My computer, specifically. Anyway, today I'm going to tell a story while listening to the first CD of the new Bonkers album (well, not too new nowadays). I really do enjoy Sharkey's mix, no matter what people say about it. However, that's not what this is about. On to the story!
It started a few weeks back. I wanted to run software, specifically WoW, Audiosurf, and Fallout 3, at higher framerates. So, I shelled out and bought an nVidia GTX 260, which is a top of the line video card. However, I probably should have done some research first...
When it arrived in the mail, I opened it up and took a look. "This is huge!" I thought to myself. And it was. It took up two adjacent (side by side) slots on my motherboard, and was double the length of my previous card(s), the nVidia 7600 (I was using SLI).
Some notes on my hardware before I go further.
Motherboard: Abit KN8 SLI (PCIe, but not 2.0). 939 Socket.
Processor: Athlon 64x2 3800+ (lower end model of the 939-type processors, but OCs well, supposedly)
Hard Drive: I have two of them, both Seagate, both SATA.
Audio Card: E-MU 1212m (takes up two PCI slots, connected by a ribbon cable)
Anyway, I tried to put it in after taking out my old one. Well, it didn't fit. It was too long, it bumped into the metal enclosures for the DVD drives. So, I went to the computer store and talked to a guy whom I was friendly with. He recommended that I buy a new case, which I did. I also bought a new power supply to power it (600 watts, the old one was 350 and my card requires 500. The card also needs 36A on the 12+ line, but even the supply I bought only supplied 32A. However, I was assured that it would work fine, as long as I didn't stress it TOO hard, which I doubted I would due to the CPU bottleneck).
From there, I tried to install it. However, the way that my motherboard was installed in the old case got fucked up, and caused the screws to come out of the case with the board, rendering it impossible to put inside my new case. It's kind of difficult to explain, but it was just an installation headache. A big one, that I eventually got ironed out.
So, now I have my case and my card's in it, on the top slot. I turn it on. No video. "WTF?" I say to myself, and then I realize that I've had this problem before. The top PCIe slot is for SLI only, and I need to use the bottom one. Normally this wouldn't be so bad, but because of the way that my motherboard was arranged, this would put the video card RIGHT ON TOP of the SATA connectors and also would prevent me from using one of the normal PCI slots.
So, I took it into the store again. We worked together to figure out what the hell we could do. I eventually ended up removing my sound card with a possiblity for figuring it out later (I'd need a longer cable from the 1010 part to the 0202 part). The solution that we came up with was to use angled SATA connectors that didn't stick out as much. Thankfully, it worked, and now I have both HDs installed as well as my new video card.
The thing I'm sure everyone is wondering about now is "how awesome is it?" Well, I tried it in WoW, and didn't get a really big improvement. A slight improvement, still useful but not mindblowing, was noticed. But nothing special.
Audiosurf was where it shined. I played DV Elite with a friend on Premium graphics, running fullscreen. It was just mindblowing, all the glow effects and fancy graphics... that game certainly knows how to make the video effects work. And it was still really playable, running reasonably with no major slowdowns or lag in-game.
I have yet to try it with Fallout 3, but I have a good feeling about it.
Anyway, thanks for reading about my little adventure this weekend. It was certainly a bitch to set up correctly, but in the end it all worked out (kinda, I just need a longer ribbon cable for my E-MU).
The only thing I'm disappointed about is the limited application for CUDA. I'm eagerly awaiting something better than a CUDA-powered convolution reverb or linear-phase EQ.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Super Monkey Ball...
This blog is going to be based on a game that I've been playing recently. This game is a Gamecube game, and it's called Super Monkey Ball.
About the game itself... In Super Monkey Ball, your objective is to get the ball containing the monkey into the goal at the end of the stage. Sounds pretty easy and relatively basic. However, the method of control is what makes it so difficult and rewarding: you're not moving the monkey, you're moving the stage itself. When you press a direction on the controller, the whole level shifts that way, and the monkey moves along with this.
It's like one of those child games where you have to get the ball through the maze by tilting it. In fact, it is exactly the same, except a lot more difficult. Along the way, you encounter many sorts of traps, designed to make you screw up. Some are basic: walls to bounce off at high speeds, holes in the ground, lack of holder walls causing you to fall off the stage, moving platforms, etc. The list goes on. And some are a bit more confusing: weights that move based on the way the platform is tilted, moving goalposts, and sloped pathways. All of them together make up what is the core of the game, or standard mode.
Standard mode is divided into 3 levels of difficulty: Beginner, Intermediate, and Expert. It can be played all alone, for points, or in a group successively. Only one controller is required, but more can be used. Concerning the difficulty system... normally, when you play a game, the levels of difficulty are somewhat skewed. Beginner is usually unthinkably easy, intermediate is either quite tough or pretty easy, and expert is hard, but never TOO hard. Well, not in Monkey Ball. They take those titles literally. Beginner has 10 stages, and is not too difficult, but will present some challenge to a beginner, as stated. By the time you can complete Beginner, you are an intermediate player. Intermediate, or the one that I can do, has 30 stages. To complete it, however, requires you to be an expert (considering I've never gotten past level 30, I guess I'm not an expert yet). Expert mode is unthinkably difficult. The first 5 stages are harder than all of beginner and intermediate combined. We got somewhere around level 8 before giving up. In the words of my friend (the one who was playing), "it's as if Nintendo made these stages, made sure they were possible, but never actually played them."
