Peer Review Week 4

Dear Donnell,

After reading your post I found it very informative and I can see how Kanye West is innovative. From the samples he used to the other genres he explored for his sound. He is an amazing producer but what is funny is that people did say he couldn't rap. He didn't let people bring him down and stuck to what he believed in and changed the hip-hop game. I feel you hit everything from sampling from the 70's to electronic dance music. Kanye definitely came and changed how we make music but also inspired others. He is a legend in the game and hasn't been in it for to long.

Scott Storch Independent Research

He got his first chance when he became a member of hip-hop group “The Roots” as a keyboard player. He did that for a while but wanted to do more in the industry, he made his real breakthrough when he collaborated with super producer Dr. Dre and Scott created the infamous piano riff on the song “ Still D.R.E.” which Dr. Dre produced the entire song and it was a huge hit.

Scott’s biggest hit was producing the song “ Lean Back” in 2004 for Fat Joe, which in reality resurrected Fat Joe’s career. Scott Storch dominated the hip-hop and pop charts for about 3-4 years. By 2006 Storch was reported to be worth $70 million. He was living a lavish lifestyle with all the jewelry, cars, houses, and boats. He was very consistent with making pop records.

At one point, he was really on top when another super producer Timbaland started having problems with Scott because he was proclaiming and not to mention everyone was saying he was the best and Timbland started throwing insults and shots at Storch. By stating “ I get a half a mil for my beats/ you get a couple grand I’m a real producer and/ you just a piano man/ your songs gonna top the charts/ I heard em, I’m not a fan.

This isn’t the only problem Storch has had with producers. Producer Lil Jon even came to accuse Scott of taking his style. Storch said that the only thing they have in common is that they both like low-end bass. In 2003, Timbaland, Dr. Dre, and Eminem got into a serious battle with artist/producer Jermaine Dupri because Jermaine said that Scott’s work was far more superior to Timbaland and Dr. Dre.

What was innovative about Storch was the way he played the piano so amazingly. He didn’t play other instruments but what he would do is implement other instruments and sounds and load them up on the piano and would use his piano talents to play the other instruments, which is genius. He dropped out of school in the 9^th grade because he knew he wanted to play the piano and produce music.

In a 4-year span he conquered everything, he made beats for everyone that wanted a hit. Its like he had a formula, He resurrected Fat Joe’s career with “Lean Back” because before that Joe was on the downside of his career.

The impression he left me was he was amazing with what he had and knew. He doesn’t have a list of instruments he can play, nope just one. Again if Timbaland is a top 5 producer and he started the careers of Missy Elliot and Aaliyah, which are legends. Scott had Timbaland feel some type of way to make a song about him.

Scott has taught me a few valuable lessons; one is success and how far one can take it.  Trying to maintain it, and how dangerous drugs can run your life and career. Cocaine drastically changed his life. He went from top 5 to not mentioned at all.

Peer Review Week 3

Hey Donnell,

After reading this blog I can see how they made a difference in music and spreading into other genres. Like for instance, Walk This Way with Aerosmith was a huge song that broke a lot of barriers, it mixed hip-hop and rock-n-roll. I enjoyed reading your blog I found it very useful, especially the part that MIDI was made commercially for the public and their song Sucker MC's came out the same time. Overall I feel you made your point across and it was also very informative and I could tell you liked this group. Good Job on presenting.

Louis & Bebe

These two are pioneers in Electronic Music. They were the 1^st to make electronic music on magnetic tape, which was Heavenly Menagerie. But what’s more amazing is that they are the first to do an entire film score electronic for the movie Forbidden Planet in 1956. They created alien like sounds, scary environments, and interesting ambiences. The circuitry that was used for this project was home made and built by Louis and Bebe themselves. The equipment would overheat at times and cause of consistent use, a lot of sounds were not about to be reproduced.

The interesting thing about it was that they recorded piece by piece and it was mixed down from a tape recorder feeding into another recorder, it was a unique process. The music and effects completely awed the audience. They had their soundtrack distributed by GNP; who is a company known for producing and marketing science fiction film soundtracks.

John Cage worked with them and told them that what they were doing was electronic music. They didn’t even realize they were making a genre; they were just making sounds and experimenting.

What is great is that Modern Digital Technology is now imitating their sound with the old analog circuits. In 2000, Bebe Barron was invited to create a new work at University of California, Santa Barbara, using the latest sound generating technology to collect sounds there. In November 2000, Bebe did all the composing on Jane Brockman’s studio. The sounds collected at UCSB were imported into Digital Performer on the Mac and Bebe created her final project, Mixed Emotions.

What is amazing about them is after Forbidden Planets; they didn’t score another film about that. Their old recording and mixing techniques were innovating. People today use their circuits to use their old rich analog sound.

Kraftwerk

The music that Kraftwerk did was very innovative and also pioneering to electronic dance music. They used synthesizers, mini moogs, digital keyboards, and electronic drum kits.

The albums they released within the seven-year span of 1974-1981, they had their 1^st album that they put out and gave such a scenic concept with Autobahn. Kraftwerk, had an unusual approach with their long songs, which wasn’t your typical 3 minute song on the radio. What else was interesting was that they didn’t use to many refrains/chorus’s. The album titled song Autobahn was 20 minutes long and was unique with how they lyrics were in German, and the song was about driving around. The word Fahrn sound like the word Fun in America and was a popular song in the billboard.

