Loading ...5 Ridiculously Skilled Musicians You Have to Hear to Believe
Ultimately, music isn't about talent, but about artistic expression. Popular music is full of musicians who may have not had the greatest skills, yet made a huge impact on music and the world. Groups like The Beatles, Nirvana, The Ramones...all great, but not exactly "virtuosos". This post isn't about these musicians. Nope, here we're going to talk about 5 musicians who had ridiculously amazing skills on their instruments. Hearing their music is both a jaw-dropping and exhilarating experience. Enjoy!
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Topics: Artist Tributes, Musicians I Like, jazz | 2 Comments »
Ten Great Songs from the 50s
The decade that popular music began is largely forgotten today; unless it is considered for the Grammy Hall of Fame award. Deemed as “your parent’s music”, the croons of the 50’s are difficult if not impossible to find on your local radio band in 2010.
Having something to do with this might be the fact that the 1950s were a time of outright racism. But even as segregation grew, telling blacks and whites where they could venture in physical location - the dividing line between African-American and Caucasian music became incredibly obscured in both sound and showmanship. Indeed, the 1950's were a time of rapid change in the music world, yet, this period left behind some of the most beloved songs of the century. Here are 10 great songs from the 1950's:
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Topics: Music, Rock | 2 Comments »
Five Great Rock Albums from the 70s
Rock and Roll has suffered many criticisms throughout the years. Some depict it as loud, violent and misogynistic. And let’s face it, Guns ‘n Roses’s “Sex, Drugs n’ Rock and Roll” certainly did no favor to the critic’s perception of the genre, either, with lyrics like “I got really high and things got really slow.”
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Topics: Rock | No Comments »
Sampling From the Past: A Look at Using Old Records to Create New Music
The phrase “There’s nothing new under the sun” is just as applicable to music as it is anything else. And while many scholars have defined originality as something new and never seen before, allow me to play devil’s advocate for a moment.
Consider the U.S. patent system and their methods for determining whether an item should be available for mass market. The patent office will typically award a patent to a person who proves their invention to be new. But in most cases, they will also give one to a creation that is ‘non-obvious, useful or industrially applicable.’
Now let us return to music. There are many music producers, past and present, that use samples of other artist’s recordings to create a new composition. Some use a full four-bar measure of an original and loop it. But I don’t find this method to be very artistic unless it is layered with another sample.
This is known as blending, and when done correctly - matching keys, pitches and rhythms between samples - it can be an extremely technical tool in DJing and record producing. But the problem is, very rarely is it done correctly. Using history as a gauge, it would seem that only one in every generation would be able to do it well.
The first of the pioneer in blending melodic compositions was DJ Shadow. In the movie Scratch, DJ Shadow said that looking for records ‘has almost karmic element of finding one record because it works so well with another.’ This is the sound that dominates majority of DJ Shadow’s first album, Endtroducing. Every sample that he uses blends seamlessly with the one before it.
“Building Steam with a Grain of Salt” is the first true song from the album. In this song, DJ Shadow blends the Lexia’s soulful ‘I can fly to the strangest land!’ vocals from “I Worship You” (The Jean Leccia Interpolation) with the opening guitar from Jermey Storch’s “I Feel a New Shadow” (From a Naked Window).
In the early 2000’s, another producer emerged from Columbus, Ohio named RJD2. I heard never heard another producer do what he does - taking an original record and reworking it into his own composition. On his song “1976”, he mixes the unlikely combination of a Spanish record (Sophy’s “Un Amor Original” from Yo Soy Una Mujer Y Una Santa) and a German Pop record (“Istanbul” from Cora’s self-titled album).
Just as DJ Shadow mentioned in Scratch, “The records that producers sample from are like a pile of broken dreams.” But if it is also true that “if you’re making records and DJing you’re adding to the pile of records you’re sampling from”, how can records that contain samples ever be called ‘not original?’
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- HIStory: Past Present and Future, Book I
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- Monk’s Music
- Genius of Modern Music: Volume 1
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Topics: Music, hip hop | No Comments »
Great Albums Not on Billboard’s Top Ten
Good music has never been a subjective matter. In my pre-to-early-teens my father told me that whether or not I liked a song, I should appreciate it. At the time it didn’t make much sense, but as I got older and began to delve into the realm of music, I became aware of the passion that went into making music. Even if a song wasn’t a match with my particular taste in music that didn’t mean that it wasn’t good.
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Topics: Latin Music, Music, R&B | 1 Comment »
10 Greatest Soul Albums
Soul and R&B have always been closely associated, and rightly so. The subject of both genres is typically love. They both carry a tune that is as rhythmic as it is melodic. But in my opinion, the difference is the way they approach music. One, R&B, appeals to the immediate ear - an audible sensation that may or may not last longer than a year. The other, Soul, could care less about what the listener wants. It is speaking from its, well, soul. And while this might be a bold statement, try listening to a Barry Manilow song right before something by James Brown (no offense to Manilow, he’s one of my favorite artists, just noting a comparison).
Anyway, for the purposes of this list, I stick with only the genre of Soul music. This is not a definitive list, but rather a list of soul albums that are must-haves for any fan of soul music. You can’t go wrong in purchasing any one of these albums.
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Topics: Music, Soul & Funk | 5 Comments »