The Sex Pistols Podcast

Podcast Two

Here is my Podcast Project Two, which is on the subject on the start of punk rock, mainly with The Sex Pistols. Click the Link to listen (directed to soundcloud).

The Sex Pistols (The Start of Punk)

Let’s go back to London, 1975, here we find the Sex Pistols. Just 4 guys pissed at the world that they live in, and use music to voice their concern. . The Sex Pistols were composed of Johnny Rotten on vocals, Steve Jones on Guitar, Paul Cook on Drums and Glen Matlock on the bass. The Sex Pistols were the start of a movement that would give light to my favorite genre of music, Punk Rock. When Punk Rock was started, it was just an alternative form of music that voiced problems in the world. With the way people acted that listened to Punk Rock, I am not surprised that the image of Punk Rock has not been a good one. Almost every time there was a Sex Pistols concert, the police were called, and the concert ended in complete chaos. Add on top of that the Bill Grundy incident, in which they swore on live television. This event catapulted them into the media spotlight, making “The Sex Pistols” household names. Unfortunately, this media attention was good for getting their name out, but bad for their image. They used this image to draw people to their music, and that got their message out. In the 1977 single “God Save the Queen,” they attacked Britain’s conformity to the Crown. This attacked would create the “last and greatest outbreak of pop-based moral pandemonium.”

The Sex Pistols kick started my favorite genre of music, Punk. While the Punk today sounds different than it was back then, I believe we should look back to these guys and keep the main point of the music. Standing against things that you believe are injustices. Voicing your opinion on things that matter to you, whether it be things from animal injustice, to telling kids to stand up for what is right, to bullying, to political issues. Music is here for us to voice opinions, especially the Punk Genre. 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/artists/e5db18cb-4b1f-496d-a308-548b611090d3

http://www.punk77.co.uk/groups/sex.htm

Peer Comments

Week 3

Michael,

Great Info in the First Paragraph! Wish I did more research like that, lazy me. It is amazing the contrast between their earlier albums and then Revolver. Isn’t it amazing how we delve into what we are told not to do and how they influence us? We are always told not to do drugs, but it is amazing how much it influenced The Beatles. It amuses me that you can find influence anywhere. Interesting perspective on the opening of Revolver, I like how you put it that The Beatles wanted to invite the listeners into the studio. I really like the part about the Dalai Lama, that’s awesomely funny. Great Job!

Week 2

Victor, good choice on the background of the band, when I did my Kraftwerk post, I did not think to include background of the band, good idea on picking that up! Interesting that Kraftwerk translates into power station, I should of picked up on that during my research.  Good idea to point out that they had themes to their albums, since it was really a part of who made them who they were. I like your idea in your last paragraph about Eno and Bowie rushing out to try and be like them. This can definitely be seen in history, since they tried to grab a part of what they believed was a growing scene. 



Week 1

Michael,

Great Info in the First Paragraph! Wish I did more research like that, lazy me. It is amazing the contrast between their earlier albums and then Revolver. Isn’t it amazing how we delve into what we are told not to do and how they influence us? We are always told not to do drugs, but it is amazing how much it influenced The Beatles. It amuses me that you can find influence anywhere. Interesting perspective on the opening of Revolver, I like how you put it that The Beatles wanted to invite the listeners into the studio. I really like the part about the Dalai Lama, that’s awesomely funny. Great Job!

Raymond Scott

Raymond Scott was a pioneer in electronic music. He invented or helped electronic instruments. He attended Brooklyn Technical High School, and was also an adventurous sound engineer. While recording in the 30s and 40s, he was mostly in the control room adjusting acoustics by new and unorthodox means, which would be used regularly in the future. Gert-Jan Blom and Jeff Winner wrote about him, saying, “Scott sought to master all aspects of sound capture and manipulation. His special interesting in the technical aspects of recording, combined with the state-of-the-art facilities at his disposal, provided him with enormous hands-on experience as an engineer.” In 1946, Scott created Manhattan Research, a division of his company, Raymond Scott Enterprises, Inc. which would design and manufacture electronic music devices. While creating devices for himself, Scott also sold devices and serviced them “for the creation of electronic music and musique concrete.” These sales also included components such as ring modulators; tone, envelope, and wave shifters, modulators and filters. Relying on his own creations like the Clavivox and the Electronium, he recorded futuristic compositions for use in radio and television commercials as well as entire songs for records. Scott made some of the early devices capable of producing multiple tones automatically in a line. Due to this, he later credited himself as the inventor of the polyphonic sequencer. In 1964, Scott released “Soothing Sounds for Baby,” which sounds familiar to Tangerine Dream’s and Brian Eno’s work from the mid ‘70s.

