April 30, 2018

Tommy Dorsey and Thomas A. Dorsey. Weird wrinkle in segregation that it prevented confusion back in the day.

Autotune “de-skills” the singer. I can see that. Kind of like electronic rider aids “de-skill” professional motorcycle racers. I’m a lousy singer and far from being a pro-level rider, so I’ll gladly accept all the assistance I can get in both endeavors. However, the parallel with industrialization de-skilling and de-valuing skilled craftsman is something I’ve seen in my lifetime. Factory kitchen cabinetry is no match for a skilled finish carpenter, but the market is saturated with affordable, perfectly serviceable factory pieces. We usually shop by price, and therefore the number of specialized craftspeople are ever decreasing.

Never thought I’d agree with Marx, but his concept of “commodity fetishism” sounds like he was ahead of his time, in one respect.

Review/Course Overview. From Edison cylinders to digital recording, preserving voice and music is an example of displacement of time and space. I also suggest the written word was a similar form of displacement when it was still a new concept.

May 2, 2018

Additional review. Pop music’s legacy is as a diary/journal of US history. A history of racism, politics, and people displaced. Does DAW software impoverish or enrich the music experience? More the former than the latter, I would argue. Accessibility may be its own form of enrichment, I guess, but it’s not worth the trade off in value.

Culture contrasted with politics. Culture promotes blending, politics promote segregation, sorting and balkanizing groups to facilitate control. Ask yourself, which feels like human nature?

One final thanks to Claude Shannon. Reducing everything to binary data is more a blessing than a curse. Alexander Hamilton would have approved of Shannon.

April 23, 2018

Bumper music: The Carolina Chocolate Drops, “Don’t Get Trouble in Your Mind.” Audio first, then video. Well, now; that was a surprise.

The Snowden family vs. Dan Emmet. We may never know the truth, but since copyrights are similar to patents, it reminds me a little of James Rumsey, Robert Fulton and steam-propelled boats. Fulton was granted a patent for his steamboat, yet Rumsey had demonstrated his steamboat years before. There are design differences, but by broad definition Rumsey was first to propel a boat using steam. But I digress.

Phenomenon: Technology displacing artists from their work. In the case of artists selling midi files of their work to make some coin, I have no issues with it. Compared to live performances, it’s a force multiplier, making money 24/7 via PayPal. Does it cheapen or diminish their craft? Maybe, but it also disseminates their work farther than possible by other means. Power to the people.

Additional discussion of GarageBand project. I’m thinking of a song as a timeline of US history. Maybe dropping Neil Armstrong’s “One small step for (a) man…” audio somewhere inside my mix.

April 25, 2018

Class canceled.

April 16, 2018

Technology and Citizenship. Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton contrasted. When examining the words and decisions of historical figures, I must always remind myself that I’m doing so with the benefit of x number of years knowledge. Knowledge is not wisdom. That being said, I still think Jefferson’s concept of a nation of “yeoman farmers” would have doomed the US to invasion and occupation by our friends the British. They were still kind of pissed about losing the Revolutionary War. I agree with his advocacy to gain more land, but agree equally with Hamilton in his vision for an industrial future foe the US.

Identity of an individual, identity of a nation. Technology is the master and potential destroyer of both. I’m afraid we’re becoming Wonder Bread. Perhaps hundreds of varieties of Wonder Bread, each living in clusters of sameness.

April 18, 2018

Discussion of Final project and demonstration of GarageBand software. Not so intimidating when watching someone else, but will have to try it myself in the STAR lab in JC. Using a Mac is like swimming on my back. I’m a good swimmer, but prefer something resembling the American Crawl. It’s what I’m familiar with, like a Windows PC.

GarageBand reminds me of a sportbike with a suite of electronic rider aids. Lean-sensing traction control, anti-lock brakes, launch/wheelie control. All these features can make a mediocre rider safer and better, but can be in the way of a highly skilled rider. I’ll bet GarageBand’s assistive tech may bug highly skilled musicians and purists. Just a hunch.  Initial plan: start with a midi file of Mickey Newbury’s “American Trilogy,” and modify/personalize it.

April 9, 2018

Bumper music: Tito Puente’s Ran Kan Kan. Beats revisited. The more I listen to James Brown, the more I like him. Tastes change with age. I used to hate The Who, but they’re starting to wear on me since playing the halftime show during a Superbowl some years back.

