Shuffling Through the Years

So the other day I decided to "spice up" my walk and put my i-pod on shuffle. I always feel ambivalent about doing it too. Either I get a set of some of my favorite songs or ones I really like that I haven't listened to in forever, or a set of songs come on that I haven't listened to in forever, for good reason. But this time, it was an awkward, but nice in a weird way combo of the both.

This shuffle caused me to have a flashback. Some songs came on and the minute I heard it, I was taken back to high school soccer practice, or driving to a horse show with butterflies in my stomach. It was a strange, but wonderful feeling. I was amazed at how well I could remember specific situations, some from over 5 years ago, just from certain songs. I'm sure my parents would like to know why I can remember silly things like that, instead of my abnormal psychology test questions, and I would like to know too.

It is just a strange, somewhat powerful feeling I get when I hear a song about broken hearts, or how nobody understands you when you're just 18, and how for that 3 minutes the song lasts when I first heard it, it fit me completely. It consumed me, and I never thought anything could describe how I felt except for that song. Those songs got me through what was impacting my life at that time. It's funny to think about what's happened since then. How over dramatic some of the songs are, how unnecessary majority of the emotions I had about something were. But at that time, they were real, and important, and that song fit.

Comparing what I listen to now, and how it fits my situations is so different. And I can't wait until the next 5 years come along and I can put my i-pod on shuffle again, and laugh about what I am so whole-heartedly into right now. I realized none of my songs are insignificant, some just have a shorter expiration date in terms of continuing to relate to me than others.

U of I's SCOPE Brings a Host of Rock Bands to Iowa City

After a performance from country superstar Deirks Bentley last spring, SCOPE has switched gears and locked in a pair of mainstream rock bands to come to town at the end of October and early November.

Taking Back Sunday, and Third Eye Blind will be performing in the IMU main lounge. Taking Back Sunday, with special guests Anberlin, fun, and Gavin Castleton will premier on October 29th. Taking Back Sunday, a well known band from New York City featuring a melodic alternative rock sound will bring their tour through the heart of the University of Iowa's campus. Their albums include 'Louder Now," "Where You Want To Be," and most recently "New Again" make up the bands discography. Both their earlier albums rose to the top 5 on the U.S. Billboard charts, and have sold almost a million copies put together.

Less than a week later on November second, Third Eye Blind will make their way into the Main Lounge of the IMU. The band made a name for themselves with the release of their first album back in the latter 90s with their album self-titled "Third Eye Blind." Their most well known songs include "How's It Going to Be," "Juniper," "Never Let You Go," "Don't Believe a Word," and "Bonfire." Their discography consists of their mentioned first album, "Blue," and "Ursa Major." "Blue" is their only platinum album in which over 140,000 copies were sold within the first month.

Tickets for both concerts are available at the IMU box office, or at Ticketmaster.


(Pictures courtesy of google images)

Boxing Up Those Memories

In the article ““Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, Yo-Yo Ma”,” published yesterday in the The New York Times, culture reporter Daniel Wakin explores the phenomenon of boxed sets. The recently released Beatles box set, at around $200, is selling out at venues such as Amazon. But doesn’t $200 sound like a lot? Well then, how about $789?

$789 is the sticker price for the upcoming Yo-Yo Ma collection, “30 Years Outside the Box.” The collection stands out against other classical sets since the musician is still living and a lot of his CDs are still available—okay, not in their remastered form, but still… The set does include some 90 CDs. Preorder now from Ma’s website and, if you’re one of the first two hundred buyers, you can also score a personalized note and signed photograph of everyone’s favorite cellist (he’s played for presidents, real and fictional, for high-profile funerals, and just last Friday he performed for the world leaders at the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh). One hundred people have already plunked down the money for his collection.

As Wakin points out in his article, the album itself is dying in an age when people download only their favorite songs. So why are box sets booming?

Box sets are being marketed to and bought largely by older people who have the funds and attention spans for such investments. A box set is something material, a tangible representation of memories one can hold on to. Even in the digital age “the impulse to have and to hold an object, as well as to collect it, remains,” writes Wakin. A lot of us have probably seen those commercials on TV for greatest hits albums, their message being: “Buy the best of the 60’s, the 70’s, the 80’s, the 90’s…buy back your youth.”