When you finish a stage in standard mode, you unlock points, and these points can be used to purchase mini games. All of the mini games are basically cute little deals where you use the monkey ball to do odd things. However, one really stands out amongst the rest: Monkey Targets. In Monkey Targets, you roll down a large ramp, and then lift off into the air. Your ball breaks open in half when you press A, and then you fly (using the halves of your ball) and land on a platform. Each platform has a different point value. You can also collect Bananas, which can provide special power ups, such as point multipliers, wind removal, or a "sticky ball" allowing you to land places which would be otherwise impossible. It makes a great party game, and the physics of the game are excellent. I recommend this mode above the other few.
And that is basically the gist of the game. Standard mode and mini games. It makes a great party game, as all features can be played with up to 4 players, and provide ample opportunities to switch off between stages or runs. If that was all that the game had going for it, it would still be a good game, but other features from the game really push it over the edge, into becoming one of my favorite games ever.
The first is the music. The music from Super Monkey Ball is generally happy and electronic-influenced music. It fits the game perfectly, and while sounding incredibly digital, it also provides analog-feeling elements to it that really help to round out the game's overall feeling. I'm looking for a download, and I'll provide a mirror if I can find one.
The second is the simplicity. All you need to play the main mode is the analog stick, and it works exceptionally well. It's so easy, and nice and responsive, just how games should be.
The third, small thing is the stylized graphics: everything looks somewhat cartoonish, but in a good way. It's not like the Super Smash Bros Brawl graphics, that go too far. It's a stylized sort of look, kinda like Katamari has a stylized look.
The fourth, also known as "that one I forgot while originally typing this and added a few days later," is the MINI GAMES! They are just so much fun! Monkey Billiards is my favorite, with Monkey Golf as a second and Monkey Bowling in third, but each are well crafted games with more-than-decent physics engines. Even if you generally don't "do" minigames, these are worth a play.
So, in the end, Super Monkey Ball for Gamecube is an excellent game, and has entertained me from the time when it came out up until now. It's still fun to play alone, or with other people, both of which I have done on numerous occasions.
Thanks for reading.
EDIT: Soundtrack download has been found: Link
About the game itself... In Super Monkey Ball, your objective is to get the ball containing the monkey into the goal at the end of the stage. Sounds pretty easy and relatively basic. However, the method of control is what makes it so difficult and rewarding: you're not moving the monkey, you're moving the stage itself. When you press a direction on the controller, the whole level shifts that way, and the monkey moves along with this.
It's like one of those child games where you have to get the ball through the maze by tilting it. In fact, it is exactly the same, except a lot more difficult. Along the way, you encounter many sorts of traps, designed to make you screw up. Some are basic: walls to bounce off at high speeds, holes in the ground, lack of holder walls causing you to fall off the stage, moving platforms, etc. The list goes on. And some are a bit more confusing: weights that move based on the way the platform is tilted, moving goalposts, and sloped pathways. All of them together make up what is the core of the game, or standard mode.
Standard mode is divided into 3 levels of difficulty: Beginner, Intermediate, and Expert. It can be played all alone, for points, or in a group successively. Only one controller is required, but more can be used. Concerning the difficulty system... normally, when you play a game, the levels of difficulty are somewhat skewed. Beginner is usually unthinkably easy, intermediate is either quite tough or pretty easy, and expert is hard, but never TOO hard. Well, not in Monkey Ball. They take those titles literally. Beginner has 10 stages, and is not too difficult, but will present some challenge to a beginner, as stated. By the time you can complete Beginner, you are an intermediate player. Intermediate, or the one that I can do, has 30 stages. To complete it, however, requires you to be an expert (considering I've never gotten past level 30, I guess I'm not an expert yet). Expert mode is unthinkably difficult. The first 5 stages are harder than all of beginner and intermediate combined. We got somewhere around level 8 before giving up. In the words of my friend (the one who was playing), "it's as if Nintendo made these stages, made sure they were possible, but never actually played them."
When you finish a stage in standard mode, you unlock points, and these points can be used to purchase mini games. All of the mini games are basically cute little deals where you use the monkey ball to do odd things. However, one really stands out amongst the rest: Monkey Targets. In Monkey Targets, you roll down a large ramp, and then lift off into the air. Your ball breaks open in half when you press A, and then you fly (using the halves of your ball) and land on a platform. Each platform has a different point value. You can also collect Bananas, which can provide special power ups, such as point multipliers, wind removal, or a "sticky ball" allowing you to land places which would be otherwise impossible. It makes a great party game, and the physics of the game are excellent. I recommend this mode above the other few.
And that is basically the gist of the game. Standard mode and mini games. It makes a great party game, as all features can be played with up to 4 players, and provide ample opportunities to switch off between stages or runs. If that was all that the game had going for it, it would still be a good game, but other features from the game really push it over the edge, into becoming one of my favorite games ever.
The first is the music. The music from Super Monkey Ball is generally happy and electronic-influenced music. It fits the game perfectly, and while sounding incredibly digital, it also provides analog-feeling elements to it that really help to round out the game's overall feeling. I'm looking for a download, and I'll provide a mirror if I can find one.
The second is the simplicity. All you need to play the main mode is the analog stick, and it works exceptionally well. It's so easy, and nice and responsive, just how games should be.
The third, small thing is the stylized graphics: everything looks somewhat cartoonish, but in a good way. It's not like the Super Smash Bros Brawl graphics, that go too far. It's a stylized sort of look, kinda like Katamari has a stylized look.
The fourth, also known as "that one I forgot while originally typing this and added a few days later," is the MINI GAMES! They are just so much fun! Monkey Billiards is my favorite, with Monkey Golf as a second and Monkey Bowling in third, but each are well crafted games with more-than-decent physics engines. Even if you generally don't "do" minigames, these are worth a play.
