Post tag: hip-hop
“My Heart Is Beating to the Rhythm of My Future”: What I learned on My Journey from Concept to Final Jazz/Rap Music Track

"My Heart Is Beating to The Rhythm of My Future" Album CoverMarlowshere Blog (#139)

Keeping an open mind allows for a more interesting and better end product. This is true in business, academia, or the arts. This may seem like a simple, no-brainer piece of advice, but the ability to step back from preconceived notions and allow others into the process without judgement or outright rejection takes an open attitude.

An Open Mind About Genre and Style

In late 2016, Aldemaro Romero, Jr., the Dean of the Weissman School of Arts and Sciences at Baruch College (City University of New York) called me into his office (I teach courses in media and culture at Baruch College). The reason for the conversation? He wanted to produce a music video about the school aimed at prospective students and incoming freshmen and wanted me to suggest (I thought) a music track for the video. I was in the process of making a few suggestions of extant music when he interrupted me and said “I want something original.”

In other words, he wanted me to create a piece of music—around four minutes–that would become the score for the video. Dean Romero was aware of my various music activities within and outside the college. I was a logical choice to be involved with this.

I asked him for some thematic direction and some words he thought might be included in the track. It was agreed almost from the outset that the music track should incorporate lyrics, as opposed to a purely instrumental approach.

Grammy-nominated lyricist Janet LawsonMy next step was to contact Janet Lawson. Janet is not only a highly respected, Grammy-nominated singer, she also teaches vocals at The New School in New York City. More importantly, she is a gifted lyricist. We had previously worked together on several other projects where I had written the music and she had crafted the lyrics. She has a knack for coming up with just the right words to express a feeling or a concept. Her lyrics also convey some emotional depth. I met Janet at an ASCAP-sponsored jazz songwriting workshop led by the late Dr. Billy Taylor in 1980.

After conveying to Janet the themes the Dean was looking for, I asked her to come up with a few lines, just to see if we were on the right track. Within 24 hours Janet sent me this opening lyric: “My Heart Is Beating to the Rhythm of My Future.” Immediately I thought it was just right. I passed it on to the Dean who concurred. We had a very good beginning.

I ask Janet to expand on this theme. A couple of weeks later she sends me a more developed set of stanzas with a refrain: “I wonder yes, I wonder why, I wonder, do you wonder too?” It was just right given the academic context of the prospective video.

However, at this juncture I was beginning to come to a realization. While neither of us had ever been associated with a hip-hop or rap music project, she had inadvertently written an opening lyric with a strong four beat rap feel. Surprise, surprise, surprise. Problem was not all the lyrics had internal or ending rhymes. We went through four iterations of the lyrics before it was right. The Dean approved.

An Open Mind About Talent

The next challenge was finding young rappers to record the lyrics. I thought this would be a relatively easy task. Not so. Also, there was the issue of Rappers at recording of "My Heart is Beating to the Rhythm of My Heart"scheduling the recording session. It took several weeks to find enough rappers who could record all on the same day at Dubway Studios (NYC). We ended up with several members of The Blue Notes, a Baruch College a cappella group, a jazz bass student from The New School with a propensity for rapping, plus a couple of youngish professional Hispanic singers. The icing on the cake was Dean Romero himself who was present at the recording session. When I turned around and said I really needed one more voice, his hand went up in an instant. His voice is included in the rap’s “I wonder how” refrain.

The overall structure of the track was in three sections: opening lyrics, an in-the-middle instrumental interlude, closing lyrics.

It was my concept going in that given the diversity of Baruch College’s student body—it is the most diverse public college in the United States—that this should be expressed somehow in the music track. This is what we did. Working with engineer Jim Gately at Valhalla Studios (New York City), we chose 10 public domain hip-hop/rap drum tracks from the Internet. We then laid these out in a somewhat arbitrary order. As it turned out, it was the right order.

When we got to the middle “instruments only” section I had jazz pianist virtuoso ArcoIris Sandoval improvise different culture sounding melodic lines using an electronic keyboard that could generate different instrumental sounds. jazz pianist virtuoso ArcoIris Sandoval Each instrument melodic line lasted 18-seconds. For one of the lines I had her record the opening section of Bach’s C-minor Prelude from the “Well Tempered Clavier” on the Rhodes keyboard that just happened to be sitting idle in the Dubway recording studio. She also improvised lines for sitar, koto, steel drum, South American pan flute, and Middle Eastern horn. The two other improvised “instrumental” melodic lines were provided by Jim Gately (who also plays guitar) and Michael Hashim who recorded a “jazz” line on alto saxophone. All told the eight middle section instrumentals convey a sense of world music and, therefore, of a diverse culture.

When I delivered the mastered track to the Dean he immediately auditioned it for several student groups. According to the feedback the track hit the mark. The students got it. Once the video is shot and edited to the music track, Dean Romero intends to distribute the music video to as many outlets as possible.

Adrian Thorstensen (Engineer) and Eugene Marlow at Dubway Studios, NYCIf you’re interested, you can listen to a sample of the track at https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/eugenemarlow15. Fittingly, the lyrics to “My Heart Is Beating to the Rhythm of My Future” reflect the theme of keeping an open mind in the creative and learning process.

