Not ashamed to say Careless Whisper is my favorite song. The girl he dumped in the video was way hotter!
Thank you John. As someone with a dedicated listening room, I’m always on the hunt for well produced and engineered music to get the most out of my setup.
John, thank you for your contribution to the content of ACF. Your insights and selections are educational. As the subject of these articles is far outside my bandwidth, I enjoy the opportunity to read about something I know little about.
Back when I was writing first for TAS and then Stereophile, I could assume that 80% of the readers were among the more musically sophisticated of the populace as a whole, and so I wrote for that audience. But the perception evolved that I held my teacup with my pinkie lifted, and that at the stroke of 4 PM, Jeeves would bring me a Campari and tonic.
So, people were shocked, shocked that I found some musical value in things like "Walk Away Renee." Specifically (but the same also holds true for "Long Long Time" and "MacArthur Park"), the use of classical instruments and forms during an age when all the popular music was supposed to be "Revolutionary."
However, that particular fig leaf falls to the ground when I crank up "Go All the Way."
I wonder which hip hop recording are suitable for system testing. There are tracks that I like, such as the aforementioned B.O.B. or "Got You All in Check" or "The Rain" but I don't know if the recordings or production are particularly good. Some of the really old stuff sounds like Robert Johnson had an 808 and some of the really new stuff sounds like "The Mummy Returns" looks, as in not just bad but really artificial.
IMHO the Ultimate Progenitor of Rap was Gil-Scott Heron's 1970 (revised 1971) spoken-word poetry recital, "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised." Which I genuinely think should be a Core Requirement of Cultural Literacy in American Music. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQknVIlgR9Q
That said, the revised version with more instruments does seem to be indebted to some degree to the mid-1950s fad of Beatniks reading poetry to the accompaniment of jazz instrumentation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siRSwGmeMb0
Perhaps. But we are 23 years into the 21st Century and despite all of us shaking our collective fists at clouds there has been some interesting music created more recently, some of it even has not been composed by Skynet. More to the point, re your expertise, of those, which recordings are good? I am planning to pull it up on youtube and blast it at the trailhead from my Bose Soundlink Flex to see if I agree. Just kidding I don't have a Bose, I have a JBL.
Not all eras produce music (or any other art) of quality equal to all other eras.
If you put the highest value on exquisite draftsmanship in painting, you can choose from paintings from the time of Raphael (died 1520) to the time of Salvador Dali (died 1989).
The Golden Age of Marching Band Music peaked in the post-US Civil War period, when in the US there were 30,000 brass bands. Most breweries had brass bands of brewery workers, and, I am sure, a few ringers to glue the rest together.
In retrospect, I should have succumbed to the Siren's Song of a steady paycheck from the CIA. Because I love looking at History from 30,000 feet. So, here are my thoughts about why the Greatness of the Year 1974 in Music is not likely to be surpassed any time soon.
SIDEBAR: Why I say that. In the same month (January 1974) that Court and Spark was released, here are other artists who released LPs that also charted: Elvis Presley, Graham Nash, Hot Tuna, Grace Slick, Rod Stewart / Faces, Bobby Womack, Bob Dylan, Blue Magic, Linda Ronstadt, Foghat, Gram Parsons, Carly Simon, Brian Eno, Harmonia, The Love Unlimited Orchestra, Leo Sayer, Gordon Lightfoot, Barbra Streisand... . The young Joni Mitchell could not start an important career today, because she is not a slightly tweaked Taylor Swift. Because that is what pays a return on investment. The data prove it.
So, my view from 30,000 feet. In 1974, the dynamic of the popular music business was that the SUPPLY was creating the DEMAND. By this I mean, wonderful musical artists committed to vinyl what was in their heads and in their hearts. The rest of us listened to the radio, read Stereo Review, and when we visited the record stores, some of us bought the Foghat record, some of us bought the Streisand record, some of us bought the Brian Eno record--and all those records are very different from each other.
Today, because of the Shazam Effect...
SIDEBAR: In the December 2014 issue of The Atlantic Monthly, Derek Thompson pointed out that Shazam [a smartphone app used to sample and identify unfamiliar recordings] does a lot more than provide song titles to its users. Shazam also harvests data about where you heard the song, and so on. The article linked that two-way exchange of data to the narrowing of musical styles: Now that the music business has unprecedented information about what people like, it wants to deliver more of the same.
The irony is that today's technology can deliver nearly unlimited variety, but what people ask for is increasingly—and unprecedentedly—similar. Recent research indicates that 77% of the total revenue from sales of recorded music goes to the top 1% of artists and bands. Further, today's 10 best-selling tracks have 82% more market share than did the Top 10 singles of 10 years ago.
A massive study by the Spanish National Research Council concluded that, compared to decades going back to the 1950s, the music of the decade just ended exhibited the smallest variety of pitch transitions within songs.
