EXP - Video Deconstruction

Video Deconstruction

EXP Evaluation

EXP Evaluation

Critical Analysis

My work fits into the music industry as it attempts to provide a clear insight into the differences between Alternative & Contemporary R&B. Furthermore I originally planned for my work to look into how R&B has evolved and what characteristics have changed over generations, I touched on this but as my project went on i ended up changing this slightly to looking into the more musical elements and characteristics that caused the changes in R&B.

Finding already existing work that relates to my project was fairly difficult as I haven't come across people depicting to find the differences between alternative & contemporary R&B however I was able to find work which I briefly covered in my project. The work that I found was similar to my own was about how is masculinity challenged in R&B. The article was written around the time alternative R&B first started to become popular around 2014. The article goes on to say that, "With the emergence of alternative R&B, contemporary R&B and hip hop culture are being confronted with a subgenre that challenges its key characteristics". The articles goes onto say that could alternative R&B is challenging the views that make males more dominant than females in society. I related this to my project as this could be one of the factors that is making alternative R&B rise in popularity.

During my project I struggled with managing my time. I planned my project without taking in factors that we could be doing different work within lessons. Furthermore I also think I spent more time on my projects than research even though I wasn't able to finish all of my tracks. In addition I also struggled with finding research and other sources relating to my project. 

If I could change something about my work it would be beginning to research the musical differences between alternative and contemporary R&B earlier along my project, furthermore I would try to look for more work similar to the work questioning hegemonic masculinity in R&B. In addition I would try to look into making more synths for my tracks as whilst I'm proud of the ones I was using, having separate synths for my contemporary tracks and for my alternative tracks may have allowed me to make the differences between the two genres clearer.

If I had the option I would put more time into my research rather than tracks. For my FMP I put more time into my research than tracks and I feel most of my tracks weren't as developed as they could have been so i attempted to do the opposite this year however I feel that following my ways last year could have been the way forward. 

Research

My key areas of research were the musical differences between alternative & contemporary R&B, I looked into this as I wanted people looking at my work to understand some of the main differences between the two. This wasn't my plan to begin with as towards the beginning of my project I was more aiming to look into the history of R&B and look into what made R&B split into these two types of genres. Whilst I did still look into this I didn't look into it as much as I had originally planned. This changed because finding reasons why alternative and contemporary R&B split was a lot more difficult to anticipate there was little to no work on the differences so I would have to put sources I found together and come to a conclusion myself. Furthermore I also conducted research on the types of synths used in the two subgenres and decided to create my own synths.

The research methods I applied were mainly secondary forms of research as I didn't interview anyone or conduct surveys. Doing primary forms of research, interviewing especially could have made a positive impact on my project, as not many people have done work of my sort it could help by gathering information on maybe why they prefer alternative or what they think is making it so popular. The secondary forms of research I found were mainly articles and other forms of websites. The articles in particular were helpful to me as it showed me what companies and promoters think their audience thinks about types of music and artists and it allowed me form an opinion and come to conclusion from the information given to me. Furthermore another form of research I conducted was to compare the musical elements between alternative & contemporary R&B this was useful as it allowed me understand clear differences between the sub-genres and create my own music going along the guidelines I made.

I was able to synthesise my research into my projects by taking traits of music and common patterns across one of the sub-genres and include it in my own music, also I was able to make a couple synths to help me in the creation of my tracks

I feel I could have researched more topics to do with the different problems alternative & contemporary R&B face for example as I mentioned earlier looking into the issues facing alternative & contemporary R&B with hegemonic males. In addition, looking at my proposal I believe I was planning to research the wrong topics and if I had planned to research more relevant topics that had substance to them my project would have been more of a success.

I could apply to my future career, when planning ensure I'm aware that nothing always goes 100% as planned, to make sure I leave enough time to work on all aspects of my work and to research topics that might not be directly related to your project but could lead to another question answered.

Technical/Practical Skills
My research informed my practical work because I was able to make synths from the research I conducted and include them in my tracks. Moreover I was also able to find the differences between the sub-genres and make sure the differences were clear within my music.

I developed my skills to create synthesisers through Logic, we had touched on the subject in class but really fine tuning them to be included in my project definitely is a skill I has developed. In addition I also had to develop my skills in music theory as I'm not too confident in my music theory, this was a way to work on it so I could work on a melody corresponding the chords within my tracks.

I feel my practical skills have developed quite well over the past few years but I do feel I could develop them further, I still could work on my music theory as I think that is something I am lacking in greatly.

Presenting Your Work
I chose to present my work through soundcloud and soundcloud only, this is because it's very easy to share sound cloud tracks through other forms of social media e.g twitter, Facebook and a wide range of other platforms. Furthermore on soundcloud you can fine tune the audience that will hear your music through the use of tags and assigning the track genres.

My presentation method is a very popular and common practise many of today's popular artists started off through soundcloud and still use soundcloud as their platform to upload their music on, a key example would be Bryson Tiller. Whilst many people believe uploading to soundcloud is pointless as people can stream your music for free, it's one of the easiest way for your music to spread and many artists start off this way then later on go to platforms like Apple Music and Spotify.

My method has been successful in reaching my target audience since I was able to choose what audience would be able to listen to my music. Furthermore being able to share my music on twitter has been a huge help.

Project Management
I feel I could have managed time management within my EXP track a lot better, this would have helped me to finish my tracks and add more research to my project. In addition I also feel I could have handled balancing my research and practical work a lot better, if I had put more time into research atleast then the research I had done would back up my tracks more making the differences clearer to see.

My biggest challenge for my EXP would have to be my time management. However finding sources relating to my project was also an issue. Our lessons changing for a week towards the end of the project made me have to change course and prioritise my tracks more than I had liked to.

I didn't use too much of the access timevto book studio rooms or production rooms because most of our access time was during our lessons then we had a slot on Fridays, I made use of access time by prioritising these days to work on my practical as I would find it easier to research outside of college.
I have not completed all of the work I would have liked to fit this project as I wasn't able to do as much research as I had initially planned and I didn't finish the final track. This is due to my time management and having to change direction towards the end of the project.

Problem Solving
The biggest technical problem I faced was my USB formatting whilst in the process of transferring my practical between computers however since i had access to the computers I was using on another day I was able to transfer my work on my google drive which is what I had been doing for my research.

