Progressive Rock

Most music I listen to at least by some definition falls under the blanket term "Progressive Rock". Progressive Rock is can be defined by many features. One of the most distinct features is a fondness for concept albums. Concept albums are albums where the songs are united to form a common theme or where the songs unite to form a story quite often featuring elements science-fiction or fantasy. Another feature of progressive rock is the use of irregular time signatures. The first time I realized that I really liked this type of music was when I first heard YYZ by Rush.

Up until that point most of the music I had listened to was fairly simple rock with the standard 4/4 timing and your typical verse-chorus-verse structure. This song however blew me away. I was amazed that a three man band could sound that good. The turning point for me was probably after I bought the album 2112(A concept album about a totalitarian society). I saw it on sale at Best Buy for 5.99 and was like I like Rush it's cheap I can't go wrong so I bought it. The way I felt after I listened to that CD can only be described as flabbergasted. I didn't know bands could play 20 minute songs. Most bands I had listened to up to that point could barely keep a 5 minute song sounding fresh. But in 2112 rush kept you guessing as to which direction the song would go next. After buying that CD (along with Sting's Greatest Hits, which ended up getting two and a half play-throughs) I decided I had to find more artists like this. I ended up listening to Dream Theater a band that's sound has been described as a combination of Iron Maiden and Rush. Dream Theater may possibly be one of the most technically proficient bands in the world. There may be more talented individuals, but as far as groups go it doesn't get more talented than Dream Theater. This band barely has any songs less than 10 minutes long and these songs are filled to the edge with amazing riffs and relentless drumming.

I wanted to see this band so bad that when they didn't stop in Dallas for a tour me and a couple friends literally drove across the country to see them play. 2112 was my gateway drug and it introduced me to a whole new genre of music. There isn't a whole lot of pure progressive rock now, but there are many bands that have progressive elements. The main ones I listen to are The Mars Volta, Coheed and Cambria and Porcupine Tree. The Mars Volta is totally unpredictable and uses irregular time signatures more than any band I know.
Coheed and Cambria has been classified as many things but what marks them as progressive is their use of concept albums. Their first four CDs were all concept albums that were all part of one story and their latest CD a prequel to this story.
Porcupine Tree is kind of like a modern version of prog-rock pioneers Pink Floyd. To be honest I never really got into Pink Floyd, but every Porcupine Tree Cd has been pretty good, with the exception of their first CD.

I hope the videos I have posted have effectively illustrated how diverse progreeive rock really is.

I attended the Friday night showing of Side show the musical. I got there fairly early and although the theater was initially pretty empty the theater gradually got more crowded as it got closer to eight o'clock. I was surprised to learn that the musical was based on a true story and that the sisters, Daisy and Violet had appeared in the movie Freaks (Program 5). I remember watching that film in High School and as the musical about the sisters was about self acceptance, it really surprised that the sisters appeared in the film because from what I remember it was a fairly mean-spirited, very exploitative film. The musical was backed up by an ensemble that included a good deal of brass and woodwind instruments, as well as both an electric guitar and an electric bass guitar as well as a drum set and a percussion section. However the one instrument that suprised me was the synthesizer since in my head I was expecting a variety of instruments more akin to that of a classical orchestra. The music however was what I expected from a musical. The opening piece "Come Look At The Freaks" is the main piece that stood out to me (Program 1). The song starting out fairly softly while the theater was dimly lit. This conveyed a upon the audience a mood of uneasy mystery, that was appropriate considering the subject matter. The music eventually became much more intense in a way that was meant to grab the audience's attention. I was fairly tired when I showed up to the musical but the opening song really woke me up. There were some musical segments that were repeated or revisited during the course of the musical. One thing that was constantly repeated was the way Daisy and Violet song their names to introduce themselves. Another recall was featured in "Finale" when they re-used many of the musical elements from the opening song. The chorus sang the same background harmony from the opening song and the lyrics were very similar if not identical. However instead of the whole Freak Show singing it was just the Hilton Sisters singing. Another important change was that the music was much more subdued and almost sad sounding for this version as opposed to the grandiose feel that the opening number had. There seemed to be less of a distinct brass dominated sound during the finale. I was caught off guard when the musical performance ended, because I was expecting there to be a happy ending and I thought that it could have just been the start of another intermission. Most of the musicals I have seen have been on TV or were movies so they were previously filmed. This gave me the impression that the performers would move more when they sang. However since it was live theater it makes since that they would want to stand still and sing in a position where they could project to the theater as they best could. This may just be because I was sitting in the third closest row to the stage, but to me the theater felt very intimate. There was a wide variety of people in attendance. There were a lot of students as well as families. To my left there was a young couple and to my right was an old couple who were apparently there to see their grandson play the drums. When Jake "The Cannibal King" ran up to people in the front rows at the beginning of the play I thought that there might be a greater degree of performer-audience interaction. This ended up not happening and there ended up being a fairly standard amount of audience participation, they ended up cheering after every song. In conclusion I learned about musicals and learned how all the factors combine to form a compelling end result, by watching one firsthand. It was much more effective to experience firsthand instead of watching it on youtube or reading about it.

