hello world

So diverging from my usual topics, I just had to bring this up. Guess where I'm writing this post from? My Blackberry, while I'm sitting in the Kaplan testing centre in Leicester Square. This could open so many opportunities- on the go blogging, telling the world what you think as soon as the thoughgts pop into your head. (Sorry for the spelling errors, this really is quite a small keyboard).

I mean, Twitter and Facebook is a form of micro-blogging, but accessing Blosser from my phone is actually blogging...it's kind of cool.

First EVER audio recording

Back in March 2008, a clip of a woman supposedly singing the classic "Au Clair de la Lune," recorded in 1860 by the French inventor Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville on his "phonautograph" machine, which looks like this:

"When I first heard the recording as you hear it ... it was magical, so ethereal," audio historian David Giovannoni, who found the recording, told AP. [photo and quote from here]

It was previously thought that the oldest recording in history was of Thomas Edison singing a children's song, from 17 years later in 1877.

This is incredible!! Can you imagine, finding a 150 year-old, previously-unheard clip? I didn't think they had the technology so far back...to put it in perspective, that's BEFORE the Civil War.

You can listen to this amazing, tiny slice of audio history, with commentary from the head scientist afterward, at the BBC site here (let it play a bit...you might not hear anything at first, but then let it load and go back to the start in order to hear it)

Caught in a Bad Romance

OK, so I've gotten on Julia Nunes' case for being awful, so for the case of being fair to all YouTube stars, this is AMAZING.

It's Lucas Silveira of the Cliks' version of Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance," and wow. This is what I'm talking about!!!

I wish I had this when I was in 3rd grade...

This is really cool. It's a PDF/PowerPoint presentation on this inner-city school in New York City, around Central Park, that has been using state-of-the-art music technology in their classes, with help from a pretty darn passionate teacher, Ms. Karen Garrett.

The basic premise, at least at this school, is that a select number of third-graders (around 50-100 each year) get to go into the lab for an hour a week, and just use the whole array of keyboards, computers, and internet services at their own speeds. They learn how to use the keyboard and read, write, compose, print, and publish music using a computer...something that is simply amazing, something that I thought only well-to-do schools like mine would be able to afford and provide for.

Supplementary to that, Garrett has created an online website at Music Technology where she and her associates put up links to help other music/tech teachers with their classes. There are a whole array of music lessons, quizzes, and how-tos, and for her hard work she was voted TI:ME teacher of the year.

This is amazing. I love music, and I really do think there is a strong, positive correlation between music use by kids and their quality of life. Music makes me happy - there is scientific proof that there is a connection between our emotions and the music we're listening to...just read this. By bringing music into the classroom, you're really bringing happiness to the kids, and that's something really wonderful. The fact that they're using technology to push it to that next level is even better.

There's a place for us....

I know, I know, tech blog and all that, but I'm on such an X-Factor kick right now! I sang this song for the musical two years ago, so I know how much determination and vocal stamina it takes to sing this, and Stacey just blows it out of the water. Wowza. Wait until the end, it's perfection.

To Find A Star

I've talked a lot about how technology can benefit the listener on this blog, but one of the ways technology really helps in the business is for the actual musician. Before the rise of the internet, getting publicity for a new singer or band to get an album put out was hard work, and it took a lot of time and money. You needed to get into the recording studio, pop out a solid single or EP, get yourself on the Ed Sullivan Show or an equivalent and hope to high heaven that the public liked what they heard. Or, you would slip some radio DJ a couple hundred bucks to play your song a couple of times, enough so that the people listening would start to go, "Hmm, what's that?" and go out and buy the song. It was a tricky business, publicity.

Now, not that payola isn't still an issue (an a big one, to all sorts of smaller labels that can't afford to be paying Z100 to play their artists' song ten times a day), but the internet makes it 100x easier for smaller bands and artists to make their way.

Just look at MySpace. Their music site has given so many musicians - and a couple of very, very famous ones - the chance to get their music out there to be listened to. For example, Lily Allen started on MySpace, posting a couple of songs, including her big hits Smile and LDN. She made so many "friends," got so much online hype that she garnered up huge publicity and huge demand for her debut album. Gnarls Barkley's massive hit "Crazy" also came into the limelight on MySpace - people were listening online, and suddenly so was everyone on the radio.

YouTube has also helped many people find their 15 minutes of fame - and for some, that 15 minutes has blown into actual celebrity. Esmée Denters, who posted a number of videos on her account of her singing popular songs, like JT's "What Comes Around," got massive numbers of views, and eventually grabbed the attention of Justin Timberlake himself, who asked her to open for his worldwide tour, and signed her to his record label.

The danger of this, of course, is the number of two-bit "music stars" coming out of this. One immediately springs to mind (and she has a pretty large cult following, so I might get in trouble for this), and that's Julia Nunes. Oh God.

By now, you guys all know how I feel about the Beatles. So that this has gotten such praise? It's embarrassing. Even a bit offensive. Every time I hear this, with its annoying ukulele and nasaly singing, I get a little bit angry. Because she's getting a record contract, and other more talented people are not, and it's just because there are thousands of fans out there that just eat this right up. Come on, people! I know, I know, to each their own, and "Everyone should have a chance to express themselves" and "Let the girl sing if she wants to" and "I like it so shut up who cares what you think" and "Oh yeah and you could do better?" and "It makes me happy so why are you being mean???" but this is just really bad.

And that's the downside of the whole internet fame. This Nunes girl will get her 15 minutes, and if she's lucky, a top 100 hit or two, but then she'll fade into obscurity, playing little gigs in small town bars until she retires and gets a desk job somewhere, or maybe a place on a reality TV show. Maybe that's harsh. But isn't that the truth? With so many "celebrities" popping up every other day, the actual meaning of "celebrity" has shrunk. Anyone can have those 15 minutes - everyone can have some sort of celebrity. Fame is no longer some special thing, it's actually pretty readily accessible if you have a computer with a microphone or even just a video phone.

Finding that "true star" is so much more difficult now...sure, anyone can have a top 10 hit nowadays if you have a six-pack and a smart record producer, but so few people have that infamy, that long-lasting quality that people will remember in 50 years. I have to wonder who the definitive celebrity is in this era. The 50s had Marilyn and Audrey, the 80s had MJ and Madonna, and the 00s have...Beyoncé? Britney? Every Kim, Kourtney, and Khloe can be a star, so the "wealth of celebrity," so to speak, is thinning. What's being famous when everyone is?

Our real lives, our real personalities are being hidden behind both a cyber wall and the wall of the protective public. Maybe Perez Hilton knows every detail about Britney Spears' life, but she's retreated emotionally so far away from the outside world that we don't know who the real person is anymore. So I'm going to throw it out there and say that in this time of growing exposure, with the paparazzi at every pseudo-celebrity's door and TMZ finding out gossip the second it happens, we are actually growing more and more insular and anonymous as a society.

Just something to think about on your Sunday afternoon.

And on a similar note...

And I'll get off my pedestal now, but this version of Franz Schubert's classic "Ave Maria" by Barbara Bonney is stunning. It's recorded, but no amount of studio magic can make this: