Music & Society: Censorship

Good work – you need to really comment critically on the political aspect for a higher grade.
Careful of spelling – loosing/losing

M3 explain, with reference to examples, how
politics has affected music makers and users in
merit

Music's role in society is entertaining the consumers, depending on the genre of the music; music is created to uplift emotion out of its listeners, it is a universal language it makes the listeners thinks, it changes people moods and many more positive aspects. Music technology development has advanced so much from vinyl, tape, multi-track, analogue, digital and presently home computers, it is incredibly easy to create a decent recording in the comforts of your own home nowadays, and more assessable to download from your personal computer. In the UK We can own and assess musical instruments, from electric guitars to acoustic drum kits. There is a vast expansion in music creativity, Music hardware is constantly changing and improving and software are user friendly, accessing music and downloading is affordable, this makes a huge impact on live music and musicians.

The Middle East is not yet technologically advanced as the rest of the world. They are not yet globalizedthe government insists on keeping it that way, on the contrary, Globalization has resulted in the loss of some individual cultural identities maybe the government in the middle east is afraid of loosing their counties values. Countries such as Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Lybia, Morocco, Palestine, Syria and Sudan could potentially benefit from advancing inn their technology and allowing their people to access the World Wide Web. Religion plays a huge part the Middle East as it is religiously diverse and there are many activists not wanting to benefit their country and their people.

The government has censored the Internet, meaning limiting the Internet access. For the few musicians in the Middle Eastern countries who have a passion for music and wish to seek new talent, there is no access to the latest music and news and trends, due to sufficient Internet access and legislation's banning certain sites and social networks. Performing the simplest of tasks such as watching a music video on youtube is very difficult and downloading speed is absolutely intolerable.
Politics has defiantly effected music makers as musicians hasn't got the luxury to do things that we can do easily due to the laws and the underdeveloped mindset of the government in these parts of the world.

If the dictatorship continues in the middle east, the government should fear they will loose control and power of their people, there by limiting the Internet peoples ability to rise up against the government would be more difficult as if you are unable to communicate they cannot organise as easily via social websites. There so many dictators in the Middle East, many dictators have been deposed because the people were being depressed and couldn't take it anymore so rose up. Little things we take for granted such as surfing the World Wide Web freely without fear of position, many people do not have the freedom to experience advanced technology such as the World Wide Web.

New technology has definitely been exploited my musicians, the Internet contains so many ways to cheat the system, we are obliged to download the latest software on bit torrents and pirate bay, this means big companies are loosing revenue, on the contrary, we are not to know if people illegally downloading the music/videos online, such as the latest software, operating systems and all of the above would have purchased it anyways, so it bring up an interesting question, are they really loosing revenue? Technology is constantly improving their design to appeal to new audience. Music technology has been used and abused by consumers, this has impacted the development of technology in a major way. If consumers didn't want to listen, if they didn’t have the urge to want to create their own music there wouldn't be no artists, therefore no market.

Politics has affected music making dramatically and consumption in society as governments in the Middle East, they are adamant on caging their people in a little bubble, continue to oppress them and forbid them to make other genres of music. There is strictly no music making and playing of any genre and the Middle East. There are very few independent bands as it is seen as a crime to listen to different genres of music accept classical, and to actually practise it they would be condemned.  The government’s censorship on the Internet has put music creators and keen musicians, who want to venture on and find new bands and new music, in a difficulty position. How are they to know when the new music software is coming out?

Politics is the main reason for the underexposure of music in the middle east. The education curriculum posses music lessons but is very limited in what they educate the the children about, they preach the classical route so the children do not known any different, they do not have the chance to explore the different genres and styles that music has to offer. The Government has a plan to limit people on worldly knowledge. The People that were trained in the one genre, they are unexposed to life in general as music plays a big part in my life, I can say that with out music I wouldn't have an identity, and its really heart braking to know what people has had their identity chosen for them. 

Certain bands such as free pussy riot, a Russian activist band and many more politically driven band  construct songs that address their democratic viewpoints, to equalize the dictatorship in their country. free pussy riot is a Russian punk band. These activists stand up for the injustice, sexism and the fact that women are lowly classed in this society. They go through extreme lengths to fight for their given right. This shows that there is so much inequality all abound the world, and people are effected by this they are oppressed and many are now standing up for what they believe in and many fight for their country.

Bibliography

Wikipedia

By Christina Harris

Music & Society: The Joy of disco

Music's role in society is also for international understanding, an understanding of different cultures, it is a universal language that can express so many emotions, it can tell stories and different in tenses. The same way religious music can make people feel close to God, different type of music can make people feel certain emotions and do certain things.