Works Cited

Side Show. By Bill Rusell and Henry Krieger. Chor. Robert Longbottom. University Theatre, Dallas. 16 Apr. 2010. Performance.

Side Show Program. Dallas, 2010. Print.

Gullah Island

The Gullah people are the descendants of African slaves who live mostly along the coast of Georgia and South America. During their time as slaves the owners interacted with them less than the owners of other slaves. Due to this their culture and traditions are very close to their old traditions in Africa. The Gullah people have a music culture that seems more like the traditional music culture from Africa than that of other African Americans. There were people at the Music and Movement Festival who were playing drums that resembled the drums that are played on the African continent. In the music culture and culture of the Gullah people a central figure seems to be a woman known as Queen Quet. She was one of the main participants during the dance of the festival. The dancing seemed to be like the dance performed by the Africans in the videos we watched when we were studying the music cultures. They danced with similar motions although they appeared to use their feet more than in the west African dancing. Also from what I saw they did not seem to believe in the spirit possession aspect of the dance that they did in Africa. This may be due to their differing religious beliefs as I noticed this event was taking place in a Baptist Church. Also like that music culture the instruments were all drums, the music was completely focused on rhythm.

Performance Report

I attended Jazz in the Atrium at the Dallas Museum of Art featuring Freddie Jones last Thursday. I was not too excited about going because I’m normally not a big fan of Jazz and I am a huge fan of NBC’s Thursday lineup. This event takes place every Thursday at the Dallas Museum of art. It was fairly easy to find, but if you’re not used to driving in downtown Dallas it’s easy to get lost. I’m not used to driving in downtown Dallas so I had my friend drive me there. The performance was taking place at the Atrium Café connected to the museum. It was a pretty nice setting for the type of performance that was going on. The space felt very modern and clean to me It felt like something out of the television series Caprica a positive point. The space for audience members was fairly large. The area was pretty packed, I got there around six and it was still hard to find somewhere to sit so I stood towards the back. There was a bar and audience members could also purchase snack type foods during the performance, so it wasn’t completely formal. A good portion of the audience did get dressed up but I could spot more than a couple people just wearing jeans and a T-shirt. Many people appeared to be there for the jazz event, however there also seemed to be some people who had spent the day at the museum and were curious and just stopped by. The majority of the attendees appeared to be older people. I assume this is because most younger people are not interested in the jazz because it is not on the MTV. A lot of the audience members seemed to be enjoying the performance. I was watching the audience and I noticed a lot of head nodding and toe tapping going on. The people who were there for the most part seemed like people who enjoyed jazz, not just people who were there because they were in the area. The area was full of people who came for the jazz and their enthusiasm added to the feel of the performance.
The musicians were pretty talented, which is pretty important for jazz musicians. They employed a great deal of improvisation. There were many instances where one musician would go off on a solo, and the audience would applaud. This was a performance where applause was discouraged. This worked well for the performance because the applause seemed to fuel the performers. I was expecting to hear jazz akin to that played during the nineteen twenties. However he performers played jazz that sounded more like the smooth jazz that my dad used to listen to on the old radio station the Oasis. The band as I can best recall was made up of an electric bass player, an electric guitar player, a drummer, a keyboard player and a saxophonist. The saxophonist seemed to be the centerpiece of the band as most of the time the other musicians just seemed to be backing him up. The bass player also stood out as someone who was particularly talented to me. In most music I listen to the bass takes a back seat to the rest of the instruments, but the bass was very prominent in this performance. The performers were very groovy. If I couldn’t hear I would have still probably been able to tell what type of music they were playing just by the way that the performers moved.
Although I am not a big fan of jazz, I could still appreciate the skill of the musicians and recognize some elements of music culture. It is not really my thing but I can understand why people who enjoy it would come out to the Dallas Museum of Art every couple of Thursdays to enjoy the jazz. It’s not something I would do regularly because it’s kind of out of the way, but it is something I would consider doing again if I needed some place classy to take someone I want to impress.

