Music

In every way Baroque music is like a teen-ager. Ok, maybe not in the pimply-faced-criticize-everything-even-though-you-don’t-pay-for-it kind of way we have come to expect from our modern teen-agers. But what is a teen-ager anyway? Simply put; a teen-ager is no longer a child and not yet an adult. It is that awkward in-between stage when all the rules get broken, nothing ever seems to fit, and emotions fluctuate wildly. This is exactly how it was with the Baroque Era of Music.

To put this into perspective, try and remember that the Renaissance was a “re-birth” of good art and music and the Classical era was that birth coming into its maturity. The Baroque Erawhich happened to come directly after the Renaissance and before the Classical Eracoincided nicely with those awkward and highly emotional teenage years that everyone goes through on the pathway called growing up. When Was the Baroque Era? The official company line on when the Baroque Era started, which you will find in every book, encyclopedia, or bubble-gum wrapper on the subject, was the year 1600.

The event which earned 1600 this enviable distinction, as far as I can tell, was the simple fact that it has two zeros stuck on the end of it, thus making it fairly easy to remember. In contrast, the end of the Baroque Era was definitively set by Johann Sebastian Bach, the Grand-Poobah of Baroque music, who had the good foresight to die in a year also ending with a zero, thus giving historians another easy to remember date; 1750. For some Baroque zealots Bach’s death was truly the day that music died at least it gave good closure.

The Origins of Baroque Music In the spirit of rebellious teenagers everywhere, I’m going to throw caution (and facts) to the wind and talk about eunuchs. As you may know, eunuchs are guys who–for lack of a better term–are missing an organ. (Bach was a master organ player, but that has absolutely nothing to do with this) Medieval doctors had learned that if the–men, brace yourself–“family jewels” were cut off of boys at an early age, none of the traditional biological changes of puberty would occur.

There would be no facial or body hair, their voices would not change, and all their acne problems would be virtually solved. Now, in my mind, that in NO WAY could compensate for the loss of everything that makes life worth living, but apparently back at the turn of the century (the 15th Century, I mean) being a eunuch was not as uncommon as one might think. So these incomplete and unfulfilled men were eking out a meager living primarily playing the women’s roles in theatre (back then, not only was that funny, it was the law! hen somebody realized that these guys not only acted like women, they could sing like women in fact, they could sing BETTER than women.

It turned out that these castrati (castrated singers) had the high beautiful voices of women, and the strong powerful lungs and chest muscles of men (and the anatomy of a Ken doll). Well, as you might guess, once you build a better mousetrap you’ll soon need a better mouse. Composers had to write music that could demonstrate these singer’s remarkable abilities. To Baroque composers, better music simply meant more difficult, with very elaborate, ornamental melody lines.

In addition to the Eunuch singers, there are three other factors that also may have contributed to the rise of Baroque music: The Reformation and the Counter-Reformation: The entire 17th Century was a great big publicity war put on between the Catholic and protestant churches, each side vying to attract more customers–sort of like Coke and Pepsi do today–by spending tons of money on rock stars and pop-concertsI mean on musicians and church-concertseach side was trying to convince the consumers that they were the best and only church to buy salvation from.

The Insanely Wealthy Families of Europe: Due to the bustling trade [read: slaughter] of newly discovered foreign countries, money was streaming into Europe at a tremendous rate. Everybody who was anybody wanted to drive in their expensive carriages and show off their expensive clothes and their expensive servants. The Opera House was the hangout of the 17th Century. It was a fad of sorts, the hip place to see and be seen, and sometimes since they were there, some people would even listen to the music.

The royal courts of Europe’s desires to appear cultured and refined: As they oppressed the lower classes and taxed them for every last cent to pay for their grotesquely extravagant lifestyles, the kings, queens and other assorted monarchs decided that they didn’t want to appear entirely barbaric to the peasants. Music became a symbol of sophistication and taste. The thing to do if you were a king was to have your own music group. The general rule of thumb was this; the better the musicians performed, the better king you were.

In summary, if you were a composer during the Baroque era and you didn’t work for a Church, the Opera, or some Royal Court, you were basically unemployed and starving. Although these three things led to the deluge of money and attention that was poured onto the musicians and artists of the time, it is important to remember that the style of Baroque music spread from the simple idea of ornamenting the vocal lines of the eunuch singers to show off their dynamic range and abilities. Baroque Does Not Mean “Broke”! You may be thinking right now, “Whatever. Who cares what the origin was.

I just want to know what the heck the word Baroque’ means? ” Well, you’ll be happy to know that historians can’t even agree on this one. There are two separate yet equally convincing arguments on the subject. One side says that it comes from the Italian barocco, meaning bizarre or strange. Others have proposed the idea that it is really from the Portuguese barroco, which means a distorted or irregularly shaped pearl. In either case, the 18th Century French were the first to use the term to describe the art and music of the previous generation, and what they meant by it was, “It sucked!

Granted that may seem a bit overly critical, but honestly now, what do you think about the music your parents listen to? Regardless of the original intent, the name stuck and so too did the concept: remember the Portuguese definition of the irregular shaped pearl? The barroco was considered more beautiful because of it’s irregularity, or uniqueness. A great example of this is Cindy Crawford. She is more beautiful specifically because of that disgusting black mole on her face. Without it she’d be just another plain, ordinary, supermodel.

It’s her mole her flaw her beautiful disfigurement that moves her up that last rung from mediocre greatness into the realm of super(ficial) greatness. Sir Francis Bacon foreshadowed the entire Baroque phenomenon with the phrase, “There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion. [Essays; of Beauty, 1597]” So what exactly was this “strangeness in the proportion” that defined the entire Baroque Era and offended the French so much? (Like that’s a hard thing to do.

Going back to our teen-ager analogy, one distinctly adolescent characteristic is that impressive ability to turn everything into a full-blown, end-of-the-world, emotional roller-coaster style melodrama. Well, Baroque musicians thought that this extreme excess of emotion was a great thing. Any artificial method they could contrive to manipulate audiences into having a genuine emotional reaction was what they deliberately strove for, and they found many innovative ways to do it. Advertising executives take note: Sharp Contrasts – can anyone say “Manic Depressive”?

Conflict is one of the easier ways to create a high emotional response. Try this: Imagine the most beautiful person you know. Now the ugliest. Now imagine them kissing. Feeling any emotions? Baroque music is full of these same conflicts, contrasts, and overblown distinctions. It contrasts everything with everything. A Baroque concerto is typically in three movements or sections that traditionally go fast, then slow, and then fast again. It contrasts solo instruments or small groups with large orchestras–think of Dueling Banjos, with a single kazoo player against an entire philharmonic orchestra.

It even contrasts volume. First it is loud, then it goes soft, then it goes loud again. Of course, we do a lot of these things with music today, but back then this was kind of a novelty, an emotional tempest of Biblical proportions. You’re probably thinking, “Emotional maelstrom? This hardly sounds like an emotional summer breeze! ” (or words to that effect). I would like to agree with you except that somehow these guys pulled it off. With some basic ideas on what creates strong feelings they have managed to write some of the most emotionally compelling music ever written.

Ornamental Toppings – The Banana-Split Analogy One of the great things to come out of the Baroque Era is the concept of the Basso Continuoso, or the continuing base. Stated simply, this is a steady and not-too-lavish base line that contrasts sharply with the overly ornamental and wildly fluctuating melody line (In case you missed it: another contrast! ). I like to compare this musical style to a banana split. It doesn’t matter how much or how many different toppings you put on it as long as you’ve got the banana and three scoops of ice cream underneath.

Renaissance music (Remember, it came before Baroque. ) was more like a bowlful of toppings without banana or ice cream, just a bowlful of assorted nuts, syrups, sprinkles, cherries and cream all congealing together into a puddle of oversweet ooze. It was in the Baroque era that they learned this first and fundamental rule to music and banana splits. A masterpiece will always hold together nicely, even with all the ornamentation piled on top, as long as your foundation is sound. Improvisational – Spontaneous Combustion

Like teen-agers who always want to do things “their way,” another important characteristic of Baroque music was the improvisational technique. To show how good they (thought they) were, many singers and musicians embellished, improvised, or just plain ad-libbed their music during a performance. Far from being offended, the composers who wrote this music actually encouraged this free thinking behavior. Fewer notes to write, I guess. So these fantastic musicians, commonly known as virtuosos, were given music with instructions that said, more or less, “Play the song something like this, and have FUN with it.

Then a few guiding notes or a simple melody line would follow. No two performances were ever alike, and every performance was exciting for everyone, because no one knew exactly what was going to happen next. Sometimes this ended with disastrous results, everything coming to a crashing discordant halt. When it failed, it failed miserably. But mostly these unplanned performances triumphed beautifully and were the spectacle of the show and the talk of the town for weeks on end.

We all listen to music wether we want to or not. Its in our homes, watching TV, driving in our car, going to the store, its unavoidable. Then why is the recording Industry trying to make people feel guilty about burning illegal CDs, when we can go to the mall and hear as much music for free as we want . I for one will never feel guilty because I always support the artist I download, by buying his/her cds or going to their concerts. The industry has always been about money instead of music. They are just mad because consumers have finally figured them out.

The first record created was in eighteen-seventy-seven. The song was Mary Had a Little Lamb. The artist/Inventor was Thomas Edison. Edison had created the worlds first phonograph, capable of playing back up to two to three minutes worth of recordings. His invention started a cultural revolution that went hand in hand with its cousin, the industrial revolution. The idea that sound could be recorded and played back at our pleasure was astonishing. I am sure no one had in mind the endless profits one could make.

Profit was a word that would be associated with music about thirteen years later, because in eighteen-ninety the jukebox was first introduced at a bar in San Francisco. In its first six months of operation the coin operated machine grossed over one- thousand dollars. It did not take a genius to realize that the United States was home to thousands of bars each capable of making equal or greater value. Thus music and money became synonymous. Singers and songwriters were no longer artists, but commodities.

Along with money comes greed and in nineteen-hundred when Thomas Lambert invented a way of mass-duplicating his patent of indestructible phonograph cylinders, and although the patent was upheld in court, costly lawsuits filed by Edison put him out of business just seven years after his invention. Records became an instant hit with the American public. People were flocking to bars to listen to recorded sound. The library of congress began recording and saving Sounds of America to preserve popular and influential music of the time, everything from bluegrass to classical.

It was no surprise that the general public soon yearned for their own way of playing records from the comfort and privacy of their homes. In 1906 a company called victor introduced a enclosed phonograph player that had been designed to look like a piece of furniture. In all, the company would spend eighty-million in advertising the machine to the world. However that is nothing compared to the hundreds of millions that goes into the advertising of new technology today.

The 1920’s brought prosperous times to America, however the advent of public radio brought a huge decrease in record player and record sales. Why would people pay for a record when they could hear the top ten on the radio? Similar to todays lawsuits against the napsters of the internet, a group of record companies tried to sue public radio for use of their records. The record sales went up eventually when they created discs that could hold more than five minutes of recorded sound. The music genre Jazz also greatly lifted the music industry and in my opinion saved the music industry.

Now that the base has been set for record label/production greed, flash forward eighty years to the present. Record Labels are just as greedy and have more control over things we see and hear. For example, Clear Channel Entertainment is the proprietor of Madison Square Garden , that owns the NY Knicks. At the games no music is played that is not on the labels that Clear Channel has invested into. The Mp3 revolution is similar to the same problems the recording industry faced with radio and the technology that later enabled us to create our own mixes on cassette tapes.

The RIAA (Recording Institute Association of America) will have you believe that numerous amounts of money go into making a CD yet in my research they never gave me a solid dollar amount. What I want to know is if they can come up with numbers for the money they lose from cd pirating why can they not even give us a definitive amount they spend on making the cd? I will tell you why. The cd costs pennies, the plastics cost 50 cents , the booklet/ Cover can cost up to a dollar. So all and all you are looking at the most, a two-dollar cd, yet they can sit there and sell it to us for twenty dollars.

The industry says that artists need to be paid, but they do not make any real profit in cd sales. Artists get approximately ten cents per cd sold. At live concerts if they want to sell their new cd, they have to buy them back from the label at normal sticker price. In other words they make the artist buy back their own music to sell it. The RIAA has some serious concerns though, according to their 2001 Mid-Year shipment reports the dollar value on shipments had decreased from 6. 2 billion to 5. 9 billion, a 4. 4 percent decrease.

Now in August of last year napster( a online music swapping program) usage had ceased, due to a court ruling and online music swapping was forced into other sites that enabled users to share music files. Interestingly enough in 1999 when napster was in full swing with users trading thousands of songs daily, the RIAA Mid-Year report showed a 6. 3 percent growth, and a 20 percent growth total from two years prior. Now I can not figure out how they can blame napster and other online pirating sites for the decrease percentage in 2001, when they had the largest percentage increase when napster was fully operational.

Nonetheless the RIAA continues to blame Cd-Piracy for the loss of money and in my opinion make burning a Cd sound like the equivalent of dealing drugs. The RIAAs website states that The RIAA confiscated 87 illegal CD-Rs during the first half of 1997, 23,858 during the first half of 1998, and 165,981 during the first half of 1999″. Maybe if they had concentrated their efforts on promoting CDs and making them more marketable, instead of going around being the big bully on the block maybe they would have noticed an increase in sales instead of an increase in online music swapping.

On another aspect of the Recording Industry the cassette value dropped 25 percent last year after a 19 percent drop the year before. The RIAA says the reason for the decline is that cars are sold complete with Cd units and sales of portable players of many different kinds continue to increase. Well you do not see the RIAA complaining about the inevitable extinction of cassette tapes and its plummeting market value that is because they know that technology is changing. That is what they need to realize about CDs.

They never will though, because while technology in music is constantly growing, consumers are learning that it is much cheaper and more efficient to download the top fifty rather than go out and buy fifty CDs. It is my feeling that music is for the people. A recording artist should be proud if his of her music is being downloaded, not concerned with the money they might be losing. Every time the RIAA shuts down a file-sharing website, two more will open in its place. They can never win this battle, so they better find a way to appeal to the masses before they are taken over by them.

Most of the early music that we have today still in print is primarily sacred music. This music, for the most part, is in the form of sections of the Mass, such as the Gloria, Kyrie and Agnus Dei. Most people of the Middle Ages were poor peasants who worked all day for meager wages and had no idle time lounging the way the upper classes did. Therefore, there are few extant secular compositions of music from this era. The rise of a new middle class, however, gave financial freedom for some people to spend time and money on entertainment in the form of music and dance.

Thus, the rise of the middle classes also gave way to the rise in composition and performance of secular music, which became the music of choice for composers of that day. Many of the songs we have today of the Middle Ages were in Latin, and are by anonymous composers. Many were written by wandering people, many of them men and churchmen without permanent residences of their own. Men who could not obtain a position in the Church and had to drop out were called goliards. These goliards wandered around the land, composing and performing for people.

Their music was mostly comprised of the “eat, drink, and be merry type, appropriate to the wanton kind of life the goliards lived” (Stolba, 99). Carl Orff, the composer of the Carmina Burana, used the poems found in the largest surviving records of Latin secular music that we have today. The Codex latinus 4660 was held in the Benedictine monastery at Benediktbeurn. Many of the songs speak of love, many of them lascivious. Others speak of drinking, satires of the religious life and even liturgical plays. A few of them are even written in the vernacular of the region in that time (Stolba, 99).

Following the history of the era in literature, many authors were fascinated by the courtly tradition, chivalry and a higher love. Therefore, we have today musical compositions that speak of many of the same ideas. French composers wrote songs in the vernacular called chansons de geste . These songs spoke of the heroic acts performed by knights for their ladies in the name of love. The French have a national epic called the Chanson de Roland which related the life and death of Charlemagnes nephew and his endeavor to rid France of the Basques.

Many of these chansons were performed by other wondering entertainers called jongleurs and mnestrals , or minstrels. On one hand society named them outcasts, not worthy to live a productive life in service of the community, yet on the other hand, they were accepted as the perfomers of the day. They did not compose the music, but were one of the main reasons why we still have records of the secular music. By keeping the oral tradition, they kept secular music alive in the hearts and minds of the people (Stolba, 100).

In France there were also other wondering musicians and entertainers known as troubadours and trouvres. Many of these musicians were of the upper aristocratic classes (Annenburg). These musicians, unlike most of the minstrels, often composed their own music and performed it as well, writing and singing in the vernacular which became the modern day French language. The troubadours and trouvres also wrote their own poetry, which later became used in written and oral songs (Daum). Although many of the French songbooks contain some compositions, there are more records of the poetry.

Most of the songs in the book are in one of three musical forms: ballades, rondeaus and virelais. Many of these songs were strophic and had refrains or choruses, (Stolba, 102). The musical instruments in use by the performers consisted mainly of stringed and woodwind instruments, augmented by the use of the early trumpet and several types of drums and cymbals. Medieval art is perhaps the best example of illustrating the uses and types of instruments. The cittern and citole consisted of four or five metal strings and were the primary stringed instruments.

They are described as “an instrument fit for rustics, such as cobblers and tailors” (Annenburg). The recorder and shawm were the primary woodwind instruments. The recorder, still in use today, didnt differ much in the production or sound that we know now. The shawm was the predecessor of the modern day oboe, yet unlike the oboe, had the reputation of “a piercing sound that was said to have terrified the crusaders” (Annenburg). By the fourteenth century, production of secular music far outweighed that of sacred.

The time period became known as the Ars Nova or New Art, in response to a treatise written by the famous composer of the time, Philippe de Vitry. For much of his lifetime, de Vitry worked in service to the French court. Later in 1351 he became Bishop of Meaux which he maintained until he died. In his writings, de Vitry codified the new rhythms and notation which were being developed. He also used red notes to determine pitch notes and alterations known as colorations. Together with new rhythms and these colorations, composers began to write music which had never been seen before.

Composers before this had followed strict rules. De Vitry now utilized the old rules and combined them with new ideas to create genuine Ars Nova (Stolba, 116). Another great contributor to secular music of this time was Guillaume de Machaut. Machaut was also employed most of his life by the court. At this time, the primary form of music was the motet, often in multiple parts. The upper voices were named motetus and triplum. These were written over the lower voices of the contatenor and contratenor bassus, which later became the bass.

Machaut used the notational practices codified by de Vitry and wrote mostly in Latin. An interesting rhythmic pattern was also created, called the rhythmic palindrome. This pattern created a new sound and driving force to the music. Machauts most famous contribution, however, is La Messe de Nostre Dame . This work is the oldest complete setting of the Mass Ordinary by a single composer (Daum). The pope renounced the use of hocket, a form of dividing up a melody and giving it to different voices. Machaut wrote many rests and syncopations to attain the feel of hocket, though (Stolba, 120).

As new ideas were constantly being developed, codified and widely used, many of the old forms of music were being changed and started to evolve into the forms we now recognize in the Renaissance style. More freedom was granted in writing and performing music. The church could no longer contain composers in what they wrote, because of its dwindling power and influence. The church had no hope of containing a growing love and appreciation for new music. Music is a definition of emotion and certainly these times were full of great deeds, as well as great suffering.

If you want to know where a Silicon Valley-ite stands in the ongoing war for the soul of the Internet, just ask him or her what the buzzword is these days. Many will tell you it is “B2B,” a backslapping shorthand for e-schemes directed to the “business to business” market. But those who still believe that the Internet revolution is still a seething, evolving, paradigm-busting phenomenon will offer a different buzzword: “Napster” (Levy 68).

This new term pertains to a specific digital-music program, the start-up company built around the free software and the full effect brought about by its crazy popularity (Ante 197,198). 19-year-old Shawn Fanning began writing the code so he could stop his roommate’s constant complaining about the unreliable MP3 search engines (Greenfeld, “The Free Juke Box,” 82). “It took a true Internet kid…to figure out that the way to do it was to allow anybody free and total access to everybody else’s music collection” (Levy 68).

Download the program, free of charge, and simply type in the songs that are desired. Napster then lists what’s available online in the MP3 format on thousands of hard drives. It then finds the selection on someone else’s hard drive, and with a click of a button its downloaded onto your hard drive, and others can then download it from there (Levy 68). Napster is a program that should not be shut-down but supported because it enables people to search for and download songs that are no longer produced, available, or hard to find.

Napster has made itself some powerful enemies in its short existence (Cohen 41). “It has drawn the wrath of the record industry, whose suit charges the company ‘launched a service that enables and facilitates piracy of music on an unprecedented scale’” (Brull 50). Piracy is defined by the World Book Dictionary as “the act of publishing or using a book, play, musical composition, or the like, without permission” (Barnhart). In fact, Napster does the exact opposite. It states so in its Napster, Inc. End-User Software License Agreement (Appendix A):

The software integrated browser which, when used with the Napster service, is designed to enable musicians and music fans to locate audio recordings available in the MP3 format…Accordingly, you are responsible for complying with all applicable federal and state laws applicable to such content, including copyright laws. Napster respects copyright law and expects our users to do the same. Unauthorized copying, distribution, modification, public display, or public performance of copyrighted works is an infringement of the copyright holders’ rights.

The above paragraph states the terms that Napster makes with its users. The terms state that Napster respects copyright laws and expects its users to do the same. A federal judge in New York ruled that a new service from MP3. com Inc. let people access their music from the Web and that had infringed on copyright laws (Brull 50). But what looked like a victory for the $14. 6 billion record industry was only a skirmish in a war it is losing (Brull 50). The message has become quite clear: Courtroom victories won’t save the Industry.

Instead, the record companies should quickly create new business models that would allow consumers to organize their music on computers and send it over the net. So far, the big industry giants have been dragging their feet. They fear that surrendering control of music distribution would mean losing revenue and royalties (Brull 50). There are signs that the industry is finally moving. On April 28, for instance, Sony Music Entertainment Inc. began selling digitally delivered singles from Babyface, Pearl Jam, and two-dozen other artists at its Sonymusic. com site (Brull 50).

And on May 2, Sony and Universal Music Group announced a joint venture to develop a subscription-based service over computers, cell phones, and set-up boxes. But these ventures are little more than baby steps. Sony’s download service is a nonstarter because songs are priced at the same level as CD singles (Brull 50). Moreover, the system restricts users’ ability to transfer files to their own computer or to other digital devices such as MP3 players. Contrast that with Napster, which allows PC owners to share their music files that are stored on their hard drives over the Net (Brull 50).

Hundreds of thousands of users have downloaded the program since it was shipped last summer. Each person has free access to song files stored on other PCs, creating a virtual library of millions of tracks (Brull 50). Of course, Napster doesn’t have to worry about getting paid every time songs are downloaded, because it is free. Piracy on Napster might be infamous, but the company has a strong defense (Brull 50). The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 mainly shields portals and directory sites from liability unless they are directly involved with, or participating in an illegal activity.

Napster states that it ejects users found engaging in piracy (Brull 50), as stated in Appendix A: “Termination of This License: Napster, Inc. may terminate this license at any time if you are in breach of any of these terms and conditions of use. Upon such termination you must and agree to immediately destroy all copies of the software. ” The problem here is that the record industry has no choice but to join more rapidly into the fray or be left behind (Brull 50). But the biggest Napster effect has yet to come (Levy 68).

The legal system may be the last refuge of doomed business models (Greenfeld, “Meet the Napster,” 1). When Big Steel and the auto industry were under pressure during the ‘70s from low-cost imports, their first instinct was not to change their outmoded manufacturing plants, but to plead with the courts to bar the outlanders. The record industry has taken a similar path, charging the distributors of digital music with violating copyright laws and fair use agreements (Greenfeld, “The Digital Reckoning,” 56).

According to David Boies, in an article written by John Heilemann, It is not, for two basic reasons. The first is that this kind of noncommercial consumer copying is recognized as fair use under common-law theories and doctrines, and under the Supreme Court’s criteria. And second, with respect to audio recordings – that is, music – the Audio Home Recording Act directly says that noncommercial copying by consumers is lawful” (Heilemann 1). Therefore, the above states that what Napster does is not illegal, nor is it wrong.

In an interview with Mr. Edward Protzman, the question of whether or not Napster was a good program was asked. Mr. Protzman replied that Napster was a good program for musicians because the public could listen to their music and if they liked it, then they would be inclined to buy that person’s or group’s CD. Because there are no obligations to pay for anything with Napster, it can be considered a free sample of that musician’s work. When asked if he would put his own music on Napster he replied, “Sure, because its an excellent way for new groups to break into the music scene.

Not everyone can afford to go public with popular major labels and it puts the musicians in charge of their music. He also commented that many musicians publish their own albums, and that Napster gives them a free chance to advertise their music. Napster is a program that should not be shut down or even stopped, but supported and worked upon. It is a program that enables the average everyday PC owner to find music that is no longer produced, sold, or found in stores, catalogs, and/or specific online sites.

It is a free program that promotes sponsorship of new coming bands and groups and despite what rumors say, Napster rejects piracy. The creators of Napster believe in free music for everyone. Napster is a company that believes in the preservation of copyrights. “The RIAA would like to pretend that the case is about Napster wanting to eliminate intellectual property” (Heilemann 1). Intellectual property is made up of copyrights, trademarks, and patents (Halloran 61). Nobody at Napster wants to eliminate intellectual property (Heilemann 1), and no one at Napster violates any copyright laws, procedures, or patents.

What I call the “Napster dilemma” is a problem that involves new technological concepts and redefinitions of old ideas. This is the case for many legal and moral conflicts that are arising with the outcome of new possibilities and options made accessible by informatics and telecommunications. The importance of these problems has caught so much attention that in 1998, President Clinton signed the new Digital Millennium Copyright Act, where a good attempt of addressing these issues was done. By now, just after two years, some of its content already lost actuality.