Disco was born in the late 60’s. The Disco scene was aimed at the unaccepted people in society. This craze attracted homosexual Gays and Lesbians, Tran-sexual and Blacks and disabled people, they were outcasts of society, minorities who longed for acceptance my the general public. These People were oppressed, they were given fewer rights than straight people. At this time the United states of America was a christian lead country so this sort of behavior was perceived as ungodly. The government didn’t want anything to do with these sort people so they eventually rebelled and did their own thing, resulting in the loss of faith in bigoted politicians, this gave them more and more reasons to be angry at the government and mindset of mainstream society. When disco was created and introduced to the world, minorities came to these underground disco parties. They lived For the disco parties and Disco was always there for them through the tough times, sort of a relationship, in which was very sacred.

The scorned would come to these underground Disco's to escape from their mainstream gender roles. They could dress how they however they felt. They would have the chance to express them selves, let go and have a good time by taking drugs and performing sexual activities in open spaces for anyone to see as they felt as if they were a community, they would gather to relate to each other and release them selves and be finally be accepted and not jugged within the disco scene. Disco music was fast tempo dance music, it has certain attributes such as 4 on the floor bass drum and 16ths was played on the high hat.

Various places such as 'The Loft' held these underground encounters. Founded by David Mancuso in February 1976, which started as a house party it had such a great turn out and was a huge success, David had to branch out into bigger space, this is where the infamous nightclub ‘The Loft’ was born.

Studio 54 was a prominent nightclub in 1977 until 1981, It was located on 254 west 54th street in Manhattan, New York city.  Founders Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager Hoisted many shindigs, the music ranged from pop and electro to funk to RnB. It was called the most famous nightclub of all time and doors were opened to all that was looking for a good time in these tough times.

The disco scene was a very creative place the music was different, the people were dressed in unusual clothing, the whole feel was just different to anything they have ever known. Event planner Robert Isabel had four tons of glitter dumped in a four-inch layer on the floor of Studio 54 for a New Year's Eve party. The scene was wild and hectic as everyone was having a good time, taking drugs and being sexually active on the dance floor.

A very important part of disco was the inevitable Stonewall riots. This riot took place in New York's Greenwich Village on 29^th June 196. The police would often infiltrate gay bars in an attempt to arrest the people,  at this time it was a crime to be gay and was considered to be a mental illness. However, on faithful day June 29^th 1969 the police came in for their routine bust up and obviously, People would get angry and eventually rebel if the police continued their racist rage against the people. The people stood up against the police, they refused to back down and fall victim of the brutal police brutality. Before you know it a riot broke out, this riot sparked a revolution this was the start of a long struggle to be heard as Gay men and women in society.

Women were treated unfairly and were considered less Worthy and less useful then men. Women were portrayed as sex symbols. Donna Summers was a very prominent female figure in the disco scene in the 70's and also women's history. Her sound was Pop/Rock/Dance which was a hybrid of American soul and European synthesiser based. Summers was a famous vocalist in the 70’s, she portrayed promiscuity and sexual seductiveness in her music videos. she was considered the "Queen of Disco" The way in which she performed, was very controversial, her performance were full of sexual gestures, and breathy vocals it built up sexual tension. Donna was all for women  empowerment. However, It was hard for to fight for women empowerment as a female artist as the men are still running things, the music side and also her life. But Donna being a strong minded young lady at that time made history as she was the first female in music history to have two hits in the billboard top three. Women all over the wold felt empowered by this, as it was uncommon For a black female to have so much success.

Over in the UK Margret thatcher was the first female prime minster of the United Kingdom. She reined 1979–1990. This was a huge step for women in society. Women were empowered by this revelation, no longer would be victim of injustice, then Thatcher implemented Conservative policies and became unpopular and then society relapsed and women were back being unfairly treated in society. The people recognised Thatcher's destructive vision for England. Some people  disapproved and were unsure of how to express their anger, so they thought they do it though music. This is how Punk was born. Through out her reign punk became a way of life and has been this way ever since, punk if alive today.

As we know Punk was born in 1970's, it remained an underground scene until 1976. Due to Thatcher's reign, people realized that it is not compulsory to play an instrument to be in a band, just as long as you had something to say you could form a band, and boy did people have things to say. Times were hard there was a rescission meaning loss of many jobs, that people and families depended on. Punk music was a way of getting out of the system and rebelling against government and mainstream society. These punk bands created hard-edged music, which was a completely different direction form mainstream pop music. Their songs had political agendas behind them; they had established views to society. Punk music was underground music, created by the people and distributed within their peers and informational channels. They would dress in a certain way, they had their own fashion sense and encourage outrageous hairstyles and would behave in a very anti social way; this is how they express them selves as were not accepted and ridiculed for standing up for them selves against the bias government.