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Six Reasons Why You Should Support Indie Labels

6 Reasons to support indie labelsThe Marlowsphere Blog ( #111) 

There are two kinds of record labels in the world today: the majors (of which there are only three) and the small, independent (or indie) labels, of which there are thousands globally.

These are the three remaining “major” record labels (since 2012):

  • Universal Music Group (part of EMI’s recorded music division absorbed into UMG)
  • Sony Music Entertainment (EMI Music Publishing absorbed into Sony/ATV Music Publishing)
  • Warner Music Group (EMI’s Parlophone and EMI/Virgin Classics labels absorbed into WMG on 1 July 2013) 

The consolidation in the music industry—which is now global in terms of distribution—parallels similar mergers in the oil, accounting, and media industries. For example, Exxon bought Mobil and is now Exxon/Mobil, the largest oil company in the world. There used to be eight big accounting firms, now there are four. There used to be 80 media companies, now there are six with their fingers in all sorts of print, electronic, and live entertainment activities.

Perhaps we should not be surprised. Mergers & Acquisitions have become prevalent in the last several decades in numerous industries as the wave of electronic media has become a communications tsunami of sorts. From a management perspective, the growth of electronic media has provided managers with a greater span of control, thereby enabling consolidation across the board.

3 Major Labels vs. Indie LabelsBut every action has an equal and opposite reaction. In the context of this blog it is the growth of independent music labels despite the apparent domination of the big three music labels.

The growing power of the indie music industry was profiled in a New York Post article earlier this year. In part, the reporter, Claire Atkinson wrote in January 2014:

“The rise of streaming music services, where the major labels’ control is weaker, and the decline of FM radio, where the labels’ control is powerful, has had a clear effect on the power of indie.

In 2007, indies controlled 25.8 percent of the music business, No. 2 behind Universal Music Group’s 28.8 percent share. By June 30, 2013, indie — a universe that includes Taylor Swift, Jason Aldean, Bon Iver and Mumford & Sons — leapfrogged Universal by growing its market share to 34.5 percent, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Universal was at 28.3 percent.”

The growing influence of the so-called “indies” was articulated by Peter Weber, a senior editor at TheWeek.com, who wrote (also in January 2014):

In the first half of [2013] alone, people listened to 50 billion songs on streaming services, like Spotify and Pandora, or on YouTube, according to Nielsen SoundScan. That’s a 24 percent increase over the first half of 2012.

Revenues from streaming services are also increasing: Record labels and musicians got $1.1 billion from ad-supported and subscription streaming in 2012, a 40 percent jump over 2011. That’s still a fraction of the $28.7 billion the global music industry pulled in in 2012, but as Hannah Karp at The Wall Street Journal notes that money will only grow as an explosion of new streaming services hits this year.

The American Association of Independent Music (A2IM) helps independent music labels improve business by promoting access and parity through advocacy, education and connection-building with one another and affiliated businesses.

According to their web site: A2IM serves the independent music community that, according to Billboard Magazine, comprises over 34.5% of the music industry’s market share in the United States (and approximately 40% of SoundScan digital album sales).

Here are six reasons, then, why you should support an independent label: 

1. Independent labels look to at least cover their costs, turn a modest profit, and market a product to as wide a niche market as possible. The major labels market in as many ways as       Pad of Paper & Penpossible to dominate the music industry—they care about making as much money as possible given the investment they make in new and extant artists.

2. Independent labels, given the smaller, niche markets they serve, reach for a higher intellectual and aesthetic level. The major labels reach for the lowest common musical
denominator.

3. Independent labels take chances/risks out of which comes experimentation which, in turn, leads to innovation. Very often, though, innovation occurs by accident. The major
labels want guarantees of success. This attitude breeds musical conservatism.

4. Independent labels support musical self-expression that allows for new ideas and sounds to be shared.

5. Small, independent labels allow artists greater freedom of creative expression.

6. The small labels are where larger movements come from. Smallness has a major role to play in growing fresh musical expression. Many a large industry grew out of someone’s
garage. The airline and home computer industries are two that come to mind almost immediately.

The small labels are where larger movements come from. Smallness has a major role to play in growing fresh musical expression. Many a large industry grew out of someone’s garage. The airline and home computer industries are two that come to mind almost immediately.

Overall, while the big three music labels create the perception that they are the only game town—with their promotion of rap, hip-hop, rock and pop; and if you buy the myopic public coverage of the Grammys—the larger universe is the growing presence of so-called independent labels, helped along by the expanding digital universe.

The irony is that in the last 100 years success in the music business has evolved from live performance Live to Recorded back to Live Music(prior to recordings) to recorded performance (78s, 45s, LPs, CDs) back to live performance (Live Nation didn’t become a monster company for nothing). There was a time when Barbra Streisand was just a recording artist, but in recent years she has come of the recording booth to perform live again. Today, a recording for a very few makes money, but it is the live performance where the fans are created, the venue and performers make money, and physical CDs are sold.

Recording has also evolved. Early on an artist recorded one piece, given the technological limitations at the time. The LP enabled the recording of a multi-track album. And in the digital age, musicians, for various reasons, have gravitated to single track releases again.

What goes around, comes around.

If you have any questions or comments about this or any other of my blogs, please write to me at meiienterprises@aol.com.

Eugene Marlow, Ph.D.
November 10, 2014

© Eugene Marlow 2014

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