Since many people is not really acquainted with Napster, what is it and how it is work, I find important to give a quick definition of how it works, even thought it goes a little beyond of the limits of this paper. Napster is a software program through which users can swap songs over the Internet. Computer users visit (using their internet browsers like Explorer, Netscape, etc and an internet connection via modem like pilot or an Ethernet connection, like the ones we have on campus) napster. com where they download the free Napster program.

Once the software is installed on the user’s hard drive (which is an extremely simple procedure), the user can locate songs stored on the computers of other Napster users by title and artist. Once a specific song is located, the user double-clicks the title and the song starts to download to his/her hard drive in MP3 (MPEG audio layer 3) format, a fairly efficient audio file form which compresses original CD data by 12 times without any discernible loss in sound quality, as long as the file is played in a mp3 player. There are no expenses involved.

It is important to notice that the act of locating a song is performed by connecting to a main server that belongs to Napster. This server does not contain the music. It only contains the name and location (in internet terms) of the computers with the music files, where the owner already installed the software, and it is willing to share the data. It links the user who is searching for the song with the user who is willing to share it. Once they found each other, a communications is established between both of them, without any interaction of the server.

This communication between two computers is a fairly new type of technology known as peer-to-peer communication. and is exactly the same principle used in the well known “chat rooms” Depending on the speed of the internet connection that the user is accessing, the operation of downloading a song would take five minutes at the most. Once the user closes his/her connection to the Internet, there is not trace of the transaction and the song is already shared between the two users involved.

If the one who just downloaded the song chooses to keep it in his hard drive, the song becomes available in two hard drives, widening the possibilities for the next Napster user of logging and finding somebody willing to share that specific song. It provides a multiplicative effect that makes the availability of songs to increase geometrically (2,4,8,16,32, etc. ) Napster has acquired an unsuspected popularity. The company claims that currently there are about 38 million of people all over the world who are connecting to the service in regular bases.

Obviously the ones with the biggest trouble are the record labels. In December of 1999 the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), which unifies the industry trade group, sued Napster alleging that the file-sharing program facilitates massive copyright violations (1). It is based in articles of the mentioned Digital Millennium Copyright Act (2) as well as some of the Copy Right Law of America (3). Under this lawsuit this last July, the U. S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel granted an injunction to have the Napster server shutdown.

With the server (the computer where the music information is located) out of operation, the file sharing process cannot be performed. Napster appealed this injunction and the Ninth U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals intervened when a few hours were left, saving the service from being shutdown. The proceedings are being held at this point. If the RIAA position upheld, the file sharing service will stop. Details of the proceedings can be found in several public sites (references 1 to 4). The problem from the optic of the common citizen:

There is a legal problem now deciding whether Napster is violating copyright laws. This analysis will be heavily legal and probably political. However, for the lay average person, the problem is of basic principles. The question that people raises now days are in lines like: Is it acceptable to share any of some of the so-called copyrighted material in the Internet? If it is not acceptable today, should it be in the future? Is it acceptable to have the government overseeing the way people shares data over the Internet? Are the copyright laws up to today’s technologies?

Stopping technologies like pier-to-pier communications will affect some positive outcomes of its use? The issue is complex and goes beyond the purpose and extent of this paper. For this reason, I would like to focus my discussion on one of the basic arguments used against the right to share music files using the internet: Copying music files in the internet is not correct and is illegal because such files are copyrighted. Copying music files in the Internet is not correct and is illegal because such files are copyrighted: There are laws that protect copyrights.

Basically we could say that the spirit of these laws (see ref # 3) is to prevent any reproduction of material if the use of this reproduction is going to generate, or help to generate a profit. If I make copies of a copyrighted CD and I go to the streets to sell it, or I just start to sell it over the Internet, I would be clearly generating a profit. In the case of Napster, nobody is making a profit. Even Napster at this point, is a start-up company that has not generated income, does not charge their users for accessing the server, and it does not post commercial spots.

It is still owned privately. Napster had get some offers for using their technology to organize the sharing of some other types of files (e. g. insurance policies, medical records, police reports, etc. ) that would give them lucrative gains in some completely different lines of file sharing. It is also possible that in the future Napster would adopt some money maker schema, like selling commercial space, charging access to their site, charging for downloading, etc. but at this point it does not.

It is fairly accurate to say that users of Napster are not making a profit with the music files that they download. The professional use of music demands high quality records and formats that are different from the mp3 format that is used transmitting electronically music files. Most professional music playing devices require the use of wav format files. A 99% of the files shared on Napster are mp3 files created by converting wav files taken from a commercial CD. In order to be used in a standard music player, they have to be converted again to wav.

Each time a file is transformed from one format to the other, quality is lost and the file is not good enough for a professional, in the same way as a photocopy of a photocopy will have lower quality than the original. If anybody want to use this files in anyway beyond a personal computer or a home music player device, it would have to go to painful technical procedures that would be deceiving the “for free” acquisition of the files. This user would rather buy a copy of the music file in a standard commercial CD. The use of files copied from Napster resembles the use that people did of tape records made out of records, some years ago.

In conclusion the entity that is providing the forum for the file exchange, as well as the participants in such a forum are not making profits out of this exchange. So, if the spirit of the law goes in the line of preventing people from making money with some other’s creative work, I would claim that sharing music files is following the standards set by the law and it should be protected. Obviously some people might not agree with this vision of the purpose and application of the law. At this point it is still possible that the court will rule against Napster and will find that the law is against this type of file sharing.

Even assuming such contingence, as I said above, the legality or non-legality of copying files does not make it moral or immoral. Laws just create a frame of rules that people should use as a standard. These standards are not built in stone. Standards change and so legislation should, according with the times. There was a moment when owning slaves was legal even thought today it would be virtually impossible to find a person raised and living in a Western culture who would agree with the moral acceptability of such an ownership.

In this line, if the final conclusion of the legal system is that sharing music files in the internet using services like Napster is illegal as the law stands today, I would argue that is time for society to take a serious look at the legislation and basic definitions for copyrights. New technologies had historically changed preconceptions. The law is an instrument to the service of society and it should not be, under any circumstance, a tool used to take advantage of certain groups of population. I think that there are very few chances of having Napster protected by the system as things stand today.

However, this case will generate major changes in the music industry. They have to change their business model, as many industries had done in the past, under pressure by new technologies. The record companies could do many things like: lowering the price of their CDs, sell music over the Internet using the Napster model, give access to musicians that today have not even the remote possibility of accessing markets, etc. Napster will probably be prevented from operating with the model that it does now, but somehow, so it will the music industry and the winner will be the people for whom laws are supposed to be done.

After Beethoven, composers turned their attention to the expression of intense feelings in their music. This expression of emotion was the focus of all the arts of the “Romantic” movement. For inspiration, many Romantic composers turned to the visual arts, to poetry, drama and literature, and to nature itself. Using the classical forms of Sonata and Symphony as a starting point, composers began focusing more on new melodic styles, richer harmonies, and ever more dissonance, in the pursuit of moving their audiences, rather than concerning themselves with the structural discipline of Classical forms.

Later composers of the nineteenth century would further build on the forms and ideas developed by the Romantic composers. One of the best known and best loved composers of the Romantic period, Chopin was born in Poland and lived most of his life in Paris, which was at that time the musical hub of Europe. Chopins entire musical output was devoted to his favorite instrument, the piano. His over 200 solo composition for the piano all demonstrate his highly individual melodic style. Chopin was most influenced by by vocal music like that found in Italian opera.

Even at a very early age, his mothers singing would bring him to tears. It is fitting that this should be the case. The human voice is naturally the most emotional instrument of all, and music, as well as the instruments it is played on, has always seemed to strive to imitate this most moving sound. Chopin brought this “singing” or “cantabile” style to his piano compositions from the onset. Chopin began writing in wide variety of miniature expressions of an original poetic nature.

He soon wrote pieces that were among the most succinct and direct expressions of musical petry and sentimentality that the world had ever heard. He had a unique ability to move the listener in a direct, personal, and succinct manner. Some of his shortest Preludes are the most complete and perfect expressions of musical thought to be found. No composer before him exposed his most inner self so nakedly. He literally tore himself open and showed you what was inside of him, no matter how painful, whimsical, lonely, confused, or frightning.

Chopin displayed a complete mastery over all aspects of piano composition technically. His music is extremely rich texturally and rhythmically. He used syncopation between the right and left hands to wonderful effect- the melody played on the right hand often occurs between the time kept by the left. He used trills to a charming and elaborate extent. This device, very common in earlier music was used by Chopin to a new sensibility in the Romantic era.

He often invoked many other devices to add charm and intrigue to his pieces. He also used pedaling, particularly the sustain pedal, with much more freedom than anyone before him to add even more richness and depth to his works. All of his creations are studies in harmony- those which were conventional and many that few before him were willing to explore. Not only was the left hand rich in intriguing harmony, but many of his pieces had the right hand carry the melody in two part harmony throughout the piece.

At one point in the study of the Romantic period of music, we come upon the first of several apparently opposing conditions that plague all attempts to grasp the meaning of Romantic as applied to the music of the 19th century. This opposition involved the relation between music and words. If instrumental music is the perfect Romantic art, why is it acknowledged that the great masters of the symphony, the highest form of instrumental music, were not Romantic composers, but were the Classical composers, Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven?

Moreover, one f the most characteristic 19th century genres was the Lied, a vocal piece in which Shubert, Schumann, Brahams, and Wolf attained a new union between music and poetry. Furthermore, a large number of leading composers in the 19th century were extremely interested and articulate in literary expression, and leading Romantic novelists and poets wrote about music with deep love and insight. The conflict between the ideal of pure instrumental music (absolute music) as the ultimate Romantic mode of expression, and the strong literary orientation of the 19th century, was resolved in the conception of program music.

Program music, as Liszt and others in the 19th century used the term, is music associated with poetic, descriptive, and even narrative subject matter. This is done not by means of musical figures imitating natural sounds and movements, but by imaginative suggestion. Program music aimed to absorb and transmit the imagined subject matter in such a way that the resulting work, although “programmed”, does not sound forced, and transcends the subject matter it seeks to represent. Instrumental music thus became a vehicle for the utterance of thoughts which, lthough first hinted in words, may ultimately be beyond the power of words to fully express.

Practically every composer of the era was, to some degree, writing program music, weather or not this was publicly acknowledged. One reason it was so easy for listeners to connect a scene or a story or a poem with a piece of Romantic music is that often the composer himself, perhaps unconsciously, was working from some such ideas. Writers on music projected their own conceptions of the expressive functions of music into the past, and read Romantic programs into he instrumental works not only of Beethoven, but also the likes of Mozart, Haydn, and Bach!

The diffused scenic effects in the music of such composers as Mendelssohn and Schumann seem pale when compared to the feverish, and detailed drama that constitutes the story of Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique (1830). Because his imagination always seemed to run in parallel literary and musical channels, Berlioz once subtitled his work “Episode in the life of an artist”, and provided a program for it which was in effect a piece of Romantic autobiography.

In later ears, he conceded that if necessary, when the symphony was performed by itself in concert, the program would need not be given out for the music would “of itself, and irrespective of any dramatic aim, offer an interest in the musical sense alone. ” The principle formal departure in the symphony is the recurrence of the opening theme of the first Allegro, the idee fixe. This, according to the program, is the obsessive image of the hero’s beloved, that recurs in the other movements. To mention another example: in the coda of the Adagio there is a passage for solo

English horn and four Tympani intended to suggest “distant thunder”. The foremost composer of program music after Beriloz was Franz Liszt, twelve of whose symphonic poems were written between 1848 and 1858. The name symphonic poem is significant: these pieces are symphonic, but Liszt did not call them symphonies, presumably because or their short length, and the fact that they are not divided up into movements. Instead, each is a continuos form with various sections, more or less varied in tempo and character, and a few themes that are varied, developed, or repeated within the design of the work. Les

Preludes, the only one that is still played much today, is well designed, melodious, and efficiently scored. However, its idiom causes it to be rhetorical in a sense. It forces today’s listeners to here lavishly excessive emotion on ideas that do not seem sufficiently important for such a display of feeling. Liszt’s two symphonies were as programmatic as his symphonic poems. His masterpiece, the Faust Symphony, was dedicated to Berlioz. It consists of three movements entitled respectively Faust, Gretchen, and Mephistopheles, with a finale (added later) which is a setting for tenor soloist and male chorus.

The first three movements correspond to the classic plan of an introduction in Allegro, Andante, and Scherzo. Liszt attempted to sum up the ideas of Romantic music in these words: “Music embodies feeling without forcing it – as it is forced in its other manifestations, in most arts and especially in the art of words – to contend and combine with thought…. it is the embodied and intelligent essence of feeling; capable of being apprehended by our senses, it permeates them like a dart, like a ray, like a dew, like a spirit, and fills our soul. “

When it comes to music, most people don’t say they like it. People say they like heavy metal, pop, rhythm and blues, or any other type of music, since they have their own preference to what type of music they like, not just enjoying the broad area of music. One of those types of music which many enjoy is jazz. Actually right now jazz is really big and popular in Europe, and is rising in its popularity in the USA through its many forms. Jazz does have many forms, so many that some people wouldn’t consider just saying they like jazz, they would say they enjoyed bebop, ragtime, blues, or other types of jazz.

Jazz has survived longer than many types of music, and it has always influenced the ways people involved in jazz compose or perform. It has also Although jazz is not the most influencing music currently in the nation, its history proves that it is a great form of music with many origins, a multigenerational life span, numerous styles, many legendary musicians, and its own creative, Jazz is over 100 years old, probably making it one of the longest, lasting forms of music so far. Jazz was not created by Europeans, it was created by Afro-Americans who descended from ancestors in Africa.

These Afro-Americans learned how to play these European instruments well, including percussion or the drum set, trumpet, cornet, saxophone, trombone, tuba, and many other instruments. They wanted to show what they were like to other races, so they attempted to express themselves and their feelings through music and the instruments which were so foreign to them. A lot of the music which they played came from black folk music. Jazz did have a part of it come from Europe. The instruments of course, and the basic beginning forms of music helped jazz to be created.

Another part of jazz which is not of African origin is mprovisation, which is similar to interpretation but has no melodic restrictions. Improvisation began with the Greeks and their music over 2,000 years ago, before the many emotional and creative types of music were even composed. At one time, baroque and classical music used a lot of improvisation in their music. It was very important, and composers such as Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and Liszt used it in their unique composing. These composers were also good at improvising themselves, and were among the best in the world in their time.

Many types of music are created from other types of music, and jazz is among the any. Many people influenced jazz along its development, and it was usually a performer or composer. This includes Buddy Bolden, Benny Goodman, Louis Armstrong, Art Tatum, Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, and John Coltrane. There are even more jazz greats who The form of music we know as jazz has existed ever since the late 19th century, and is still alive. It consisted of many different eras, each one with one or two different styles of jazz.

Each era also had many good performers and composers which made a certain era stand out. Through the late 19th century to about the early 1920s the form of jazz we know as New Orleans Jazz, which included Dixieland jazz and ragtime. The 20s and 30s developed the Swing Era, which made many performers famous through the first recordings. The 40s and the postwar decades led to bebop, also called bop for short. Bebop’s performers also changed the way jazz was looked at. The 50s through the 70s created a few types of jazz which were very loose and had no limits, but could be critized.

The 80s and to the present developed a type of jazz which was more calm and smooth than other types of jazz. The present has brought back all the forms of jazz, and now is experimenting with the many different instruments from the orchestra, including the french horn, There are so many styles in jazz that jazz could not be defined clearly without ignoring one of its forms. It included vocals, ragtime, blues, New Orleans jazz, Chicago and New York City jazz, Big Band, bebop, modal or free jazz, fusion, and modern jazz.

Vocals were definitely a style of jazz which performers could easily express moods or feelings, since the instrument was the human voice. The singing of the performers had great freedom and olor, and could be expressed by many syllables. Grunts, vibrato, and the impersonation of instruments could all be done by voice. These many possiblities made this form of jazz very popular by bringing out many famous singers, such as Ella Fitzgerald. Vocals can be put into any form of jazz, and make it Ragtime emerged near the end of the 19th century and continued through World War I.

It combined many elements, such as syncopated rhythms, harmonic contrasts, and formal patterns of European marches. It is usually played in the time signature of 2/4. Scott Joplin’s “Maple Leaf Rag” made ragtime very popular hroughout the whole nation. Other ragtime composers included Thomas Turpin, James Scott, and Eubie Blake. The piano and banjo are the most common used instruments in ragtime. Blues was another popular form of jazz in the late 19th century. It was derived from the banjo music of black slaves and was very popular among the southern part of the United States.

It developed all the way through the 1950s. Blues worked its way from vocals to the instruments such as the piano, electric guitar, and saxophones. Blues has been considered to be separate from jazz but it is very similar in many aspects, including the nstrumentation and the use of vocals. Many famous singers and performers were created through the blues, such as Ma Rainey, New Orleans jazz was one of the first types of jazz to be fully documented, and it came from New Orleans, Louisiana. From the early 20th century and up to the mid-1920s New Orleans jazz was well known.

The instruments used were the cornet, trumpet, clarinet, trombone, tuba, string bass, and rhythm secton. Buddy Bolden was one of the big figures in New Orleans jazz, and he led some of the first jazz bands. One of the first bands included he Original Dixieland Jass Band, which was later changed to the Chicago and New York City jazz was one of the first periods of time where jazz was being experimented with, and many new things were being discovered in music. Throughout the 20s and 30s jazz piano was developed, it was called stride piano. It was called this for the hard-driving and highly technical soloing with the piano.

Boogie-woogie is another piano style which developed in Chicago and New York City jazz. It related back to a form of the blues, where the pianist solos with his right hand while keeping a repetitive bass line in his right hand. Chicago and New York City jazz included one of the highest figures in jazz, Louis Armstrong. It also included a musician who was considered very different in his style when compared to Armstrong, his name was Bix Beiderbecke. It also included Benny Goodman, the famous clarinet player. The Big Band style of jazz can be explained easily, it involved a big band of about 18-20 members.

It included 4 sections: the saxophones, trombones, trumpets/cornets, and the rhythm section consisting of the piano, bass guitar, and drums. It was invented during the 20s to the 40s, when jazz musicians ecided to have large groups play together. In New York City a man named Duke Ellington led a big band. Ellington was famous for his songs, which many are considered jazz standards. Some of his songs are “Sophisticated Lady” and “Koko”. In Kansas City during the mid-30s a man named Count Basie also lead a band. His style involved improvisation to be used more than the melody, or the “head” of the song.

Once again vocals were involved with another type of jazz, Big Band. This era was ultimately one of Bebop is an exciting, energetic form of jazz which involved big bands but was used a lot more in jazz combos. Bebop totally redefined the way to improvise in a song, and it is full of creative and unique musical ideas, also called “licks”. Famous people such as the saxophonist Charlie Parker, the trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, and the drummer Max Roach created bebop during the 40s and the Postwar Decades, which was definitely a big leap for jazz.

This style of jazz is less restricted, and improvisation involved longer phrases, more choruses, and more Modal jazz, also called free jazz, has no rules at all. It was created during the late 50s through the 70s. Improvisation has ultimate freedom and so does the songs. A famous trumpeter amed Miles Davis helped created modal jazz by arranging songs so certain parts of each song would be kept in the same key, chord, and mode for up to 16 measures. This allowed the improvisor to have more freedom. John Coltrane, a tenor saxophonist and composer, had participated in the bebop period by composing the complex and famous song “Giant Steps”.

Later he composed songs which were for modal jazz, such as “My Favorite Things”. Jazz began to fall in the late 60s when younger audiences were exposed to soul music and rock. Jazz musicians developed fusion, a combination of jazz and rock, to gain back the interest f the nation. Once again Miles Davis participated, totally changing his style to record and play in fusion bands. From the 80s to the present all forms of jazz are coming back, each one influencing the other. People such as Pat Methany have composed songs which involve ideas from bebop, swing, fusion, and other mixtures of the many styles of jazz.

Currently the most influencing form of jazz is bebop. These many forms of jazz will never disappear as long as their musical ideas are implemented into new songs. Of those who contribute the most to jazz, the musicians themselves have done the most. Buddy Bolden, he first jazz legend, contributed to jazz by leading the first jazz bands and influencing many others to lead bands or compose. He was considered the first jazz trumpeter, and he was a very driving, rhythmic, and emotional player who was an inspiration to all jazz musicians. Benny Goodman contributed to jazz by helping to start the Swing Era of jazz.

He played clarinet in the big bands he lead, and he improvised amazingly. He went from rags to riches very quick, and other than jazz he appreciated classical a lot. Louis Armstrong contributed to jazz by being one of the first virtuoso improvisors. He also sang very well, with the perfect attitude and tone for each song he sang in. Art Tatum was a very famous soloist who played the piano. He helped develop stride piano. Tatum accomplished much in his life, with many recordings. What made him famous was for his virtuosity on the piano, just like Louis Armstrong was on the trumpet.

Billie Holiday was a leading singer among many in the 1930s. She was very talented in taking regular songs and jazzing them up or making them “blue”. She worked with many famous people such as the saxophonist Lester Young and the composer Count Basie. Duke Ellington was one of the most respected figures in jazz. He was a composer, conductor, and pianist in the 20s through the 60s. As he led famous jazz bands, usually big bands, he composed many jazz standards, such as the song “Take the A-Train” and “Sophisticated Lady”. Ellington went to Carnegie Hall and conducted the first 9 annual concerts.

Count Basie was another popular bandleader, but from the 30s to the early 80s. His band was always known for being a big band with many good soloists, such as the saxophonist Lester Young. He was also a great pianist, whose style was thought to be elegant and graceful. Charlie Parker was the ultimate king of bop, the style created in the 40s. He was a saxophonist with a talent for improvising. There was a story once that when he first started playing, Parker decided to play with a band. Parker really messed up during the performance and everyone ridiculed him.

Even the drummer threw his symbol at him. So Parker went home, practiced 11 to 15 hours a day for 3 to 4 years, and came back to the same place he performed that embarrassing night. Parker blew everyone away. His improvising was creative beyond anyone’s imagination, and so were the songs he composed. Usually he layed very fast songs, and Parker himself played so fast that no one could see his fingers. He had totally redefined improvising in jazz. Dizzy Gillespie was another bopper like Charlie Parker, but he played the trumpet.

Dizzy improvised exactly in the same style as Parker, and the two of them often were in a combo together. Miles Davis was a man of many styles. He was first influenced with bebop, and he improvised on the trumpet with a “cool” style soon to be copied by many other musicians. Later in his life he was influenced by rock, and he helped develop fusion. John Coltrane was a tenor saxophonist and composer. Appearing famous in the 50s and 60s, Coltrane was known for his awesome soloing on the tenor sax and the complexity of the songs he wrote. He wrote the songs “Giant Steps” and “A Love Supreme”.

Interpretation of jazz has been questioned many times. What distinguishes it from other types of music? It could be explained in this quote: “The conventional symbols could, in other words, indicated in a general way what should be played, but could not indicate (precisely) how it should be played” (Pleasants 32). This means that what is shown as music on the paper is not exactly what should be played. You are allowed to hange the music a little, speed it up or slow it down, or articulate it different. One important factor in jazz is rhythm.

The musicians do not always play directly on the beat or tempo. Players can be “on top” of the beat, which means ahead of the beat, or play “laid back”, which is to play behind the beat. Improvisation is another factor of jazz which separates it from other styles of music. The standard way to improvise in jazz is to keep the original melody in mind while improvising and invent a new melodic line. “Free form” or “free improvisation” is when a person’s improvising is only restricted that he/she improvises elated to the musical sounds of the other musicians.

Basically when improvising you are allowed to play anything you want to, to show off your talent and abilities to please the audience. Another important factor of jazz is syncopation. Syncopation is to place an accent or extend the note value of a weak beat. Syncopation may give a song better feeling and movement, basically improving the feel of the song. The form of jazz, when related to notes, scales, and modes, is very complex. Songs can be in any key, including any pitch of any octave, and the song may be built on many complex music scales and modes.

Chord progressions, where certain chords are played in order, can also be complex, such as the II-V-I progression. Jazz has unlimited possiblilties since it is not so restricted to certain scales, notes, or sounds. Jazz’s interpretation can only go so far, since it splits into many different styles. Here is another person’s idea of jazz: Jazz, then, is not a composer’s art. The particular melody and harmonies which formed the basis of a performance, improvised or arranged, are of secondary importance. Rather jazz is the art of the performer, the performing ensemble, the arranger.

And the quality of the art is dependent upon their Jazz still has a even better future to come, and it will develop into a even greater influence than it is now. Jazz will never have an echo, where people reminisce about the old times. It has survived for a very long time, and the musicians and styles of jazz will continually change the interpretation of jazz itself. People will even to have to get more specific when they say they love jazz, but variety is good. Variety in jazz allows many to express their feelings and musical ideas. Without it, variety in the world of music would drastically reduced.

Ask anyone what was the defining moment in the rock history of the 1960s was and all you will get is a one word answer: Woodstock. The three day rock festival that defined an era was only one of many music festivals of the 60s. But Woodstock has come to symbolize, “an era of peaceful, free- loving, drug- taking hippie youth, carefree before harsher realities hit…” (Layman 40). The Woodstock festival ended a century filled with many metamorphoses of rock’n’roll, from the era of pop music to the rebirth of folk music to the invention of acid rock.

But some cynics say that rock’n’roll died with the death of Buddy Holly before the 60s even began. One such person is Don McLean. The poet behind the haunting epic song about the death of danceable’ music, McLean wrote the ever popular song, “American Pie” (appendix 1). The most important song in rock’n’roll history, “American Pie”, is the song about the demise of rock’n’roll after Buddy Holly’s death and the heathenism of rock that resulted. Although McLean himself won’t reveal any symbolism in his songs, “American Pie” is one of the most analyzed pieces of literature in modern society.

