Full Sail Music History 2 Pretty Lights Podcast

Pretty Lights - Independent Research Entry

Derek Vincent Smith, more popularly know as Pretty Lights, has changed the game in terms of how to make it to stardom in the modern music era.  His approach to the music business is entirely contradictory to the traditional means of they way the industry works.  Smiths’ reinvention of the music business fits lock and key with his approach to production.  The marriage of Derek’s production style and business savvy have proven to be tremendously successful as Pretty Lights becomes a household name in the electronic and independent hip-hop world.  

Pretty Lights is best known for the flagrant use of classic era r and b, soul, gospel, blues and rare funk samples to produce some of the most entertaining instrumental hip hop and electronic music to date.  With the amount of sampling Petty Lights uses in the production, the licensing fee’s required to secure the sample rights to an entire albums worth of material would prove to be incomprehensible.  As each song produced by Pretty Lights plainly references a famous drum loop, horn stab, vocal hook or guitar lick, Smith has decided forgo the whole process of obtaining the costly rights to each of the samples he uses.  Smith brilliantly decided that instead of paying upfront licensing fees; Pretty Lights would side step the music industries traditional distribution channel of album sales and opt for a more pervasive tactic and give away all of the music for free.  Armed only with the strength of the music, Pretty Lights began distributing music for free via the Pretty Lights website back in 2006 with the release of the album “Taking up Your Precious Time.”  This album is best know for the song “Finally Moving” where Smith sample’s a heart wrenching vocal line from the Etta James song “Something’s Got a Hold On Me.”  Although the music took a few years to grasp the public’s attention via word of mouth alone, Pretty Lights' popularity has sky rocketed since 2009 playing large venues and music festivals across the nation.  As Smith’s popularity grew by leaps and bounds, Pretty Lights soon became the main attraction and now headlines every show performed. 

Having never received a penny from album sales, Pretty Lights has clearly redefined the path to success in the music industry as his compensation for performance comes in among the top paid acts in modern music.  Clearly Pretty Lights has achieved greater success than most artists who participate in the music business via traditional album sales and has undoubtedly reinvented the modern day business model for success in the music industry.   As current album sales plummet, and the internet seems to be providing the free acquisition of music at an alarming rate while the business of live performance thrives and proves to be the only concrete means of income for an artist in today’s music business.

As a listener, pretty lights immediately grabs me and says its ok to use large amounts of sampling to innovate upon in order to create new magical works of art that take pieces of the past and pushes them into the future.  As an industry professional, Smith’s production, arrangement and sound design are definitely ahead of his time.  Smith has persevered and kept producing music that found its way into the hearts and minds of the mainstream concert goers. I doing this, Smith's proven success has allowed him the ability to run his own label where other artists albums with a similar feel to Pretty Lights are distributed for free on the Pretty Lights Music label website.  With the popularity of Pretty Lights as an artist, the Label new artists such as Super Vision, Michael Menert, Paper Diamond, Break Science and most recently Gramatik are also sharing in the spot light and are also seeing success having a performance schedule that most modern artists only dream of.  With this, Pretty Lights has redefined acceptable modern music production as well as the business approach that suits it.

Peer Comment Week 4

In this post I took the opportunity to read Michael Garced's post on Scott Storch that can be read here:
Scott Storch Independent Research Post

Dear Michael,

I thoroughly enjoyed your post about Scott Storch. It was very informative and I learned some new things about the producer that I did not know beforehand.  It is surprising to know that the lyrics in the Timberland song referred to Storch. I was always curious to know who Timberland was talking about.  Seeing as how Storch put Fat Joe back on the map it makes sense that he would use his talent on the piano to create infectious riffs like the one heard from a violin in “Lean Back.”  You are definitely right to say that in order for Timberland to recognize Storch and comment on him in a song of his he must have in some way seen him as a threat.  Overall I really enjoyed your post.  The only recommendations I can make would be to look for a few grammatical and punctuation errors and maybe a sentence fragment here or there. I look forward to reading your blog in the future.

Electronic Music Innovation - Skrillex

Aside from any other modern electronic music artist today, Skrillex has invigorated the modern electronic scene like most other producers in the field can only dream of.  With an arsenal of new production techniques and blistering new soundscapes, Skrillex burst on to the electronic music scene in 2010.  With the free release of the "My Name is Skrillex" EP on his official MySpace page, he has redefined the avenue to success in the Music business as well as the sound of modern Dubstep and electro house.  In 2011 Skrillex, Sonny John Moore, the former vocalist of the hard core band “From First to Last”, was nominated for five Grammy Awards and took home 3 in one night. Winning for “Best Dance/Electronica Album,” “Best Dance Recording” and “Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical,” Skrillex has paved the way for modern electronic music, and primarily the genre of Dubstep, to enter the mainstream of popular music.  

