Danger Mouse

This is a Podcast on the producer Brian Burton, aka Danger Mouse. I found out about Danger Mouse because he has won numerous awards lately and was recently named the number one producer of the century. He inspires me because he is not a fame seeking monster only doing it for the "celebrity" of it all and he isn't necessarily following anybody's footsteps. He is paving his own way in a demanding world where certain criteria needs to be met. I also like the idea of someone in music being inspired by film directors and visualizing their music as art instead of a paycheck. This was a wonderful learning experience for me and I will definitely take away some of his insight and apply it on my own journey.


REFERENCES:

http://lexrecords.com/2011/02/danger-mouse-wins-producer-of-the-year-at-grammy-awards-2011/

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1485693/grey-album-producer-explains-how-did-it.jhtml

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danger_Mouse

http://mediocremusicblog.com/2010/07/how-dangermouse-became-one-of-the-finest-producers-of-the-21st-century-pt-4/

http://www.dangermousesite.com/

Independent Research Podcast, Hans Zimmer

This is my podcast on Hans Zimmer


http://www.youtube.com/user/Iamgodzirra?feature=mhum#p/u/0/KhXEXsfv3Do

Peer Comment Number Three

This was posted under Tasha Glover's Kraftwerk Blog:



Tasha,


I, like you, had never heard of Kraftwerk before I was given this assignment, and was really glad to learn some things about the development of the electronic music industry. I like how their albums were almost always based off of one common idea, not multiple concepts, just one. 
I also find it interesting that although they weren't hugely popular in the US they are still one of the most influential groups in the history of the electronic music industry.
Thanks for the blog and I hope you have a good day!
-Chelsea

Independent research, Hans Zimmer

As my final blog entry for my music History 2 class I was given the assignment of choosing any person, recording, or innovation that has revolutionized the music industry. Many names of people and projects popped into my head, but the one that was most profound was that of the composer Hans Zimmer.

Hans Zimmer is not an old school fundamental developer of the industry but an innovation inspiring current composer that has worked on some of the most popular and industry shifting projects of this century.

Zimmer’s style comes from Germany and is a collaboration of Electronic and Orchestral music. He has forged his own path in the music and film industry and has created a new following of the collaboration between electronic and orchestral music.

The movie that really jumped started Hans Zimmer’s career was Rain Man, where he kept the music small and simple to never over power the characters or what was happening in the film. He was quoted saying, “It was a road movie , and road movies usually have jangly guitars or a bunch of strings. I kept thinking don't be bigger than the characters. Try to keep it contained. The Raymond character doesn't actually know where he is. The world is so different to him. He might as well be on Mars. So, why don't we just invent our own world music for a world that doesn't really exist?” Two recent movies that he has been given a lot of recognition for is Inception and The Dark Knight were he created a truly menacing and dark ambience with his music in the background. Really accentuating the original feel of the movie. He also is a huge supporter of giving credit where credit is due and this has cost him some Academy Award disqualifications because there were too many composers listed on the films he has worked on. Most recently he did the score for Rango and Rio and the new Pirates of the Caribbean that has not been released yet.

To me, Hans Zimmer can do it all. He is a genius and an artist with technical and creative abilities that few have the ability to posses. I also enjoy the fact that he doesn’t lock himself into one box of music side of the entertainment industry. He will do anything from Video game music, to hard-core action films to Disney movies and documentaries. The amount of flexibility and knowledge is astounding and if I could ever produce a fraction of what he has I would be extremely proud of myself. He inspires me to make music.

Peer Comment Number Two

This was left on Tasha Glovers 'What's Goin On' Blog,




Hello Friend...Time for another comment,


This one is awesome, minus a few grammatical errors and word missing. I think I may be partial to loving this because I think Marvin Gaye is amazing. It still blows my mind that Gordy didn't want to release "What's going on" it is such an iconic song now, imagine if it never existed.....
Again, a photo would add some pizzaz to the overall blog. But isn't necessary. 
By the way, did you know Marvin Gaye was shot by his own father? I knew he died, just wasn't sure how. This really shocked me and if you didn't know, well, now you do. Have a great day!


-Chelsea

Farley Jackmaster

On this blog today, I will be discussing Farley Keith Williams, also known as “Farley Jackmaster”. Born and raised in Chicago, Farley is known as the pioneer of House music. Farley started DJing at Chicago’s Playground in 1981, and stayed as a main DJ there until 1987. He was one of the original members of the ‘Hot Mix 5’ DJ team on Chicago’s WBMX radio station, which reached over a million listeners. Farley finally hit it big in 1986 with his hit “Love Can’t Turn Around” with his friend Darryl Pandy on the vocals (which he is commonly mistaken for because Darryl is the face in the popular music video). He is known as one of the most respected DJs in the UK and a regularly visits Great Britain and is a regular at some of the most prestigious venues on the other side of the world. He regularly attracts audiences of over 2500 and toured with Sundance around Europe throughout the summer. He has played at Matrix, one of the busiest and most popular clubs in the country numerous times and has regular gigs at Galaxy radio nightclub where he plays to 1500 clubbers. He travels from Chicago to Britain once a week to keep up with his career and the demand for his presence. With his long history, knowledge and talent for DJing and music producing its no wonder that Farley is known as “The Godfather of House”. With my first listen to Farley’s music I hear a good time. HE creates true dance music that many people have been able to grow upon and create their own identity from. He is the type of artist everyone should want to talk to, the path that he paved for many is great and any person should be happy to imitate him.

Kraftwerk

The band Kraftwerk combines repetitive rhythms with catchy melodies that follow a classical style of harmony with the use of electronic instruments. Kraftwerk is considered pioneers in Electronic music. The album “Autobahn” was released in 1974, and moved the band from the sound of the previous albums, which were produced by Conny Plank. For this album they started using the minimoog, which innovated their sound. In 1975 they released “Radio-Activity”, this album had a central theme of radio communication. In 1977, after having finished the "Radio-Activity tour" Kraftwerk began recording the album “Trans-Europe Express”. The release of Trans-Europe Express was marked with a train trip used as a press release. In May 1978 Kraftwerk released “The Man-Machine”, it was the first Kraftwerk album where Karl Bartos was co-credited as songwriter and the cover to that album was produced in black, white and red.

 In May of 1981 Kraftwerk released the album “Computer World” and some of the electronic vocals were created using a Texas Instruments Language Translator. Kraftwerk's lyrics deal with traveling by car, traveling by train, and using home computers. Typically the lyrics are very minimal but reveal a cautious knowledge about the world as well as build on the structure of the songs on the album. Improvisation often plays a noticeable role in its performances. They custom built a vocoder that they used on their albums “Ralf und Florian” and “Autobahn”. Schneider has a patent for an electronic drum kit with sensor pads that has to be hit with metal sticks, which are connected to a device to complete a circuit that triggers synthetic drum sounds. I had never heard of Kraftwerk before I was assigned to listen them in this class, but after I have listened to them, I can truly say that I enjoyed the experience. I am not a huge house/electronic music fan, but I respect the art and now have a deeper understanding of the history and work that goes behind the club bumping sound.