Musical Space: Minimalist Music
Minimalism was the last great revolution to happen in the world of art music. Young American composers began experimenting with using limited materials and processes in the 1960s, and the result was...
View ArticleMusical Space: Life Aquatic (Repeat)
Some film scores are best when they take the familiar and make it unfamiliar, as Mark Foley notes this week on Musical Space.Let’s talk about the score to the 2004 Wes Anderson-directed film The Life...
View ArticleMusical Space: Cartoons
Composer Carl Stalling created some of the most recognizable musical scores of the last century, the sounds that fueled many Saturday mornings and weekday afternoons.[Music: Carl Stalling: “Coyote and...
View ArticleMusical Space: Jingles
There’s been a noticeable trend away from using jingles in TV commercials. This really doesn’t bother me too much; jingles are designed to lodge themselves into your brain, and an effective one can...
View ArticleMusical Space: Suspension
One way musicians create tension in a melody or chord progression is through use of a suspension.Here’s a little music theory for you: the suspension. A suspension is a note that clashes with the...
View ArticleMusical Space: Math Rock
Mark Foley explores the relationship between math, meter, and music.Music is almost always arranged in a repeating pattern of beats; the pattern, or “meter,” usually corresponds with a rhythm that is...
View ArticleMusical Space: BPM
Whether Beethoven or beat boxers, musicians have come to rely on one tool to help them keep time.The metronome was invented by a friend of Beethoven’s, Johann Maelzel, in 1815. It is used in music to...
View ArticleMusical Space: Suspension (repeat)
One way musicians create tension in a melody or chord progression is through use of a suspension.Here’s a little music theory for you: the suspension. A suspension is a note that clashes with the...
View ArticleMusical Space: Amateurs
Enlarge image Credit Reverend Guitars A Rick Vito signature model Reverend guitar.ListenI'm told that a century ago the average American could sing 300 folk songs. Not too surprising, since back then,...
View ArticleMusical Space: Old and New Standards
As jazz continues to evolve, what becomes a standard in the jazz repertoire has also changed.One of the most remarkable things about jazz in '40s and '50s was how musicians could appropriate a popular...
View ArticleMusical Space: Raymond Scott
American musician Raymond Scott was one of the most important composers of the Twentieth Century because had a knack for constant innovation and writing music for emerging media. I can’t think of any...
View ArticleMusical Space: John Cage
John Cage, one of the most influential and revolutionary composers of the 20th Century, was born almost exactly 100 years ago. He was very well schooled as a composer, but it seems as though his...
View ArticleMusical Space: Hip Hop
Sampling in Hip-Hop reached its height in the late 80s and early 90s. The legality of using samples from someone else’s song was vague; a lot of djs risked being sued, and ended up doing amazing things...
View ArticleMusical Space: Merch
Now that CDs aren’t making money, more of a musician's income is from selling "merch" - merchandise: T-shirts, stickers, guitar picks, etc.Merch might not be the main part of a band’s revenue stream,...
View ArticleMusical Space: Why You Can't Sing 'Happy Birthday' Anytime, Anywhere
“Happy Birthday to You” is one of the best known songs in the world, but one rarely hears it in a movie or on TV.There is a monetary reason for this: “Happy Birthday To You” is copyright protected, and...
View ArticleMusical Space: How Beck Is Getting Us To Rethink Recorded Music
For two decades now, Beck Hansen has been keeping his music fresh and compelling by never letting it be defined by genre or convention. He gets his listeners to rethink pop formulas by deconstructing,...
View ArticleMusical Space: The Loudness War
Makers of pop music have always engineered their songs to sound big and loud. Motown records, for instance, have a legendary, huge sound. Sometimes, though, loudness can be overdone, and this problem...
View ArticleMusical Space: How John Hammond Shaped American Pop Music
You might not have heard of John Hammond, but in terms of cultural significance he was arguably the world’s most influential record producer.At the beginning of his career in the 1930s, largely because...
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