Politics has definitely effected music makers and users through politics, as politicians and people in higher power are constantly passing laws which are not always beneficial to the people. There is a hunger from the people and due to their circumstances there is high demand for Music, as music is almost like medicine people urn it.

We are i now the 21^st century and after all the pain and struggle people had to go through to be accepted in society, the amount of laws pass and amended for a fairer world and equality there is still prejudice going on. There are many rebellious bands alive today in the 21^st century. Through music, this is their attempt to change political agendas and people’s views on politicians and the government bands such as System of a Down, The Sex pistols, black sabbath - war pigs and many more, they all promote and make anti-political music in aim to reach out to the closed minded people for them to have a political awakenings.

Both disco in the United States and Punk in the United Kingdom share the same motif, of oppressed people and their struggles of fitting into society. This goes to show that there is injustices all over the world, certain music can really be a loophole for people who are being oppressed to escape into. This is the power of music; a force that can join and divide people, an escape when society fails to appreciate and understand you.



Bibliography

Time glider- https://timeglider.com/authoring

Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Thatcher

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punk_rock

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/2601493.stm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewU3Cf_mxUM
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0838595/bio

By Christina Harris 

Recording in the studio (2) Grant

Recording in the studio

I am Recording 'Erase me' an original piece by Shevelle Anderson. I will be recording in the studio alongside Josh, Roy, John, Shevelle, Amber, Sinai, Bea and Daniela

This log will consist of the progress I have made in these 1hour 30 minute lessons.

 
Monday 15^th April 2013 - I was absent to this lesson but was informed of the task ahead. I received the brief, We decided to choose a song that we were all familiar with and one which wasn't too challenging. 

Monday 22nd April 2013 - I played electric guitar which was connected to a  DI box, alongside Shevelle who was recording vocals simultaneously.  
Monday 29 4^th April 2013 - I Rerecorded the rhythm guitar, I was very pleased with my performance. I was in the studio recording the bass guitar.

As I am in the studio for 1hour 30minutes at a time, it is important not to wast time as it is limited and valuable. My aim is to Record the lead guitar as it would form the backbone of the track. My other mission is to get stuck in the recording process.

  Recording Rhythm Guitar

The setting up of the equipment went very smoothly. As I was using a Semi-acoustic guitar no amplifier and microphone was required. I used a DI box to record the guitar. The guitar was plugged directly into the DI box using a Jack to Jack lead. The midi cable was also connected to the DI box and plugged into the floor box which was connected to the mixer in the studio.

The set up:

 
x1 jack to jack lead
x1 midi cable 
Di box
Electric guitar 

The recording process was straight forward, communicating with the producer was easy. I was very pleased with my performance and we got a clean recording of the guitar which blended nicely with the vocals. I experienced minimal difficulties, although I did not come prepared with the the right equipment, as i needed a plectrum to strum the electric guitar. However, I improvised with paper as finger picking want an optician as this was a reggae piece which demanded a strong off beat strumming pattern. We decided to record sections as timing was an issue, the chord patten was very repetitive, this became very tedious. The electric guitar sounded very distorted and ringy through the headphones, but this was later sorted by the producer ,meaning we could go ahead and record comfortably. 

 Recording the Bass guitar in the studio I wanted to get a chance to go in the studio and be behind the glass a get a great recording of the bass line. I opened up logic file 'Erase me'. I created a new audio track and named it  'DI box'. 

The Di box required phantom power as it doesn't have it own power source. They were plugged into input 1 on the floor box, therefore I moved the input to channel 1 on the mixer. I then moved other tracks to output 7+8 for playback. I Checked the levels and altered the gain to ensure that the levels weren't clipping and it wasn't overpowering to the vocals and the electric guitar. Communication through the headphones was very efficient this and the whole recording process alot comfortable and easier. Josh was very aware of his task therefore we got a clean recording in 2 takes.The first take was perfect to we took 2 to compare.

To conclude the fact that the musicians were aware of their task and the calm atmosphere we were in, we were able to to get a solid recording. Everyone that played a pivotal part in recording was punctual, this made life easier for us all. We have been through this process before, Therefore we were all experienced and confident in what we were doing. All in all we did our best to deliver a good sounding recording, and my class mates seemed like happy with the recoding and they all enjoyed themselves.