So, in the end, Super Monkey Ball for Gamecube is an excellent game, and has entertained me from the time when it came out up until now. It's still fun to play alone, or with other people, both of which I have done on numerous occasions.
Thanks for reading.
EDIT: Soundtrack download has been found: Link
Monday, June 15, 2009
American Musical Tastes
Hey guys. I decided that I felt like writing something else after my useless initial post, so I started this. Hopefully this will describe all of the problems that I have with the tastes of the majority of American.
There are three generations which I could potentially discuss: my generation, or "the technological/internet" generation, the generation of my parents, or "baby boomers," and my grandparents, born after the first World War.
My grandparents enjoy opera and similar music. I have very little experience with this music, and I do not intend to rant about a genre which I know nothing about. So, I'll skip that. However, I can still rant about my parents and about other children at school. I'm going to skip the baby boomers too, as they have varying tastes. Hopefully now I can focus in on the Top 40 music that I hear so often at school.
As a preface to this rant, I had this idea after being forced to listen to countless hours of Top 40 off of a young teacher's iPod during Physical Education class. As I listened to the music, I began to think of it objectively, and I started to organize the music into categories, and to find things that I disliked in each category of popular music. Some of the other people in my class understood what I kept going on about, notably those with an appreciation for music other than top 40 (excluding orchestral music), while others did not and responded to my ramblings in various ways. However, I'm not here to discuss my random rants during PE class. I'm here to organize my thoughts into a coherent blog post detailing my extreme dislike for this music.
Before I can delve into the realm of popular music, I must discuss my own tastes first. I am a huge fan of Electronic Dance Music, or EDM. Specifically, I like Hardcore originating from the UK or from the Netherlands (UKH or NLH). Not to be confused with Hardcore Punk, Hardcore Techno, or any other forms of Hardcore, the music I enjoy most has a specific sound to it. This sound generally includes a fast tempo (from 150 to lower 200 bpm), and either a kickdrum on each beat, or a sampled breakbeat. It also can include various elements such as synthesized pianos (usually similar to the famous Korg M1's piano), supersaw leads (generally used in trance), acid lines (usually distorted, and rarely from a real 303), and sometimes even vocals. However, the one defining aspect of the genre is that it has energy. I could talk all day about the late 80s rave movement, early 90s breakbeat, mid to late 90s happy hardcore, early 2000s hardcore experimentation and later 2000s popularization, but it would bore you all to tears, so I'm not going to bother.
Aside from Hardcore, I also enjoy many other distinct genres of EDM, including certain styles of Trance, House, Breaks, Drum N Bass, Techno, and even (oldskool) HipHop. However, common threads between these do exist: first, they are all generally dominated by DJs. Second, they are each intended for the dancefloor, so they are structured to give the listener/dancer time to rest, and to provide continuous energy over a period of time. Third, while they are all usually underground genres, each has its own mainstream appeal through specific interpretations/styles. For example, Drum N Bass has Pendulum, Trance has Tiesto, etc. Many other examples exist, but most lead to a watering-down of the music, removing the rough, underground edge that the true fans of the genre have come to love.
But, I'm not here to talk about my own musical tastes. I'm here to discuss pop music, and my opinions on it. Before I start talking about today's pop music, I'm going to talk about the evolution of pop music through the last 40-50 years.
The first incarnation of modern American pop music existed in Rock And Roll. Unlike many forms of EDM, I am not completely sure of the origins of Rock And Roll. However, I know that it invented many things which I will be discussing once I reach modern day, specifically the "pop song structure" and the concept of the artist as a god-like figure to be praised and paid, rather than another person who is simply expressing his/her creativity through music. I can't exactly blame the original rock artists for this, though. I probably would have done the same. And I can't blame the record labels either, as they were absolutely necessary at this time period. However, I can blame all of that later on.
The second incarnation of American pop music exists with Disco. Disco originated mainly from Funk music, and was THE first popular genre to use synthesized or electronic instruments. However, the true form of Disco was never heard on the radio, and was never seen in videos such as Saturday Night Fever. No, Disco actually originated in a few small places in NYC where people with a passion for music would gather to dance and to listen to unique music. Also, Disco invented the concept of "mixing records," and was basically the whole driving force behind all EDM in the future. Keep in mind, though, this was NOT "The Beegees" or "The Village People." Disco, or at least the underground Disco that the pop music originated from, was mostly obscure funk cuts which began to incorporate electronic elements. It was from THIS music that House was spawned, not from the massive celebrity club versions that appeared on the radio.
However, the radio versions did start a trend that would be seen repeatedly throughout the next 30-40 years. This trend is somewhat complex, but has a few distinct elements that keep popping up time and time again. One is the watering-down of underground music to turn it into mainstream music. Another is the creation of "super-artists" or "superstars" who represent the music through their excessive wealth/popularity. The third is simply mainstream appeal, and eventual backlash against all forms of the music, leading it back to the underground. This happened with Disco. The underground electronic-influenced funk music eventually became popularized by the artists I mentioned above, most particularly the Bee Gees, and also through the creation of movies such as Flashdance and Saturday Night Fever. A select group of artists, probably chosen by the record label executives, became superstars thanks to their music, and thanks to the distribution methods, and gained a wide following for reasons that go beyond their music. And finally, in late 1980, it all came crashing down.
