Just A Few Notes

Liner notes. Sexy, right? Even it not, they are a very important part of any music project. Some artists have been so adept at expressing themselves with just a few lines on the back of an album, tape or CD, that you look forward to their next release just to find out what they're going to say next.

Liner notes are the credits, thanks, and thoughts of the artist that made an album/CD. It's the information that tells you who played what instrument or sang a particular vocal. Also,it tells you who engineered and produced the music. Sometimes, the words to the songs might be included, as well as who wrote each tune. And, at times an artist may have someone else comment on their music.

My interest in the subject relates to being able to say what you want to say without having what you've said being misconstrued. Artists who make love music or dance music seem to have no problem talking about their particular interest. But what if you're music is a little eclectic? What if your personal philosophy is what inspires or propels your music?

Sometimes a project can take longer than you expect. In such a case, it's possible for the tone or feel of the recording to change. Then, that change could become what motivates the artist to write liner notes that reflect the new direction or provide some explanation for the extra time.

Most of all, the music should come first. If the music is about something, then what to write will come easy. For Nprogram projects, the music has been largely about a positive feeling, with words that sometimes relate to technology. If I were to release music under my given name, I would try for a more soulful, personal approach. I find that, that would give me more than enough to add to the credits.

Earth Wind & Fire, Stevie Wonder, and Michael McDonald are just a few artists that I have listened to, whose liner notes carry a strong message about the music on their albums. They don't always write a lot, but whatever they write is always worth reading.

Today, in an ever increasingly digital world, the push to bring every aspect of a music project online has led to the blog becoming somewhat like an extension of the liner note. While blogging wasn't originally intended as such, it can make it possible to relate thoughts, ideas, and experiences that an artist wasn't able to add to the digital version of an album. In fact, a blog can provide a fan with a way to connect with an artist between albums or events. And, it's an excellent way to share what you think about music.

While liner notes may not be a very sexy topic, it remains a point of interest for music fans and consumers everywhere. If all you have to say is thank you, no problem, as long as you have something to say.

Play It Again..........

According to Hal Vogel, an entertainment economist, between the four major record companies, there are an estimated 11,000 label releases each year. Wow, right? So how is it that we only hear about a hand full of artists?

It's also estimated that the industry spends most of it's promotion and distribution on 2% of those releases. That's about 220 releases. Lets say that only ten of those releases receive enough attention to sell between 35,000 to 500,000, to upwards of a million or more copies. These artists will eventually receive most of, if not all of the labels' attention.

When you listen to the radio or watch an awards show, it's no wonder that you hear the same few names, over and over again. It then becomes a question of whether a major label artist becomes hugely successful because of their music or because of heavy industry promotion and distribution. An artist's first successful release might be due to fan adulation, while subsequent releases might be the result of label hype, intended to either repeat or outdo past performance, or maybe to prevent any chance of failure. From then on, they may even be riding on pure name recognition alone.

Mean while, how many of those 10,990 other releases would have a chance, if given the mega amounts of radio and TV promotion that's expended on those ten that make it, to the extreme. I think, and this is just my opinion, that music consumers want two things, they want variety and they want a memorable performance. This is key to why so many music fans have turned to the internet.

While CDs still offer the best sound quality when it comes to available recorded music, digital downloads are still providing the widest variety in terms of genre, style, and selection.

Each year, it's taking longer for an album release to sell a million copies. Over all sales so far this year has only slipped by 1.3%. This was due in part to digital album sales. This alone is not enough to suggest that downloads have won the format wars, but if the major labels are not willing to stand behind more of their product that ships to brick and mortar, then the door is definitely open for downloads to surge ahead.

The problem that remains, is all those other 10,990 releases that receive little or no promotion. Much of the money spent making those recordings is considered as a loss. This could be part of the reason why the cost of CDs from the major labels continues to rise. So, why do they do it? Clearly, it's a hit or miss strategy at work here. Whether it's intended or not, it has become standard industry practice. Which of those all but discarded releases might contain the music of the next musical sensation? And, why would their music be passed over in favor of the same cookie cutter formula that sells less and less with each release, while the art of a possible superstar is being relegated to the cutout bin?

Star vs. Artist

If you had the choice, would you rather be rich or famous? OK. If you had a choice between being a star or an artist, which one would you choose? For most of us, the first question would be easy to make. But the second question, not so much.

