The future of music (I)

Today’s music industry looks much different than the music industry of 20 years ago. There are a lot of reasons, most of them due to digital technology.

Free music web sites, such as mp3.com and download.com offers digital media that are interactive because people want music that they can burn to CDs, share and use as they please.

People want their music in easier consume formats. MP3s are easier still since you can put thousands of songs on a relatively small and portable iPod or mp3 player.

The current state of music industry

If you look at how people are getting their music these days, you will realize that record companies are battling over for the people who pay for music and consequently, get a tiny share of the music market.

It is clear that convenience wins over fidelity in music industry. (more info here)

Plenty of artists (U2, R.E.M, Radiohead) have streamed their albums before release. A current example is Portishead, an English band that released their new album on a music streaming service Last.fm from 21 April, a week before it goes on sale. It is free to listen to the tracks online, but users have to pay to download the tunes to the computer.

The idea here is that the artistic creation — the album — pays for itself by functioning as a medium for other business, such as fans rewarding them by buying tickets to shows and merchandise. What is the benefit for musicians on web sites such as last.fm? The service is funded through on-screen banner advertising. Artists get paid each time a track is played.

So, can we expect a revolution in music industry? Absolutely, and this revolution it's turning to a new kind of artists: music users.

Natalia

Something about commercial music

We can start this with the next question, What is commercial music? From my point of view, it’s the music constructed in sound laboratories, where today’s producers are involved. These producers choose a talented person, take it into the studio and they mold it according to the tendency in the market at that moment.

This conversion from talent to product destroys the artist’s creativity, making the artistic essence disappears and the prefabricated work rules around the pop culture.

When we talk about commercial music, this one doesn’t depend on the pop gender, there is art mechanization in the other music styles too. We can find commercial music quite superficial in rock music (My chemical romance is a great example), in rap (Eminem), and even in metal (Metallica albums as Load and Reload). Nobody saves from this, and the saddest thing is that this tendency is increasing each day.

Could we say that all commercial music in the market is garbage? Of course not. There are some artists that have the control of the creative process in the records, and they achieve the balance between the commercialism and product quality. Musicians like Phil Collins and Elthon John can create incredibly commercial products, but the effort and the quality put in the records is huge.

The big problem comes when the artist sales the soul to the devil and leaves all the creative process in a producer, a writer and an arranger, people that obviously have a different vision that the musician have. They are exclusively focused in how many singles the album is going to have, how kitschy the chorus is, and what other artist has done something like that.

The interesting about this, is that commercial music has a short life, and most of the times it doesn’t transcend historically. Artists like New Kids on the block, Flans, and many others, are ones who sold a lot of records in a period of time. Nevertheless, today they are forgotten in the music business.

On the other hand, when music is made with the soul, the transcendence is almost a guarantee. Great artists keep on stage for more than 20 years, just for being honest and not thinking in the money they are going to make. Anyway, the commercial music is not the only one that could sell tons of records. Hundreds of non-commercial artists have made a lot of money with his music. Nirvana, Pantera, Slayer, Kiss, Guns and Roses, Massive Attack are just few names in the universe of music that have been faithful to their believes.

Besides, if we add the quality of non-commercial music, then we have the perfect mix: amazing sounds, intelligent creations, and musical ability, we can’t ask for nothing else from a musician, so why do we have to conform with a repetitive and vulgar rhythm? I don’t know, you guys, but I prefer what soul makes. Let’s support good music, whatever the style is, because there will always be good and bad music, but we have the freedom to choose the best one.

by Cristian

Music & Video Games (I)

In 2004, a Japanese composer, Nobuo Uematsu, joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic for a performance of his work. After three days, there were no tickets. Actually, there was almost a riot when people couldn’t get a ticket.

What music was? Uematsu’s soundtrack for one of the most famous video games: Final Fantasy.

