Sunday 29 July 2012

How do you react to music?

I always find it interesting to observe how people react to music. I don't make a conscious decision to actually observe in the scientific sense, it just happens. I was at a friend's wedding a few weeks ago, and the DJ had the same issue faced by all DJs at weddings. How do you please everyone? You've got people there from teenagers to the grandparents, and everyone has their own tastes in music. This guy was a pro who had done similar events before, and although he couldn't possibly please all the people all the time, he managed to please most of them at least some of the time. The most fun thing to observe through all this was when a song would end, and the couples on the dance floor would wait for a few seconds to hear what was coming on next. Then there would be the dejected walk back to their seats or the look of excitement in their eyes as they liked the next song and could stay up dancing. By the way, Billy Idol and Rick Springfield can still block a dance floor 30 years after their time on the Top 40.

Our reactions to music are pretty instantaneous, especially when you recognize the song. If you hear the beginning of a song you like, you might start to move and dance right away. If you are at home or in the car, you might reach for the volume control to turn it up. You might start singing along with the words or doing your best air guitar moves. If you go see a cover band in your local club and they play a bunch of songs you like, then you will like that band and want to hear them play again. Music is emotional and it gets tied up in our memories because of that.

If you are in your 30s or older, you are still listening to songs you liked 20 years ago (or more). When we are teenagers we really start to develop our own musical tastes as we move from music that our parents chose to play around the house or in the car and into songs recommended by friends and peers. The songs you like most as a teenager will often stick with you for the rest of your life. And sometimes it's not about the song itself, but about the time in your life, and the memories evoked by the song. A song sometimes acts like a snapshot of time, bringing you back to a special day or person in your past. This is an amazing, awesome thing, and should be enjoyed. However, it occurs to me that it can also be part of the reason why so many people in their 40s and 50s don't like the music that's popular with teenagers or people in their 20s. Since you are hearing the song at a different point in your life, it doesn't exist in the same context for you as it does for the younger people. Your reaction to it is not emotionally based, like when you hear your favourite song by Queen, U2, Metallica, Garth Brooks, or whoever you liked "back in the day".


When I hear people the same age as me call songs on this week's Top 40 "crap", I know it's because they're listening emotionally. They hear electronic sound effects and auto-tune and decide the song is lousy. If it had distorted guitars and real drums it would be "real music". I don't buy it. Today's music IS different in many ways than what was on the radio 20-30 years ago, but it's also the same in many ways. The part that is the MOST different is how you react to it.
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By the way, I'd love to get some feedback on this blog. You can leave a comment here. If you'd like to comment or contact me less publicly my email is FlipprNL@gmail.com and I am @FlipprNL on Twitter too.

Monday 16 July 2012

Simple vs Complex

As I said in my last post, Toto's "Falling In Between" is a great example of a song that is complex and remains fun, and I like it because it succeeds on so many levels. The point is that I would like it even if it wasn't complex, but it moves up a notch because it also appeals to the professional musician in me.

Let's look at two songs today that I really like, one simple and one complex. There are dozens I could choose from (make that hundreds) for either category, and if you haven't heard either of today's songs, I'll provide links so you can check them out. Remember my basic philosophy regarding music as stated in my first few posts. You may like, love or hate the following songs, but you aren't allowed to pass judgement on them, or on me for liking them. Musical "snobbery" is not welcome here.

For my simple song today I'd like you to listen to Sticky Situation by Danko Jones from the album Sleep Is The Enemy. (The song link is on YouTube, and the album cover used is wrong.) I first heard of this 3-piece Canadian band 10 years ago when I heard a clip from a song called Lovercall on a TV show called "New Music" (I think that was the name of the show). It was just a fluke, but I'm glad it happened. They've been a favourite of mine ever since then. Their music is mostly fast, and usually riff-based, meaning the guitar & bass often play a melodic line rather than just chords or repeated notes. Their lyrics are usually nothing to write home about, though there are a few exceptions. Sticky Situation is a typical Danko Jones song, simple to the point where I could probably have played along with most of it on the second listen, but it's a lot of fun. It's great for playing in the car, and has energy to spare.

For a more complex song, let's go to another 3-piece Canadian band. Many of you have already figured out I'm talking about Rush. There are many Rush songs that fit into the complex category, and many that are great fun as well, with plenty of songs that combine the two. For today, I'll just look at the introduction for the song YYZ from the album Moving Pictures. If you've never heard it before, go listen to it before continuing reading this post. The introduction consists of converting the letters YYZ (the code for Toronto's Pearson Airport) to Morse Code, and playing the dashes as 8th notes with the dots as 16th notes. The Morse code for the letters is dash-dot-dash-dash for Y and dash-dash-dot-dot for Z leading to a 5-beat pattern that would look something like this: -.--/-.--/--.. so the song begins in the time signature of 5/4. On top of that they choose the notes C and F#, called an augmented fourth or a tritone in music theory. After this intro the instrumental piece is a little more straightforward progressive rock, but it's the creativity of the introduction that  hooks me right away.

Two songs, one simple, one complex, and both are great songs to listen to. If you are a fan of one but not the other, that's okay. In fact, that's great. Our own musical tastes are unique, and I'm just getting started here. I've only mentioned 3 songs by name in six posts of this blog, and they've all been rock songs. I'm a huge fan of big band jazz and lots of other styles as well, so stay tuned for plenty of variety. If you stick with me I hope to help you find some music that you haven't heard before, and to gain an appreciation for the way particular pieces of music can appeal to one person and not the next and still remain valid pieces of music. Keep an open mind, and feel free to leave a comment.

