Music Presentation

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Music Presentation

• Sylva Emilyan, Fall 2008

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What is music?

• Music is organized sound created by human voices
  or instruments.
• Some historians believe that music started with
  the desire to imitate sounds in nature.
• Music produces a kind of pleasure which human
  nature cannot do without - Confucius

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Music Seminar Fall 2008

• Silva Emilyan,
• DIS 180 Information Ecology

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• Music is love in search of a voice - Leo
  Tolstoy
• Without music, life would be a mistake
• - Friedrich Nietzsche
• Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and
  philosophy. Music is the electrical soil in which
  the spirit lives, thinks and invents." - Ludwig
  van Beethoven
• Without music to decorate it, time is just a
  bunch of boring production deadlines or dates by
  which bills must be paid - Frank Zappa

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What makes a music genre popular?

• In one word,
• FANS!

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• Most of us listen to sounds made popular in our
  commercial culture TV, movie tracks, concerts,
  clubs, malls

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Repetition

• The more that we hear the same sound, the more it
  becomes familiar to the ear.
• The more familiar we become to hearing particular
  types of sounds the more we can decide what type
  of music sounds good.
• By using the same elements to create a similar
  sound, the audience identifies particular sounds
  and groups them into categories of style.
• Similar styles of music can be contained under a
  larger category called a genre

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Religion

• During the middle ages and the time of the
  Renaissance era, the church had much greater
  control of what the people could experience
  culturally and the type of music and sounds that
  could be played. During this time, what was
  popular was greatly restricted by the church.
• As the church began to lose some of its dominance
  in the mainstream culture, people had more
  freedom to choose and create music with fewer
  limitations and restrictions.
• Minor sound, complex rhythms and untraditional
  dynamics and tonalities began to be explored.

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Evolution of musical sounds

• As time passes, the same old sound may begin to
  lose popularity with the mainstream audience.
• Newer sounds that have evolved from the old sound
  begin to emerge and change the way particular
  styles are played.
• If the change in the style is drastic enough and
  establishes enough fans, an entirely new genre is
  born.
• Inevitably, these new sounds eventually will
  become familiar again and they too will be
  considered old.

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Technology of musical sounds

• In taking a closer look at how sounds can evolve
  to form a new genre, we can compare the music of
  the Classical period over 150 years ago to the
  music of just 75 years ago, the age of Jazz and
  Swing music.
• During the very early years of Jazz music,
  instruments were more similar to a concert band
  but shortly after the birth of Jazz a single
  drummer on a drum set became essential to every
  band.
• 150 years ago, in the height of the classical
  era, this would not have been possible because
  the drum sets were not invented until the early
  1900s.

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Technology Evolution

• Just as the drum set and a new style of playing
  called improvisation ushered in a new genre
  called Jazz, the invention of the electric guitar
  by Les Paul paved the way for a new genre
  called Rock n Roll, which evolved from the
  sound of Blues music.

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Political

• Sometimes music gains popularity for political
  reasons, as seen in the rise of folk music during
  the anti-war / peace movement of the 60s.

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Regional

• Throughout history, genres are developed in a
  particular region.
• Tango traditionally originated among European
  immigrant populations of Argentina and Uruguay
  but its still a dominant part of their culture.

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• We can see this regional factor in the birth of
  Grunge in Seattle, in the early 90s.
• Bands like Pearl Jam and Nirvana collaborated and
  influenced each other in a way that was isolated
  to the rest of the pop music world at that time.

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. . .we see how music influences the way we
dress, act, and relate among the people in our
culture.
Nirvana
Pearl Jam
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Lifestyle

• A new genre of music often emerges because people
  believe it gives them the power to express
  themselves or the certain type of lifestyle that
  they have.

David Bowie
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Lifestyle

• Again, we can see lifestyle play a role in
  peoples choice of music, such as Glam and
  Goth music.

Glam
Goth
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Expression

• Sometimes, a genre is popular just because of the
  way it is delivered or expressed.
• One of the main reasons, Disco music became
  popular in the late 70s was for its regular bass
  beat which made it particularly fun for dancing.

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Lifestyle Expression

• Usually there are combination of reasons that
  ultimately makes a genre of music popular.

• Hip-Hop is an expression of the trials of the
  inner-city lifestyle and the emotions that
  are associated with it.

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In Review. . .

• Although we didnt cover every reason that makes
  a genre popular, we can see that some of the main
  ones are

• Regional
• Political
• Lifestyle
• Expression

• Repetition
• Religion
• Evolution
• Technology

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Results of the survey from our class
Todays 3 most popular genres Hip-Hop, Pop, Rock
What makes genres popular? Most popular answer,
we hear it all the time Where do you get your
music from? Internet, iTunes, and friends. Do
you download illegally? YES (8) NO (5)
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FYI According to the Recording Industry
Association of America Top 5 Diamond (10
million copies ) albums 1.Eagles Greatest
Hits, 1971-1975 2.Michael Jackson
Thriller 3.Pink Floyd The Wall 4.Led Zeppelin
Zeppelin IV 5.AC/DC Back in Black
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Top 5 selling artists of all time 1.The
Beatles 2.Garth Brooks 3.Elvis Presley 4.Led
Zeppelin 5.Eagles
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Credits www.RIAA.com The Art of Being Human
by Janaro Richard and Altshuler Thelma Listen
by Joseph Kerman and Gary Tomlinson Wikipedia,
musicians Recommended film Latcho Drom