Peer Comments

Anthony,

Marvin Gaye's name will never be forgotten, nor his music and you created a great post one of his biggest song, "What's Goin On". I agree that this album and song is what set Marvin apart from the other artist there at Motown. Not only his music made him successful, but also his will and determination in achieving whatever he set his mind on. I like the way Marvin Gaye fought the system or head of the record label, because this showed character and what type of man he was, yet alone what type of artist. This song elevated his level of thinking when created the album and pushed him to go places far beyond his and the label's boundaries. You did an excellent job on this post and it was a pleasure just to be able to add a little bit on how I felt.

Akai MPC-60

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11460079/Hersey_Martarius_MPCpodcast.mp3One of the most important technological advancements for Hip Hop production is the Akai MPC drum machine. This piece of equipment has been around since the early stages of Hip Hop. The MPC has became an industry standard for almost everyone that's on the Hip Hop side of the music business and also plays a major role in R&B as well. I never learned to to use one personally, but this drum machine is what I dream of owning one day. The sound it produces is way beyond its competitors. The founder of the MPC is Roger Linn, also the founder of the Linn drum machine collection. The MPC-60 was the first of its kind and was released in 1988. Some great features that help set this beast apart is that it allowed for 12-bit sampling, a huge track sequencer, and massive drum pads (Solida, 2011, Musicradar.com). The velocity sensitive drum pads allow sample playback that makes for an easy to use beat machine whenever the inspiration to create strikes. This machine also features MIDI in and out connections which gives the user more freedom to create in just about any setup. Most producers created their patterns in real-time and built on that, but with this drum machine you could create different patterns and chain them into a sequence (Akai MPC/Vintagesynth.com). As a listener, this drum machine has been apart of all my favorite songs coming up as a kid and still today. I didn't understand or know anything about music equipment, but that sound was very distinguished and kept my head rocking all the time. As an industry professional, I must say that this drum machine is what made Hip Hop what it is today. Numerous and numerous amount of hit songs that flooded the air waves was in part to Roger Linn, the Akai MPC-60, and the later series to follow.

Peer Comment

Zac,

This was a very insightful post that you created. Kraftwerk was to one of the most creative forces in the music band. I didn't like everything that I heard from the them as a listener, but I liked how they dared to be different and take music in a direction where no one else had been before. I believe their bizarre image that you were talking about is another attribute that in which set them apart and matched their edgy sound. The video documentary really showed their uniqueness as people and not just musicians and it just showed through their music. One thing that really stuck out to me was their names is neon lights. I wish that i could have one of those made for me today!

Electronic Revolution

The Moog Synthesisers are key in the evolution of electronic music. These were synthesisers that replaced the standard orchestral or band instruments that were in most popular music. The founder of this company is a gentleman by the name of Robert Moog. He first developed an idea for his electronic instrument by building and selling Theremin kits. After selling 1000 Theremin kits, Moog begin to work on building his own instrument, which later became only a mild success when compared to the competition. ( Robert Moog and Moog Synthesisers/120years.net). The Theremin was another early electronic instrument that was unique in it's on way, but had also helped Moog in like being inspiration for Robert Moog in creating his own design. The impact of the Moog Synthesisers was felt by later creations that followed its design. Company's such as Arp and Roland had developed prototypes of the Moog that were more sophisticated and cost efficient. (Robert Moog and Moog Synthesisers/120years.net). This brought about an abrupt stop in business for Moog. Several artist had made albums using the instrument, but the albums were not making any money (Moog, Synthmuseum.com). Even though it didn't withstand the test of time, the Moog became like a blueprint for electronic instruments. Pop music would become the most influenced music by an electronic instrument such as the Moog. Roland and Korg are two companies who were heavily influenced by the Moog Synthesisers. The KorgMS1 has a layout almost the same as the Moog series. It used cable and patches in creating different sounds and instruments just as the Moog Synthesisers. Today technology has even progressed as far as virtual instruments or instruments that can be played on computers. As an industry professional, i can clearly see how the creation of the Moog Sythnthesisers has helped in the development of a whole new breed of electronic instruments.