Listening to Skrillex we hear sounds that we have never heard before.  With the likes of his remix of “Cinema” by Benni Benassi, we hear a production style and technique that is in a category all by itself.  Skrillex has undoubtedly broken the boundaries of what was thought of as sonically possible.  Now, in short 2 years later, we hear many producers replicating his achievements in terms of style and sonic flavor.  In addition to breaking sonic boundaries, Skrillex has recreated the pathway to success in the modern music industry itself.  With the ease of “acquiring” music these days, the industry is beginning to lean heavily towards the cost of music being free where the performances are becoming the majority of today’s artists income.  This holds true in the case of Skrillex as he has been named the 15 million dollar Dj in the August 20th 2012 issue of Forbes magazine. 

When I listen to Skrillex I hear the future of music for a time to come. Everything he touches as a producer and a re-mixer literally turns to gold.  His style is by far one of the most original and innovative the industry has ever seen.  Skrillex has had such an impact on modern music that he has had the opportunity to record with music history giants and has even turned original recordings he produced with the remaining members of the “Doors’ into jaw dropping releases.  As he continues to release musical gems its hard to see the end of the road for this artist.

Electronic Music - Kraftwerk

Kraftwerk is undoubtedly the most influential electronic artist in history.  With innovations in sound design all the way through to having original instruments created specifically for their new explorations in modern music, Kraftwerk paved the path for a new form of artistic expression in music that other artists would copy and build upon for decades to come. 

As we can imagine with the use of new instruments and sound Kraftwerks music was amazingly futuristic and ahead of its time.  Their image however was very retro and conservative on the contrary.  With classical musical training the sound of Kraftwerk was the perfect marriage of old and new as was the image they projected.  As the sound heard in Kraftwerks albums mature through their releases during the late 70’s their image transformed into that of a machine like               entity producing more sophisticated yet ironically simple dance tunes.

In 1974 with the release of the Autobahn album, Kraftwerk made a break from the traditional sound heard in their previous albums.  This new sound was aided by the use of new instruments and synthesizers primarily the Minimoog and the EMS Synthi AKS.  These new machines would give way to the cultivation of a new soundscape for Kraftwerk’s music.  This new sound was pushed forth and focused by the new incorporation of a theme for each of the bands albums from 1974 to 1981.  With Autobahn it was a feel motivated by driving where Radio-Activity was motivated by the influence of the Radio and Nuclear Activity while Trans Europe Express was all about train travel.  It wasn’t until the release of Man-Machine in May of 1978 that Kraftwerk saw major chart topping success in the UK and Germany.  This album was geared for more commercial and dance oriented scenarios after the group often frequented the discothèques to hear how the sound they developed was being innovated on the dance floor. 

Kraftwerk’s success was defined by their innovative use of new instruments and their classically educated implementation of those new sounds into a music that was engulfing and mysterious.  In addition to using newly developed instruments, Kraftwerk employed the expertise of friends whose skill in building electrical equipment came to play in creating custom instruments for the group. With this arsenal and a classical savvy it is well noted that Kraftwerk was the Godfather of electronic dance music and the innovators of the earliest forms of trance music.  There aren’t many artists’ that can say that they have innovated or created an entire genre of music.

For me the Impression I get when listening to Kraftwerk is of a forward thinking group that was ahead of its time. Kraftwerk was a group that had to wait until the industry and musical culture of the time caught up with them for their success to really blossom.  I am grateful of the legacy Kraftwerk has left on us and how the post punk electro bands of the 1980’s like Softcell, Gary Numan, and Depeche Mode took their sound to the next level. How electronic hip hop artists like Afrika Bambaataa made twisted the sound even further and reinvigorated the energy Kraftwerk gave to electronic music in the early 1970’s.