Kraftwerk dropped their 2^nd album called Trans-Europe Express and that was a really good album with its innovation. On the hit record, the album titled hit song itself recorded a train for the rhythmic beat of the song. There were a few bands other there that were in Kraftwerk’s lane but nobody at that point in time was as big as them. But at the same time Giorgio Moroder was inspire by Kraftwerk music and made a pop record with that kind of style for Donna Summer’s hit song I Feel Love.

They released a 3^rd album The Man Machine, besides how good their new songs were, they sparked controversy with their album cover because it seem militant and a little racy with Matching outfits and how they were posed for the picture.

Their concepts for albums were brilliant because of a few albums and how it went with the album: Autobahn, Radioactivity, and Trans-Europe Express, and The Man Machine. In Radioactivity their talking about music and radioactive materials and even the sounds were complementing to it. Autobahn the album itself is about driving and riding about. Tran-Europe Express is about how Europe connects together and trains how it connects. 

The impression they left me was that they were experimental with sounds and it was successful and at times it wasn’t, but they kept evolving their sound and because of that it’s so popular to others. 

Podcast 1

Peer Review Week 2

Donnell your research on Marvin Gaye was very informative and interesting. You had a lot of great points on the development of the What’s Going On. You discussed main topics like the making the song and how he was affected with the label trying to stop the release of the track. You also described the kind of person he was before this album and the times he was in. I thought you blog was very good and got to the point.  The only feedback I can give it is, it is a little bit long.

Marvin Gaye's What's Goin On

            Marvin was a soul singer from Motown Records, prior to “What’s Goin On” he wrote a lot of love songs. He was a lover not a fighter or protester. He started getting into politics and what was going on in his life this album.

            He discussed which was happening in regards to the Vietnam War with the soldiers and the drugs they got addicted to after the war. He was also very upset with all the racism and the civil rights issues that were going on.He had a lot of problems trying to release the song. Berry Gordy hated the new song and the new approach he had with his lyrics. Gordy tried to not have it released; even Quality Control disapproved the song. 

            When they were recording the engineer at the time accidently doubled the vocals for Marvin to listen back and he liked how it sounded. The new material Marvin had was special because of how he expressed his lyrics was on another level, times were rough and on “What’s Goin On” the saxophone intro was created with a sax player getting warmed up and practicing and the engineer recorded that and Marvin approved of it. The sax player was ready to go and he was already done before he knew it.

           The impression that Marvin Gaye left t was that he was very soulful human being; to me personally he is the best soul singer ever. What Marvin accomplished was making people open up to see what is going on around them. He covered topics in his music no one thought of. He expressed himself so lovely, when he sang one would have felt what he was saying in his voice. He completely changed his songwriting and made something more conscious. It did very well commercially even though Gordy thought if would have cause problems because of what he was discussing. I’m glad Marvin Gaye stood by his beliefs and music.

Pet Sounds

Prior to the recording of Pet Sounds the Beach Boys had a California flavor. They had a unique sound. Brian Wilson was everything to the band. Brian arranged all the music, wrote and performed it.  Brian was also the producer. The Beach Boys reached the top forty charts twenty two times from 1962 until 1967. Their success did not come from beach music it all came from Brian Wilson. What was inspirational for Brian to write and record Pet Sounds was a group in particularly the Four Freshman. He felt he found love with their harmonies. Phil Spector was also a big inspiration, because he was a legendary producer that Brian watched and liked.

I felt that the instrumentation and arrangement of this album were great. The production quality was amazing you could hear the crisp in the instruments. My favorite parts were the harmonies in the song the Brian Wilson arranged and because of this he inspired the Beatles in their Revolver album. 

I personally don’t particularly listen to that genre but I must say this is one of the best albums I have heard as a whole. The lyrics and the arrangements were amazing. The album only had three hits. They pushed the envelope with the conscious music. 

My industry professional opinion is that, this album was the most best album ever until the Beatles came with Revolver. The Beatles tried their hardest I feel on Revolver. One can hear where Revolver got there ideas from. This is one of the best albums ever period.   

Revolver

The image the Beatles portrayed was a boy band that talked more about woman and relationships. The band experimented with drugs.  They used a lot of LSD. This was psychedelic album. George Harrison got more input in this album. They also experimented with the Indian sitar. They were the first to experience a digital compressor. They were the first to artificially doubling with vocals. They had the original and somehow they recorded to tape and made duplicate, so they could layer on vocals and harmonies easier because john couldn’t do identical tapes. They would also do this to the instruments so it would have a heavier sound and feel fuller. One of the most amazing effects they did was reversing the guitar they did this all with tape. What was great about it they had it on a few of their tracks. What made it so hard and amazing was to blend with the sound. They used echoes and delays with vocals. They had a song in the album with bird sounds. They constructed their album with tape, loops and pieced it all together. 

My impression as a listener was that the band heard Pet Sounds and it motivated them to drop a better album. Listening to this I feel the Beach Boys heavily influenced the Beatles. The Beatles took experimenting to a whole another degree. They had a studio break through with equipment by trying things. This album was a head of its time.  This was not a typical album it covered various topics from government to love to sleeping and drug use.

As an industry professional this was the true definition of a studio album. It could not be duplicated because all the unique sounds and certain sound effects could only be done in the studio for instance the reverse guitars.  The way John’s voice was manipulated with a leslie cabinet for the vocal effect and doubling. One of their biggest weapon was using the studio sound literally because it gave the album such a warm feel.  his is one of the greatest albums that you can listen to from beginning to end a true classic.  

Introduction

Hello my name is Michael Garced.  I am studying to become a music producer.  My musical interests are hip hop, r & b and contemporary.  I have always enjoyed all types of music such as jazz, salsa, rock and alternative.  I would like to make music to inspire other musicians as I have been inspired.