Smells Like Music Piracy

2005-08-22T09:10:00.000-07:00

For me, before Kazaa and Imesh; there was no ‘Music and the Internet’. There was music at one end of the spectrum; a creative way for artists to communicate, and at the other end there was the Internet; a simple but advanced way for nerds to communicate. Even after Kazaa, I was still sceptical as to the extent to which a communications technology could influence an art form, especially how the net could influence music as a part of my life.

This all changed with the announcement that British band Radiohead were to release a sixth album in 2003/2004. Radiohead had been one of my favourite bands for some years and this news excited me greatly.

About six months before the scheduled release date of the album, it became apparent that someone within the band’s record label Parlophone, the same label that was responsible for the release of many Beatles albums, had leaked a large majority of the album electronically onto the Internet.

Despite my previous dabbling into music theft, this news angered me really badly. I took it as a personal offense that someone would do that to one of my favourite bands, and the affair that followed during which the band tried to have the leak suppressed and find the culprit was slightly embarrassing. It was sort of scary to see one of the world’s biggest bands and an international label powerless to stop events that would result in millions of dollars in sales losses. On top of this, the band went ahead and released the album; ironically titled ‘Hail to the Thief’ with a copy-control device that would prevent buyers from making illegal copies.

So it was not until this fiasco occurred, until one of my favourite bands was brought to their knees by online music sharing, that I really acknowledged that the Internet could in fact have an influence on contemporary music, and music as a part of my life.

It was a shame that I made this revelation through the negative influence of the Net on music, rather than the positive, but I got over it.

For More info on Copy Controlling: www.copycontrol.com/

Kazaa: A Loss Of Innocence

2005-08-19T14:39:00.000-07:00

I have to start off by saying I have been immersing myself in contemporary popular music ever since I was nine. I originally did it in the vain hope it would impress girls, but I became hooked, and the thrill of watching musical trends progress in front of my eyes hasn’t left me since. However, this blog is meant to address the influence the internet has had on an aspect of my life; in this case music.

So, I feel it pertinent to lay out on the table the level of involvement I have had with music through online means.

For the longest time I regarded the whole craze of Napster and music downloading with disdain. This came about because of my obligatory ‘taking money from the artists’ argument, the fact that it was nerdy, the fact that I only had a shitty dial-up connection, and also because I didn’t quite understand what it was all about.

All this changed however with the purchase of a newer computer, and my parents splashing out with a faster plan. Suddenly I became curious; it seemed there existed programs that were free to download and promised access to hundreds of thousands of files for free.

Well, needless to say; I got in on the action.

‘Imesh’ is a file sharing program that is available in various forms, and once a user downloads the program, creates a user profile and decides what media files on their computer they wish to make available for sharing, the user is able to gain access to an eternally growing number of files from users all around the world. The program opens on a user’s desktop, and enables the user to search the computers of all online users for files in demand. And all this was free.

This blew my mind. I could get music; for free, from all around the world. No more shamefully waiting in line at BIG W to by the chart single that sounded annoyingly good; I could anonymously acquire it huddled in the dark at midnight and no-one would be the wiser. No wonder everyone was doing this, and everyone was fighting against it; when they said ‘free music’, they really meant it.

Some time later, my computer crashed and I somehow lost use of Imesh. Not to worry, I says to myself; I’ll download another recommended program; newer, faster, flashier than Imesh.

Enter ‘Kazaa’.

Holy Crap.

Every night, I’d come home from work at about 11:30pm, simply find the files on Kazaa that I had realised that day that I wanted, start them downloading (sometimes up to 20 at a time) and walk away to bed. When I awoke the next day, my media library was just that bit fatter.

The only qualm I had with Kazaa was that it was a newer program and sometimes my now aging computer could not keep up, and my outdated dial up connection couldn’t properly feed my growing habit. At the time, it didn’t seem like I was doing much that was harming anyone; you don’t when your CD collection grows like that.

However, nowadays I barely even touch programs such as Kazaa and Imesh. I cant place the reasoning for this, but it is probably a result of a number of things; I began to see it as a little immature after a while, my university commitments grew, and I got a new job which paid more, meaning I could just buy music when I wanted it. Kazaa and Imesh are no longer my friends.

The thing that I find the most astonishing about my brief sojourn into illegal downloading is that I never once thought anything like ‘Is what I’m doing wrong?’ or ‘Am I hurting the contemporary music industry?’ or even ‘will I get caught?’

It wasn’t like people weren’t getting burnt in the US for piracy through Kazaa and Napster, I mean, the creator was taken to court by Metallica for gods sake.

The thing is, programs like Kazaa and Imesh use flashy marketing and packaging and raise so much revenue in advertising through pop-ups, plus they offer legal pay-per-download versions, so there is never any thought about illegality.

It has just become part of the contemporary music industry; the song is now online, and always will be. Whether you pay for it or not is up to you.

MY HEAD SAYS YES BUT MY HEART SAYS ADORNO

2005-08-09T11:52:00.000-07:00

When looking at contemporary popular music, I find that the ideas of Theodore Adorno can be successfully applied. Despite Adorno’s theories being seen by many as outdated and containing short-sighted flaws, I think that the man was onto something. When I examine the way in which western contemporary music is made today, I see a culture industry; an almost assembly-line-like method of production where songs are made similar to machines, with interchangeable parts. Contemporary music has been commodified, and is seen as a low culture activity, especially music on the popular charts. I believe that Adorno was right in stating that in western culture, music takes on the form of commodity fetishism; the process where the current fad or trend must be pushed and prompted at the top of all agendas until the next fad arises, and that songs become part of our culture because of repetition. I think it is important when examining anything to do with the field of Western contemporary music to at least acknowledge Adorno’s work, simply because the market so closely resembles the culture industry he described. For example, I realize that a lot of contemporary music is made using production methods similar to an assembly line, even though I like those forms of music. Contemporary music is bought and sold like a commodity (although the internet may be beginning to change this, which I will get to later); I as a consumer am contributing to this commodification and transforming an art form into a low culture activity. I also realise that Adorno was right in saying that music is now a market of commodity fetishism, where fads follow fads follow fads. Nevertheless, I partake in some of these fads; let us never forget the Macarena.

Music and the Internet

2005-08-02T16:28:00.000-07:00

This blog will be devoted to the impact that the internet has had and will continue to have upon my interest in contemporary music. When i first developed my interest in music at age 9, the most exciting new technological development was cassette tapes and we were still listening to parent's old vinyl. Over the years however, through the development of CD's, Minidisc technology and now into MP3's and file sharing, my interest in music has been able to grow more than it would have, say, 20 years ago, due to the availabilty and ease of acces to music from a plethora of sources. No longer is music simply a retail item.

Sam's Uni Blog

2005-07-27T10:15:00.000-07:00

This is the first post on my new blog that i have created as an assessment item for the subject CULT3141. This subject is a part of my degree at Newcastle University which is a Bachelor of Communication.