Still unsure if I understand beats, yet. Maybe I do get it, but some doubt is present. If I could see it on a time-domain instrument like an oscilloscope, maybe it would make sense. This is an example of an “unknown unknown,” that is, I don’t know what I don’t know. I’m OK with that.

One doesn’t have to be good at music to enjoy it. Lots of things in life are like that (insert joke here). I have a good handle on sampling theory and interpolation. When using frequency-domain instruments one can get some squirrelly readings by under-sampling a signal. Thank you, Mr. Nyquist (and Claude Shannon, again).

What was especially cool was learning that certain overtones (harmonics) determine the “fingerprint” of voices and instruments. Guitarists choosing the point on a string to create desired harmonics should have been obvious to me, but I’ve never noodled with musical instruments. Up the frequency range into the electromagnetic neighborhood, waves can act in a similar fashion when interacting with environment. Waves are waves, it would seem.

April 11, 2018

Stephen Witt’s “How Music Got Free.” Great book; could be made into a movie. It’s a bonus when you can learn history while enjoying a well-crafted story. It’s worth noting that the debate about intellectual property in previous lectures tended to get my brain twisted around a bit. Strangely enough, when the issue is dealt with in Witt’s book, I felt completely neutral towards it, and I can’t explain why. Maybe because the story doesn’t require me to make a decision on right and wrong; like watching a movie where you know the end is predetermined.

I can’t help but admire the Fraunhofer team that championed the mp3 format tenaciously. “The race is not always to the swift, but to those who keep running,” as they used to say. Sharing the code early on made all the difference in the world. I can’t bring myself to hate Doug Morris for becoming the richest record exec in the universe. He was delivering on his obligation to his employer, and wasn’t stealing the money from me. I have mixed feelings about the crimes committed by Dell and Tony in North Carolina. No doubt they were stealing, but I marvel at their methods. Selling bootleg music and movies face-to-face as well as posting to file sharing online, it’s amazing Dell made it so long without getting caught. In addition he had a marketing network with barber shops. That’s an example of the American Dream: Bootstrap bootlegging.

April 2, 2018

Bumper music: Count Basie’s Orchestra featuring Lester Young on saxophone.  Segue to Chuck Berry’s Johnny B. Goode, borrowed from Lester, or Louis Jordan. Rarely does a truly original idea come along. We build on or repurpose others’ ideas. It’s all fun and games until someone gets a lawyer. See Bridgeport Music, Inc. vs. Dimension Films, 2005.

The technology of early audio sampling is interesting. The “Mellotron” was probably a nightmare to maintain, but performed a unique function. Next came turntable sampling, which gave way to digital samplers. Innovators in sampling concerned themselves with the mechanical “how” to sample, while nobody cared about the issue of intellectual property.

I do believe DAW software created music is indeed a lot like Wonder Bread. All the components are there, but it’s not quite right. As if going through the transporter on Star Trek, and arriving at your destination transformed as well as transported.

April 4, 2018

Class canceled today.

Mar 26, 2018

Digital Scavenger Hunt. Subject: “Heavy Metal Music”

Entered into Google Ngram Viewer as “Heavy Metal Music” (included “Music to avoid periodic chart type heavy metals). Zooming focus revealed term first appeared in 1976. Other searches revealed many of what we refer to today as “Heavy Metal’ were called “Hard Rock” previous to ~1976. For example, AC/DC formed in 1974. I’d chalk it up to the evolution of the English language in popular culture.

Mar 28, 2018

Copyrighting and the Birthday Song. I’m all for protecting the intellectual art and written work of others, but this issue has reached ludicrous velocity. Apologies to the late Hill sisters and their descendants.

Balancing openness vs. profit regarding intellectual property is one messy problem to ponder. The only solution is to set a reasonable period for copyrights. The definition of “reasonable” can be debated at length, but I do know what is unreasonable: the Disney Act of 1998. The Washington Post characterized the Copyright Term Extension (Disney) Act of 1998 as “…starving the public domain of new works for 20 years…”

Intellectual property vs. physical property. I can build a fence around my livestock, but the computer code I wrote can never truly be fenced-in. The physical world is so much easier to maintain.