There are an estimated 12 million artist with profiles on Myspace.com. These are no doubt some of the most talented people on the planet. How many of them do you think would consider themselves to be artist? I would guess, all of them. Now, a profile on Myspace is not a guarantee that you will achieve stardom. Most artist will work very hard to make even a modest living, if that's at all possible. So, what makes a star, and who wants to be one?

You could be the most talented musician, singer, or songwriter alive, but being successful means getting your music out to the public. The internet has given artists a greater opportunity to reach a worldwide audience. But, for every success story, there are millions who will remain in relative obscurity. Like it or not, really reaching people means getting your music on the radio, on television, or in the movies. These media avenues remain the most viable methods of gaining exposure.

Talented people have and continue to turn to amateur shows as a means of gaining exposure. One of the very first of these was The Original Amateur Hour staring Major Bowes. The program first aired on CBS radio in 1934. The show ran until 1946, when Bowes passed away. Two years afterwords, the show was revived on ABC radio and Dumont television. It was hosted by Ted Mack and eventually aired on CBS television until 1970. Pop singers, Teresa Brewer, Gladys Knight, and Pat Boone are just a few of the contestants who went on to greater success after being on the show.

I bring this up because success from this type of exposure could almost instantly make your name a household word. This is what you want, right? But what happens if your popularity far exceeds your talent or ability? How many stars are made each year whose greatest talent is looking good and smiling for the camera? For a true artist, it has to be a difficult idea to balance. You want people to know who you are and just what you can do. You except the attention that comes with success, while trying to keep creating at the highest level possible.

Today, American Idol, the reality TV version of the amateur talent show, can give even the least talented contestants more than a mere 15 minutes of fame. And, as far as I can tell, most winners, and even the runners up, tend to lose much of their star shine within a few years of winning, burning hot for a time but then dimming from view. But, the drive to make it at any cost remains a constant motivation to appear on such shows.

So, be an artist, work hard, maintain your integrity, but never make it. Or, "damn the torpedoes," throw caution to the wind, and by all means, get yours while you can. I would still have to ask, which would you rather be, rich or famous?

Where They At?

Seen any good videos lately? I mean on TV. This year is the thirtieth anniversary of MTV, television's first network dedicated solely to the broadcast of music videos. While it's true that MTV was the first TV network, the music video had been around for years before it's inception.

The first music videos were actually made as promotion for the release of new single recordings. One of the very first of these was the Beatles', Strawberry Fields made in 1967. The film showed the band playing, while smashing and pouring paint over a piano. Its jarring juxtaposition of props, such as a table in the middle in an open field, served to lift it to artistic stature.

Some might say that it began with the Monkees, whose TV show first aired in 1966. The show was about a struggling rock band and featured the band performing their songs as video clips included within the show. Two of their hits were I'm a Believer and Last Train To Clarksville. Paul Revere and The Raiders also made music videos in the 60s and one of their hits was Indian Reservation.

On 4th March 1970 a show went on the air in Atlanta called, The Now Explosion. It featured locally produced music videos along with promotional clips from major artists, for hours on end, just like radio. The creators, Bob Whitney and Joe Fields managed to get the show syndicated and it was seen on TV stations across the country. It was eventually picked up by Ted Tuner. Some consider The Now Explosion to have been MTV, 10 years before there was an MTV.

Music videos were being made all through the 70's, many were clips of performances at concerts or local or national TV shows. But that all changed with the release of Pink Floyd's, The Wall in 1979. The video was like a short film. It centered around Pink Floyd and was based on his life from his boyhood days in post WWII England. The video's concept of death and rebirth helped to lift music video to a new level of the music video as art.

It's pure speculation on my part, but perhaps this is what MTV had in mind when it first went on the air. Through out the decade of the 80s, some of the biggest names in music added very note worthy contributions. Many 80s videos featured big name film directors and were at times like miniature films. A story was always being told as the videos often served to augment the music of each artist.

By the 90s, the success of Rap and Hip Hop slowly began to change the formula for a successful music video. Production values remained high, but the content became increasingly sexual and/or violent. But, the music video as art didn't really begin to fade until a new player came on the scene. That player was The Real World, what's been consider as the first really TV show. The show was created in 1992 by Mary-Ellis Bunim and was intended to be a spin on the traditional soap opera. But, budgetary concerns led the producers to cast seven unknown individuals to participate in a "social experiment." The show was a hit with MTV viewers. Over the years the show has spawned many other shows that run along the same lines. And, much of what used to be blocks of music videos has been replaced by Jersey shore, Teen Mom, Diary, and Disaster Date.

Music videos are still being made and they are still a very viable part of an artist's career. The the relevance of the music video as an art form appears to be all but gone. But wait. Youtube.com has become hugely successful, as the music video has moved online. Maybe all is not lost.

Lost Art?

The CD was released 1982. By 1986, the eight track had been replaced by the cassette. But, vinyl was still very much alive. Many had made the case that vinyl offered some very unique advantages. One such advantage was the art work. Each 12" by 12" jacket was an opportunity for some graphic artist to maybe make a name for his or her self.

Maybe you purchase all of your music as digital downloads. If so, you may not care one way or another about the art work that comes with an album. This might remain true until someone, maybe a friend of yours, shows you an amazing poster that came with the same CD that you have, that they ordered from Amazon.com.

OK, maybe that's not good enough. Have you ever heard a great song, bought the download and then wondered what the artist was singing? If it had come on vinyl, and all you wanted was the lyrics, you might just look on the back or on the inner sleeve. And, while you were perusing the words, you might actually end up checking out the great illustration that so aptly fits or ably depicts the concept of the music that you're listening to. Then, maybe what the band is trying to say with their music begins to not only to make sense, but you may also realize both the music and the illustrations are a total work of art.

Album cover art began in the late 1930s and was the brain child of Alex Stienwiess. Early work was primarily drawings and reflected social values, racial attitudes, lifestyles, fashion, and/or political views. Most of the decisions about album art were maintained by the record labels.

Through the 50s, photography was the major source of images on album covers as the artist or band would be brought front and center. This would last into the 60s until the release of the Beatles "Sgt. Pepper album." The cover consisted of the Beatles surrounded by photos of all of their friends or heroes. The album was a smash and served to change what was acceptable on album covers.

Throughout the decade of the 70s music fans were treated to some of the most memorable cover art ever made. Covers like Led Zeppelin's Houses of the Holy, The Eagle's Hotel California, or Yes', Relayer were just a few of the most notable. Some others to consider are Sly and the Family Stone's, There's A Riot Going On, the Ohio Players, Honey, and Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon.

By the mid 80s the switch to CD created a change in packaging which reduced an albums cover size to 12cm by 12cm. This smaller size left little room for detail. Eventually, the fold out booklet allowed for the addition of more art, lyrics and album credits. As vinyl and then cassettes were phased out, the digital download of the 90s did away with album art altogether, as the Mp3 became popular.

But, the 90s also brought back the artist photo as the principle image on album packaging. As the careers of more and more recording artist became dictated by their image, and while more emphasis was put on hit singles, less importance was being place on the music as a concept that needed to be illustrated.

In this new millennium, with the rise of the DIY movement, there has been a resurgent interest in album art. Bands and artists are finding ways to get the art to their fans. Whether they're doing it themselves or getting outside help, including the art work as a value added feature of a CD purchase or full length LP download is just one way that it's being done. This has the makings of a possible music renaissance.

There And Back (Part III)

It was August 1979. One month before, music fans and consumers had staged what turned into a violent protest against, "Disco," The fans had spoken and the recording industry responded. The "Disco," moniker was quickly dropped as radio stations and night clubs around the world moved to distance themselves from the whole fiasco. As the labels groped for something to replace "Disco," what seemed like a lost for them was actually a victory. "Disco," was gone, but with it went the creative and artistic freedom which artists had fought so hard for.

The major labels had been successful in pressuring some of the top artist of that time into adding at least one "Disco," track to their latest releases. By doing so, they set a new standard for what the market would bare. New, up and coming artists essentially lost any small amount of power that they might have had to say what their music should sound like. For several months after the incident in Chicago's Comisky Park, all "Disco," music was labeled as "Dance," music and would be so from then on. If you wanted to get signed, this is what you played. R&B and Funk artist were most profoundly effected, because, "Disco," made use of many of the qualities of those genres.

