Independent record label Century Media pulls its content from Spotify

"“Century Media and its associated labels “InsideOutMusic“, “Superballmusic“, “Ain’t no Grave Records“, “Hollywood Waste” and “People Like You” have decided to pull their repertoire from Spotify in an attempt to protect the interests of their artists"

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Full story here: http://www.theprp.com/2011/08/09/news/century-media-pulls-its-repertoire-from-spotify-statement-available/

Week 4

Buzzing. Humming. Whining. Whirring. Creaking. Grinding. Croaking. Wheezing. Expiring. Week 4 of NYU summer course Brain Dance: Pop/Rock Music and Literature, and this week we looked at the intertwining themes of noise and death. We read Jacques Attali's Noise: The Political Economy of Music. This rich and highly riveting work of theory, argues that we have overprivileged sight over sound, and should learn to listen more carefully, to the world around us and the onward movement of history. It traces four moments, through which to analyze how distinctions between what is "noise" and what is "music" are not only socially-constructed, but imbricated in socio-economic, political and ideological power: Sacrificing, Representing, Repeating and Composing. Music, once the province of outsiders to the community ("jongleurs"), has become the mouthpiece of the regime, argues Attali, enabling to make "repetitive society" tolerable and pleasant. The book ends by wondering whether it is possible for music to help reach beyond capitalism.

We considered the early death of Amy Winehouse (who died aged 27 on July 23, 2011, entering the "27 Club" along with Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and Kurt Cobain), and the deification of pop stars who die young: what happens when a feted musician dies before his/her time? How are their image and music transformed in the popular imagination? Are dead pop stars our own polytheism? Do pop stars who die young perform a sacrificial role, leading extreme and masochistic lives that the community enjoys vicariously, their young deaths part of their performance of vulnerable affective states?

Thinking of death and the "noise" it makes, we watched The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), noting its tendencies towards camp, kitsch, and cabaret, its ironic and knowing parody and pastiche of horror goth and schlock conventions. While Dr Frank-N-Furter, played by Tim Curry, reprises the mad scientist/Dracula/Frankenstein role, with a transexual/alien twist, Eddie, the character played by Meat Loaf, acts out the role of Dead Elvis, murdered and literally eaten for dinner by the hosts and guests at the castle. Pop music cannibalizing and recycling its own idols/gods. This week we heard presentations on The Velvet Underground and Andy Warhol, punk band Rise Against, and The Grammys.

On Wednesday we examined a genre overtly concerned with death and noise: black metal. We considered the often extreme, anti-social, outsider and Romantic philosophical and political ideologies that underwrite this sometimes controversial genre, and Arthur Schopenhauer's notion of music as an embodiment of the will. We were visited by Brooklyn College (CUNY) professor Nicola Masciandaro, who illuminated us (should that be darkened us?) regarding the aesthetic and philosophical stakes of "black metal theory," a new hybrid academic field that investigates BM as a richly theoretical domain.

Provoked by Japanoise artist Merzbow, and inspired to listen to, meditate upon and describe the noise that surrounds us on a daily basis in a big, buzzing city, this week we learned that there is always more to noise or music than meets the ear.

Week 3

Week 3 of NYU summer course Brain Dance: Pop/Rock Music and Literature: Getting Physical. We read excerpts from Daniel J. Levitin's This is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession, as well as a passage from Oliver Sacks' Musicophilia: Tales of Music and Brain, in order to consider (neuro)scientific perspectives on music and writing. These included analyses of pitch, timbre, rhythm, groove and pulse; the place of the body in the creation and reception of music; music and social bonding; music and labor (The Song of the Volga Boatmen); animals singing (or are they just speaking?); courtship, mating rituals (and Jimi Hendrix as strutting peacock); music in the development of cognition, and its importance in the teenage years; music as game-playing; pre-natal music, and the value/limitations of evolutionary psychology.

We watched Cameron Crowe's 2000 film Almost Famous, and considered rock music in relation to the coming-of-age narrative: "cool" and "uncool," inside/outside and the role of the music journalist who straddles this boundary ("the enemy"); groupies, sorry "band-aids," and rock music's "traffic in women"; the music industry and the magazine's role in the publicity machine; childhood, responsibility, freedom from parents ("Rockstars have kidnapped my son!") and drugs ("I am a Golden God!"). We heard presentations about the history of MTV, psychedelic rock and cultural appropriation in hip-hop (see post further down). 

We considered the literary genre of the music review, and conducted an in-class reading of such magazines as Rolling Stone, Alternative Press, Spin, Time Out New York, Vice, Kerrang!, Arthur and The Wire. We read articles by Lester Bangs including "Let Us Now Praise Famous Death Dwarves" and discussed the genre of gonzo journalism: confrontational, chaotic and honest to the point of self-destruction.

This week's guest speaker was Zebidy Tank of Australian rock band Drop Tank, who illuminated us about the rewards and sacrifices of pursuing a career as a rock musician, the pros and cons of working with producers, the importance of image and promotion, the Sydney music scene, and the physical realities and interpersonal dynamics of playing in a band and performing live. Follow her career here and here.

An exhibition that might be of interest:

BIORHYTHM: MUSIC AND THE BODY

Start Date: 

Jun 02, 2011 - Aug 06, 2011

Gallery hours: 12noon-6pm, Tuesday - Saturday
Tours: 2PM and 4PM, Fridays and Saturdays
Why does a minor chord sound sad? Is there a formula for the perfect hit? Whistling, dancing, finger-snapping, and toe-tapping—what makes us do it? Find out when music and science join forces in an interactive bazaar of beats, sounds, and rhythm in the exhibition BIORHYTHM, created by the Science Gallery and presented at Eyebeam as part of the World Science Festival. Learn what drives sound manipulation and discover how different types of music evoke different emotions. Trace the power of an impactful pop hook in a song, measuring the way our brains and bodies react, down to the responses in our fingertips.

EYEBEAM
540 W. 21st Street, (between 10th and 11th Avenues)
New York, NY 10011
Tel. 212.937.6580 Fax: 212.937.6582
http://www.eyebeam.org/events/biorhythm-music-and-the-body

Cultural Appropriation, Race and Hip Hop

Just wanted to share some of the articles that I read when preparing for my presentation:

• In Defense (Kinda) of Kreayshawn and Hipster Cultural Appropriation by Rachel Rabbit White
• On Kreayshawn and the Utility of Black Women by The Crunk Feminist Collective
• Kreayshawn: Another Case of Appropriating Black Culture by Bene Viera (Clutch Magazine)

Pitchfork Ranks Top Music Books

http://pitchfork.com/features/staff-lists/7967-words-and-music-our-60-favorite-music-books/

Week 2

Week 2 of NYU Summer Class Brain Dance: Pop/Rock Music and Literature. The weekly theme was pop music and social engagement: subversion, realism, escapism and protest music. We read Dick Hebdige's Subculture: The Meaning of Style (1979), and learned about teddy boys, beats, hipsters, rude boys, mods, rockers and punks. Theoretical concepts: two notions of "culture," hegemony, ideology, signified/signifier, hybridity, bricolage and defamiliarization.

 We watched clips of Quadrophenia (1979) for instances of youth subjectivity formed through oppositional gang subcultures. Alan Parker's film The Commitments (1991), based on Roddy Doyle's eponymous novel, allowed us to consider the roles of music in relation to working class life: American soul music and proletarian Irish society, and feelings of kinship between oppressed communities; in this case the Dubliners of Barrytown relating, not without a knowing irony ("I'm black and I'm proud"), to the struggle of African-Americans.

 We heard student presentations on Wanda Jackson, Northern Soul, experimental tendences in pop music, and Rolling Stone magazine. On Wednesday we considered the idea of hip-hop as poetry, and were treated to the mad skills of Blake Brandes: scholar and MC, who offered a workshop in beatboxing and freestyling. Follow Blake's work and download his music here: http://www.djdecryption.com/

Recommendations concerning hip-hop's cutting edge from students included Lil B, Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All and Das Racist.