Week 10 Forum - “To build or to destroy?” – Construction and Deconstruction in Music Part 1

There was a new topic this week in Forum, which was great. I was getting sick of the feminist debates in the previous weeks. Today the topic was construction and deconstruction of music. The presenters were Freddy May, Dragos Nastasie and myself.

Freddy was first up and gave quite a lengthy talk about the so called 'magic formula' for a hit song. Now, whether I agree with this formula is hard to say. I have to admit at the very beginning, my initial reaction was this is all pathetic and there obviously isn't a formula to the so called perfect song. But, after Freddy went through his reasons, and an example of a formula I started to think that maybe he was on to something.

It is certainly true that there are some classic songs in the 20th century that have continued to be popular. Having said that, there are lots of songs now that are very popular and will continue to be popular in future years.

I still think that majority of the youth population enjoy the current pop, Top 40, Video Hits etc. There definitely is a magic formula for pop music. It's very simple: Sex sells. I have to admit, I have bought a record or CD because the singer was a stunner. But the difference here is that it is the record company that is using a formula not the musicians. Really this is just clever marketing and is very different to the point Freddy was trying to make. Freddy was strictly talking about musicians and their ability to write hit songs.

[1]It seems record companies know the perfect formula. . .

If you look at the most popular songs of all time, like some people pointed out in forum, they are not all similar. So even though they may share some characteristics, I don't see how they can share all characteristics. Freddy claimed that the 'perfect' song would contain all these ingredients. I don't think these songs are popular because they all share similar qualities but rather because of the musical era and what they were bringing to society at the time. The Beatles is one of the greatest bands of all time but their music certainly doesn't have the same impact now compared to 40 years ago. At the end of the day my answer is: I don't know. If there is a formula I hope someone lets me in on it.

Dragos was the next speaker and he talked about the breakdown of songs from various genres. I could relate to what he was saying in the techno music side of deconstruction. I commonly create all my sounds and place everything in an 8 bar loop to see how it sounds. Then I slowly mute tracks to hear what it would sound like to slowly drop sounds out of the mix. It is true that electronic music is usually based around one loop. But, like Dragos said, the way in which those sounds come in and drop out can make or break a song. Even though it is repetitive, the continuous layering of sounds is what creates interest and keeps the clubbers (or DJs) pumping.

I was last to present, and luckily I was last as my presentation wasn't going to take half an hour. I presented a TV commercial I did the sound and music for. The company was the MRC (Media Resource Centre) and the individual film company was ECO TVC. The commercial was called 'Blink of an Eye'. I did do two other commercials but the 'Blink of an Eye' was the only one that made it to TV. All three films were in the Adelaide Film Festival and the 'Blink of an Eye' won.

My presentation was a nightmare as I'm sure everyone realised. For starters my DVD didn't work so I had to find the VTS files of the movies. That meant I couldn't use QuickTime, which was a pain because I couldn't import the movie into Cubase. Cubase wasn't working anyway Grrhh! so I used Logic Pro. Normally I wouldn't mind using Logic but I haven't used the video functions before in Logic whereas I have in Cubase. Because Cubase wasn't working I ended up just importing all my sound files into Logic and playing each track separately and explaining where I got the ideas from.

Basically I wanted to show what I was presented with (i.e. a movie with just speech) and show how I constructed the sound effects. I also explained how I wrote the music and how I related it to the images. If you watch Channel 10 continuously, you're bound to see it sometime.[2]


Just look out for a massive blinking eye


These are the other commercials I did but are not on TV.


[3]


[1] 'The Hollywood Gossip'. Vanessa Minnillo to Guest Star in Pussycat Dolls Show. http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/categories/pussycat-dolls/ (Accessed 18/5/7)

[2] Freddy May, Dragos Nastasie. 'Music Technology Forum Presentation - EMU Space'.
Lecture presented in the EMU Space, Electronic Music Unit, University Of Adelaide, 17th May 2007

[3] 'Media Resource Centre, ECO TVC'; Blink of an Eye, Talking Trash, Supermarket (17/5/7)