Your final blog post asks you to combine multiple styles of analysis that ask you to think about single tracks, the album as a whole, what genre the album came from, how the album affected the genre, the social milieu in which the album was create, the albums cultural impact, the influence of the album, the recording of the album, the artist's professional biography, the artist's personal biography, the sonic elements of the album, and the lyrical content of the album. This is a lot of different information to handle. You might want to bracket all of this information into sections, but I urge you to resist this impulse and instead find a way to blend all of these topics. This is the reason I had you listen to the Sound Opinions album dissections.
These analyses of Pet Sounds and What's Going On? blend all of the types of analysis I am asking you to conduct without making it seem choppy or disparate. For today's class I want you to listen to one episode of the podcast and list when the different types of analysis appear and how they are connected to one another. As you make this list, think about how the dissection is organized. What is the overarching logic that the analysis runs on: chronology, themes, etc.
Work on this list in an MS Word document (because you will need to be able to make edits and changes as your work) and then post it as a comment to this blog post.
Culture:
ReplyDeleteHe came from the Motown area
Coming off of the civil rights movements
African American post civil rights era (mlk’s assassination)
Genre:
Motown-- psychedelic shag. A lot of funk, a lot of attitude
He started with happier songs but then turned political with his music. “The upbeat sounds turned darker”
History:
Came out in may 1971.
Tammie Terrell eventually died and they say it changed him forever
Had troubled past.
Liked to get high
Divorced after 1973
He had thoughts of becoming football player
Philosophy:
Ideology:
“With the world exploding around me, how am i supposed to write love songs?”
Biography:
2:18: listed previous artists worked with
Recording Production:
He would have multiple recordings of his voice overlap each other for a new sound in What’s Going On
Sonic elements:
Order of Analysis:
12:16- mixed culture, then to genre, then to the history to the creation of the song.
15:31- used interviewee to recall the history of the creation of whats going on
16:22- The breakdown of the song, the lyrical/ musical breakdown
22:20- the breakdown of how marvin separates from the normal motown
They transition through the different analysis's by the chronology of his life and what he went through that effected the music the way it did and how his music changed the whole genre. It was smooth because they didn't separate the different ideas by listing them all out. All the different parts of analysis were touched all throughout the whole podcast.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VyJF7UPWmlTTNxaLzesrAhysw34hmIQOr3TwRfAVL9E/edit?usp=sharing
ReplyDeleteOverall impact
ReplyDeleteBiography
Genre
Culture
Ideaology
Culture
Genre
Philosophy
Lyrical
History
Genre
Culture
Recording Process
Biography
History
Sonic elements (trilling)
Biography
Sonic elements (orchestra)
Recording Process
Track by Track
Culture
Genre
Holistic
Culture
They are able to transition between all of these by talking about how they affect each other and interplay. All of these different parts of this album play together and this analysis creates a journey including all of these moving parts. When they were transitioning between songs or broad ideas, they used some of his music.
The overarching organization pattern for this analysis is chronological, they went from before this album was made all the way to new albums dropped that are related to this album.
Pet Sounds: (Taylor, Emily, Ben)
ReplyDelete3:00- personal biography
3:30- sonic analysis
4:00- personal biography
5:30- culture/genre
8:00- comparison/genre dissection
9:00- cultural
9:40- comparison with robin and marvin gaye
10:15- business of genre
11:10- lyrics and sonic analysis
12:00- background of album
12:20- personal biography
13:30- lyrical/sonic analysis
14:25- Lyrical/thematic analysis
15:05- genre and cultural analysis
15:40- personal biography of father
17:00- personal biography of Brian
17:17- cultural analysis
17:40- sonic analysis
I think that, like was previously stated by Ben, there wasn't a set order. There were moments in the podcast where they would change the types of analysis 3 times within the span of a minute. I would say that the overall theme of the podcast is personal background analysis. Whenever they hit a highlight point in the biography, like the acid uses of Brian as a biography, and then dipping into the drug-beach culture in the 60's.
Mary Ashley, Zach, and Claire
ReplyDeleteThe artists personal biography: 11:46 seconds
Influences of past artists on the album
The whole concept behind the group and how it came to be
The artists professional biography in relation to the beatles
The personal biographies with interviews
They use the background knowledge to explain how their was a darkness behind the so called “sunny happiness” that seemed to be at the forefront of their music.
Their personal experience with acid/LSD and break down that influenced their music
The impact of culture on the album
Very much based on their personal backstory and how it changed their music
Lyrical analysis
History of the recording self during that time
Analysis of the songs and how their sound differs
The sonic quality of the songs
Lyrical analysis
Recording of the album itself
The sonic elements of the songs
They freely flowed between the different analysis’. They used this album review as a biography of the main guy. The change in the music coinsided with the way that his life was changing.
Jack, Noah, & Gaby:
ReplyDeleteHistorical and Recording production analysis come up at the beginning, with Brian Wilson’s childhood and how he used to record symphonies with a tape recorder. (Historical, Biographical, Recording, Sonic Elements)
Culture is brought up next, talking on when they created the Beach Boys, the topics of conversation were “Cars, Girls, Surfing, Fun, and Sun.” This also changed the genre, as it created the new genre of surf rock. (Cultural, Genre, Ideology)
Also brings up how artists during the 60s didn’t have a lot of control over the production of their own albums, goes in depth about studio structure and being able to branch out into new styles of music that weren’t readily available before. (Historical, Recording Production, Lyrical, Sonic, Ideology)
Another mention of Culture was the mentioning of LSD, and how “everything changed” on acid. How it affected his music and pushed it towards psychedelic rock, and how it opened the “Pandora’s Box” in his mind. (Cultural, Philosophical)
Not a track by track analysis - “one extended mood piece”
Biography of the album dude kicked everyone out of the studio so he could be alone because no one was was “musically like him”
Sonic- brian made these musical sample of instruments laid over each other trying to make feelings in listeners through sound that matched the lyrics
Discussion:
The premise of the ‘Classic Album Dissection’ was to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the release date of the album so the entire podcast takes a historical/ chronological standpoint. The overarching theme/ organizational factor that dictates the flow of the analysis is the Historical/ Chronological point of view. The biographies, culture of the time, and historical events that led up to and surrounded the album are used to dissect the album.
Jacob, Frank, Bisha
ReplyDeleteComes from MoTown culture
Close relationship with Barry Gordy, head of Motown Records
Gordy initially hated What’s Going On
Begins review by giving biographical context of Marvin Gaye
Outer struggles of the world as tumultuous as Gaye’s internal struggles
Gaye relied on drugs and attempted suicide at one point
MoTown evolved a darker sound as time went on
Darker trend begins with MLK’s assassination
“Don’t worry if there’s a hell below, we’re all gonna go”
Gaye used different sonic elements (sounds from hanging out w/ Detroit Lions, Eli Fontaine warming up on sax, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, etc.)
Differed from the typical Motown formula
Analytical Structure:
Biographical analysis of Marvin Gaye
Analysis of What’s Going On’s sonic/ lyrical qualities
Cultural critique woven throughout
The transitions in the podcast were mostly done musically, with tracks that either were about to be discussed or were previously discussed. The culture aspects of the analysis were more sprinkled in the podcast, rather than deeply discussed. The Vietnam War and MLK’s assassination are discussed in the most detail, but even that isn’t deeply delved into.