Music's New Golden Age

While it might not seem it to many (especially those who've been in the business a long time), you can rightfully say that music is entering into a new golden age. Sure, most of the Top 40 charts and radio seem to be dominated by beat oriented dance songs, but real music played and written by real players is making a comeback. I personally can sense the trend by the buzz in the air and online, as well as some signs of life on the sales charts.

Want some proof? Let me list just a few artists that are a throwback to music's first golden age of the 60s/70s.

Adele: Here's an artist who's had great success by being herself. Her first album 21 doesn't have any beats or loops, it's not that polished, and there's not a lot of sweetening. It's just Adele and her talent. 21 has sold about 2.5 million copies and another million digital copies in the US alone, and is a big hit in most of the world. Her single "Rolling In The Deep" (there's a song analysis here) sold almost 5 million downloads. Someone is noticing.

Fitz and the Tantrums: You might not have heard about this group yet but you will soon. They're sort of a throwback to the Motown days. Their first album Pickin' Up The Pieces was done in the lead singer's living room and still sounds great, but it's more the bands vibe and material than anything else.


Mumford and Sons: How can what amounts to a folk band be this popular? It's because they're music comes from the right place. Totally compelling. See for yourself with my song analysis of "The Cave."

Bruno Mars: Talk about R&B, Bruno takes it to a new place. He's had great chart success (his single "Grenade" is one of the most popular song analysis on this blog), but he's the real deal. The guy can really play, sing and write.

Rafael Saadiq: Rafael may be the new face of soul, as he's another triple threat in that he plays, writes and sings. But it's his music that's so much the same as when soul was king, yet different.

Carney: I was turned onto this band by Bob Lefsetz, who so touted their song "Testify" that I had to check it out. Don't let the fact that lead singer Reeve Carney is playing Spiderman on Broadway, this band is the real deal.

So what do you notice about the above acts? They can all bring it live, and they're in all different genres, that's what. And that's exactly what gives me hope for music today. There are exciting new things happening that remind you of when music was great. Well, it's great again. Now the business is another story!

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"The Cave" - Mumford & Sons Song Analysis

Today we'll take look at Mumford & Son's "The Cave," a song that's currently #1 on the iTunes Alternative Songs chart. "The Cave" is from their Sigh No More album which recently won a Brit Award for Best British Album of 2011, and is certainly one of the more interesting song analysis done here. As always, the song is broken down into four components - the song itself, the arrangement, the sound and the performance.

The Song - "The Cave" is typical of most folk songs in that it's just a verse and a chorus form. The form looks like this:

Verse, Chorus, Verse, Chorus, Verse, Chorus, Chorus, Chorus, Chorus

The Arrangement - This song is the one of the best examples of dynamics that I've seen in a long time. Listen to how the song breathes in volume from the quiet intro to the roar of the chorus, then back again. Then in the outro choruses, the first one is quiet, and each one builds to a climax at the end. It's proof that even a fairly simple song form in any genre of music can be made interesting with only the addition of dynamics.

The song develops thanks to the introduction of electric banjo harmonics in the second half of the first verse, a piano on the second verse, the introduction of harmony vocals and what sounds like a violin in the second chorus, and what sounds like a recorder counter line in the last chorus.

Here are the arrangement elements:

   * The Foundation - The song uses the hard strumming of the guitar, the bass and simple foot stomps as the foundation. No drums here which is not only unusual, but almost amazing how they pull it off so well.

  * The Pad - The accordion and what sounds like a violin in the chorus acts as a pad.

  * The Rhythm - The rhythm element principally comes from the picking of the electric banjo in the chorus.

  * The Lead - The lead vocal.

  * The Fills - Banjo and piano in the verse, and something that sounds like a recorder in the last chorus playing a counter line.

The Sound - The mix is a bit muddy in that it's sometimes difficult to pick out some of the instruments in the chorus, but it could've been intentionally mixed that way as well. All the instruments sound natural without a trace of over-compression. There's also a very nice short reverb with a timed short pre-delay that just about disappears into the track.

The Performance - Any time you get this level of dynamics from a group of players you have a tremendous performance, since it takes a great deal of concentration to do it both smoothly and in sync with the all the players. Of course, it's just this characteristic that makes Mumford & Sons who they are.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating the music business.