Although not all of its secrets have been revealed, many “scholars” of the sixties will agree that the mystery of this song is one of the reasons it has become so successful- everyone wants to know the meanings of its allegories. Proof of “American Pie’s” truth lies in the allegory of the song. Many People enjoy the song but have no idea what it means- Who is the Jester? What is the levee? When the deeper story is found, the importance of the song is unearthed. “American Pie” is not only a song, it is an epic poem about the course of rock’n’roll in the sixties.

The song is centered around the epic’s hero, Buddy Holly. Holly was a 50s rock and roller who experimented greatly with chords and beats. Many people say that if Holly hadn’t died, no one would have needed the Beatles, who in their time also revolutionized rock. But in any sense Holly was a rock pioneer. He wrote his own songs and popularized the use of the two guitar, bass and drums line-up (Jordan). Holly directly influenced most of the most prominent folk and rock musicians of the 60s including Bob Dylan, the Beatles and many others. The Beatles name actually originated from Holly’s band, the Crickets (Jordan).

In February of 1959 tragedy struck. Holly was on tour with a collection of performers, and he wanted to fly to the next stop instead of taking the bus. He chartered a plane and a pilot to fly him and two others to Fargo, North Dakota (Verse 1). Originally it was to be Holly, Waylon Jennings, and Tommy Allsup. But J. P. Richardson (”The Big Bopper”) talked Jennings into giving him his seat and Allsup lost his seat to Richie Valens (”La Bamba”) on a coin toss (Jordan). The pilot, Roger Peterson, was a visual pilot, and not certified to fly an instrument plane flight.

But on the night of February 3, 1959 the plane when up during a flurry. The pilot lost control and while he believed he was steering up, the plane went straight down. When the plane crashed all four men died instantly (Jordan). The day that the plane crash henceforth became known as “The day the music died”. The chorus in American Pie is the main theme of the song. American Pie is the pure American art of rock and roll. The Chevy is the icon of America. The levee is the source of music and since the decline of original rock and roll, there is no water (or talent) in the levee: it’s dry.

This’ll be the day that I die,” was taken from a Buddy Holly song entitled “That’ll be the Day” and a line in the chorus read, “That’ll be the day that I die,” (Kulawiec). The next verse of American Pie, McLean demonstrates what happened after Holly’s death. The birth of teen idols such as Frankie Avalon and Fabian arose. Although the verse seems positive, the narrator is left outside of the “dance”. While you’ (The youth of America) were dancing in the gym with him’ (The teen idols) “…I knew that I was out of luck…”, because the love that he wanted from you’ was given to him’ (Jordan).

Another line in this verse is important. “Can you teach me how to dance real slow…” Slow dancing was important in the early days of rock and roll, but they lost popularity when acid rock and long guitar solos became popular (Kulawiec). The third verse begins with the narrator in the present (1970). The “moss grows fat on a rolling stone…” which could be Dylan’s song, “Like a Rolling Stone,” or the band, the Rolling Stones, but either way the phrase is a negative one. The “rolling stone” is not rolling and is stagnant, there for it is growing moss. The music is getting stale, or growing moss.

Then McLean alludes that …”That’s not how it used to be…” referring back to the time of Buddy Holly (Jordan). The jester in this song is Bob Dylan. His songs are very cryptic and like a jester’s riddles. The coat he borrowed from James Dean was from the cover of one of his albums where he is wearing the symbolic red windbreaker James Dean wore in Rebel Without a Cause (Kulawiec). The crown he stole is obviously from Elvis. Though Dylan had stolen the crown “…the courtroom was adjourned, no verdict was returned…” meaning that although the crown was his, there was no true king at that time.

The quartet practic[ing] in the parks…” were the Beatles and their growing fame in Europe before the British Invasion’. One of the biggest plays on words is the in about “Lenin read a book on Marx,” playing on the names of Vlademir Lenin and John Lennon. Not only do they have similarly names, but they both share the same ideals about communism (Jordan). The fourth verse is the most important. It contains the most information on the demise of rock and roll of the song.

Helter Skelter in a summer swelter” clumps together the British Invasion and the social unrest that the American students felt during the mid 1960s. Helter Skelter’ itself was a song made much later after the beginning of the British invasion, but it was just meant to show the cluster of events of the mid 60s. The social voice that came through in the folk-rock sound of Dylan, is now full of messages, many of them open, many of them hidden. The plain messages include the dangers of nuclear war, the Vietnam war, the evil capitalistic system.

Associated with these social protest songs are the summer swelters’: riots in LA , Detroit, and at the Democratic convention in Chicago; the Charles Manson murders (which Manson claimed were connected with the song Helter Skelter); the marches for civil rights and against the Vietnam War (Jordan). The underlying message that McLean was trying to convey was that drugs were ruining the music. The Byrds sang a song called Eight Miles High, but they were falling fast and landed foul’ on the “grass”, marijuana (Jordan), which was also the sweet perfume (Kulawiec).

During the mid-60s the Beatles predominantly influenced rock music the most. Dylan is the “jester on the sidelines in a cast,” the sidelines being the outside of the rock music scene and the cast being from a motorcycle accident he claimed to have which was keeping him out of the scene, which some say never happened (Jordan). The half time air’ was probably referring to the heavy drug use of the mid- 60s (half-time). The sergeants’ are either the Beatle’s Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ or the Army playing marching music because of the draft.

And what was “revealed” was that drugs, in this verse and in this corresponding era of rock and roll, was the final ruin of rock and roll. McLean has traced rock’s demise in stages: it was at its pinnacle in the Buddy Holly era, it fell to the Teen Idol era, then the social protest era, and seemingly it hit bottom in the self-destructive era of hippies and drug use (Jordan) . The fifth verse is mainly about two things: Woodstock and The Rolling Stones. McLean is not too positive about his generation. The one place’ was obviously Woodstock, and his generation lost in space’ (high), had no time left to start again.

After the peaceful festival there was a free concert given by the Rolling Stones at Altamont Raceway in California. While performing “Sympathy for the Devil” where the devil is laughing at the terrible events that are going on, chaos broke out in the front of the arena and a young man was beaten and stabbed to death by the Hell’s Angels, the hired security guards for the Rolling Stones (on the advice of the Greatful Dead) (Kulawiec). Jack Flash is Mick Jagger, the lead singer of the Rolling Stones, and when he sat on a candle stick,” the candlestick was the Beatle’s Candlestick Park concert which was their last live concert (Jordan).

So Jack finally burned out the Beatles flame to make room for their own popularity. McLean though is still just watching this from the sides, while his hands are, “…clenched in fists of rage,” McLean sees the good that the music was starting to do (Beatles) slip away again. When Satan is laughing at the flames “climbing into the night,” could be symbolic of Jimi Hendrix burning his guitars on stage of the Monterey Pop Festival (Kulawiec). The last verse is the sad conclusion of the epic. The speed of the music slows down and again it is about people dying.

The “Woman who sang the blues,” was Janis Joplin and when McLean asks her for some happy news and she just smiled and turned away, that meant that she was, in his mind, one of the last hopes for rock and roll, but by turning away it meant, symbolically, that she died. The sacred store is the record company. McLean is going there to ask for a contract for this song, but they say, “…the music wouldn’t play,” the music won’t make it because it is too folksy or perhaps too long, as it would have been since only half of the eight and a half minute song would have fit on one side of a 45, which was the measure for record sales in the 60s.

The “children” screaming are the 4 students killed at the Kent State University protest. The “lovers” crying are the hippies lamenting the end of their era, and the “poets” dreaming are musicians like Simon and Garfunkel and McLean himself writing new songs (Jordan). But there is no hope for rock and roll because, “…the church bells all were broken. ” The three men McLean admired most, were “… The Father (Holly), Son (Valens), and the Holy Ghost (Richardson), were catching the train, which symbolized that they simply left (Kulawiec). The effects of this song were tremendous.

The song went to number one on the charts in 1972, about a year after its release. It was hard for it to get playing time on radio stations because it was so long and it wouldn’t fit on one side of a 45 record. A few years after the songs release, Roberta Flack recorded the song, “Killing Me Softly With His Song” which is a tribute to “American Pie”. Thankfully for McLean, folk rock was only a phase of American pop music. And although folk and rock continued to blend in the 70’s, like Neil Young, folk music as it was known in the early 60s became part of history rather than remaining a popular form (Layman 38).

Another wave of music that arrived was “acid rock”. Practiced by some groups like the Rolling Stones, Janis Joplin, The Greatful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, and Jefferson Airplane, this type of music would have most likely been abhorred by McLean (Gordon 379). In Bob Dylan’s “The Times they are a-Changin’,” Dylan says Come gather round people Wherever you roam And admit that the waters Around you have grown And accept it that soon You’ll be drenched to the bone. If your time to you Is worth savin’ Then you better start swimmin’ Or you’ll sink like a stone For the times they are a-changin’ (Haskins 92)

The sixties were definitely a time of change. Socially, politically and musically, the sixties had one of the greatest impacts of the twentieth century. From gains of black equality during the civil rights movement, to the thousands of Americans fleeing to Canada to escape the draft, people were doing what they never thought possible- Like landing on the Moon. But wherever they went, the music of the decade was around them. Whether it was doo-wop, or folk or acid rock, it was there. Maybe rock and roll did die along with Buddy Holly that cold February night, but the alternatives that came in its place came plentifully.

Even ska originated in the sixties. Although the Greatful Dead and the Jimi Hendrix Experience were not McLean’s definition of rock and roll, it served its purpose- to entertain the masses(Gordon 380). And in no other place was that more evident than in a little town call Woodstock, where half a million people gathered to listen to the best music around and albeit, to get high. So until there is no more music at all, not just in one genre but in all the different types, I will finally agree with McLean, and That’ll be the day that I die’.

The English ROCK MUSIC group The Beatles gave the 1960s its characteristic musical flavor and had a profound influence on the course of popular music, equaled by few performers. The guitarists John Winston Lennon, b. Oct. 9, 1940; James Paul McCartney, b. June 18, 1942; and George Harrison, b. Feb. 25, 1943; and the drummer Ringo Starr, b. Richard Starkey, July 7, 1940, were all born and raised in Liverpool. Lennon and McCartney had played together in a group called The Quarrymen. With Harrison, they formed their own group, The Silver Beatles, in 1959, and Starr joined them in 1962.

As The Beatles, they developed a local following in Liverpool clubs, and their first recordings, “Love Me Do” (1962) and “Please Please Me” (1963), quickly made them Britain’s top rock group. Their early music was influenced by the American rock singers Chuck BERRY and Elvis PRESLEY, but they infused a hackneyed musical form with freshness, vitality, and wit. The release of “I Want to Hold Your Hand” in 1964 marked the beginning of the phenomenon known as “Beatlemania” in the United States.

The Beatles’ first U. S. tour aroused a universal mob adulation. Their concerts were scenes of mass worship, and their records sold in the millions. Their first film, the innovative A Hard Day’s Night (1964), was received enthusiastically by a wide audience that included many who had never before listened to rock music. Composing their own material (Lennon and McCartney were the major creative forces), The Beatles established the precedent for other rock groups to play their own music.

Experimenting with new musical forms, they produced an extraordinary variety of songs: the childishly simple “Yellow Submarine”; the bitter social commentary of “Eleanor Rigby”; parodies of earlier pop styles; new electronic sounds; and compositions that were scored for cellos, violins, trumpets, and sitars, as well as for conventional guitars and drums. Some enthusiasts cite the albums Rubber Soul (1965) and Revolver (1966) as the apex of Beatle art, although Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967), perhaps the first rock album designed thematically as a single musical entity, is more generally considered their triumph.

The group disbanded in 1970, after the release of their final album, Let It Be, and during the 1970s pursued individual careers. On Dec. 8, 1980, John Lennon was fatally shot outside his Manhattan apartment by Mark Chapman, a 25-year-old former mental patient who, earlier that same day, had asked Lennon for his autograph. Lennon’s murder was universally mourned with an intensity of feeling usually inspired only by political and spiritual leaders.

Rap music is truly an American minority artist creation of which students need to be proud. Unfortunately, rap music is not perceived by many Americans as an art form, but as a fad which they hope will soon fade away. One of my intentions with my unit is to show that rap music is not a fad, but a musical art form that has been around for over 20 years in the United States. In fact, one can trace the history of rap back to the West African professional singers/storytellers known as Griots. However, it is not my intention to discuss in my unit the connection between the Griots and American rap music.

Although, I will assign my students the task of doing a brief report on the African Griots prior to beginning my unit to help illustrate to my students that rapping has a long and illustrious history. I strongly suggest that anyone using my unit do the same. My unit is intended for middle school or high school students who are studying American history. One can not study American rap music without studying what is known as the Hip Hop’ culture. Rap is an integral part of this subculture that did not evolve or exist in isolation from its other major components.

Thus, one of my unit objectives will be to not only discuss and study rap music but also the other major parts of this subculture. Hip Hop’ culture was also comprised of graffiti, break dancing, and the attitude and dress of the people who subscribed to the mores and traditions of this subculture. Another objective of my unit will be to examine the influence Jamaican music had on American rap music. Finally, I intend to examine some of the major American rap artists and their styles and the technology which played a major role in the evolution of rap music in the United States.

According to my research all sources seem to point to the Bronx in New York City as the origin for the Hip Hop’ culture. The first major component of this subculture I wish to explore is the graffiti aspect. Prior to discussing this aspect students need to know what conditions or events existed in the Bronx which fostered the development of the Hip Hop’ culture. Steven Haver in his book, “Hip Hop; the Illustrated History of Break Dancing, Rap Music and Graffiti,” states that there were three major events which took place in the Bronx which led to the birth of this subculture.

First, in 1959 Parks Commissioner Rober Moses began building an expressway through the heart of the Bronx. As a result, the middle class Italian, German, Irish, and Jewish neighborhoods disappeared overnight. In addition, businesses and factories relocated and left this borough. (I intend on having a map of New York City available to show my students where the Bronx is located at this point in my unit. I also plan on writing to the city of New York to inquire if a map exists which depicts the Bronx and the expressway construction back in 1959.

I would advise anyone using my unit to do the same. ) These exiting middle classes and businesses were replaced by poor black and Hispanic families. Accompanying these poor people were crime, drug addiction, and unemployment. The second major event which occurred once again under the direction of Parks Commissioner Robert Moses would siphon off a majority of what was left of the middle class in the Bronx. This event occurred in 1968 with the completion of a 15,382 unit co-op apartment complex on the northern edge of the Bronx near an expressway.

This project fostered and accelerated the Bronx middle class exodus from comfortable and well-kept apartments. As a result of the skyrocketing vacancy rates reputable landlords began selling out to professional slumlords. As a consequence of this action the Bronx deteriorated into a neighborhood with many unkept and vacant buildings. The Bronx in this deteriorating condition fell prey to the third major event which led to the direct development of the graffiti aspect of the Hip Hop’ culture. This event occurred in 1968 and coincided with Robert Moses’ second major project in the Bronx, the Co-Op City.

It should be noted that these last two events were not related. This third event involved a group of seven teenage boys who began terrorizing the vicinity around the Bronxdale Project on Bruckner Boulevard in the southeast Bronx. This may not seem important, but this group of teenagers laid the groundwork for a surge of street gang activity that would overwhelm the Bronx for the next six years. This group at first called itself the Savage Seven, but as more members joined, the group changed its name to the Black Spades. Overnight street gangs appeared on every corner of the Bronx.

It should be noted that Afrika Bambaataa (who from time to time in my unit will be referred to as Bam), who had a tremendous effect on rap music and the Hip Hop’ culture and who will be discussed at length in another section of my unit, was a member and leader of the Black Spades at one time. I bring this point up to illustrate that many rappers in the Hip Hop’ subculture were gang members at some time in their life. Gangs in New York reached their peak in 1973, so states Steven Hager in his book. The Black Spades, one of the largest streetgangs in New York, started to decline after this period.

According to Bam, some gangs got into drugs, others got wiped out by rival gangs, while others became so large that members did not want to be involved anymore. Bambaataa went on to say that girls got tired of the gang life and wanted to start to raise children. Times were changing, with the advent of the seventies people were getting into music and dancing and going to clubs. One legacy of the gangs which affected the Hip Hop’ culture was gang graffiti. Nobody really knows how graffiti evolved, but we know that it has been around for a long time.

It goes as far back as during World War II when someone wrote “Kilroy was here” in a startling number of places in our country and abroad. During the fifties streetgangs used graffiti for self-promotion, marking territorial boundaries and intimidation. However, around 1969 something changed and graffiti became a way of life with its own code of behavior, secret gathering places, slang, and esthetic standards for hundreds of New York City youths according to Steven Hager in his book. No one knows who started graffiti during this era but we do know who made it famous.

It was TAKI 183. TAKI 183 was a teenager from Greece named Demetrius. Demetrius was first influenced when he saw “Julio 204” written on a street. Julio was a teenager who lived on 204th Street. Demetrius took his nickname which was Taki and placed it front of the street on which he lived, 183rd Street. Thus, the tag name TAKI 183 was created. Demetrius proceeded to write his tag name in as many places as he could find. Graffiti writing was mainly written with spray paint until the invention of the magic markers in the sixties.

The magic marker helped the spread of graffiti writing because it was easier to conceal and at the same time left an indelible mark on just about any surface as did the spray paint. At first graffiti writing was limited to just artists writing their tag names. Some examples of some famous tag names in NYC other than TAKI 183 were SLY II, LEE 163d, PHASE 2, and TRACY 168. There was a large group of graffiti writers who attended DeWitt Clinton High School which was located across the street from a Transit Authority storage yard. The subway system was a main target of the early graffiti writers.

A common meeting place was a coffee shop near DeWitt on W. Mosholu Parkway. Whenever a bus pulled up outside, dozens of writers would descend upon it and write their tags on it. It is even evident today that some graffiti writers are still into writing their tag names by walking through any neighborhood in New York, or in fact by even walking through certain sections of New Haven. One activity I plan on having my students to do is to canvas the Fair Haven neighborhood looking for graffiti tag names written on buildings, sidewalks, etc.

It might be difficult for students to find out who these graffiti artists are in their neighborhood because it is part of the graffiti writers’ code not to reveal their real names except to other graffiti writers. Style is one of the most important aspects in graffiti writing. One could gain respect and recognition by getting one’s name around in large quantities, but it was more prestigious to create an original lettering style. One graffiti writer who did this in 1972 was an artist known as Super Kool. Super Kool replaced the narrow dispersion cap on his spray paint with a wider spraying cap found on a can of oven cleaner.

Graffiti writers who imitated the writing styles of others were known as “toys”. According to the graffiti artist PHASE II in Steven Hager’s book, stealing spray paint went along with the graffiti lifestyle. As you can see, as graffiti writing developed so did a code dictating behavior and style. As the graffiti aspect of the Hip Hop’ subculture developed, graffiti writing groups started to form. One of the most revered and earliest group to form was the Ex-Vandals. Another famous group was the Independent Writers who had Super Kool as a member.

Independent Writers indicated their affiliation with their group by writing INDS’ after their tags or signatures. Another graffiti writing group that deserves mentioning is a group called Wanted which was founded by TRACY 168 in 1972. Tracy was a streetwise white kid who was so tough that he was allowed to hang out with the Black Spades. What made the group the Wanted unusual was that they had a permanent clubhouse in the basement of an apartment complex on the corner of 166th Street and Woodycrest Avenue in the Bronx. At its peak in the seventies the Wanted had over seventy members.

Some other important graffiti writing groups which existed in NYC were the Magic, Inc. , the Three Yard Boys, the Vanguards, the Ebony Dukes, the Writers Corner 188, The Bad Artists, the Mad Bombers, the Death Squad, the Mission Graffiti, the Rebels, the Wild Style, the Six Yard Boys, and the Crazy 5. Membership was not exclusive, some graffiti artists belonged to several groups. Graffiti reached a new peak of activity during 1976 when whole subway car murals started to appear more frequently. The graffiti artist Lee Quinones became well known for his subway car murals.

The Transit Authority did not view these murals as works of art. In 1977 the Transit Authority established a giant subway car wash at its Coney Island train yard at annual cost of $400,000. This discouraged many graffiti artists who were into subway train murals. At this subway car wash the cars were sprayed with large amounts of petroleum hydroxide. After which, the graffiti murals and writings were buffed off. The graffiti artists referred to the spray as Orange Crush’ which they named after the defoliant Agent Orange’ which was used in Vietnam.

The smell from this spraying caused many people who came into contact with it to become nauseous. Some graffiti artists tried to counter this process known as buffing’ by using a better quality of spray paint which they covered with a clear enamel. This was not effective because the Transit Authority found out that in order to counter this new technique, all they had to do was run the trains through the buffing’ process several more times. Lee Quinones had a better solution to the buffing’ process. Quinones abandoned painting his murals on the subway trains and started painting his murals on handball courts.

It should be noted that handball court painting originated with TRACY 168 but it was Quinones who was known primarily for painting these courts. Quinones court murals mingled cartoon imagery with a strong moral sensibility. One mural pleaded for end to the arms race. Another mural portrayed a ten foot tall Howard the Duck emerging form a trash can with the inscription: “If art like this is a crime, let God forgive me. ” These graffiti muralists painted for the pure pleasure without ever attempting to earn money from their art.

One day, Fred Brathwaite, a graffiti artist himself, approached Quinones about painting murals for money. Quinones thought that this was a good idea and together with Brathwaite formed a graffiti mural group known as the Fab 5. The other members were Lee, Doc, and Slave. In the February 12, 1979 issue of the Village Voice in an article by Howard Smith this group advertised that they were available to paint murals at a cost of $5 per square foot.

Smith asked Brathwaite, ” Are you kidding? Most people I know in this city are trying to get rid of you spray can freaks! Brathwaite responded by telling Smith that graffiti art is the purest form of New York art ever created. Brathwaite went on to say in this article that it was obvious that the Fab 5 was influenced by such new wave artists as Warhol, Crumb, and Lichtenstein. Brathwaite said this knowing that graffiti muralists were not influenced by these new wave artists let along the fact that many graffiti artists were unaware of these new wave artists. Brathwaite made this statement because he realized the importance of connecting graffiti art with the hip downtown New York art scene, especially Andy Warhol.

Smith’s article attracted the attention of an Italian art dealer by the name of Claudio Bruni. Bruni contacted Brathwaite and invited the Fab 5 to submit five canvases for an art show in Rome. The five canvases sold for a thousand dollars apiece. There were three other contacts with the legitimate art world at this time that should be noted according to the author Steven Hager. The first involved Stephan Eins, owner of the gallery Fashion Moda. Eins cultivated a relationship with local graffiti artists because he was looking for a new direction to go in other than what was socially acceptable at the time.

Graffiti art fit the bill. The second contact involved Sam Esses, a Park Avenue art collector. When Esses found out that there was an European interest in graffiti art via his contact with Claudio Bruni, he decided to pursue this art form. Graffiti’s third contact with the legitimate art world was via Henry Chalfant, a sculptor who had been taking pictures of graffiti during this period. Chalfant approached Ivan Karp of O. K. Harris Gallery about exhibiting his graffiti photographs in his gallery, which Karp agreed to do. Slowly but surely graffiti art began to receive the recognition which it deserved.

In 1980 two key things happened that would have a lasting effect on graffiti art. The first occurred in June of 1980 with the Times Square Show. It was the first time new aspiring artists would come in contact with and display their art work with graffiti artists. One of the most notable contacts was that between Keith Haring and Fred Brathwaite (Brathwaite began to be known as Fab Five Freddy’. Our students might recognize this name as the name of the person who hosts Yo! MTV Raps! ‘). It was after this show that Keith Haring began to produce the graffiti art for which he became famous.

Haring would be walking along through the subways and would just stop and begin drawing with white chalk on the black tar paper used to cover unrenewed poster ads in the subway corridors. It wasn’t unusual for Haring’s work to go untouched in the subway system because his work was so admired. The other major event which was to occur in 1980 happened in December. Richard Goldstein, author of the first pro-graffiti story in a New York magazine in 1973, wrote an extensive article in the Village Voice on new graffiti writers.

This article was important for two reasons. First, Goldstein countered the myth that graffiti writers were an antisocial element. Goldstein felt that some of the graffiti artists who wrote on subway walls and tenement halls were bright individuals who were just expressing themselves in the environment in which they lived. Second and most important, Goldstein in this article was the first to link graffiti and rap music together. His assumption that graffiti and rap music originated from the same cultural conditions was a valid assumption.

In fact, some prominent graffiti writers went on to record rap records and play an influential role in the development of the rap music industry, for example PHASE 2, FUTURA, and Fab Five Freddy (Brathwaite). It was stated earlier in my unit that the Hip Hop’ subculture and rap music seemed to have originated in the United States in the Bronx. Before discussing rap music in the United States one must examine Jamaican music because it had a tremendous effect on American rap music. One style of Jamaican music that needs to be explored was known as toasting’.

Dick Hebdige in his book, “Cut N’ Mix” described Jamaican toasting’ as when the Jamaican disc jockies talked over the music they played. This style developed at dances in Jamaica known as “blues dances”. “Blues dances” were dances which took place in large halls or out in the open in the slum yards. “Blues dances” were a regular feature of ghetto life in Jamaica. At these dances black America R&B records were played. Jamaicans were introduced to these records by black American sailors stationed on the island and by American radio stations in and around Miami which played R&B records.

Some favorite R&B artists were Fats Domino, Amos Melburn, Louis Jordan, and Roy Brown. There was a great demand for the R&B type of music, but unfortunately there were no local Jamaican bands which could play this type of music as well as the black American artists. As a result, sound systems’ (comprised of DJs, roadies, engineers, bouncers) which were large mobile discotheques were set up to meet this need. The record playing systems of sound systems’ had to be large so people could hear the bass by which to dance according to Hebdige. The major player in the sound systems’ was the DJ.

