MTF week 10

Grunge • Very raw • Once cleaned up and stylised by record companies, was assimilated into other forms of music • Trend Genre – experiences waves of popularity • Was a rebellion against glam metal and the over produced 80s Grunge artists learn to play as they go, Grunge Metal band Sound Garden lost fans as their technique improved. An interesting note on ‘copycat bands’…Firstly, it is possible to get artists who reach the same musical sounds independently of each other, sounding the same does not necessarily reek of theft and, the line between copycatting and being legitimately and unavoidably influenced. However, some bands are just straight out copying, sometimes even down to their image, they don’t always sell so well. Some of the Offspring of Grunge include Stoner Rock (my favourite kind) • Evolution of the Black Sabbath sound • Psychopathic vocals (think QOTSA) http://youtube.com/watch?v=nR2emR9xvCE The White Stripes • Mid-fi • Basic songs and performance but sells well (a fine example of successfully pulling off a cliché?) Marilyn Manson’s ‘Beautiful People’ • Glam Metal meets Industrial • Double tracked drums Iggy Pop – shows Grunge tendencies before Grunge emerges. (Layers mix with the sound a guitar feeding back.) Australian Grunge. Sounds kind of pop…think Spiderbait. http://youtube.com/watch?v=UtqjmuUaYXA Punk (not an evolution of grunge) • Lots of mid range and a fast tempo make it very in your face The other topic covered in forum this week was ‘English sound production. For a country where the various sources of music are geographically pretty close, there are notable differences (characteristic of England in general to my knowledge. Just look at the multitude of accents). Locations covered included: Bristol • Dark sound, haunting, to me it sounds like the band Gomez • Lots of bottom end • Retain dynamic variety despite massive compression Manchester • Influenced by late 60s stuff (ecstasy) • Sound like Rolling Stones • Layered • Airy vocals – sound very English Oxfordshire - RadioHead • like to progress from lo-fi to hi-fi in songs (for effect/contrast). • Create excellent new guitar sounds (then get sick of it after copycats overuse it) So, if you are producing a young new band, try and accentuate the new and innovative things in their sound. Back to English production…my favourite band Muse (quoted by Stephen Fieldhouse as sounding like Radiohead on steroids) • Use mega compression. So much so that the climatic loud parts become quieter than the normal parts. This could be some horrible mistake on the part of the producer or, it could be art. I am now left to wonder. Certainly, I had never noticed the dramatic loud parts getting quieter without having it pointed out to me. Liverpool (primarily, The Beatles) • Artist comes first • Reversed guitar solos • Sampled and spliced sounds • Concept record • Staggered orchestral crescendo English Glam Rock • David Bowie – invents a character4 for each album • Outrageous falsetto vocals • Tuned down and dampened drums Lastly, from the two minutes spent talking about film music, I can now tell you that the best orchestral recordings are to be found in the vaults of Hollywood. Sample away my pets.