Did you know that music originates as vibrations, which form sound waves as they propagate through the ear? That’s certainly not the first thing on my mind every time I stick my headphones in my ears, but the more I learn about music, the more my attachment to it starts to make sense.
The University of Florida put together this infographic below on the Psychology behind music. According to the graphic, music actually involves more parts of the brain than any other human function. It also increases language skills, creativity, and overall happiness (to name a few).
I don’t go anywhere without headphones. I feel like a soundtrack is not just necessary in the movies but also in everyday life. How else are you going to decide between the regular and organic strawberries at the grocery store? Or get through the last mile on your long run? Or clean your apartment, study for a final, wake up in the morning. etc.? Music is a huge part of life, and I, for one, do not want to imagine our world without it. Check out the infographic below.
How Beatles' Game-Changing 'Paperback Writer' Paved Way for 'Revolver'
thanks to COLIN FLEMING In the annals of Beatles singles, we have what we might think of as a game-starter in "Please Please Me," a game-ender in something like "Let It Be," and a host of game-changers, the most important of which is rarely discussed as one of the band's top efforts.
And yet, "Paperback Writer" – "just a little bluesy song," according to its modest/understating author, Paul McCartney – which was cut 50 years ago in mid-April 1966, and released May 30th of that year, is perhaps the single that best suggests how the Beatles were about to change things up in their most radical way yet.
Rubber Soul had just been released in December 1965, knocking the listening public on its collective ear, and still dominated the charts in the spring. This was a Beatles album unlike any other, one you couldn't have been prepared for, clearly marking that a new era had begun. Mid-period Beatles was underway.
No one had thought to blend folk music with rhythm & blues, as the Beatles had just done, in essence adding an earthy groove to the wifty-wafty strains of cannabis set to music. A most organic sound, both of nature and the metropolis. But now that mid-period game was about to be kicked up another notch.
Revolver would be the full flowering of the Beatles' next phase; but first, there was "Paperback Writer," the cheeky tease of a song that cajoled you away from the world of Rubber Soul, and into a new galaxy.
Right from the get-go, there is something otherworldly about "Paperback Writer," even though this is in essence a sonic short story about a would-be writer. Paul McCartney's voice starts the song, before John Lennon and George Harrison add to a rich counterpoint, the title words cleaving into Cubist sound fragments. Harrison's distorted guitar then kicks off a hot, scuzzy riff as some spartan bass drum thumps from Ringo Starr follow below, all of it further energised by five, rapid tumbling McCartney bass notes, and away we go into the verse.
A bass guitar had never sounded like this, and one can imagine the looks McCartney and engineer Geoff Emerick must have exchanged, as if they had just unlocked a whole new realm of potential for the instrument.
"'Paperback Writer' was the first time the bass sound had been heard in all its excitement," Emerick remarks in Mark Lewisohn's The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions. "For a start, Paul played a different bass, a Rickenbacker. Then we boosted it further by using a loudspeaker as a microphone."
It doesn't hurt, either, that McCartney was the possessor of just about matchless bass chops at this point. Lennon, who was never particularly forthcoming with praise, remarked that McCartney "was one of the most innovative bass players that ever played bass." And here, that innovation was worked into the framework of one kick-ass, churning, burning band.
"'Paperback Writer' had a heavier sound than some earlier work – and very good vocal work, too," said producer George Martin. "I think that was just the way it worked out, that the rhythm was the most important part of their make-up by this time."
The studio itself was now a crucial instrument for the band, and this is one of the earliest examples of the Beatles learning how to play it, and play it masterfully. Consider ATOC – Automatic Transient Overload Control.
"It was this huge box with flashing lights and what looked like the eye of a Cyclops staring at you," explains Tony Clark, the man who cut the "Paperback Writer" master lacquer, in Sessions. But what this "monster" did was allow "Paperback Writer" to have an insanely high bass factor and still not make record player needles jump.
The lyrics are equally novel. That first verse takes the form of a letter, the narrator wishing to hawk the manuscript that has required years to write. We almost always think of Lennon as the Beatles' principle jokester and wordsmith, but McCartney is tough to beat on this song. The story is based on a novel by a man named Lear, a pun on Shakespeare and the Spanish verb "leer," meaning "to read." Wordplay, Macca style.
Around this period. McCartney was the band's in-house aesthete, going to the theatre, the cinema, reading the books, having the talks, being the culture vulture.
"Penguin paperbacks was what I really thought of, the archetypal paperback," McCartney says in Barry Miles' Many Years From Now. "I arrived at Weybridge and told John I had this idea of trying to write off to publishers to become a paperback writer, and I said, 'I think it should be written like a letter.' I took a bit of paper out and I said it should be something like 'Dear Sir or Madam, as the case may be ...,' and I proceeded to write it just like a letter in front of him, occasionally rhyming it."
He's your arty one right now, and still the crowd pleaser, which means that "Paperback Writer" modulates from the avant-garde to the populist as seamlessly as any Beatles tune.