Jazz in the Atrium. Freddie Jones Jazz. Perf. Freddie Jones, Aaron West, Allen Cato, Gordon Pope, Lawrence Ferrell, Mike Finkel. Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas. April 1, 2010.

Jones, Freddie. "Freddie Jones." Web log post. Freddies Jones on Myspace. 30 Mar. 2010. Web. 06 Apr. 2010. .

Big Opera Man

Pavoratti is one of the most well known opera singers. He is known for is skill and girth. His vibrato was quite impressive. He has a very powerful voice. The performers all stayed stationary. The orchestra seemed to be made up primarily of chordophones and aerophones. I could pick up on where the there were cadences but can't really point out where they were because I don't understand Italian. I think it was either monophonic or heterophonic, it felt too focused to be polyphonic. I also thhink the mode was minor. This is probably due to the fact that orchestral instruments are all fairly large. Another reason they my stay stationary is because movement would be distracting, and opera focuses more on the voice of the singer. Also i noticed there was a composer. There was a lot going on so he kept everyone in sync. Pavorotti stood very still, I don't remember him even moving his hands. This is probably so he can control his vocals more fully.

Avatar

I'm just going to start off by saying I'm not crazy about Avatar. However I understand why this movie got the recognition it did. It was definitely not for the plot, it was for the stunning visuals and above average music. The music was quite interesting. It had many orchestral elements mixed with ethic sounding sounds. It went well with the movie. The movie had a very epic feel to it and the orchestral music helped emphasize that. It also had a nature theme the ethnic instruments helped to sort of distinguish the Na'vi from the humans, They seemed to use the classic style orchestral music more in the human parts.

