R.R. 9/30

Katz says that turntabalism, among other phenomena, "reveals the boundless manipulability of recorded sound." Watch this video of  DJ Angelo manipulating sound, and explain what it says about our relationship to recorded music. You may want to consider which of Katz's phonograph effects this demonstrates and which it ignores.

Workshop Groups

I received several questions about the groups, so I decided to post them here:

Group 1--"It's Not You, It's Me," 1960's Rock, and Almost Alternative

Group 2--Background Music: Soundtracks and Scores, Destined to be the Queen, and Fairly Local

Group 3--If You Are, If You Are Reading This Its Not Too Late, and Maroon 5 Mania

Group 4--Millennials, My Parent's 8-Tracks, and Natural Selections

Group 5--My Parent's Playlist, No Cover Charge, Nu Metal Central

Group 6--Railroaded, Rap and R&B with Risky B, and Second is the Best

Group 7--Social Media Superstars, The Best of Both Worlds, and The Deep End

Group 8--The Golden Age, The Pursuit of Hippieness, and Wake Me Up When the Semester Ends

R.R. 9/23

Nicholas Croogan and James Parker argue that the one of the ways to combat retro-historicism in criticism is by asking why the music is so historically oriented and what effect the orientation has on the listener. Their example is, "if Paradinas' music is so overtly referential, what are we to make of this? And if the album is indeed a series of empty musical reference points, then sure this bears a certain aount of critical scrutiny and engagement." I want to you take this attitude when you write a quick review of "San Francisco" by the band Foxygen. This song was the band's first single of their 2013 release We Are The 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic.

R.R. 9/21

Early in his essay Ong says, "If the writer succeeds in writing, it is generally because he can fictionalize in his imagination an audience he has learned to know not from daily life but from earlier writers who were fictionalizing in their imagination audiences they had learned to know in still earlier writers, and so far back to the dawn of written narrative." This doesn't mean that author's invent their readership; rather, it means that authors invent how their readership interacts with and positions themselves to the author's texts based on previous writings. Ong goes on to claim that "an 'original writer'" does not merely reproduce earlier audiences but rather takes those earlier subject positions that readers are used to and reshapes them.

Watch the two videos and answer the questions below:

1. Who is the audience (explicit or implicit) for these videos and how does each artist create that audience?
2. How does Minaj both invoke and change the audience envisioned by Mix-a-Lot?
3. What is the effect (political, aesthetic, social, cultural)  of that change?

R.R. 9/18

Describe your musical education. Were you ever forced (or encouraged) to take one of the music appreciation classes discussed by Katz in this section? Please give specific examples of lessons, grades, etc.

Extra Credit

As I was commuting to the university this morning, I was listening to one of my favorite music criticism podcasts, Sound Opinions. Listening to one of their archived episodes, I heard a great interview with one of the senior editors at Pitchfork--Jennifer Hopper. The interview covers gender in music criticism, the history of music criticism, the tenor of the field today, DIY aesthetics, authenticity, and the public's relationship with Miley Cyrus. If you want a little extra credit, listen to the entire interview and write 500 words about some aspect of it and how it might influence how you write about music, how you read music criticism, or how you will listen to music critically. Most importantly, Mere Summaries will receive no credit. If you want to get extra credit turn in a hard-copy of your response on Monday 9/28/15. Here's the video:

R.R 9/16

Katz writes, "Such music [the European Classical tradition] was valued in America as a civilizing influence and an agent of moral uplift." Why do you think this music was seen to have such a powerful moralizing influence? Do you think that Americans still believe this? Give examples to support your position.

Workshop Groups

Hello all!

I am posting the workshop groups below, and you can find links to each blog in the list to your right. Just like last time, you will be discussing each others' blogs all class, and you will have at least a page long list on things you want to discuss with each peer. To clarify, that is one page-length list per peer and two copies of each list.

Group 1
Almost Alternative
Wake Me Up When the Semester Ends
NuMetal Central

Group 2
If You're Reading this its Not Too Late
The Golden Age
Rap and R&B With Risky B

Group 3
My Parents' 8-Track
My Parents' Playlist
Millenials

Group 4
Destined to be Queen
Maroon 5 Mania
No Cover Charge

Group 5
1960s Rock
The Pursuit of Hippiness
Unplugged

Group 6
If You Are
Railroaded
The Deep End

Group 7
Fairly Local
Background Music
Social Media Superstars

Group 8
Its Not You It's Me
Second is the Best
Best of Both Worlds

R.R. 9/11

ICA: Laurie Anderson describes the song "Grass" as "A huge football game that goes haywire. The players suddenly running in circles, insanely chirping cartoon birds, clouds billowing, the marching band spelling out arcane words in quickly shifting formations, the scoreboard in fast forward, the crowd going 'Rah! Rah! Rah! Rah! Rah! Rah!'"

Listen to "Grass" and write your own metaphor for it.

R.R. 9/9

R.R. Choose one piece of advice from pages 20-23. Summarize the advice and explain why it is/was/will be useful for you in writing your review.

9/4

Hey all, just a few notes on today's class.

1.) Please turn in Worksheet 2 on Blackboard under the "Assignments" Tab.

2.) If you want some extra credit, you can write a one page personal response paper to Steve Reich's "It's Gonna Rain." To get credit you have to listen to the whole song, which takes up the first eight minutes of this video, and I recommend you listen with headphones. Due Monday 9/14.

 

R.R. 9/2

Katz's first chapter discusses seven aspects of recording technology (four of which we read about for today). However, this chapter not only defines these characteristics of recording technology but also discusses how they have changed how music is composed, performed, and experienced. Choose one of the characteristics and briefly explain how it influences how you personally relate to music. Try to be as specific as possible.