The song also makes room for a bit of silliness. English groups at the time had a thing for wiseacre backing vocals. The Beatles on "Girl" had chanted "tit tit tit" again and again; the Who, unable to afford classical musicians, would sing the word "cello" repeatedly where one was supposed to be on "A Quick One"; and with "Paperback Writer," McCartney has the boys go with "Frere Jaques" on the third verse.
Setting that children's sing-song melody against this backdrop of barely-of-this-planet instrumental work, and a tale of publishing dreams that could have been sourced from a more chipper version of a novel like New Grub Street, makes for a weird, wonderful clash of worlds.
There's a lot going on here, and yet, it all blends perfectly. With "Paperback Writer," the Beatles almost seemed to beckon the listener out of the galaxy. Or at least beyond anything quotidian. It was time to start looking way up. And they even had the sense to put the invite in epistolary form for you.
Composer Cliff Martinez and Director Nicolas Winding Refn reunite for The Neon Demon
Three times the charm for veteran film composer Cliff Martinez and director Nicolas Winding Refn. Ever since their initial collaboration on 2011’s sexy indie thriller Drive, the two artists have gone together like Gosling and a hammer.
Now, they’re back for Refn’s latest feature, The Neon Demon, starring the ever-talented Elle Fanning as a young, aspiring model surrounded by a bunch of monstrous, beauty-hungry women. Christina Hendricks and Keanu Reeves co-star.
The film just premiered at Cannes Film Festival and to celebrate Milan Records has unearthed the gloomy, pulsating title track from Martinez’s forthcoming soundtrack. As expected, it’s fit for the dance floor and warrants lots of glitter.
Cliff Martinez, the composer who left his mark on Nicolas Windin Refn's breakthrough film Drive (and more recently TV's The Knick), is working together with the acclaimed director again on the upcoming film THE NEON DEMON. Their third collaboration together (the other being 2013's Only God Forgives), the soundtrack will be released via Milan Records both digitally and on CD June 24, 2016, along with a double vinyl release coming July 1st. In addition to the score, the album release also features the original track “Waving Goodbye” performed by Sia. Today Consequence of Sound premieres the first piece of music from the film -- Cliff's unforgettable, dark-disco leaning theme "Neon Demon". Listen here on Soundcloud.
Amazon Studios and Broad Green Pictures will be releasing THE NEON DEMON in theaters June 24th before making it available exclusively to Amazon Prime members. The film premiers at Cannes this weekend.
Perhaps inspired by his time in the punk scene, Cliff Martinez’s approach to scoring is nontraditional. His scores tend towards being stark and sparse, utilizing a modern tonal palette to paint the backdrop for films that are often dark, psychological stories like PUMP UP THE VOLUME (1990), THE LIMEY (2009) WONDERLAND (2003), WICKER PARK (2004), and DRIVE (2011). Martinez has been nominated for a Grammy Award (Steven Soderbergh’s TRAFFIC), a Cesar Award (Xavier Giannoli’s A L’origine), and a Broadcast Film Critics Award (DRIVE).
ABOUT NEON DEMON:
THE NEON DEMON is a story about an aspiring model, Jesse (played by Elle Fanning) who moved to Los Angeles to chase her dreams. Her youth and vitality are devoured by a group of beauty-obsessed women who will take any means necessary to get what she does. The film also stars Keanu Reeves, Christina Hendricks and Jena Malone. This is the third Nicolas Winding Refn film Martinez has a part of, first with DRIVE and secondly with ONLY GOD FORGIVES marking it as another trifecta of perfection for the duo.
Composer Mac Quayle about his electronic score for the hit show, Mr. Robot which starts its second season on July 13, 2016.
The second season of MR. ROBOT premieres on USA Network Wednesday, July 13 at 10/9 c. Lakeshore Records will release MR. ROBOT – Original Television Series Soundtrack Volume 1 and MR. ROBOT – Original Television Series Soundtrack Volume 2 digitally on June 3 and on CD June 24, 2016.
$100 Million Record Deals For Music's Superstars: Are They A Good Investment?
First of all thanks to Hugh McIntyre for this article.
News broke yesterday that Adele has reportedly signed a $130 million dollar recording contract with Sony. That figure is high enough to give her the largest deal ever offered to a female artist in the music industry, and if it’s correct, this is certainly a good time for the British singer-songwriter to celebrate.
Other record labels have made similarly-sized deals in the past, but they haven’t always ended up being good investments. In fact, it seems like when there is that much money on the table, the company offering the cash is taking a serious risk. There have only ever been a few deals signed that come even close to the $100 million mark, and while some have paid off, others ended up as financial blunders.
Adele’s reported $130 million might be the largest for a woman in history, but it isn’t the biggest payday for a musician. The largest and most expensive deal of all time belongs to Michael Jackson, though it was only signed after his passing. It has only been a few years since that landmark deal (reportedly worth somewhere between $200 and $250 million) went into effect, but already there’s a good chance that Sony will make its enormous investment back. Jackson’s popularity isn’t likely to fade for generations, and in the years since his death, his estate, which signed the contract with the label, has made over $1 billion. He’s only released one proper album posthumously, but there are many more to come.
