Between school and working I haven’t been out much at local neighborhood bars. But the holidays… oh the holidays…it seems like local bars become mini high school and grade school reunions. In my recent adventures I realized a trend — my neighborhood in Northeast Philadelphia has suddenly become enamored with Country music! Several bars even have entire nights dedicated to playing ONLY Country music and what’s even more shocking — the patrons seem to love it! I’m curious as to whether this is just a local or a more widespread phenomenon.
I decided to Google around and see what I could find about Country music trends and I found this interesting article from August 2012 about New York City being the new Country music capital replacing Nashville, TN. Maybe Country music is becoming the new “city” music for now?
Either way, it made me laugh because everyone in our class (myself included) seems to have such strong reactions to Country in the classroom but I think we should prepare ourselves to hear more of it in our favorite local venues.
I found a great article discussing the inside story behind Aretha Franklin’s “Respect”:
http://www.cleveland.com/popmusic/index.ssf/2011/10/r-e-s-p-e-c-t_the_inside_story.html
Some points from the article that impressed me:
- When they recorded the song, Franklin also accompanied herself on the piano while simultaneously singing. Amazing!
- Popular lore has it that when Redding heard Franklin’s rendition of “Respect,” he was blown away enough to quip: “That little gal done took my song!” — a compliment saying that she really made it her own.
I really thought I’d be able to find something about the song being a response to Otis Redding’s version instead of a remake of it, but it was a really great article nonetheless!
I’ve been thinking a lot about how much a person’s music taste can change over the years both sonorally and lyrically. A friend and I used to bond over our similar taste in music but it seems that time has left us in different directions at least lyrically.
I used to think that lyrics didn’t have a powerful effect on me. To be honest, I used to think people were over-sensitive about the impact of lyrics — it’s just a form of personal expression after all. As I get older, I don’t really find myself criticizing people’s lyrics publicly or anything but I have noticed that I, myself, am much more selective about the types of lyrics that I will tolerate.
Just as I’ve become more concerned with feeding myself healthy food, I find this desire to only feed myself healthy lyrics. Of course, everyone’s definition of healthy is subjective! As a woman, I have much less tolerance misogynistic songs or songs that promote getting black-out drunk and not remembering who you slept with. Believe me, back in the day, I used to find some kind of liberation in songs like that for some reason, but now I want to encourage myself to have healthy relationships and I believe that involves being conscious of the messages I am feeding myself in my music.
I try not to judge an artist in his or her entirety if I disagree with the lyrics of a song and I also try not to disregard a song with a really great message just because it says a thing or two that I don’t agree with. But as I get older, I realize that I just want to feed myself healthy things in every sense of the word.
There are a lot of great artists out there with positive messages that empower me and make me want to have a positive impact on the world. Here are two songs by two artists that I consider to be positive and healthy for me:
It’s not everyday that I come across an entire album that I love, but Ellie Goulding has really pulled me in with her new album Halcyon. It definitely fits the haunting female vocals, lyrical depth, and interesting bass lines pattern that I seem to be interested in currently. British female sings seem to be sweeping the airwaves this year!
Beyond anything intellectual or aesthetic, this album really reaches to a part of me that needed a voice — a part of me that maybe hasn’t healed as much as I would have liked just yet. Sometimes the act of capturing an emotion in lyrics or music helps you understand it better and with that understanding you can transcend the emotion. It also makes you feel less alone to know that you can be moved profoundly by someone else’s music! A stranger’s work of art can reach a depth that sometimes we don’t even reveal to our closest friends or family because we’re unsure of how to articulate it.
Below is my favorite song, “Explosions”, and one of my favorite quotes from the song.
I pray that you find peace of mind and I’ll find you another time … I’ll love you another time.
I was trying to Google some reasons as to why our music taste may change over time, and instead I came across a quiz trying to combine Psychology and Music by positing that there is a connection between a person’s musical taste and their personality. It definitely makes sense to me. It made me think of the art forms that one would consider “high art” like jazz and opera and how it might take a certain type of person to really enjoy those types of music. A genre like pop music is more accessible and might be enjoyed by more people.
Check out the quiz!
http://www.outofservice.com/music-personality-test/
I scored highest on liking complex and reflective music (78%) followed by energetic and upbeat music (75%). Not surprisingly to me, I scored really low on edgy and aggressive music which noted that “People with low scores on the energetic and aggressive music-preference dimension don’t get their kicks on skydiving or rock climbing.”
I am definitely complex and reflective with an energetic and upbeat side and you certainly won’t catch me jumping out of planes any time soon although I can appreciate people who do!! It’s interesting to think how our different personality traits might predispose us to really enjoy a certain type of music.
