cm1- assigment - blog comments

Comments By Ashley Walker.

MATTHEW MORGAN

History of the DJ

I think it’s worth distinguishing between the two types of DJ’s the ones on the clubs and the ones on radio. Are guys on Radio considered DJ’s or “Radio Announcers” ? I guess they are DJ's because they select and play tracks.

The other interesting question this post raises is “To what extent is the DJ a musician?” I guess if you take Jos Mulder’’s definition of music as “organised sound” then the DJ is s musician in that that he organisers where to place filters scratches’ and other FX however there are plenty of DJ’s, who will just play reconds with manipulating the sound. I don’t you could consider them Musicians

Legacy of Sampling

Sounds like you are in favour of sampling without copyright laws. I wonder if you’ve feel the same if you were an impoverished musician and someone else got rich from making a track from a sample of yours. I can see both sides though, Sampling is an interesting way of reconceptualising a song so the it can be appreciated by a new generation. Wy shouldn’t artist from all art forms incorporate what has come before in acknowledgement of where they have come from?

You also claim that the ownership of ideas in dubious. Doesn’t an artist have the right to earn of his creativity in a same way a carpenter can muck living selling furniture that he has made?


Music Concrete

I found it interesting that a big concern in the early years of music concrete was that the listener would associate a sample too strongly with its original sound source. Hence the introduction of tape manipulation and effects such as delays. This parallels fear with the first film images in the 1890’s. The Lumiere Brothers of France filmed a train going along the tracks. The audience run out of the cinema in fright because they thought the train would crash into them


TOM CORBEN

MTV

I wonder if the rise of the Internet has affected MTV’s influence and popularity. Younger generations are spending more time the internet and less time on TV. Also people can easily get their music video fix on YouTube.

The blog doesn’t give a personal opinion of MTV. Do you think it is good that There is a globally recognised, MTV, T he virtually guarantees an artist worldwide promotion. Does the fact that MTV has such influence contributes to the general ‘sameness” of pop music?


Xenaxis

The Mimaimalism of Steve Reich and Phillip Glass. Rejects Serialism of composers such as Xenakis. To them this sort of highly mathematical composition was elitist because only the chosen few could understand its processes. (Schwartzp.p.9) Being a non- Mathematition I am inclined to agree. On the other hand I’m and not advocating to dumbing down of music. So where is the balance between complete intellectual self indulgence and simply and mindlessly entertaining the massive? This is a dilemma that all creative artists face. As a playwright I face this dilemma constantly.

Also Xemaxis and Stockhausen’s manipulation of sound between speakers could have interesting applications in theatre productions.

Reference
Schwartz, K.R., 1996, Minimalists, Phaeton press ltd, London


MUSIC AND THE INTERNET
The internet is certainly the best thing to happen to consumers of music. Free downloads galore and even on Itunes cd sell for around $15 where as you could buy CD’s for $30 in shops before the internet pushed prices down. Internet has given musicians a way of publishing themselves but it has also men hat album sales and the revenue from them has plummeted. So it is now much harder to make a living as a recording artist. You mentioned Trent Reznor’s success online. Don’t forget he had established a huge reputation worldwide long before releasing Year Zero Don’t think unknown artists like you and I would have the same degree of financial success selling albums from our websites.