Music In Society: The Big Picture (Finished)
How is music used in society?
Music is used in many ways in modern day and here is list of where they are used and most importantly - why. I have split the focus' into two catagories: Primary focus (Where the music is the main focus) and Supportive (Where the music is there to support the main focus, i.e, setting a mood, etc.)
Club: The music is what makes people want to go, that's why they have so many different clubs as each club will have a different genre as the main event. You can clubs devoted to rock, some to dance music and others.
Television: On television there are now hundreds of channels devoted to different genres of music, like clubs, some are dedicated to rock, some to pop, some to dance, some to chart, etc.
Radio: Virtually the same as television. Now there are millions of radio stations that play to certain genres, there are even radio stations dedicated to certain bands and artists.
Internet: The internet, though large and used for many things, also have websites and applications that are specially dedicated for music, such as Spotify, iTunes, Naspter and also a lot of radio stations can now be found or listened to on internet too.
Theaters: Music and promanantly musicals can be found in theaters.
Shops: Shops use music to support the theme of the shop. You would not expect to here heavy metal in Next or BHS - so the music is picked to enhance a shoppers experience.
Restaurants: Restaurants use music to enhance the mood. A restaurant like McDonalds will use popular, upbeat happy music to keep their customers happy. Whereas, a fancy restaurant wouldn't play music like that. I would know since I create and control the playlist in the restaurant I work at. Themed restaurants will also play certain types of music like an Indian restaurant will most likely play Indian music, a Chinese restuarant would play Chinese music, etc.
Films: Films use music to shape and change a scene and make it fit with whats going on. A notable example would be theme from Jaws or the theme from Phsyco setting suspence.
What kind of people write, create, or use music?
Music is used by everyone regardless if they know or understand how it affects them. Music is used in many different ways by people who class themselves as musicians and also people don't.
One of the most common reasons people use music is because it can help deal with an emotion and even though a lot of people do it, there are two very different ways they do it. If someone is sad they will do either one of two things: Either listen to another sad song to "share their sadness" or listen to a happy songs to cheer themselves up. People also feed excitment with music. For example, if someone is seeing an artist in concert, they will listen to said artist more prior to the concert. As for me, I tend to go on a "hype" and end up refalling in love with anartists music after seeing them live.
When creating music, everyone does it differently. Even people who aren't musicians have created music without even conciousally realised - when they do things like tapping the pen on the table or hum something to themselves. But to create music is different to every person and sometimes a person (much like myself) doesn't have a set way of creating the music we make. I've looked at the way songwriters make there music in detail and analysed three songwriters:
Benjamin Paul Ballance-Drew:
Benjamin, more commonly know by his stage name, Plan B first really struck fame with his concept album, "The Defamation of Strickland Banks, which was his second studio album. It went straight to number one, following the success of the single "She Said".
The reason I've picked Plan B as one of the songwriters for this essay is that he's not writing about the life he has lived, he wrote the entire album based on his alter-ego, Strickland Banks, a character that has wrongly been accused of raping an obsessed fan. It's obviously not the first album to tell a story, but I still think it's an idea that should be tapped into more in the mainstream music industry.
The story of the album is rather interesting. Strickland Banks plays a few love songs at one of his shows, these being the first two tracks of the album, "Love Goes Down" and "Writings On The Wall". Following the concert, Strickland and the rest of the band celebrate the gig's success by going out on the town, in which Strickland has a one night stand with a woman at the club in the song, "Stays Too Long". "She Said" in based in the courts the day after, when the girl claims that Banks had raped her but she's actually an obsessed fan who made herself believe that they are in love. The trial results in Strickland being sent to prison leading to the song, "Welcome To Hell". The songs following after, are his experiences behind bars. In "The Recluse" and "Hard Times" we find Banks become more isolated, unable to cope a life behind bars. The next song, "Prayin'" shows a argument between him and another prisoner, in which the other attacks him. With another prisoner, Strickland ends up killing the attacker in self-defense. However, his partner takes the blame, leading up to, "Darkest Place" where the guilt kicks in for not taking the blame too. We then see his inner anger in "I Know A Song" and "Free" and he accepts that his in prison and stuck there. That is, until more evidence becomes apparent into his case, meaning he's taken back to court in the song "What You Gonna Do". The album finishes with the listener left to cliff-hang - not knowing if he's guilty or not.
Not only do I think it's a brilliant idea for a concept album but writing music for a story is a lot harder than writing songs about real-life experiences and thoughts. It requires a writer to go into the head of someone else, in this case, the head of someone who isn't even real outside Plan B's mind.
In an advertisement, Plan B explained how he came about writing the song, "She Said" which was inspired simply by a chord progression played on a guitar by a friend. This goes to show that not all songs are written in the same way, some songs are wrote just by hearing a melody and letting that inspire the song or some can be inspired by something that's happened or even just a word or phrase.
Nataly Dawn / Jack Conte:
I wanted to pick as well as songwriters who work either by themselves, or collaboratively with other songwriters. This example is a duo who write all their songs together. As a collective, they go by the name of "Pomplamoose".
I've picked Pomplamoose because it is easy to see how they go about writing their songs since they use a method of video they developed themselves called: Videosongs. A context in which they show everything that's been recorded at least once and all the video is of the recordings in the songs, so there is no miming to what they have recorded. With this, you can all the instrumentation they're wrote and how they not only use conventional instruments is the same old way, but they actually create new ways of using these instruments. For example, one of their songs called, "Bust Your Kneecaps", they played a piano track and then played an organ track in reverse, to then go on and reverse it to it played in sync with the piano track but still had the strange effect you get when reversing a sound. They also did the same with scratches on a guitar. Taking inspiration from a lot of 50s, 60s and 70s music is what gives the duo such an original sound.
In one confrence Conte described his oppinion on editing audio and fixing audio electronically (things like autotune and quantizing), explaining that "if the resorces are there, use them".
I have also analyzed how Sameer Gadhia wrote the lyrics for Young The Giant's "Cough Syrup". I chose this song because the song used a good metaphor. It used the idea of a child taking cough syrup which is something that as a child, we hate; and compares it to the problems of an adult.
Life’s too short to even care at all, oh,
I’m loosing my mind, loosing my mind, loosing control.
These first lines really hit a listener hard, it dwells into a subject in which we know very little about; life. The subject completely rips our minds apart. We could spend years trying to find out about it and we would still never have an answer.
These fishes in the sea, they’re staring at me, oh,
A wet world aches for a beat of a drum, oh.
These next lines talk about other people around us, there is so much pressure from other people on how we live our lives. Even though we don’t always realise it, we don’t have the freedom to anything we want and we will always have these “fishes in the sea” judging us. The next line talks about drama, everyone feeds off drama. They’re aching for that crack in the record, something to set off.
If I could find a way, to see this straight, I’d run away,
To some fortune that I should have found by now.
These lines change the subject, there is less focus on the people around us, and more focus on the songwriter’s thoughts. The line basically says, “Well, if I have to go through all of this, surely something will come out at the end of it” and the songwriter is tired of waiting for this “ fortune” to come around.
I’m waiting for this cough syrup to come down.
This line is the pinnacle line, it’s the metaphor for the song, it basically describes how all these problems are worse than the problems we had as a child. When you were a child the hardest choice was which colour crayon you wanted to use and the hardest thing you’d have to do would be to drink the last spoon of cough syrup. It shows how much things change on the path from childhood to adulthood.
Life’s too short to even care at all, oh,
I’m coming up now, coming up now, out of the blue, oh.
The first lines of the second verse take a different spin on things. It explains how if life is too short, then you need to take it by the hand and go with it. The “I’m coming up now, out of the blue” lines are saying, that the songwriter is taking control of his life, they’re coming out from the background and making themself seen. The “blue” could also symbolise the sea mentioned earlier in the song.
These zombies in the park, they’re looking for my heart, oh.
A dark world aches for a splash of a sun, oh.
This line is pretty obscure, but I think there is a message behind it. It’s like the songwriter is saying how everyone is lifeless and they’re just looking to tear people down and they’re aching for “a splash of a sun” which I believe is a metaphor for a good lifetime, something that will make them want to feel good again. It’s almost like this is the songwriter taking a second look on how they think about these people.
And so I run now to the things they said could restore me,
Restore life the way it should be,
I’m waiting for this cough syrup to come down.
This line is part of the extended chorus. It’s saying that there must be something that would make all these problems go away, so it was just the cough syrup that you would have to worry about, not all these people who try to tear us down or constantly judge you for your, gender, race or sexuality.
The song in general has a really strong message about life. We all experience life, obviously but sometimes we never stop and think about what are lives actually are.
How is music used in combination with other art forms?
One of the biggest ways music is combined with other forms of art is film. In film, music plays a huge part in setting a scene and giving an emotion. There are two different ways I feel this is put across. Emotive (usually music that has been created to push a feeling onto the audience) and Descriptive, (Something that sets a time period or music that would be in the background of a scene). I will now give some examples of ones I think work well.
The Breakfast Club: Keith Forsey's instrumental, "Love Theme" was composed to give us more emotion in one of the final scenes with main characters, Bender and Claire. It's used to add to the scene's emotive visuals.
The Perks Of Being A Wallflower: The Smiths' ballad, "Asleep" is used as one of the main anchor points for the story in Stephen Chbosky's "The Perks Of Being A Wallflower". This is used set the scene not just to arc the story but it is used to give us an idea of what life would be like in that scene surrounded by those certain characters.
Another huge way music in combined with other forms of art is musicals. Musicals feature music that tells a story or progresses a story along with others arts such as acting and dancing. This makes the music not just about how it sounds - but the visual representation as well. Music in musicals isn't just affected by storylines but is also affected by; emotion, location and date. Perfect examples of this notably include music from: West Side Story, Hairspray and Grease (excluding the well-known song "Grease Is The Word" that doesn't fit the time because it was made for the 70's film version and used Disco influences).
How has music been used in non-artistic contexts?
Music in advertisement is also used in many ways which I've divided into two categories: Themed and Supportive.
Music in this context is used as a catchy jingle to keep the idea of the advertisement in someones head. It's purpose is to keep the name of the brand in your mind or it's used to associate that song with the product.
Supportive music in advertisement is used as background music to have something to support the advert. It's only real purpose is to fit the gap behind the main event.
The development of popular music.
Music is never constant It is always changing. Ever since music began, it has progressed musically and so has style and instrumentation. I will now present a timeline with as many major events in music history as I can find, starting from just before 1920.
In 1917, the first Jazz recording was recorded by The Original Dixieland Jazz Band. This is one of the recording that sparked of Jazz into popular culture.
Okeh Records released the first blues record in 1920. This was important in music history because it was the beginning of opening up a market for "race" music.
The first electric guitar was developed in 1932 and played by Gage Brewer.
In 1934, Gene Autry became Hollywood's first singing cowboy which sparked off a trend and market for music.
1935 was the year the legendary story of Robert Johnson, the man who sold his soul to the devil for a guitar and perfect blues technique. This has influenced many songs as well as sparked controversy at the time in religious people and his music.
1944 was one of the first instances of beginning of real popular culture. The Columbus Day riot began the culture of a real celebrity in music in the form of Frank Sinatra. I think this is where the beginning of the teenager really began and I think this is the sort of thing that influenced the start of rock 'n' roll culture.
In 1951, the first rock 'n' roll record was released called "Rocket 88" by Jackie Brentson.
More famously known as the start of Rock 'n' Roll was Bill Haley's "Rock Around the Clock" released in 1955.
In 1956, Elvis Presley performed one of the most iconic television music performances in history. A performance of "Hound Dog" gave him the title "Elvis The Pelvis". Religious groups called the performance "tasteless and vulgar" but in his teenage audience it continued to spark rock 'n' roll culture.
1960 gave birth to one of the most critically acclaimed bands of all time, The Beatles. They didn't release music until 1963.
In 1961, a Motown record went to number one for the first time in history. The song is called, "Please, Mr. Postman".
The Rolling Stones released their first hit in 1965, "The Last Time".
In 1967, Radio 1 launched and to this day, is one of the biggest UK based radio station. A radio station this big influenced most of the music people would hear.
Metal began to form in 1969, in the form of a band called; Earth, better known by their rename, Black Sabbath.
In 1975, one of the most the most famous rock songs of all time made it's historical debut, "Bohemian Rhapsody". This revolutionized the way the music video affected music as a marketing tool. Without this track, the music video would be a completely different context. It topped the chart at number one for nine weeks.
1976 was the year Van Halen started the beginnings of Hair Metal.
Also in 1976, Fleetwood Mac released "Rumours" one of the most critically acclaimed pop album of our time.
In 1977, Donna Summer released "I Feel Love". It was one of the first tracks in history to fully use electronic music to its full advantage.
1982 was the year Michael Jackson released his album, "Thriller" one of the biggest selling albums of all time.
The SP-1200 changed music in a flash. The piece of kit released on 1987 was a sample station that could have a whole song created on it. This is the standard now but in 1987, this was a huge revolution. The unit stopped being made in the 1990s.
1991 was the year Nirvana brought grunge back into the mainstream with their hit single: "Smells Like Teen Spirit".
In the nineties the boy band and girl band took over. It became to new instant fad and is still on the resurface today.
The 2000s were time when the Talent Shows first became a huge hit on national television. There have talent shows in the past but these were on a lot bigger scale (X Factor, Pop Idol, Britain's Got Talent, etc.).
How has element such as structure, harmony and texture changed?
Since there are thousands of different ways each of these things has changed over the years, I'm going to give an example for each using different times and genres.
Structure: In rock 'n' roll, funk and many other forms of early popular music, there were - for the most part, two sections of music (A and B) sections and this would usually be followed by a repeat of one of these sections with a solo over the top. This was the standard. Now the standard - as far as I can see - it is an ABABCAB stylized structure featuring verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus form.
Harmony: Focusing on harmonies on vocals for now, harmony has slowly become less complex to keep music "catchy and easy to listen to". In doo-wop and gospel music, harmonies were tight chords that drove the music. As time progressed it's become more about simple third and fifth harmonies.
Texture: The texture in music has become much more complex as time went on and music has progressed. Popular music in the 30s, 40s, 50s and early 60s was a lot more simple, usually composed of a singer(s), bass, guitar, piano/organ and drums. But now in popular music, most songs will have 10-20 tracks of different audio in them usually compiled of singer(s), bass, guitar, piano/organ, drums and synths (usually more than one), percussion and sound effects. This is down to new recording possibilities and mainly multi-tracking.