The theoretical problems I faced during the EXP would be that I had to revisit learning musical theory as I wasn't 100% sure on my circle of fifths and I needed this to work on the melodies within the majority of my tracks.

EXP- Progress Reports - Week 13

Week 13

Targets -  This week I plan to finish all research and literature review by Tuesday, then my bibliography will follow shortly as I'll have all the research done and won't need to add anymore to that. I plan to do this by the latest Thursday so I'm not leaving everything till the last day.

Summary - I was able to finish all my research and literature but I finished them on Wednesday, I left my bibliography till Thursday as I was still checking if there was anything I could add. I also added extra case studies.

EXP - Bibliography

Bibliography

References

AllMusic. (2017). Alternative R&B Music Genre Overview | AllMusic. [online] Available at: http://www.allmusic.com/subgenre/alternative-r-b-ma0000013375 [Accessed 2 Jun. 2017].

Genius. (2017). Alternative R&B is the next chapter to a sleeping genre?. [online] Available at: https://genius.com/discussions/247498-Alternative-r-b-is-the-next-chapter-to-a-sleeping-genre [Accessed 2 Jun. 2017].

Henry, J. (2017). Realizing R&B's Identity Crisis: An Analytical Research Paper. [online] Academia.edu. Available at: https://www.academia.edu/21506327/Realizing_R_and_Bs_Identity_Crisis_An_Analytical_Research_Paper [Accessed 2 Jun. 2017].

Journals.sagepub.com. (2017). Resistant masculinities in alternative R&B? Understanding Frank Ocean and The Weeknd’s representations of genderEuropean Journal of Cultural Studies - Frederik Dhaenens, Sander De Ridder, 2015. [online] Available at: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1367549414526730 [Accessed 2 Jun. 2017].

Mayer, E. (2017). When words fail: Alternative R&B, radical codes, and the power of language. [online] Kbia.org. Available at: http://kbia.org/post/when-words-fail-alternative-rb-radical-codes-and-power-language#stream/0 [Accessed 2 Jun. 2017].

R&B, T. (2017). Trend of the Year: Alt R&B. [online] Spin. Available at: http://www.spin.com/2012/12/trend-of-the-year-alt-rb-2012-frank-ocean-weeknd-miguel/ [Accessed 2 Jun. 2017].

Rubenstein, H. (2017). Alternative R&B: Much more than bump’n’grind. [online] The Independent. Available at: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/alternative-rb-much-more-than-bump-n-grind-9142021.html [Accessed 2 Jun. 2017].

Soul-patrol.com. (2017). "ALTERNATIVE R&B", "NEO SOUL", "RETRO SOUL" - WHAT DO THESE TERMS MEAN ?. [online] Available at: http://www.soul-patrol.com/funk/mike/alt.htm [Accessed 2 Jun. 2017].

Tiki-toki.com. (2017). History of Alternative R&B. [online] Available at: http://www.tiki-toki.com/timeline/entry/730116/History-of-Alternative-RB/ [Accessed 2 Jun. 2017].

Wardy, F., Ikirmawi, S., Wardy, F., Akintoye, B., Qureshi, A., staff, g., Shutti, G., Cole, J. and Santos, V. (2017). The limits of the 'Alternative R&B' genre | gal-dem. [online] gal-dem. Available at: http://www.gal-dem.com/limits-of-the-alternative-rnb-genre/ [Accessed 2 Jun. 2017].

Wolfson, S. (2017). How R&B got its groove back. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/jun/29/how-r-b-got-its-groove-back [Accessed 2 Jun. 2017].

EXP - Broader Contextualisation

Broader Contextualisation

One of the articles I found whilst only short relates to my work and sparks a lot of thought is this one:

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1367549414526730. Whilst my project is about the differences between Alternative and Contemporary R&B, this focuses purely on the issues facing masculinity when it comes to the sub-genres. The article talks about how Alternative R&B isn't the traditional macho male and that the artists they mention question what it is to be an male artists in the genre of their field.

Another article that was helpful to me would have to be this one http://kbia.org/post/when-words-fail-alternative-rb-radical-codes-and-power-language#stream/0/. It talks about race  being involved in the word R&B and in the 1950's and there being "no material musical difference between rock & roll and R&B. The distinction was almost purely racial. not musical" This refers to make research about indie rock. What if the only real difference is the name or if they opened up the name to Alternative R&B and Indie Rock would there be any noticeable difference like Contemporary R&B and Alternative R&B?

Whilst my project is based on Alternative & Contemporary R&B, this website helped me expand my view as some people refer to Alternative R&B as Indie R&B. http://fortune.com/2014/06/06/indie-r-b/. It talks about how Indie R&B and some Alternative R&B artists even though thought to be the same struggle to get the publicity they think they deserve purely because they classify themselves as Indie R&B. This could be due to people not caring for Indie R&B or just not hearing about it enough to want to research it.

Also this paper opened my eyes and allowed me to think about multiple possibilities. https://www.academia.edu/21506327/Realizing_R_and_Bs_Identity_Crisis_An_Analytical_Research_Paper. It talks about there being an identity crisis on R&B and why it keeps changing to meet popular demand. But that is its answer, R&B will keep evolving to meet peoples expectations so it will never truly die out.

EXP - Literature Review

Literature Review

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/alternative-rb-much-more-than-bump-n-grind-9142021.html

This article talks about the Alternative R&B and how it became such a big sub-genre, it also talks about possibly why the sub-genre started and who started in this movement. It was able to spark thoughts as to why the genres spilt and whether there were any major differences. As i struggled with finding differences this article helped in making me look for individual elements and events that the article talks about that could have possibly started the sub-genres dividing.

http://www.gal-dem.com/limits-of-the-alternative-rnb-genre/

This website was able to help me as it talks about the title of Alternative R&B and the title of R&B in general, it explains that some artists may not have claimed to be making Alternative R&B but people just decided for them. It also goes over the term "indie rock" which some artists feel more comfortable with but opens doors to another type of sound completely. It made me think of the possibilities that Alternative R&B got some of its influence from rock and that whilst many people think that Alternative R&B is a relatively new sub-genre that it could trace back further than we think.

http://www.spin.com/2012/12/trend-of-the-year-alt-rb-2012-frank-ocean-weeknd-miguel/

This article believes that R&B was not the same as it used to be during the 90's phase of R&B and that alternative R&B came to offer something new and brought back the spark in R&B. This article was good for challenging my own thoughts, it made me think about the effect alternative R&B has had over the past few years and how huge it has become in a short space or time. Whilst I don't believe R&B during the 90's phase was boring it is true that Alternative R&B wouldn't have been so popular without some people believing this.

http://www.stereogum.com/1225571/2012-in-review-the-new-wave-of-rb-comes-into-full-bloom/

This article played a key part in my research. It speaks about the type of R&B being around when my generation was growing up and a few years before that being popular and about the typical love song, then alternative R&B springing up surprising everyone and everyone loving it. This influenced my project my sharing the same views at me to begin with, this being the first article I found, it made me think about the reasons that cause these events to take place.

