Remember the song "My Sharona?" The hit song from 1979 by The Knack has been played around the world virtually every day since to the point where everyone, regardless of age, knows the song.
Ever wonder who Sharona is or what the song is about? My friend Ralph Simon relates the story in this video. He should know. He was the executive vice-president of Capital Records during the time when The Knack reigned over the charts. He has since gone on to become one of the founders of the mobile entertainment industry (some consider him the father of the ring-tone business) and named one of the world's top 50 executives by Mobile Entertainment magazine.
We always think of audio as strictly a function of one of our senses, but as many of us know, there's more to it than that. When we can feel the vibrations from bass frequencies we intuitively believe that the sound is much more powerful than when we can't feel it. But perhaps there's more to it than that.
A movie called Touch the Sound, produced by German director Thomas
Riedelsheimer in 2004, focuses on the work and world of nearly-deaf
percussionist Evelyn Glennie. Not only can she play, but she's world-class!
Below is a trailer for the movie, which you can see in its entirety on Hulu. Thanks for PR maven Marsha Vdovin for the heads-up on this great piece.
Gibson Guitar has announced in a press release that they’re acquiring the
Stanton Group, which includes the well-known Stanton DJ
brand, KRK monitors, and Cerwin-Vega loudspeakers. Gibson already has acquired Epiphone, Dobro, Kramer, Steinberger, Tobias,
Echoplex, Electar, Flatiron, Slingerland, Valley Arts, Maestro,
Oberheim, Baldwin, Sunshine Piano, Take Anywhere Technology, J&C
Fischer, Chickering, Hamilton, and Wurlitzer. So aside from Epiphone, when was the last time you hear anything from most of those products?
What's most interesting about the announcement is that Gibson calls this move is “part of its continued
expansion as a lifestyle brand.” I guess my question is, "How does Stanton fit into that vision?" I understand that Gibson CEO Henry Juszkiewicz would like to be more like Apple, but buying a group that features DJ and speaker products isn't exactly a great start in that direction. Plus, with Gibson's track record of instantly burying a company as soon as they buy it, it seems like a moot point anyway.
It would be great if Gibson would just concentrate on the thing they do best, making guitars, but they're not doing so hot on that front either. The robot guitar, digital guitar and Firebird X all had the industry and players alike scratching their heads. One again, it seems like market share and acquisitions mean more to the Gibson powers-that-be than increasing efficiencies on its core product and making better instruments. As outlined in my article about Warner Music Group on my Music 3.0 blog today, music and big money usually don't mix. You have to make a profit to stay in business, but the turning point is when the business becomes more about money than music, and that leads to trouble.
So say goodbye to the Stanton Group - Stanton DJ, KRK and Cerwin-Vega. It's only a matter of time before they disappear.
For anyone who ever met him, Ronnie James Dio was not only a great singer, but a wonderful gentleman with a huge heart as well. We all still feel his loss and miss him. Here's an example of Ronnie's great voice on an isolated vocal track from his hit "Rainbow In The Dark" off of his 1983 Holy Diver album.
This sounds to be either the center channel from a 5.1 mix or a center channel phase extraction, which actually can be a better learning tool than if it were off the multitrack. During the solo section you can hear the guitar solo enter, which is why a tell-tale sign that it's not directly from the multitrack.
Here's a couple of things to note as you listen:
1) Ronnie's voice is pretty compressed, but this is something that he really needs since he had such a dynamic voice.
2) There's a good bit of a medium long plate reverb on his vocal. It doesn't sound like it's delayed.
3) He doubles the B section of the verse and then breaks into the harmony on the hook of the song. Some of the harmonies have different releases form the lead phrasing, which we probably wouldn't let pass today. That said, it never bothered me before when I listened to the song.
4) You can hear a punch out at the end of the high section vocal section of verse two.
This week I'll do a song analysis of song by LMFAO called "Sexy And I Know It" that's currently #1 on the Ultimate Chart. The song is a worldwide hit in more than 15 countries and is the third single from the group's Sorry For Party Rocking album.
While it may go unnoticed by many who don't like the dance or Top 40
genre, LMFAO is pretty groundbreaking. Why? They're a great example of
the marriage of electronic music (their sub-genre is known as "hip house") to a catchy melody and lyrics, which has caused the group to break through in a big way.
As with all song analysis, we'll look at the song form, the arrangement, the sound and the production.
The Song
If we look at "Sexy And I Know It" from a pop perspective, the song seems simplistic both form and lyric-wise, but this is a completely different genre so we have to throw that thinking out. All dance and electronic music are built around 4 and 8 bar modules that sometimes work as the traditional verse, chorus, bridge, and then again, sometimes they don't. In this song they do, and that's why it's such a big pop hit. Here's what the form looks like:
Intro, Verse, B Section, Chorus, Verse, B Section, Chorus, Verse, B Section, Chorus
Pretty simple, right. Not exactly. The verse after the 2nd chorus is a hybrid; it's a little bit verse with the song hook ("Sexy and I know it") thrown in. In a way, you could almost call it a bridge, but only from a lyric standpoint since the underlying musical structure doesn't change.
The lyrics are never going to win any awards, but at least the song has some, something that most music from this genre lack.
The Arrangement
This song shows that you can have a hit with a minimum number of elements. As with all electronic music, the rhythm is the most important element, but seldom is it so stripped down through the entire song. The song consists of kick drum, the vocal, a repeating synth line, and a very few synth and drum fill elements so it's really down almost as far as it can be and still work.
* The Foundation: Kick drum sample
* The Rhythm: Kick drum, high-hat, and repeating synth line
* The Pad: None
* The Lead: The vocal
* The Fills: Various synth sounds and noises
The Sound
With electronic music, sound quality is never an issue since noise and distortion can be welcome elements. The most important sound element is the beat, which is driven by the bass drum sound. Since there are so few musical elements, the kick has to be very large to fill the frequency space and this one certainly is. The vocals all have a distorted edge to them, which as said before, it's okay in this type of music and even desired. Everything is dry and in your face except for the repeating synth, which is delayed at the end of song along with the high-hat sound. And of course, it's all compressed to the edge.
The Production
Any song that can be interesting with so few elements has to have pretty good production. The song has a great beat for dancing and a hook that will stick in your mind, which is the reason why it's a hit. The two most consistent elements, the bass drum and repeating synth sounds, keep changing with every section and sometimes within the same section. The very subtle entrance of additional elements all keep your attention. That, my friends, is the essence of production.
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