Tuesday, February 18, 2014

The Seductive Force of the Record Store

I chose to review a podcast produced by Sounding Out called "The Record Shop".  This was released in celebration of record store day 2012.  The podcast on a technically level was not sleek, or finely edited in any way whatsoever, though that is totally fine by me.  The content was clearly the focus for this collection of pleasing anecdotes about the physical experience of the record hunt, not to mention the sensations received.

I deeply empathized with the podcast as I still find the experience of cruising around a record store, sifting through endless piles of dust, incredibly therapeutic.  Some of the people interviewed confessed that a lot of the time when they proceed on the journey to their local music shack they aren't even intending to purchase anything.  It is all about meeting cool people, being hazed by the employees, and drooling upon the bin labels.

Knowing that humans are willing to make the effort to transport themselves to a record store, even though they could easily obtain the music for free, or order it online for a discounted price makes me feel really good.  It means that people have realized that the experience is just as, if not more important than the object.  What you leave with at the end of your visit to the record store is truly the least significant portion of the overwhelming experience of discovering new music and freaks from similar spheres.

Radiolab's "Pop Music"

Radiolab's podcast, Pop Music*, is about songs - why some invade our mind, how someone creates a catchy tune, music that transcends stereotypical cultures, and the way tunes are recognizable to a worldwide audience even if there is no clear “original” artist. The podcast claims a song’s melody that stays in our head is vague one typically only one part or piece of the song is remembered over and over again; this happens to me quite often especially if it is a Gwen Stefani song.


   

Sometimes, for me, the song I have in head playing ad nauseam will not go away completely until I listen to the song from start to finish, but sometimes it takes a little more than that like maybe listening to something else for a while or simply turning my brain off. Sadly, this is not the case for some people.

For one man, Leo Rangell, the music does not stop no matter what he does, is doing, or where he is going. Leo began having music hallucinations after he woke up from surgery and has had music hallucinations ever since, more than a decade now. When Leo has a song in his head, it is often reflective of a memory that is maybe not fully known but is recalled once a certain piece of the song plays; however, there are times when a part of his memory recalls a situation, like driving home, and a song, suitable for Leo, will play in his head.


Both comforting to some and nerve racking for others, music hallucinations specific to the songs people hallucinate are subjective for each listener, meaning what Leo would hear and what I would hear would most likely be two very different things. After all, Leo probably wouldn’t hallucinate Gwen Stefani but it is possible that I might hear “When Johnny Comes Marching Home.”  Why? I speculate it is because I have heard both songs before.

Songs are more than the lyrics. Personally, the melody is more important. I have heard some songs that have terrible lyrics but the melody is simply fantastic. Perhaps it is because I cannot sing but I can hum to my heart’s desire and someone can turn and say, “Hey, I love that song!” This podcast raised me to ask: “Well, what song do you think it is?”


This podcast demonstrated that one melody can fit many different songs and sometimes those different songs can be overlayed with one another and there is hardly a difference. With these minute differences in song tunes, it is evident that many different cultures could communicate over these similarities if they could communicate about little else. Thankfully, technology is able to illustrate comparable works for other to hear. How else might someone listen to The Elvis of Afghanistan, Ahmad Zahir?




The podcast’s was done in a manner that is reminiscent of motion pictures in that the music does not overpower the commentary but instead strengthens what is said. The interplay between the two is familiar to me yet discomforting if I am the one to do it; however, a podcast is a personal reflection on a particular subject and this is something that Radiolab exhibits well and is something I would like to emulate. Yet, I would forgo the sudden jumps from one subject to the next and concentrate on making something close to a concept album where the podcast tells a story, not necessarily linear, but something that does not feel like the podcast should be separate tracks.

The podcast intertwines point-of-view and concrete, scientific evidence. It is almost as if someone asks why the sky is blue and gives both opinion and objective evaluation providing stories on different sides of the same coin.

Perhaps this podcast is less about how a song gets stuck in our head, which to me conveys a negative connotation, but rather how music stays in our head, how music communicates strongly to us regardless of culture or nationality, and how music can be with us even when we are alone.

