American Idol Illusion

Doesn’t reality TV wear you out, just thinking about how silly it is? Picture two kids in the desert. They miraculously find a cooler packed with ice and Mountain Dew. Should they keep it a secret or share it with the 38 other kids—the only other inhabitants of their remote town? Oh, and can the camera guy, boom mike man, producer, makeup lady, and script boy be trusted to keep their secret, too?

American Idol is no stranger to the devices of illusion. Consider the image that is on every early episode of the season. We’re in a new city. If it’s Omaha, Nebraska, we make fun of how boring the place is. Sorry, personal sidetrack there. No, what I was getting at is that you always see the huge crowd. If it’s over ten thousand, they seem to put a number on it, but otherwise Ryan Seacrest just says thousands, as in “from the thousands that tried out, the judges picked 25.” Do the three celebrity judges, Paula Abdul, Randy Jackson, and Simon Cowell actually listen to or see all of those thousands of contestants? Of course, not. Does Ryan ever mention how many of the thousands even said boo to anyone with more clout than stadium security? Of course, not.

Clearly, there’s an elimination process we don’t see. According to this AP article, 12,000 showed up in San Diego, and Patrick Lynn, a senior producer, said, “We’ll see everyone who wants to be heard,” said. “It’s all about trying to find out who’s going to be the person who’s going to make it past the judges, who’s going to make it to Hollywood.” I imagine the word “see” is used in the most literal sense. If I was at the stadium and swiveled my head, I would literally see 12,000 people. As for trying to find out who’s going to be the person who’s going to make it past the judges, something smells. Let’s see, good talent occupies how much of an episode…20%? So there’s no effort made to pick out the tone-deaf, egotistical, flamboyant, outrageous, and otherwise comical contestants? The half-naked guy in the Princess Leia outfit actually impressed Producer X as a serious contender? Right. And thanks for the segment featuring a finger nail clipping collection. Needed that.

Hey, I know. This is TV. People like to hoot and holler at the bad ones. But remember that when it gets down to the viewer voting and you’re groaning about a Sanjaya or a Kevin Covais, how many thousands of better singers didn’t win the coin toss (or whatever secret method is used) at the stadium in San Diego?

Spotlight on Great Percussion

Since I’m wading into the waters of the business of percussion, (I’m selling musical instruments at Sinclair Sound), I’ve been mulling over what I know about the subject. One thing I know, sadly, is I wish I could play a drum set. My attempts have mostly generated envy for those who could hold a steady beat.

Today, I’m trying my first link to a YouTube video. I found a performance by an artist who’d really impressed me at a concert. The video is of Elton John, but the artist that caught me by surprise was percussionist Ray Cooper. I didn’t even know his name until I searched for him. At the concert I saw, I was really struck by the guy’s rather robotic style and uber-cool looks. It was a show in itself. His solo starts around the 4 minute mark. Check it out.

New Michael Jackson Single

Has anyone else been a long-time praying for a Michael Jackson reunion—you know, one with the original members? Yeah, I know it’s one guy, but didn’t he used be played by someone who looked a lot different? (Was that Dick York or Dick Sargent? I get confused). Anywho, you need only check out the Ed Sullivan “ABC” performance on YouTube or ”Beat It” to weep with sorrow over the loss of a national treasure. Man that kid had the moves.

When I saw that Michael Jackson was releasing a single for the first time in 7 years, my heart skipped a beat. Yeah, I know, he hasn’t done anything of musical significance in a middle-schooler’s lifetime, but I’ve never fully given up on him. So, hooray, Micahel version 7.0 is launched. And what’s that new single?

“The Girl is Mine.”

No way. Bandits have taken over a computer server farm. The pentagon could be hit next. Somebody take the whole ‘net down until we get it all secured.

Well, it’s the only explanation. Out of the entire Michael Jackson catalog, the last song that anyone needs to be reminded of is “The Girl is Mine.” I’m waiting for Paul McCartney to file suit…not because he’s been replaced by will.i.am, but because mention of the “The Girl is Mine” is a reminder that he was involved in the debacle as well.

C’mon, Michael, you’re clearly willing to get help from friends. So, how about new song ideas, not just new backing tracks. Time to stop with the nostalgia and do something with teeth.

Did You Say Free?

Can it be for real? A company called Qtrax is going to let us download all the music we want, legally and free of charge? That Times Online story is here. Maybe not. Today it sounds like major labels aren’t actually willing to let music licensing be paid for with advertising revenue. So says this article from thisislondon.co.uk.