Today, because of the Shazam Effect, the dynamic of the popular music business is that the DEMAND creates the SUPPLY. If Taylor Swift were a small country in Africa, she'd be better off than most other small countries in Africa. The record business realizes that people are so hooked by Taylor Swift that their receptiveness to a new artist will be determined by the extent to which that new artist pushes the same buttons.
Case in point, I wrote a while back, about Olivia Rodrigo's "drivers license":
Olivia Rodrigo’s song “drivers license” explores the Kierkegaardian dilemma whether to surrender to the Taylor-Swiftian temptation to use one’s newly-acquired driver’s license to drive through the suburbs, with the sole intent of getting a glimpse of the exterior of the home of the cad boyfriend who just dumped you.
The movie business is not interested in the intellectual little art-house movies such as Eric Romer's "Claire's Knee," which somehow managed to make money in the world of the early 1970s. The movie business wants Blockbusters.
The same for the music business. Attempting to frame a reply to your comment, I re-scanned the nominations list for the 2024 Grammys, and... I was unfamiliar with most of the music; and the music in the categories that I am familiar with struck me as OK, but nothing to write home about.
In an effort to not be a total wet blanket, I was pleased to stumble upon evidence that art-house record label ECM is still releasing music that can make you stop and think, and perhaps even feel:
Just wanted to say that I have really enjoyed these articles and especially this one. Refreshing for someone so well versed in the industry outline some of his guilty pleasures. We all have them but some seem to be too high-brow to explain theirs. My musical tastes are all over from Stax to Steely Dan to New Wave. But even I enjoy a little "Careless Whisper" every now and then.
Not ashamed to say Careless Whisper is my favorite song. The girl he dumped in the video was way hotter!
Thank you John. As someone with a dedicated listening room, I’m always on the hunt for well produced and engineered music to get the most out of my setup.
Thanks for reading and thanks for writing in! I put together (I hate the word "curated") this six-hour playlist for my friends at Grace Design.
https://play.qobuz.com/playlist/4730138
Lots of wonderful stuff there.
all my best,
john
I’ll check it out. Is there a Tidal playlist?
Sorry, no. Tidal recently closed down all the free Journalist and Industry accounts.
My guess is that if you do not have a Qobuz subscription you can view the playlist but not listen to it.
Good list. Year of the Car is awesome. I understand Don’t Walk Away Renee inspired More than a Feeling. Maybe you wrote that in a different post.
Yes, I wrote about that on The Tannhauser Gate.
ciao,
john
Yes. That was very interesting!
'Roads to Moscow' is a fav.
Not to mention the cover art, very fun!
John, thank you for your contribution to the content of ACF. Your insights and selections are educational. As the subject of these articles is far outside my bandwidth, I enjoy the opportunity to read about something I know little about.
Dear Lynn, I wish there were more people like you, that is, those who are capable of deriving pleasure from the experience of learning!
Thanks,
john
Second, in all respects. I have to say these choices were not what I was expecting. (Not sure what I was expecting, but not these!) Thanks, John!
Well, you and everybody else.
Back when I was writing first for TAS and then Stereophile, I could assume that 80% of the readers were among the more musically sophisticated of the populace as a whole, and so I wrote for that audience. But the perception evolved that I held my teacup with my pinkie lifted, and that at the stroke of 4 PM, Jeeves would bring me a Campari and tonic.
So, people were shocked, shocked that I found some musical value in things like "Walk Away Renee." Specifically (but the same also holds true for "Long Long Time" and "MacArthur Park"), the use of classical instruments and forms during an age when all the popular music was supposed to be "Revolutionary."
However, that particular fig leaf falls to the ground when I crank up "Go All the Way."
Thanks for being a fan,
john
I appreciate the look inside some of the music I lived through.
I wonder which hip hop recording are suitable for system testing. There are tracks that I like, such as the aforementioned B.O.B. or "Got You All in Check" or "The Rain" but I don't know if the recordings or production are particularly good. Some of the really old stuff sounds like Robert Johnson had an 808 and some of the really new stuff sounds like "The Mummy Returns" looks, as in not just bad but really artificial.
IMHO the Ultimate Progenitor of Rap was Gil-Scott Heron's 1970 (revised 1971) spoken-word poetry recital, "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised." Which I genuinely think should be a Core Requirement of Cultural Literacy in American Music. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQknVIlgR9Q
That said, the revised version with more instruments does seem to be indebted to some degree to the mid-1950s fad of Beatniks reading poetry to the accompaniment of jazz instrumentation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siRSwGmeMb0
ciao,
john
The revolution will not be right back
After a message about a white tornado, white lightning or white people
You will not have to worry about a dove in your bedroom
The tiger in your tank or the giant in your toilet bowl
The revolution will not go better with Coke
The revolution will not fight germs that may cause bad breath
The revolution will put you in the driver's seat
Or "Jackie Onassis blowing her nose."
I always thought that was a very sly double-entendre that could have stopped at the word "blowing."
ciao,
john
Perhaps. But we are 23 years into the 21st Century and despite all of us shaking our collective fists at clouds there has been some interesting music created more recently, some of it even has not been composed by Skynet. More to the point, re your expertise, of those, which recordings are good? I am planning to pull it up on youtube and blast it at the trailhead from my Bose Soundlink Flex to see if I agree. Just kidding I don't have a Bose, I have a JBL.