EXP - What Caused R&B To Split?

What Caused R&B To Split?

Introduction

It is said that R&B dates back to the 1960's, however there were always signs there would be a music of this creation during the 1800's when people who were enslaved felt they needed a way to express themselves through music. Over the years R&B has definitely changed in many ways and this could be due to the demand of R&B fans, it could be due to the world events or it could just be due to newer generations adding their touch to the music. However one question that we are faced with today, is why is there Alternative R&B and Contemporary R&B?

Alternative R&B

People mainly say that Alternative R&B is due to artists and fans alike being bored of Contemporary R&B, which is understandable but untrue. Whilst Alternative R&B is a newer concept of R&B and adds sounds most people thought had no place within R&B, Contemporary R&B is still what people see as classic R&B and can never be replaced, so why is there talk that Contemporary R&B is all but finished? This is because publishers like the Independent think "The girls and guns formula of traditional R&B has grown tired" and that "a new wave of talent has arrived to reinvent the form and challenge listeners." This statement is interesting as many of the artists who join in with Alternative R&B also have had or still have some investment to Contemporary R&B. Frank Ocean for example has different songs that fall in to either brackets. On the contrary most people believe that it is the younger people of today who find themselves enjoying Alternative R&B, so perhaps Alternative R&B is just something of the newer generation, however that doesn't mean there would be no more Contemporary R&B. The thought of Alternative R&B becoming the new "wave" is clearly affecting Contemporary R&B Artists as well, artists like Usher have begun changing their style so they aren't forgotten, by this I don't mean changing to the Alternative R&B side but attempting to connect with the younger generation, we can see this from the video below.

Contemporary R&B
Contemporary R&B is seen as the older generations R&B and whilst it's true that music has changed quite a lot since the 90's when the "bump'n'grind" era was at its peak, many of the younger generation still find themselves listening to this music and would as go as far to wish for this type of music to come back. Even with all this talk about Alternative R&B eradicating Contemporary R&B, Contemporary R&B is still viewed as the mainstream sub-genre. Due to Contemporary R&B being older and having the history in the music industry, I believe it will always be a popular genre.

Conclusion
My conclusion is that R&B split into these two types of genres because the newer generation wanted a different kind of sound from the party anthems we were being bombarded with. Alternative R&B allows for more thinking as it has space in the song. Whilst Alternative R&B does still have many love songs it definitely doesn't have as many as Contemporary R&B, whether thats because Alternative R&B is older or because it's just not the younger generations style, Alternative R&B subjects can be about almost anything.

EXP- Electronic Drums

Making An Electronic Drum Kit

For my alternative R&B tracks I knew there would be a heavy use of electronic drums for example the hi-hats, kick drum and toms, plus percussion. Going on the trend of adding spaciness to the alternative tracks, I knew I would want them to sound distant, but punchy. For this I added flanger. The flanger did exactly what I wanted it to do but I wanted to add a twang to the hi-hats, for this I layered them with a percussive instrument and it was everything I could ask for. Below is a audio playlist of a preview with and without the percussion and as you can see it plays a huge role. I also added reverb to my hi-hats to add a almost echo like sound without using the echo effect as I feel that ruins the sound.

EXP - Progress Reports - Week 12

Week 12

Targets - I plan to finish my literature review, do my video deconstruction and bibliography. Also If I could find time I would try to work more on my fourth track to see whether I would be able to finish it before the deadline on Thursday.

 Summary - I was unable to finish my fourth track this week so I could only hand in three, this is due to my time management, I should have left the last week as a week to master my fourth track or just finish all my tracks a week before the deadline was due. Furthermore I managed to work more on my literature review and since I'm still finding more information to research, I will leave the bibliography to the last week as i'm certain how to do that.

Next Week -  Next week I plan to finish all research and literature review by Tuesday, then my bibliography will follow shortly as I'll have all the research done and won't need to add anymore to that. I plan to do this by the latest Thursday so I'm not leaving everything till the last day.

EXP - Progress Reports - Week 11

Week 11

Targets - I plan to finish my third track and develop my fourth track, since I was able to work on my fourth track so swiftly in just one week I believe I will make the deadline for the practical work. Furthermore whilst I'm not working on my practical I would be able to add more to my literature review. If all goes to plan my practical will be mastered for the deadline.

Summary - This week I managed to finish my third track by adding the electronic drums and acoustic drums, as that was all that I needed I didn't bother trying to be too much creative as I still had to work on my fourth track, with only one week left I tried to add drums and bass to it but time was running short, also our lesson slots had been changed and we were asked to set up a gig so I running out of time to do what I had planned, I added what I could but ultimately my fourth track wasn't finished. As I put all my effort into trying to finish the fourth track I didn't have time for my literature review.

Next Week - Next week I plan to finish my literature review, do my video deconstruction and bibliography. Also If I could find time I would try to work more on my fourth track to see whether I would be able to finish it before the deadline on Thursday.

EXP - Progress Reports - Week 10

Week 10

Targets - This week I plan to finish off my third track as I'm running short for time, this means adding the electronic drums and acoustic drums, once that is done I will just need to make sure the levels are correct and that track will be finished. I plan to do my literature review next week as well so hopefully I'm not packing too much into one week.

Summary - This week I was able to make a start on my literature review, I wasn't able to finish my third track as once again I was short on inspiration, I listened to more alternative R&B songs to try and jolt an idea to mind for the drums so hopefully by next week I will have the inspiration to finish the third track. Rather than finish my third track I decided to make a start on my fourth track, I was already running out of time so another week without at least starting my fourth track would be very risky. For my fourth track I was able to get the chords done very swiftly, I added a few tom hits but nothing special.

Next Week - Next week I plan 100% finish my third track and develop my fourth track, since I was able to work on my fourth track so swiftly in just one week I believe I will make the deadline for the practical work. Furthermore whilst I'm not working on my practical I would be able to add more to my literature review. If all goes to plan my practical will be mastered for the deadline.

EXP - Progress Reports - Week 9

Week 9

Targets - My targets for this week are to do another couple case studies, preferably on the creation of synths that ended up being the back bone of the first alternative R&B track. Furthermore I also hope to work on the third track more, I plan to develop the electronic drums and possibly add acoustic drums I also plan to add more to the melody, whether that means layering it with another instrument or developing it so there's more information in it.

Summary - This week I managed to layer the melody with another instrument, since there was just a synth playing the melody before I decided to add a flute type instrument to make the sound less harsh, but I wasn't able to add any acoustic drums and I only added a small amount of electronic drums as I was low on inspiration this week. However I was able to do both case studies, these case studies will be going towards my research had helped me figure out what I could do with the skill on creating synths. Since there are so many routes you can take when it comes to creating a synth. Furthermore I learnt how to read into the circle of fifths better as I had to when sorting out the melody. As I had hoped to work more on the elctronic and acoustic drums this means I will have to work on that next week which could hinder the progress of working on my fourth track.

Next Week - Next week I plan to finish off my third track as I'm running short for time, this means adding the electronic drums and acoustic drums, once that is done I will just need to make sure the levels are correct and that track will be finished. I plan to do my literature review next week as well so hopefully I'm not packing too much into one week. 

EXP - Progress Reports - Week 8

Week 8

Targets - My targets for this week are to make a case study for the differences in musical elements between contemporary and alternative R&B, I plan to do this by listing the songs I listened to and pointing out the elements I find are similar and those that differ and why I think they differ in the ways they do and why the similar elements are unchanged.  I also plan to make a start on my third track, this track will by the second alternative R&B track. I will start off with the chords using the Persian Rugs inspired synth I created, then I plan to add electronic drums.

Summary - This week I got more done than I had originally planned, I had the chords and electronic drums for the third track ready, I also managed to play in the melody for the third track. I wasn't sure whether I would have time for that so for practical worked this played out well. I also finished the case study for the musical differences between alternative and contemporary R&B. I listened to numerous songs from the two types of sub-genres then chose 3 for each I could best use as an example to break down.

Next Week - Next week I plan to do another couple case studies, preferably on the creation of synths that ended up being the back bone of the first alternative R&B track. Furthermore I also hope to work on the third track more, I plan to develop the electronic drums and possibly add acoustic drums I also plan to add more to the melody, whether that means layering it with another instrument or developing it so there's more information in it.

EXP - Creating A Synth For A Melody

Creating A Synth For Melody

Creating a synth for melody was more difficult for me as I wasn't too sure what kind of sound to aim for. As I was mainly creating the synth for my alternative tracks. And since i was creating the melody I couldn't rely on chord trigger so much. This meant I had to research the chords that we're being played through chord trigger and look into the circle of fifths.  I came to the conclusion that the kind of synth I was looking for would also have a lot of space as thats a common pattern within alternative R&B, for this reason I named the synth Breathe. I started off with the effect sculpture, this is similar to the other synth creators like the EX24 and ES2 but for me it helped build a better melody type of synth.  I also added a flanger to give it more of a punch without moving the attack on the ADSR tool. The compressor was just so it didn't stand above the chords and reverb to top off the sound.

EXP - Creating a synth for chords

Persian Rug Synth

Towards the beginning of my project and the beginning of my first track, I was looking for a sound that was commonly found within alternative R&B, after listening to a range of alternative R&B songs I found that a synthesiser playing the chords was the sound I wanted. PARTYNEXTDOOR had a range of songs with a synthesiser playing chords throughout the song but my favourite was from his song Persian Rugs. This made me want to make a synthesiser with a similar feel and spaciness.

To start off in the creation of this synth I first put the midi effect chord trigger on, chord trigger allows you to play one note on the midi keyboard but Logic will play the chord that starts on that note. Since I'm not too great on the piano this allows me to save time figuring out what chords exactly I want to play. I then added the ES2 synth, I added this synth as it allows me to precisely make the synth I want down to the last detail.Using the ADSR (Attack, Delay, Sustain and Release) tool, it allows you to make a synth from a bass synth, lead synth and pad synth. I was aiming for a lead synth, this meant I would want virtually no attack, a long sustain, not too much delay but It would still need to be apparent as much sustain as we can get and the smallest bit of release. The type of synth I was using is called a sine wave. I chose this synth wave because, to me it is the most smooth synth, unlike the other synths there are no jumps or sharp edges. Furthermore since the sound I was influenced by was relaxing I wanted mine to be just as calm. To finish off the sound of the synth I added reverb a much needed effect.

EXP - What are the differences between Alternative and Contemporary R&B when it comes to musical elements?

What are the differences between Alternative and Contemporary R&B when it comes to musical elements?

Aspects of Contemporary R&B

R. Kelly - Ignition: In R. Kelly's Ignition from the beginning of the song and playing throughout there is a background synth (a wah synth) which has inspired me to add a background synth to my second track, the synth is fairly quiet compared to the rest of the mix, however since it played at the beginning of the song when there wasn't too many musical elements going on and it was clearer to hear, you can now hear it consistently in the song. Furthermore the chords played by the piano are fairly simple and bass only plays with the piano until every other drum break occurs, by this I mean what's happening in the mix at (0:26) - (0:31) this is a common occurrence throughout the song. The vocals are a key part in the song, the revolves around the vocals, and the harmonies with the vocals also play a big part as just with vocals they are using antecedent and consequent phrases, this is done when R. Kelly solo is singing and the back in vocals answer what he has sung. This also happens throughout the song but the best example would be the chorus (1:06)-(1:10). Furthermore the drums tend to be an acoustic kick drum and clap however in the background there is electronic hi-hats being played.



Nelly - Dilemma ft. Kelly Rowland: The song starts off with chords which seem to be from an electronic piano, they are very simple chords and are played throughout the song, this trait is shared with most contemporary R&B songs. Furthermore the bell synth following Kelly Rowland's chorus vocals, is similar to the synth played continuously throughout R. Kelly's Ignition. In addition the drums again seem to be acoustic drums with a clap, the use of drums in this track isn't too heavy, but there is almost always a noticeable hi-hat pattern and clap being played.



Jodeci - Freek'N You: The song starts off with a very twangy synth, quiet vocals and bells and percussion. There are also quiet drums being played at the beginning but very softly and only at the beginning of every barThe song drops once the crash hits. Similar to other contemporary R&B songs the synth that was played at the beginning. Throughout the song theres a very simple drum pattern being played which is an acoustic kit that consists of; hi-hats, a snare, clap, kick drum and toms. 

Aspects of Alternative R&B

PARTYNEXTDOOR - Persian Rugs: The song starts off with an electronic piano that plays the same sequence of chords throughout the song. The vocals follow after the chords, they aren't very powerful vocals but they add to the mix by filling the melody. After the vocals comes the electronic drums, at first it is hi-hats and a click, then snare and finally a kick. Electronic drums is a much more common trait in Alternative R&B however its not unheard of to hear electronic drums in Contemporary R&B. The track in general is quite simple, there are very few musical elements giving the song a lot of space. Although the song has a lot of space it's still a good song. 


Frank Ocean - Thinkin' Bout' You: The song starts off quite strong, lyrics going in straight away with a synth playing chords in the background which are played throughout the song. The drums also start at the beginning, they have a muffled kind of sound with echo. Similar to PND's Persian Rugs there is a lot of space in the song as there aren't too many musical elements however the vocals are a lot more prominent in this song. The vocals are the melody in the song as there aren't too many musical elements.



Post Malone - White Iverson: The song starts off with a almost like choir sound in the back ground, the main vocals then come in and a clap in the background. After a bar the electronic drums comes in.(Hi-Hats, kick drums, clap and cymbals). The hi-hats are a constant occurrence throughout the song alongside the choir like sound from the beginning which is always in the background. Furthermore in this song there aren't too many musical elements yet the song sounds full, if anymore were to be added it could potentially ruin the song as it makes use of what instruments it has.

Similarities
Between the two sub-genres, I would say the similarities would be there is always some sort of constant chord being played, In White Iverson it wasn't so much a a piano or synthesiser but a choir like sound. Furthermore both genres make use of electronic drums and acoustic drums however I would say alternative music make more use of electronic Hi-hats which I will talk about in the differences section. In addition the use of claps is also quite similar and other types of percussion, both genres use percussion in the background in some way, shape or form.

Differences
Between the two sub-genres, some of the main differences would be the heavier use of electronic drums in alternative music, since alternative music tends to use acoustic drums less there is a much bigger presence of electronic hi-hats being played a lot faster than acoustic drums, kick and tom drums being muffled with effects to give it a more spacey feel. Moreover alternative tracks tend to have more space in the song for musical elements, by this I mean there isn't as many instruments/musical elements in the song as their might be in a contemporary R&B track, whilst their is more space in the song, it doesn't ruin the song the track then just tends to emphasise on one or two particular elements for example In PnD's Persian Rugs the chords play a huge role.

EXP - Progress Reports - Week 7

Week 7

Targets - My targets for this week are to compare a new set of songs to use in my research and further develop the melody in my second track, add a bass line and add a few more instrumental elements which would finish the track.

Summary - This week I managed to get the second track finished, as planned i added the bass line and developed the melody the way I had hoped, I added more percussion and a mixture of both electronic and acoustic drums although due to my time management I feel I rushed the creation of this song. I still aim to work to 4 tracks but if any problems occur I might have to settle with 3 tracks and put a lot of detail into the third track, at the very least with 3 tracks I can still compare the differences and similarities between alternative and contemporary R&B. I also found more similarities and differences when listening to the set of music I had planned to listen to this week, which I will include in a different post dedicated to the comparison of the genres.

Next Week - Next week since I have been gathering the information on the differences between alternative and contemporary R&B I would like to put it into a case study, I have most the information spread across notes so all I need to do is type the information onto blogger. In addition I would also like to make a start on my third track, I plan to use the same synth I created based off the track Persian rugs as I feel that is my goto alternative synth for chords.

EXP - Practical For EXP

Final Product For EXP

 The final track "Exploration" this track was still in progress. I hoped to have finish this a week or two  before the deadline was finished but I ran out of time as the around this time our lesson slots were swapped for setting up gigs. Below is the chords and the percussions/drums for the song.

EXP - Progress Reports - Week 6

Week 6

Targets - My targets for this week are to listen to both alternative and contemporary R&B songs and compare the two genres, this would help me with musical ideas on the creation of my own version of the genres and give me a clear understanding of the differences. I also want to work on a background synth for my second track, so hopefully comparing the genres will give me some inspiration.

Summary - This week I managed to listen to a variety of different alternative and contemporary R&B songs and compare them, one of the two songs I will be using as my example I listened to is PARTYNEXTDOOR - Persian Rugs and the other being R. Kelly Ignition. I compared the two songs to find out the difference between alternative and contemporary, I also did this with a range of the different songs. In PARTYNEXTDOOR's Persian Rugs I found the chords being played had a two bar loop and were slightly out of time, they were the same throughout without variation. Musically the contemporary track Persian Rugs had a lot of space musically, the drums were fairly simple, they were electronic drums and the hi-hats were in semi quavers with effects that actively changes the rhythm. With R. Kelly Ignition, musically there wasn't much space for anymore elements to be added, the drums tended to be acoustic drums but were similar as they were quite simple drums, just a kick drum, clap and soft hi-hats in the background. Also R. Kelly's Ignition's chord sound like a piano rather than a synth that is playing in Persian Rugs, this is also the same for the bass line, which in Persian rugs seems to follow a similar pattern to the keys. This week I didn't manage to do as much on my second track as I planned however I was able to make a background synth.

Next Week - I plan to finish the second track by adding more drums to the arrangement, both electronic and acoustic, a bit more percussion and develop the melody further. I also plan to listen to another set of songs to compare and use as research which will help in finishing my next two tracks.

EXP - Progress Reports - Week 5

Week 5

Targets - My targets for this week are to make a start on my second track which will be a contemporary R&B track, I would like to make a start on the chords as that's how I find it easiest to start a track, furthermore I also plan to work on the drums for the track, I plan for the drums to be mainly acoustic drums as that's how I picture Contemporary R&B tracks and the tracks I have researched mainly follow this trend. Whilst I will be focusing on acoustic drums I also plan to have a small part of electronic drums as thats my style.

Summary - This week I managed to get the chords for the first track done, below is a preview of the chords. I've made a start on the drums but I doubt they will be the drums I include in the final mix of my track.  I didn't get much done this week due to being unwell.

EXP - Progress Report - Week 4

Week 4

Targets - This week i aimed to finish the first track completely, and make a start on my second track. For the first track all that needed to be done was the last section of hi-hats and kick drums. For the second track I aimed to start the chords and melody.

Summary - I finished the first track and below is a preview of the song. This track is to be one of the songs classified as alternative R&B, I'm classing it as alternative R&B due to the synthesiser playing the chords and use of electronic drums. Both contemporary and alternative R&B can have electronic drums, however I think most alternative songs will have electronic drums. I wasn't able to make a start on my second track as I was still researching traits that contemporary R&B contains.

EXP - Progress Reports - Week 3

Week 3

Targets - My targets for this week are to gather more research on peoples views on alternative and contemporary R&B, for example what people may think triggered R&B splitting into two genres. I aimed to look at online articles and other websites I could use.

Summary - I was able to find articles, one of which I found on the independent website and it explains there's more to alternative R&B than what meets the eyes or ears, below is a screenshot of the title. I found there was a trend the quite a few articles felt the need to explain that alternative R&B is a lot more complex than people might have originally thought, this may be because many people think alternative R&B is just the younger generations version of R&B, whilst in some ways this is correct, alternative R&B is a lot more intricate than that.

EXP - Progress Report - Week 2

Week 2

Targets - My targets for this week are to incorporate ideas from existing alternative and contemporary artists, last week without planning to I created the synth that was based off of the track called Persian Rugs. Furthermore as I didn't get as much research on the differences between the musical elements in the two sub genres, I aimed to look into articles online that view the music as the public does, this meant researching what people think lead R&B to split into these two sub genres.

Summary - This week I was able to make a start on one of my alternative tracks, I used the synthesiser I created last week and was able to play in some chords that give it the kind of feel I was looking for in an alternative track, . This gave me a good start in my track as for me it helps to start off the track with the chords. Furthermore this also inspired me to create a synthesiser that would play the melody, I named it breath as it gives a lot of space in the track which is what I find is common amongst alternative tracks. In addition I also used the Chinese Dizi Flute I found within Logic's sounds and altered some of the effects to give it more of a spacious feel. The synth Breath and the flute play the exact same notes. All screenshots can be found below. Also there is an example of the track below. Moreover I also found that over the years R&B was slowly losing its fanbase until artists like Frank Ocean and more alternative artists came forward.

EXP Progress Report - Week 1

Week 1

Targets - My targets for the week are ; to make a start on researching the differences between the Alternative and Contemporary R&B and what artists categorise themselves as the different types of the genre. Furthermore I would also like to make a start on playing the keyboard part of the track that will be on the first track I will be doing for the EP. 

Summary - This week I made the synthesiser that will be play the keys in my first track. I named it Persian Rugs because part of my research was listening to alternative music, Persian Rugs is a song by the alternative R&B artist PARTYNEXTDOOR and the keys played in that song give me the same feel and made me think it gave the track as much space as the synth I made. Below is an example of the synth I made and the track the idea came from.

In addition finding the alternative R&B artists was made easy thanks to this website. http://www.allmusic.com/subgenre/alternative-r-b-ma0000013375. This website lists the artists who recognise themselves as alternative R&B artists so you don't have to decide whether they are contemporary or alternative using your ears. Furthermore through my research of differentiating whether some artists were alternative or contemporary, I genuinely found that the contemporary artists tended to be artists from older generations whereas the alternative artists were the up and coming artists. However there are still up and coming contemporary artists but the majority you'll find are contemporary. Moreover, whilst that website is handy for finding alternative artists, I disagree with some of the artists they classify as alternative and so do others. I struggled to find musical ideas that helped classify a song as one or the other type of genre.

Industry - Career Plan

Personal Statement
Throughout my life, I have always enjoyed engaging in Physical Education and would like to pursue my career in the field of sports science. I have always had a keen interest and have felt intensely when it comes to the practical and theoretical work concerning Physical Education. I am very aware of the importance of exercise and the related issues of diet and fitness on the prevention of injury in the human body.

I am currently studying a UAL Music Production Level 3 course. This subject appealed to me due to my background within music growing up and it sparked an interest with the industrial side of music like being involved with Pr companies. Although I study Music production and studied Music technology in school, from around year 10 my curiosity with fitness and health grew, I started attending my local gym around 3-4 times a week and altered my diet to achieve the targets I was hoping for, I noticed that I enjoyed this life style.

The style of music I produce now varies from hip-hop, R&B and Jazz, whereas it used to only be hip-hop and the slightest bit of jazz. Whilst I produce music, I'm also very interested in setting up recording sessions to record artists and bands. Furthermore this is a skill I think I excel in and took a liking to when I first started studying music in year 10, as it gave me the tools I needed to record artists closer to me like friends and family making it cheaper for them to start their career.

Fan Base
My fan base is mainly young people ranging from 15-25, this is a rough estimate as this age group tends to have most of the similar interests. Also this does not limit only this age group to listening to my music as you'll find people of all ages listening to my music.

Live Performance
As I'm a producer/sound engineer, performing live is not something I aim for, however having one of my produced tracks performed live is a strong possibility. As some of my tracks have vocals on them and all of them have instruments which can be played live. It would be fairly simple to set up a gig for one of my tracks and just have the occasional synth playing in the back in track.

Performing at the Nottingham Motorpoint Arena is in sight, the fee will be quite expensive as I'm a producer starting off but due to connections I've been promised discounts.

Marketing
For Marketing social media is my main platform, being 'tech savvy' has its perks when you are a starting producer. Twitter is one of the main social medias I use to promote myself and any events I will be attending, due to the ability to 'retweet', you're followers can share the promotion with their followers and its an on going cycle, so you're almost guaranteed to catch some eyes. In addition if you don't have the followers to support you, twitter also offers an advertisement button. You pay for having your tweet promoted onto people who don't necessarily follow you. The more you pay the more people the promotion will reach.

I have photos for my ep's and album covers for when I release them.

Releases
I will be releasing albums and singles within the next coming months, I'm working on fine tuning them till I am content with the product. These albums and singles will be released alongside the photos I told you earlier to be used as album covers etc. I will be releasing them through spotify, apple music and hard copies on cds.

Live Production

Traktor

Using Traktor and dj'ing was one way I worked on my technical development. I was taught how to beat match using the decks, use the hi, low and mid passing filters and a wide range of effects including flanger which would alter the sound of the original tracks.

Drumpads

Using Drumpads was another way I worked on my technical development. Learning to use drumpads was a bit challenging to begin with because, I had to choose a sample I would be putting into the drumpads or pick and choose using the scissor tool on logic a sound out of my own music and fine tune it so the sound would fit the drumpad. 

Looping

Using a loop pedal was also another way I worked on my technical development, using the keytar as the instrument and the loop pedal to record different segments. I quickly learned how useful this tool could be.

EXP - Midpoint Presentation for EXP

Description of Project - My project is called the differences between Alternative R&B and Contemporary R&B and what made them. my project will be an investigation into alternative and contemporary R&B, I will be researching the two different variants of the genre, for example what makes them different, which artists categorise into the two different groups, what makes it alternative and contemporary and why listeners weren't content with just the genre R&B. My project will be mainly research based and the end product will be a 4 track ep, two of them will be alternative R&B and the other 2 will be contemporary. I am creating these 4 tracks to see if I can understand the differences between the two genres and incorporate them into my own music. I shall also be researching whether there were any signs in the earlier signs of R&B that there would be a divide within the genre.

Example of Contemporary - R. Kelly - Ignition is a prime example for contemporary R&B, whilst not all contemporary R&B songs are love songs, a large number of them still are.

 Example of Alternative R&B - PARTYNEXTDOOR - Right now.

A big part in the creation of alternative and contemporary R&B is definitely due to time. Alternative R&B was almost unheard of during the 90's and only really started to become as popular as its counter part contemporary R&B in the late 2000's.

I have been reading articles and other information on the two genres and the general conclusion that most of these papers come to is that alternative R&B is the outcome of many fans and artists alike needing a change within R&B.
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1367549414526730

But even within the two variants there are still huge differences within their own sub-genres, but that has to do with each artists preferences to their music.

Problems I have faced would be finding material to use as research and pinning key differences between the two sub-genres.

Farz's assignment

Upgrading Crazy Tazy 

When it came to improving Crazy Tazy, I decided I would start from the very scratch and changed the chords, I made the chords using a chord trigger and an ES2 synth, my favourite types of synth are quite sweet sounding and soothing to the ears, however I also like when flanger plays a bit so I added a flanger effect and turned the rate of the flanger quite low.  I also added a space designer reverb to the synth. 

For the melody, I used a synth I created called Breathe, I called it breathe because it has an ambient sound that reminds me of breathing smoothly, I made it using sculpture. Sculpture was very confusing but after messing around for a while I found the sound I was looking for. Furthermore I also added a flute and placed it slightly behind the melody synth, this acts an echo but it's a different sound. I put space designer reverb and flanger on both of these instruments.

I created the rhythm using ultra beat, I used three channels for ultra beat; one for hi-hats, one for the kick drum and the last one for the click and tom, the rhythm was fairly simple to make, I put a flanger, overdrive and reverb on the hi-hats. The kick drum was fairly easy to find but it was difficult to make it prominent in the mix, to make it prominent I added overdrive which helped a lot.

Improving What Do You Want

Improving What Do You Want wasn't as long a process as Crazy Tazy as I didn't strip the track apart. However it still took time as I added ultra beat whilst the rest of the song was already in effect which was like creating the rhythm of a song even though the song was already based off a different rhythm. I added a flute and piano to play the melody. I used flanger on the Hi-hats to give it a more metallic, sharp sound, furthermore I used flanger and echo on the flute to give the track a more like dream/fantasy feel. The drums lead the song into the next part with the snare hits then would stop whilst the bass took over.

Communication In Industry

Communication In Industry
Twitter is a great place for advertising music if you have a high follow count, your followers will pass on the advertisement, and it will spread through the social media and possibly make it onto different social medias. Comparing to twitter to handouts and leaflets is a unfair comparison as twitter spreads wide with minimum effort and costs virtually nothing where a with handouts and leaflets require printing and people to physically hand leaflets out. Furthermore posters are also a good way of promoting gigs and music, whist people are travelling or in waiting rooms, reading advertisement is a good way to pass the time and also might be relevant to their lives, however compared to social medias like Twitter, I would have to say twitter comes out on top.

Ucas Application

For my Ucas application, I wasn't required to goto any interviews, but I went to an open day and Nottingham Trent University and Derby University. At Nottingham Trent University I went to look at their Nutrition, Health and Exercise course, It was interesting because I got to see all the different types of equipment they use and how it works. At Derby University I went to look at the Music Production course, this was also interesting but I felt like it wasn't too different from the current course I'm on so that didn't interest me as much.

Industry

Personal Statement

I'm Miles Edwards-Francis, I'm a producer who mainly focuses on the Jazz genre of music, this is interesting because I research all the different aspects of Jazz to ensure that my style has some relation to a piece. 

Fanbase

My fanbase are Jazz enthusiasts, who like to hear different styles of jazz, they are also producers who like to listen to my pieces of work so they can compare as a community.

Live Performance

I plan to get artists to perform my music at the Harrison. I'm am currently working on more gigs, I have performed for my school before.

Marketing

For my marketing I will be using twitter to take of advantage of my followers who will support me. Furthermore I have friends who will also be doing the same to help promote my music. The advertisement includes a cover of my mixtape and a picture of me.

Releases
I will release a 4 track mix tape, with merchandise of my clothes for my fans.