The concept of corporations as disembodied immortal beings. That really adds another dimension to how I view corporations from now on. It’s both cool and creepy at the same time.

Bonus fact learned today: Before modern medicine and nutrition, average lifespan figures were skewed by high infant mortality rates.

Mar 19, 2018

“A novice in the archives.” In any discipline, there will always be those who want to keep the membership exclusive, which is understandable. If you’re passionate about something, it’s difficult not to be protective, sometimes overprotective, toward it. History is no different.

One of the best mind exercises is thinking in different ways about familiar subjects and events. Before this class, I never thought of history as something that “belonged” to anyone. I’m OK with museum displays being behind glass or cordoned-off by ropes. History may belong to all of us, but historians and curators should protect the physical artifacts. Digital historical documents, though, are fair game for all. The only risk is the possibility of misrepresentation, but that existed even when all history was stored in print.

Dr. Lewis H. Steiner’s letter from Frederick. Md, dated September 1862, was interesting. I haven’t fully decided what to make of it. He was certainly a well-educated person, but maybe not in matters of military reconnaissance. Access to Steiner’s letter is a great example of the advantage of digital historical documents. Anyone can read it from anywhere. I can’t believe I take that capability for granted.

History as a possession is like water, in a way. Individually, we only use it briefly, but at the same time it’s shared with the world. Water can be a pure substance, or it can be polluted.

Mar 21, 2018

Class canceled due to snow.

Mar 5, 2018:

I missed this lecture. Since I can’t comment on what I didn’t experience, I’ll fill this space with random but hopefully relevant thoughts. Miller’s Segregating Sound could be the source for a semester’s worth of instruction all by itself. I used to have a positive opinion of folklorists until reading of the Lomaxes. If you have a preconceived notion and set out to find evidence for it, that’s not science; it’s advocacy. Before Miller’s book, my concept of folklorists was formed by the Foxfire book series spotlighting Appalachian heritage. Now I question those works as well. It’s healthy to question.

Of course, Miller could be full of it, too. This I doubt, however. One of my favorite passages was (can’t remember the chapter) when he framed folk music as being an occupation. One performer was quoted as saying bad times do not automatically bequeath one with the ability to play the blues. Blues are a talent. It’s hard work. Often inspired by a hard life.

Mar 7, 2018:

Boundaries. Suitable theme given the reading Segregating Sound, by Karl Hagstrom Miller. As stated in the lecture, boundaries either explicitly discourage crossing or implicitly invite it.

Boundaries only work when we’re aware of them. As a white grade-school kid listening to 45 rpm Motown singles (from jukebox castoffs, see previous blogs) in the attic, I had no clue I was crossing a border. It still doesn’t seem like I was transgressing to this day. Just like the people who listened to Eddie Lang’s guitar behind Bessie Smith’s vocals, the artists’ race didn’t matter to me. It’s all about the music.

Decades ago, in a land far away: One of my supervisors, Staff Sergeant “Nasty” Smith, told me about buying a Little River Band album, and being shocked to find the band members were all white (SSgt Smith was not white, by the way). Boundaries. I could see he was deeply conflicted as to whether to keep it or not. Maybe I shouldn’t share that. Sorry, Nasty.

Nationalism. I’d have to argue that contractual nationalism is what I feel. I’m highly suspect of anyone playing the romanticism angle, and as for race, we’re all of them. E Pluribus Unum.

Feb 26, 2018:

Beats revisited. New World beats as compared to African-American beats. Ahead of the beat versus behind it. Now that I’ve seen it illustrated, I’m more conscious of it. Thinking in terms of beats, the tango becomes even more complex. The beat tree of Swing produced the branches Jazz and Blues. See Count Basie and Louis (“King Louis”) Prima.

Interesting niche style: DC Swing/Hip-hop crossover, “Go-Go.” Perhaps the very end of a branch on the music evolutionary tree. Not like it’s a bad thing; it is what it is.

Sweet Child O’ Mine, set to a swing beat and performed in New Orleans style by Postmodern Jukebox, was strangely cool. This was the exception; other examples of rock songs set to a swing beat brought on sensations of motion sickness. Enter Sandman in a Bluegrass arrangement might not have been such an affront to the senses had I never heard Metallica’s version. Aesthetic or not, the lesson in beats was reinforced.

