Success of the Decades Playlist

Reviewing the Success of the Decades Playlist

I don't think the way we presented the decades playlist was a success. There were very few views on the playlist, and i don't think we put our playlist on enough social media websites for people to see. I think for the Contemporary project, if we spread our music further throughout the internet, use more hashtags or links for people to be able to find our music easier and everyone should repost it onto their timeline. In addition if everyone was to let they're friends know they were dropping a playlist i think that could attract a lot of more views on the playlist.

Audience Survey

Audience Survey

My audience for my genre of music is mainly Rnb and hip hop lovers. The people who took part in the survey, a mixed gender and a huge range of ages. The majority of people I asked were around my age so they have similar tastes and interests in music as i do. Being of similar ages they also listen to music whilst in their rooms, travelling and with friends. This is mainly because whist travelling you become bored and need something to do and whilst you're with friends, this ranges from parties to just chilling out music is more or less involved. The people i asked mainly discover music from streaming websites such as youtube and other music specific websites and apps such as apple music, Spotify and sound cloud. Their attitudes to paying for live music events were, only if it was their favourite artist would they bother going to see them live but the fee wasn't an issue, the majority of people that see music live, it was mainly at festival. They also said its very rare they goto live events.  

Performers Essay

                        Performers Essay

Calvin Harris

Calvin Harris mainly plays and creates pop and disco types of music, he interacts with the crowd through using his microphone, waving gestures to them and even dancing. He plays live as well as creating music for the charts.  When he is performing live a lot of the time there is confetti falling from the sky and even light shows, and as a response has the audience jumping with excitement.

Harris uses; a MOTU 896 Digital Audio interface, an API 1608 console, a Empirical Labs EL8 Distressor, a pioneer CDJ-1000MK3, a pioneer CDJ-2000 and a Pioneer DJM-900 Nexus Mixer for producing music and for his DJ sets.

A lot of the time Calvin Harris just lets hit music play without mixing it that much as he produced the songs however he is known to use the faders on high pitch low pitch and middle pitch.
Ed Sheeran
Being an artist Ed just by performing he is interacting with the audience, through singing, clapping his hands etc, although he does perform quite a bit a lot of his songs are released online in places like Itunes, soundcloud, music stores where it is available as copies as Cd's or possibly records. 

Ed mainly plays pop music but has featured in others artists songs who specialise in different genres. He performs fairly basic, using simply a microphone and an acoustic guitar, yet he still  captivates the audience.

In my DJ sets i plan to be a lot more interactive in my performance, for example i would like to clap my hands to the beat and get the audience to join in, possibly have a microphone so i can speak to the audience and dance with the audience.

Decades Project Reviewing 5 Tracks

Decades Project Reviewing 5 Tracks

Anton’s – Baduizm

I like how the songs first few seconds start very mellow with only one or two instruments then, other instruments are added at the same time and they all fall into place. The bass shadowing the synth is also very interesting. Then at the end almost how the song started the song ends with just a few chords.

Sonny’s Sunzism

At the beginning of the song it’s interesting how he incorporated a DJ scratch and after the scratch a few more instruments are added which begins to make you nod your head with the beat, it almost has a 90’s kind of hip hop feel with the back ground synth throughout the song.

Joshua’s Funk Track

Throughout the song the bass guitar keeps the rhythm of the song and all the other instruments are built around that which is what makes it a “funk track”.

Keanu’s Hounds and Chill

At the beginning of the song and throughout we’re introduced to the dogs barking and you could almost say that’s being used as a metronome. Once the bass comes in you start to understand the song better, its also interesting how he changed the vocals to sound like they’re saying something different.

Felipe’s Yesterday

At the start you’re tricked Into thinking its not much different from the original but then the synth and bass hits comes in and its completely different yet it still works.

Dj Set Review and Plan

Dj Set Review and Plan

Review

In my Dj set, if I didn’t over do some of the techniques I was using I think I would have done a a lot better, in addition if I didn’t play a lot of the songs out as long as I did I think I would have had more songs to manoeuvre with. Furthermore when I tried to switch to my second track I was using the wrong faders, so nothing was coming through. Moreover if I had chosen my songs prior to that set I think I would be more familiar with my songs and ultimately, had a better set.

Plan

To practice my DJ set I will research more techniques I can use whilst Dj’ing, ensure I have my songs and que points set before my set. I will incorporate different techniques into my set as throughout my set I repeated a lot of the techniques.

Context Essay

Decades Project 

How Music was shaped in the 1980's

Many people think the 1980's was a revolutionary decade for music due to the political issues at the time , it was the decade that two key artists died, John Lennon and Bob Marley, both recognised for their different talents within music.

The 1980's holds the name for being quite a problematic decade due to the political issues such as , riots, unemployment and the miners strike which involved Margeret Thatcher. It is said since the 1980's was such a tough decade a lot of artists used music as escapism from the world, although this can be said about todays world too. 

In the early 80's (1981) MTV released the first music video, "Video Killed The Radio Star" by the Buggles, from this point on the music industry started to almost rely on music videos to make sales and air music. In addition the early 1980's brought the CD in which made music a lot more accessible and portable, this also meant that people would listen to it much more in their day. Since the release of the CD it has sold 200 billion CD's up to 2007 proving that they would play an important role in the music industry. 

