RIP: A Remix Manifesto

This week in class, we watched a documentary called "RIP: A Remix Manifesto" This film was about the laws of copyright, and how people of America and all over the world misuse and abuse the law. The film started off by talking about a music domain, named Napster, that allowed anyone to get any song. Once the government found out about this, they shut it down. Next the documentary talked about an artist named "Girl Talk". He is an artist who takes bits and pieces from many different songs, slows them or speeds them up, adds a beat, and by trial and error creates music this way. The thing with this is that he takes bits and pieces from copyrighted songs, which therefore makes his music illegal. Although he has a nationwide fan base, his music is illegal. One way he can make it legal is by paying his dues, which would amount to close to, or more than $400,000 per song. There really is no solution to the problem, as long as artists like "Girl Talk" aren't making albums. The copyright agencies' policies are out of date, and if they want to prevent people from downloading music or making songs that should cost $400,000, they need to update their policies.

Neil Young and Simon &Garfunkel

This week we listened to Neil Young's "After the Gold Rush" and Simon and Garunkel. I personally did not like Neil Young. I didn't like it because I do not like Neil Young's voice. Some things I did enjoy were the lyrics, I thought there was good harmonizing, and I also thought they had one or two good songs. My favorite song on the album was "Tell Me Why". I thought the album that we listened to by Simon and Garfunkel was alright. Some things I enjoyed about the album was the diversity in the sound of the music, I thought they had pretty good vocals, and I enjoyed a few of their songs. My favorite song on the album was "The Fighter". I had heard this song by Mumford and Sons, and I enjoyed hearing it slower. Here is a comparison of the two songs:

New Music

Over the break I started to listen to country a lot more. One day over the break I switched the radio station to country and I really enjoyed it. Ever since, I've been listening to artists such as: Black Shelton,  Jason Aldean, Tim McGraw, Zac Brown Band, Luke Bryan, and a few others. I think I enjoy country now more than I used to because I have a different appreciation for what they do and how difficult it can be to do that. My favorite album that I've listened to so far is "Night Train" by Jason Aldean. Here are some songs I enjoy:

 

Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye by Luke Bryant

Something Like That by Tim McGraw

Black Sabbath and Zeppelin 3

In the past class we listend to part of Black Sabbath's first album "Black Sabbath" and to part of Led Zeppelin's album "Zeppelin 3". I personally didn't like the Black Sabbath album. I didn't like it because they didnt have great lyrics and I feel like Ozzie didn't have that great of a voice to be singing for as long as he was. I did like "Paranoid" but I had previously listened to it. In "Zeppelin 3" there was a strong influence on acoustic guitars and other instruments of that nature. It sounded odd to me, because it had the same attitude and the singer had the same sound, but it was on acoustic instruments. The songs were decent, but it just didn't sound right to me.

Jimi Hendrix Live at Woodstock

We watched Jimmy Hendrix live at Woodstock, and it was amazing. He is such an amazing guitarist that it is unbelievable. Some of the things he did on guitar were crazy. The fact that he could sing and play the guitar, the way he did, is amazing. Just listening to an album doesn't do him justice because half of the show is seeing him play. A thing that was unfortunate for him, was that the majority of the crowd had left, because he showed up a day after. There may have been more people at his concert if there was a published schedule, but it still was really good, and I enjoyed seeing him play a lot.

Abbey Road

This week we listened to Abbey Road. I thought it was good, but I liked The White Album more. Abbey Road was good, because it was the last album when The Beatles truly wrote as a band and because it sounded like some of their older stuff. My favorite songs of the album were Carry That Weight, The End, and Her Majesty. I liked Carry That Weight because I thought the chorus was good. I liked The End because it was sounded good, Ringo had his only solo ever in it, and because it had an iconic line, "The love you take is equal to the love you make." Lastly, I liked Her Majesty because after the end it was tacked on and it gave a little bit of light-heartedness to the end of the album because it sounded happy.

Woodstock Festival

In the past class we watched the Woodstock festival. Woodstock was interesting cause it was overnight and cause there were so many people. The people who set up cleared fields and set up the stage, campsites, and places to bring food and water. There were only expected to be about 50,000 people a day, but they were terribly wrong. From the stage there were people as far as the camera could look, and there were bands playing all through the nights. The festival itself was both a failure and a success. It was a failure at first, because it lost 3 million dollars, and that was back in 1969. It was a success because it pleased the people, and later made money from the documentary and and album. The Woodstock festival was important to music history because it was one of the first times where bands played in front of massive crowds.