EXP Proposal

Introduction

I will be starting my EXP on March the 6th. The aim of my EXP is to look back into the two main types of R&B, which are Alternate and Contemporary. I will look into the roots of the two branches of the genre, to see what made them divide and what were the early signs within R&B which made this inevitable. Furthermore I plan to do a 4 track EP, 2 for each genre. I will research what makes them different and include that in my tracks.  

Context

I have chosen to search into R&B because the majority of my work has some sort of relation to R&B, some of my work includes Jazz which stems off from blues and some types of R&B have grown from soul music. Since my dissertation was based on Jazz i thought it would be quite interesting to look into the two main genres that stem from soul. I have acquired good skills in researching and coming to a fairly rounded conclusion myself, this is helpful as it will help me form my own opinions on matters and put information together. In addition, using what I research in my music is a good example to show that there may or may not be a difference and what that difference is. I could possibly look into two factual genres e,g Blues and soul, as a back up plan if there is no outcome from alternate and contemporary. Other examples of what

Areas Of Research

The areas I will be researching will be the transition of soul to R&B, what artists were at the forefront of this transition, What makes an artist alternate or contemporary, which artists are contemporary and why if there's a way to depict the difference. Moreover I will also be researching what musical sounds make the genre more alternate or contemporary. Following up what I stated earlier, if I come to a point where i will need to be researching soul and blues, I will be researching the years of which they had been around for a while and their transition into R&B and other genres they helped form. Furthermore I will also be looking into the musical differences between Alternative and Contemporary R&B, this will give me influence and guide me to add the right type of musical elements to the track I will be working on.

Methodology

I will go about creating this project by beginning with the research. Beginning with the research will help me differentiate between alternate and contemporary music, this is crucial as without the knowledge of the difference between the stems of genre, I wont be able to produce music that shows what i view as the difference, the research will include listening to music, reading articles, books and artists own papers so I know where they stand on the alternate and contemporary genre. Furthermore once I have made a start on my research I'll be able to make a start on the practical side of the project. To be confident there is a difference between Alternate and Contemporary R&B, I will take ideas from artists who classify as alternate and contemporary and implement them into my own work plus what i have researched to hopefully prove the difference. 

Timeline
I plan to work on a track a week and research the process behind the track the same week, I don't think i'll be able to get a track done a week, but I plan to start a track each week, I believe this will be helpful to me because if for some reason I'm unable to finish one track, there will be a beginning to it and hopefully it will portray what research is behind it to some degree.
The week starting Monday the 6th of March - Start researching Alternate and Contemporary R&B, this will be fairly straight forward assuming I find the information i'm looking for fairly swiftly. Completing my research sooner than later will allow me to start the practical side quicker. With Research started and a rough knowledge of alternate and contemporary sorted, I will be able to start my first track in the same week, I'll decide whether it will be alternate or contemporary once I have decided which artists footsteps I will be following in.

Week 1 - I will continue researching the two split genres and working on the track I had started, I will be researching artists and incorporating some of their musical aspects into my tracks as well, the artists I take influence from will be included in my research.

Week 2 - I will continue researching the Alternative and Contemporary R&B and continue progressing on my tracks, The progress of my tracks will most likely be going slower than I planned as I will be focusing on my research as that is what will be the inspiration behind the tracks.

Week 3 - I will hopefully be making a start on my second track by now and possibly my literature review, I would have hoped to do many case studies and still looking into the musical elements that differ between Alternative and Contemporary R&B.

Week 4, 5&6 - I will be concentrating on my tracks, I would have hoped to have enough research to be able to work purely on my tracks for a little while. This will allow me to get my practical out of the way and focus on research towards the end of the project.

Week 7, 8&9 - I will be mixing and mastering my tracks, picking up research again and hopefully having enough to finish my literature review, I would have been adding my practical research as I get along with my tracks so I'm sure my practical research will be up to date by then.

Week 10, 11&12 - I plan to have everything finished by then and just be getting feedback from my teachers to make sure everything is in order. I would like to be prepared to finish a week in advance incase any problems occur.

Week 13 - Hand everything in and begin working on my evaluation and my video deconstruction.

Harrison Gig Evaluation

Harrison Gig Evaluation

To live engineer at the Harrison gig me and Taylor volunteered, upon arrival we were given a brief talk through of what instruments to expect and how many vocalists to expect. For Ria's group; Tega was the on the electric piano, for the electric piano we connected a jack-male xlr lead into the Loom setup which connected to the stage box, which then ran into the mixer. Furthermore there were three vocalists, Ria, Porcha and Khadesha. To cater for the three vocalists, we set up two mic stands closer together which would be for the back up singers and one separate mic stand for the lead singer. We connected all the microphones using an XLR lead into the Loom, which led into the stage box and then into the mixer. Ria wanted reverb on all of her songs except her last one, this made it quite easy to control the mixer for her performance because we just had to change one slider as she announced her last song. Whilst we were doing the soundcheck Taylor was on the mixer and I was ensuring the sound was sounding how it should. During the soundcheck we noticed that the right speaker wasn't working. We waited till the performers had finished playing, flattened the desk and investigated the issue. The speaker hadn't been switched on by the plug. We restarted the soundcheck and everything was fine. Here is a photo of the mixing desk for Ria's group.

For Grace's group, we needed one mic stand and an XLR lead for the lead vocalist Grace and a chair and jack to male XLR lead for Leonie as she was playing the guitar. There are no complications with Grace's performance, she wanted reverb on the vocals and reverb on the guitar, me and Taylor decided that the reverb we had set for Ria's lead vocals was fine for Grace, and we had the slightest bit of reverb on the guitar. The mixer was set the same for Grace's group so there was no need for a photo.

For Gloria and Carol
The set up was similar to Ria's group minus the three backup singers, they wanted less reverb on the vocals, and the piano to be louder in the mix than the previous groups. They were quite easy to cater for as they knew precisely what they wanted for their sound.

Live sound Break Down

Live Sound Definition

To start off with a Live Sound P.A system, I'll be using a mixing desk, which will be connected to the power amp using a jack-jack lead, the power amp will be connecting to the speakers using the speakon cable and since we're using 3 microphones we will plug the microphones directly into the mixing desk using XLR leads, the electric piano will be connected to a D.I box using a Jack lead and the electro-acoustic guitar will plugged into an amp by jack lead. The wedge monitor will be plugged into the mixing desk by jack lead.