December of that year, a Rap artist named Kurtis Blow arrived on the scene. The release of Christmas Rappin' made him the first Rapper to be signed to a major label. The song was pure novelty. It had sketchy, but original music, while the words were spoken in rhythm over it. It was a hit, selling more than 500,000 copies and it marked the beginning of what would go on to be Rap's dominance over the global music scene. Later in 1980 he released, "The Breaks," which also sold 500,000 copies and fueled the next trend that the music industry had been looking for.

Hot on the heels of Kurtis Blow's success, came the Sugar Hill Gang in 1980. The band was produced by Sylvia Robinson and the single release of, "Rapper's Delight," went platinum selling a million copies. This must have been most pleasing to the labels, who were still releasing "Disco," left overs, passed off as, "dance," music. The track featured an extra long loop of Chic's hit, "Good Times," with the words spoken with a rhythmic flare.

The next several years of the 80s saw Rap slowly become Hip Hop. Early artists included, Whodini, Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five, The Fat Boys and Run DMC. These acts used their own music, however sparse the arrangement. The songs were mostly about partying and having a good time, but often, songs like Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five's, "The Message," actually decried the state of life in the ghetto. But, the sound of Hip Hop would be most notably defined by the much sparer and harder edge sound of Run DMC.

Run DMC have been considered the originators of the, "New School." They wore black denim pants and black leather jackets, along with unlaced Adidas and bowler hats. With them, the ghetto, a place of misery and despair, would become, "The Hood," the place where you were proud to be from. Their hard edge style and choice of fashion would set the trend for those Hip Hop artists that followed them.

Meanwhile, Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, Prince, Madonna, and Phil Collins were all hugely successful, both as pop artists and within their own genres, going into and through to the mid 80s. However, some artists such as the Eagles, the Doobie Brothers, Parliament/Funkadelic, and the Average White Band disbanded for a while. Apparently, the sound of the market, seemingly had no place for what they had to offer. "Disco," had become "dance," Rock went toward power chord ballads, while Jazz became , "smooth." R&B/Funk became a muddle of sythn/dance/slow jams, or what ever it took to sell.

Rap and Hip Hop was on the rise, but wouldn't really break through until 1987, when word spread that a local area Rap artist had made $750,000 selling home made Rap tapes from the trunk of his car. When this news reached industry bigwigs, one thing was very clear, they had of get a piece of that action.

Something To Blog About

I tried to listen to the radio again. As a songwriter, you're told that if you want to write a hit, you need to listen to the radio. There are a couple of things that I hear when ever I do. Granted, if you you've only been listening to the radio for only the last fifteen years, you probably don't think that there's anything wrong. And, maybe there isn't. But, I think that if you're fifteen years or more older, there's a good chance that you know what I'm talking about.

The first thing that I noticed, when I listen to top forty especially, is the increasing number of songs that make use of what's become known as, the auto-tune effect. The auto-tune effect is essentially the robotic sound that used to be created with a vocoder or talk box. Now, pitch correction gear made by such companies as Antares can, if adjusted just right, produce the same effect. For many years, vocal tuning was was the recording industry's biggest and best kept secret. That is, until a very well know and popular pop singer released a song in 1998 where the vocals were tuned until the sound of her voice became robotic and mechanical.

Since then, the use of pitch correction hardware, and now software, has been growing at a steady pace. I won't lie to you, I am not against the occasional use of such gear. In cases where studio time is at a premium and/or deadlines have to be met, this hardware and software can save countless hours, days, months, or maybe even years, trying to nail a particular vocal line or phrase. But, when many fellow artist and producers start to decry its over use, maybe there's something to what they are saying. Tune into any Urban or Hip Hop station and it seems like every two or three songs is making use of it. God forbid if auto tune gets turned into its own genre.

The second thing that I noticed, is that melodies are getting weaker and weaker as rhythm is taking over. It seems, and this is just my opinion, that more songs feature the artist sing/talking, nearly rapping their lyrics. And, at times it sounds like they're squeezing more and more syllables into every line. I've said this before, there is more than one way to write a song. But, I've also said, that there's nothing that makes a song more memorable than a good melody.

Some Neo Soul artists are beginning to put more emphasis on real instrumentation, but they are merely going for a retro feel while maintaining their Urban or Hip Hop sensibilities. All they would really have to do is sit down with a piano or keyboard, write a melody first and then fill in the rest.

Maybe it's just enough to pass the whole thing off as changing times. But, what will happen when the latest hit song is a patch work collage of bits and pieces of other songs, while someone talks over it? Sound like the makings of a classic to you?