Some notable Jamaican DJs were Duke Reid, Sir Coxsone, and Prince Buster. They were performers as well as DJs. For example, Duke Reid dressed in a long ermine cloak with a pair of Colt 45s in cowboy holsters with a cartridge belt strapped across his chest and a loaded shotgun over his shoulder. This outfit was topped off with a gilt crown on his head. Just as there were to be DJ battles (competition) in the Bronx, they would occur first in Jamaica with one DJ trying to out play another DJ. As in both battles’, here in the U. S. and Jamaica, the competition boiled down to who had the loudest system and the most original records and technique.

It was not uncommon for things to get out of hand and for fighting to erupt during these DJ battles at the Jamaican “blues dances” once the crowds got caught up in this frenzy. It was said that Duke Reid would bring the crowd under control by firing his shotgun in the air. At first Jamaican toasting began when DJs would toast’ over the music they played with simple slogans to encourage the dancers. Some of these simple slogans were “Work it, Work it” and “Move it up”. As toasting’ became more popular so did the lengths of the toasts. One of the first big “toasting” stars was a Jamaican named U Roy (his real name was Ewart Beckford).

Another technique which developed along side toasting’ was called dubs’. Dubbing’ was when the record engineers would cut back and forth between the vocal and instrumental tracks while adjusting the bass and the treble. This technique highlighted the Jamaican toasting’ even more. There are four areas which Jamaican toasting’ and American rap music have in common. First, both types of music relied on pre-recorded sounds. Second, both types of music relied on a strong beat by which they either rapped or toasted. American rap music relied on the strong beat of hard funk and Jamaican “toasting” relied on the beat from the Jamaican rhythms.

Third, in both styles the rapper or toaster spoke their lines in time with the rhythm taken from the records. Fourth, the content of the raps and toasts were similar in nature. For example, as there were boast raps, insult raps, news raps, message raps, nonsense raps, and party raps there also existed toasts that were similar in nature. At this point in my unit I will introduce my students to some music of some notable Jamaican toasters such as U Roy, Duke Reid, Sir Coxsone, and Prince Buster. In addition, I will ask my students to bring in some rap records which illustrate the different types of raps mentioned above.

Steven Hager in his book states that in 1967 a young Jamaican would immigrate to the Bronx bringing with him his knowledge of the Jamaican sound system’ scene and Jamaican toasting’ style. His name was Clive Campbell. He was known as Kool Herc in the Bronx. Campbell received the nickname Hercules while he was attending Alfred E. Smith High School in 1970 by a friend. His friend called him Hercules because of his physique. Clive was into weight lifting. Clive did not like the name Hercules so he shortened it to Herc. When Herc became a graffiti writer he took the tag name Kool Herc.

Kool Herc began to DJ in 1973 once he had amassed a great sound system. The Jamaican influence of having a large sound system was not lost on Herc. Herc realized that in order for large crowds to dance to his music they needed to hear the beat. Kool Herc seldom played an entire song. He knew which part of the record sent his audience into a frenzy. It was usually a 30 second “break” section in which the drums, bass, and rhythm guitar stripped the beat to its barest essence. Herc would buy two copies of the same record and play it over and over emphasizing the break section.

Herc used two turntables to accomplish this feat. This technique became known as “beats” or “break-beats”. As in graffiti, style was important and to be imitated if it was good. What was odd about Herc’s style was that he did not use headphones to locate the breaks on the other turntable as other DJs would do who would later use his style. As with the onset of Jamaican toasting’, Kool Herc also used simple phrases to encourage his dancers. But as the mixing in the “breaks” between the two turntables required more concentration, Herc became the first DJ to create MC-Dance team.

While Kool Herc performed at a club named the Hevalo, dancers to his music became known as break dancers’) There are several other DJs that made contributions to American rap music that need to be noted of whom my students may not be aware. Most students if you ask them are aware of a technique called scratching’, but are unaware of who started it. The technique called scratching’ was invented by a DJ called Theodor. Scratching’ involves the DJ spinning a record backwards and forward very fast while the needle is in the groove. A record when it is handled in this way can become a percussive instrument.

With the advent of the CD, this technique may become obsolete. Another important Bronx DJ was George Saddler who was known as Grandmaster Flash. Grandmaster Flash was an expert at punch phasing’. Punch phasing’ is when a DJ hits a particular break on one turntable while the record on the other turntable is still playing (and it does not necessarily have to be the same record as in the case of Herc’s “break-beat” style). Punch phasing’ is used to accentuate the beat and rhythm for the dancing crowd. Flash also used a beat box. This was a machine that produced an electronic beat.

As time went on some rap groups had members who were known as human beat boxes’ who produced sounds using their mouth, lips, and throats. This technique has faded in use. One group that was famous for the human beat box’ sound was known as the Fat Boys. There is one other early American DJ that deserves mentioning and that is Afrika Bambaataa. Bam ran a sound system at the Bronx River Community Center. As Bob Marley was a spokesperson for reggae, Bam was an ambassador and spokesperson for the Hip Hop’ culture. Afrika Bambaataa was the name of a famous 19th century Zulu chief, the name means Affectionate Leader.

Bam took his role as a leader in the Hip Hop’ culture seriously. In 1975 Bam founded an organization known as the Zulu Nation. The major function of this organization was to replace gang rumbles and drugs with rap, dance, and the Hip Hop’ style. There is a chapter of the Zulu Nation in New Haven. At this point in my unit I will see if it is possible to get a representative from this chapter to visit my classroom. At this point in my unit I would like to break away from talking about rap music and talk about break dancing’ which evolved around rap.

Break dancing’ was a style of dancing that grew up around rap music during rap’s early stages of development in the United States. Break dancing’ stretched the human body to its limit. It was a very dangerous form of dancing which I am glad to say has faded in its popularity due to the number of injuries incurred. Very few, if any students break dance’ today. Once I describe some of the common break dance moves it will be quite evident why this type of dancing declined. One popular move in break dancing’ was known as the Floor Lock’.

In this move dancers would support themselves on one hand while spinning their bodies around while kicking out their legs. Another popular move was the Handglide or Flow’. In this particular move the dancers would spin their bodies while balancing them on one elbow. The Backspin’ and the Windmill’ moves were beak moves that used the shoulder as a pivot. The Headspin’ move as its name indicates, required the dancer to spin using his head as the pivot point. Then there was the lofting’ move in which the dancers would dive in the air and land on their hands. Probably one of the most dangerous break moves was the Suicide’ move.

In this move the dancer falls forward with their hands to the side doing a complete flip landing flat on their back. If the dancer survived this move they would freeze into a posture indicating the completion of their routine. As with other aspects of the Hip Hop’ subculture, originality and style were of the upmost importance in break dancing’. It seemed that the more original the moves were in break dancing’ the more hazardous they were to the dancer’s health. According to Dick Hebdige in his book, “Cut N’ Mix,” break dancing’ would be replaced in the Hip Hop’ culture by dance moves known as the electric boogie’ moves.

Most of these moves would call for dancers to snap and twitch muscles in time to the music. Some of the most popular moves of this style of dance were the Tick, the Mannequin or Robot, the King Tut, the Wave, the Pop, the Float, and the Moonwalk which was made famous by the great Michael Jackson. In fact, many of Michael’s dance moves were this style of dancing. Our students may still be familiar with some of these electric boogie’ moves and with a little encouragement they might be willing to demonstrate some of them.

Michael in his recent famous interview with Oprah Winfrey gave credit to the Moonwalk and several of his moves to dancers he observed in clubs and on the streets. These moves had originated from dancers into the Hip Hop’ culture. The electric boogie’ moves according to Hebdige were replaced in 1982 by a type of dancing known as free style’ in which dancers would improvise their own moves. As I was researching my unit I asked several middle and high school students what new dance was popular now and their response was free style’. They said, “Mr.

Rhodes, we just do whatever we feel like doing. ” This may be the case, but if one observes a middle school or high school dance one can not but help to notice that some of the dance moves seem very similar in nature. I believe that this can be explained by the fact that even though style and originality have always been important factors in the Hip Hop’ culture so has imitation. When one examines the dress of the Hip Hop’ culture it is quite evident that one major factor affecting the dress of this subculture has been their dances.

Whether the dancer was doing break’ moves, electric boogie’ moves, or free style’ moves loose fitting clothing was a prerequisite in order to do these moves. Also, comfortable shoes would be needed, and sneakers seem to have filled this need. One only needs to look at what are students love to wear to see the validity in the statements concerning dress made above. A question may arise about why young male students wear their pants hanging down by their hips. This style did not result from the dance styles of the Hip Hop’ culture but from a more dubious source, one that many of these young male students are completely unaware of.

This style originated in the prisons. Unfortunately, there is a high percentage of young minorities that are incarcerated at some point in their life. Once behind these locked doors prison officials usually remove inmates’ belts for obvious reasons. As a consequence, inmates would walk around with their pants around their hips. Once these young inmates were released and returned to their old neighborhoods, they brought with them this style of wearing their pants around their hips. This style became popular with young males without their realizing they were emulating a style that had originated in prison.

I by no means am implying that if these young males had known the origin of this style that this style would not have become so popular. If one talks to any one who has been incarcerated they will substantiate the fact that this style has been in prisons for many years. At this point in my unit I would like to examine the rap music industry today. Even though rap is proportionally more popular among blacks, its primary audience is white and lives in the suburbs according to David Samuels in his article in the November 11, 1991 issue of “The New Republic.

The article was titled “The Rap on Rap: the Black Music’ that Isn’t Either”. Samuels attempts to substantiate this fact by revealing that the number one selling record in 1991 according to Billboard Magazine was Niggaz4life, a celebration of gang rape and other violence by the group N. W. A. (Niggers With Attitude). Billboard Magazine in the summer of 1991 started to use Soundscam’, a much more accurate method of counting record sells by scanning the bar codes of records sold at the cash register instead of relying on big-city record stores to determine the most popular record.

Samuels went on to state that the more rappers were packaged as violent black criminals the bigger the white audience became. I do not think any one can account for the popularity of rap to a white audience no more than one could account for the popularity of the black entertainment in the speakeasies’ to the white audiences of the late 1920s and 1930s. Other than the attraction which exists for something that is taboo or forbidden by one’s social group. The first rap record to make it big was “Rapper’s Delight” released by the Sugar Hill Gang on Syliva and Joey Robinson’s Sugar Hill label.

Mr. David in his article said that “Rapper’s Delight” (a nonsense rap), “White Lines” (a rap with an anti-drug theme), and “The Message” (about ghetto life in the black neighborhood) were designed to sell records to whites and had a less favorable reaction in the streets where rap was created according to Russell Simmons, president of Def Jam Records. Simmons recalls an incident when Junebug, a famous DJ of the time, was playing “The Message” and Ronnie DJ put a pistol to his head and said, Take that record off and break it or I’ll blow your f-g head off.

The whole club stopped until he broke the record and put it in the garbage. This attitude may have been true for certain rappers but I have my doubts if this attitude was a true reflection of how a majority of African-Americans felt who liked rap music. I base my assumption on the fact that when I used to frequent clubs, two of the most requested records were “Rapper’s Delight” and “The Message”. (These clubs were predominately attended by blacks. ) Run-D. M. C. was the first black rap group to break through to a mass white audience with their albums, Run-D. M. C and King of Rock.

These albums led the way that rap would travel into the musical mainstream. Even though Run-D. M. C. dressed as if they came right off the street corner, this was not the case. Run and D. M. C came from middle class families, they were never deprived of anything and they never ran with a gang. One could never tell this by their dress or from the raps they made. Run-D. M. C. records were produced under the Def Jam label which had as one of its founders a Jewish punk rocker named Rick Rubin. Russell Simmons, Run’s brother, was t

Harpsichord (Italian cembalo; French clavecin), stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are plucked to produce sound. It was developed in Europe in the 14th or 15th century and was widely used from the 16th to the early 19th century, when it was superseded by the piano. In the 20th century the harpsichord was revived for performance of music of the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, as well as for new compositions. The incisive sound quality of the plucked metal strings adds clarity to melodic lines.

The harpsichord is particularly effective in performing contrapuntal musicthat is, music that consists of two or more melodies played at the same time, such as that of the German composer Johann Sebastian Bach. Construction and Mechanism The harpsichord usually has a wing-shaped body, or case, like a grand piano; however, its proportions are narrower and longer, and the case and its inner bracing are normally lighter. Harpsichords have also been built in other shapes. These include the virginal, or virginals, a small oblong instrument; the spinet, a small polygonal harpsichord; and the less common clavicytherium, an upright harpsichord.

From the 16th to 19th century the terms spinet and virginal were often used interchangeably, and in England during that era any harpsichord was called a virginal. Harpsichords of any shape have the same plucking mechanism. For each string a small piece of material, or plectrum, is set in a thin slip of wood, or jack, which rests internally on the far end of the key. When the front of the key is depressed, the far end rises, and the plectrum plucks the string. The jack is pivoted so that, when the key returns to rest position, the plectrum slides by without striking the string.

Since the volume and tone of the sound produced by the plucking mechanism remain constant regardless of the forcefulness of the keystroke, various methods have been developed to alter the harpsichord’s sound. Many harpsichords have two strings for each key, with a row of jacks for each set of strings. Stops, or registers, allow the player to move unwanted sets of jacks slightly out of reach of the strings, thus making possible different volumes and combinations of tone colors. One set of strings may sound an octave above normal pitch.

Some 18th-century German harpsichords had a set of strings sounding an octave below normal pitch. Harpsichords often have two keyboards, or manuals, which can usually be coupled or used separately, allowing further variations of tone color and volume. A typical two-manual harpsichord of the 18th century had strings at normal and octave-high pitch playable on the lower manual, strings at normal pitch controlled by the upper manual, and a coupling mechanism. Early History The earliest school of harpsichord building developed in Italy in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Italian harpsichords differed from others in that they normally were made of extremely thin wood and then placed in a stronger outer case of the same shape. A second important school of building developed in the 16th and 17th centuries in Flanders, centered around the influential Ruckers family of builders. These schools gave way in the 18th century to distinctive styles of building that developed in France (the Blachet family), Germany (the Hass family), and England (Jacob Kirkman).

Harpsichords of the different national schools varied in details of their proportions and construction, resulting in slight, although characteristic differences in tone color. Modern Developments In the 20th century, two broad approaches to harpsichord building emerged. The first utilized recent principles of construction, such as are found in present-day pianos. Stimulated by the Polish harpsichordist Wanda Landowska, this style was exemplified by the French piano firms of Pleyel and rard.

Their harpsichords relied on heavy strings under high tension in a heavily braced case. Many 20th-century harpsichord works were written for such instruments. Other builders sought to relearn historical principles of proportion and construction in an effort to duplicate the sound of historical instruments. Stimulated by the German-English builder Arnold Dolmetsch and exemplified by Martin Skowroneck, a German, this school relied on light stringing in a highly resonant case. American builders in this style include William Hyman, Frank Hubbard, and William Dowd.

American instrument maker John Challis employed a different, more modern approach to construction of the instrument. Though he based the decorative scheme of his designs on Dolmetsch’s works, Challis experimented with new techniques and materials, such as metal and plastic, to produce harpsichords that were better adapted to the extreme climate changes in North America and maintained a rich tone quality. Organ, keyboard musical instrument in which compressed air vibrates within tuned pipes to produce sound.

An organ consists of flue pipes and/or reed pipes, an air supply, and the keys and other controls. Pipes Flue pipes are made of metal or wood, and they work much like whistles. Air enters at the foot of the pipe, moves as a sheet against a narrow slit or flue, and begins to vibrate as it passes across a sharp lip set in the pipe above the flue. This initial vibration causes all the air in the pipe to vibrate, producing a musical tone. The pitch of the tone depends on the length of the pipe; the shape and material of the pipe influence the color or quality of the tone.

Some flue pipes are closed at the top; stopped pipes produce pitches an octave lower than open pipes of the same length. In reed pipes, the reed and the metal trough against which it beats (called a shallot) are encased in a pipe into which air is released from the air supply. The incoming air causes the curved end of the reed to beat against the shallot and set the surrounding air into vibration. The musical pitch produced is low for long reeds, high for short reeds. The shallot is connected to a pipelike resonator, the shape of which affects the color of the sound.

A set of pipes all having the same tone quality is called a rank. The most characteristic organ sound is produced by metal flue pipes called diapasons or principals; pipes of this kind form the central core of classic organ sound. Because the lowest note on most organs (two octaves below middle C) is produced by an open diapason pipe about 8 ft long, ranks of pipes at normal pitch are spoken of as 8-ft ranks. Ranks sounding an octave lower than normal are called 16-ft ranks, and those sounding an octave higher, 4-ft ranks.

Mutations are ranks of pipes sounding at pitches other than octaves above normal pitch, such as an octave and a fifth above normal (for example, two G’s above a C). Mixtures are ranks of pipes of different pitches operated as a single unit (by a single stop). Mixtures often contain ranks sounding several octaves above 8-ft pitch as well as mutation ranks. The high pitches of mutations and mixtures blend together to produce the incisive, bright quality that is associated with organ sound.

On large organs the ranks are grouped together into several divisions, each controlled by a separate keyboard, or manual, and having one or more wind chests, airtight boxes that act as air reservoirs. The main division is called the Great Organ; the other most common divisions are the Choir Organ, the Swell Organ, and the Pedal Organ. The pipes of the Swell Organ are enclosed in a swell box, a chamber having a slat-covered opening similar to a venetian blind. The slats can be opened and closed by a pedal lever, allowing gradual changes in volume.

Air Supply The air for the pipes is supplied from a wind chest, on which the pipes are mounted. Air, which is produced by bellows or by an electrical blower, enters the wind chest at a constant pressure. Controls When a key is depressed, small valves open to allow air from the wind chest to enter the pipes and cause them to sound. A stop mechanism allows any rank of pipes to be prevented from sounding. The ranks are controlled by knobs or switches (called stops) set near the keyboard. By extension, the ranks of pipes they control are sometimes called stops.

Until the 19th century the connections linking the keys and pipe valvesincluding mechanisms to couple keyboards so that ranks of pipes may be multiply controlledwere achieved mechanically by a system of levers and cranks connected by strips of wood called trackers and stickers. Builders in the 19th century began to devise electrical and pneumatic actions to make the key-to-valve and stop connections. Because many organists believe these actions to be less responsive and sensitive than direct mechanical linkages, in the 20th century organs were again being built with the traditional tracker action.

The keyboards, wind chest, and pipes of small organs are contained in one unit. In large organs the keyboards and other controls are built in a separate unit called the console. Many organ consoles have a number of controls, called pistons, which allow the organist to bring into play at one stroke a combination of several ranks or stops. Each organ is unique in that it must suit the acoustics and architecture of the room that houses it.

The room itself has an intimate acoustic relation to the organ, profoundly influencing the sound of the organ by the amount of reverberation it allows. History The earliest organ, the hydraulis, was developed by the Greek inventor Ctesibius (flourished 3rd century BC). It utilized a large chamber partly filled with water. The wide mouth of a funnel-like extension from the wind chest was set in the top of the water; as air pressure in the wind chest fell, water rose in the funnel and compressed the air, thus keeping the air pressure constant.

The hydraulis was used for public entertainments in ancient Rome and Byzantium. Bellows-type organs were also known to the ancient world. This was the organ that reappeared in Europe in the 8th and 9th centuries, imported from Byzantium and from Arabs who had discovered ancient Greek treatises. Although some ancient organs had a stop mechanism, this device was forgotten, and on early medieval organs all ranks sounded at once, creating a formidable effect.

By the 15th century the stop mechanism had been reinvented, pedal keyboards came into common use, and reed stops (not found on ancient organs) were developed. Smaller organs had also become common: the portative organ, carried by a strap around the player’s neck, which had only one rank of pipes and was supplied with wind by a small bellows pumped by the player; the positive organ, self-contained and portable; and the regal, a small instrument with one rank of nasal-sounding reed pipes.

Between 1500 and 1800, various national styles of organ building developed, each distinguished by characteristic-sounding ranks. German organs of the 17th and 18th centuries were particularly outstanding, and it was for such organs that the music of Johann Sebastian Bach was written. Organ builders in the 19th century devoted much effort to developing pipes that imitated the sound of orchestral instruments. About the same time, the swell box came into use.

These innovations, which the best builders integrated with the traditional features of earlier organs, stimulated the organ works of such composers as the Hungarian Franz Liszt, the Belgian Csar Franck, the German Max Reger, and, in the 20th century, the French composer Olivier Messiaen. Many 19th-century organs, however, concentrated principally on stops imitating the orchestra and were used for music that was basically orchestral in origin or conception. In the 20th century a movement occurred to revive 18th-century instruments, often incorporating the best of the 19th-century innovations.

Electronic Organs Electronic and electric organs, developed in the 20th century, are not organs in the strict sense, for they do not produce sound by air vibrating in a pipe; rather, they are instruments in their own right. One kind, invented in 1935 by an American, Laurens Hammond, utilizes electrical circuits and amplifiers to produce and enlarge the sound. Another kind uses electronic devices such as vacuum tubes. Although such instruments are often designed to imitate the tone qualities of pipe organs, they are frequently criticized for a pinched or artificial-seeming sound.

Electronic organs were widely used in the rock bands of the 1960s and after. In such bands, which use extensive electrical sound amplification and manipulation, the distinctive qualities of electronic-organ sound are exploited for their own sake. Reed Organs Keyboard instruments in which the wind supply is directed toward free metal reeds like those of a harmonica or accordion are called reed organs. They include the melodeon, developed in the United States about 1825, and the harmonium, developed in Germany about 1810.

To trace the origins of todays house music, one needs to time travel back to the 80s, following a bizarre trail that spans the Atlantic ocean, hits the Mediterranean dance floors of Ibiza, sneak into the backdoors of New Yorks recording studios, and have V. I. P. passes to the clubs of Chicago and London. Since we cant deliver any of that, heres a brief retelling of the birth of modern dance music. House musics earliest roots are found in the musical hotspots of Chicago around 1985. Transplanted New York DJ Frankie Knuckles had a regular gig at a club called The Warehouse.

Knuckles would tinker with soul and disco tunes by laying down a drum machine-generated 4/4 beat on top of them. The clubbers loved this new sound and house music, named for the club, was born. More DJs took to the tables and the studios, and soon there was an abundance of new house tracks penetrating both the clubs and airwaves of Chicago. The new sound found its way to the East Coast, where DJs in Philly and New York spun their own interpretations of classic dance tunes with a house beat on top.

But the biggest fans of the Chicago sound werent in the U. S. all Simultaneously, pirate radio in Britain took to the Chicago sounds. Incidentally, at the time pirate stations were the only ones playing black music of any kind in the U. K. Before long, house was the new soundtrack of the underground clubs of London. The first house tune to break the underground ceiling was Farley Jackmaster Funks cover of Isaac Hayes Love Cant Turn Around, which reached the national charts in September 1986.

The UK couldnt seem to get enough. Soon, commercial success beckoned several of the early artists. Steve Silk Hurley was the first to reach the ultimate accolade, the UK No. with Jack Your Body in January 1987. This success paved the way for a house-flavored single to hit internationally.

The collaboration of British artists Colourbox and A. R. Kane, known as M/A/R/R/S, hit the big time with Pump up the Volume. Considered lightweight by many house purists, the track nonetheless took over dance floors worldwide and delivered house beats to the planets masses for the first time. But many fans werent receptive of houses sudden commercial success, and they went looking for a sound to drive it back underground.

One inspiration for a house mutation came in the form of the Roland TB 303 synthesizer. One of the earliest instigators of this new sound was Britains DJ Pierre, whose work with the Roland dated back to 1985. Pierre cut drums on top of the 303s bassline, and gave the results to a DJ working at Chicagos Music Box club named Ron Hardy. Hardy renamed it Acid Trax (after a well-fabled incident in which the clubs water supply was dosed with LSD) and played it incessantly. It barely made a ripple outside Chicago in 1986, but Acid Trax was a sign of things to come.

Acid, as it came to be known, was a hybrid of house with its roots on both sides of the Atlantic, and would define a new generation of dance music. Acid House parties sprang up over the U. K. , scaring parents senseless with its double-entendre. Of course, the drug inferences and the trademark t-shirt symbol, a smiley face with a bullethole in the forehead, increased acid musics popularity with the kids, and the music world took note. Mainstream pop artists began exhibiting acid influence in their records, and more crossovers from the underground appeared on the charts.

Chicagos house masterminds were busier than ever finding new grooves to lay down. College buddies Kevin Saunderson, Juan Atkins, and Derrick May all produced records both influential and resonating (Mays The Dance was sampled countless times for years to come) throughout the Windy City. Meanwhile, two other producers, Eddie Fowlkes and Blake Baxter fused Eurobeats with the funk of George Clinton. This was a creation they called techno. 1988 saw house branching out even more, as in the eclectic marriage of house beats with quasi-industrial music.

Known as the Balearic movement, it found an audience in the Mediterranean clubs of Ibiza, and was championed by such DJs as Paul Oakenfold, Nicky Holloway, Johnny Walker, and Danny Rampling. Balearic inspired a few imitators, but in the end it was really just an extension of the existing form. Back in Chicago, deep house was taking shape as the new underground. The first true house LPs, Fingers Incs Another Side and Liz Torres with Master C & Js Cant Get Enough – both originally released in England, were rooted in the deep house brewing in Chicago.

At the same time, Marshall Jefferson had several club hits with Ten Citys Devotion and Ce Ce Rogers Someday. Realizing he was hot, Jefferson forsook Chicago for New York and signed to Atlantic Records as Ten City. From this point on, house had touring and recording acts, making videos and other promotional appearances formally saved for the mainstream pop artists. While rap had been put to house beats in Chicago from the word go, New Yorks artists started developing this a bit more precisely in the closing hours of the 90s.