*For more on this Radiolab's podcast, please visit http://www.radiolab.org/story/91629-pop-music/ 
 

The Record Store

The podcast that I selected to listen to was Sounding Out! Episode #6: Spaces of Listening/The record Shop.  I have written a feature story about the resurgence of record stores over the past several years so I was immediately drawn to the topic to hear what the contributors in the podcast had to say about the current state of the record store.  After listening to the piece I have developed some conclusions on what it was about.  I believe that it is mainly about those featured in the story (record store owners, patrons, academics, musicians etc.) telling their favorite stories about growing up going to record stores and how that shaped their music taste by being suggested different pieces of music, hearing the music in the store or even just stumbling upon a physical copy while in the store that appeared to be intruiging that they eventually bought.  They touch upon the ritual of the moment of exchange in the record store i.e. exchanging money for something physical tangible, a vinyl record or CD.  This is something that for those that do not collect physical copies of music, especially in my genereation, do not experience, which truly makes a piece of music that much more special to an individual.

It can be inferred that those featured in the podcast are of an older generation when everyone went to the record store and that is where they discovered new music primarily.  Something that is stated by several of the contributors is that today with the disconnect that the internet has brought to the music industry and music culture, the younger generation is perhaps missing out on a large part of their music development because they are not going to record stores and asking the clerk or store owner what they suggest or even debate against their taste.  In part I think this argument is true.  Although I collect vinyl myself, I generally have an idea of what I am going to buy before I go into the store because it is something I have discovered and believe that it will sound good on vinyl, I almsot have never asked the record store clerk a music specific question I mostly just ask them if they have the record I am looking for.

As for the podcast itself and the production elements implemented, the structure was very effective and the plethora of contributors made it extremely intruiging because you were not hearing the same voice the entire time.  One particular element that I doubt was intentional but provoked my thoughts was that I was very drawn to the song that played at the beginning and end of the podcast but the song was never identified by the main narrator or in the description of the podcast.  I thought that related nicely to what a lot of the people in the podcast were talking about when they were in a record store and heard something playing and were drawn to the sound and asked the clerk, hey what is that? There is such an information overload on the internet that even though we can find almost any recorded music ever, it is not as authentic as hearing something in a physical space, it feels much more processed.  If this were my podcast I would have probably included more music throughout the piece perhaps as an example of the sounds that the contributors in the podcast remember hearing in the record store.  Other than that it was very well executed and engaging, bringing to attention a topic that I am incredibly drawn to.

Monday, February 17, 2014

All in the Mind - Hearing Voices

The podcast episode of All In the Mind titled “Hearing Voices – The Invisible Intruders,” presented by Lynne Malcolm, discusses the phenomena of hearing voices when no one is around speaking. Often categorized as an auditory hallucination, this phenomena raises questions of where these voices come from, why they are heard, and whether or not they can be considered “real.”

There is a great deal of stigma both cultural and historical associated with hearing of voices, both positive and negative. In the Western world, the hearing of voices that seem to come from outside of one’s head is linked to prophets and religious icons, and was generally seen as the mark of a holy figure, full of knowledge and power. Still today, others link the hearing of voices with a positive, spiritual experience, relating to God or some higher power. But more often than not, like the experiences with the voices themselves, the association is negative. There are countless stories of people feeling compelled to either harm themselves or others because voices told them to do so, to the point where it’s become a stereotype of “crazy” characters in popular media. The immediate association with someone who hears voices is that of someone violent, shut-in, delusional and often, beyond hope. But of course, there’s a lot more to it.

In addition to presenting recent scientific studies made on the topic of hearing voices, the podcast provides interviews with several people who claim to hear voices and who have struggled with it. While some describe pleasant experiences with voices, most often they are malicious. One woman describes the voices as coming from outside and into her own head, telling her things about what is happening around her, such as warning her that someone is about to attack or telling her to jump off of a bridge. Conversely, for another man, the voices are like echoes of people he has known returning to haunt him, like a priest who sexually abused him in childhood or a former lover who committed suicide. Some scientists believe that these phenomena of voices are not unlike phantom limb syndrome, in which the brain—deprived of sensory input due to a loss of tissue—will imagine or recall that sensory input from memory, giving the feeling that the limb still exists. These voices may exist in a similar manner, a brain falsely recalling memories of sounds when no one is around to cause them.

The cause of this is unclear. Because the human brain is a complex organ that we have very little understanding of still, there is a variety of potential sources: childhood trauma, chemical imbalance, all of which are too vague to really offer any specific diagnostics, much less actual solutions.