Peer Comment Week 3

Below is my review of a fellow students blog post found at http://brandonhortonmh2.blogspot.com/2012/09/electronic-music-innovations-entry.html

Hello Brandon,

I enjoyed reading your post on Run DMC very much. Thank you for the informative and entertaining read.  I did not know that the group paved the way for so many other hip hop artists to employ the use of drum machines and other electronic instruments.  From my earlier knowledge about Hip Hop and the history of Djing I was pleased to find in the book “Last Night A Dj Saved My Life” by Bill Brewster, I was aware that the genre started in the Bronx sometime in 1977 with Dj Kool Herc.  Herc was a transplant from Jamaica who was familiar with the sound systems of Kingston and began playing the breaks of disco and funk records back to back using two turntables and a mixer while and adding what is know as toasting in Jamaica or the original term of the DJ or Disc Jockey, as in someone who rides the beat with vocal rhyming, who is known today as an MC.  This follows your reference to the earlier hip hop artists sampling the breaks of funk, soul, and disco records to formulate the backing tracks to rap over.  I also enjoyed your fact regarding the industries advent of MIDI however I would have been please to know what year exactly this took place in. This is the same year, as you mentioned, that “Sucka MC’s” was released which employed the use of the Oberheim DMX drum machine that signaled this break through and electronic crossover.  Overall I really enjoyed your post thoroughly and hope to read more from you in the future.

Peer Review Entry

The following post is focused on a review of a peers blog that is quite informative and informational.
Follow the link to read his posting Brandon Horton Music History 2 Blog.

Hello Brandon,

I have to say that in reading your blog about the Velvet Underground I am very enthralled in the way you describe the band. You weave a simple but interesting story as to which I am able to focus on the facts and also enjoy thoroughly.  The only thing that I can see the need for addition would be the fact that Lou Reed was noted as the primary lyricist for the band where John Cale was most notably responsible for the arrangement and left field sound scaping.  The fact that Any Warhol included the band as the primary performance in many of the Exploding Plastic Inevitable Parties held at “The Factory” can also be attributed to the bands widespread success at the time. Other than these minor additions your review was extremely informative and put forth in a very educated manner. Thank you for your post and I look forward to reading more of your blog in the weeks to come.

Full Sail Music History 2 Velvet Underground Podcast

Marvin Gaye "What's Going On?"

Marvin Gaye is often credited to being known as “The prince of Motown” or “The Prince of Soul”.  In 1960 Gaye began working as a session drummer for Motown Records.  Marvin signed onto the label in 1961 and is credited to giving a large number of hits to the label through out the 1960’s.  Songs like “How Sweet it is (To be loved by You)”, Ain’t that Peculiar” and I Heard it Through the Grapevine” shaped Gaye’s image as a pop sensation.  His image was that of a love stuck fool and he was quite the fashionable icon of many a young lady of the day.  His music at the time reflected this and was full of hope and love with a very pop and soul influence that carried his career for the Motown Label during the 1960’s up until the release of “What’s Going On”.

Marvin claims a great deal of the shift he made in his musical choices can be accredited to the stories of war his brother Frankie told him after returning from Vietnam.  Marvin began to look around and notice the division of classes from the slums of inner city Detroit to the disconnected fat cats of Hollywood.  Frankie described how he had seen the value for human life be almost non-existent and the children in Vietnam eat out of the trash from what the soldiers would throw away.  This turned Gaye’s stomach and he wanted to put out an album that meant something and that people could identify with.

After recording the song “What’s Going On” it was shown to Berry Gordy owner of Motown and he emphatically stated, “That’s the worst thing I’ve ever heard”.  Unfortunately the quality control team at Motown didn’t feel much different. Despite the backing of Marvin’s wife, Berry’s sister Anna, Motown would not budge to release the album.  Unbeknownst to Marvin a copy of “What’s Going On” found its way into the hands of the veteran producer Harry Balk who over saw Motown’s creative department while Berry spent much of his time in California. Harry fell in love with the song immediately and pushed for its release.  The album “What’s Going On” was pushed through for release and sold 100,000 copies its first day. With Gordy infuriated at the overturn of his decision not to release the album his anger was quickly diffused with the news of the great success of the album's sales.

Much of Gordy’s distaste with the album had to do with its political commentary and focus on social issues that was a great break from the normal releases on the Motown Label.  Most of Motown’s success up until this time was from records with a pop sound and a "being in love" theme.  Gaye’s step into this category of social commentary was unknown territory for the label but was received with great success as it touched on the current inflammation of civil unrest and global injustices. The album’s instrumentation also provided more of a melancholy atmosphere than that was heard in other Motown releases that were held down with a strong pop sound and cheerful grooves.

