Listening Journal #8

The final song for this eight part listening journal contains only one song: Bodysnatchers by Radiohead. The song begins with a particularly thick, distorted guitar texture. The guitar riff sets a gritty tone and the repeated rhythmic idea builds continuity throughout the song.

Thom Yorke's lyrics call to mind an image of someone trapped in their own body. The subject is unable to communicate with the outside world. The message could certainly be meant to correspond to Radiohead's battle with commercialization and the more general demand on pop performers. It brings up an important point about the relative free will of entertainers in a for-profit endeavor. How much artistic freedom can musicians have when making something for mass consumption? Though Radiohead is an alternative band, they still have record label executives and producers to work with how have their own agendas.

The overall feel of the song is disorienting with tons of reverb and a thick texture. Thom Yorke's vocal delivery is fuzzy and hard to understand at first both owning to the added effects and his pop musician delivery that is less concerned with diction than expression. The song starts and ends abruptly as if to be a brief window into the disorienting, noisy yet hollow world of the singer/songwriter.

Listening Journal #7

Much like the 70s, the music of the 80s was eclectic and showed a broadening of styles marketed to diverse tastes. Still, most popular music in the 80s was heavily produced and used new electronic sounds, synthesizers, and recording techniques.

A good example of this is a number one hit from 1983: Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This). The post-disco song by the Eurythmics used a heavy beat, synthesized sounds, and loops to create a dance hit similar to disco in its insistent beat, but dissimilar in it more subdued tone. Sweet Dreams actually points more towards the emerging techno style with its tone and electronic backbone.

The popularity of the song was also boosted by the new medium of MTV. Annie Lennox, the lead singer seems cut from the same mold as David Bowie with her androgynous sex appeal. Many of the images used in the video seem symbolic. The video also uses a number of video editing tricks to create an interesting product. The song itself lends itself to hit status with a mesmerizing synth "hook" that continues throughout the song and a good deal of repetition.

While a great deal of 80s music was highly produced and utilized sythesizers, and this next song is no exception, this was also the era of virtuoso guitarists. The music instrument industry began making guitars designed for hyper fast playing and aural gymnastics. The Floyd Rose invented the locking vibrato in 1977 which allowed guitarists to completely detune their strings without causing the guitar to go out of tune. Finger tapping was utilized as well to help players play this fast style.On of the masters of this technical guitar playing was Eddie Van Halen. He used his specially made guitar to create some amazing guitar pyrotechnics and forged the way for players like Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, and Yngwie Malmsteen with solos like this:

 

Stadium rock band like Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple had influenced heavy metal bands like Van Halen who created these massive walls of sound using stacks of amplifiers and huge drum sets. For the most part, heavy metal was left on the fringe, but the 80s saw a number of albums and singles become hits. Van Halen's song Jump might be considered more of a crossover hit as the song begins, and centers around, a synthesizer. The music video for jump it more like an up close version of their stage show, and the songs form is simple with its verse, prechorus, and chorus repetition. Like most Van Halen songs, it contains a virtuosic solo by Eddie, but it does not seem like the focal point as there is also an even more elaborate synth solo to follow. 

The influence of Van Halen can also be seen in his inclusion in Michael Jackson's Thriller album. The guitar riff in Beat It is actually played by a studio guitarist, but Van Halen is added in a solo to boost the songs crossover appeal. 

Another guitar virtuoso from the 80s, with a far more controversial image is Prince. His upbringing and early life as a guitarist meant he was highly trained as a musician. He used that skill and knowledge to control his recordings to a high degree, more so even than a producer like Phil Spector. His number one single, When Doves Cry, is an example where he produced, sang all the vocal parts, and played all the instruments. The distinct guitar part that begins the song is infused with funk rhythms while being distorted like heavy metal guitar music. The song uses an eight measure groove to tie all of the various sections together.  The song's appeal lies, perhaps, in it's melding of dance and progressive rock styles while continuing the singer/songwriter tradition. While When Doves Cry does mix a number of 80s sounds, it also buck the trend of most 80s rock with its sparser sound and continuous rise and falling rather than a building to a final climax. 

The late 80s was also a time where rap music began to evolve into various branches. Public Enemy was one group that used rap music to share a message rather than just create good dance music or project a gangsta persona. The song Night of the Living Baseheads is an example of the moral authority utilized by Chuck D. The song starts with an audio recording Khalid Abdul Muhammad who set the tone of rebuke. The song sets a message against the use of crack cocaine that was prevalent in the inner cities of America. The lyrics paint the users of crack as zombie-like and rebukes the. The musical texture is immediately complex using a number of loops and DJ techniques. "Scratching" is heard as various points as well as points that drop the beat. Chuck D's delivery of lyrics is from a position of moral authority and the songs overall message stands in stark contrast to some of the gangsta rap that seems to glorify "street" life. 

While the 80s saw the rise of the virtuoso guitar player, the early 90s had a hit that stood in stark contrast in Smells Like Teen Spirit. The platinum single starts with a simple powerchord guitar riff despite its heavy metal textures. The overall form is a repetition of A, B, and C sections and the simplicity of structure lends itself to the songs various "hooks". Each section has a different feel with the A sections being quite subdued and the C section almost being shouted at the listener. The counterculture vibe, and ideal held by the group, is reminiscent of punk as is the relative simplicity of the instrumental parts. The band's tremendous success flew in the face of their anti-establishment ideals and, it could be argued, eventually led to Cobain's personal undoing. The song's title is itself a reflection of the band's ideals; it is a reference to a popular deodorant (Teen Spirit) and a friend of the band had mocked Curt Cobain by writing on the wall ("Kurt Smells Like Teen Spirit" mentioned by David Grohl in the BBC documentary The Joy of the Riff). Surely a taunt like that would only be influential to someone looking to completely avoid popular culture.

Nirvana was considered an alternative band, and rightly so with their anti-establishment ideals and musical style counter to the mainstream . However, some artists have been considered alternative for mostly non-musical reasons. k.d. lang's song Nowhere to Stand is traditional in most aspects. It's simple acoustic guitar and fiddle sound make the song unmistakably country. The lyrics, however, make a point against child abuse unlike the more idyllic themes of most country music. k.d. lang's public image, with her androgynous look and later confirmed lesbian status, also contributed to her being labeled alternative as the mainstream of country is (and was) highly connected with conservative values. The song itself is a powerful critique sung with passion (and a slightly blues influenced tone in the chorus) that points to lang's status as a great songwriter and activist.