However, those interviewed in the podcast attest to the positive results of sharing their hearing experiences. The international Hearing Voices Network is a strong advocate of the idea that acceptance of the voices as real experiences—instead of unreal phenomena meant only to be ignored—gives those who suffer from such experiences a sense of power and greater ability to cope with their voices. Some even come to find their voices more enjoyable—one man discusses “the teacher,” a voice he consults when he has difficult decisions to make, claiming it is not all that different from the sort of dialogue people have with themselves in their own heads. People share coping mechanisms and find others who share in a phenomena that most other people would struggle to relate to, and may even be frightened by. The power of sharing the experience of hearing and categorizing it as a real experience helps normalize the experience, helping people to feel less alone more in control of themselves.

The podcast itself is nicely put together, providing a range of interview subjects from acclaimed scientists in the field to everyday people who experience the phenomena, and is punctuated by poetry written by and about someone who hears voices. I think it could have been made more powerful if it had included a section where a series of unrelated, often degrading voices, begin to talk over the podcast, to give the listener a sense of what that experience is like. This could even be done multiple times, before the podcast reaches the point where it discusses the Hearing Voices Network and its positive techniques. Still, the episode was well put together, interesting, with a positive outlook and a lot left to wonder about the nature of what is real and what isn’t.

http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/allinthemind/hearing-voices---the-invisible-intruders/3321982

Sunday, February 16, 2014

Radiolab's Musical Language

My first impressions of this podcast were that it was very well put together, both in terms of discussion content and the way creative editing was used to provoke interest, illustrate and enhance key points of discussion (since much of the discussion was about sonorous objects, many of them were played as examples to the listener; the sounds are powerful when presented in a before-and-after format, which allows the listener to draw their own conclusions, before those conclusions are eerily and accurately expounded upon by the commentators). The topic was intriguing in and of itself - the oddity and wonder of how and why sonorous objects make us feel things: from comprehensibly spoken language to incomprehensible (linguistically) spoken language, and the universally understood melodies embedded within; the way these melodies act as 'touches' because of their ability to incite emotion without higher comprehension; the natural adaptation of the ear to dissonant sounds (in an attempt to discern patterns and 'hear' a more pleasing sound, or rather a more patterned collection of electrical impulses, because unpleasant sounds actually incite unpleasant emotions!); and how past famous composers' unique riffs and compositional tendencies can be analyzed, restructured, and re-composed into a brand new compositionally sound piece.

Wow! That's a lot of stuff to discuss, and I didn't even mention half of the snippets of research discussed - such as Diana Deutch's perfect pitch study with tonal languages, and the grand implications that has for potentially unlocking remarkable musical ability within the human mind. Over the course of an hour, 5 or 6 interesting topics were touched upon, all relating to the musicality of language and how/why sound has the ability to make us feel so many things so strongly. There was heavy layering of sonorous objects, from music, to sound effects, to overdubbed voices playing out a second scene framed around the central discussion (ie the 'neurons' trying to decipher a dissonant sound); what stood out to me was that the sonorous backdrop for the entire podcast was very rich and varied, but at the same time nearly always felt meaningful and related to the actual discussion. In some cases the illustrations were vivid and straightforward, as in the telling/playing of Stravinsky's first performance of Rite of Spring (the screaming and crashing effects during the 'riot' bit was particularly humorous and effective). In other cases, the effects were more subtle and served as a sort of auditory 'filling' that kept the listener active, bouncing between speakers, looping and echoing a statement or sound in unexpected places, providing just enough "background noise" in between more purposeful conceptual illustrations to keep the listener's attention.

Overall I think the quality of sound, the cleanliness and creativity of the editing, the calm demeanor and genuinely thoughtful back-and-forth of the commentators, the way each topic being discussed was illustrated by a wide variety of interesting auditory examples, sometimes in the form of specific samples and sometimes by way of clever editing techniques and effects (looping, layering, sound effects) - all of this, combined with the high quality of the information presented (both in content and form - the content is interesting, credible, and presented by easy-to-listen-to guys in a concise and satisfying fashion), leads me to consider this a pretty darn good example of what a podcast can, and perhaps should, be. In any case, I think it is an excellent example of how to produce a polished, informative, and entertaining product.

Musical Language (59 min)
Radiolab.org
http://www.radiolab.org/story/91512-musical-language/