Funnily enough, American pop music would once again choose Disco as the main form of pop music, but not for a few years. During this time period in the early 80s, the Europeans were taking Disco and messing with it. They made it much more minimal, more electronic influenced, and generally more appealing. This became popular in Europe, where trends are governed by quite different laws than in America. After a few years of unrest, artists began to experiment with New Wave, and eventually picked up Italo Disco elements. The combination of these two, along with somewhat watered down elements like now-tacky vocals/accompanying music videos (remember Human League? And A-ha?) created a large mainstream appeal. This was the pop music of my parents. They remember Michael Jackson before he molested children. They remember all the cheesy electronic-influenced music of the time. This was truly the first time that Pop became a description of a genre rather than a description of the popularity of the music.
Note that there was more to Pop than just the music. As I mentioned earlier, there were other things accompanying the music, such as superstars. And superstars there were. This was the era of the record label domination of the music industry. The most piracy that was occuring during this time was dubbing of records to tapes, and that wasn't exactly the easiest or best sounding thing to do anyway. The one thing that the record labels did is something that they still do today: they made examples. They chose somewhat-talented people that would appeal to the public for one reason or another and turned them into rich celebrities for the public to idolize. This still continues today.
In addition to simply looking cool, these celebrities had to make music. However, the majority of the music was actually made behind the scenes, by a talented group of producers in expensive studios. All the celebrities did was sing. However, this music wasn't the same as the original underground genre. Since this music was designed for mainstream appeal, the songs became shorter. Now, people didn't have to listen to extended intros and outros, and when they started to get bored of a song, it would be over.
As these social scientists/musicians learned more and more about the psychological perception of music as it occurs in the majority of pop music worshipers, they made changes to how the music was designed. They realized that people consciously recognize two things in music: melody, and lyrics. Everything else had to be subconsciously crafted to provide maximum emphasis on the two above elements. This means that they removed the formula which causes energy, meaning the ups and downs in the music, and flatlined it. They also removed any possiblity of a "progressive" song, and made the music full of simple, memorable hooks. These ideas are still present today in most popular music, and have intensified in recent years, making the music even more mindless, even more flatlined, and even more dull.
At the same time as Pop was developing defining aspects, two new genres were being created: House and HipHop. House was the TRUE extension of the original Disco. The story goes that a black man from Chicago visited New York and went to one of the influential clubs at the time. He had a wonderful experience, and he wanted to take the music back to Chicago. He did just that. When he returned and started to play this music, people wanted to create their own take on the music, so they picked up inexpensive drum machines (the 808, the 909) and started making their own versions of this. The Chicago interpretation of Disco was the true beginning of House music. In the late 80s, after developing for a time in Chicago, House music would move to Ibiza (along with a huge load of MDMA) and would continue to the UK, where it would become popularized and would evolve without the influence of the USA.
In addition to House, HipHop was being invented. It started because one guy, Kool Herc, had a good idea. He noticed a group of dancers who would wait for a funk song to reach the drum solo, and then they would dance through that. After it ended, they would go back to waiting for the next one. His idea was to loop these drum solos and splice them together, to keep the people dancing as long as he could. This caught on, and thanks to a host of other influential DJs, including Grandmaster Flash and Afrika Bambaataa, became a respectable genre of music existing in underground scenes through New York. It's popularity would increase, and the influence of Dub would create rappers, and would eventually lead to a unique culture.
However, this got out of hand after a while. Rappers started to become more and more vulgar and violent in their music. Young suburban youth, who were looking to fight against their parents, picked up this music as a means of rebellion and began to blast it wherever they went. Record labels, seeing opportunity in this, picked up rappers and began to find the aspects of the music that the kids enjoyed. Turns out, they liked the vulgarity. They liked the racy subject matters. They liked the bass that would make their cars bump up and down as they drove around. They didn't care about the breaks, they didn't care about the turntable skills, and they didn't care about the history. They basically removed the genre from its roots. This continued developing as a popular genre throughout the 90s and well into the 2000s.
Before getting to the section about the truly upfront modern pop music, I'd like to make a "shoutout" to rock music, which has remained mainstream since the 50s and has exhibited all of the negative trends throught its existence. Note that here I am discussing the generic rock fanboys, or the ones unwilling to move from their tastes and believe that what THEY love is the BEST and the ONLY good music out there. While you might consider it ironic, it isn't, as I can justify my tastes with reasoning, and they cannot. I can say so many negative things about Rock music culture, especially heavy rock, such as the extreme hatred for anything made on a sequencer (since it's "not actually art"), their hatred for any music that doesn't contain vocals (since how can you express emotions without lyrics?), their hatred for "repetitive music" such as EDM (even though the majority of rock is a few chords on a guitar and a few drum patterns), and especially their complete disrespect for the categorization of any other forms of music, when they subdivive their own music so meticulously (how is it that there can be 20 forms of metal, but when it comes to EDM... it's all just "techno"?)... The ONE good thing I can say is that it has, at least, been consistent over the years, and has, for a few people, been a stepping stone on the journey towards less mainstream music.
I just want to emphasize once more that the above paragraph was directed at the rock fanboy, not at the person who appreciates specific forms of rock music, like progressive rock (I personally love Rick Wakeman), and other forms of music that do not involve forming highly polarized and highly selective groups based on slight differences in taste.
Speaking of mainstream music, that's what this is about. Modern (upfront) mainstream pop music. I should probably start talking now about the elements that disgust me about it... oh wait, I already did! You might be thinking "no, you didn't," but the truth is that I dislike pop music for the reasons listed above when I described 80s pop music, and also for the inability of the record industry to change over time. Whether you think so or not, the record industry is operating under the same standards that they have since back then. They believe that everything will be OK if they keep finding new stars who keep releasing bullshit albums. They think that the 15-minutes-of-fame technique will work for the rest of all eternity.