Developing talent such as Todd Terry, the East Coast house began using more samples and rap to give it an urban edge. While this new faze introduced house to the Hispanic communities in the States, back in the UK it was treated like a revolution by the trend-loving music press. Also in New York, veteran DJ Tony Humphries started replacing the R&B influence into the music, mostly in the form of powerful soul singing. Good examples of this development are Adevas take on Aretha Franklins Respect and Chanelles One Man and Musical Freedom.

Following these leads were NY-based producers Clivilles and Cole, whose mix of Natalie Coles Pink Cadillac thrust them into the mainstream spotlight, which they would dominate years later as C&C Music Factory. By 1989, the acid house scene had morphed into the rave scene. U. K. promoters would hold events in the countryside outside of London to contain the thousands of people now attending, while extending the hours throughout the night.

The allure of big money and a semi-captive audience hindered the musics spirit a bit, but the energy of the raves nurtured its growing audience. 89 also was the year a few of houses original players got their dues. DJ Pierres spinning partner Lil Louis released French Kiss, a slower, sensual track that landed him #2 in the U. K. and a record deal in the States. And the man who started it all, Frankie Knuckles, teamed with fellow Chicago veteran Robert Owens on Tears, one of the seminal house tracks. While it did not chart well, the power of the track landed Knuckles work with powerhouses Diana Ross and both Michael and Janet Jackson.

Knuckles would also go on to be the first winner of the Remix of the Year Grammy in 1997. The influence of the early days is still very present. Many of the early producers and artists still pump out the house spinning in clubs today, while mainstream artists such as Madonna keep the beats on the airwaves. The creativity during the genesis of house literally resurrected dance music after the disco backlash of the early 80s. We have some fantastically talented people on both sides of the Atlantic to thank for that.

Music is central to my life. Without music, the world would be naked, cold, and quiet. Music can set the rhythm for a long day of work, the mood for a date, for a party, for your whole life. It can wrap you in a blanket of comfort when you are lonely, or inspire you when you are down. Music is a vehicle for expressing love, telling a story, or showing happiness. My love for music has grown immensely throughout the past few years and continues to grow without bounds. Playing musical instruments, such as the piano and guitar, has deepened my appreciation for the sounds I hear when I listen to music.

From personal experience playing in concerts and writing my own songs, I have captured the views of both sides of music’s artistic prism: creation and presentation. Creation, I have learned, can be a tremendously tedious task. It involves much more than perseverance and determination. Creating music requires the harmonious articulation of one’s feelings and thoughts through instrumental or vocal sounds. There is no one who accomplishes the feat more cleverly than Beck. Beck Hansen, known as Beck, is a musical genius who performs an unparalleled, funky, and melodic music style.

At the age of 29, he has produced six full albums and will soon be releasing his seventh. Beck has become an inspirational icon among rising musicians and has defied the classification system of musical genres. Much disagreement has arisen over what kind of music it is that Beck performs, but the resistance to classification is what makes it unique. He merges coinciding genres, such as psychedelic hip-hop, folk, rap, and country, to define his own genre. Beck’s dynamic music adjusts to the latest musical trends and builds off of talent from past generations.

Like a catfish feeding on the bottom of a lake, Beck’s music feeds off of the styles of other successful musician, such as Bob Dylan and The Beastie Boys. However, this does not mean that Beck is a copycat artist. It means that his music is based on a collaboration of the sounds of the world, and this makes his music very diversified. Beck is one of the most original musicians of all time, and to classify him as anything but a genius would be even more absurd than Beck himself.

He is always “courting cultural disaster, and part of his genius is that he’s always on the verge of making a complete ass of himself”(Rotundi). Beck Hansen was born in 1970 in Los Angeles . Twenty-nine years later he has become one of the most revered musicians of the ’90s. The harsh street life of Los Angeles made Beck realize the importance of what most people take for granted, such as the voluptuous emotions we feel regardless of our social status. In the song, “Lord only knows,” from the album, O’Delay, Beck expresses his view of how life should be lived, appreciatively.

The beginning of the song reads: You only got one finger left And it’s pointing at the door And you’re taking for granted What the Lords laid on the floor Beck’s family was very supportive of him while he explored his musical talent during his teen years. They provided him with a free spirited, “semi-bohemian environment” that promoted an artistic and creative lifestyle (Hindin). His mother, Bibbie Hansen, was in one of Andy Warhol’s clique of “Superstars” when she was only 13, and spent her life as a musician and actress.

Beck’s father, David Campell, taught Beck a great deal about music. David Campell was a well-known street musician who wrote string arrangements for esteemed bands, including Aerosmith. Perhaps the most highly influential member of his family, however, was Al Hansen, Beck’s grandfather. He was a postmodern artist who took part in the founding the FluXus movement, the most radical art movement of the 1960s (Hindin). In 1998, Beck and his grandfather worked together to create a visual art exhibit called “Playing with Matches.

This exhibit focused on artwork created from garbage, such as cigarette-butt sculptures and Hershey wrapper collages. Working with “junk” is Beck’s greatest talent. Beck can be seen as an Alchemist who transforms junk into art, or as he says in the song, “We live again,” turn “shit to gold. ” His methods of creating art, visual and audible, may be absurd, but they are honest and innovative and that is what makes it genius. Beck’s frustrations with conforming to the rigid structure of high school caused him to drop out by 9th grade.

After his separation from a conformist learning environment, Beck took up a succession of clerical level jobs. Unfortunately, he found these jobs to be too structured as well, and was fired for not following dress codes. Fortunately, he found condolence with a guitar, at age 16. He then began to study musicians, including famous blues and folk legends Woody Guthrie and Mississippi John Hart (Peabody). His love for the guitar soon led him to playing at local bars and parties. By 1994, Beck had released his first album, Mellow Gold, which included his hit song, “Loser.

This slacker anthem hit appealed to the apathetic views of Generation-X’ers and basked Beck in airtime on radio stations and MTV elevating him to a new level: mainstream artist. This is when I first took notice of Beck’s talent. I found his lyrics and music style to be interestingly absurd and different from all of the other bands of the time. Despite Beck’s newfound stardom gained from his popular album, Mellow Gold, he did not turn into a showbiz sellout, and create music for the sole purpose of making money.

The next two albums, One Foot in the Grave and O’Delay, proved to the world that Beck was not a one-hit wonder. In fact, O’Delay was Grammy award winning platinum album. It was an album of full of alchemy; turning hackneyed sampling styles, tired rap beats, and folk guitar styles into fresh, new-fangled sounding music, flooded with poetic imagery about seizing life while you can and working with what you have. Clearly, Beck Hansen is a musical mastermind. His postmodern artistic talent for turning “shit into gold” has made him a success.

It will be exciting to see what Beck has done next in his subsequent album, Midnite Vultures, which is expected to come out sometime in late November. According to a review of Beck’s new album in CMJ, a music review magazine, “The one overriding element of this record is the embracing of sexuality in all its colors, from fuchsia to chromium (Rotondi). ” To fully understand Beck and his absurdity you must willingly listen to his lyrics with an open mind, and then, I hope, you will begin to appreciate the genius that lies behind the cherubic, adolescent face of Beck.

Imagine a world in which you are able to acquire any piece of knowledge or work of art without paying for it; a world where information is freely given, theatrical performances and music are the property of no one and everyone. This world is not much different than what the internet is like today, but all is confined, in a way, to its respective worldthe internet world and the real world. A piece of writing printed out on eight and a half by eleven sheets of paper is nothing like a book.

By no means does a downloaded divx avi movie even come close to the quality of a DVD, and likewise, the quality of an mp3 converted to CD audio and burned to a disc does not compare with that of a legitimate recording. The RIAA, which represents the major recording companies, would have you believe that the sharing of music online is destroying the music industry (The Internet Debacle), yet there are several artists including Janis Ian, Limp Bizkit, Offspring, and Public Enemy who see it a different way.

Indeed, music distributed within the internet community allows people to sample available music in order for them to decide what to purchase in the real world. First Id like to look at the legality of downloading copyrighted music. Obviously it is not legal as the courts have shut down Napster for this very reason. Congressman Steve Rothman of New Jersey believes there is no middle ground in the issue saying that it is pure and simple theft (Costs 31). If you take something from someone who wishes you not to, youve stolen it (Clay).

Thats easy enough, but should the music industry support free music on the internet instead of prohibiting it among its artists? The RIAA claims that it is acting in the artists best interest when it lobbies Congress to help put an end to the downloading of copyrighted music (Its All about the Music). Singer-songwriter Janis Ian thoroughly disagrees and asserts that if a music industry executive claims I should agree with their agenda because it will make me more money, I put my hand on my walletand check it after they leave just to make sure nothings missing (The Internet Debacle).

The contract that is given to an artist in no way looks after his or her best interest but rather the wellbeing of the label. Of the twenty-five or more albums Ian has created with major labels, she has never received a royalty check that did not show that she owed them money (The Internet Debacle). The normal contract for an artist lasts for seven albums with no specified end date, and the label can deem an album-in-progress unacceptable, trash the album, and extend the length of the contract an additional record to make up for the undesired one (The Internet Debacle).

The contract also limits a singer-songwriter to seventy-five percent of the government mandated minimum publishing royalty amount of 7. 1 cents on the dollar (Major Label 27). When a record goes out of print, the artist does not get the rights to it, nor are they allowed to re-record the songs with another label until many years after the end of the contract (The Internet Debacle). All of this shows that if the artists best interests were really at the heart of the RIAA or its members, the contracts would not be so detrimental to the artist by limiting the profitability of his or her works.

According to Hilary Rosen, head of the RIAA, more than 1. 8 billion songs were illegally download on a single peer-to-peer network system in one month (The Internet Debacle). Did this really hurt sales? There is no way of telling how many of those people were trying out new artists and may have ended up purchasing an album due to their experience. Many of the people would not have bought the CD even if the songs were not available for free.

Numerous people may even own the record but do not have the know-how to rip a track off of their CD in order for them to play it on their computer without needing to change out CDs for each new selection of music. Several of them were probably looking for music that is out of print or not available in their area. Some of these may not have been technically legal downloads, but countless numbers also did not result in a decrease in sales. In some cases, these downloads may have even caused sales to increase.

Another argument of the RIAA is that CD-R sales have gone up tremendously and if only half were used to copy a music CD, the number of CDs copied would equal that of the CDs bought (The Internet Debacle). This is assuming that half of the CD-R sales go to copying music, which is hardly the case. Many people make weekly backups of their data and may also make copies of their legally purchased music for use in different areas of their house and in their car (The Internet Debacle). I myself have a CD burner and have purchased 50 CD-Rs, most of which sit inside their container.

Surprisingly enough, none of them has gone for the use of copying music, though there was one failed attempt at replicating a Playstation game. What is the reason that people go online to download music? Is it because they are selfish and just dont want to pay for the efforts of others? Many people download music to find songs that are not commercially available or for obtaining music from a great variety of artists (Market Data 3). I have downloaded songs from an album of one of the artists that I regularly listen to in order to test its quality.

One of my friends said that their latest record wasnt any good, so before I took his word on it, I downloaded two or three of the songs from the album to see if I liked it for myself. It turns out that I did and I ended up buying it. I imagine others have had similar experiences and whatever the outcome, it was best for the consumer. As I am writing this, I am listening to a couple CDs worth of Mp3. coms 103 of the Best Songs Youve Never Heard, which has a variety of genres, artists, and songs that I have truly never heard of.

Now, I havent rushed out to get the latest Insecto album just because I heard their song Hippie Chick, but it was a very good song. I am now more likely to go to their website and see what they sell, possibly listen to more of their songs, and maybe even buy an album. I have never heard of them before now, and none of their music is played over the radio. There is very little chance I would have even known their band existed if they hadnt let Mp3. com put one of their songs on this CD that was sent to me at no charge whatsoever.

There are also many other songs by this artist available for free on the Mp3. com website as there are for countless other bands that few know exist. Exposure is very beneficial for artists; it allows them to be known, which aids in the sale of their music. Ian spends many hours each week keeping her website up to date and writing articles in order to gain more exposure (The Internet Debacle). That is also the reason she now offers free downloads of some of her music that has no associated label (The Internet Debacle).

The exposure she receives facilitates the selling of her music. She explains, every time we make a few songs available on my website, sales of all the CDs go up. A lot (The Internet Debacle). Chuck D. of Public Enemy foresees, You will have more music on the outside of the industry than on the inside, so fans will find a lot more music. There will be more money in the pot than ever before and there will be millions of hands in it. Artists are going to have to work a lot harder and not expect things to fall in their lap. (qtd. in Costs 92)

Free exposure works for book writers in the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association. Many of the nominations for the Hugo and Nebula Awards are put on the internet for any and all to read. Members have access to even more woks and there are several links to writers websites who have online stories available (The Internet Debacle). Having all this available for free allows those who would not otherwise buy one of these books the ability to read through the works of several writers. This gives readers an idea of whose books they will enjoy so that they can purchase accordingly.

This works very well for these authors; I see no reason why it shouldnt work as pleasantly for musicians. Instead of welcoming this means of unbridled exposure, the music industry and several of its artists have attempted to destroy it through legislation and copy protection. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, DMCA, gives unprecedented rights to copyright owners. Representative Rick Boucher of Virginia thinks this will lead to a pay-per-use policy as opposed to the current fair use legislation (97).

The DMCA also makes it a criminal offense to circumvent technological protection measuresfor any reason (Boucher 97-98). This means that you would not be able to legally make backup copies of your material or copy anything for other common fair use practices. Boucher makes it clear that fair use laws are is intended to keep intellectual property regulations in check and to keep copyright owners from having a monopolistic control of their material (96).

Law professor David G. Post exclaims that if Metallica wants to lock up its performance in completely unbreakable cryptographic envelopes, and charge me outrageous prices to access them, I say: more power to them, but he also believes that the world of unprotected information will grow much more luxuriantly than its counterpart (119). What should be done about all this? What can the music industry do to embrace this new technology of being able to distribute music easily and inexpensively over the internet?

Representative Boucher feels that most Americans are willing to pay a reasonable fee if they can get something that meets their legitimate expectation of its being a permanent download and something that is portable and not tethered (103). He believes that the music industry should create a service that gives consumers these benefits. Instead, it is attempting to control the distribution and format with its current online services (Boucher 103). These services require a monthly fee to continue to play downloaded music, but the songs cannot be transferred to other devices.

This means that music downloaded in this manner could not be played away from the computer. The popularity of the portable mp3 player shows the fact that people want to listen to music in places other than just in front of their computer screen. Ian proposes a slightly different approach to the same general idea. She believes that an experiment should be made in which all the record companies come together for one year and create a huge website with all of the out-of-print music available for download (Fallout).

Each song would be reasonably priced at twenty-five cents to encourage consumers and to help repair the record companies credibility (Fallout). This would spread good old music around as well as give the music industry an idea of what the market is like for such a venture (Fallout). John Dvorak, opinion writer for PC Magazine, thinks that the answer lies in music CDs that are not overpriced. Too many people are asking why they should buy a CD for $16 when they can copy one for 35 cents (Dvorak).

He claims that an album should cost $1. since it is reasonable and profitable considering the cost of mass producing a CD is less than 25 cents (Dvorak). The $1. 40 mark is attained by comparing how Edison lowered the price of his prerecorded cylinders to 35 cents from $4nearly a ninety percent decreaseand applying this percentage decrease to that of the price of a CD (Dvorak). If the industry were to adopt Dvoraks pricing, it could still make millions of dollars, just not billions (Dvorak). All three of these views are possible and viable solutions to the part of the music industrys problem.

The main problem with the music industry, though, is greed. Bouchers idea is good that all music should be available online for a reasonable fee, but it does not solve the problem with costly CDs. It does, however, make it so that if an artist only has one good song on a record full of garbage, a person would be able to legally purchase the song they want. This would make artists think twice about releasing albums containing only one high-quality song if they expect to make money off of it. Ians solution is helpful to those who are looking for out of print media.

I actually dont think that most of the people downloading songs are looking for this, though this would be a good way for the industry to make money of off old music. The proposition of having $1. 40 CDs would solve much of the problem, but lets be realistic. Would an industry that is selling CDs at sixteen bucks a pop really go for a ninety percent decrease in selling price? I think not. A price reduction in CD prices is definitely in order, but not in the magnitude suggested by Dvorak. I would personally buy much more music if the price was lowered to $6 or even $8 for a brand new album with lower prices for the older ones.

And for the CDs where there were only one or two songs I liked, I could legally purchase and download them through Bouchers plan. Im sure the music industry would have no trouble making plenty of money at this lowered price. Even with selling individual songs over the internet, the artists would still be left to concerts for making the majority of their profitsjust as they currently are. Under existing laws and prohibitions imposed by the major labels, downloading music recorded by them is illegal.

Many smaller labels allow less restrictive contracts, yet there are many artists self-releasing albums to avoid these restrictions all together. Janis Ian has seen a 300% increase in sales after offering free downloads of her songs on her site (Fallout). Though several artists see this as down-right stealing, which it is if no permission is granted by the author, others see it as an opportunity to get their music out to those who have never heard it before. The more fans there are, the more that will show up at concerts, and that translates into more money for the artist.

MTV single handedly created stars, who may never have gotten the chance without the advent of music video. A prime example of this is Madonna. I dare not infer Madonna is not talented, however it is her image more than her voice that sells albums. Throughout the years we have seen Madonna in all different stages. She constantly re-invents herself. From the material girl to the material mom, Madonna has perfected the use of music video and marketing. Without MTV she may never have attained the success she enjoys.

It became apparent that making a music video could be a profitable venture. Every artist had a music video for his or her hit single. Making a video has proven to be the best way, especially if you are a new artist, to allow fans to see your face. This allows the public to become more intimate with the band and its members. This held true for new as well as older more establish acts such as Michael Jackson. He did not need to sell his image however it did help him.

He wanted to be an innovator not only in music, but in video as well. He accomplished this when he produced his classic video epic Thriller. The million-dollar video paid for itself when Thriller became the top selling album of its time. From then on, it was safe to assume that videos will make a large impact on the music industry for years to come. As the 80s rocked on, MTV matured and grew to be the total essence of pop culture. When you think of pop culture, you think of MTV. MTV is a multifaceted network.

The network covers all forms of music from pop and hip-hop to hard rock. MTV has the power to expose all facets of society to various forms of music. It allows ideas from all over the world to become part to the American youth culture. For example: MTV took hip-hop from the streets of New York City and put it right in the home of suburban America. MTV then followed its musical line up with groundbreaking special programming such as The Real World, Beavis and Butthead and Unplugged to name a few.

Led Zeppelin was one of the giants of the 1970s in hard rock. They were also one of the greatest success stories that ever played hard rock music. The group was one the more popular hard rock groups that performed in the seventies, and even had some hits in the 1960s. The members of the group are Jimmy Page, born on April 9, 1944, Robert Plant, born on August 24, 1948, John Paul Jones, born on January 3, 1946, and John Bonham born on May 31, 1948. Jimmy Page played guitar, Robert Plant was the vocalist, John Paul Jones played bass guitar and the keyboard, and John Bonham beat the drums.

The group had the complete set up for a band right off the start. They produced their first record in thirty hours to complete their deal with the old Yardbirds. They toured Scandinavia for awhile also to complete their obligations to the Yardbirds. When they first came to the United States they supported Vanilla Fudge. They also played in clubs to start their American popularity. After they played in the clubs they got their first headlining tour and toured again that. They were playing their fifth tour by the March of 1970. Led Zeppelin the record was released by the Atlantic Records in 1969.

Shortly after the record was released it was number eight and stayed in the top twenty for six weeks. When the Led Zeppelin II was released, it was Atlantic Records fastest selling album at 100,000 copies a week. They broke their own record in 1975 when Physical Graffiti that sold 500 copies an hour. All of their albums have gone platinum. They were the first group to heavily tour the United States and sporadically tour the rest of the world. This occurred because there was a lack of interest in them Britain. Their success was due to their manager Peter Grant.

Peter was able to keep the group moving from place to place and kept the people interested in them. Peter thought that they would work every other year so they would stay in demand. While they were working on their first movie featuring them. This movie was of the group playing their music, which was called, The Song Remains Playing. A representative from their record company called and told Page that the sales of their new album Houses of the Holy was spectacular. The record company told Page that the group, Led Zeppelin, was the biggest selling group in the world and was making the most money at the time.

After Page and Plant heard this they were having a moment of triumph because their band was making it big. During this time of popularity that the band was going through, there was a feature on them in the L. A. Times. They were making music for the adolescence age group and they were being looked up at as role models. Led Zeppelins manager Peter Grant was an amazing and brilliant person. Their road manager was also a great person for the band to have because he promoted them as much as possible. By the summer of 1975, Led Zeppelin was the most popular band in the world.

They were filling football stadiums across the United States. They also filled the Earls Court, which held 20,000 people for five days in London. It was awesome an show that had an amazing light show, smoke, dry ice, and laser beams. The concerts were focused on Jimmy Page and Robert Plant because they were the main guys in the group. On stage they were opposites and compliments: Plant a golden-ringleted Adonis marvelously parodying the sexual superstar while singing in a voice of limitless power.

Page was a dark, fragile guitarist of immense versatility and command clothed in black velvet and rippling dragons. (www. http://www. led-zeppelin. com/news. html) The Presence(1976) and the In Though the Out Door(1979) proved to be the last Led Zeppelin albums that were produced. John Bonham was found dead at the home of Jimmy Page on the 25 of September in 1980. (www. http://www. led-zeppelin. com/news. html) After this tragic loss the band announced that they could not play any longer. The album entitled Coda was an unreleased set of recordings and out takes which was released in 1982.

In the same year, Robert Plant released his own album, which was called, Pictures at Eleven. Even in to the 1990s the music that was produced in the early days of Led Zeppelin is still being played and loved. The music that they play is very persuasive and as popular as before. Even though they broke up ten years ago you would not know they broke because of the way that they are played on the radio. (www. wysiwyg://39/http://www. dazedandconfused. com/home. html) Zeppelin was played for their fans and followers.

For generations of kids, all they needed were headphones and a decent copy of Led Zeppelin II to keep them occupied. Led Zeppelin had their down times but they also had their good times. People have loved Led Zeppelin for years even todays kids seem to have picked up the ear for listening to the band. Twenty-two years after their formation, the myth still surrounds the group Led Zeppelin. Few people other then Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, and John Paul Jones remember what a truly difficult road Led Zeppelin traveled in their time. Led Zeppelin in my mind is one of the best bands to ever happen to the world.

This paper presents an overview of the recent Napster controversy, including a focus on the continuing practice of university campuses to block access to Napster servers. An examination of said blocking is given in terms of the ethical, legal, and practical issues that surround it. For some college students, Shawn Fanning is a god, but most do not even recognize his name. Virtually every college student, however, is familiar with this Northeastern University dropout’s brainchild, Napster, a relatively simple MP3-sharing program that has single-handedly brought the issue of illegal MP3 downloading and distribution to the public eye.

While the MP3 format has been around since the late 80’s, it took Napster to make people stand up and take note. With the use of Napster, finding and downloading MP3s has become so easy that the use of MP3s has spread like wildfire, especially in the college community. This rampant downloading on university campuses, however, puts colleges in a tight spot. As the MP3 revolution has gained steam, the backlash from the music community has kept pace. From Metallica to Sony to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), musicians and music companies alike have brought lawsuit after lawsuit against Shawn Fanning and Napster.

Technically, the verdict is still out, but in order to protect themselves from possible suits brought against them, many colleges and universities have banned Napster. This is not the only problem however. Napster is notorious for being a huge network bandwidth hog, and that means network congestion and slowdowns on college campuses. This factor, possibly even more so than the threat of litigation, has pushed many colleges and universities to block access to Napster altogether. The decision to block Napster, however, is not a simple one.

Clearly the legal issues are in flux, but compounded with the ethical and moral issues, a Napster ban on a college campus is a decision not to be taken lightly, and in my opinion, a step that should not be taken at all. To begin the discussion leading up to the current trend of banning Napster on college campuses, an examination of the motivation behind the suits being brought against Napster is needed. As mentioned above, MP3s have been around for quite some time now, and since their conception they have been used to make illegal copies of copyrighted music.

So, why the backlash from the music industry now and not ten years ago? The answer to that question is simple: money. Back in the days before Napster, it was much more difficult to find the MP3 files for the songs that you wanted. What it basically involved was signing on to leech FTP server after leech FTP server until you found one with what you were looking for. Because of this, the proliferation of MP3s was rather low, as was the hit the music companies were taking on their bottom line.

Then came Napster with its fancy search capabilities and easy-to-use interface and presto, an MP3 use explosion of monumental proportions. As music companies saw their profit margins dropping slightly they suddenly began to scream “Foul! ” and point their fingers at the one discernable cause in their line of sight, Napster. Money is clearly the main issue involved in suits brought against Napster. Anyone who argues that the recording industry is standing on solid ground ethically needs only look at their track record of ignoring ethical issues when they did not damage their bottom line.

The fact remains, however, that the recording industry has a legitimate qualm, at least from a financial perspective, against Napster, which does seem to be cutting into their profits, especially around college campuses (Levy, 46-53). In their suit, the RIAA is alleging that Napster is guilty of tributary copyright infringement, a legal term that means they are “facilitating other people’s [copyright] infringement” (Greenfield, 60-8). Apparently U. S. District Court Judge Marilyn Hall Patel agreed with this when she ordered that Napster be shut down in July 2000 (MSNBC Staff1).

Fortunately for the company, the federal appeals court issued an emergency stay only a day after this ruling and the site was kept up (MSNBC Staff2). There was another hearing in October 2000, but nothing has yet to be resolved, and virtually all of the suits brought against Napster are still pending. This, then, brings us to the issue at hand; namely colleges banning or blocking access to Napster because of these legal issues. As of September 2000, 40% of 50 top universities in the US had announced that they were currently, or were planning on, blocking access to Napster on their networks (Lara).