Not all eras produce music (or any other art) of quality equal to all other eras.
If you put the highest value on exquisite draftsmanship in painting, you can choose from paintings from the time of Raphael (died 1520) to the time of Salvador Dali (died 1989).
The Golden Age of Marching Band Music peaked in the post-US Civil War period, when in the US there were 30,000 brass bands. Most breweries had brass bands of brewery workers, and, I am sure, a few ringers to glue the rest together.
In retrospect, I should have succumbed to the Siren's Song of a steady paycheck from the CIA. Because I love looking at History from 30,000 feet. So, here are my thoughts about why the Greatness of the Year 1974 in Music is not likely to be surpassed any time soon.
SIDEBAR: Why I say that. In the same month (January 1974) that Court and Spark was released, here are other artists who released LPs that also charted: Elvis Presley, Graham Nash, Hot Tuna, Grace Slick, Rod Stewart / Faces, Bobby Womack, Bob Dylan, Blue Magic, Linda Ronstadt, Foghat, Gram Parsons, Carly Simon, Brian Eno, Harmonia, The Love Unlimited Orchestra, Leo Sayer, Gordon Lightfoot, Barbra Streisand... . The young Joni Mitchell could not start an important career today, because she is not a slightly tweaked Taylor Swift. Because that is what pays a return on investment. The data prove it.
So, my view from 30,000 feet. In 1974, the dynamic of the popular music business was that the SUPPLY was creating the DEMAND. By this I mean, wonderful musical artists committed to vinyl what was in their heads and in their hearts. The rest of us listened to the radio, read Stereo Review, and when we visited the record stores, some of us bought the Foghat record, some of us bought the Streisand record, some of us bought the Brian Eno record--and all those records are very different from each other.
Today, because of the Shazam Effect...
SIDEBAR: In the December 2014 issue of The Atlantic Monthly, Derek Thompson pointed out that Shazam [a smartphone app used to sample and identify unfamiliar recordings] does a lot more than provide song titles to its users. Shazam also harvests data about where you heard the song, and so on. The article linked that two-way exchange of data to the narrowing of musical styles: Now that the music business has unprecedented information about what people like, it wants to deliver more of the same.
The irony is that today's technology can deliver nearly unlimited variety, but what people ask for is increasingly—and unprecedentedly—similar. Recent research indicates that 77% of the total revenue from sales of recorded music goes to the top 1% of artists and bands. Further, today's 10 best-selling tracks have 82% more market share than did the Top 10 singles of 10 years ago.
A massive study by the Spanish National Research Council concluded that, compared to decades going back to the 1950s, the music of the decade just ended exhibited the smallest variety of pitch transitions within songs.
Today, because of the Shazam Effect, the dynamic of the popular music business is that the DEMAND creates the SUPPLY. If Taylor Swift were a small country in Africa, she'd be better off than most other small countries in Africa. The record business realizes that people are so hooked by Taylor Swift that their receptiveness to a new artist will be determined by the extent to which that new artist pushes the same buttons.
Case in point, I wrote a while back, about Olivia Rodrigo's "drivers license":
Olivia Rodrigo’s song “drivers license” explores the Kierkegaardian dilemma whether to surrender to the Taylor-Swiftian temptation to use one’s newly-acquired driver’s license to drive through the suburbs, with the sole intent of getting a glimpse of the exterior of the home of the cad boyfriend who just dumped you.
https://www.hagerty.com/media/opinion/music-for-your-road/olivia-rodrigo-and-drivers-license-pondering-a-cultural-phenomenon/
The movie business is not interested in the intellectual little art-house movies such as Eric Romer's "Claire's Knee," which somehow managed to make money in the world of the early 1970s. The movie business wants Blockbusters.
The same for the music business. Attempting to frame a reply to your comment, I re-scanned the nominations list for the 2024 Grammys, and... I was unfamiliar with most of the music; and the music in the categories that I am familiar with struck me as OK, but nothing to write home about.
In an effort to not be a total wet blanket, I was pleased to stumble upon evidence that art-house record label ECM is still releasing music that can make you stop and think, and perhaps even feel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXxuHgT3mnU
all my best,
john
Just wanted to say that I have really enjoyed these articles and especially this one. Refreshing for someone so well versed in the industry outline some of his guilty pleasures. We all have them but some seem to be too high-brow to explain theirs. My musical tastes are all over from Stax to Steely Dan to New Wave. But even I enjoy a little "Careless Whisper" every now and then.
Heartfelt thanks from this music lover.
john
I never imagined there was a precise correlation between tape speed and pitch!🤯
(Mcarthur Park French horn note)
I never imagined there was a precise correlation between tape speed and pitch!🤯
(Mcarthur Park French horn note)
I never imagined there was a precise correlation between tape speed and pitch!🤯
(Mcarthur Park French horn note)