Feb 28, 2018:

Four Chord Song, by Axis of Awesome: Fun and educational.

Borrowed elements in music, borrowed elements across culture. Has the phrase, “Cultural appropriation” been overplayed yet? If not, it’s close. If information wants to be free, then music most definitely wants to be free. Not the money end of it, but the creative part. The heart of it.

In the late 19th – early 20th centuries, things were bad enough for African-Americans in the South already. People like Sen. Tillman (SC) and Sen Glass (VA) weren’t satisfied, and sought to further codify discrimination. No wonder the Great Migration took place. At the same time, minstrel shows were still popular. Words fail me. With jobs in northern cities providing more disposable income, and a yearning for familiar sounds, black families bought records. Adam Smith was proven correct again, and a market stepped up to meet the need. Just be sure to look for the word “authentic.” Speaking of authentic: records were, by their nature, audio only. The phonograph didn’t betray Eddie Lang playing guitar for Bessie Smith.

A side note on migration: Later in the century poverty, not discrimination, was the motivator for a similar but smaller migration of white Appalachians from the hills of the southeast to large northern cities in search of jobs. The “Hillbilly Highways” led to cities such as Detroit, Michigan, and Akron, Ohio, once the tire manufacturing capitol of the world.

My only exposure to Muddy Waters prior to this class was whenever I’d hear one of his songs on an Alligator Records anniversary collection CD. His life’s story is incredible. If the Lomaxes did much good with their folklore expeditions, Muddy Waters is a big part of it.

Authenticity is one of those qualities that’s hard to define. When you see it, though, you know it.

Feb 19, 2018

American popular music, an introduction. Before this lecture, I was blissfully ignorant about the very beginnings of American popular music. I enjoyed several kinds of music and had a faint idea of the genres that influenced them, but that was it. I guess I was kind of like the Eloi at the buffet table in H.G. Wells’ 1895 novel, The Time Machine. I didn’t care where it came from, it was good. That all changed with this lecture.

Growing up in the 1970s and 1980s meant Looney Toons cartoons on occasion. Did kids of that era know who Al Jolson was? No. We’d see a guy in blackface on his knee singing “Mammy” behind Bugs Bunny and just ignore it. That may be a lighthearted observation, but there’s nothing lighthearted (or shallow, for that matter) about the phenomenon of minstrel singers and the practice of performing in blackface. It’s a puzzlement for me.

It’s safe to say learning about minstrel shows is a level of disturbing I’ve never experienced before. Blackface performing is a form of insanity, on the part of both the audiences and performers alike. All the explanations as to “why” that were given make sense from an intellectual standpoint. In practice, though, I keep asking myself, ‘What were they thinking?,” and “Who thought that was a good idea?”. I’m so grateful it went out of style. Or it sort of did. The value of this queasy lesson is the ability to see today’s pop culture through a different lens. Blackface never entirely went away, it just lost the burnt cork and greasepaint.

Learning about beats, specifically the 1-3 and 2-4 beats, explains why I was always getting out of step when marching all those years ago. Damn that John Philip Sousa.

Feb 21, 2018

An important take-away from the minstrel show lecture: pop culture vs. political culture. Pop culture is about mixing and integration. Political culture is about enforced segregation. An introduction to Ralph Ellison, a man working between the worlds of European classic music and southern US-based blues. As Miller said in this book, “Segregating Sound,” There’s often more diversity among those in a defined group than between those from different groups. The groups exist in large part because of the political culture that divides us.

Dirt vs. soil is sort of like noise vs. signal. Humans are organizing animals (after adolescence), and thinking is the act of “placing stuff.” Boundary transgressing animals (BTA) are an interesting concept.  If we have no category for it, it’s either a demon or deity.

Ritualized inversions of normality. This may explain minstrel shows, but it’s still no excuse for them. They’re way beyond the reasonable threshold of queasiness.

“Dr. Plecker, 86, Rabid Racist, Killed by Auto” from the Richmond Afro-American newspaper. We should be thankful he never rose to a higher position of power than he did. His acts cannot be undone, but fortunately his policies have. Just as we remember and celebrate those who’ve advanced our society, so should we never forget those whose life’s work was to drag us down.