But you probably want to know the truth. And the truth is that they are WRONG. They want to know why people aren't buying their music. They blame it on piracy. From one perspective, it is piracy's fault for all of this. However, from another perspective, it is the fault of the record companies. They failed to respond when piracy first began. They continued to do what they do, believing that it would never become big. However, through piracy, people began to discover the music that they were missing due to the domination of these oppressive labels. They realized that there is other music out there than the mass-produced music on the radio. People began to think for themselves, at least a bit. There is a reason why about 50% of internet users are also pirates. If you think for yourself, it shouldn't be tough to figure out.
However, even if the record companies aren't responding to the piracy correctly, they are still attempting to respond musically. I have been noticing a recent shift from HipHop and "Pop Rock" to (modern) house influenced pop music. This means nothing except that it has a 4-to-the-floor kickdrum to it, it has vocals, and it doesn't attempt to progress anywhere throughout the song. This made me extremely disappointed, as I was hoping for an event similar to the popularization of Happy Hardcore in the UK: where EDM events would start popping up every which way, and the mainstream music would begin to regain some depth.
I was wrong. At least, wrong for now. As far as I can tell, there is no more electronic music in the USA than there was 10 years ago... in fact, probably less. And the reason is that more people are buying into the idea of pop music. People have stopped listening to music. It has become background noise for doing other activities, such as driving, eating, or talking. Because of this, the movement and energy present in dance music is no longer necessary, and people can go on with their lives. Since so many people hear music (note: not LISTEN but HEAR) in this way, it has become popular, and therefore removes the social stigma from doing something against the masses. It also fosters ignorance in all those involved, as I have encountered personally in public places with people of my age group (teenagers).
When I meet a new person and I am having a conversation, music inevitably pops up somewhere. 99/100 times I get one of two responses. The first is "I don't really listen to music." The second is "whatever's on the radio." When I start to talk about the music I like, they usually respond "oh, you like techno music. I like it too! I think that [Sandstorm/Basshunter/That Song With The Three Guys In A Car] is the best [Song/Artist] ever!"
When I hear this coming from an other-wise nice person, I get discouraged at what the next generation will be like. Hopefully, people will come to realize that music actually has depth and history, as my grandparents and their parents before them. However, their appreciation was basically forced, since general pop music didn't exist at that time. Even so, it still showed a much greater respect for music than the majority of current youth show.
In the end, Pop music today comes in two categories: HipHop and PopRock. Both are essentially the same genre, meaning watered-down music fit for the consumption of the millions of unlistening masses of people who turn the radio on in order to get some background noise while they go about their business. For those of us that prefer our music to have depth, or prefer our music to have energy, or even prefer our music to be a little bit harsher, a little bit more raw, a little bit DIFFERENT from the unthinking masses, I hope that this has helped you to understand, even a little bit, where this mass media fad began.
To those that enjoy the pop/rock music that I so thoroughly insulted throughout my blog post, feel free to leave rude remarks or real arguments in the comment box. If it's simply a rude remark, I'll ignore it. If it's an argument intended for me to reply, I'll do my best to explain what I'm talking about even further so that it makes more sense to you individually. Otherwise, simply say whatever you want to say. I'll read it, I'll think about possible responses, and I may or may not choose to comment. However, whatever you do, just keep in mind all that I have said, and hopefully start thinking about music that's playing rather than just letting it play.
Thanks for reading. If you're looking for a tl;dr type summary, look elsewhere and don't bother commenting. Read it, or leave. Bye.
There are three generations which I could potentially discuss: my generation, or "the technological/internet" generation, the generation of my parents, or "baby boomers," and my grandparents, born after the first World War.
My grandparents enjoy opera and similar music. I have very little experience with this music, and I do not intend to rant about a genre which I know nothing about. So, I'll skip that. However, I can still rant about my parents and about other children at school. I'm going to skip the baby boomers too, as they have varying tastes. Hopefully now I can focus in on the Top 40 music that I hear so often at school.
As a preface to this rant, I had this idea after being forced to listen to countless hours of Top 40 off of a young teacher's iPod during Physical Education class. As I listened to the music, I began to think of it objectively, and I started to organize the music into categories, and to find things that I disliked in each category of popular music. Some of the other people in my class understood what I kept going on about, notably those with an appreciation for music other than top 40 (excluding orchestral music), while others did not and responded to my ramblings in various ways. However, I'm not here to discuss my random rants during PE class. I'm here to organize my thoughts into a coherent blog post detailing my extreme dislike for this music.
Before I can delve into the realm of popular music, I must discuss my own tastes first. I am a huge fan of Electronic Dance Music, or EDM. Specifically, I like Hardcore originating from the UK or from the Netherlands (UKH or NLH). Not to be confused with Hardcore Punk, Hardcore Techno, or any other forms of Hardcore, the music I enjoy most has a specific sound to it. This sound generally includes a fast tempo (from 150 to lower 200 bpm), and either a kickdrum on each beat, or a sampled breakbeat. It also can include various elements such as synthesized pianos (usually similar to the famous Korg M1's piano), supersaw leads (generally used in trance), acid lines (usually distorted, and rarely from a real 303), and sometimes even vocals. However, the one defining aspect of the genre is that it has energy. I could talk all day about the late 80s rave movement, early 90s breakbeat, mid to late 90s happy hardcore, early 2000s hardcore experimentation and later 2000s popularization, but it would bore you all to tears, so I'm not going to bother.
