Muse

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/21/arts/music/21choi.html?_r=1

http://popup.lala.com/popup/360569449482768851

I am not sure if I am going to get away with an article on a single album instead of a broad overview of music in general, but I'm sure going to try. Muse is one of those bands that you would prob. be surprised to find in my collection. They use lots of synthesizer and are more like Pink Floyd with a stronger edge. That said, they come up with quality guitar and bass riffs and have a steady theme of politically charged lyrics that actually appeal to me unlike most political songs. Anyway, for their newest album they actually wrote a 3 track symphony using classical instruments, piano/keyboard, and some electric guitar at some points. It is a very ambitious, dark, and slightly querky band that understands how to make rhythm beautiful. I provided a direct link to their current single off the album so you'll have an idea of what they sound like.

How Listening to Music has changed in my lifetime.

Well I'm 23 and music has changed alot in my short life. My earliest memories of listening to music was mom putting me to bed listening to Handel's Messiah on cassette tape when I was little. The very first thing I ever bought with my own money other than sodas and candy was a Sanyo cd/radio/casette boom box in like 94. I was very floored to have a CD PLAYER (whoa!) AND still be able to play casettes and listen to the radio. It was also awesome to me because it could be run off of like 8 D batteries haha. Anyways, it still works just fine so sometimes cheap electronics do last. My grandfather traveled all around the world working for Christie electronics which is the equipment that movie theaters use. Anyway, he was big into having high fidelity equipment for listening to music and always had the very best at his house. I'm afraid it rubbed off on me and I'm quite the audiophile myself and cannot stand listening to music on crappy headphones or stock car speakers.
I loved cds growing up because they didnt tear up like tapes did and you could burn a copy for your friends pretty easily, which was a illegal but very useful way to grow your music collection fairly quickly. As far as MP3's go, I have mixed feelings about them. The quality is less than a cd, but they never skip. I also like to listen to albums in the sequence the artist wanted you to hear them and am not all about listening to the top 40 singles exclusively. I do have a usb drive full of mp3's and wma rips for my car stereo so I guess I use them but I like to listen to the mp3's in the order they are on the actual album vs. being totally random. Well i'll shut up now and go back to watching the Saints!

TV

Well it’s a little obvious to say horror movies rely heavily on music filled with tension to create apprehension for the viewer, so I’m going to talk about tv shows instead. I do have an instance where a tv show got me into a specific band from hearing it on one episode. I’m one of those weird Lost fans, and one episode had The Pixies song Gouge Away in it. It is a very angry song full of raw emotion and it was being played as the main character was very angry and driving around drunk. Anyways, I looked up the song cause of liking it in the episode and now have a lot of The Pixies’s music in my collection. Lots of tv shows will try to feature hit songs. Its hilarious to see old reruns of shows and listen to what was playing in like 1998 or something. Or if you’ve ever seen Cold Case, they do songs that were correct for the time period of the cold case the current episode is about. A few shows like CSI using The Who will use an actual band’s music as their theme song. Because music is apart of our culture, it bleeds into other mediums of entertainment we use regularly like tv and movies.

Less Obvious Places for Music

Yeah, I had a hard time coming up with a title for this subject. I will say I constantly hear the exact same songs at most football games. There is always going to be crazy train, something ac/dc, maybe a newer rap song, and in this state you have a very good shot of hearing sweet home alabama. Half the teams in the SEC play that same opening song that I dont even know the name of...its not really like a full song as much as a techno sounding that to pump you up. Auburn has taken it up the past couple years and I'm getting tired of hearing it. In basketball, I don't know how many thousands of times they have played that one techno sounding song...I've heard it since Jordan played in the mid 90's for the Bulls. If you watch basketball you prob. know what I'm talking about. Then there's the "defense, defense, DEFENSE" chant thing they always do. Then we all know the sounds of baseball, take me out to the ballgame, and that other little short jingle they play that slowly builds up. Sports stadium music is obviously not meant to be thought of as something you'd have in our personal music collection as much as it is to stir up the crowd and create a sense of unity for the home crowd.
Also can't forget the tradition of musical performances that are prevalent in major sports. Singing take me out to the ballgame and throwing the first pitch is done at every MLB game I think, and there's the singing of the national anthem at almost every sporting event. Plus, the halftime show at the Superbowl always has a huge act and often some sort of controversy. (Janet Jackson, Prince's guitar etc)On a side note, The Who is going to be this year's so I am looking forward to hearing them.

