Music of the Mind

This week I was watching a CNN documentary about the Waco standoff and how they used different sounds as a form of psychological torture--these included the sound of phone off the hook and the constant playing of "Jingle Bell Rock" (!? I can think of A LOT of other more annoying songs--"Must Be Santa" immediately comes to mind). Of course, this is nothing new, music has been used as a force to bring down about change (the 60s), flush out those in a standoff (Manuel Noriega), and control a populace (the Taliban's ban on anything remotely fun). As a form of expression, it can be free, beautiful, liberating or controlled and oppressed...but not really....we can always hum a tune in our heads or create songs the world will never hear in the privacy of our mind--no special training or tools needed (seems the Taliban never did find a way around that). It is a form of expression open to all.

Maybe only a few get heard by many, but all can be heard by some.

This week's video is a tribute to Elisabeth Sladen aka Sarah Jane Smith. This week's season premiere of Dr. Who was bittersweet--Sleep Well, Our Sarah Jane http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67yfZHpuWqg

I wonder, wonder, wonder

Greetings from Snowy Illinois. It has been a challenging week personally but today I will ponder the professional. Discussions about music, and why we listen to what we listen to are all very interesting but I can say that in the five years I have worked at the reference desk of my public library they have never come into play nor have I ever been asked for music advisory. Everyone seems to know what they like...now the question that I ponder is "Will they be able to get it?"

The rise of iTunes and eBooks have made the majority believers in portable technology. This is all well and good when you can download "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" for free from your library. But now Harper Collins has decided to put a limit (26) on the number of times a book can be downloaded under a license agreement. Over 26, you need to buy a new one. Ah, its all fun until someone figures out how to get you hooked---and then you get owned.

I wonder if the same thing will happen to music. Will there no longer be original hard copies available to the general public. Will all music become digital? No doubt the poor and technologically non savvy will suffer. I doubt this will happen soon. The typewriter was replaced by the keyboard, the record by the CD, and soon the CD by the online version. 50 years from now, will libraries have anything to check out to patrons?

This week's video---suggested by my post title---Gloria Estefan http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXZoBvygp4U

Kathy

PS Enjoy the season premiere (mere hours after the Brits watch it) of Dr. Who on Saturday. Thank you, BBCAmerica!

The Soundtrack of Our Lives

Music is a part of our everyday existence, from singing in the shower, rocking out with the radio on the way to work, as part of worship in church, or at the gym on the treadmill working out to a pace set by the tunes on your iPod. Thanks to technological advances music is more portable, more personalized. It can also be found in places where once it was taboo. In libraries patrons listen to music on their computers making no more noise that someone reading. Thanks to the Internet and sites such as youtube.com its no longer simply auditory, there is a visual component- be it a band's official video or a song being used to highlight clips from a person's favorite movie or television show. Also artist sites have concert footage as well as special webcasts.

Music is also in a person's memory. A local radio station (and no doubt others across the country) advertises that it plays "the soundtrack of our lives." Sometimes music is so tightly intertwined with an event one cannot be mentioned with the other. Case in point, my sister and I and our childhood trips to Vermont.

We lived in Schenectady, New York as children in the early 70s, just a short ride from the Vermont border. Every Fall my parents would pile us in the car and say we were going to "look at the leaves" (actually that was code for "let's make a liquor run before the holidays since Vermont doesn't have a tax on the stuff.") There are certain things I will always remember about those trips and decades later I was curious if my sister had the same memories. So, I asked my her what she remembered about the Vermont trips.

Her reply was identical to mine. "It always rained, Mom and Dad always bought booze...and every time we went "Brandy" played on the radio!"

Looking Glass is no mere one hit wonder for the Ponton girls!

Music and memory are personal. What might bother one, may have no effect on another. A friend going through a divorce let his wife keep all the CDs as he said he would never be able to listen to them without thinking of her and how it all went wrong. I still love the song "More Than This" even though it was the first song my ex-husband and I danced to at our wedding. Its all personal, based on style, taste, mood and memory. There is really no defining it or quantifying it. It is.

So now, in honor of my Dad who passed away on April 16, 1994...this week's video--- "Brandy" by Looking Glass http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-dleViv2nc

Corrina, Corrina...or I don't get it

"Somebody once wrote that writing about jazz is like dancing about architecture." Manny, Corrina, Corrina

To be honest this week's entry will be short. The reason for this is that the links found at http://www.visualcomplexity.com/vc/index.cfm?domain=Music were pretty to look at and mildly interesting but didn't provoke much reaction besides that. Actually, they reminded me of a comment a friend made after seeing Blue Oyster Cult in the late 70s---"Their light show was so good, you didn't even need to be stoned to enjoy it!" Sorry, but all these clouds and maps and manipulations are creative and fun but that's about it. Maybe being 49 I just don't get it. Seeing music mapped out or presented in a visualized artistic form does nothing to increase my knowledge or enjoyment of it. I never like the swirling colors that Media Player provided as a backdrop to the songs I was playing on the computer.

So while I commend all those how put in the hard work, I saw nothing that will have me make a return visit.

In honor of the scientific types (who no doubt possess minds far more creative than mine) who created these websites, some music from one of the first mainstream technogeeks. Mr. Thomas Dolby http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkj4p3rI17s

Just What I Needed.....

To be honest at the reference desk I rarely get questions involving music any more challenging than "I'm looking for a recording of "Where is the Love" but not the original--its was in a movie with 'Presidents' in the title." Actually that was easy, it was on the soundtrack of "Dead Presidents" and when the gentleman came in to get it he proposed to me! (Sorry, he wasn't my type...)

