Survivor Guitarist Sues Mike Huckabee Over ‘Eye of the Tiger’ Use

Posted on November 19, 2015 by Paul Carr

Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee is facing a lawsuit stemming from a September rally where the former Arkansas governor used Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger” without permission. Survivor’s Frankie Sullivan, who co-wrote the 1982 single, is suing Huckabee for unspecified damages after the candidate used the Rocky III theme at the high-profile rally for Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk who was jailed for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, The Associated Press reports. Click here for a full report in Rolling Stone Magazine.

This raises some important questions regarding the rights composers ‘give up’ and the ones that require permission. In the UK – it is clear that any sort of ‘adaptation’ requires permission – and it appears it is the same in the US. Although composer Sullivan is saying he does not like mixing music and politics – I suppose the issue is when your music is used for politics you don’t subscribe to. I wonder if he would have been covered legally if he had a cover version recorded?

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The Benefits of Listening to and Performing Music

Posted on November 16, 2015 by Paul Carr

Here is a fantastic video, which builds on my post from last week regarding the interlectual  benefits of engaging with music. Recent research indicates that engaging with music as either either a listener or performer has a unique impact on the brain – instigating unusual levels of activity throughout multiple areas of the brain. So – yet another reason to do a music degree!

It may also be worth checking out this latest piece of research from Austrailia – that outlines how listening to punk and metal music has a different impact on the brain than you would think,

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Music graduates are more employable than you might think | Education | The Guardian

Posted on November 9, 2015 by Paul Carr

Just read an interesting article in The Guardian which outlines the employability music graduates. The article goes on to discuss the array of professions that music graduates enter – and the important skills that good degrees indoctrinate into their awards. I would be interested in what colleagues think – including ex students. What are the important skills????

Music graduates are more employable than you might think | Education | The Guardian.

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Copyright in Lyrics: The Case of Taylor Swift

Posted on November 2, 2015 by Paul Carr

There was an article in The Guardian today that discusses the $42m lawsuit against Taylor Swift by Jesse Graham. Firstly, before we start – here are the videos of the two tracks in question – Swift’s ‘Shake it Off’ and Graham’s ‘Haters Gone Hate’

Graham claims that the lyrics during the chorus of ‘Shake it Off’ are based on his ‘Haters Gone Hate’. He commented

“Her hook is the same hook as mine, if I didn’t write the song Haters Gone Hate, there wouldn’t be a song called Shake It Off”.

Anyone with little to no musical knowledge can hear that the songs have no musical similarity – but can the lyrics of Swift’s song honestly be regarded as plagiarising Graham’s?  Firstly, a simple search in Spotify reveals another song entitled ‘Haters Gone Hate’ – featuring Deacon Dee, plus a number of songs with the title ‘Haters Gonna Hate’ – for example ‘Haters Gonna Hate’ by Hipteen

Technically – should these songs be included in the case too? Although I am an advocate of copyright laws and intellectual property protection, surely we have to get to the point where these sort of claims are simply kicked out of course well before they get there. If this sort of litigation continues, it can only have a negative impact on creativity.

To give an indicative example, one of my favourite songs – ‘Every Breath You Take’ by Sting’

This can be seen to have a clear, I would argue subliminal influence by a much  earlier song by Gene Pitney – also entitled ‘Every Breath I Take”

Although both songs have the same catch line – it would be ridiculous to claim that Pitney  could claim a percentage of the Sting song. This same is true for this case from Graham. I hope I am right – for the sake and sanity of the music industry

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Funding Popular Music in Wales: Some Suggestions.

Posted on November 2, 2015 by Paul Carr

Although these links are intended for my current final year popular music students, in reality they will be of interest for anyone interested in accessing funding to develop their careers in the popular music industry in Wales. Obviously, I will be very interested in anyone who has had access to funding via one of these schemes – or can think of any that are not mentioned. Some of the links below may be currently closed – but are certainly worth keeping an eye out for future calls.

Launchpad Fund Currently Closed – but worth looking to see what type of projects got the funding.

PRS ‘Women Make Music’

PRS Funding New Music. Again, worth looking at the projects they have funded

BPI Music Export Growth Scheme

The Brit Trust

Arts Council for Wales: Arts Grants for Organisations

AIM Startups

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The Demise of the Triangular Mix: Why Has it happened?

Posted on October 29, 2015 by Paul Carr

In Alan Moore’s excellent paper with Ruth Dockwary, he discusses the demise of what he calls the ‘Triangular’ mix – which has been replaced by the ‘diagonal’. To get an understanding of this, listen the ‘The Wind Cry’s Mary’ by Jimi Hendrix. Note how the drums are panned hard right – while the vocals are panned hard left.

https://vimeo.com/101093847

This can also be heard in ‘If 6 was 9’ by Hendrix. This time the vocals and drums are hard left, while the guitar is hard right.

