quote:Starts Saturday, November 18th at 8.25pm on Channel 4 Why do some rhythms get our toes tapping, while others make us feel mellow? How does a love song bring tears to our eyes? What links African drumming to J S Bach?
In this new four-part series composer Howard Goodall strips music down to its essential parts to find out how music works.
We all respond to music – whether clicking our fingers, humming along or dancing – there's something out there for everyone. In this series Goodall looks at melody, rhythm, harmony and bass to establish how music is made and how it comes to reflect different cultures.
Setting out on a journey that spans the globe and moves through the centuries, Goodall uncovers the elements that are shared by all styles of music. Following a trail of diverse musical talents from Mahler to David Bowie; the blues to Bulgarian folk songs; medieval choral music to disco; he reveals the tried and tested tricks of the composer's trade.
I was close to tears at points. This program explains all the things you 'understand' on a primal level, about music, with (almost) absolute clarity.
I love this show.
Can you add to the sum total of knowledge about How Music Works? Tell me how music works for you.
posted
Why wasn't it trailed? I only noticed it was on when it was nearly over, and now some music has just made me cry and I don't really know why :madcryface:
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This is, perhaps, the perfect rock song. I can't explain why, musically, it pushes all the right buttons, you'd have to watch Channel 4 for that. I can tell you why it makes me leap up and down and weep with joy every time I hear it (about seven times a day), though.
The song barges headlong into your ears with a power chord, that sets the chugging guitar tempo for the track. Snare and kick pace out a standard rock rhythm, over-ridden with the insistent tsssk-tsssk-tsssk-tsssk of a hi-hat. The bass figure is a simple repetition. This song couldn't be any simpler. It's Rock 101. The choruses ERUPT, though. The latest CD version of the Fun House LP has a bonus disc with different takes of the original tracks. You can hear on the first take of Down on the Street that it's originally arranged as, almost, a walking Blues, with a jazzy syncopation, a hesitation on the end of each bar. Later takes evolve into the stunning album track. The single version has a fucking dreadful organ part stapled onto it. Never listen to that version. The genius of this track is in its execution. It's a garage band. They may not be virtuosos, but they play what they play tighter than any other motherfucker on the block. This is white boy punk, just like Jerry Lee Lewis, Gene Vincent and Jim Morrison, but played by kids who grew up in a neighbourhood listening to Jimi, Monk, Sun Ra and Sly & the Family Stone. The real killer element, though... obviously... is Iggy. Iggy whelps, squeals, screams and bellows his way through this track. He sings, too, but the words are irrelevant. It's the sounds. The intent. The attitude. The verbal gestures. The things that make Iggy Pop the greatest performer in the history of popular music. Better than Elvis. Better than Sinatra. Better than the Lennon or Jagger or Daltrey. Iggy's like a scizophrenic head-voice. He sings and it's like something inside of you trying to get out. He sings and your boss explodes. He sings and your house bursts into flames. He sings and you want to run down the street with an M60.
Man, I love that song.
Next...
I'm gonna sing the praises of the Stones' Bitch and the Kinks' Shangri-La.
posted
This sounds great, shame I'm away at the moment, so no doubt won't see until it's repeated some grave yard time in the future.
It's always been about drums and bass for me, or deep resonant sounds - Melvin Franklin's voice in the temptations for example or the simple thumping synth soundtrack to John Carpenter's The Thing. I used to really try to follow lyrics, but seem to have given up on this. The bass lic from Cloud Nine is so driving and amazingly hiden at the same time that it still catches me out, it still seems like it's not even there, and then, suddenly, I hear it and nothing else is there in the song.
Ironically, I've never been into Drum 'n' Bass though.
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posted
For me, music is at its best when it messes with your expectations.
Sonic Youth use unusual chords which shouldn't really fit together, but somehow work to create an unsettling feeling. On the first listen you think it sounds unstructured, discordant, unlistenable even. But repeat plays allow the synapses to link and set a place for those odd sounds in the brain. It's music that grows on you.
Some Pixies and early Frank Black songs mess with your head in a different way. The chord structures are much more straightforward, but it's the way they are laid out that makes them stand out. for example, you're probably expecting 16 bars, but you might only get 14. When it repeats earlier than it should you're caught off guard. Again, it takes a few listens before your head can understand what's happening, but there's a certain sense of achievement when it does.
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quote:Originally posted by Boy Racer: I suspect Howard himself might do a much better job that I.