One might rightfully ask why all colleges have not hopped onto the bandwagon of banning Napster. It is apparent that some universities feel that banning Napster would be akin to censoring the internet and restricting students’ access to information. Others simply state that they provide internet access for their students and should not be required to monitor the network traffic for Napster use (CNET). This is clearly an issue where ethics enters into the conversation. On one hand, some universities, under pressure from the music industry, have decided to block access to Napster, in effect censoring students’ access to the internet.

On the other hand, some universities have taken a stance against the music industry and politely declined to block Napster. Personally, I am of the opinion that universities should not be filtering the content they offer their students. This is not simply because I believe every college student should have access to MP3s, but rather because I believe that censorship of any kind is wrong. When universities (and governments) start telling us what we can and cannot access on the internet, our basic freedom is being violated.

People should be responsible for filtering out content themselves. When universities start doing this, they begin to enter a dangerous area. In addition, Napster is not technically illegal itself; it is, rather, what its users do with it that is illegal. In theory, Napster could be used for genuine academic purposes. It seems ill conceived, then, to block Napster simply because the music industry does not like it. Often, universities site ethical issues as their reasons for shutting off access to Napster servers. This, however, is flawed reasoning as well.

Just because something is unethical, as illegally downloading copyrighted songs clearly is, it does not necessarily follow that the vehicle used perpetrate this unethical act should be blocked. As an example, a connection to the internet can be used for hacking exploits, which are unethical, yet access to the internet is not restricted. Napster, as stated above, could possibly be put into perfectly ethical use. Granted, this is not usually how it is used, but the fact remains that it could be. Sighting an ethical issue as a reason to block access to Napster, then, I do not see as a legitimate reason for banning Napster usage.

The only reason I see as a legitimate qualm of the universities that have banned Napster use is that Napster tends to take up a lot of bandwidth. At high levels of usage, Napster can literally congest a university network so much that traffic on the network is drastically slowed. This is particularly a problem in a university setting, where a certain level of network performance is assumed. Students and professors doing legitimate academic work or research using the network connection should be able to do so. Their attempts should not be stymied by the typically non-academic work that is done using Napster.

If Napster is creating a real network congestion problem for a university, then I believe the university has the right, and possibly even the responsibility, to block access to the Napster servers. It is not clear, however, that the blocking of Napster servers will actually solve the network congestion problem, or even the ethical and legal problems for that matter. The fact is, that Napster bans on university campuses are often easily circumvented using a freely available program called Napigator (www. napigator. com). This program allows Napster users to connect to so-called “open” servers, many of which are not blocked by the universities.

I took the liberty of downloading and installing this program, and within minutes I was connecting to dozens of “open” servers, each with its own set of users and MP3s ready for download. In effect, a university student who had his Napster access “banned” could, within minutes, be connected to a Napster server not on the banned list. Thus, the problem would remain. In addition, it is quite possible that students might turn to other ways of downloading MP3s, including Gnutella (gnutella. wego. com). It is true that Gnutella is not nearly as easy to use as Napster, but it is also true that it is an even bigger network hog than is Napster.

Thus, if enough students started using Gnutella, the network congestion problem would persist. Students might even revert to using leech FTP servers to find the MP3s they want. In essence, the students who want to download MP3s will find a way, even if it means getting their own DSLs or modems. It turns out, however, that all of these problems running around about Napster may become moot, for in the past few months the Napster war has simmered down considerably with the announcement of several agreements and plans for the future.

In October 2000, Napster signed a deal with Bertelsmann AG, the owner of the Arista and RCA music labels, which states the company will provide funding to Napster for the “development of a secure trading system” (Dansby). In addition, in its new release versions starting in mid-Janurary 2001, Napster began including links to CDNow, one of Bertelsmann’s child companies, in its search interface (Barnes). Continuing along these more commercial lines, on January 30, 2001 Napster announced a plan to make the once free online community into a subscription based venture by June or July, 2001.

This, Napster hopes, will catch the eye of the other major record labels, such as Sony, AOL Time Warner, and Vivendi Universal, which still have their suits against the company pending. It seems clear, then, that Napster is a force to be reckoned with. With 40 million registered users late in 2000 and still growing, Napster is one of the most popular programs on the internet. Indeed, it seems to be a force that even the recording industry cannot stop, and one that it may end up simply creating a partnership with.

However, if this turns out to be the case, the question of whether or not colleges and universities should ban Napster becomes even less clear-cut. There are numerous subtleties that a university must think about even if all of the suits against Napster are dropped, from whether they want to censor their students’ access to the internet, to whether the traffic generated by Napster is creating an undue burden on the network. With such a hotly contested legal and ethical issue as Napster, there are sure to be gray areas. Gray areas that, ironically, have nothing to do with MP3s at all.

The progression of music from the 1940’s to the present has seen extremes, it has been controversial at times, traditional at times and inspirational at times, but never have the American people turned away music in its entirety. There have been times when parents did not approve of the music that their children chose to listen to, but the parents had never turned away music. Music has been criticized and promoted. Since the 40’s music has progressed from Ballads (which were still lingering around from the 30’s) to blues (popular among Blacks) to rock and roll, to pop, and back again.

In the 1940’s ballads were popular. Ballads were dancable music performed by big bands. They were composed of stringed instruments, wind insteruments, and a singer or two. This was the time period when music started to be broadcasted live over television and record albums were entering the home. (Hays) The 50’s marked a beginning for a new era of music to be known as Rock & Roll. Many of the artists took advantage of the Electric guitar, developed for popular music in the 1930’s but never really became popular until the 50’s.

Rock & Roll was a combination of many music styles in an upbeat sort of fashion. One example of when country had an impact on Rock & Roll was with Bill Haley and Jerry Lee Lewis. Jerry’s career was huge, with his hits like “Whole Lotta Shakin’ goin’ On” and “Great Balls of Fire”. That is, his career was huge, until the it was made public that he fell in love with a married his 13 year old cousin. In 1957 Rock & Roll had been turned upsidedown when Buddy Holly hit the airwaves with “That’ll be the Day. ” Buddy Holly rolled out hit after hit after hit.

That is, until his plane went down in Iowa. He died at the young age of 22. That night his music was playing non-stop and has not stopped playing to this ay. The blues and gospel of James Brown and Jackie Wilson was popular with the black community. “Someday, maybe someone will discover the reason that Chuck Berry, Do Diddley, Fats Domino, and Little Richard never connected with black audiences” (25 years,p15). This may be because they might have almost been embarrassed from their blues roots. In the 60’s such stars as Chubby Checker became popular through Dick Clark.

Chubby Checker also became popular though his dance called “The Twist”. Folk music was among popular music for a brief period time. Around 1962 Surfin music started in California when the Beach Boys were formed. The Beach Boys released hit after hit starting with “Surfin USA” in 1963 and “Fun, Fun, Fun” in 1964. Along with The Beach Boys were a group of two known as Jan & Dean. They also produced Surfin Music hits such as “Sidewalk Surfin'” and Dead Man’s Curve. The sixties also introduced the British Invasion to America.

Groups like “The Yardbirds” and Zombies could be heard everywhere. At the head of this British invasion was a group known as “The Beatles” There hits like “I want to hold your hand”. They broke up in 1970 and all pursued solo careers or in their own band. Many people requested that they have reunions, but those requests asically stopped with the death of John Lennon, a member of the Beatles, was murdered in 1980. “The Rolling Stones” were formed in 1962 and very much contrasted the Beatles softer sound. The Rolling Stones were a more energetic type of American rhythm and Blues.

In the 70’s The electric guitar became more experimental with the different sounds that it could produce. “The change began in 1968. By 1970 the change in direction of rock music was cemented. No longer were life-or-death rock riffs the order of the day. Groups like Crosby, Stills and Nash, The Band, and Creedence Clearwater Revival suggested a return to country roots, a search or a simpler time. ” (25 years,p60) Disco returned in 1974. Everything went wild when ” Saturday night Fever” introduced a new type of dancing and music.

The new form of disco hit the floors with “The Bee Gees” They kept the anger of original Rytheme and Blues and created very upbeat material. Very popular among disco was Gloria Gaynor. She sang the message of the new movement: I won’t crumble, I won’t lay down and die, I will survive. During this disco period Rock & Roll is some how still staying alive. When the mid 70’s rolled around disco fell behind and new type of rock became popular. This new type included artist such as Alice Cooper and AeroSmith.

The new rock had a punkish industrial twist to it and always put on large extravagant concerts. In the 80’s the synthesizer became big with such groups as “The Eurythmics”. The new groups of the 80’s revolutionized disco and transformed it to todays techno. Synthesizers are insteruments usually in a piano format that can manipulate sounds into any desired fashion. The 80’s also brought around many teen idols such as Bon Jovi, Madonna, and Paula Abdul. In the 90’s or present day, the synthesizer is still being used in dance and techno music. Also introduced into the 90’s was the computer.

The computer has been around a while, but not been used in the music industry. Today just about anyone can produce their music using this tool. Also metal has become more aggressive, popular and contains political lyrics. Lite rock has also developed and has captured the ears of many listeners. Music has progressed from fun to an industry in itself. People can now earn a living off of music, often luxurious life. Along with the music progressing the American people have progressed. The world of music continues to change and may never stop progressing until the world stops progressing.

“Black and Blue” was one of Armstrong’s greatest hits, it is hard to believe that a remade song could rank so high on his greatest. Armstrong had a unique way of taking a song that had already been published and making into his own work of art. “Black and Blue” is a song that can have a few different meanings depending on the way you look at it. “Black and Blue” can be described as abstract, bruised, and colorful. Armstrong was the greatest artist of his time and he shows us this in the ways he could take songs, manipulate them and make them his own.

Black and Blue” could be one of the best examples of this. The fact that Armstrong’s version of “Black and Blue” is more popular than the original version has a lot to say about his abilities. Abstract: consider theoretically or separately from something else, make a written summary of, a summary of a book or article, an abstract work of art. Armstrong was a great musician of his time and a musician is an artist. Therefor his works (songs) are considered art work. To many people of his time this art that he made may have seemed off the beaten path. To many this may have seemed abstract.

He had a presence that would radiate through an audience manly from the way he held himself on stage, and compared to the many other performers of the time this was different from anyone else. The way Armstrong took this song, “Black and Blue,” from its original version, sung by Edith Wilson, and manipulated it to what it is now, could be said to be an abstract work of art. He had the raw talent to take a song and change it into something known as an Armstrong song, not a remake. “Black and Blue” was a song that was originally made to be sung by a woman, some how he pulled it off.

The manor in which Armstrong preformed on stages may have been too soon for his time, meaning that the people may not have been ready for what he had to give them, but this may have also been perceived as abstract. An Armstrong performance was different from what everyone was used to seeing, he stepped out on his own and made it work, the fact that he was different and now accepted by many made him and his work abstract. Bruised: an injury appearing as an area of discolored skin on the body, caused by a blow rupturing underlying blood vessels.

When you first hear the song “Black and Blue” one of the first things to pop into your head is a bruise, because those are the colors associated with bruising. There are two main types of bruising that we think of, physical and emotional. Sometimes an emotional bruise can be just as or even more painful than a physical bruise. Black were bruised with rude remarks and racial slurs probably just as much or even more than they were beaten and bullied with physical bruises. Blacks at this time period receive little to no respect at all. It was very hard for a black man to make it very far in life.

If in fact he did make something of himself, the speed bumps passed along the way were ten feet tall. Who would want to even attempt to make something of yourself when it was much easier to sit back and stay away from being picked on even more. The easiest way to explain the white people of Armstrong’s day is rude, the pure disrespect for blacks was sickening. The title of the song itself can be thought to be talking about someone or something that has taken a beating, verbal or physical. This song may indeed represent the struggles and falls of trying to make it big or even to make it at all, and just being a black man during these times.

There is a line in the song that says, “I’m white inside but that don’t help my case”, that right there sais something about being excepted and appreciated for the color of skin. The line ” my only sin is in my skin” also says a lot about how much black were approved of and appreciated. Regardless if he was the best jazz musician or not, many people hated him because he was back. They refused to like his music because of this and that is why this was the perfect song for him to make into the work of art that he did.

If the people got the message or not I think it explained in black and white the struggles he had to go through to get where he was. Colorful: lively and exciting; vivid. Colorful can be used as a way to say different, “Black and Blue” was just that. “Black and Blue” was as colorful of a song as Armstrong was an entertainer. It was different from the original because it was sang by Armstrong and not a woman. It was also telling white people how rude and inconsiderate they were, that was a bold move on his part. Armstrong’s version of “Black and Blue” was much different than Edith Wilson’s original.

The major difference in the two songs is the fact one is sung by a women and the other a man. Also Armstrong cut a lot of lyrics out of the beginning of the song and added more of a swing sound to it. He did keep a lot of the song the same but it was obviously unique in its own way. The contrast of these two songs made Armstrong’s version colorful. The song could also be said to be colorful because there are so many interpretations for the meaning of this peace. The title leads you to believe that the song is about being beaten but the more that one listens to this song more and more ideas come up about the true meaning of it.

Not knowing the true meaning and what he is talking about is very different from many songs in his time. Armstrong was said to be one of the most colorful performers of his time. He was decorated with this label by many people for his dancing around on stage, vibrant solos, and controversial actions/sounds he made on stage. Armstrong was a very colorful man, not only because he was black but also with his attitude toward life. He was the kind of man that went by the seat of his pants and from his performances you could tell that he liked to have a lot of fun with what he did.

Armstrong had the ability to turn a song like “Black and Blue”, which was supposed to be sang by a women, into one of his greats, his natural talent was amazing. Armstrong’s laid back life style and carefree attitude helped him over come large prejudice and adversity, this carefree sense of attitude may have also been a large factor in the style of his performance. “Black and Blue” is a song that is colorful, bruised , and abstract. Armstrong’s artistic ability to change “Black and Blue” from its original version, which happened to be sung by a women and not wrote by him, into one of his most famous and important pieces.

In the early ’90s, heavy music looked to be going the way of the dinosaurs: Well-heeled Brit-pop and well-scrubbed pop-punk were thoroughly dominating the guitar-rock landscape, and the few surviving old-school metal acts seemed hopelessly unable to adapt. But somewhere within the vast, murky Southern California wasteland, a dynamic new species was being born, a forward-thinking beast that disregarded the mistakes of heavy bands past while meshing dark, urban rhythms and low-tuned guitar sludge with violent, expressionist blasts of hip-core noise.

That and the wildly emotional vocals of JONATHAN, hich alternated between a bourbon-smooth croon and a viscerally sharp howl, made for a revolutionary mix that redefined heavy rock better than anyone had in a decade. The result was a monster 1994 self-titled debut album that went solid platinum, and by the time 1996’s Life Is Peachy was released, this beast had a fanbase over two million strong–and a legion of musical imitators so large it threatened to saturate the planet. It was time for a change of rules.

Hence KORN’s latest, greatest slab, aptly titled FOLLOW THE LEADER. From the broadened musical and emotional scope to the much beefier production alues to the stunning cover art courtesy of Spawn-creator Todd McFarlane, FOLLOW THE LEADER is indeed an ambitious and deeply satisfying outing for the band. And while there is considerably more hype surrounding this rightly anticipated disc, JONATHAN is quick to put things in perspective. “Our only goal was to take our time on this album,” he says. “Because I knew we had it in us to do something great.

To full integrate both (previous) albums and put out a record we could be proud of… we wanted to do some phat shit. ” “I think working with a new producer and going into a new studio helped s grow musically as a band,” adds guitarist MUNKY. “All of us really have that fire again about being excited about a record… We all feel like we grew, like when you grow out of some old shoes; your feet are all crammed in forever and you know you need to buy a new pair, but you need to save up the money to do it. We kind of saved up our confidence and made that leap into our new shoes.

Fans of old-school KORN needn’t despair–the new shoes kick just as much ass as the old pair. “Freak On A Leash” is a molotov cocktail of scathing, psychedelic guitar runs, hypno-groove bass grind, hip-hop ungle drumming, all sliced in two with an ingeniously placed scat line reminiscent of PEACHY opener “Twist. ” Then there’s “Children Of The KORN,” title courtesy of legendary gangsta rapper Ice Cube, who contributed an arresting series of verses to the tune, as well as a mallet-blunt mantra that speaks for every fed up kid in America: “Stop fuckin’ with me! Check the epic closing track, “My Gift to You,” one of the band’s heaviest songs to date, rife with the sort of lyrical honesty that’s earned JONATHAN true street cred with the kids–and dismay from the parents.

Which is just fine with him–KORN, after all, speaks directly to those disenfranchised with a world of spent opportunity and violence, due in large part to the short-sightedness of generations past. “Yeah,” says JONATHAN, “I am pissed off that I inherited it. I wish sometimes that I was born back in the day. But today’s society is so fucked up… e gotta thank the parents for doing that to the kids. ”

Yes, they still rock. But FOLLOW THE LEADER also illustrates just how much JONATHAN’s vocal and lyrical abilities have broadened from the “straight fuckin’ cathartic rage” of KORN and PEACHY to a level that ommunicates a full range of human emotion, from regret (“It’s On! “) and empathy (“Justin”), to lighthearted if incredibly vitriolic banter (“All In The Family”). The band’s musical growth is also well evident–from drummer DAVID’s successful integration of D-Drum sampling to FIELDY’s ever-more-percussive bass playing.

Meanwhile, twin guitar towers MUNKY and HEAD have made their joint stylistic fusion nearly seamless. “It’s like we’re one person,” adds HEAD. “We’re one guitar player thinking. It’s weird. ” The end result is an album that could well be KORN’s swan ong–and one that’s sure to find the band’s ever-growing throng of musical imitators scurrying back to the chalkboard. Although FOLLOW THE LEADER will not be officially released until August 18 on Immortal/Epic Records, MUNKY considers it a mission accomplished: “I think we’ve already achieved success on this record,” he says. We’re all 100 % happy with all the songs.

That was the personal goal for me. ” In the making of FOLLOW THE LEADER, KORN’s also been busy with their ground-breaking live weekly Internet program, as well as the formation of its own record label, Elementree Records. Its first signing, California “death pop” outfit Orgy, has already drawn critical acclaim for its debut CANDYASS (Alternative Press enthusiastically endorsed the record, saying it displayed enough “smart melodies, head-banging crunch and electro-kicks to impress even the most fickle music fans”).

CANDYASS will hit the shops the on the same day as FOLLOW THE LEADER. As for Elementree itself, FIELDY offers up the band’s business philosophy accordingly: “I think we’d all like to sign some bands that everybody’s scared to sign. And of course to make them as big as KORN, if not bigger. I think here we’re at in ’98, the whole decade is really hurting for some good music. ”

In addition to the new record and the new label, KORN has also put together its own answer to Lollapalooza: the “Family Values” tour, an eight-week U. S. tour which will feature Ice Cube, Limp Bizkit, Orgy, Rammstein and, of course, KORN, in addition to a throng of breakdancers, fire-eaters and a myriad of other cultural oddities. Why would an already overworked band want to tackle such a monumental task? “There are all these festivals that have weak links in them,” says DAVID. “It’s not easy to put together a big festival because there are a ot of people involved–but we thought we could give it a shot and do something better.

1998 is proving to be an intensely creative year for the band. An ambitious new record that redefines the school KORN defined in the first place–that’s already garnering massive airplay for its first single (“Got The Life”). An ambitious new label that’s already undermining the alternative world. And an ambitious new tour showcasing some of the heaviest acts of the day. No surprise. KORN has always been about ambition–and much more often than not it’s paid off. “We’re not out to change the world, just music. “

The time was in the mid-seventies, there was a void in the music industry that needed to be filled. This need for a new sound was aptly filled by punk rock, a new type of sound that had evolved from mostly rock and a little pop music. The focus of this paper is on punk rock and it’s ample beginnings, early pioneers of the new sound, punk rock listener’s cultural background and their ideas as a whole, bands influenced by the punk rock movement, and the state of punk rock today. The year is 1974, this year marks the birth of punk rock (1974).

There is controversy as to where punk started out at, some say it began in London while others say it started out in New York City. It can be safe to say that two very distinct sounds classified as punk originated at about the same in both London and New York City (Punk). Punk rock began in the bars and nightclubs until the bands garnered enough support to receive a record contract. When the punk rock explosion occurred in the mid-seventies, a number of new, excitingly innovative bands burst upon the scene.

Bands like the Ramones, The Clash, The Velvet Underground, The Virgin Fugs, Patti Smith, The New York Dolls, Iggy Pop and The Stooges, and the punk band with the most success, The Sex Pistols. The thing that made punk rock so unlike anything the music industry had heard before was the notable lack of talent displayed on the musician’s part. Not to say that all punk bands were devoid of any talent, just that anyone with second-rate instruments and the ability to play at least three chords on the guitar could form a punk band.

This is part of what punk’s appeal was, it was a new sound that appealed to many of the youths of that era. As Johnny Ramone, the guitarist for the Ramones, stated, “We were new at writing songs and new at playing our instruments, so we couldn’t write anything too complicated, really” (1974). Punk rock bands often had a flair for the flamboyant, not just with their appearance but with their humor, sarcasm, and often carelessness about society and social norms. For example, The Virgin Fugs, their outlook on life is often displayed in the titles of their songs.

Songs like “I Saw The Best Minds of My Generation Rot”, “Kill For Peace”, and “New Amphetamine Shriek” captured the Fugs’ sense of humor and satire (History). There were also bands like The Velvet Underground who relied on their detailed studies of urban realism that is evidenced in songs like “Heroin” and “I’m Waiting For The Man”, were a far cry from the three chord, ultra-fast, guitar displayed by the Fugs and most other punk bands (History). Another one of punk rock’s pioneers was the animated Iggy Pop.

Iggy began his musical career, or let me say, his career took off after leaving the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. Iggy formed a band with friends who really had no idea how to play their instruments. This way their lack of musical knowledge would allow Iggy to incorporate his zany and unorthodox style into their playing style (History). Iggy was a maniac on stage, cutting himself, screaming at fans, and displaying obscenities unheard of in that time. Although Iggy never achieved much commercial success back then, Iggy just released a song “Corruption” which is on the charts.

The punk subculture is often seen as a rebellious group of misguided youngsters who often come from lower class dwellings and haven’t gotten the attention that they needed so they dye their hair, dress differently, and act differently. In Facing The Music edited by Simon Frith, Mary Harron reduced the meaning of punk to “the spectacle of middle-class children dressing up in a fantasy of proletarian aggression and lying desperately about their backgrounds” (History).

The flipside to that is that maybe these youths are expressing their individualism and choose to stray away from societies values because they are bored with society. Either way you look at it, punk is about being your own person, at least that’s the ideal. Punkers even have their own unique style of dress, which is illustrated by Alison Lurie in The Language of Clothes: It featured hair cropped to a fuzz and dyed startling, unnatural colors: often very pale yellow, sometimes red, green, orange or lavender. Faces were powdered pasty white, with sooty eyes and heavy lipstick.

In clothing, red, black and white were the favorite colors. There are many people who believe punk is dead, I personally believe that punk is in the process of being incorporated into mainstream culture. Bands like Blink 182, Eve 6, The Offspring, and Greenday still carry on the punk flame. The difference is that their image has changed in that the bands often focus their energy into positive topics, rather than using obscenities and shock technique to garner attention. The punk bands of today’s era are also more musically talented in that they actually know how to play their instruments.

There aren’t quite as many true hardcore punk bands as there were in the past but bands like SST, Dischord, Homestead, Twin/Tone, The Minutemen, Meat Puppets, Butthole Surfers, Scratch Acid, Husker Du, The Replacements, Dinosaur Jr. , Squirrel Bait, The Effigies, Big Black, Naked Raygun, Sonic Youth, The Swans, Fugazi, Bad Brains were all heavily influenced by the punk revolution (History). Also, bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam seem to have the mind frames of punk rockers and were undoubtedly influenced by them, the sound doesn’t carry over into their own music.

Punk, as it was really intended, will never become commercialized and incorporated as a large part of the music scene. But then again, punk was based on rebellion against mainstream culture and to be publicized and critically acclaimed would be contradictory to the basis of everything punk stands for. True, one can see bands on MTV that claim to be punk, but the true hardcore punk fans will tell you that they are posers. The industrialized, commercialized, mainstream music seen on MTV is really more like punk/pop, it’s good music that may have been influenced by punk, but not true punk rock.

Weve all seen them before. Maybe at a bus stop, in our schools, or at the coffee shop. They look odd enough to frighten a circus clown, but for some reason, they always smile when you look their way. Perhaps its that their hair is the color of the sunset or that their pants look like they could house a small family. It could be that their headphones seem permanently glued to their ears and that theyre never afraid to groove on the sidewalk. Whatever the reason, you know that they are not quite normal. You may call them freaks, or punks, or simply those crazy kids.

But if you did, youd be misled for they are not youre average young people, no, they are ravers. Before we go any further, I think I should first dispel some rumors and ease your mind of the negative thoughts that must be sweeping through it. What do you think of when you hear the word rave? Drugs? Hoodlum kids running amuck? Loud music that interferes with the whole communitys sleeping habits? Violence? The dictionary defines the word rave as a numerous amount of things, such as an act or instance or the verb to talk with extreme enthusiasm, but this is one case where Webster has got it all wrong.

What is the true definition of a rave? In most cases, a rave is simply a dance party where guests experience a sense of camaraderie and elevated consciousness through the presence of music. This means there is an abundance of dance expression, interaction with other such ravers, and a positive mood change. And while there are sometimes drugs involved, there is absolutely no deliberate disturbance of the peace and zero tolerance for violence. But Im getting ahead of myself. Lets divulge into the history of this invigorating phenomenon.

