You Don't Hear What I Hear

My father once used to joke that to him all music sounded the same--of course that wasn't true and he enjoyed listening to classical, jazz, and rock (Robert Mapplethorpe's famous photo of Patti Smith hung above his desk for years). But his comment does raise an interesting point--why does music sound different and have produce different reactions in people? For example, the theme from Titanic made many cry, it made me want to run from the room screaming. My mother loved to play the recordings of Broadway shows, and most of that has no effect on me.

Of course some of it may be what we associate a certain song with in terms of when we heard it playing. The sound track of the Sound of Music reminds a close friend of the day her little sister threw up in a theatre when they were watching the movie (How Do Solve a Problem Like Maria ? has that effect on me on matter what) and if you ask myself or three high school friends what they think of when we hear the song Freebird, we would immediately say "Star Wars!" (before our first time seeing the movie, the theatre screened a short tribute documentary about the then recently deceased members of the band Lynyrd Skynyrd).

But our reactions to songs are much more complicated than that. A field of study called music cognition seeks to answer this and other questions. Ohio State University has a department devoted to this area. It hopes to discover how humans process music as well as the impact music has on a person. While this may just seem interesting it could down the road have serious applications. If music can indeed heal a person, then it would be regularly incorporated into a patient's therapy (for example, Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords has been singing simple children's songs in order to help her regain speech. Information about her therapy can be found here http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/8349351/Gabrielle-Giffords-How-music-therapy-is-helping-her-recovery.html )

Aside from looking forward, another area of research is taking a look back to the origins of music. Using notations on stone tablets as well as period art, ancient songs are being uncovered. Its exciting to think that there are songs unheard for centuries just waiting to be heard again.

Solving the Problem (P.S. Fezzes are Cool)

The recording industry is in turmoil. Sales and revenues are dropping each year. Illegal downloading is seen as the major culprit. That may be true but few tears should be shed for a company like Sony. Yes, they are seeing decreased profits--but they are complicit in it! Sony not only has a music division but also an electronics one. They manufacture, market, and sell the very CD burners that are allowing people to rip music tracks. Where they see loss in one area, there is growth in another. The ones to pity are the artists. They are the ones who are losing out on revenue even if they see an increase in popularity.

So what is the answer? A idea would be to have a fee built into the cost of the equipment used to download songs. Money paid would go into a fund that would be distributed to record companies and their artists. Don't have a CD burner? You don't have to pay. Also, sites that allow you to copy videos and then rip music from them should not longer be free. Their fees should also include a payment to the record labels. Obviously, these are simple suggestions to fix a complex problem. However, something needs to be done or the situation will be unsustainable- no successful musician will continue to work for free!

Will solutions such as these solve the problem entirely? No, of course there will always be those that will find a way to skirt the fees. However, I think that majority of people would just pay the fee and stop their illegal downloading.

Case in point--Dr. Who.

I have been a fan of this British television since my days in college. After a hiatus, a few years ago the show was brought back and the fans have gone crazy for it on both sides of the Atlantic. At first, the American fans would have to wait impatiently for the shows to air in the UK and then several months later on American television. Then came the Internet and mere hours after airing, British fans would upload the episodes onto youtube and other streaming sites as fast as the BBC could take them down. Then, last year, it was decided to air David Tennant's final episodes on BBCAmerica hours after they aired on the BBC. The fans rejoiced! The ratings went through the roof!

That was short lived. When the new season with Matt Smith premiered, BBCAmerica aired them 3 weeks after the BBC. The American fans weren't about to wait to see the new Doctor...the new TARDIS...or the return of the Weeping Angels... back to youtube and the other sites! The ratings fell, especially when the episodes that were considered flops aired.

This December, the Christmas special aired on BBCAmerica just hours after it did in UK. Again, the ratings soared. Who knows what will happen when the next season starts this spring.

So, the lesson is-if you make it easy for people to do the right thing, they won't do the wrong thing.

One Step Beeeeehinddddd......

Libraries, being publicly funded institutions, always seem to be one, if not several steps, behind the latest technology. My library, Naperville Public Library, held onto its VHS collection until 3 years ago. (I should note that we thought we were getting in front of the curve by ordering copies of all films in DVD and Blu-Ray format only to see the economy tank and the demand for Blu-Rays flatten). Also, there is the question of new and competing technologies. Remember the VHS/Beta days? I think that libraries prefer to see which way the technological wind is blowing in order to make the best use of the few dollars they have available.

Such is the case at my library. Now that eReaders such as the Nook have caught on we are adding 50 to 100 titles per month to our virtual collection. However there has been little increase or even expressed interest in increasing our virtual music collection. Most patrons seem to realize that aside from some operas and other classical pieces of music, the selection is meager.

With regards to downloading to an iPod from a public library, my library does have a station that allows the downloading of eAudiobooks to an iPod. Music, however, cannot be downloaded. Even if it could be, currently iTunes only allows you to (easily) access songs on the computer to which they were downloaded. In other words, when my laptop died, I lost all the songs I had on my computer and my Shuffle did not allow me to transfer them to my new laptop. So, given these restrictions (which I doubt that Apple will waive for fear of losing revenue), even if a credit card payment device were attached to a public library's download station as my library has at its self-checkout stations, I doubt there would be a great demand for it.

Unless there is a monetary savings for patrons, I don't think that they will be looking for MP3/iTunes downloads through the library.

Lesson Two--What is MIR? or Finding that Heavy Manners Song

In the simplest terms MIR stands for Music Information Retrieval. To an every day user it may involve finding the song that they desire when they only remember a snippet of lyrics. To a scholar it may involve finding all subsequent compositions influenced by one piece. Years ago I remember watching a documentary Bill Moyers did in 1990 about the hymn "Amazing Grace" in which he traces the history (and possible roots) of the song as well as the number of different versions of it. One would think that producing a documentary on the same subject today would be very easy. In some regards it would, as a computer search would allow the researcher to find numerous (but note, not all) recorded versions of the song. However, a computer search would not allow a researcher for find recordings that contain specific qualities such as differences in harmony or pitch. Even the act of finding a song without knowing the artist or lyrics can be almost impossible. If I went to a reference desk and asked the librarian to find the name of a Heavy Manners song based on a few lyrics, they would probably be successful. However, if I hummed the opening to "Flamin' First" they would give me a blank look.

Aside from the limits of a computer search, the very construction of such a search engine is fraught with difficulty. First there is the shear number of recordings as well as those pieces of music that have never been recorded. The record industry does not seem interested in helping to construct one given the strenghtening of their copyrights as upheld by the courts. They do not want to share their recordings without having first been paid a fee and given the number of recordings it would be financially impractical to finance such a database. Finally, if one were to construct the perfect database that allowed for all methods of searching, once it was constructed it would be immediately out of date. Formats are quickly changing and with each new "upgrade" the previous systems become woefully inadequate. Just think if you wanted to research the influence of the movie Citizen Kane on other films---and you have to go through VHS tapes to do it!

The best those in MIR can do is to try to keep up, while knowing that they will always be several steps behind.