25Nov
Have you heard that music is used for therapy? Yup, you heard it right. It is currently an established health service comparable to physical therapy. And not only does it raise IQ of kids and keeps the party spirit going, but it also develops motor, social and cognitive skills, self-awareness, and spirituality as well! And oh…it is also used for pain relief and stress reduction and produces good ‘vibes’ and warm, fuzzy feelings.
Music therapy is a nice thing, it is used in developmental work with individuals with special needs, songwriting and listening in reminiscence/orientation work with the elderly, processing and relaxation work, and rhythmic entrainment for physical rehabilitation in stroke victims. Next time you turn on your mp3s, you can be sure you’re already having a new kind of therapy.
11Aug
Initially, a contraction of the term discotheque, discos sprung up as a movement in the mid-70’s in response to a number of factors. And as discos grew in popularity, the DJs began to exert more influence in the shaping of popular taste.
Disco was the pop music of the mid-1970s.
Reference:
Keyboard Magazine Vol. 21, No.7 (issue #231, July 1995.)
Gregory, Hugh. A Century of Pop: A hundred years of music that changed the world. London: Octopus Publishing Group Ltd., 2006.
21Apr
The techno musician treats each machine with the idea of creating a continuous stream of musical patterns which come naturally from them. “Given the capabilities and limitations of old sequencers, such sequencers encourage the production of repeating 16-step patters with a limited number of instruments being played at once and yet can be arranged at any order.” The techno producer enjoys the freedom to mix and match a combination of sounds which would make it dancefloor-friendly. After collecting patterns, the producer then focuses on creating textures and then achieving a specific musical arrangement either similar or different from others he had already produced.
14Mar
For those who aren’t used to dancing to the beat of techno, it may be quite difficult to get the right dance steps going. But that seems to be the other characteristic of techno— that it is must easier to pick out the steps because of the free-going rhythm and continuity from one song to another. Techno is actually perfect for those who just want to relieve stress by dancing, and not really pay attention to the right steps as might be expected in other kinds of dancing styles.
11Aug
Image source: www.wallstrip.com
EBay Inc. said on Monday it will reduce about 1,000 employees, plummeting its work force by about 10 percent.
The online auction site also said it will get rid of several hundred provisional workers and reduce open positions.
EBay said the reductions would streamline its organization. The company said it expects restructuring charges of about $70 million to $80 million, mostly in the fourth quarter.
EBay also said its third-quarter earnings would be higher than it predicted in July, although revenue will be at the low end of its expectation. It is scheduled to announce third-quarter results on Oct. 15.
On July 16 eBay said it expected third-quarter earnings between 30 cents and 32 cents per share, and revenue between $2.1 billion and $2.15 billion.
EBay also said it will buy online expenses business Bill Me Later for $820 million in cash and $125 million in outstanding options. The company also said it will buy Danish classifieds site dba.dk and vehicles site bilbasen.dk for $390 million in cash.
07Jun
Techno leaves a percussive feel that is due to its use of percussion. A techno drum patters features “a kick drum sample on beats 1 and 3, a snare-like sound on beats 2 and 4 and a highhat on each upbeat; a kick drum is usually also present on beats 2 and 4.” This pattern is closely similar to that one would hear in hip-hop, but for techno, it is done at a slower tempo. Techno is mainly instrumental, and produced in order to be incorporated into other sets which can be played continuously. “Although several other dance music genres can be described in such terms, techno has a distinct sound that aficionados can pick out very easily.”
08Feb
Jungle was England’s answer to House. It sprang out of the warehouse, acid-house and rave scenes of the late 1980s, and the melting pot of ecstasy-fuelled parties in Ibiza. In Jungle, a rhythmic patter or breakbeat is created by stretching two short musical passages, or breaks, by playing the same record on two decks and switching back and forth between them to create an infinitely extendible passage. The same effect can be produced by digitally encoding the break with a sampler and repeating it continually in a loop. A combination of time-stretched breakbeats are played around 160 beats per minute over a reggae baseline, with the / bass drum removed, at 80 beats per minute. The result, since co-opted by mainstream figures such as Everything But The Girl, David Bowie and Rickie Lee Jones, is hypnotic.
The term Jungle was quickly denounced as racist. Although the music had a strong black flavor, it was generally conceded that ‘jungle’ referred to ‘the urban jungle’ where disaffected youth, both black and white, found themselves.
Reference:
Keyboard Magazine Vol. 21, No.7 (issue #231, July 1995.)
Gregory, Hugh. A Century of Pop: A hundred years of music that changed the world. London: Octopus Publishing Group Ltd., 2006.
18Jan
Techno music is easy to create. It can be created and manipulated using a computer program. But there are particular programs that make it into the A-list for making techno music:
- FL STUDIO
- REASON
- LOGIC
- ABLETON
There are many other programs which can be used to manipulate the sounds. It is actually possible to make use of these programs to make techno tracks even without having to have live recordings of instruments. Compared to other traditional genres of music, techno is more complex and makes use of an orchestra of machines to produce the sound track.