Contracts worth at least $100 million have also been signed with the likes of Bruce Springsteen and U2, and while the records that came out of those deals certainly weren’t the biggest or most commercially-successful of their careers, the titles were still big sellers, and money was made.
Other times, investing the big bucks hasn’t paid off, and there are a handful of stories that show just how wrong these situations can go after the paperwork is done. The best-known and most-cited example is that of Mariah Carey’s ill-fated Virgin Records debacle in the early 2000s. The label spent upwards of $100 million on securing her, and it was almost immediately a disaster. While the deal was for five albums, she only ended up dropping one: Glitter, which is still known as the worst of her illustrious career. After the failure of that album and a personal breakdown, the company had to spend tens of millions to buy her out of the contract it had just spent so much money on.
Both Whitney Houston and Lil Wayne have also signed deals reportedly close to $100 million that shouldn’t be considered massive flops on the same page as Mariah’s, but certainly didn’t return dividends like the labels were hoping. Houston only managed two proper albums with Arista before her death a few years ago, and neither one of those made the impact that her previous releases did.
Things were going especially well for Lil Wayne close to a decade ago, so he re-signed with Cash Money Records, the company he had helped him become one of the most famous faces in hip-hop. In the years since, he has continued to chart and sell, but none of his albums have performed as well as the Tha Carter III, which helped him secure such a profitable deal in the first place. Now he’s in a legal dispute with the company, and there’s no telling how long that will last or how much it will cost.
If Adele’s $130 million deal is done, the superstar likely won’t start releasing albums that count towards it for a few years, as she is still busy promoting her latest, 25, which made history in its debut week and is still selling extremely well six months later. Whether that massive investment ends up being a great or terrible decision on Sony’s part won’t be known for years, or perhaps even decades, but hopefully this story ends well, and not as a cautionary tale on how nothing is certain in the music industry.
Paul McCartney announces virtual reality documentary series
Paul McCartney has today (May 25) announced a six-part documentary series in virtual reality, filmed in his home studios where he'll be discussing some of his most iconic songs to-date.
The PURE McCartney episodes will chronicle 'Dance Tonight', 'Coming Up', 'My Valentine', 'Mull of Kintyre' and 'Early Days', released episodically beginning today and continuing through to the PURE McCartney album release on June 10.
Director for PURE McCartney VR, Tony Kaye comments: "It is an honour to be part of such a tremendously talented team of artists, tasked with documenting the thinking of this great man, in order to bring his fans a new means of expericing some of his greatest songs.
"His musical genius is now on display for the world in an entirely new light."
Cliff Plumer, president of Jaunt Studios added: "We used to see artists connect with their fans through album covers and liner notes but that personal expression, and deeper understanding of the music, has diminished over the years.
"With virtual reality, Paul McCartney is taking the most innovative step yet; he's connecting directly with his fans, to share his innermost thoughts and experiences, in an entirely new, personal and immersive way."
Building the series, the team behind it sought out the creative expertise of some incredible minds including award-winning Director, Tony Kaye; Producer and Soundscape Architect Geoff Emerick; and Executive Producers Cliff Plumer, Lucas Wilson and Doug Allenstein.
High quality cinematic VR combines with digitally remastered and spatially oriented ambisonic audio mixed in Dolby Atmos, to deliver the unique series.
The project also marks the first time an original Paul McCartney track has been remixed in Dolby Atmos.
Once upon a time pirate radio stations were big business and a big influence, with Radio Caroline, Radio Luxembourg and XERF all helping birth the modern radio and music industries. Most pirate stations have been long closed, and it was thought that they’d be gone for good thanks to the Internet. Surprisingly, pirate radio is actually on the rise again, according to a report by the Associated Press.
It seems that you can actually put a station on the air that covers a couple of miles for a mere $750, but why would anyone even think about it? The fact is that many want to broadcast to underserved immigrant communities to provide them with a slice of home. Others who formerly had their own Internet station but were forced to abandon it because of the recent huge increase in license fees have turned to a more traditional terrestrial approach. Still others feel that the homogenized sound of the radio thanks to the station group ownership has let down the listener.
The FCC issued about a hundred warnings to pirate stations last year, mostly in Boston and Miami where clusters of them seem to operate. According to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, fining the operators and seizing their equipment doesn’t stop many of them because often they won’t pay the fines and will just buy new equipment if it’s confiscated. The problem is that the FCC is short-handed and isn’t able to following up as timely as they’d like. As a result, agents have instead gone to landlords and local police to enlist them to be on the lookout for pirates.
Why is pirate radio a problem? With officially licensed radio struggling so badly, any advertising siphoned off by pirates can really hurt financially. Plus there’s the issues of interference with existing station signals and even the Emergency Alert System.
So it looks like something very old is new again. Terrestrial pirate radio may not be hip, but it’s making a comeback.