"Portugal.The Man:A band in Love with the Road" is a music industry case study written by Berklee student Nick Susi and Berklee president Roger H.Brown. The introduction below was written by President brown.
Portugal.The Man.
The pathways to success as a musician have always been complicated and unpredictable. But today's musicians have to bushwhack new trails to recognition,audiences,and commercial success. With the rapid decline of recorded music in physical form and the decline in the inclination and ability of record labels to invest in breaking new acts,the artist or band and the manager are assuming that role themselves. In many ways this is a good thing.The age-old complaints about record labels making artists do things they abhor will diminish.And perhaps many new pathways will be discovered,creativity and innovation will be more highly valued,and great new music will be produced.
The current state of affairs is open and evolving.At one extreme,you have artists who discover ways to use the Internet to achieve massive recognition and are attempting to convert that celebrity to success.At the other extreme are artists who are "touring their brains out" and using live performance to slow build a dedicated,personally connected fan base.
Portugal.The Man may be the best example of the latter. Here is a band that found a tough-minded manager,the one who made the fewest promises and brought the mentality of a Marine drill sergeant
to the task. Together,they dedicated to outwork every other band on the planet. And it seems to be paying off in strong,original music,growing success,and dedicated fans that have a personal connection to the band.
What I understood about this case study is that,this basically explains like how to become successful as a musician and how do you achieve,get payed for live performances,making sure that whatever we do as musicians should be enthusiastic and full of confidence,people making themselves successful etc.
Thursday, 1 September 2016
A review of the Beatles -Abbey Road.
It has been a very good experience for me to listen to the songs of the Beatles-Abbey Road. It is a Rock Band and I also liked Reading about the history of it as well. I didn't know about the Beatles before. This is a new experience for me. I have recently relocated from India. The song which I liked the most from the Beatles is ' Hey Jude' because as they keep performing, many people come and join and then they start singing together and of course I liked other songs as well. I like all the singers of this group band. My favourite Musician is Paul McCartney as he plays the piano very well. Especially when I was listening to the Song " Because" and my favourite Instruments are the piano and keyboard.I also John Lennon playing the Keyboard. Now, I know that the Beatles is a very old Band and it is very Interesting to hear their music and see them performing.I also liked the Medley of the Rock band Songs.
Production techniques:-
According to Rodriguez, Revolver marks the first time that the Beatles "deliberately incorporated" the studio into the " conception of the recordings they made", rather than using it "merely as a tool to capture performances". A key production technique that the band began using was automatic double tracking ( ADT), which EMI engineer Ken Townsend invented on 6 April. This technique employed two linked tape recorders to automatically create a doubled vocal track. The standard method had been to double the vocal by singing the same piece twice onto a multitrack tape, a task Lennon particularly disliked. The Beatles were reportedly delighted with the invention, and used it extensively on Revolver. ADT soon became a standard pop production technique , and led to related developments such as the artificial chorus effect.
Another EMI engineer , Geoff Emerick, recalled that the Beatles encouraged the studio staff to break from standard recording practices, addings. " It was implanted when we started Revolver that every instrument should sound unlike itself : a piano shouldn't sound like a piano, a guitar shouldn't sound like guitar."
Musical style and lyric Content( Music and lyrics):-
Rad rogues writes that Revolver has been recognised as having " sparked (musical) sub genres with every track," anticipating electronica, punk rock, baroque rock and world music, among other styles. The album itself covers many genres, including acid rock, chamber music R and B and raga rock. In Rodriguez's view, the influences of Indian music permeates the album; aside from the sounds and vocal styling used on much of the recording, this influence is evident in the limited chord changes in many of the songs, suggesting an Indian-style drone.
Author and critic Kenneth Womack writes of the Beatles' exploring "phenomenologies of consciousness "on Revolver, and he cites as examples "I'm Only Sleeping"'s preoccupation with dreams, and the references to death found in the lyric to . " Tomorrow Never Knows". In Womack's estimation, the songs represent two important elements of the human life cycle that are " philosophical opposites".
Side one:-
The guitar solo from "Taxman"
Womack characteristics the solo " like nothing else in the Beatles' corpus to date; for that matter, it hardly bears any resemblance to anything in the history of recorded music." He credits the track with announcing a sweeping shift in the essential nature" of the Beatles' sound.
The backwards guitar solo from "I'm Only Sleeping":-
"I'm Only Sleeping" was the first of the three tracks cut from the US version of the three tracks cut from US version of Revolver.
Side two:-
" Good Day Sunshine" was written by McCartney,whose piano playing dominates the recording. Music critic Richie Unterberger describes it as a song that conveys"one of the first fine days of spring, just after you've fallen in love or started vacation."
Sound and Instrumentation:-
The album's sounds include the incorporation of tape loops and backwards recordings on the psychedelic "tomorrow never knows", the use of a classical string octet on "Eleanor Rigby", and the Indian - music backing of " Love You too."
Although strings were commonly used on pop recordings George Martins suggestion that a string quartet be used on pop recordings George Martin's suggestion that a string quartet be used for the recording of " Yesterday " marked a major departure for the Beatles. McCartney recalled playing it to the other Beatles and Ringo saying it did not make sense to have drums on the track and John and George saying there was no point having extra guitars. George Martin suggested a solo acoustic guitar and a string quartet.
During the recording of "Eleanor Rigby" on 28 April 1966, McCartney said he wanted to avoid "Mancini" strings. To fulfil this brief ,Geoff Emerick close-miked the strings-the microphones were almost touching the strings.
George Martin had to instruct the players not to back away from the microphones.
Microphones began to be placed closer to the instruments in order to produce a fuller sound. Ringo's drums had a large sweater stuffed in the bass drum to 'deaden' the sound while the bass drum microphone was positioned very close which resulted in the drum being more prominent in the mix:" Eleanor Rigby " features just Paul and a double string quartet that ' the musicians were in horror'. In " Got to get You into My Life ," the brass were miked in the bells of their instruments then put through a Fairchild limiter.
According to Emerick, in 1966, this was considered a radically new way of recording strings ; nowadays it is common practice.
John Lennon- Guitars, Keyboards , Vocals.
George Harrison-Guitars, Sitar, Bass, Vocals.
Paul McCartney-Bass,Piano,Vocals.
Ringo Starr- Drums,Percussion, Organ, Vocals.
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