It’s been just over two years since Rogue One was released, and it is one of the best regarded Star Wars movies of the Disney era. Yet despite its success, it has one major flaw. The title sequence music. Though Michael Giacchino did an excellent job to differentiate this Star Wars spinoff’s music from the other scores, the way he redoes the Main Theme in this title sequence makes the music not “Star Wars”. Furthermore, there is a particular reason why I say that. Because while he only makes a couple of seemingly minor edits, those edits completely change the fundamental nature of this theme. Now before I get too far, I just want to point out that I think Michael Giacchino did a great job with this score. He is one of my favorite film composers alive and did an outstanding job with the very limited timeframe he was given. He literally only had a month to write, record, and edit the entire score. Most composers get two or three times that time. Moreover, so while I don’t think he sought out…
15 Hot Music Genres You'll Be Thrilled To Discover Those of you who've only followed the Present Author for the past couple years may be surprised to learn that I used to write about music. No, really, a lot. It's been a while since I wallowed in the discovery of new bands. What I'd like to do for the world this Christmas is illuminate some little-known, niche music micro-genres. Most of them are new, some of them only established after the fact or experiencing a retro revival, all of them are judged to be popular and trendy based on stats gleaned from Spotify (mostly), plus iTunes, Bandcamp, SoundCloud, YouTube, and whatever crazy noise I can run into on the street. I will try to keep it to genres established enough that they won't just disappear by the time you read this. That's all we're doing. So if, a few days from now, you just received a new music-playing gadget and are looking to load it up with cool new beats, you're bound to find one genre here worth exploring. #1: Witch House …
“It’s almost cheating when you have John Williams…he writes feelings”—JJ Abrams, Force Awakens Director (source)
Amongst the film music circle, it’s very well known that John Williams writes emotion better than most (if not all) composers in the film industry. Whereas Hans Zimmer writes “sound worlds” and Michael Giacchino writes based off an essential chord, John Williams writes the emotional underpinning of the scene. So this series of posts is going to explain the main three ways that he creates scores with tremendous feeling. We are going to look at his well-known use of leitmotifs as well as other, less popular techniques. And to start off the exploration, let’s look at one of the historical precedences for why his work carries such emotional weight: Mickey Mousing. Mickey Mousing Guess where Mickey Mousing comes from?
Hint: they’re from the early Mickey Mouse cartoons. Mickey Mousing is synchronizing the music to the actions that are on the screen. For instance, if there is a…
1. You always know what you hear Unless you are tone-deaf, you can tell when a note is played higher or lower than other. Or can you… Like there are optical illusions, there are also auditory illusions (and I do exploit them as a composer). One of the most important concepts in music theory is the harmonic series. Essentially, whenever you speak or make a sound, there is the fundamental pitch that you hear as well as many pitches above that pitch resonating that the same time. These other pitches give sounds their unique qualities and timbres. There is a phenomenon called the missing fundamental. If you were to take all these upper pitches from a note and remove the fundamental, you would still hear the fundamental. This can make notes sound like they are rising even if they are falling. Or can make you hear notes that aren’t even playing. Or chords that aren’t present. One great resource to learn more is auditoryneuroscience.com. There, you can test yourself amongst actual samples and see if…
If you want your talents to pave a path towards a career, you have to put in due time and diligence to master a certain skill of your choice. I’m sure some of you have heard the saying, “It takes 10,000 hours to master a skill.” Though I do not believe this rule to be the case.
It is amazing what you can accomplish in a single day with effective and efficient practice techniques whether you are an artist, ballet dancer, or even a construction worker.
In this article, I'll be discussing the joys of my passions and my obsession with muscle memory and hand-eye coordination.
The Joy of Music
Elementary school was when I began noticing a joy in music. My father, being the musician that he is, always sang and played guitar around the house. He also ran a music store where I spend the majority of my time after school.