Five

I have struggled with this all day in my mind. Should I do the top five songs that are of a certain genre? Should I do only sad songs, love songs, political songs etc? Should I just use the first 5 that come up on Windows Media Player Shuffle?(I refuse to use Apple stuff)

I think I have just come to the realization that no matter what 5 I pick, I will think of some that I have left out next week and be aggravated about it. So to heck with it, here goes in no particular ranking.

Weezer-Undone (The Sweater Song)
Just a fun song to listen to. This is one of those songs that we listened to with my friends growing up a whole lot. The build up to the guitar solo is my favorite part.

The Clash-Tommy Gun
A great song about how cheap life can be. It is a very aggressive song, with lots of snare drum and is from the Clash's earlier days so the guitars are fully overdriven. Favorite line is "If death comes so cheap/Then the same goes for life."

Green Day-Walking Contradiction
Yes, I know. Its not cool to like Green Day since at least the turn of the 21st century. But they are one of the bridge bands that got me into alternative music, and I still enjoy the intensity they play with. This song comes from Insomniac, which is far and away their most aggressive and tongue in cheek album. I love this song because it conveys very well the post-modern attitude prevalent in the 90s, which basically means nothing matters. It always reminds me to be careful of my words and actions and not to be fake, inotherwords a walking contradiction.

Rise Against-Injection
I really enjoy most of Rise Against's style. Very fast, intense, but not in a cheap way. This song is mainly about making the most of today, because you are not guaranteed your health or freedom tomorrow. Favorite part-
"Tomorrow we might wake in servitude and silence.
I will give you everything if only you would have me!
Tomorrow we will sweat and toil,
Our hands will quiver caked with soil,
Tomorrow we'll give it one last chance,
But tonight we dance,
But tonight we dance!"

Pearl Jam-Corduroy
I am a very big Pearl Jam fan and this is my favorite song by them. Musically, the intro always just blows me away. It just has a certain darkness to it, without being obvious about it. The lyrics are also very powerful.
"I don't want to take what you can give...
I would rather starve than eat your bread...
I would rather run but I can't walk...
Guess I'll lie alone just like before."
Just talking about a self-sacrificial attitude about someone who is important enough to you that you want to suffer instead of taking something from them. Pretty intense stuff.

Well thats what's striking me at the moment. I'm sure tomorrow I could give you a totally different list, but you're just going to have to deal.

Music I Hate! (not really)

Well I'm going to start out by saying I'm pretty much not into top 40 at all. At least, I don' think I've ever bought a pop album, unless you count a rock album that makes the top 40 as Pop, and I would have a hard time arguing against you on that. Anyway, I guess I picked up some of my own musical snobbery as an early teen/pre-teen that if you listened to a top 40 station all the time, you were not very cool. Now, I really don't care what you listen to on your own time, but I pretty much stick to rock, punk, and alternative. Of course, rock is a HUGE genre spanning many decades and styles. I am not crazy about most country simply because I get the feeling the singer is playing up their country accent or outright faking it if they arn't from the South or West. Do I know any of this about the country artist? Absolutely not, but thats what crosses my mind when I hear it on the radio subconsciously. I'm also resistant to country and rap because thats all anyone listened to in high school, and I didn't like to be exactly like what I perceived as rednecks. I'm alot more mellowed out about such things now, but especially early on in high school you are still trying to carve out your niche in the world. I think my least favorite genre has to be emo, because I feel like it ruined punk rock. Styles that over-emphasize emotions just get on my nerves because I feel like they are trying to make money off manipulating my emotions.

One final thing that bothers me is when a singer/band leader is the focus of all the media attention. I don't like groups that go by a single person's name as a rule because it seems to me the person named is making money and fame off the backs of his supporting musicians. Trust me, even the most talented singer needs a band behind him or some sort to sound as good as they are capable of. I guess I could be persuaded to see how if the single person wrote all the music and lyrics to all the songs that the band should have his/her name, but I will admit to being cynical of such groups/singers.

