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Wednesday 13 September 2017

R+P Post 2: Myself as a music consumer

My first memories of music are various Beatles and Smiths songs played by my dad around the house, but the first band I really latched onto was the animated Damon Albarn-led project Gorillaz. I initially discovered them through my obsessive collecting of 'Now That's What I call Music' compilation discs around the age of 9-10. On 'Now 61' the fourth track of the first disc, in between Coldplay and The Black Eyed peas, was 'Feel Good Inc.', a song which I can pinpoint as the first time I ever compulsively fell in love with a song I had discovered myself. It was funky, disturbing and even had a rap verse I enjoyed - which was a rarity at the time as the biggest rappers on the radio were Tinie Tempah and Will.I.am, both of which I associated with my primary school bullies. This song also introduced me to the idea of listening to albums as a whole, as my parents bought me the 'Demon Days' album containing the song for my birthday. Even now I still love the album and would call 'Feel Good Inc.' arguably the most important song in my music taste today.

The cartoon aspect of the characters and their animated music videos is also one of the things that may have appealed to me as a child, as unlike the other music videos I had seen which tended to be either heavily sexualised, dark and disturbing or focused on performance, this was like something I would actually watch for fun. The lyrics were also more escapist and surreal than much of the drugs/sex/partying themes that I was used to from the radio. While I wouldnt say that the target audience of Gorillaz is children, I do believe the reason that they (from my experience) are one of the bands most cited by people my age as a childhood favourite is because of their animated music videos and cartoon image. While the artist/band I will be creating will not be animated, looking at how this aspect attracted me to Gorillaz shows the importance of image, and how it can help an act appeal to it's target audience.



When I was 13 I still mainly listened to the radio, which was at he time increasingly saturated with bland, shiny Electronic Dance Music which even at the time I hated. It didn't help that in my personal life I'd been going through fairly typical early-puberty problems like mood swings and incredibly strong emotions I had never really experienced before. The band that helped me through this phase was Weezer, with their two 90s albums 'The Blue album' and 'Pinkerton'. Discovered through following online music critics, these two albums were my first experience with music I could personally relate to. 'Pinkerton' especially had several songs which applied to me so directly that it instantly became my favourite album, and was also the saddest album I had ever discovered up to that point. I even played it to some of my best friends, who all unanimously said it was terrible, which only gave me a stronger connection to it - It was MY album, and it seemed to me that only I could truly relate to it. I listened to 'Blue' even more, as it was more upbeat and catchy, and I bought physical copies of both albums on the same day.

In terms of audience, I believe that Weezer's specificity means that they gained a fairly small but extremely loyal fanbase. Despite both albums being made in the 90s the lyrical themes still appeal to the same audience of slightly angsty teenagers - those who want music they can relate to, but without having to be part of the typically more theatrical, melodramatic world of emo. One of the main reasons I enjoyed the band so much was because of the ideas of both companionship and correlation - they proved to me that I wasn't the only person to have my feelings, and therefore it helped me feel less alone.



These days I listen to a huge amount of music, so much that it should be impossible to pick a song that I can call my current favourite. '1979' by the Smashing Pumpkins and 'Gold Soundz' by Pavement are both contenders, but ultimately it is most likely 'Sober to Death' or 'Bodys' by bandcamp project Car Seat Headrest, both from the album 'Twin Fantasy'. When researching the background of this album earlier this year I realised that if I wanted to I could release music online for free and it could still reach as many people as a major label pop-song. 'Twin Fantasy' an indie rock album that feels incredibly nostalgic, yet something that could only have been made in the 2010s (It was released in 2011).

The lyrics focus on the real-life relationship between the singer and an older man may not be and while they are far from personally relatable to me, they are written are orchestrated in such detail that by the end of the album you feel as if you know everything about the life of the singer, making the album really appeal to anyone who is willing to listen to it. It also differs from much other music as it seems completely unconcerned with creating and maintaining an image, due to the personal nature of the lyrics. It's the musical equivalent of a really great teen movie, the difference being that this was made by a actual teenager, making it seem even more genuine. While i mainly listen to the album for companionship in the same way as Weezer, it's also partially rooted in escapism, as the album is  a hopeful window into an idealistic future for me, and in an increasingly stressful world that kind of optimism is just what I need.

R+P Post 1: My A2 Group

I'm in a group for the music video A2 project with Sayo Ajoje and Aisha Farah. We're planning to meet at least two times outside of our media lessons, during lunchtimes. Hopefully we will have a roughly equal input into the group, and will have our strengths in different areas for maximum effect. I would identify my main strengths as conceptual and performance, as I have more experience with these areas in comparison to the technical side of the production.