Kraftwerk

Kraftwerk was a very unique group of musicians with a knack for exploring the unknown and turning it into great music. The image or look that they were going for was sort of "Hitler-like." They had short dark hair and dressed in two-piece suits. You could see this on their album cover and they also performed at live shows in this type of attire. Their musical sound originated from the classical and experimental. Their sound was classified as "Krautrock", an experimental German sound (The Story of Kraftwerk/Youtube.com). They used the Beach Boys way of making their musical sound the sound of the America and made their sound into the German sound with the album "Autobahn" (Kraftwerk and the Electronic Revolution/Veho.com). They knew that in order to become successful that the key was to create their own sound and that's exactly what they did. A lot of their music was experimental music. Most of their music was created by the original two members of the band, Ralf and Florian. They had a few producers and hired musicians who helped them in creating their "Kraftwerk" sound, but they were the main contributors. The band started out with Conny Plank as their producer, but later turned to doing everything on their own before later adding Brian Eno and David Bowie. They had a lot of friends who were up-to-date on technology and had instruments specially tailored for the band. Their albums between 1974-1981 were all created in their studio "Kling Klang." The albums during this time had a subject matter and were very conceptual beginning to end. The album "Trans-Euro Express" was influenced by train and travel throughout the country. Their songs were in their native language as well as French and English. This was a major part in the success of the band and their music. Their lyrical content was kind of senseless in a way and helped in setting them apart from other musicians by becoming sort of an artistic statement (Kraftwerk and the Electronic Revolution/Veho.com). As a listener, their sound was fun and easy to listen to. As a professional, I really enjoyed the creativeness and daring approach that they took in creating music.

Marvin Gaye

Marvin Gaye Podcast

Marvin Gaye is an all time great in my opinion and is widely known more for his love songs. His image before recording the hit song "What's Going On" was totally different. Marvin played the role of the ladies' man before he had this drastic change of heart on what he wanted his music to sound like and accomplish. This was all due to the war stories of Vietnam that his brother Frankie told him about. They would keep in contact through writing letters, but everything didn't really sink in with Marvin until his brother returned home. The one thing that bothered Marvin the most was the image of kids having to dig through the garbage cans just so they could find something to eat (Benson, 2001, http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2001/dec/08/extract). What's Going On took a lot of time and effort just to be recorded and released. Marvin wanted this song to sound like no other Motown song, so he got different musicians and producers to work with. He got the song recorded and finalized after several mixes then let Berry Gordy hear the song that he worked so hard on just to get denied. The "What's Going On" album was very different from Gaye's previous work. He had mostly new musicians to work on this project besides for a few guys that he could count on. An accidental doubling of his voices was played together and Marvin loved it so much that it became his signature sound of the album. He wanted to create music with a purpose that would reach the souls of the people (Benson, 2001, http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2001/dec/08/extract). As a listener, the album was what I needed to hear instead of what I wanted to hear and that being of a positive influence. As a professional, the material and instrumentation was great. The choices of instruments and arrangements created a feeling of inspiration and a happy heart. It a big theatrical sound to it that was very pleasant to listen to.

Velvet Underground

The Velvet Underground had a very unique image. It was their producer, "Andy Warhol," who played a major part in creating their very distinguished look. The group started off as just two guys who had a passion for music. These founding member are Lou Reed and John Cale. The two met in year of 1964 and decided to form a rock band and later came Sterling Morrison, Maureen Tucker, and then Nico (Olsen, 2002, The Velvet Underground- It Began Here). Cale began playing the piano and violin at very young age and became so good at it that he landed a spot on BBC (Howard, 2004, p. 180). After attending two musical colleges, John Cale met La Monte Young and began playing in the band called, "Dream Syndicates." He then later met Lou Reed, a skilled musician of many talents. At the time Reed was working as a songwriter for Pickwick Records (Howard, 2004, p.182). He was also a singer and a guitarist as well. The group's producer, Andy Warhol, promoted and produced the album. Warhol had an idea to bring all three forms of art together and that's exactly what he did with the band. He was known for a fashion designer, but created the great circle of talent by incorporating fashion plus film and music. This all took place at The Factory. The band's sound was a raw, but unique one in it's own amateur way that set it apart from popular music of their time. The sound quality was really poor and even piercing to the ears at some points. Song topics like "Heroin" were considered abnormal and unaccepted, but they brought about real life elements to their music. As a listener, they had a sound that was almost unbearable to the ears at time because of loud screeches and distortion that created who they were artistically. As an industry professional, I saw that they dared to be different and stand out from the rest by experimenting with their instruments and playing them in an unusual manner to make a weird, but interesting sound.