Ethnography project

The type of music I observed was the music at bars performed by local bands. People generally do not pay to see these bands in concert. Whenever I imagine a bar in my head I always imagine a band playing some kind of music in it. It could be considered the evolution of the piano players form back in the saloon days. Bar bands are quite numerous. They are usually paid by bar owners or event planners. The main goal of these musicians is to keep people at the events happy by playing background music pleasing to the people at the events or venues. This music culture is not as concerned with technical ability as other music cultures are. That is not to say that the performers in this music culture are lacking in talent, it just means that the goal of the performers is to make sure that everyone has a good time at the event rather than trying to dazzle the audience with their technical proficiency. The music is not the main thing that attracts people to the bar, that would be the drinks. However music is an important part of the experience. One major thing that sets one bar above another is the atmosphere and a good band makes can have positive effect on the atmosphere of the bar. The bars usually have a set of bands that regularly play at the venue. At Sherlock’s it appears that there is live music every day. The band I saw, Big Daddy, performs every Tuesday at the bar (sherlockspubco.com).
Big Daddy is set up like most bar bands. It is made up of a group that uses the traditional rock and roll instruments. Most of these bands include at least one guitar, a bass guitar, a drum kit and at least one vocalist. Big Daddy includes two guitarists who also perform lead vocals, a bassist and drummer who perform back-up vocals and another back-vocalist.
Big Daddy is a band that plays at a variety of bars and events in the Dallas area. According to their calendar they even play the occasional wedding. The audience was made up of bar patrons. The group was a fair mix of college students and people in their middle adult years, and it was fairly crowded since it was a bar on Mardi Gras. The audience was enthusiastic about the music. Most people seemed to be enjoying the music. The band seemed to be pretty experienced. I am unsure whether to they would be considered professional or folk. They get pet paid, but they also seem to play more for entertainment than for the pursuit of fortune and fame. A band focused on fame would be touring the country whereas Big Daddy is tied to the local area. The band needs to focus on getting recognized on the local level through for different reasons than a nationally recognized band would.
When talking to my roommate he pointed out that the band especially the front man had a good level of interaction going on with the audience (John Todd). That seemed to be one of the main reasons why people enjoyed this particular band. I have seen a good deal of bands at bars but this seemed to be like one that people were excited to see perform. The front man really knew how to get the audience enthused. On the band’s website people are encouraged to make suggestions to upcoming set lists for the band. Audience interaction is a very important factor in the success of a bar band. Since they mainly play covers they cannot rely on their set lists to attract an audience the way a band playing their own songs would. Therefore things like audience interaction and stage presence end up being way more important in determining whether or not people come back to see them than they would for a professional band. I may suggest “Burnin’ for You” by Blue Oyster Cult. From what I saw the band could probably play that song quite well and it‘s a crowd pleaser.
The band mainly plays covers. This is fairly understandable for a bar band. When people are drinking they usually want to hear something familiar. To truly appreciate a new song requires some level of thinking and most people at bars go to drink and drinking and thinking usually don’t go together so bar bands will generally play familiar tunes. Big Daddy is classified as Rock and Pop according to their Sonicbids page (sonicbids). They play a wide variety of rock and pop songs. Although there set list is diverse ranging from Stevie Ray Vaughn to Coldplay to Justin Timberlake they seem to have an special place in their hearts for eighties rock (thebigdaddyband.com). During the performance I saw one song that stood out as particularly good to me from their performance I saw was “Jessie’s Girl” by Rick Springfield. That is a song I remember my parents playing a lot when I was younger and like I pointed out earlier, people enjoy hearing music that is familiar to them when they are drinking.
This is a music culture that is very accessible. It involves two things most red blooded Americans are crazy about, alcohol and rock and roll. In moderation this is a pretty good combination. Rock especially that from the seventies and eighties are the types of music that I have always associated with bars and luckily Big Daddy specializes in eighties rock (sonicbids).
One thing that this music culture values above all else is fun. People do not go to bars to be enlightened by modern art. They go to bars to kick back and relax. Bar music helps with that. There is nothing pretentious about this type of music and that is pretty refreshing. It’s the exact opposite of something like Bjork where it’s all pretension no fun. These performers are just dressed up like normal people, there are no swan suits involved. They are just five musicians having fun who want their audience to do the same. And from what I saw that was what was happening.
The bar bands are the unsung heroes of the bar business. Most people assume the heroes of the bars are the bartenders and they are partially correct. However it is a team effort. The bartenders do keep the drinks flowing, but every bar has drinks. What gives bars an extra level of character is the bands that play at the bars.
Bar music is an interesting music culture. I found it interesting because, it is something that seems simple and basically is. And it’s simplicity is what makes it great. The music of the world is pretty interesting, but after hearing enough of it you can’t help but appreciate relaxing at a bar listening to familiar music.


















Works Cited
Big Daddy, Rock, Sonicbids EPK - Sonicbids." Get a Gig. Book a Band. - Sonicbids. Web. 11 Mar. 2010. http://www.sonicbids.com/epk/epk.aspx?epk_id=115855.

"Big Daddy!" Web. 11 Mar. 2010. http://www.thebigdaddyband.com/bigdaddy.php.

Sherlock's Pub Co. Web. 11 Mar. 2010. http://www.sherlockspubco.com/BandCalendar.aspx.

Todd, John. "Sherlock's Pub Interview." Personal interview. 10 Mar. 2010.