Tuesday 10 July 2012

Toto makes awesome music, not french fries

If that explanation of my star rating system in iTunes seemed a bit out of character for this blog, it was done to give context about how I like certain songs more than others. I`m a little concerned that anyone who skims my posts may get the impression that I think all music is equal, but I think I covered that pretty well when I said they are equally important because each song has at least one fan, which gives it a seat at the table, if you will.

Today I want to talk about one of my favourite songs, and explain why I love it so much. It`s one of those songs that appeals to me on many levels, making it one of my all-time favourites and one that I could listen to any time, any day. It gets a 4-star rating. The song is Falling In Between by Toto, from the album of the same name released in 2006. First of all, it just plain rocks. It`s one of those songs that makes you dance even if you are sitting down. Staying still while this song plays is not an option.

Warning: Technical musical stuff ahead. If that bores you skip ahead.
After a brief intro, the verse starts at about 21 seconds in. We`re in the key of D, with no third present in the chord, just open fifths. The first note sung by Bobby Kimball is a C one octave above middle C. Not only is this an impressively high note for a male singer to hit full voice, but it is the 7th of the D chord underneath it. And he really hits it too. Underneath this fairly long note, the bass and guitar of Mike Porcaro and Steve Lukather respectively hammer out a rhythm consisting of alternating 3 quick notes with 2 slightly separated ones adding up to a pattern that is two and a half beats long in four-four time. This happens six times, bringing us to the 3rd beat of the fourth bar. That fourth bar is in five-four time, with the last two beats consisting of twelve 32nd notes and an 8th note played by Steve Lukather (and maybe Greg Phillinganes on keys). This song not only rocks, it showcases amazing technical chops as well as some very creative writing. It really fires on all cylinders.

The chorus includes vocals harmonized in fourths, there`s a great solo from Steve Lukather (but all his solos are great anyway), some full band chords that I still haven`t tried to figure out on the 3-2 rhythmic pattern, and a heavy riff that takes over at the 2:14 mark. The last 30 seconds or so is reminiscent of classic Toto hits like Rosanna and 99.
Okay, technical stuff is over.


What makes this a great song is that combination of pure raw rock with the more complex stuff. It appeals to me on a bunch of levels. It is definitely a complex menu item, not just french fries.

You`ll find a sample on Toto`s official page here, and a live version here.

Wednesday 4 July 2012

When is a 4-star rating better than a 5-star?

Before I got my first iPod, I had a small generic mp3 player, back when 1GB was considered pretty good. Prior to that I had a CD player in my car, and I remember on more than one occasion I was almost late for work because I was in my basement browsing through my CD collection to decide which discs to take in the car that day. When I got my first iPod (a 30GB click-wheel model) it was in June, and I spent most of that summer ripping my hundreds of CDs and putting them on my computer and my iPod. I was able to carry my complete CD collection with me at all times. This made me very happy. I currently have a 64 GB iPod Touch which I use primarily as a music player. Most of the apps I want to use are on my iPhone (with its Retina display). When people ask why I have both I tell them my 32GB iPhone won't hold all the apps I want plus all my music, so I still need the iPod for music.

As you probably figured out by now if you've read my first 3 posts, I like a pretty wide variety of music. There are times when I'm in the mood for something light, and times when I feel like something heavier. Having access to my complete collection lets me choose whatever I want at any given moment. iTunes has become very good at helping out when I'm not quite sure what I'm in the mood for, not just with the shuffle feature, but the more impressive genius feature. Play a song you are in the mood for, hit the genius button on your iPod, and it will select more songs that are similar to that one and put them all in a playlist which continues immediately after your initial song finishes. How do they do that? While I'm not 100% sure of the details behind it, I know it has something to do with genre, year of publication, and the number of times songs appear together in other user-generated playlists. I like this feature, and have used it many times. My iPod has 5476 songs on it as of today so the genius feature always manages to find some good stuff. Your mileage may vary.


With over 5000 songs on my iPod, it's easy for my simple human brain to lose track of stuff that I like but haven't listened to in a while. That's where the star rating system and playlists come into play. Let's talk stars first. Whenever I buy a new album and play it for the first time, I always rate each song. iTunes and your iPod let you do this any time, and I've gotten in the routine of doing it the first time I play it. If I'm not enjoying a song at all (not every track on an album is gold, right?) I will assign it a 1-star rating. These songs get removed from my iPod next chance I get, though I keep everything in iTunes on my computer. If I'm not enjoying the song much, but it's not awful, 2-star. Songs I like, the "average" song gets the 3-star (currently 3001 songs out of the 5476). Songs I really like a lot and want to hear more often get 4-star ratings (currently 462 songs). This is my preferred setting, and when I'm not sure what I'm in the mood for I will open up a playlist I made which includes all my songs rated with 4 stars and hit shuffle. I am guaranteed to like whatever comes up.


The rating of 5 stars is reserved for songs I really like that meet one of two criteria. 1.) They need a bit more attention and I don't like playing them as background music or 2.) I don't want to overplay them. I listen to my 5-star songs less than I do my 4-star songs. There are currently 44 songs in my 5-star playlist, and honestly I need to update and move a few of them to 4-stars. I'll do that today.


Playlists are easy to make in iTunes, and my favourite are the smart playlists which follow a set of rules instead of just dumping a bunch of songs in there yourself. I created a playlist where the rule is that the number of times the song has been played equals zero. When I really don't know what else to listen to, I'll open that list, since it contains songs on my iPod I've never played. There's not much in there now, just a few Beethoven symphonies I haven't gotten around to (I have a CD set with all nine symphonies), an album I received from a friend recently which I'll probably play this week, and an album we bought on iTunes for my daughter. Total is 37 songs unplayed out of my 5476 total. Not bad.


That's it for me today. I don't want these blog posts to get too long and I've covered my iPod setup. I'll probably do another blog very soon, since I want to talk about some of the songs I like the most, and explain why certain songs get that enigmatic 5-star rating.