Listening to the album I am struck by the easily contrasting feeling of soothing instrumentation and vibrantly socially defiant lyrical content.  “Inner City Blues” is probably one of my all time favorite songs with its infectious bass line, vocal falsetto harmonies and undeniably irresistible rhythms and vocal hooks.  The lyrics are so appropriate and honest for the times it was written.  I admire Marvin for breaking away from the norm and putting out a truly original and different piece of art.  In my opinion “What’s Going On” is probably one of the most influential R&B soul albums of all time.  

The Velvet Underground & Nico

The Velvet Underground is most notably one of the most influential rock bands of the 20^th century.  With an avant-garde approach to rock and roll the Velvet under ground attempted to push the boundaries of what pop music sounded like and did very well in doing so.  With many elaborate attempts at portraying socially unacceptable behavior used as the topic of the material sung in the songs, the Velvet Underground painted a vivid portrait of fringe activities such as dug usage, prostitution and sexual deviance.

Lou Reed can be accredited with writing the majority of the groups lyrics.  As an English major at Syracuse University Reed thought it apt to discuss these risqué topics not typically heard in music but often discussed in literature.  John Cale, attending Syracuse at the time and had studied under La Monte Young and John Cage, was greatly responsible for the Velvet Underground’s sound and experimental nature.  The meeting of the two was some how meant to be as Cale was living below Reed in one the Syracuse campus residencies. Cale often heard Reed warming up with his guitar and often came down to borrow blues records in preparation for his weekly university radio show. Cale noticing that Reed was a fellow music aficionado and aspiring artist as well and made friends with the off kilter Reed and the idea of the Velvet Underground was soon conceived.  

Having discovered the band, Andy Warhol took a keen liking to them and soon made them the house band at his venue “The Factory.”  Warhol installed the Velvet Underground as a permanent part of his series of Exploding Plastic Inevitable parties. Warhol heavily promoted the Velvet Underground at these multimedia gatherings organized between 1966 and 1967.  Warhol was so impressed by the success of the band and the underground fervor they created he decided to fund the recording of the band’s first album.  Warhol took the band under his wing so to speak and provided the art work for the first albums cover and continued to push the band after the alums release as if it was a piece of his own work of art.

This type of art and music combination that came from Warhol’s efforts and support of the band was unseen up to this point in the regular circle of pop music and art culture. Warhol helped the Velvet Underground to push the boundaries as what could be achieved with united forces from the art culture and popular musical circuit. Thus Warhol having aided this fairly unknown band with a very left field sound rise to the top of music counter culture as fast as the Velvet Underground did was often unheard of.  Although the Velvet Underground’s songs are not often heard in the charts, the progress they made through their combination of experimental psychedelic folk rock is a sound that is undoubtedly enormous in its influence on modern rock.  

Growing up listening to all types of rock music The Velvet Underground was one I found myself admiring the most as my musical tastes matured. The combination of simple driving rhythms and shockingly soothing noise scapes still drives home to my soul. They have influenced my music in the idea that a simple rhythm can be powerful and a straightforward lyrical style can be deeply embraced. Over all I feel that the Velvet Underground’s music is still relevant today and should be shared as a piece of history and employed as a part of musical growth to be explored and expounded upon by up and coming artists today.

Beatles "Revolver"

During the early days of the Beatles their sound was mainly dominated by a joyous commercial 1960’s pop rock radio friendly sound. With their success they paved the way for the groundbreaking term "The British Invasion."  With its R&B and Folk styling’s on the Beatles album “Rubber Soul,” we begin to see the attitude in their music change in to a more serious, raw, rebellious and true perspective that connects to the soul searching masses of the young counter culture.

Revolver went further with its Motown, and Classical Indian influences.  The Beatles also explored a touch of a children song influence as well as orchestral instrumentation and elements of electro-acoustic music.  These additions in musical taste were expanded by the Beatles newfound journeys into the mind on their well-documented LSD explorations.  The Beatles even accredited the writing of the song “She Said She Said” to one of the early experiments on LSD with actor Peter Fonda.  This newfound exploration in to the psyche gave way to the Beatles further pursuit of new ideas and thinking most particularly from an Eastern viewpoint most notably with guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

To push the envelope further the Beatles used the studio as an instrument.  The members would record loops at home and bring them back into the studio for insertion into a certain project.  It is said that the seagull sounds heard in “Tomorrow Never Knows” was from a recording of McCartney’s guitars brought in from home.  Furthermore, with the likes of reverse guitar recordings, compression on the drums, vocals and guitars and the newfound technique of artificial double tracking (ADT), the Beatles were able to take the sound on Revolver to new heights.  It is said that Lennon had a difficult time reproducing performances for vocal doubling. On Revolver, Lennon proposed the idea of ADT and use studio techniques of basic rerecording that today we would call copy and paste with a slight delay offset to do so. With the use of ADT and compression the album was able to achieve a deeper and more in your face presence.