The exact origin of raves is unknown, though many say the gatherings are reminiscent of American Indian religious ceremonies, like pow-wows. The first modern raves are said to have occurred in English warehouses around 1987 and were focused around homosexual males. Since then, raves have grown more than anyone might think possible. With this growth has come evolution as well. Raves are now held in nearly almost city or town, whether it be heavily populated or in the middle of cornfields.

Customarily, they are centered in abandoned warehouses decked out in black lights and strobes, but they have taken place on beaches, in caves, and virtually any other place with enough room for the 500-1500 person congregation. The genre of participants has expanded to include anyone, male or female, heterosexual or homosexual. Usually the attendants are from the age of 18-27, but some are as young as 13 or as old as 50. And unlike their English predecessors, the raves of today are not entirely underground. You can find out about raves through the grapevine, on the internet, or from flyers.

These flyers are strategically located where most ravers are located, like coffee shops, vintage clothing shops, and independent record stores. The people in charge of these raves are called promoters and are often ravers or ex-ravers. They tend to be males slightly older than your average raver, but once again, anybody can do it. Promoters are in charge of creating a safe environment and ensuring that everybody has the best experience possible. Like a car without wheels, a rave is useless without a good DJ. DJs are like the masters of ceremony for these raves and responsible for all music played.

They spin with one goal in mind: to get their listeners dancing. Electronic music is practically the only genre played due to its heavy dance pulse and message-less rhythm. This type of music includes techno, house, and jungle, which are all similar types of the dance-oriented beats. As raves are often a way for the sojourner to escape from their daily woes of work or school, it is vital that the music is as monumental as a religious experience. The music is a mediator, a way for the patron to set themselves free. The freedom is expressed through dancing and ravers often lose themselves to the tempo as if in meditation.

The music is intended to lull the conscious mind while simultaneously accentuating the subconscious mind. Since raves have tendency to focus on heightened senses, drugs are sometimes present. Popular rave drugs include LSD, MDMA, and Ketamine HCI. LSD is more commonly known as Acid and is known for distorting and intensifying sensory input. But even ravers do not advocate the use of acid because if things go wrong while the user is under the influence, a rave full of friends yet to be made can quickly become a dank warehouse crowded with frightening strangers.

MDMA is the drug-of-choice and is known as Ecstacy, which is in turn nicknamed either E or X. E increases the feeling of love and is accompanied by slight hallucinations, however, has less potential for dismaying trips. Lastly is Ketamine HCI, which is referred to as Special K. Special K is an intense dissociative psychadelic. When ravers are under the influence of such drugs, they can often be seen with pacifiers in their mouths or medical masks that cover the mouth and nose. The pacifier serves as a hindrance for the teeth-grinding that is a popular side affect.

The masks are spread with a thin layer of Vicks Vapor Rub, which enhances the high. Although drugs seem so prominent in the rave society, there are many drug-free raves and the amount of such is dramatically increasing. Also, whether it be drug-free or otherwise, alcohol is not commonly present at the parties. Once a rave has established its music, all that is left to make it a success is the ravers themselves. All ravers become susceptible to The Vibe, which is the feeling any event leaves you with.

However, where raves differ is that the vibe is so powerful that many become obsessed with it and see it as a form of telepathic energy that has a profound impact on their lives. The vibe can also be used to describe other ravers. If somebody around a raver is not happy or enjoying themselves, they posses a bad vibe. However, if everybody is rhapsodic, vivacious, and sprightly, they would say the rave had a good vibe or that the people contributed a strong vibe. A strong vibe is the result of a powerful bond between ravers. This can be associated to the raver philosophy, which is PLUR.

PLUR stands for peace, love, unity, and respect and is prominent at any rave. The unity is especially marked because of the affection between ravers, no matter how different they are. Once youre dancing, you are bonded with everybody else on that floor that you are dancing with! Because of this motto of PLUR, it is customary for ravers to approach complete strangers and express more love and compassion than one may normally vocalize for their dearest friends. One could attend a rave alone, and if the vibe is strong, leave with a thousand friends.

The more diversity that is in a group, the more respect there is. Its accepted that everyone is different. Speaking of being different, there is still the issue of appearance. Exactly why do those kids have goofy hair and glowsticks in their mouths? Color is a key roll in rave fashion. Nearly everything worn is bright and neon so it can be illuminated underneath the flashing lights. Also, bright colors are synonymous with happiness, therefore, ravers will often wear bright things to help promote a generally fun, pleasing mood.

Many clothing articles are often glow in the dark to gain a great visual affect under blacklights. Glowsticks are used in dancing, also for the visual affect. All clothing is worn to be functional, but it helps if fun attributes are added. For example, it is customary to wear baggy pants that allow your legs more moving space, but instead of having solid colored pants, rave pants will often have reflective taping or loops to hold glowsticks. Tighter shirts are beneficial to lessen the contact with clothing that could interfere in dancing as well.

Tighter shirts allow your arms more movement. T-shirts or tank tops worn are often adorned in neon colors with pictures and illustrations of fun characters from childrens stories or TV shows, like Dr. Seuss, The Care Bears, My Little Pony, or The Powerpuff Girls. This is to promote the jubilant air at a rave. Jogging shoes, especially Adidas, are extremely popular also because of their comfort and benefits for dancing. But just as important as the clothing articles are the accessories.

Candy jewelry is often worn, as well as any brightly colored beaded necklaces, multiple glittery bracelets, bright makeup, and anything shimmery! The clothing is another way to express yourself at a rave, so it is also endorsed to dress strictly for comfort. One could wear anything to a rave and be accepted. In the words of a webmaster named Seanbaby who has a website on rave fashion, If you want to make an outfit out of saran wrap and wear a tin foil space helmet, no one there will make fun of you. And its true! No matter what their personal style is, ravers will always be themselves.

Unfortunately, there are still people who refuse to believe that a rave is centered around love and peace. Police officers seem to enjoy shutting down raves, much to the dissapointment of eager dancers everywhere. Authorities are under the impression that a gathering of young people will most definitely result in trouble, so they use minor infractions to shut down raves while they are just beginning. Some reasons may be fire code violations, noise complaints, traffic flow impeded on nearby roads, infractions against public assembly, loitering, or violation of curfew.

Though one would have an extravagantly difficult time trying to get a group of ravers to fight, police fear that criminal activities will break out before the night is over. And when the night is over, everyone goes home fulfilled. A raver once said If you wish to change your thoughts, go to a psychiatrist. If you wish to change your life, go to a rave. For while you are just ending another dull day in a monotonous life, they are just getting ready. They are beginning to meet up with friends. They are preparing for their day. Because for them, the day does not begin until the first record spins. They are ravers.

The nineties began with the grunge scene, an alternative style of rock and roll that revolutionized rock music today. This music that was once praised by MTV was gradually pushed out to make way for the sound of generic rap beats, watered down heavy metal and sugar coated pop tunes. The pattern of the nineties is nothing new. The seventies and eighties both saw fresh new music that preceded a pour attempt at a new innovative sound. In the seventies disco followed the likes of rock legends such as Jimi Hendrix, The Doors and Pink Floyd.

The eighties began with such innovative bands as Dire Straits, Van Halen and the Red Hot Chili Peppers and ended with groups like New Kids on the Block and Milli Vanilli that overlapped into the early nineties. The nineties began with an original brand of rock, alternative. This style of music produced bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Alice and Chains that revolutionized rock and roll. Some of these bands are still around today but are over shadowed by the trendy pop and rap The rock and pop groups of today are primarily concerned with an image they are trying to achieve through music videos.

Bands like Limp Bizkit and Korn are chief examples of groups who try to attain a hard-core image but are failing. They claim to have a large underground following but in reality they are just another MTV band that is identified by its multi-million dollar music videos. If you have to spend that much money on a video you must be compensating for something. This is true with groups like the Backstreet Boys, Nsync and Brittany Spears. Without their music videos they would be nothing.

The songs that these groups produce are very simple pop tunes that thrive off the bands look and fashion statements. The rap music of today shares many characteristics of the pop/rock industry. They are primarily concerned with money. It is not about the quality of the rhymes being released but about how many they can put out in a year. The result is music that is very monotonous and thin. The albums are released so frequently that people never get a chance to realize how one-dimensional their favorite rapper is, and are buying their next album.

The other side of the rap industry is filled with phonies. These rappers take old rap and pop songs and remix them with new lyrics and some new beats. It is sad to see people credit rappers like Puff Daddy or Will Smith with a song that was actually written by Sting or Stevie Wonder. The main reason for the rise of trendy pop and rap is MTV. They get stuck on a couple different types of music and then exploit it. Record labels see MTV as a way to get the band they promote to sell records. To do this they find bands to fit into the mainstream sound.

These bands hold positions in the top ten for a while but soon are thrown into the one hit wonder bin because their sound lacks originality. By the time this happens a couple million people have already spent fifteen of twenty dollars on their CD. You are at a loss and the record company is up several million dollars. Another reason why music of this sort thrives is because of the availability of it. All someone has to do is turn on their television and it is right in front of them. Nowadays just about every car being made has a CD player, which discourages people to listen to the radio.

People can go out and buy the CD they just heard on MTV and play their favorite song for however long they want to. The radio is a valuable resource for smaller or more underground bands to be heard. Without the radio many of those bands would disappear. If the past can predict the future than we are merely going through a phase that will lead into another great era of music. Maybe the fourth time around we will be prepared for what follows any great period of music and put a stop to it before it gets out of hand.

The talent of an artist rests in the ability to recreate a sense of reality, and to communicate such an experience. When such timeless thoughts are offered to the audience in an honest manor, it is the result of a true artist. Artists such as Pablo Picasso, Langston Hughes, and the Beatles thrived off of taking such honest risks. In 1999, the San Francisco Symphony and the hard rock band Metallica redesigned the concept of risk taking in the reality for the artists world. A young composer by the name of Michael Kamen passed away at 55.

He had the pleasure of conducting The London Philharmonic Orchestra, and The San Francisco Symphony. He aspired to share creative energy with rock legends such as Pink Floyd, Rod Stewart, & Eric Clapton. In 2002 it was his talent that kept the world company during the winter Olympics. In the late 1980s alternative rock was working at creating symphonies of its own. The band Metallica, known for its speed metal and talented range of chords, developed a new language in music. Their songs ranged from 2, to 9, to 20 minute riffs. They gained attention from emotionally eager listeners.

The use of electric guitar, aggressive vocals, and dynamic tempos made their music appealing to an extraordinary audience (Holm-Hudson 189). Michael Kamen responded to Metallicas unique guitar ingredients, and set out to collaborate with the metal band. In 1999 Kamen and the San Francisco Symphony, merged with Metallica to produce the album S & M. Kamens orchestra consisted of Violins,Violas,Cellos, Bass, Flutes, Oboes, Clarients, Bassons, Horns, Trumpets, and Trombones. Other instruments included the Tuba, Harp Timpani, Keyboard and of course percussion.

Metallica has four musicians, two guitarists, a drummer and a bassist. The lead guitarist is also the lead vocalist. On the insert of the C. D. sleeve S&M, Michael Kamen wrote about conducting a conversation between two different worlds that share the same language. Like the composers Hector Berlioz, and Ludwig Van Beethoven, Kamen experienced life through music and spoke of lifes journeys in symphony (Lang 131. He continued to put in plain words, Combining the San Francisco Symphony and Metallica was really about creating a dialogue between two worlds that celebrate the power of music (Kamen 1999).

Our ears have all become familiar with symphonies. From the classic sounds of Peter and the Wolf, to Cannon in D major by Mozart, or Beethovens famous Symphony No. 5 In C Minor. Like a canvas, a symphony represents a display of themes and motifs. For example, the song No Leaf Clover Performed by Metallica and the San Fransisco Symphony, creates a very strong feeling within the orchestra and flirts with the passion of aggressive rock. In No Leaf Clover, Kamens orchestra and the four members of Metallica organized through a variety of tone and rhythm, an unexpected change from good luck to bad.

The woodwinds, string instruments, and percussion, offered the theme of the No Leaf Clover with a slow enthusiasm at the beginning of the piece. The central point of the song revealed elements of repetition in the rhythm, tone and dynamics of their sound. The later part of the piece developed around the vocalist. The violins in particular, complemented and coordinated with the vocals. This detail added emotion to the No Leaf Clover because the soft sound of the violins reinforced the audience of what the vocalist was trying to convey.

At the start of the piece, Metallica does not join Kamen and the orchestra, until almost one minute into the piece. This again reflects a sudden change from good to bad. The calm melody and harmony of the orchestra were smothered by the aggressive bad luck and distortied amplifiers from the band. Just before the lead singer joined in harmony, there is a big shift in the pitch and tempo. The middle section of the symphony shifts moods again. The vocalist maintained a consistency and the theme persisted as repetitious.

Before the artists ventured toward the final theme of the piece, the guitar moved into a solo. The quick fingers of the guitar invite an aggressive mood to the audience. Even so, the string section helped to neutralize the mood by switching to piccatto. Once the lead guitar dropped out, the orchestra worked to reproduce the dark sound of an amplified guitar. Again the theme is traced by the repetition and exchange of roles between the woodwinds, strings, vocals, percussion and guitars.

The climax of the piece is controlled by the drummer of the band, in which his feet danced over a double bass drum. The music maintained an increase in tone, beat, pitch and tempo. In exchange, the audience is likely to maintain an aggressive mood. As soon as the percussion and drums faded, the vocalist recovered his role in the performance. In a more tranquil tone, the vocalist repeated the chorus then it seems to be from the first and second part of the piece. The orchestra followed the harmony and flow of the song, concluding the performance with a shock, in a big boom(Berger Xi).

Robert Walser of the Oxford University Press describes Metallicas songs to be constructed sectionally, with independent riffs played at high speed, sometimes in odd meters, and always with great ensemble precision. He went on often used contrasting slow-temp undistorted sections within aggressive songs. Their lyrics expressed feelings of anger, despair and fear, avoided references to sex and gender and often addressed questions of justice and political violence. It is genuine quality of any artist who aspires to learn from venues other than that of their own.

A painter who has a portfolio of only oils may have perfected their skill, but closed off the opportunity to learn from others that may share the same appreciation. In the symphony S & M conducted by Michael Kamen, and composed by Metallica, it is clear that they both satisfy the criteria for honest artists. For both the artist and the viewer, a sense of emotion is released when one relates to another. Michael Kamen and Metallica worked to embrace each others talents. It is very beautiful to witness two different artists eager to learn, and so willing to invite an audience into their reality.

A verbal art like poetry is reflective; it stops to think. Music is immediate, it goes on to become. ” – W. H. Auden. This quote best explains the complex art of music. Music is an elaborate art form that will always remain ever changing. Music developed drastically from it’s beginning in the Prehistoric era to the 14th Century. The exact origin of music is unknown. It is known that music was used in prehistoric times in magical or spiritual rituals but no other use is known. This knowledge is borne out of the fact that music still forms a vital part of most religious ceremonies today.

The history of Greek music is problematic. Although there are frequent references to musical performance in Greek manuscripts, there are less than twelve fragments of actual Greek music, including both vocal and instrumental music, that have survived. It is impossible to fully understand the notation to make an authentic performance. For the Greeks, music was of divine origin. According to Greek mythology, the gods themselves invented music and it’s instruments. Many of the early myths told of the powerful effects of music. Music played an important part in both the public and private lives of the Greeks.

They believed it could deeply affect human behavior. Greek music was built up of a series of distinct modes, each with it’s own name. According to the doctrine of ethos, each mode was so powerful that it gave music the ability to influence human actions in a precise way. The Phrygian mode expressed passionate and intimate emotions, where as the Dorian mode produced forceful, rigid feelings. In later Greek history the doctrine of ethos was widely argued by the most philosophical of men. Plato and Aristotle both had broadly different views on the power and importance of music.

The persocratic philosopher Pythagoras was even interested enough in music to develop the numerical octave system that we still use today. The Classical Greeks used music in much of their drama and by the time Greece was made a Roman province, music dominated dramatic performances and social activities. There is not a great deal of original Roman music. Most of the music that did come out of the Roman era was derived from the Greeks. Despite this, there was definite musical activity in the later Roman Empire. An ample amount of evidence survived for instruments and a good deal of theory also.

But by in large Greek music remained the most popular in the Roman Empire. Early Christian music drew off of Jewish sources. The custom of singing sacred verses at services was an ancient Jewish tradition that goes back to Mesopotamian sources. As the Church grew the music fell more into the care of professionals and it became greatly complex. Soon the church officials became fearful that the music was overpowering the worship and music was regulated in worship services. The beginnings of Byzantine music was mainly based on Syraic and Hebrew music.

Most music of this time was written for religious purposes and was strictly regulated by church officials. By 386 AD Saint Ambrose of Milian began the use of vernacular hymns in the church worship services. The development of the music of the Early Middle Ages was intertwined with the grow the of the Christian church. Chanting of scriptures and prayers was practiced earlier. By the sixth century AD modalchant, known as plainchant, had increased so greatly that Pope Gregory I had it collected and organized, and it came to be called Gregorian chant.

The chant did not have a regular rhythm but was fitted to the natural accents of the Latin words. Like all previous music, each chant consisted of a single melody, and all the singers sang the same notes. This type of music is called monophonic, or one-voiced. Nonreligious, or secular, music was composed by wandering poets who sang of chivalry and courtly love in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. In France they were either jongleurs, itinerant minstrels who made a living from their songs, or troubadour and troueres, aristocrats who sang for the love of music. In Germany the poet-musicians were called minnesingers.

Some two thousand minnstrel melodies are preserved in old manuscripts. The discovery that two voices could sing two separate melodies at the same time and still produce a pleasing sound occurred sometime around the ninth century. This discovery was called Polyphony. The genesis of polyphony occurred in France, first in very basic notation lacking precise pitch. By the twelfth century, polyphony was developed into elaborate forms in two centers: Paris and St. Martial de Limoges, the latter preceding the former. By this time, precise pitch notation is given, and so the footing is fairly firm.

The first experiments in polyphony were called organum. A secong voice or voices sang the chant melody at perhaps an interval of a fourth or fifth above the original, or tenor. Sometimes the two moved in opposite directions. Above the tenor a more elaborate part might be sung. As the two parts become more independent, often two distinct melodies proceeded at the same time. When the third and fourth parts were added, the music became truly polyphonic. Sometime after the mid-twelfth century, a new Notre Dame Cathedral was being built in Paris, and with it grew a school of composers.

Two names have been preserved from that school- Leonin and Perotin. They stretched the organum to unheard-of lengths and embellished it with flourishes of long melismas, or many notes sung to one syllable. New rhythmic patterns developed, as did repetitions of motifs, sequential patterns, and imitation. Out of this developed the motet, originally in Latin on a sacred text. Unlike the organum, the text was sung in the upper voices as well as the tenor. Bilingual motets (French-Latin, English-Latin) arose, and secular texts or combinations of sacred and secular texts were used.

Tenors were sometimes chosen from French popular songs instead of from plainchant. Instruments played lower parts, making the motet an accompanied solo song. The period culminated in the works of Guillaume de Machaut. He left 23 motets, more than 100 secular songs, and a mass. They are characterized by excellent craftsmanship with colorful melodic and harmonic inflections and constantly shifting rhythms. The later fourteenth century was a period during which the French style dominated secular composition throughout Europe.

It modified to reflect local tastes in Italy and England, but remained largely French in inspiration for some decades. However, Italian composers continued to develop a more native idiom, combining French Ars Nova ideas with indigenous genres. Music as a whole progressed slowly through the many years it’s been around, taking it’s time to perfect itself. It can be seen that in just the last few hundred years,1300- 1500AD, that the styles in music took a dramatic leap towards the future. It will be interesting to see how swiftly music will accustom itself to the next thousand years.

Isaac Albniz was a nationalist composer, and one of the greatest composers Spain has ever produced. Among the many musicologists who have researched and written about the music of Albniz, and the many pianists who have had occasion to comment on it, there is universal agreement regarding the artistic merit of his magnum opus, Iberia. Its rich harmonic vocabulary, rhythmic complexity, extensive dynamic range, and the ambitiousness of its architectural design are indeed praiseworthy; and in most respects, Iberia is a quantum leap forward from Albniz’s earlier works in the nationalist style.

However, if – as the vast majority of the aforementioned commentators have done – we were to focus most of our attention on this one work, we would undoubtedly fail to come to terms with that which is the very essence of Albniz’s music. Iberia, after all, is a synthesis of several music styles, including the sophisticated compositional techniques that Albniz learned in Paris, and the virtuosic piano writing he inherited from Liszt. His earlier works, on the other hand, are a relatively simple amalgamation of folk idioms and European salon style which stick closer to the source of Albniz’s inspiration, that being the Andalusian musical idiom.

The Evolution of the Andalusian Musical Idiom With the Moorish invasion of the Iberian peninsula in 711 A. D. came Arabic cultural influences that would profoundly effect Spanish music and architecture for centuries to come; especially that of Andalusia, the southern-most region of Spain from where Isaac Albniz drew most of his artistic inspiration. Unlike Christian music of the same time period, whose function was primarily liturgical, the “religious spirit did not apply to Arabian music.

According to the teachings of the Koran, wine women and song were forbidden pleasures unworthy of a pure and sincere follower of Allah. “39 But the Arabs and Syrians who settled in Spain were not so puritanical. Since the time of Abderrahman I (d. 788), the first caliph of Crdoba, the palaces of the rich were wholly given up to these delights. Large numbers of musicians, singers, poets, and dancers were maintained at court, and the palaces of the wealthy became gathering places for the great profusion of singers and musicians who achieved considerable prominence throughout Arab Spain. 40

During the whole of the Moorish period (711-1492 and after) music was primarily monodic, meaning that a single melodic line predominated, as in a folk melody. In melismatic passages, where singers would sing more floridly (several notes to a syllable), the music became heterophonic; that is, the accompanists were permitted to embellish the melodic line by introducing a simultaneous fourth, fifth or octave. 41

The musical form of these pieces was dictated by the poetical form, the most favored of which, the zajal and the muwashshah, were characterized by the alteration of a refrain and various stanzas, with the refrain coming first. In all vocal music of this type there was an obligatory, and sometimes rather lengthy, instrumental prelude, and after each refrain and stanza came an instrumental interlude that served to emphasize the formal structural of the poetry. At the end of the song, a closing postlude would follow. 43 This practice of alternating the vocal content with preludes, interludes, and postludes is omnipresent in Andalusian music, even today.

The accompaniment to these songs was performed on a variety of string instruments, both plucked (lutes) and bowed (rebec), along with percussion (tambourines). The next major development in Andalusian music was brought about by the Gypsies who first arrived in Barcelona in 1477. Fanning out across the Peninsula, they established colonies in those provinces most congenial to their way of life. Chief among these was Andalusia, and in particular the kingdom of Nasrid Granada, at that time the last Moslem stronghold on the Iberian peninsula.

Here, in what has since come to be regarded as the well-spring on Spanish Gypsy culture, the Gitanos dwelled with relative impunity until 1499, when the Spanish monarchy began enacting laws designed to inhibit their freewheeling lifestyle. In spite of the fact that many of these laws were framed during the same period that the Spanish Inquisition was striving to destroy all vestiges of Moslem, Jewish and Protestant influence in Spain, the Gypsies, notorious for their contempt of religious observances, were never persecuted on that score. 44

But when the expulsions and conversions of the Moslems began in 1525, and the subsequent prohibition of nearly everything of Eastern origin was affected, the Gypsies, who had adopted much of the Moorish music idiom as their own, had to quickly adapt to the change. As a result, percussion shifted from metallophones and membranophones (e. g. , tambourines) to castanets, hand clapping, and guitars. Over a period of time the Gypsies impressed enough of their personality on the Arab rhythms and vocal style to radically transform them.

In effecting these changes they created a musical style of their own, one that was “more congenial with their primitive, tribal lifestyle. “45 This transformation gave birth to what is called the cante jondo style, which in turn gave rise to the more modern cante flamenco46 that is still popular today. Contrary to Arabic music, the rhythms of cante jondo and cante flamenco are derived from dances. This assertion is complicated, however, by the fact in Andalusia songs and dances are usually combined by the group of singers, dancers, and guitarists that performs them.

In any case, the rhythms are almost always ternary and the phrases are generally four measures long. Within these basic twelve-beat rhythmic units, each dance has a different pattern of accents known as a comps. These patterns, like identical links in a chain, form the rhythmic ostinato which is the basis of the dance. Twelve-beat compses, or “rhythmic cycles”, as they are sometimes called, are the foundation of many of the most famous Andalusian songs and dances, including those which Albniz emulated.

Isaac Albniz and the Andalusian Musical Idiom Albniz incorporated a number of elements of Andalusian music into his compositional style, including dance rhythms, cante jondo type melodies progressing in conjunct motion within a restricted range, usually a sixth; the use of the Phrygian mode and coloristic Phrygian inflections in non-modal contexts; characteristic ornamentation; and guitar idioms which he transferred to the piano. The formal construction of most of Albniz’s music is also shaped by Andalusian folk music. Unlike most of his earlier pieces which have the guitar as their instrumental model, Iberia is largely pianistic.

While the guitar’s spirit may permeate this work, its technique has – for the most part – been relegated to characteristic effects. The earlier works of Albniz also differ from Iberia in terms of formal construction. Whereas almost all of the earlier Spanish compositions utilize rather simple ternary structures (sometimes with an introduction or coda), the twelve pieces in Iberia are architecturally quite complex. They employ characteristic dance rhythms, many of which alternate with a lyrical vocal refrain, or copla, and often are combined contrapuntally with the copla toward the end of the movement. 47

In this way, Albniz is able to develop his themes and thereby achieve a synthesis of the principals of sonata form and the Andalusian practice of alternating coplas with instrumental interludes and/or dance music. The earlier works also utilize characteristic coplas and dance music. However, prior to Iberia, the juxtaposition of this material is limited to the confines of an ABA form, and little, if any, development ever occurs. Various commentators have equated this absence of development with a lack of sophistication, and in doing so they betray their ignorance of both Albniz and Andalusian music.