Raymond Scott influenced the Electronic music era by creating and pioneering some of the early stuff that would define the genre. From using the futuristic Sci-Fi sounds for commercials to creating simple ambient tracks for toddlers, Scott laid the groundwork for this genre. To study and read about a man who strove after something he loved is an honor. I only hope to do the same in my studies and hopefully have an impact on this world that I will help shift and change.

Sources:

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Scott

Melonball Bounce:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNY8t4-aX6g

Kraftwerk

Kraftwerk’s early music were experimental rock tunes without the “pop” bits that we associate them with of their later albums. It wasn’t until 1974 that they made a hit. With “Autobahn,” Kraftwerk made an electronic album about a single thing, driving. This would be the image and music of the band that would define them in the world of electronic music. When they began to tour, they decided to have short haircuts and suits to mimic the way American bands were looking while they were on tour. In the title track, “Autobahn,” Kraftwerk tried to mimic The Beach Boys. This can be seen in the lyrics “fahr’n fahr’n fahr’n, auf der autobahn.” Where “fahr’n” sounds like “fun,” which, of course, mimics the song “Fun Fun Fun,” by The Beach Boys. This song also did something not normal for the time frame. It’s in German. Let me explain this. Kraftwerk were a German band, and songs of that time were normally not sung in German because songs in German were usually about political statements and the motherland. So usually songs that were created by German bands were usually in English for this purpose. After “Autobahn” came “Radio Activity,” which also had a theme. “Radio Activity” was all about Nuclear energy and of course, the Radio. In this context, it took a hint of England during WWII, with people hovering around their radios waiting for Churchill to make his speeches. Then came “Trans-Europe Express,” this is where Kraftwerk did something not seen before on their records. This specific record was all about what they knew and did well, no experimentation, just plain good electronic music. A lot of their records beforehand had some songs that were sort of experiments that they decided to put on the records.

Kraftwerk is inspirational. They kind of screw around in the early years, then when they release “Autobahn,” they blow up into a thing. With focus on a specific subject, they become better. This shows me that when you get set on an idea, pursue it, no matter how silly it seems during production, because it just might cause you to make a hit.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kraftwerk

http://www.veoh.com/watch/v17166226D39Jw7dc

Marvin Gaye Podcast

This is my Podcast for Project one, I chose the song "Whats going on"

Podcast One

Enjoy!

What's Going On (Edited from Original)

For Marvin Gaye, “What’s Going On” was a statement of his beliefs. Beforehand, Marvin had the typical Motown track listing, which was of the Soul genre. Marvin sang songs about his beliefs, but never about something serious, like war or hunger. The main influence for this song was his brother’s stories while he was in Vietnam. For Gaye, “Vietnam didn’t become real until somebody close to him was touched by it. I wrote him a few letters, but it wasn’t till I got back that it really hit him that I had been over there. ‘Wow, man, you were in the war.’ Then he wanted to know everything. I cried a lot during our talks. War is hell, believe me.” When Gaye tried to release the song, he was shot down by Motown head Berry Gordy for over a year. When Gaye started not coming to the studio and doing his own projects, Gordy gave in a released the single, taking the top two spots in 3 charts. Soon after the release of the single, it was re-released in an album of the name on May 21, 1971. For the first time, a Soul album addressed issues that were prominent of that time. Issues covered in the album were war, poverty, taxes, drug abuse, and pollution. This is also the first time that a Motown record went away from the traditional Motown feel. This album contains a mixture of funk, classical and Latin.

What’s Going On shows me that any kind of music can make a statement, and if you want to sing about something, sing about it. If you lose fan base for singing about something that has struck you deep in your heart, screw it. It’s a good trade, standing for what you believe, in exchange for losing fans. Since, it is always better to be different than to go with the crowd.

Sources:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2001/dec/08/extract

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2001/dec/08/extract1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Gaye

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What%27s_Going_On_(song)

The Velvet Underground and Nico

The Velvet Underground’s music was the beginning of something that we today would call “alternative.” They experimented in their albums trying to develop something new. They were developing music where they could express problems in words, and have them mean something. Not something like “this is wrong!” More like “This is a problem, it needs to be solved.” They used music to voice problems, like many artists we see today do. Their image was different; they were just regular people, nothing big, since they bombed on their records during while they were together. Only after they broke up did they become big, and then their image changed, instead of normal people, they were an influence. A cult was slowly forming behind their music, and this is probably why they are remembered today. Lou Reed used personal subjects in his lyrics, like sexuality and drugs. While Reed wrote the lyrics, John Cale backed it with his music, providing many experiment styles and instruments into The Velvet Underground’s music. The main person who backed The Velvet Underground was Andy Warhol, the owned The Factory, a place or arts where he worked. He provided money for the studio recordings and helped produce the records. The thing that strikes me most about The Velvet Underground was their success after they went their own ways. I just find it amazing how after they started to split up that they became more popular, strange how the world works sometimes. I really like the experimentation of music in the album, trying something different is good. These experiments added a necessary base to the music, and without it, they would not have been influential.