But video games music didn’t start with all of this quality. The first games, like “Pong” – a game in which the players hit a ball back and forth across a center line- has beeps that that indicate when the player bumps the ball or lose a life. Soon, programmers realized that they could use their limited resources to create and insert some songs at the begining of the games or some loops as background music. For example, who doesn’t remember some “Pacman” sounds? In “Space Invaders”, as the ships started to come down, the aliens, and as they got closer and closer, the sound got faster and faster, and as they're getting closer and closer, people would start to panic. Like the purpose of all music, it’s supposed to make you move and make you feel. Video games soundtracks began to take influence from more places, like the Russian song in “Tetris”. But in those times, video games music was too limited by its hardware. Despite these limitation, the most popular video games music appeared: The Super Mario Bros theme, composed by Koji Kondo.

It wasn’t until early 90’s when video games music began to improve with the apparition of the SNES. This console supported stereo sound and brought digitalized sound to console games. In those years, other consoles could boast similar abilities yet didn't enjoy the same popularity as the SNES...

Next part will show us the next generation of consoles, the current one and their application...

See ya!

*Easter Egg*

The following video is from Video Games Live -an impressive concert of the most popular games of all time. Enjoy it =]

Getting to know some lyrics

What about Matchbox 20? Matchbox 20 is one of the most successful rock bands that emerged in the past decade. Formed in Florida, United States, the band has sold 44 million albums worldwide from the releases of Yourself or someone like you, Mad season, and More than you think you are.

I’ve started to hear them when my sister brought their first album from the States and I loved them ever since. They released their latest album, Exile on Mainstream on 2007, which is a compilation of their greatest hits and some new songs such as “How far we’ve come”.

I remember the first time that I heard the song I was expecting something smoother. Instead, I realized that I’ve never thought about the contents of the lyric. Let’s face it: Global warming, politics, terrorism, the rate of extinction of species are strong reasons for me to think about what is going to happen to the world.

Some believe that a natural phenomenon will be the cause for the end of the world. Others are saying it'll be humans that set it off. I consider it’s an interesting issue that we all should think about it sometime. I mean, one action of yours may affect a lot of people. What do you think?

Comments are welcome!


Natalia

Matchbox 20 – How far we’ve come

I'm waking up at the start of the end of the world,
But its feeling just like every other morning before,
Now I wonder what my life is going to mean if it's gone.
The cars are moving like a half a mile an hour and I,
Started staring at the passengers waving goodbye,
Can you tell me what was ever really special about me all this time?

But I believe the world is burning to the ground,
Oh well I guess we're gonna find out,
Let's see how far we've come
Let's see how far we've come
Well I, believe, it all, is coming to an end
Oh well, I guess, we're gonna pretend,
Let's see how far we've come
Let's see how far we've come

I think it turned ten o'clock but I don't really know
Then I can't remember caring for an hour or so
Started crying and I couldn't stop myself
I started running but there's nowhere to run to
I sat down on the street, took a look at myself
Said where you going man you know the world is headed for hell
Say your goodbyes if you've got someone you can say goodbye to

I believe the world is burning to the ground
Oh well I guess we're gonna find out
Let's see how far we've come (right now)
Let's see how far we've come
Well I, believe, it all, is coming to an end
Oh well, I guess, we're gonna pretend,
Let's see how far we've come (oh yeah)
Let's see how far we've come

It's gone gone baby it's all gone
There's no one on the corner and there's no one at home
Well, it was cool cool, it was just all cool
Now it's over for me and it's over for you
Well it's gone gone baby it's all gone
There's no one on the corner and there's no one at home
Well, it was cool cool, it was just all cool
Now it's over for me and it's over for you

I believe the world is burning to the ground
Oh well, I guess, we're gonna find out
Let's see how far we've come (oh yeah)
Let's see how far we've come
Now well I, believe, it all, is coming to an end
Oh well, I guess, we're gonna pretend,
Let's see how far we've come (oh yeah)