To begin with, the development of themes, as in a typical eighteenth or nineteenth-century sonata form, was completely alien to the Andalusian musical idiom prior to Albniz; and the fact that he chose not to develop his themes during this stage of his career, speaks not of his inability to do so, but rather his adherence to the nationalist doctrine. One need only look to his Concierto fantastico, Op. 8, to realize the truth in this statement, for in this work Albniz demonstrates considerable skill in developing his themes in the European tradition. 8

To suggest that he should have assimilated more foreign influence into his early works in the national style is a contradiction in terms. Albniz’s initial avoidance of such complexities in his stylization of the Andalusian idiom was likewise a product of the socio-cultural conditions of late nineteenth-century Spain. The matter is well summarized by an unidentified Spanish musician in an interview with the novelist James Michener: When you demand that Falla and Albniz take Spanish themes and build from them what Brahms and Dvork built from theirs, you’re out of your mind.

Germany and Austria of that day had orchestras and opera companies and string ensembles that needed the music these men were writing. Spain did not. One small orchestra here, another there, a visiting opera company from Milan, and an audience who only wanted to to hear Carmen and La Bohm. The Spanish audience still doesn’t want a symphony or an opera featuring a large ensemble and a complicated structure. It wants a short, individualized work and that’s what the Spanish composer learned to supply. Zarzuela, not opera. Because symphonies and operas are not within our pattern.

Besides, the material that Pedrell resurrected for these men was ideally suited to individual types of presentation. In criticizing Falla and Albniz for not having produced in the grand manner, you are criticizing not the composer but the Spanish people, and you are betraying your own lack of understanding. ” “But do you agree,” I asked this Barcelona expert, “that the themes themselves, those soaring, passionate Spanish statements we find in Granados and Falla . . . they’re better than what Brahms and Dvork had to work with, aren’t they? ” “Much better.

But if you ask me next, ‘then why didn’t Spanish composers build better with those building blocks? ‘ I’ll have to repeat that your question makes no sense. It just doesn’t relate to the facts. “49 With Iberia, Albniz brought Spanish music into the twentieth-century. By greatly enriching its harmonic vocabulary, he was able to sustain the listener’s interest for longer periods of time, thus expanding his architectural possibilities. 50 Because he never lost sight of the source of his inspiration, Albniz was able to produce an original work of art, yet one that would readily be accepted by his fellow countrymen as their own.

The beginnings of rap are believed to based on African rhythms which were used as a form of communication by the native peoples. The lyrical component of rap music is thought to have been greatly influenced by Cab Calloway with his repetitive chants and scats, along with his call-and-response technique with the audience. Rap evolved and gained in popularity in the 1960’s when a few revolutionary “DJ’s,” including Kool DJ Herc, DJ Lovebug Starski, and DJ Hollywood, began to work block parties in the Bronx.

They would bring in large speakers, hook them up to a turntable and play two of the same record at the same time, repeating the same section of the vinyl over and over by scratching it. Other performers would chant and yell to the crowd. In 1979, music companies recorded rap for the first time. Such acts as The Sugar Hill Gang, The Fatback Band, and Grandmaster Flash were among the first to gain popularity. In 1982, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five released the first popular politically based rap.

Grandmaster’s song “The Message” deals with life in the inner city, and the stress of being around violence and drugs. It included such lyrics as, “Junkies in the alley with a baseball bat, I tried to get away but I can’t get far, cause the man with the touch-up repossessed my car, don’t push me ’cause I’m close to the edge” The early popularity of rap was hindered by an inability to reach new audiences. After much controversy, MTV began to run videos by black artists. These artists were showcased primarily on the new program “Yo! MTV Raps”.

The rhythms and the lyrics attracted a spectrum of listeners, from inner-city minorities to suburban upper-class whites. During the same era, as rap was rising in popularity, the infamous “PMRC hearings” occurred. Tennessee senator Al Gore’s wife, Tipper, led the PMRC, or Parents’ Music Resource Center. This group, which included a number of other wives of Washington legislators, convinced Congress to hold hearings regarding the placement of warning labels on “offensive” albums. The National PTA also called for warning labels on violent, sexually explicit, or vulgar albums in their yearly address in 1984.

During the Congressional hearings, several ideas were considered including warning labels, a ratings system, and singer/songwriter Frank Zappa’s idea which was to publish the actual lyrics of the album and put them on a sheet of paper inside the packaging. Zappa’s idea was dismissed, but the ideas of warning labels and ratings were reviewed, with the eventual recommendation that recording companies label their music based on content. Who determined content, and how, became the issue as demonstrated by the treatment of the 1992 album “Death Certificate” by the “Gangsta” rapper, Ice Cube.

This album was determined to be so profane that Billboard Magazine asked merchandisers to refuse to sell or advertise it. Ice Cube’s British label, Island Records, then edited two of the album’s tracks before selling it and without obtaining permission from Ice Cube to alter his recording. In one of these edited songs, “No Vaseline”, Ice Cube raps about his former N. W. A. bandmates with lyrics such as ” Yo Dre you been a dick, Eazy-E saw your ass and went in it quick. “Tried to dis Ice Cube but it wasn’t worth it, cause the broomstick fits your ass so perfect.

The language of these lyrics may be offensive to many, but if a buyer or a retailer is discouraged because of the warning label, listeners might also miss out on a song like “Alive on Arrival. ” In this song Ice Cube describes what it’s like to seek treatment at South Central L. A. ‘s much under-funded Martin Luther King Hospital. “Look at the waiting room, it’s filled to the brim like the County Jail day-room, nobody’s getting help, since we’re poor the hospital moves slow then I begin the ass-kissin’ just to get helped by an over-worked physician.

There is also an apparent inequality in the placement of these warning labels. For instance, Alanis Morrissette’s 1994 “Jagged Little Pill” album had swearing and references to oral sex in a public place, as well as breaking and entering. The Dixie Chicks, on their album “Fly” devote an entire song to the celebration of murdering an abusive man. Garth Brooks, in his song, “Thunder Rolls” also describes an abusive husband being killed by his wife. White, mainstream artists performed each one of these songs and none of them received warning labels.

While these labels were designed to inform parents and purchasers of albums about the content many states are now using them to determine which albums minors are permitted to purchase. In some states it is now illegal for anyone under the age of eighteen to purchase a labeled recording. Government attempts to legislate morality doesn’t stop with warning labels. A law drafted in the Senate by Senators John McCain, and Ernest Hollings proposed that “Censorware” be mandatory on all internet-accessible computers inside schools and libraries.

This would protect children, according to the senators, from unwanted or explicit words and images. However, along with pornography and other explicit sites containing swearing, sex, death, etc. , the official sites for the National Organization of Women (NOW), the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Discrimination (GLAAD), and anti-censorship sites such as Rock Out Censorship were also blocked. Also affected were sites containing information about rap music, and mp3’s of rap music. When asked to comment McCain said, “The prevention lies not in censoring what goes on the Internet, but rather in filtering what comes out of it.

Fortunately for those individuals who rely on internet-access in libraries or schools because they don’t have enough money to own a computer, the Supreme Court unanimously voted to overturn the law. Not all of government’s attempts at censorship are as obvious as “Censorware. ” In 1997, Governor of Texas, George W. Bush signed a bill that prohibited state funds from being invested in the stock of any company who released “offensive” material through their media businesses. This bill, however, is based on judgements and not concrete qualifications.

For example, “sexual deviancy” could pertain to sexual acts with animals, rape, or sodomy, which includes both oral and anal sex. Thus the label of “sexual deviancy” could ban holdings in all companies who release any music with pro-homosexual lyrics. Other states including Virginia have followed suit by passing the same law. This means that millions of dollars in stock could potentially be removed from companies such as Time Warner if the state decides it doesn’t approve of any one album produced by that company.

This gives the government a huge amount of power and control over the artistic content of a company’s label. Local governments practice censorship even more often than the federal government. In Detroit, Michigan for example, the Pontiac Silverdome hosted its first rap concert ever, only to have fights break out among the spectators throughout the concert. Concert-planners admitted they were not prepared to handle the large numbers of people they allowed inside the dome, yet the state attempted to pass a bill banning all rap concerts from the area.

In Oxford, Mississippi, the home of the University of Mississippi, two club-owners were arrested for purveying lewd and explicit acts after booking rap-group Two Live Crew. At trial, the Honorable Glen Anderson refused to hear from a single witness for the defense, or to watch a videotape of the concert itself. Then, against even the prosecution’s wishes, the judge sentenced each man to six months in prison, for simply allowing Two Live Crew play at their club.

Finally, in an extreme example of the war between disputing groups, was the episode occurring on December 1, 1995 when Boston radio station WBCN played the newly released “Hempilation” album. The album was a compilation by numerous musicians and the National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws. By mid-day, Georgette Wilson, the ex-director of the Governor’s Alliance Against Drugs, along with several DEA agents called in by Wilson, stormed the station and confiscated the albums. The private sector, most notably in the form of super-retailer Wal-Mart, has joined the government in the censorship war.

Wal-Mart, a largely Christian-based discount chain centered in Bentonville, Arkansas, reportedly sells 50 million albums per year and is the largest retailer of music in the nation. Many of Wal-Mart’s customers may not realize however that the chain refuses to sell any album they find offensive, including those with a warning label. Being the largest music retailer in the nation gives Wal-Mart the power to muscle a record company into editing their musical releases. In some cases Wal-Mart doesn’t even let the consumer know that they’re buying albums that contain altered words or artwork.

If someone walks into Wal-Mart and wants to buy Nirvana’s “In Utero” album, they will see the album, but they may not be told by the store that one track named “Rape Me” has now been changed to “Waif Me. ” Rap groups like Busta Rhymes, Junior M. A. F. I. A. , and Da Brat have all been edited. One of today’s leaders in censorship, especially censorship of rap, has become C. Delores Tucker. Working with former Drug Czar William Bennett and assorted congressmen, C. Delores Tucker has made strides to block America’s access to “vulgar” music, especially rap.

C. Delores Tucker has a colorful past. As early as 1966, the Philadelphia Inquirer named Tucker as one of the Top 10 Worst SlumLords in the city. She was later named Commonwealth Secretary of Pennsylvania until Milton Schapp fired her for “misuse of public office”. Today she is the leader of the National Political Congress of Black Women. Ms. Tucker and William Bennett successfully raided a board meeting by the leaders of Time-Warner, and used their might to get the company to drop Interscope and Death Row records, two major sources of rap music.

Afterward, Tucker bullied Suge Knight, the now former CEO of Death Row Records, into handing the label over to her. Both companies sued Tucker for extortion. During the fight, Tucker threatened Suge Knight, via her attorney, that if Death Row was not turned over to her Suge would spend the rest of his life in jail. Suge Knight is now in jail. C. Delores Tucker also has sued Tupac Shakur for his “All Eyez On Me” album, which she described as “ruining her sex-life”. Tucker then sued Newsweek Magazine for running a story about her lawsuit against Tupac.

Does rap music get an undeserved bad name? Although rap is different from other bands such as Marilyn Manson, their fights are the one in the same. Yes, some rap does promote violence. But as far back as Shakespearean plays murder and deceit have been common in entertainment. But the worries parents and legislators have are not unfounded. What can one do to guide their children in this world we live in? “Listen to them,” says Dana Wilson, one of the leaders of the Crime Prevention Resource Center of Fort Worth, Texas. I contacted Mr.

Wilson after seeing a description of his group on a website. The CPRC advises parents and teachers in the Fort Worth community about how to help their children in a world of increasing violence, both in life and media. “Parents need to understand where their kids are coming from,” advised Dana Wilson. In America, one man’s opinion is supposed to be just that, an opinion. And with nearly 300 million opinions in this country alone, why should a select few get to choose what the public in general should be able to access? Rap music and all other forms of media have their places in this world.

While some may argue strongly about whether certain types of music are beneficial or even safe for society to witness, their arguments remain their personal opinions. The true fight for free speech lies not in fighting for the right to hear what you agree with, but in fighting for the freedom of those with whom you disagree. When you take away the public’s right to voice a differing opinion, either through their music, their writing, or their art you strike at the very heart of freedom for which America is supposed to stand.

The Offspring have been playing punk rock since 1986 when Holland and Kreisel (Greg K) got together through their high school cross country track team in Garden Grove, Calif. The quartet progressed from playing covers on the weekends to a deal with Epitaph, the Los Angeles indie run by former Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz. The 1994 Epitaph release ‘SMASH’ spawned the international hit “Come Out and Play (Keep ‘Em Separated). ” “The Offspring’s second album for Epitaph did the impossible: it landed in the Top Five, unheard of for independent records.

Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All-Music Guide By 1984, when what would have become the Offspring formed, the original Orange County punk scene had fractured. “We used to go this dance club called Circle City, and there’d be 10 different cliques,” says Kriesel. “In our high school there was a rockabilly scene, as well as a mod scene and a New Wave scene, as well as a punk scene,” Holland adds. But at Pacifica High, a large public school in Garden Grove, Calif. Holland wasn’t a member of any of those groups.

The third of four children born to a hospital administator father and a schoolteacher mother, he kept busy being “good kid” and hoped to be a doctor. “Sports were a really big thing,” Holland says, “I was on the cross-country team. ” He also happened to be class valedictorian (thus his nickname, Dexter). His senior year, Holland’s older brother gave him a Rodney on the ROQ compilation album. Before then, Holland was a casual listener.

But soon after, he was devouring Flipside and Maximumrocknroll, fanzines out of Pasadena, Calif. , and Berkeley, Calif. respecively, that are virtual how-to guides to punkdome. His favorite bands were T. S. O. L. (particulary 1981’s Dance With Me), the Adolescents and Agent Orange County bands that weren’t as hung up on politic as their Bay Area counterparts. Holland’s cross-country teammate Greg Kriesel discovered punk even later. His investment-banker father saw law school in his son’s future. And for most of high school, Kriesel was a sports fan and self-proclaimed jock (he also played baseball).

The first punk records he ever heard were the ones the ones Holland played for him. Music wasn’t something that meant a lot to me,” he says. “But I started listening to it because it was around, and I got used to it. ” Holland and Krisel formed their first band, Manic Subsidal, with two other cross- country teammates one night in 1984 after failing to get in a Social Distortion show. At the time, the two didn’t even own instruments, much less know how to play them. “Bryan and I both learned together,” says Kriesel, “and he wasn’t even playing chords at the time, so he’d play on one string, and I tried to do the same thing.

By the summer we were actually playing songs, but it took a while. ” Kriesel’s house was the site of the band’s first gigs. “It’s just always a hangout,” Kriesel says, “on any given weekend night up to 20 people could drop by. I had a big upstairs that was pretty much mine, and my mom was downstairs. But she’s always been really cool about it. That fall, Holland began premed studies at USC (he’s currently a Ph. D. candidate in molecular biology).

Kriesel was attending Golden West Junior College and later recieved a B. A. n finance from Long Beach State while working part time in a print shop (he’s planning to attend law school). Weekends were the only time the band could rehearse. Once Holland had written a handful of songs with self-explanitory titles like “Very Sarcastic” and “Sorority Bitch,” the fledgling band headed for a heap studio. Momentarily waylaid when its guitarist jumped ship, the band recruited Kevin Wasserman, an older Pacifica grad who then worked as the school janitor.

Pretty soon, Wasserman was “not doing a hell of a lot except practicing at Greg’s house on weekends and drinking excessively. Being the only member of the band over 21, Wasserman was particularly useful when it came to buying beer. “I remember being amazed by Bryan,” Wasserman says, “He was valedictorian, he was such a math geek. So when I first saw him with black hair and plaid bondage pants, I was like ‘What are ou doing? ‘ But I thought it was cool, going beyond what I thought was society’s role for him. ” Ron Welty moved to Garden Grove for part of high school, and it was there that his older stepsister introduced him to Holland.

My mom’s been through a few divorces,” Welty says. “She’d get remarried and we’d move, and then she’d get divorced, we’d move. ” Welt was only 16 when he begged Holland to let him substitute for Manic Subsidal’s drummer who had started medical school and wads missing lots of gigs. In 1987, the Offsping paid to release their own 7-inch single. Unable to fford the additional quarter per copy it cost to paste the front sleves to the backs, the band bought a case of beer and glue sticks and held a party for its friends. To this day the covers don’t hold together too well,” says Holland.

It took the band two and a half years to get rid of the 1,000 copies it printed. Two years and a pile of rejections later, the Offspring scored a contract with Nemesis, a small punk label distributed by Cargo. After tracking down producer Thom Wilson, who had crafted their favorite albums by T. S. O. L. , the Vandals and the Dead Kennedys, the Offspring ecorded another 7-inch single, called Baghdad, and an album debut titled The Offspring. All punk bands back in ’84 wrote about was police, death, religion and war,” says Holland. “So that’s what we did. ”

While recording a track for a Flipside compilation with Brett Gurewitz – owner of Epitaph records and then Southern California’s biggest punk success story, Bad Religion – the Offspring glimpsed a rosier future. “A little after that, I got a tape,” says Gurewitz. “But I have to admit I passed on it. ” A year later, when the Offspring began circulating demos for what would become heir next album to every punk label they could think of, Gurewitz reconcidered. It definitely had what people call the Epitaph sound,” he says.

“High energy, rebelleous punk with great melodies and cool economical song structures. “In 1992 Epitaph released Ignition, 12 brief but energetic Offspring songs that summed up the previous decade of Orange County Punk. Other Epitaph bands include Rancid and NOFX. In 1994 their breakthough single Come out and Play and top hit Self Esteem helped push thier third album, Smash to the best selling independent record of all time (9 million lus), and heavy MTV rotation.

After the success of Smash, new fans discovered Ignition as it reappeared in stores. Due to the amount of overpriced, poor quality bootlegs, they rereleased their self titled The Offspring in 1995 with thier own label, Nitro. Nitro has released albums for several other bands, including The Vandals and Guttermouth. In 1996, the Offspring signed with Columbia records after disputes with Epitaph. Their next album, Ixnay on the Hombre, is due out in February 1997. They also did some festivals in Europe. They will start a new tour in early 97.

Bon Jovi is a popular pop/rock band. The band members are Jon Bon Jovi, Richard Sambora, David Bryan, and Tico Torres. The rock group, Bon Jovi, was formed in 1983. Over the years the rock group has won many awards. In 1987 they were awarded the American Music Award for the Best Pop/Rock Band, Duo or Group. Then in 1990 they won the Golden Globe Award for Best Song for their song, Blaze of Glory, from Young Guns II soundtrack. Many thought that Bon Jovi had passed its peak when the rock world was changed by the rise of alternative music, but the band overcame that musical climate problem and even became more popular.

Some critics dismiss the band as lite metal and, more recently as a hair band; however, Bon Jovi has found true love with the ones who really count: radio, video, and the fans. The main reason the band has stayed popular over the years is due to their sincerity of feeling that comes through in their heartfelt lyrics and emotion-packed sound. The members of Bon Jovi love what they do and it shows. Jon Bon Jovi is the lead singer for the band. Jon was born on March 2, 1962 in Perth Amboy, New Jersey. Jon Bon Jovis birth name was John Bongiovi.

A record executive, Derek Shulman, with the record company Polygram changed John Bongiovis ame to Jon Bon Jovi. Jons father is John Bongiovi, a hairdresser, and his mother is Carol Bongiovi. Jon has two brothers, Anthony and Matthew. He grew up in Sayreville, New Jersey. He was in the band, Raze, in the eighth grade. Then he attended Sayreville War Memorial High School. During his early teens he was hanging out at local clubs convincing people that one day he would be a rock star. Jon was influenced by rock stars like Bruce Springsteen, Southside Johnny, and the Asbury Jukes.

When he was 16 he was playing clubs. It was not long before he started playing in a ten-piece rhythm and lues band called Atlantic City Expressway with keyboardist David Bryan. Jon Bon Jovi also performed with bands called The Rest, The Lechers, and the Wild Ones. Meanwhile, Richie Sambora was also performing locally with a funk and fusion outfit called the Extremes. The members of Bon Jovi had crossed paths in these early days, but the current group members did not come together until March of 1983. This is when the first Bon Jovi single, Runaway, had become a minor hit.

At that time Jon Bon Jovi was working sweeping floors at a recording studio that his second cousin, Tony Bongiovi, was co-owner of. Jon had written Runaway and recorded a demo of the song at his cousins studio. A local radio station started giving the song Runaway some serious airtime. The success of the song Runaway got Jon Bon Jovi noticed and he realized he needed more than just back-up musicians like that he had used for the song Runaway. This is when Richie Sambora and the other group members signed on and the band came together as a whole.

Also this is when Polygram Records executive, Derek Shulman, changed John Bongiovis name to Jon Bon Jovi. The bands self-titled debut came out January 21, 1984. The album was filled with the groups now- ignature power ballads and hooked-filled tunes underscored by soaring guitar riffs and well-crafted melodies. The album was a rugged soulful collection of songs about how tough it is being a teenager. The album went gold and sales were over 500,000. Bon Jovi released their follow-up album, 7800 Farenheit, in April 1985 which included the hit singles Only Lonely and Silent Night.

This album sold equally as well as the first album. The band then started touring as openers for the Scorpions, Kiss, and Judas Priest. This helped the band build up a considerable fan base and to give them a powerful stage presence. Bon Jovi then released the bands third album, Slippery When Wet. The album was powered by songs like Livin on a Prayer and Wanted Dead or Alive. The album went gold and platinum simultaneously within 6 weeks of its release. By April of 1987, Slippery When Wet had sold seven million copies.

The band, Bon Jovi, was on the top of the world. They won the American Music Award and Peoples Choice Awards as Band of the Year. Also, MTV gave Bon Jovi a Best Performance Award for the video Livin on a Prayer. Then in 1990 the band won the Golden Globe Award for Best Song for Blaze of Glory from Young Guns II soundtrack. The Bon Jovi band members all were born in New Jersey and had crossed paths in the early days before the band was formed. Richard Sambora plays the guitar, piano, sax and trumpet. His nickname is the King of Swing.

He is married to actress Heather Locklear and has a child, Ava Elizabeth whom was born on October 4th, 1997. David Bryan (real name: David Bryan Rashbaum) plays the piano and synthetizer. He is married to April and is the father to twins, Colton and Gabrielle. Tico Torres (real name: Hector Torres) plays the drums and percussion. His nickname is The Hit Man. He was formerly married to model Eva Herzigova, but is currently arried to model Maria Alejandra Marquez. Jon Bon Jovi (real name: John Francis Bongiovi) is the main singer of the band and also plays the guitar, piano, harmonica, and keyboards.

His nickname is Captain Kidd and Elvis. He married his highschool sweetheart Dorothea Hurley on April 28, 1989. He is the father of two children, daughter Stephanie Rose born May 31, 1993 and son Jesse James Louis born February 19, 1995. The Bon Jovi band members of Jon Bon Jovi, Richard Sambora, David Bryan, and Tico Torres started out in the bars of New Jersey, but have went to superstardom. They ll grew up in the public eye and have matured both professionally and personally.

The bands ten top hits are Its My Life, Ill Be There For You, Always, Thank You For Loving Me, Say It Isnt So, In These Arms, Dry County, Two Story Town, Livin on a Prayer, and Next 100 Years. Since the time the Bon Jovi rock group was formed in 1983 to present they have received many awards like the American Music Award, the Golden Globe Award, and MTV awards. Their heartfelt lyrics and emotion-packed sound in addition to each members love of music has made Bon Jovi a popular and successful band. As the years pass Bon Jovi just gets better and better.

Nullsoft Winamp is a fast, flexible, high fidelity music player for Windows 95/98/NT. Winamp supports MP3, MP2, CD, MOD, WAV and other audio formats. Winamp also supports custom interfaces called skins, audio visualization and audio effect plug-ins. Nullsoft also provides a high quality website at http://www.winamp.com. The Winamp homepage provides support, information, software downloads, and music downloads for Nullsofts music products. Winamp is a high quality music player for your personal computer.

The first thing to look for when considering a program to play music on your computer is sound quality. Nullsoft Winamp has the ability to play CD quality sound from MP3, MP2, CD, MOD, WAV and other audio formats. Winamp has a ten band graphic equalizer and built-in pre-amplifier that allows the user greater control over sound quality even before the music passes through a sound card or speakers. If you are not comfortable with changing the equalizer settings yourself, Winamp has hundreds of preset settings which are categorized by music type. Examples of this include Jazz, Rock, Reggae, and many more. Winamp users even have the ability to create and save song-specific pre-amplifier and equalizer settings.

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The Nullsoft Winamp website has a Plugin and Skin collection available for downloads to further customize your copy of Winamp. There are hundreds of different plugins and skins to choose from. Plugins for Winamp range from audio visualization oscilloscopes to audio effects like distortion and surround sound. Skin categories range from different colors to cartoons and artwork. Technically advanced users can even create their own skins.

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Customers have the ability to read step-by-step instructions on how to use Winamp and all of its custom features by clicking on easy to see links. Nullsoft also provides free downloads of Winamp and upgrades whenever they become available. Plugin and skin downloads are not only available from the Winamp website, but from hundreds of other sites on the Internet. To find Winamp on the Internet, just search for the keyword Winamp on the search engine of your choice. All Winamp products are considered freeware and, as the title suggests, free of charge.

Nullsoft Winamp is a versatile music player for your personal computer. It has the ability to process several sound file types including MP3, MP2, CD, MOD, WAV, and other audio formats. Winamp has many customizable features. Users have the ability to create their own play lists, and the Nullsoft Winamp homepage has hundreds of skins and plugins to choose from. Skins and Plugins are also available from various websites on the Internet. Winamp may be slightly difficult to learn to use, but customer service and technical support are easily available from the Nullsoft Winamp homepage. Winamp is an excellent music player for your computer.