Music can mean a lot. We all have soundtracks to our lives. If you had the money, and the time, would you buy every work by your favorite composer, band, singer? Maybe you would. Until then, box sets like the new Ma collection perhaps belong in a few private homes and in libraries, so the masses can get a taste of his genius.

photo courtesy yo-yoma.com

You must be this old to rock

“You must be this tall to ride”

“Under 60’ you must ride with an adult”

Over 10 years ago I dreaded seeing those signs. To me there wasn’t a feeling worse than finally convincing my parents that I could handle going on a ride that not only went 20 feet up into the air, but also spun around uncontrollably without losing my lunch, just to get to the front of the line and read one of those signs.

I used to look forward to the days when I was well past the scary clowns hand signaling the cutoff to let people ride. Where I could focus on not getting too dizzy or sick, instead of crossing my fingers that the amusement park worker wouldn’t have to question if I was tall enough or not.

But now, as much as I can empathize with the kids I see watching me ride around in the fast go-carts for the adults, or the new “Whiplash” rides envious that their height doesn’t make the cut. I can’t help but be glad that because they aren’t allowed to ride, that gives me more chances to.

The same now applies when I go to concerts. I mean this for a lot of the ones I have been going to in the past 4 years. But to use specific examples I will narrow my concert examples to one of my all time favorite bands, Fall Out Boy.(Laugh all you want now, I’ve gotten more crap for liking them than I ever imagined possible, but through all of that, its made me like them even more.)

FOB really got popular the summer of 2005. But before that they were playing small shows all around the Chicago suburbs in small venues and church basements. Everyone had fun; everyone was there for the music.

Now I can’t go to a show without stepping on an 11 year old blinded by his shaggy bangs covering half his face. I feel bad going into mosh pits and seeing 14 year old girls who weigh no more than 50 pounds because I know the second the music starts they are going to get bashed around so badly they’ll be sore for weeks. But for the split second I feel bad for them, I spend the rest of the time wondering why they are there.

I just want to clear up the fact that I am more than happy to see anyone and any age supporting and enjoying bands I like. I remember getting a lot of strange looks when I was 15 in a sea of people 30+ at a KISS and Aerosmith concert. So I am no stranger to being the minority. But when there is a kid standing in front of me, not knowing any of the bands old albums because they weren’t played on the radio, that’s when I get upset.

These kids just go to shows to say they did, it sounds cool. Some of them could care less about the music. And I wish they wouldn’t go, because then I just have fewer bodies to squeeze past in the mosh pit to get closer to the stage.

But to all the kids who go to the shows, and know all the songs I just want to say “thank you”. And keep on coming.

Fighting for Rights, and a Few More Pennies

In this digitized age of ours, it’s more convenient than ever be a consumer; there are so many ways to access entertainment. Miss the latest episode of your favorite TV show? Aw, did you even forget to TiVo it? No problem! You can stream it for free off the network’s website, or Hulu. Or you can pay a couple bucks to download it from iTunes or Amazon. Acquiring music, too, has never been so easy, and you can even do it legally from your desk (or favorite chair, or bed—wherever you drag your laptop or iPhone or other gadget). You can get a taste of new songs on those sites too, streaming free thirty-second samples before you decide to buy. Enter your credit card information and start jamming.

But who exactly is getting that money you so honestly paid? And who may not getting what they deserve?

CNET reported Thursday that songwriters, composers, and music publishers are pushing to collect more money from iTunes (among others)—for downloads of music, downloads of films and TV shows, and even thirty-second song samples. All of these, the unions argue, count as public performances of artists’ work. If they don’t receive fair compensation for this work, they can’t make a living. Music rights get pretty hairy—there is something called a “mechanical” or licensing fee paid for the permission to use a song in, say, a film or TV episode. However, on top of that, performance fees are collected for playing the songs in public (on TV, at a restaurant or sports stadium, et cetera). What counts as a performance and therefore necessitates a performance fee, however, is being hotly debated.

Opponents argue that artists are getting paid enough. Surely, the biggest stars are living quite comfortably, and all these middlemen are making a fine living too. But what about the little guys? As Ian Paul at PCWorld points out

… lesser known composers will often waive royalty fees for the actual making of the music, in the hopes of earning significant revenue from public broadcasts and screenings.

The problem is, as more people opt for digital downloads, those public performance revenues disappear.

As these articles (and commenters) point out, iTunes and others upping their prices would not a happy consumer make, and charging for the thirty-second samples is unrealistic (ridiculous, even). The rights battles continue to rage in and out of courts and in the US Congress. What the outcome will be is unclear, but what is apparent is this: the industry must adapt to the digital age—everyone from the songwriters and musicians to the unions and the companies—to keep up with consumers and consumption.

Hopefully we can someday work this out so everyone gets a fair cut, and hopefully too many artists won’t fall through the cracks along the way.