Some basic listening would reveal that there are countless mixes of this type during the 60s, but as Moore’s paper reveals – slowly but surely it has been replaced by the ‘diagonal mix’ – where the vocals, bass and drums tend to be central – with other other instruments such as guitar and keys panned either side. A great example of this is the 1972 hit by Argent – ‘Hold Your Head Up’

This type of mix has become common place in popular music – the question is why? I have heard a number of reasons for this – including

  • Many 60s desks had no pan controls – only left- middle and right switches
  • Triangular Mixes are easier to move to mono
  • The emergence of headphone listening: a hard panned bass guitar for example can sound horrible via bud earphones

Diagonal mixes sound louder on Radio -see the loudness wars

It is interesting to listen to contemporary bands who are influenced by the 60s – who seem to take on all the stylistic influences – aside from the mix. For example listen to the example below –

I would be interested in any  examples of contemporary bands who are brave enough to use a  triangular mix – please message below. For a podcast of the full lecture – see below

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Critical Listening and Students: Popular Music and Form

Posted on October 22, 2015 by Paul Carr

In preparation for a musicology lecture this week, I began to think about the importance of students having an awareness of the general conventions in popular music. Factors such as an awareness of the commonality of eight bar sections (verses and chorus) throughout the decades (or even centuries), leads to the ability to when these ‘rules’ are broken. I would also argue it improves one’s perception as a songwriter – as it is possible to manipulate the ‘horizon of expectations’ of your listeners. As stated in my last post, it seems obvious to me that nearly all of the current top 10 is made up of 4, 8 and 16 bar sections – and there appears to be a general lack of experimentation with uncommon time signatures. I would therefore be really interested in any examples of chart hits that incorporate time signatures other than 4/4 or 3/4. Where are the modern day versions of Pink Floyd’s ‘Money’ (7/4) or Jethro Tull’s ‘Living in the Past’?  If any examples are found – I would be interested on how the time signature assists the general flow of the song – or is it simply there to be ‘cleaver’? Here is a spotify list of some of the best examples out there

When finishing my lecture, I asked the students to split into groups and consider the following traits for the current UK charts – between positions 11 – 20.

  • How does Rhythm help delineate musical form?
  • How does harmony delineate musical form? – does is stay the same or change between sections – what are the impacts of this?
  • How does melody delineate musical form? So far I have only found one example (Thanks to Joe Bennett) of a song that has the same melody for the verse and chorus – ‘Achy Breaky Heart’ by Billy Ray Cyrus.

  • How does metre delineate musical form? Are there any modern day chart examples of songs like ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’?

  • In what way does texture delineate musical form? In the modern day pop song – this appears to be one of the most common devices – as factors like harmony, metre and melody tend to stay the same.

This is one of my favourite examples by the Beach Boys

I am also interested of examples of uncommon time signatures and polyrhythm in ‘non chart music. Regarding the latter – what are the modern days examples of songs like Led Zeppelin’s ‘Black Dog’ or ‘Kashmir’

To finish – here is a spotify playlist of some music that plays around with all of these devices.

And finally – a podcast of the lecture – although there are a few technological interruptions in there!

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Have we seen an end time signature experimentation in main stream pop music: If so Why?

Posted on October 21, 2015 by Paul Carr

In preparation for a lecture this week, I  was considering examples of popular music that use time signatures other than 4/4 or 3/4. As you will see in the Facebook responses below – the vast majority of responses where either examples of music from a while back – or music that was not intended for ‘chart consumption’. So – my question is why? Have the charts become more formulaic, has the use of computer technology in the songwriting process simply resulted in less experimentation with metre, is it down to (lack of musicianship), or is this type of experiment now confined to album sales only? If not – what other reasons are there? Have we seen an end time signature experimentation in main stream pop music.

For those that are interested – I have put a Spotify playlist of some great compound time signature examples – time to confuse your brain….

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Prioritising the Elements of Music as a Starting Point of Analysis

Posted on October 16, 2015 by Paul Carr

This weeks  podcast concerns how we can begin to use the elements of music as a starting point of music analysis. It starts with three main questions

  1. How are the elements being used? This can be as basic as a description of what is taking place. For example, what is the form of the piece, what is the instrumentation, what is the texture – and does it change as the piece progresses, what type of mix are we dealing with – is this static or mobile, what effects are being used, how do the rhythms of various instruments interact to form a groove, how are particular instrumental timbres formulated, etc, etc, etc, etc.
  2. Once these element are identified – do any of them impact any specific meanings to us – and if so how and why? This is often a great starting point for a discussion around the polysemic nature of musical meaning – but also its ‘exactness’!
  3. Can we prioritise the importance of the elements in the song? This is essential, as the interest in a song has to come from somewhere. Is it in an unusual form, time signature, groove, lyrics, instrumentation, etc, etc. How do we rationalise this judgment? For example, a 4/4 time signature could be considered not important because it is ‘basic’, however, it may be essential in providing the space to allow other elements to work their magic.

This – and much more detail in included in podcast below.

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Starting to Think About Music: Song Arrangement and Track

Posted on October 8, 2015 by Paul Carr

Here is a podcast of an introductory lecture on ways we can think about popular music analysis, and the differences between Song, Arrangement and Track.

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