I love charts!

So, I found this very interesting set of graphs here: (there's more on the second page too.)
http://www.verysmallarray.com/

They detail various differences between the top 100 songs on Billboard's 2008 charts and the top 100 popular on Pitchfork (an indie rock news/review community) for the same time frame. Since indie rock seems to be the vogue these days I found it interesting to see comparisons drawn between the "old" rating system of Billboard and the "new" Pitchfork reviews.

The first thing that stood out to me is that the average/median "age first musically active" of all artist in Pitchfork's list is 21. Very very strongly 21.I'm going to have to take issue with this. Now, I'm going to make an unfair generalization, and probably get in to a lot of trouble but... To me, the majority of music labeled "indie rock" sounds the same. It sounds like immature, angsty, recycled noise, often infused with poor arrangement, mixing, and intonation. It sounds like it was written by a 21 year old with no prior musical activity. Wait a minute... oh - it makes sense now.

The next thing I find amusing is how geographically concentrated all of pitchfork's top US pics are - a staggering portion come from the NYC/Long Island/Connecticut area.

The last thing is that interesting is how fragmented the genres are on pitchfork. There are 37 separate genres represented on pitchfork's list, and only 24 on Billboard. BUT, if you listen to all the songs from pitchfork, they sound (to me at least) like they all come from the same genre. It seems like the artists are labeling themselves extravagantly in order to be unique and fresh, yet all producing the same sounds.

I guess my point from this would be that even though the new music scene prides itself on individuality and diversity, to a certain extent, it still suffers from limitations similar the "old" major label system. Is this bad? Maybe. Does it matter? Probably not.

Down with copyright laws?

This segment on the Colbert Report really got me thinking about copyright openness and how I feel about the restrictions music artists place on their work.

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Lawrence Lessig

Colbert Report Full Episodes
Political Humor

Rap Battle
Joke of the Day

I subsequently went to Lessig's website (http://www.lessig.org/blog/) and downloaded his books as pdfs (for free). I have not read through them yet - I have skimmed them quickly though - but I have come to agree with him: our current copyright system is too restrictive. Now I'm not sure what the best solution is (though I am confident there is a problem). Creative Commons licensing seems to be heading in the right direction (http://creativecommons.org/), and many well known artists (in many different fields; music, photography, journalism, writing) are endorsing this direction by licensing their art with CC.

Now what reminded me about Lessig's segment on the Report was this page:
http://thru-you.com/#/videos/1/

The above link displays one man's amazing artistic combination of many Youtube videos all chopped up and sequenced together to make an entirely new product. Under traditional copyright, this type of thing would be walking a fine line between copyright infringement lawsuits and fair use.

In a digital age where people access the collective knowledge of the whole human population on their cell phones, a more uninhibited flow of information should be encouraged. Now, as a musician myself I understand the desire to protect copyright, and I also understand that music as a profession inherently requires the exchange of money. How should we progress in order that information can flow, creativity is encouraged - not stifled, and people can enjoy the creativity of others without worrying about being sued by the very people they admire?

I really don't know. But I know there needs to be changes made.

An Alternate session

The other day I had what I thought was a great idea. What if I set up a session in one of Purchase's recording studios without a set list of things to record, what if I invited people to play, to show up at any point during a certain time frame, and leave when they felt like it? What if some of the most talented musicians in the school played together for the purpose of enjoying themselves and making authentic music?

Well, I did it. Signed out a studio, miced up the room, started Pro Tools and didn't stop for six hours. I ignored stupid things like the door to the studio opening, people walking in and out, talking, setting up instruments, etc. The session revolved around capturing a moment in time where people gathered together and just made music without worrying about playing perfectly or wondering if the vibe was "right" for the song.

The experience was thoroughly enjoyable, at any given time three to eight jazz majors jammed together in the live room, while I sat behind the desk and enjoyed the sound. Occasionally, I would get up and move mics to capture the changing instrumentation more effectively.

What came out of this experience was an eleven gig PT session with enough great takes to make a double album. A double album which was truly a live album. An album that went back to what music, especially jazz, is all about - musical discourse and mutual enjoyment and creativity.

So what that there were errors? So what that the recording has noises interfering and could be clearer or better balanced? This is about as close to sitting in the room with the musicians as we can get after the fact. What better way to remember a great time? Yeah, ok, maybe your recording has more definition, and has no errors - my recording has more soul.

mp3?

I recently read an article in Mix or EM or one of those music/engineering magazines that discussed the mastering process and how some professional mastering engineers will not master specifically for mp3 but will master for really high fidelity "specialty" websites that allow high quality digital downloads of music. This lead me to an interesting thought while I walked back from practicing at the Conservatory this evening.

Why are engineers so concerned about audio fidelity? Put another way - I understand the love of high quality audio, when I listen (really LISTEN) to music actively, I love having the ability to hear every little nuance of performance with an accurate frequency response and proper imaging. But when I'm just passively listening - ie driving, working, reading, writing, etc - a simple streamed mp3 works just fine for me. Furthermore, there are some songs that kick so much ass that I don't care if I hear them in mono from a overhead speaker on the Purchase Shuttle (examples include Superstition, Take Five, anything by the Temptations).

People argue about how artists/labels should distribute music and in what quality/format. What if the consumer had all the options (within reason)? What if when they bought an album or a song on iTunes or Amazon they could download an mp3 and a full bandwidth wav? What if they could download one and not the other? What if we stopped arguing about fidelity and just made music that was so good it transcended bad quality? (yeah, right.)

Anyway, why should we argue about these things. The beauty of the Internet and digital distribution is that iTunes doesn't have to keep a full stock of inventory with all different qualities, they just need to host single files. Unlike brick and mortar stores, the file is still in inventory after someone buys it.

Yeah? It's an idea anyway.

The Co-op

Now really, although it is kinda my assignment to talk up the Co-op I'm happy because I really do like it there. The Co-op serves as a great music venue, it's smaller than Whitson's and more intimate. Basically, it's a small coffee house complete with low lighting, couches, tea, and great music.

Tonight, Matt Levy is playing at 5, the Purchase College Blues Band (which includes Jim McElwaine and Jim Koeppel) is playing at 6, and Leila is playing at 7.

Everyone should be there. All three acts are phenomenal. Really this isn't just a "I have to write this" thing, this is a these people are great and it will be an amazing time thing.

First Post

This is my first post. I have to do this for my marketing class. I cannot imagine any reason why anyone would want to read about what I'm doing, so I'll try and fill this with slightly more interesting information about music, music industry, music business, perhaps some web design, and techno-babble.

First off, you should check out the page for Elephant Tree Records, a artist's collective/pseudo-label which I'm a member of.

http://virb.com/elephanttreerecords

Also, check out virb simply as a social networking site - it has some awesome features, and is customizable beyond belief.