Decoding a 1990s Legacy

On December 19th 1989 a song in four keys with 18 key changes was released as a single by a major label. It was recorded with a simple drum machine track and a bunch of synth tracks. The lead vocalist’s instrument was the accordion. It wasn’t Al Yankovic.

It peaked at #6 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart in USA despite sounding nothing like Nirvana, Sonic Youth, or Radiohead. It made #6 on the UK Single charts alongside of Madonna, De La Soul and New Kids on the Block,

Using completely different instrumentation, it was performed live with Doc Severinsen and the Tonight Show Band at 10BPM faster than in rehearsal.

It was They Might Be Giants (TMBG).

A short list of creators who have publicly cited TMBG as being influential in their work:

  • Lin-Manuel Miranda (cites TMBG as a favorite artist)
  • Terry Pratchett (references to TMBG in the Discworld series)
  • Will Toledo (Car Seat Headrest)
  • John Darnielle (The Mountain Goats)
  • Chris Carrabba (Dashboard Confessional)

Their theme song “Boss of Me” for Malcolm in the Middle won a Grammy Award.

If you’re tight on time, and not been exposed to Flood, at least listen to the 46 second track: Minimum Wage and Istanbul (Not Constantinople) at 2:33.

Otherwise take 43 minutes to hear all of Flood.

And yet, my heart still belongs to Lala

I didn’t open Spotify a few days and when I turned it back on I got a notification new to me: “you have a new follower“.

Please tell me if you ever got that from Spotify. I’ve never.

I recognized the follower’s name and a upon seeing mutual follows, saw old friends. A track on their playlist moved me and I had no way to thank them.

The primordial on-line music platform Lala got it right from the start when they transformed from physical media exchange to digital/cloud music : iTunes and more – a limited social network for ephemeral interest in musical audio content.

It was gorgeous. You could buy or rent tracks for download. Stream for monthly subscription.

Lala Social Feature: Forecast (4 Cast)

I’ve studied on-line communities since e-mail groups in the 90’s – Lala was exemplary in demanding equanimity among its subject matter: everybody gets the same real estate.

With even a small number of users, that signal was enough to care about another user even though we have diverse affinities.

So, to the New Follower

Cate ∞ wherever you are, appreciate the follow, but especially thankful for hearing this track .

That said, Spotify ought to be better.

Recent tribute to You Forgot It In People …

Our minds were positively altered because by You Forgot It In People. Twenty years later after first hearing, there still are tracks that bring us to tears.

TL; DR: ♥️ Middle Kids and Mduo Moctar deliver.

We appreciate all of the artists covering this challenging work. There are a couple of gems on this album from folks perhaps unfamiliar to you.

For the original album tracks having the most emotional impact upon us, it’s a challenge for anyone to offer something either new or even sufficiently affirming given the source material and the variety of textures in all the live performances by Broken Social Scene.

There were two such occasions:

  • Cause = Time by the Middle Kids
  • Stars and Sons by Toro y Moi

Published
Categorized as music

Achieving Repetition Equilibrium

I have no authority for saying so, but from what I’ve read and listened to, this I believe:

  • Humans are highly developed pattern recognition engines.
  • Human brains react positively to a new pattern when it is repeated.
  • Upon repeated exposure to this new pattern, human brains ignore the original pattern and instead focus on subtle differences among the original pattern and it’s repetitions.

If the signal is of musical form, how is this exploited by composers and music arrangers?

Here’s my simplistic take:

One strategy is to alter the “top” (melody) and repeat the “bottom” (harmonic structure). Not unlike classical composers “Theme and Variation” motif. See Mozart, et al.

photo

Another strategy is: alter the “bottom” (harmonic structure), and repeat the “top” (melody). It’s most prevalent in jazz and to some degree in modern rock and hip-hop.

(insert photo of most representative composer here)

Of course this is a sophomoric generalization and a vast over-simplification. But it’s something to think about when inventing an arrangement.

(so many more references to musical works)

 

 

Who was Amy?

If were someone to ask me who could curate all of popular music in America over the past 50 years, my first thought is Questlove.

Evidence: https://www.autostraddle.com/questloves-amy-winehouse-uncensored-celebrity-encounters-102326/

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Categorized as music

Rilo Kiley 2002

The performance of this epic song is likely adjacent to its recording. The audience discovered the conviction from the performers in real time.

Jenny doing all the things, Mike Mogis being essential and Blake with perfect color counterpoint to Jenny, and then there’s that bridge passage…

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Categorized as music