The Velvet Underground kick started the alternative genre. There is nothing like listening to music and hear history being made right before you. It is always good to come back and look at these albums to get inspiration to try something new.

Sources :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lou_Reed

http://www.veoh.com/watch/v18444087ZF6xZy9c

Pet Sounds

Pet Sounds, released in 1966, is where we see the Beach Boys following the growing trend of adding Psychedelic-ness to their music. So begins the age of psychedelic rock. Before Pet Sounds the Beach Boys was known for their “surfing music,” of which we remember today, with their earlier releases. Brian Wilson was a founding member of the beach boys, and has fulfilled many roles while in his career with the Beach Boys. While Wilson started out playing bass, he moved to piano/keyboards, along with providing a lot of the lead vocals, and also harmonizing using falsetto. Behind the scenes, Wilson served as the bands producer, composer and arranger. In his producer role, he quit touring with the band some months before the release and Pet Sounds. Brian Wilson was heavily influenced by The Beatles Rubber Soul album. This album struck him so much that he felt challenged to make a great album and prove to the world that he could do it. Pet Sounds used multi-studio recording to get Wilson’s desired sound for the album. The album also used very unconventional instruments such as bicycle bells, trains, Coca-Cola cans, dog whistles, and barking dogs with their usual flow of guitars and keyboards. Wilson often mimicked Phil Spector, and in this album he used the “Wall of Sound” technique along with studios that had echoes and reverberations naturally.

Pet Sounds adds to the growing psychedelic rock genre of the time. It shows that unconventional means can be used to create a great album. Wilson felt challenged to make a great album by the Beatles Rubber Soul, it shows, like many other instances, that when a person is challenged to do something, they will strive to overcome that challenge. It started the use of reverberation just like the Beatles Revolver used compression. In all older albums, you can hear the starting moments of techniques that are commonly used today in music production.

Upon listening to both the mono and stereo versions of Pet Sounds, I find that the stereo most definitely has the higher quality of sound, with the mono having static during silence, with the stereo not, plus with stereo, you can have more control of the instruments in terms of how the listener hears them.

Edwards, Bob, The Bob Edwards Show, Peter Ames Carlin, August 13, 2009

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Wilson

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pet_Sounds

The Beatles "Revolver"

Revolver is a masterpiece, a step into what you can do with music with some ingenuity. It shows that when you want to change, you can. Before Revolver, The Beatles were doing your typical songs, mostly about teen love. After, The Beatles had released an album that changed the course of music in history. They turned from a stereotypical image of playing love songs to branching out and singing and doing things that were kind of odd for that time period. The Beatles took a three month break before recording Revolver, and during that time The Beatles had an experience with acid, and it heavily influenced Revolver, making it "one of the very first psychedelic LPs.” For Revolver, The Beatles used the studio to create ADT, or Automatic Double Tracking. ADT is used to create two sonic images at once, overlapping them, but altering each image’s details to create new acoustical depth. Along with ADT, Revolver was one of the first albums to use compression on the drums, making them seem “right up in your face.” This technique would soon be used from then on to make the drums heard more clearly and effectively. The use of the revolving speaker in “Tomorrow Never Knows,” is also a good example what you can do with the right mindset. The speakers create a vocal track that seems “spacy,” and more like what you would experience if you were only LSD. The use of other people to play instruments with them is a first for them, since it was usually The Beatles and their producer playing most of the time. The String track in “Eleanor Rigby” provided an excellent string pad for the song, serving as both a string pad and a percussion section. While the sitar in “Tomorrow Never Knows” adds to the overall feel of the song being “out of this world.”

No matter how you look at it, Revolver changed the way music was produced. It changed the way the lyrics spoke. It showed that anything can influence you,and you can use that influence to make your music better. Finally, it showed that you could break away from the normal and make something good that will affect the rest of the world. It shows that when you are doing something well, you can change your ways and make it better.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolver_(album)
http://www.prx.org/pieces/15368-everything-was-right-the-beatles-revolver

Konnichiwa, Greetings, and Hey.

My name is Roland Chabot, A student at Full Sail University studying Music Production, an Eagle Scout and avid music lover. I love music that fuels a need to do something, and my music choices have helped me fuel my love for activism, belief, and personality. I want to be an impact in the lives of the young adults, giving them the details and letting them choose their beliefs and affirming them to the point of which they will not move from it. This belief fuels their personality and lets them become who they are.