But once in while there is a much more involved question and if allmusic.com doesn't do the trick then I am going straight to the Harvard College Library Online Resources for Music Scholars: http://hcl.harvard.edu/research/guides/onmusic/ The variety of websites listed here is amazing--and most of them can be accessed for free!

Here is but a selection of them--

The ARChive of Contemporary Music http://www.arcmusic.org/begin.html - the website is work in progress but has a wonderful overview of music in film, articles about the music scene in Paris and Havana, as well as listing its new acquistions.

The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive http://diamond.boisestate.edu/gas/ Want to learn more about the composers? Does every opera involve duty (sorry, West Wing reference)? This is the place to start. One amazing part of this website is that some of the operas even have karaoke files so you have a do-it-yourself "Pirates of Penzance" in your living room!

Some links lead to websites concentrating on very specific time periods. One of these is Voices from the Dust Bowl: The Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin Migrant Worker Collection, 1940-1941 http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/afctshtml/tshome.html It contains an overview of the time period, song lyrics and photos. It would be perfect for any student trying to gain a fuller understanding of life at that time.

Other websites are for archives located outside the United States. Library and Archives Canada website http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/sheetmusic/028008-4000-e.html has pdf files of sheet music as well as audio files for selected titles.

Sites such as The American Music Center http://www.amc.net/ provides support to musicians and even hosts its own online radio station at http://www.counterstreamradio.org/ If someone is looking for American classical music, both old and new-this it the place to hear it!

Some links such as the American Recorder Society's website, http://www.americanrecorder.org/ and the Historic Brass Society's page, http://www.historicbrass.org/ will probably have only limited appeal and may already by known by many patrons it seeks to serve. That being said, my son, a college music major, was thrilled when I showed him the International Clarinet Association's site at http://www.clarinet.org/ The organization allows members to borrow scores and there are numerous events world wide that a person can participate in or attend.

Of broader appeal is the Grammophone website, http://www.gramophone.net/ which offers full text articles in a searchable database. Grammophone is carried at our library and back issues are available through a database, but it is nice to know that I can direct patrons to one dedicated to that publication.

While most websites are well laid out and very user friendly. I was disappointed by the Music, Mind, Machine site http://www.nici.kun.nl/mmm/ The group conducts research regarding music and the mind however it presented a format that was a bit beyond me.

I will post a review of the Evolver.FM site in the discussion section.

Til next week, enjoy this week's video

Setting Yourself Apart

Artists today need to find a way to get themselves noticed. In the past it may have been by constantly touring and giving interviews in order to build a following. Now given the explosion of the Internet and social media an online presence is a must. Bands have their own Facebook pages and websites. However, given that everyone is doing this, artists may find themselves right back where they started unless they find a way to set themselves apart. Perhaps they offer free downloads of some of their songs (more on that in a bit) or they come up a video that becomes a viral sensation such as Ok Go's "Here it Goes Again." No doubt their dance on treadmills got them a lot more attention than any amount of touring- it led to appearances on the MTV awards and the CBS show Las Vegas. I wonder what long term effect this had on their career. Recently, they split with EMI and set up their own record label, and seem content to be indie rockers and not BIG STARS.

Having a song used on a commercial can also be boom--if your fans can find it! One night, many years ago, in a bout of insomnia, I had on HBO. They ran a 3 minute commercial for their programs featuring a song called "Wrapped in My Memory." I quickly found that the singer was Shawn Smith, and clicked on shawnsmith.com...and found that it was a website for a Christian singer! Well, after some more searching, I found the right Shawn Smith and was rewarded with a free download---of "Wrapped in My Memory!" Strange thing was, there was no mention of it being used not only in the HBO ad but also at the end of the Sopranos episode "Long Term Parking" (where Ade meets her end). Very much a missed opportunity!

As librarians we need to be aware that patrons will be coming in to the library and asking for the CD of "those guys on the treadmills" or that Sopranos song. Searching will involve more than the online catalog or typing lyrics into Google. Youtube may become more of a search engine since patrons can see the artist. Facebook and band websites will also be enlisted to find release dates of new music. As artists expand their presence on the Internet, librarians will need to be aware of it and learn how to use it to find materials.

This week's video is a Sopranos tribute set to Shawn Smith's "Wrapped in My Memory" (warning: contains brief nudity)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeldvNxpW44

So You Want to Be a Rock 'N' Roll Star

That's a great idea but as I've learned from the previous weeks readings being a professional singer reminds me of the old joke about another career path..."I'm an English major..you want fries with that?"

There is money to be made..but unfortunately, it probably not by you.

This week's websites had three that I will no doubt be recommending from my seat at the reference desk. Every year the high school students in my area are required to a major project in which they explore their chosen (at that moment at least) career path. They need to research education requirement, projected salaries, and career outlook. We have a wonderful database that assists them but I found the Berklee and Full Sail sites to be very informative in terms of listing the variety of careers in music. Also, the Music Biz site had a wealth of advice for a musician who has decided to forgo college.

I also wanted to give a followup on the Doctor Who premiere that I mentioned in a another post. BBCAmerica has decided it would rather have America's eyeballs on its station as opposed to BitTorrent sites and therefore is premiering the new season the same day as it does in the UK.

So, this week's video is a tribute to the Doctor, music by Maximo Park
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_tt5UZKFVg