Sign of the Times

AIM Gives Back!
All Profits Support
NonCommercial Music

Home
* * *
AIM Radio
Program 17 -
Armenian/Jazz Fusion
with Musaner
Playlist and
Artist Info here
* * *
Music Mart
Guest Recordings
New & Noteworthy
More
* * *
Standouts
Recommendations
Interviews & More
Adventures in Film
ComposerRoundtable
Spotlight Artists
Sign of the Times
* * *

Sign
of the
Times

December 2007

Billboard has revised its policy to allow albums sold exclusively at one retailer to appear on The Billboard 200. The policy change is a nod to reality and allowed the Eagles' first studio album in almost 30 years, Long Road Out of Eden, to vault past Britney Spears and debut at Number 1 in November. The album is only available at Wal-Mart (and the band's website).

November 2007

Ireland's smoking ban has improved the quality of live music in Irish pubs. Don't get the connection? After smoking was outlawed in Irish workplaces in 2004, less dirt from ambient smoke gets deposited inside musical instruments, producing a clearer sound, a report in the British Medical Journal said. Instruments like the accordion, Uilleann pipes, and other instruments which have bellows have all benefited from the ban. The tobacco residue was enough to change musical pitch in some instances, but technicians who work on such instruments say the situation has improved since the ban was instituted, the report said.

September 2007

First Music Video Produced in Saudi Arabia - Music has been considered antithetical to Islam in Saudi Arabia and prohibited in public venues there. So the fact that the Saudi Information Ministry didn't block the first music video fully produced in-country - with a woman in the cast, no less! - is remarkable. Malak Ghair Allah (You Only Have God to Count On) is overtly moralistic - a young man (clad in T-shirt and jeans and sporting a goatee, not a full beard) turns back to God after sinful behavior - smoking, missing his daily prayers, losing his fiancé when she sees him chatting up another girl, recklessly driving his motorcycle. The music is Westernized pop with a funky beat. Hundreds of Saudis showed up at a popular mall to watch the video on a giant screen where it moved some to tears. Reportedly, music videos produced elsewhere in the Arabic world contain far racier stuff, but what is noteworthy here is the fact that old-school Saudi Wahhabi's have come down on the side of Muslim clerics elsewhere approving of music when it serves a good cause. Not all Muslims do. You can watch the video on YouTube (put 'Malak Ghair Allah' in the search box).

August 2007

The 'reactable' from the Music Technology Group at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, Spain is a computer-driven electronic musical instrument designed to be played by more than one person at a time. The Icelandic singer Björk used one at a concert in California in April 2007.

Musicians move objects around the translucent table-top. The objects, by way of video camera underneath, computer, and synthesizer software, become sound generators, filters, and mixers. Rotating the objects alters the characteristics of the sounds being generated. Changing their proximity to each other causes different connections to be made and remade, keeping the music going and providing a light show at the same time. Multiple reactables can be networked to allow more musicians to participate (even in different countries over the Internet).

Check out the demos and concert footage on YouTube (enter 'reactable' in the search box).

July 2007

The U.S. Library of Congress has awarded its first Gershwin Prize for Popular Song to Paul Simon. Named for George and Ira Gershwin, the lifetime achievement award honors artists who promote cultural understanding through song. Twelve-time Grammy winner Simon has long drawn on ethnic music for inspiration. Examples include Mother and Child Reunion with its Jamaican roots and Simon's 1986 South African-based blockbuster Graceland. Simon was the first American artist to perform in post-apartheid South Africa, at the invitation of Nelson Mandela. Somehow, I think the Gershwins (Cuban Overture, Porgy and Bess) would be pleased.

The Library plans a website showcasing the Prize and its recipients.

June 2007

The rise of private equity in the last couple of years has been remarkable. Some very large deals are getting done - Chrysler among them at this writing. Now comes Terra Firma, a private equity firm paying US$4.7 billion to acquire EMI, the major record label and music publisher in London. Press reports are unclear on how Terra Firma expects to make its money on EMI. At its best, private equity brings in new people, fixes problems, and develops new markets, selling out when a formerly struggling company thrives once again. At its worst, private equity looks for a quick flip, a speedy sale to a new owner or an IPO back to the public market before anything of real substance can be accomplished. Funny thing about the music business, the majors don't seem to be able to exist as independent entities for very long, making them fertile ground for private equity suitors.

May 2007

Time was when young music hopefuls could hang out at New Orleans jazz clubs or knock on doors in their own neighborhoods to pick up tips from any number of established players. That all changed after Hurricane Katrina. A lot of musicians scattered across the country and still have not returned. Many of those who remain have to work second jobs and have less time for mentoring. Consequently, keeping New Orleans music alive has become a real challenge. Formal programs have taken up some of the slack, such as one offered by Tipitina's Foundation which brings kids and musicians together in free Sunday workshops. In another program, begun by black social clubs, children (some as young as 3) play with bands on Saturdays at the New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park in the French Quarter. This way, the music gets passed on, with kids hearing it and feeling it, not just learning about it in a classroom.

March 2007

	It's here - I'd heard some months ago that people were working on databases where you could search for a tune by humming part of it. The Midomi website lets you do just that. Hum or sing Down by the Riverside into a microphone attached to your computer and you will see that everyone from Mahalia Jackson to Elvis Presley recorded that tune. Plans call for the service to be available through cellphones.
	Big Screen - New York's Metropolitan Opera ('The Met') has started high-def simulcasting performances in movie theaters in the US, Canada, Britain, and Japan. The first simulcast, Mozart's The Magic Flute was seen by 30,000 people on December 30th. More simulcasts are planned.
	'Third Screen' - A performance of Michael Gordon's multimedia symphony *Decasia* (music with film projections) was streamed live to mobile phones in January. Chalk one up for the 'third screen' (the Big Screen [movies] -- the small screen [TV] -- and the third screen [cellphones], get it?).
	System of a Down, a heavy metal band whose members are Armenian-American, have released a documentary *Screamers* about the Armenian genocide. Add that to the recent agitation among lawmakers in France, the US, and elsewhere to pressure Turkey to own up to its role in the 1915 extermination campaign.
	The Peaceoholics, a group that works with at-risk youth in the District of Columbia, has started sponsoring 'peace-go's', events designed to curb shootings and other violence among the city's youth. Open only to teens who have signed nonviolence pacts and completed the group's respect training, the events are held at clubs that play the 'go-go' music that Chuck Brown made so popular in D.C.
	While the members of Kiss have been in comic books before, Kiss 4K to be released this month aims to be the largest comic book ever published. At three feet, it may also be the most expensive (US$50). The band has entered a partnership called Kiss Comics Group which will take comic-book characters the band develops and leverage them across film, television, mobile phone, video game, apparel, and other merchandising opportunities.

Top of Page