I soon picked up instruments like the bass and drums, but it didn’t quench my musical thirst. One day, my grandfather mailed my father and I a CD containing the Vivaldi…
In a landscape where hip-hop has been under the shadow of Drake, Kendrick, Migos, and Kanye, it is very easy to forget the hundreds of talented acts that left a mark on the genre and culture. Many of the artists on this list also run around the lines of sex, guns, and drugs but it's in the way they deliver it that set them apart from the mumble rappers of the 2010s. Likewise, some of the albums also include artists who fit that "woke" label that feel more genuine than their mainstream contemporaries. Let's start spinning the vinyls. Danny Brown – XXX In an era of rap where artists left and right have radically shifted from the standard norms of the genre, it takes a real weirdo to stand out. One of these iconoclasts is Detroit native with a distinctive squawk and wordplay as tight as his designer jeans. But it is on XXX where his years of mixtape blast into something muscular. Danny Brown’s style of rapping is gallows humor turned up to the spirit of Nas and Mobb Deep. He’s equally ugly…
I’ve spent most of my life in and out of various orchestras and businesses professionally throughout my career. During this time, I discovered many subtle similarities between these two careers and what makes them successful or not. In comparison, we look to understand the harmony of teamwork and leadership within the different “branches” of an orchestra and business through the eyes of a musician. The Conducting CEO
I am sure there’s been a time in all our lives when we’ve thought, “ Wow, the CEO is so lazy and does nothing but make the profit from all the hard work of his employees.” Or while watching an orchestra perform we think, “That guy up there is just flailing his arms all over the place and acting like a clown.” While this may seem the case, the conductor and CEO play enormous roles when it comes to running the show. They are responsible for the overall strategic focus on success. Side-by-side, both the role of the CEO and conductor is responsible for unifying their…
Pardon my round-eyed white idiot weeaboo indulgence, but your Present Author has been sent on a mission by the Editors That Be to explore vTubers(Virtual YouTubers, Japanese: Vユーチューバー, バーチャルユーチューバー). This is 21st century living at its most stereotyped: whole subcultures emerge and gain millions of followers within a couple of years, without most of the world quite knowing they exist. But I'm a techie and media geek first, so even I can appreciate that there's something happening here. We all expected that better AI and CGI technology would give us virtual celebrities sooner or later. That's all a vTuber is: a Virtual Youtuber, a real-life celebrity who never shows their face (almost), instead of having their movements motion-captured and animated through a virtual character, for whom they also provide the voice. Westerners may smirk and say "Hey, that's Max Headroom." Well, no, not quite. It's actually more like Black Mirror. Namely, The Waldo Moment way back in season two: Scary, isn't…
Periodically over the course of the new year, we will produce two lists to highlight a few of each month's new albums. This list spans multiple genres, with each album ordered best to worst – the first list is the former, the second is the latter. Of the 50 albums in both lists, these are the Ones You Can't Miss - - -
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 Stellar
Bill Fay – Countless Braches
An absolutely gorgeous album, despite the songwriter’s age and distance from his previous work. The music has a unified mood, but each song’s nuance elevates its poetic meaning. Each song has excellent lyrics, plain yet elegant piano/guitar backing music, and melodies so simply perfect that you will be amazed you have never heard them before. A poignant unfolding of Fay’s masterful songwriting, and easily the best album of the new year so far. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Awesome
Wire – Hive Mind
This one is definitely a grower more than anything. The dynamic elements of Wire’s post-punk approach show they are truly at the top of their game. The…
Periodically over the
course of the new year, we will produce two lists to highlight a few of each
month's new albums. This list spans multiple genres, with each album ordered
best to worst – the first list is the former, the second is the latter. Now presenting, with 50 total albums on both lists, the Ones You Might Want to Avoid - - -
⭐⭐ Pretty Decent /
Recommended to Genre Fans Only
Alice Boman – Dream On
Alice Boman is part of the “melancholic indie singer/songwriter” genre that has blown up in recent years. As a debut, there are enough good worthwhile songs, and the whole thing has a nice lo-fi vibe as well. Fans of the genre will get plenty from the atmospheric, meditative tracks like “The More I Cry” and “Everybody Hurts.”Check this song out: “The More I Cry”
Stabbing Westward – Dead and Gone [EP]
Definitely one for the fans, since there are only 3 songs and 2 remixes. The single “Dead and Gone” is great, one of their finest sounding songs and the other two are…