It’s all complicated, isn’t it? I guess the objectives are simple enough. Eventually, we consumers want all media content avaialable at arm’s length at all times for free. Artists would like compensation for their work in proportion to it’s “use”.

It’s hard to know how we’re going to get there. At one time content was in large part controlled by the fact that ordinary people couldn’t reproduce it for less cost than the official distributor. Now a single person with a computer could launch world-wide distribution with just their computer. And people aren’t policing themselves, either. Think about it. You see the ads about downloading movies from peer-to-peer sites being illegal, but in your head you say, “Well, hey I didn’t post it there. I’m just looking at what someone else stole.” And think about how silly it seems to you that the ubiquitous song “Happy Birthday” can’t be sung by the wait staff of your favorite restaurant because it’s copyright owners would expect a royalty. That’s like saying you must include the “TM” symbol whereever you print the word “Christmas”. Heck in our consumer culture, content is king. If it was taken by force or unethical means that just ratchets up the importance that we know about it.

Well, I don’t have a solution. I do know that if all artistic contributions are subject to unauthorized and uncontrolled reproduction and therefor necessarily become gifts to all humankind, artists may have to think about other professions. And frankly, I prefer to suffer some intrusion of advertising and/or loss of quality to preview material if paying means I have full use of a digital copy. But what of file sharing people, those who don’t want to pay because they’ve got a free, ad-free source? I guess you can only do so much to reign in human behavior. Somebody, comment please!

It’s Got A Beat And It’s Fun to Dance to, But What Do Call It . . .?

Have you ever tried to hand-tag your music in Windows Media Player or some other music application and been bowled over by the choices of genre to which you may assign your track? I mean, sure, I can appreciate that there different styles of, say, polka music, but when you see the number and the odd titles you wonder how someone could even make the distinction.

Just as an example, Wikipedia lists these twelve types of Trance music: Acid trance, Classic trance, Dream trance, Euro-trance, Epic trance, Hardstyle, Nu-NRG, Progressive trance, Tech trance, Uplifiting trance, Vocal trance. Oh, and of course, anythings that references scripture would simply be called “Christian Trance.” Just kidding. Didn’t see that one.

That is sort of a point, though. Which element is the thing that names the music? Sometimes one aspect overrides everything. And any name that has “pop” in it would really seem to get into a gray area. I mean, wouldn’t the sea chanty be pop music if it were heard in dozens of commercials and news program bumper music?

Well, I guess the point is that tags/genres have a place. It helps us locate tracks or albums wherever many are stored. People have a need to group things even though artists often say they despise being labelled. See for me, seeing these lists is pure stimulus. It creates a thirst for knowledge. For example, right now I have a strong desire to sample twelve kinds of trance music and see if I can understand the very minimum of variation in instrumentation, rhythm, tonal quality, lyrical content, or chord structure that would make a full-tilt Nu-NRG piece bust out of its genre totally and suddenly fall into the realm of plain old vanilla Tech Trance.

Stay tuned . . .

My Latest Composition

Here’s a song I wrote for church, but I meant it not to sound churchy. See what you think.

Can You Still . . . ?

I would be a perfect man…but I strayed.
Such a beautiful plan…I disobeyed.
Lord, I love you so much, so much.
But I don’t love you near enough.

Break my heart, turn my dreams to dust.
Tear away all I’ve built on pride, greed, and lust.
My faith is weak and my body won’t set me free,
But can you still make something beautiful…?
Can you still make something beautiful of me?

The world is such a colorful place…it turns to black.
Promises to take me away…won’t bring me back.
So many pretty things I love to touch,
It’s plastic, crude, disposable fluff.

 As I said implied in a previous post, I’m not interested in being a lightning bolt. Discussions on spirituality were not my aim with this posting. I merely wanted to share my musical endeavor.

Hello, WordPress

Hi, I just moved in from Blogger. I was new there, too, but now I think I’ve found my final destination. I’ll be blogging about music and musical instruments because that’s what I sell at Sinclair Sound. But I don’t want this to be a commercial blog; that is, the ad copy belongs elsewhere. This is where I will share personal experiences and discoveries and reviews and even questions. I guarantee that a lot of it will stretch the advertised boundaries and objectives of this blog. My main goal is to keep it fresh, interesting, and organized. I’m going to stay away from polarizing issues because I’m a lover, not a fighter. (Of course, I said that last phrase in the soprano voice of Michael Jackson.)