Spotlight Album of the Month: Breaking Benjamin's "Dear Agony"

If any Breaking Benjamin fans or rock fans in general needed any more of a reason to anticipate the release of Breaking Benjamins latest album, after their last album, "Phobia," hit the market in 2006, they got one. After the early release of their first single from their new album, "Dear Agony," fans are practically begging for the release date on September 26th to roll around. The new single, "I Will Not Bow," features the familiar sound fans come to associate with BB, as the intro to the song hits hard with the accompaniment of a hard "FAAAALLLL!," then goes into an easier, yet still headbanging pace as it streams into an uptempo chorus. This track, only recently released, is also the theme song for Bruce Willis' new move "Surrogates." The track is available on itunes, as well as a "Surrogates" music video featuring Breaking Benjamin's future hit on youtube. As a fellow BB fan myself, I would definately have to say for all of you rock fans waiting for some new rock material to get your hands on, that this is definately an album that your going to want to check out. And if you dont believe me... check out to the single...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ko77T9GubT8

All is fair in love and...music?

I have tried my hardest over the past couple of years to accept all types of music. Country, pop, emo, metal, etc. "You never know until you try" was my motto. Easier said than done when my own i-pod was glued to my hand and my own choice of music streaming through my ears.

My freshman year in college I got lucky when my roommate transferred schools after the first semester. I didn't have to worry about fighting over the which radio station to listen to- classic rock or today's top 20.
It wasn't until after that when I really started to listen to other people's perspectives and choices in music. I used to be known to listen to a song on the radio for not even 20 seconds and decide if I liked it or not. I would like to think that now, in terms of music, I have matured.
I now try to take into consideration how hard it is to write lyrics, compose music around it, and create a large enough fan base and everything that goes along with touring. Even if a band or certain song isn't good enough for me to spend the .99 on itunes to get it onto my i-pod, it doesn't go unappreciated.

But now I have come to find that although I am working through my quickness to judge a song, I'm having a little more trouble trying to avoid judging the actual musician. My main example that made me realize this, is good old Kanye West. As I'm sure many people are buzzing about since his little outburst at the VMA's last night. I have appreciated his music for the past couple of years, but after last night, I just felt let down by him. The VMA winners are chosen by people like you and me voting. If Kanye was so upset that Beyonce didn't win, he should have voted more. Instead he took away an important moment for a 17 year old.

One of the first things the host of the VMA's Russell Brand said was how music is about love, and bringing people together from all different genres of music.

Which makes me want to ask Kanye, where's the love?


photo provided by google image search.

Musicians a-Twittering

Musicians have long since discovered that this internet thing is really an excellent means of distributing music. They can generate a (potentially worldwide) fanbase, and then continue to use the variety of web tools to keep those fans interested. From the biggest bands on the biggest labels to the most obscure singer-songwriter recording love songs in his garage, countless artists are out there on the web waiting to be heard—and seen, and read, and messaged. They send out email newsletters, run MySpace pages, update their Facebook profiles. If they have enough money, perhaps they run their own website—but they had better stay on top of the social networking sites too. Maybe they have a blog, maybe on it they run a forum for fans to connect with one another (and perhaps the artists log on once in a while too). And, if copyright issues are in order, they or their label may post music videos on YouTube.

These days, of course, we also have Twitter. A simple Google search brings up many lists of the big names—find a few here, here, and here. Twitter has only been around a few years, first launched in 2006 (according to Wikipedia), and use has only really started to explode in the past year or two. Twitterers can easily follow most of their favorite singers (and actors, politicians, you name it) right alongside their friends and acquaintances, fostering a strong sense of intimacy.

Singer-songwriter Vienna Teng has had a Twitter for some time, offering up insightful 140-character tidbits on touring, creativity, politics, and everything in between for fans’ consumption. Just last month she used Twitter in a new way: to conduct a real-time Q&A with fans, harnessing the website’s @ function (which will get your message to another user even if you don’t have him/her listed as a friend). The Q&A has been collected and posted in her Scrapbook. A few excerpts:

reirei86: Do you publish majority of the songs you write or do you keep a lot private?
viennateng: Any song that gets finished usually sees the light of day. Sometimes I keep private ones that aren't really written for strangers to listen to (too many inside references in lyrics to be accessible, or attempts @ new style that aren't good)

…

JohnnyNaked: Can you see the sun setting from where you're sitting? (Enjoying the informative & pleasant tweet cacophony!)
viennateng: On 2nd floor of a cafe, can see sunset reflecting off palm trees across the street. Many geeks w/laptops all around...

How do your favorite singers talk to you these days?

*Photo courtesy viennateng.com.