Going Down the Tubes: The Illegal-ization of Culture

Wednesday, January 3rd, 2007

We've all heard the platitude before: today's culture is going down the tubes. In recent history, major conduits for cultural influence have been "talking machines" (radio) and "boob tubes" (TV). More recently we have the rapid increase in influence of the internet (also composed of "tubes" if you listen to ...

Cover this, Hey Ya…

Monday, November 20th, 2006

powered by ODEO Why are music covers and movie remakes so popular? Assuming you can manage to get it out there with all the copyright licensing issues, its much more likely for a new take on an old success to become rapidly popular, so its a much safer investment. The population ...

More music madness – Songbird, a time-lapse mashup and other music miscellany

Saturday, October 7th, 2006

40 years of pop music summaried in 37 minutes Before I get to one of the more interesting pieces of music aware software I have seen lately, I need to credit Alex Gelfand with another interesting music nerd article in Wired: DuBois...has developed a technique he calls "time-lapse phonography." ... DuBois devised ...

Rock on! Study shows rock music makes you smarter

Monday, September 11th, 2006

All those years I spent listening to rock music on my headphones while studying were not in vain. Reported in the Times Online: "Researchers at a Scottish university believe that the sound of guitar-based rock such as Jimi Hendrix, AC/DC and the Red Hot Chili Peppers improves concentration and boosts ...

Polymathematical

Friday, September 1st, 2006

An article in Wired "From Crypto to Jazz" explores the connection between music and math through the music of saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa. Read the article and listen to the music samples. Very cool. Fittingly, the author Alexander Gelfand, is as much of a polymath as I have ever met. His interest ...

Musical genetics and the future of “radio”

Wednesday, March 1st, 2006

What if the radio just knew what you wanted to listen to? Could a radio station learn what kind of music you like? Would you listen to a channel that can play songs you have never heard but will probably like? Well thanks to Kirsten, internet lurker extraordinaire, and by ...

Mashups: from hobby to art form to controversy

Wednesday, February 8th, 2006

An interesting collection of musical mashups is posted online. Mashups are an ever popular form of musical expression albeit mostly illegal as they are derivatives of copyrighted material clearly exceeding the currently accepted boundaries of "fair use". Nonetheless these "bootlegs" have been a growing aspect of musical culture spread by ...

More fun: Read my lips

Saturday, July 31st, 2004

From a very talented group atmo: "Are you tired of hearing politicians talk? Well, hear them sing instead. Listen to Saddam Hussein singing Imagine. Or to the love duet featuring Bush and Blair." Interesting format for social commentary.