Just in case your curious, here are my reasons for moving from Blogger.

1. It was easy to get a domain of my choosing.
2. More space.
3. Claims of better spam blocking
4. Tag cloud
5. Built-in stats tracking
6. Ability to schedule posts
7. No navigation bar at the top for visitors to click into the next (objectionable) blog
8. You can actually write the url that each post is saved to.

I’ve probably got some things wrong and I probably haven’t discovered some things yet, but that’s okay. There’s time. The main thing is that I think I have more control over the Search Engine aspects of my blog. I want to be found!

The Times They Are a-Changin’ - Not Really

I’m keeping this blog a PG affair, but this is a blue topic. Fair warning, that was.

I keep finding that my perceptions of history are flawed. Things that seem to have sprung up overnight rarely do and humankind hasn’t evolved nearly as fast or as far as we think it has. For example, as a kid (back when the world revolved me), I assumed that suggestive lyrics began only when they first suggested something to me.

Perhaps some of my confusion came from my awareness that the birth of rock ‘n’ roll was not welcomed by parents or church leaders. Of course, I thought they were really reaching to read something bad into the popular songs of that day. Plus, I had yet to hear anything more suggestive than, “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction” when that impression of empty concern was formed. So, I sort of got the notion that songs before 1955 couldn’t possibly have anything objectionable about them. I’ve since been schooled.

I think credit goes to the PBS show, “History Detectives.” Maybe if your a blues student, you already know this, but there’s a whole collection of old blues songs that are bona fide naughty. Is that funny? Is that disturbing? I don’t know. I guess in a sad way, I find it comforting that the media world—the internet, television . . . movies with sound—isn’t the singular spoiler it’s sometimes been made out to be; that is, human beings were already a mischievous sort.

If you’re curious, check out the song titles and audio samples of the CD “Raunchy Business: Hot Nuts & Lollypops” on Amazon.com. Here’s a sample of lyrics recorded in 1935 by Lil’ Johnson:

“Look what you can get cheap! Only five cents, boys! Nice and brown, too! Everyone’s crazy ’bout my nuts!”

The song’s called “Get ‘Em From the Peanut Man (Hot Nuts),” and I still can’t believe my eyes/ears. Think of it: there’s a Parental Advisory—Explicit Lyrics sticker on pre-WWII material.

Say, is that his real name?

How Open Are You?

I’m not sure how we get hooked on our favorite types of music. I learned early on that my musical tastes were not at all inherited. Of course, I like to think that I am so open-minded that music in all it’s forms should appeal to me. Well, that’s silly.

I think musical tastes is sometimes broadened by passive listening. Movies have all types of music in them. Sometimes a little unintentional exposure hooks you into something new. At the same time, I suppose, movies are also powerful purveyors of stereotypes. And, just like with everything else, it’s easy for us to treat areas we have little knowledge of or interest in with stereotypes. For example, those who turn their nose up at American Country music probably think of it terms of twang, cowboy hats, and the clichès about losing your woman, your truck, and your dog, and then recall the least persuasive appealing memory of those icons.

I always rolled my eyes at the college course titles about appreciation of the arts, but it makes more and more sense to me. If you don’t appreciate some form of art that other people adore, you may not know enough about it. I confess I’m taken in by those Time-Life (and similar) nostalgia music collection infomercials. It’s a great way to see what—well, at least Time-Life says are the essential songs of a particular kind of music at a particular time in history.

Well, anyway, is there a particular kind of music you once thought you detested or at least didn’t care for that you had an epiphany about? In other words, how’s your musical tastes changed since you were a kid?

Don’t Forget to Name that Singing Bee

Decades ago there was a game show called “Name That Tune”. It asked contestants to listen to a “house orchestra” play a few notes from a popular song and, as the title says, “name that tune.” I guess that might be a lot easier than Joey Fatone’s “Don’t Forget the Lyrics” or Wayne Brady’s “The Singing Bee,” but there was always the final round where contestants challenged each other to identify a song in the fewest number of notes. And I saw people actually identify a song with only two notes to go on.

Actually, I’m surprised to see the newest music shows. With the growing media and music choices you wonder how there could still be a common pool of songs, books, movies, TV shows, etc. that a culture at large is familiar with. And yet there it is. Oh, I’m not about to analyze it all scientifically here, but I suspect that even as a diverse culture and even with our growing tendency to customize and personalize our immediate environment, I think that we still have a need to be a part of the group as a whole. What do you think?