As we learn about the different styles of music that evolved in the past, I think everyone feels a certain affinity for some styles and an aversion or indifference to other styles. Are there any patterns in your taste of music?
I often find myself attracted to many different genres in music in general, but at certain times in my life I’m definitely pulled more towards certain sounds — perhaps related to my previous posts about what makes music popular. In general, I tend to like music that is more consonant than dissonant, with smooth vocals (as opposed to the twangy sound of older country songs), and event smooth sounding instruments.
Right now, I’m really interested in music that has either awesome bass sounds or beautiful vocals. I think this taste is influenced by my current enrollment in Music 215 and the CCP Ensemble 🙂
This song by Florence and the Machine called “Remain Nameless” really captures my current style:
Well I certainly know that once a band reaches notoriety, their “sound” begins to replicate like a virus throughout mainstream music — which could be good or bad depending on whether or not you like the trend setter’s sound.
Bands like the Avett Brothers and Mumford and Sons seemed to revive an interest in the banjo and “folky” sounds. I could hear their influence in a newer song by the Lumineers called “Ho Hey”:
Even Of Monsters and Men seem to have a similar “folk” sound to their music. It seems like a very popular trend at the moment on the Indie Rock scene. Personally, I think this music is nice to listen to during the Fall and Winter months!!
I tried to find more information about “what makes a song a hit” and came across an article that said it’s basically an incredibly random process; however, once a band has one hit they are much more likely to have consecutive hits. So in a sense popular songs become more popular and unpopular songs become even less popular over time. But the initial success of a band’s music is a lot more random. Check out the article.
Do you notice any other trends in current popular music? Perhaps something from another genre of music? (R&B, Hip Hop, Pop, etc)
Over the past few years I’ve become acutely aware of patterns: patterns that people replicate in their lives, patterns in nature, and patterns in music. We live in a world interwoven with patterns so I guess it’s not surprising that they show up in our artistic and musical preferences. But still I wonder, what makes a particular pattern rise to prominence at a particular moment in time? In recent music, I’ve noticed an increased use in the heavy use of a similar sounding electronic synth. Check out the songs below — I tried to link to the exact moment when the artist uses the synth. Three different bands, three different types of music, yet three similar sounds…
I tried to google “patterns in popular music” and I came across this interesting post noting the chord patterns of approximately 1300 popular songs. It’s kind of a long post and I haven’t finished reading it myself, but even some of the comments are interesting! The question of what makes a particular musical sound or device popular at a given moment in time might be something that I explore further in future blog posts.
I’ll leave you with an animated video from a music professor talking about Patterns of Popular Music.
My biggest interest in music lies in its purpose. As far as we can tell, if “the day the music died” really happened someday, the world would go on turning albeit everything would be much more dull and lifeless. Habits, patterns, ways of living tend to perpetuate because they promote survival — but music isn’t absolutely necessary for survival, so why has it survived for so long (I read in a book that it may have even developed before language in humans!)?? Especially in the early days of America, with people focusing on survival and acquainting themselves with a new environment it would seem that music would lose its importance but it always seems to endure.
I wrote a paper exploring this question a few years ago and thought I would summarize the points here and include a link to the full version in case anyone is interested in reading it (especially those interested in the therapeutic effects of music!). The bibliography is definitely worth checking out too!
Moved by Music (.docx file for Microsoft Word)
Interested Findings about Music:
- Pythagoras, Plato, and Aristotle were all aware of the profound effects of music on human beings.
- In the Middle Ages “ the necessity of music for compounding and sustaining wellness was so highly regarded that law mandated those aspiring to study medicine to also appreciate music”(Conrad, 2010).
- More recently Psychology studies “are showing that music has clear neurobiological substrates, organized in complex and distributed neuronal networks in the brain. Music has a specific brain architecture associated with specific responses and behaviors. […] We may, therefore, propose that music’s roots, role, and nature lie in a biological hardwiring process”(Thaut, 2005).
- Music releases endorphins, Nitrous Oxide, and other stress relieving mechanisms in the body.
- “Rhythm is the pulse of life and it all affects all physical conditions. [It] can be used to restore the normal, healthy pulse within a person. Being exposed to regular, steady rhythm triggers a resonance with the body’s own natural rhythms. The rhythms outside of us can trigger a forced resonance and entrainment of our inner rhythms”(Andrews, 2010).
Check out this awesome video that show the power of music to reshape patterns in sand:
And check out this awesome, yet scientifically controversial, video demonstrating the effects of music and sounds on water molecules:
While this post isn’t really about Modern American music, it is about Modern American music research! But in the future, I’ll probably focus more on current music — though I might always throw in a Psychology/Neuroscience twist 😉
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Erin's Intellectual Journeys 