Furthermore the Live Aid in 1985 was said to the most popular event of the decade for music, due to it showing poverty struck Ethiopia and artists with a range of different genres playing there such as Status Quo, Elvis Costello, U2, The Beach Boys, David Bowie and Queen. MTV recorded the must see event, the event was followed by The Band aid single 'Do They Know It's Christmas Time', this was top of the charts in 1984 Christmas time.

This was the decade Michael Jackson decided to become a solo artist rather than stick with the Jackson 5, he released Thriller which was also one of the first few music videos on MTV and became the best selling track of all time, which gave him the title King of Pop.

When Michael Jackson released the album Thriller, that came to a shock to everyone that the boy who was apart of the Jackson 5 had grown up and released a ground breaking selling album, also the track Thriller was one of the early music videos released with the first music video being released only 2 years before. Since Thriller was such a hit, that caused a huge decrease in racism at the time, however this also caused issues with supremacists against listening to 'black music' which led to protests. During this decade MTV were known for mainly playing white artists so the release of Thriller helped suppress this objection since they were playing a lot more Michael Jackson. Thriller sold an astonishing 40 million copies in its initial chart run.

N.W.A released Straight Outta Compton in the late 80's, it wasn't the only rap album of its time but it definitely made rap noticed all over the world, and it caused a turning point for rap. This album does almost the exact opposite of what Michael Jacksons album did for racism, as this just exaggerated violence, drugs and alcohol to the extreme. However it told the story of their everyday life and how hard it could be where they lived. The album was very low budget yet it still had a great success to say rap wasn't a very popular genre at the time. The album sold 3 quarters of a million copies before they went on tour.

Since in the 1970's music heavily relied on orchestra's the transition to the more synth sounding 80's was pleasant to most. In addition Michael Jackson heavily supported the efforts of the United Negro College Fund which specialised in helping young black people at a disadvantage go to college/university. Furthermore Michael Jackson also played a big role in the composition of "We Are the World" which sold over 20 million copies which made a profit of around 63 million dollars to go towards aid in Africa.

A lot of big artists today say Michael Jackson had a big influence on their upbringing and their style of music. This is mainly because Michael Jackson played a big role in changing peoples opinions on black people. He was one of the first black people to be on MTV and this opened a lot of peoples eyes to listen to music made by black people.

N.W.A are also a very inspiring group to many artists from their time to our time today, this is because they were one of the first groups in their time to speak to the unapologetic truth with no remorse, regrets or repentance. This influenced a lot of artists to come through talking about the hard lives they live and what they've done to survive, to a lot of people who live a life opposite to this, it's either interesting or a horror.

Sources Used

http://www.impactnottingham.com/2010/03/decade-profile-the-1980s/
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/la-et-web-thrillertrivia12feb12-story.html
http://www.allmusic.com/album/thriller-mw0000056882
http://www.allmusic.com/album/straight-outta-compton-mw0000653426
http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/the-juice/5645274/nwa-straight-outta-compton-at-25-classic-track-by-track-review
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/artists/n-w-a/biography

Decades Project - Album Analysis - An Article written now for a music magazine

Decades Project - Album Analysis

After 30 years of the completion of Hounds Of Love it still has a hold over its audience that prevents you from even thinking about turning it off, even after she took a break from the music scene. Kate Bush has definitely influenced a lot of female’s artist to date. 

Cannon sounding drums and the reverb over the album "Hounds Of Love" makes it an album that todays generation of kids will grow to learn about, in 1985 she made a revelation to music resulting in a change of classical music today, many artists including and like Ellie Golding have been influenced by Kate Bush and we can see this by their similarity of style to Kate Bush. 

Although she was focusing on raising her child after the release of Hounds Of Love she came back with a bang performing gigs, tours and shows non stop. Kate Bush will always be on the music scene and remembered but some might say a lot of her audience aren't up to date with technology to be able to support her as much as they used to.

Her most recent album 50 words for snow isn't quite getting the recognition as it might have in the 1980's due to a wide variety of music taste in this generation, whilst a lot of people will still listen and buy her music, many people don't realise what a big part to play she had in music.

Decades Project - Album Analysis - A review from 1985

Decades Project - Album Analysis

A Review From 1985

In May 1981 Kate Bush started recording her fourth album, The dreaming, in London's Townhouse studios, it feels like just yesterday she released that. Being Britain's most popular female artist we could never forget about her first album in 1978 "The Kick Inside" which sold over 1 million copies with help from her single "Wuthering Heights" and Kate Bushes Never For Ever helped her soar through the charts, and yet that wasn't all from Bush.

Once Kate had finished "The Dreaming" she was happy to produce her music with the help of some sound engineers and we are all aware now of Kate's uniques producing style she mic'ed up 12-foot long strips of corrugated iron to evoke the sound of cannons. She also added large compression onto her drums to also make the sound of cannons.

If you think some of the crazy sounds on Kate's album could be well a bit annoying then imagine how the producers felt, one of the producers responsible for the sounds said "I couldn't bear it after a bit actually," However another producer who was in on the album Nick Launay who was only 20 whilst Kate was 22 really enjoyed the weird and ambient sounds in her album.

I'm sure if you know anything about music then you know without a doubt Hounds of Love will turn out to be a historical document, she will definitely have some sort of influence in future artists to come. Hounds Of Love only came out this year yet it's such a brilliant success, I wouldn't be surprised if she isn't recording a follow up at this instant.