Howard's good at the mechanics and I understand why the Beatles are 'good', but I'm still not excited by them. I quite like some of their songs, but the Beatles, on their best day, are not one fifth as good as Wizzard's See My Baby Jive. I want a fan to tell me why the Beatles should get me into a lather.
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Posh's cover version of She's Got Claws is an excellent example of the sections of music that get me dancing. Formulaic. I like simplicity in music I like to dance to. Bram bran brannan ta ta, bram bran bran nan shhhk! In particular, I like the jarring 80’s style voice, perhaps almost like republica minus the annoying. The first part of the song comes straight in with two synth lines. One hard and gravelly. Saw-tooth and rumbly like like a stomach ache and the other, sharp, picking out the notes. Bram bran brannan ta ta, bram bran bran nan shhhk! There’s a simple hard kick and reverse cymbal punch – an opening sound that instantly picks up your feet and you want to move your arms out of synch to your feet. There’s no great build up here, just a great, hard sounding rhythm. The vocals come in over the top and although the rhythm has no direct change, the hardened synths drop out for softer, icier piercing sounds. The first three lines take you in: You are distraction Like pictures on the wall I dont like eyes The lack of a fourth line allows the bar a breathing space between the verses. A breakdown for you to pick up your feet. The payoff is another three lines of arching, female numanesque lyrics. You are attraction It gets to be routine Youre up Im down Ooh, another breakdown. We get the gist of where this is going now, we can afford to flail our arms a bit more, but it’s straight into the chorus Shes got claws, – the tune takes on an easier sound, poppy, light for a second But the factory knows Shes got claws, she’s got claws, she’s got claws We’re dreams in cold storage – icy synth peaks slowly and quietly and then… Bram bran brannan ta ta, bram bran bran nan shhhk!
While the track has a dancey rhythm and sound, we are encouraged by the choice of synth and drum combinations that we need to dance sexy and seedily, devoid of love or interaction. The song manages to create two feelings, I believe the first is on the verse, where she sings the catch hook, weakening each time, so when the next verse kicks in, the line takes us back into the energy of the first vocal line. Just as we get use to this the chorus kicks in straight away. It seems that just as we get to hear the hook in this song, we are treated to another. I like how this song fools you into thinking it is particularly soft, or particularly hard in places. It’s almost like you forget they are connected to each in any set way and the composition, the notes, chide you as much as the lyrical content.
I have no idea how this explains how music works. I think it’s just a simple breakdown of the parts of a song that makes me feel like an ass-boogie and yet I sing to myself often. Is this post acceptable?
[ 20.11.2006, 07:53: Message edited by: New Way Of Decay ]
quote:Originally posted by Black Mask: I want a fan to tell me why the Beatles should get me into a lather.
If it doesn't do it for you, surely somebody saying "no, it's really good, here's why..." isn't going to make you like it any more than you do, or don't, already.
Music provokes a visceral reaction in us (which isn't to say it doesn't also stimulate us intellectually) that can't be "learned", I don't think.
quote:Originally posted by mart: If it doesn't do it for you, surely somebody saying "no, it's really good, here's why..." isn't going to make you like it any more than you do, or don't, already.
TO be honest - and I'm saying this as a fan - there were more innovative and interesting acts around, but not many maintained their level of output and such a complete indication of journey, musically speaking. You can almost chart the shift in everything from recording styles and techniques to sampling, looping and all other types of 70's fads that followed until Disco died and Hip Hop took over (including concept albums). I think it's more the sense of growth that you get from listening to them in order that appeals to many people. Oh, and Abbey Road is just a great album, so you get the impression that they went out at the top of their game.
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quote:Originally posted by Black Mask: I want a fan to tell me why the Beatles should get me into a lather.
I missed the programme, but did HG mention anything about why different people have different tastes in music? And did he say anything about why people have an uncontrolable urge to make other people listen to the music they themselves like?
FWIW, I'd say the Beatles thing is all about the whole phenomena. They did pretty much everything first, or better than anyone else - from the drug fueled, endless shows in Hamburg, through the mop-top boy band stuff, into movies, religion, other drugs, recording techniques, being funny, redefining music blah blah blah... loads of other people make great music, but not a single other artist has the complete story like the Beatles.
There's plenty of Beatles songs which still turn me on after years of listening to them. Tried A Day In The Life recently? Then there's obviously Tomorrow Never Knows, In My Life... well, loads of them innit, not much point listing them all.
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