Aside from Hardcore, I also enjoy many other distinct genres of EDM, including certain styles of Trance, House, Breaks, Drum N Bass, Techno, and even (oldskool) HipHop. However, common threads between these do exist: first, they are all generally dominated by DJs. Second, they are each intended for the dancefloor, so they are structured to give the listener/dancer time to rest, and to provide continuous energy over a period of time. Third, while they are all usually underground genres, each has its own mainstream appeal through specific interpretations/styles. For example, Drum N Bass has Pendulum, Trance has Tiesto, etc. Many other examples exist, but most lead to a watering-down of the music, removing the rough, underground edge that the true fans of the genre have come to love.
But, I'm not here to talk about my own musical tastes. I'm here to discuss pop music, and my opinions on it. Before I start talking about today's pop music, I'm going to talk about the evolution of pop music through the last 40-50 years.
The first incarnation of modern American pop music existed in Rock And Roll. Unlike many forms of EDM, I am not completely sure of the origins of Rock And Roll. However, I know that it invented many things which I will be discussing once I reach modern day, specifically the "pop song structure" and the concept of the artist as a god-like figure to be praised and paid, rather than another person who is simply expressing his/her creativity through music. I can't exactly blame the original rock artists for this, though. I probably would have done the same. And I can't blame the record labels either, as they were absolutely necessary at this time period. However, I can blame all of that later on.
The second incarnation of American pop music exists with Disco. Disco originated mainly from Funk music, and was THE first popular genre to use synthesized or electronic instruments. However, the true form of Disco was never heard on the radio, and was never seen in videos such as Saturday Night Fever. No, Disco actually originated in a few small places in NYC where people with a passion for music would gather to dance and to listen to unique music. Also, Disco invented the concept of "mixing records," and was basically the whole driving force behind all EDM in the future. Keep in mind, though, this was NOT "The Beegees" or "The Village People." Disco, or at least the underground Disco that the pop music originated from, was mostly obscure funk cuts which began to incorporate electronic elements. It was from THIS music that House was spawned, not from the massive celebrity club versions that appeared on the radio.
However, the radio versions did start a trend that would be seen repeatedly throughout the next 30-40 years. This trend is somewhat complex, but has a few distinct elements that keep popping up time and time again. One is the watering-down of underground music to turn it into mainstream music. Another is the creation of "super-artists" or "superstars" who represent the music through their excessive wealth/popularity. The third is simply mainstream appeal, and eventual backlash against all forms of the music, leading it back to the underground. This happened with Disco. The underground electronic-influenced funk music eventually became popularized by the artists I mentioned above, most particularly the Bee Gees, and also through the creation of movies such as Flashdance and Saturday Night Fever. A select group of artists, probably chosen by the record label executives, became superstars thanks to their music, and thanks to the distribution methods, and gained a wide following for reasons that go beyond their music. And finally, in late 1980, it all came crashing down.
Funnily enough, American pop music would once again choose Disco as the main form of pop music, but not for a few years. During this time period in the early 80s, the Europeans were taking Disco and messing with it. They made it much more minimal, more electronic influenced, and generally more appealing. This became popular in Europe, where trends are governed by quite different laws than in America. After a few years of unrest, artists began to experiment with New Wave, and eventually picked up Italo Disco elements. The combination of these two, along with somewhat watered down elements like now-tacky vocals/accompanying music videos (remember Human League? And A-ha?) created a large mainstream appeal. This was the pop music of my parents. They remember Michael Jackson before he molested children. They remember all the cheesy electronic-influenced music of the time. This was truly the first time that Pop became a description of a genre rather than a description of the popularity of the music.
Note that there was more to Pop than just the music. As I mentioned earlier, there were other things accompanying the music, such as superstars. And superstars there were. This was the era of the record label domination of the music industry. The most piracy that was occuring during this time was dubbing of records to tapes, and that wasn't exactly the easiest or best sounding thing to do anyway. The one thing that the record labels did is something that they still do today: they made examples. They chose somewhat-talented people that would appeal to the public for one reason or another and turned them into rich celebrities for the public to idolize. This still continues today.
In addition to simply looking cool, these celebrities had to make music. However, the majority of the music was actually made behind the scenes, by a talented group of producers in expensive studios. All the celebrities did was sing. However, this music wasn't the same as the original underground genre. Since this music was designed for mainstream appeal, the songs became shorter. Now, people didn't have to listen to extended intros and outros, and when they started to get bored of a song, it would be over.
As these social scientists/musicians learned more and more about the psychological perception of music as it occurs in the majority of pop music worshipers, they made changes to how the music was designed. They realized that people consciously recognize two things in music: melody, and lyrics. Everything else had to be subconsciously crafted to provide maximum emphasis on the two above elements. This means that they removed the formula which causes energy, meaning the ups and downs in the music, and flatlined it. They also removed any possiblity of a "progressive" song, and made the music full of simple, memorable hooks. These ideas are still present today in most popular music, and have intensified in recent years, making the music even more mindless, even more flatlined, and even more dull.
At the same time as Pop was developing defining aspects, two new genres were being created: House and HipHop. House was the TRUE extension of the original Disco. The story goes that a black man from Chicago visited New York and went to one of the influential clubs at the time. He had a wonderful experience, and he wanted to take the music back to Chicago. He did just that. When he returned and started to play this music, people wanted to create their own take on the music, so they picked up inexpensive drum machines (the 808, the 909) and started making their own versions of this. The Chicago interpretation of Disco was the true beginning of House music. In the late 80s, after developing for a time in Chicago, House music would move to Ibiza (along with a huge load of MDMA) and would continue to the UK, where it would become popularized and would evolve without the influence of the USA.
In addition to House, HipHop was being invented. It started because one guy, Kool Herc, had a good idea. He noticed a group of dancers who would wait for a funk song to reach the drum solo, and then they would dance through that. After it ended, they would go back to waiting for the next one. His idea was to loop these drum solos and splice them together, to keep the people dancing as long as he could. This caught on, and thanks to a host of other influential DJs, including Grandmaster Flash and Afrika Bambaataa, became a respectable genre of music existing in underground scenes through New York. It's popularity would increase, and the influence of Dub would create rappers, and would eventually lead to a unique culture.
However, this got out of hand after a while. Rappers started to become more and more vulgar and violent in their music. Young suburban youth, who were looking to fight against their parents, picked up this music as a means of rebellion and began to blast it wherever they went. Record labels, seeing opportunity in this, picked up rappers and began to find the aspects of the music that the kids enjoyed. Turns out, they liked the vulgarity. They liked the racy subject matters. They liked the bass that would make their cars bump up and down as they drove around. They didn't care about the breaks, they didn't care about the turntable skills, and they didn't care about the history. They basically removed the genre from its roots. This continued developing as a popular genre throughout the 90s and well into the 2000s.
Before getting to the section about the truly upfront modern pop music, I'd like to make a "shoutout" to rock music, which has remained mainstream since the 50s and has exhibited all of the negative trends throught its existence. Note that here I am discussing the generic rock fanboys, or the ones unwilling to move from their tastes and believe that what THEY love is the BEST and the ONLY good music out there. While you might consider it ironic, it isn't, as I can justify my tastes with reasoning, and they cannot. I can say so many negative things about Rock music culture, especially heavy rock, such as the extreme hatred for anything made on a sequencer (since it's "not actually art"), their hatred for any music that doesn't contain vocals (since how can you express emotions without lyrics?), their hatred for "repetitive music" such as EDM (even though the majority of rock is a few chords on a guitar and a few drum patterns), and especially their complete disrespect for the categorization of any other forms of music, when they subdivive their own music so meticulously (how is it that there can be 20 forms of metal, but when it comes to EDM... it's all just "techno"?)... The ONE good thing I can say is that it has, at least, been consistent over the years, and has, for a few people, been a stepping stone on the journey towards less mainstream music.
I just want to emphasize once more that the above paragraph was directed at the rock fanboy, not at the person who appreciates specific forms of rock music, like progressive rock (I personally love Rick Wakeman), and other forms of music that do not involve forming highly polarized and highly selective groups based on slight differences in taste.
Speaking of mainstream music, that's what this is about. Modern (upfront) mainstream pop music. I should probably start talking now about the elements that disgust me about it... oh wait, I already did! You might be thinking "no, you didn't," but the truth is that I dislike pop music for the reasons listed above when I described 80s pop music, and also for the inability of the record industry to change over time. Whether you think so or not, the record industry is operating under the same standards that they have since back then. They believe that everything will be OK if they keep finding new stars who keep releasing bullshit albums. They think that the 15-minutes-of-fame technique will work for the rest of all eternity.
But you probably want to know the truth. And the truth is that they are WRONG. They want to know why people aren't buying their music. They blame it on piracy. From one perspective, it is piracy's fault for all of this. However, from another perspective, it is the fault of the record companies. They failed to respond when piracy first began. They continued to do what they do, believing that it would never become big. However, through piracy, people began to discover the music that they were missing due to the domination of these oppressive labels. They realized that there is other music out there than the mass-produced music on the radio. People began to think for themselves, at least a bit. There is a reason why about 50% of internet users are also pirates. If you think for yourself, it shouldn't be tough to figure out.
However, even if the record companies aren't responding to the piracy correctly, they are still attempting to respond musically. I have been noticing a recent shift from HipHop and "Pop Rock" to (modern) house influenced pop music. This means nothing except that it has a 4-to-the-floor kickdrum to it, it has vocals, and it doesn't attempt to progress anywhere throughout the song. This made me extremely disappointed, as I was hoping for an event similar to the popularization of Happy Hardcore in the UK: where EDM events would start popping up every which way, and the mainstream music would begin to regain some depth.
I was wrong. At least, wrong for now. As far as I can tell, there is no more electronic music in the USA than there was 10 years ago... in fact, probably less. And the reason is that more people are buying into the idea of pop music. People have stopped listening to music. It has become background noise for doing other activities, such as driving, eating, or talking. Because of this, the movement and energy present in dance music is no longer necessary, and people can go on with their lives. Since so many people hear music (note: not LISTEN but HEAR) in this way, it has become popular, and therefore removes the social stigma from doing something against the masses. It also fosters ignorance in all those involved, as I have encountered personally in public places with people of my age group (teenagers).
When I meet a new person and I am having a conversation, music inevitably pops up somewhere. 99/100 times I get one of two responses. The first is "I don't really listen to music." The second is "whatever's on the radio." When I start to talk about the music I like, they usually respond "oh, you like techno music. I like it too! I think that [Sandstorm/Basshunter/That Song With The Three Guys In A Car] is the best [Song/Artist] ever!"
When I hear this coming from an other-wise nice person, I get discouraged at what the next generation will be like. Hopefully, people will come to realize that music actually has depth and history, as my grandparents and their parents before them. However, their appreciation was basically forced, since general pop music didn't exist at that time. Even so, it still showed a much greater respect for music than the majority of current youth show.