Revolver as a whole leaves me in awe of the effects and processing used throughout the album.  Each song on this masterpiece embodies an against the grain, opposition to the norm type of feel musically and lyrically. I love the use of different instruments such as the sitar and the outside the box thinking when it comes to new studio techniques that were employed. Overall the final mix of the album really reaches out of the speakers and grabs you emotionally.  A very enjoyable experience all around as an engineer and music lover.

Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds"

During the earlier era of the Beach Boys their sound embodied the fun and carefree feeling of surfer rock made famous by the legendary Dick Dale. This surf sound was typical of the Beach Boys in the early 1960’s.  After signing with Capitol records in mid 1962 the surf rock vibe was at the heart of more than two dozen Top 40 hits until “Pet Sounds” was released in May of 1966.

Brian Wilson, who wrote and co-wrote all of the Beach Boys material, was a big fan of vocal harmonies that are used throughout most all of their songs.  Brian, one of three brothers in the band, served as the driving force behind the shift to the psychedelic sound heard on “Pet Sounds”.   With this album, Brian attempted to achieve success for all of the songs on the album as a collective whole rather than a few hit singles with filler songs shoved in between as previous albums had been. This was primarily brought about after Brian listened to the Beatles “Rubber Soul” album that had just been released.  He felt that the Beatles had created an album with continuity that was a piece of art in itself.

Having taken a break from touring with the band, Brian was able to focus on writing “Pet Sounds” and studio production.  This, combined with his new perspective he found while studying the Beatles “Rubber Soul” album, lead him to experiment with new instruments and new studio production and arrangement techniques.  In addition to the Theremin, Brian used the likes of dog whistles, Hawaiian sounding instruments, Coca-Cola cans and barking dogs.  Brian, after having shadowed his idol and rival Phil Spector, had also acquired the skill of using the studio as an instrument in itself.   Along with the doubling of instruments another studio technique was Brian’s spectacular layering of vocal harmony. Brian incorporated the use of echo and reverberation techniques to widen the vocal orchestration heard throughout the “Pet Sounds” album.

In listening to the album I am impressed by the continuity of it and its singleness of the overall feeling it evokes. “Pet Sounds” transports me to a beach-laden coastline where I feel as if I am floating in a California sunset. The instrumentation seems to be balanced perfectly as well as the mix itself is quite flawless.  I would definitely agree with many other reviews that “Pet Sounds” is one of the finest rock and roll albums of all time.

Welcome

Hello and welcome to my Full Sail Music History Blog.  My name is Adrian and I am excited about sharing what we will be learning during this course this month.  I am currently working on my Bachelors degree in Recording Art's here at Full Sail and I am enjoying the experience thoroughly.  I have always had a voluminous interest in music and started playing guitar at the age of 14. During these early years I was heavily influenced by psychedelic rock such as Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, and Led Zepplin. I soon after turned my passion to heavy metal such as Metallic and then found my home in Alternative Rock with the likes of Stone Temple Pilots, Nirvana, Sound Garden, Pearl Jam etc.  I pursued my interest in rock music for the next four years eventually forming a small band where we wrote and performed our own original music.  At 16 I was introduced to Hip-Hop and again fell in love. At the age of 17 my cousin introduced me to Nine Inch Nails and the electronic dance sounds of Dee-Lite.  I attended my first rave at this time and quickly realized I had found something that would never escape my interest.  I began Djing House music at the age of 18 and fell in love with the music quickly.  I started producing Electronic music and Hip-Hop around the age of 23 where my interests again broadened to the likes of Funk, Reggae, Disco aka Electro Funk and Down Tempo.  Living in Hawaii at the time I began to spin Funk, Disco, Electro House and Breakbeats at a multitude of venues after parties and on the college radio station occasionally. Having arrived at Full Sail in 2010 my primary Djing and Production focus switched to Dubstep where I ran a weekly party in Downtown Orlando for the length of 2011 and 2012. As my skills advance and my technique and ear sharpen I have become increasingly interested in Post Production, Sound Design and Mastering for all types of music.