All that said, if I mentioned some form of music you love, I hope you enjoy it as much as possible because thats the whole point of music! These are just my personal hang ups.

The economics of music

Wow, I'll just start by saying I am so glad I never thought about playing guitar for a profit, assuming I ever got good enough at playing guitar to have a shot. After reading the two articles on the way the industry works, I think I'll stick to playing for fun and having a career that doesn't involve contracts with record labels. It brings to mind the old DIY (do it yourself)worth ethic that used to be prevalent in small rock, punk, and other alternative styled bands. Better to use your own equipment, than be tethered to a contract to a company who by definition will not have your best interest at heart but their own.

I'm guessing the hinted topic of this post is supposed to be pirated music so here goes. It is illegal to download free music. It is also illegal to go one mile over the speed limit, drink a single drop of alcohol under the age of 21 in Alabama, and go fishing without a license from the state. I view downloading mp3's illegally as basically the same thing as what our parents did when they used a cassette tape to record off the radio, or a vhs to save the Saturday night movie for a later date. Overall, there is a great opportunity for bands to skip the middleman with digital tools and produce their own quality-sounding recordings outside the confines of a record label. I believe music lovers will be much less likely to pirate mp3's from self-produced band than a multi-million dollar artist on a major label. All that said, stealing is stealing is stealing and its wrong no matter circumstances. But the best way for the music industry to deal with the issue is to give consumers better prices and incentives for going legit. They will never be able to lockdown anything that goes on the internet without the government seriously damaging our personal freedoms as citizens; best to adapt to the circumstances presented.

Music In Everyday Life

Well its hard to think of when I am not around music actually. Wake up to the radio, always have music on in the car, an if tv is on there will be music in commercials. Then there's music in every imaginable store, in the caf at school (love the 90's mix they sometimes have on). Point is, its almost a sub-conscious experience. You also have to think of all the times you have music in your head. I'm not sure I would consider music a unique part of my culture. I mean, is there a culture that doesn't constantly have music involved in the member's lives? For me the difference is whether you are passively or actively listening to music. Not in a hierarchical sense, but it is a different experience. I will say this, if you ever have the chance to learn to play a little on an instrument, do it. You don't have to be good at it to really have alot of fun. We often talk about how music affects our emotions or is a release from life. Well for me, alot of the time its just plain fun. Playing guitar with a real band beats the heck out of Guitar Hero, and that's nothing against Guitar Hero.

Music Culture

Well as I said in class, I didn't really get into music until I was 11ish. My parents mainly listened to the local Christian radio station, which seemed to believe "Christian music" meant easy listening/soft rock. However, I had friends who were getting into alternative music that wasn't being played on the top 40 stations and yes, at the risk of the FBI putting me away we burned lots of cds to share with each other. Yeah, sure you never have done that right? Anyway, I really enjoyed music that had lots of energy, intensity, but was still catchy. Luckily, the mid-late 90’s were full of that with 3rd Wave Punk and Ska still going strong. Also, just modern rock at the time was not as touchy feely as it seems to be now with the indie movement (no offense meant toward it). I wouldn't say I was directly rebelling against my parents as much as I finally found something that matched what my personality and ears found musically satisfying. Another source of musical influence for me was a independent radio station out of Auburn I could barely pick up called The Tiger 95.9/104.9. It's slogan was new rock, and it is about the only radio station I've ever heard that actually kept up with modern rock and wasn't stuck on the best of the 70's and 80's.
As for my musical culture, I guess I just like anything with strong guitar riffs. I play a little guitar, so I always enjoy hearing a guitar player come up with a good rhythm line or riff that makes a song memorable. I listen to instruments and how they work together in music before I pay too much attention to the words, although I certainly enjoy a well-written song as much as anyone. I have anything from Straight Edge Punk to classic rock to grunge in my music collection. I am open to new music, but I pretty much know right away if I like a song or not. I want music to really grab hold of my attention; I am an active listener, not passive. Well that’s about all I can think of, thanks for reading.