In the end, Pop music today comes in two categories: HipHop and PopRock. Both are essentially the same genre, meaning watered-down music fit for the consumption of the millions of unlistening masses of people who turn the radio on in order to get some background noise while they go about their business. For those of us that prefer our music to have depth, or prefer our music to have energy, or even prefer our music to be a little bit harsher, a little bit more raw, a little bit DIFFERENT from the unthinking masses, I hope that this has helped you to understand, even a little bit, where this mass media fad began.
To those that enjoy the pop/rock music that I so thoroughly insulted throughout my blog post, feel free to leave rude remarks or real arguments in the comment box. If it's simply a rude remark, I'll ignore it. If it's an argument intended for me to reply, I'll do my best to explain what I'm talking about even further so that it makes more sense to you individually. Otherwise, simply say whatever you want to say. I'll read it, I'll think about possible responses, and I may or may not choose to comment. However, whatever you do, just keep in mind all that I have said, and hopefully start thinking about music that's playing rather than just letting it play.
Thanks for reading. If you're looking for a tl;dr type summary, look elsewhere and don't bother commenting. Read it, or leave. Bye.
First Post On Random Blog
Hey guys. Nav here. I'm sure you know me from my other various sites/blogs/accounts/music or whatever else you stalkers have found on me. Anyway, this blog is going to be a touch more personal than the others, and by "a touch," I mean "a whole lot," in the sense that I'm going to speak... err... type less formally, and I'm going to reveal details about my life while writing opinion articles about whatever I decide to write about, usually either music, piracy, technology, or some combination of those three.
Note that I am not a professional writer, so please don't comment about my grammar (which shouldn't be TOO bad) or about how badly I've voiced my opinion, as I tend to go off on tangents while writing these things. I also wont be proofreading, except to check for blatant spelling errors and to make sure that I actually said what I intended to say. However, this doesn't mean that you can't talk about how much my opinions suck, and about how good/bad an album/device is when I had the opposite opinion. I promise I wont take it personally, unless it REALLY hurts.
Anyway, I might as well talk about something random and somewhat generic for my first post on this blog. I'm going to discuss...
Sickness and Fevers
Anyway, I've been sick all weekend. Not just "oh man I'm coughing and a little bit congested" sick, as I've known many people to get, but completely fever-mind-fuck sickness, where I'm feeling lightheaded and completely weird in general.
To tell the objective truth, it wouldn't be all that bad of a thing. It's not the worst feeling in the world, and I do somewhat enjoy all of the weirdness that comes with having a fever. However, it IS kinda terrible being stuck all by yourself. If I had the chance to get together with a friend (who also has a fever), then I could probably invent some sort of weird reasoning system that only makes sense when you have no idea what the hell is going on.
Another interesting thing about being feverish is taste in television. While sitting on a chair watching the History Channel, a show about UFOs popped on. Everything in the show was blatantly bullshit. They kept talking about how they found some obscure crap somewhere in the world, and about "eyewitness accounts" of people who saw "the sky light up for 10 seconds" in the middle of the night. It was obviously fake, and if not fake, then it was just retarded. However, I kept watching since I didn't feel like moving.
Over time, the show sort of drew me in. I started believing that the random crap was all related, and it made perfect sense to me. However, just after that point where the show began to make sense, I fell asleep. When I woke up, the show was still on, and I continued to watch it, even though normally I would have left in an instant.
Uhh... I think that's enough about this topic for now. Hopefully I'll put together more coherent posts in the future, which will probably be about one of the topics I said that each entry would be about. Anyway, bye.
Note that I am not a professional writer, so please don't comment about my grammar (which shouldn't be TOO bad) or about how badly I've voiced my opinion, as I tend to go off on tangents while writing these things. I also wont be proofreading, except to check for blatant spelling errors and to make sure that I actually said what I intended to say. However, this doesn't mean that you can't talk about how much my opinions suck, and about how good/bad an album/device is when I had the opposite opinion. I promise I wont take it personally, unless it REALLY hurts.
Anyway, I might as well talk about something random and somewhat generic for my first post on this blog. I'm going to discuss...
Sickness and Fevers
Anyway, I've been sick all weekend. Not just "oh man I'm coughing and a little bit congested" sick, as I've known many people to get, but completely fever-mind-fuck sickness, where I'm feeling lightheaded and completely weird in general.
To tell the objective truth, it wouldn't be all that bad of a thing. It's not the worst feeling in the world, and I do somewhat enjoy all of the weirdness that comes with having a fever. However, it IS kinda terrible being stuck all by yourself. If I had the chance to get together with a friend (who also has a fever), then I could probably invent some sort of weird reasoning system that only makes sense when you have no idea what the hell is going on.
Another interesting thing about being feverish is taste in television. While sitting on a chair watching the History Channel, a show about UFOs popped on. Everything in the show was blatantly bullshit. They kept talking about how they found some obscure crap somewhere in the world, and about "eyewitness accounts" of people who saw "the sky light up for 10 seconds" in the middle of the night. It was obviously fake, and if not fake, then it was just retarded. However, I kept watching since I didn't feel like moving.
Over time, the show sort of drew me in. I started believing that the random crap was all related, and it made perfect sense to me. However, just after that point where the show began to make sense, I fell asleep. When I woke up, the show was still on, and I continued to watch it, even though normally I would have left in an instant.
Uhh... I think that's enough about this topic for now. Hopefully I'll put together more coherent posts in the future, which will probably be about one of the topics I said that each entry would be about. Anyway, bye.
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