Tune Magazine

n o t s i w T w e N e e i d o Th o H c i s s a l C the uddie; die B o o H e lysis h a T n A d n tion a a m r o f n I

g n i h s a The Sm nre New Ge roducers usic P M p U h Mas

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e h t ; r e n t r J.P. Pfe ds n a b o w t f master o

Table of Contents photo from mihaioprea.wordpress.com

4 A Sound Mix

A look at the new genre called “mashup music”, which is taking over dance parties around the world, and creating brilliance out of modern pop

8 A New Way to Listen

Music streaming service Spotify is redefining how we listen, share, and discover music, but some record labels are not thrilled with it.

10 The Concentration of Music A look at the new genre called “mashup music”, which is taking over dance parties around the world, and creating brilliance out of modern pop

12 Beat in the Hood

The trend that many people are excited by the HoodieBuddie, a new way to listen to music and still be warm.

14 Look at JP Alright

A look into the the history of a local Austin band leader of the bands “Oh Look Out” and “Built By Snow.” An insight into his bands and their unique music.

19 Minor Moods What makes sad music sad? The lyrics, or the notes. Why the chords that your bands play are more inportant than the pretty lyrics.

22 A Decade of Music: Arcade Fire

The inde-rock band from Montreal Canada has been making a huge impact with their first three studio albums.

24 Transmit the Beat In the last 50 years, the way Americans listen to music has changed durastically. Not everyone remembers the humble roots of the radio business

2 | TUNE | Summer 2012

Robin D.

Rasheed M. Rasheed is… Rasheed. There’s not really one way to describe Rasheed. Rasheed really likes his name. Rasheed.

Rasheed may be considered as conceited. When little ol’ Rasheed is not jammin’ out to some tunes, Rasheed is eating a bagel with strawberry cream cheese. Rasheed loves rap music and indie rock. Rasheed.

Robin is the brain and the muscles behind Tune magezine. He listens to music too much, and can sometimes be caught singing Taylor Swift. Always joking around, Robin is a fan of rap songs that leave you chuckling at their witty devices. Spend your day with Robin, and you won’t regret it. God Bless America

Staff Bios

Horst E.

Horst is a six foot giant of increasing size who gives this magazine its rugged edge. He plays a baritone (look it up), in the LBJ band and hopes to invent the electric tuba. He is a fan of Coldplay, Arcade Fire, and U2. He will conquer the non-believers of good music with the soul-rending songs of his bands.

Bryan M. Bryan is a music lover fan that listens to electric music most of the time. He uses music to concentrate during homework sessions and is capable of listening to 2 songs at once. He loves shooting videos and editing them (once made a music video).

Summer 2012 | TUNE | 3

A Sound Mix An electic new genre called mashup is building a fanbase online. Based off released songs, mashup music uses cultural memorobelia to create new masterpieces from old ones.

Illustration by Nick Empson, story by Robin Daemmrich

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A l l t h e o t h e r k i d s w i t h t h e p u m p e d u p k i c k s

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Summer 2012 | TUNE | 5

t u r n i t U P

1:30 AM

on the dance floor, at a college campus somewhere in North Carolina.

Also at 7:00 in the evening, going 65 miles per hour on the interstate. Mashup music artist Jon Solimando, better known online as D.veloped, wants his songs to be perfect for both occasions.

The music Solimando makes takes different parts of songs (anything from an entire instrumental to a single guitar pluck, or a couple words from an acapella) and rearranging them with other samples to make a new song. Mashup artists typically have sound beginnings as avid music listeners.

“I started messing around with tunes my freshman year of college,” Solimando said. “I never really thought I was making a “mashup”. I was just mixing some stuff together and later came to realize they were considered “mashups”.

I made a few mixes that I sent to friends who really enjoyed them. From there it spawned into people asking me to DJ parties.”

Solimando’s DJ’ing started off at Greek life events , but moved up to private venues and campus-wide events in North Carolina. High energy occasions are what Solimando typically plays his music for, which blends pleasantly nostalgic elements of the original songs with other familiar slices of music.

“Recently, I relistened to “No Scrubs” by TLC,” Solimando said.

“Pretty well known late 90s/early 2000’s track with recognizable vocals. I would use the vocals (not the instrumental) because the actual instrumental is not as recognizable.

I will typically find the BPM(Beats Per Minute) of the track and then speed it up a tad. This makes the track a bit faster with a little more energy. From there I find instrumentals or songs that I also like that are either current or old with similar BPMs. After that, it’s a lot of listening and fine tuning to make sure the pitches sound right on both ends.”

Solimando, like all other aspiring audiophiles, faces the challenge of overcoming the masses of online competition. Artists can publish

their music easily on the internet for no cost, leading to thousands of new artists in the musicsphere. Online mashup artist DJ Mental Radio faces the same challenge of getting his mashup music heard by a large audience.

“The mashup genre has really grown over the past few years and that means the competition to be the best is even tougher,” DJ Mental Radio said. “One of the hardest things an artist is faced with is making a name for themselves.”

To circulate their tracks, both artists use a combination of social music websites such as Soundcloud, but as DJ Mental Radio admits, getting your name out there to reach a large audience can be very difficult, but rewarding.

“CheckThisTrack.com was the first website to post one of my songs and from there more websites were posting my music. It definitely felt good that people were appreciating my music but it was only a start; it motivated me to make more and better music so that I can become a top masher.”

While DJ Mental Radio says that a good mashup leaves him wanting to turn his speakers up and start the party, he also believes is hard work is required to create powerful mashups.

“The harder you work, the better the final product will be and if that happens to find the right people, more and more will start listening,” DJ Mental Radio said. However, more fans who aren’t paying to listen does not allow artists to ditch their jobs and become a homespun professionals.

“The harder you work, the better the final product will be and if that happens to find the right people, more and more will start listening.”

AT THE TABLE

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Jon Solimando(D.veloped) hits play on his mashup songs while DJ’ing an event. Both photos from D.veloped

Mashup music has drawn an enormous amount of criticism in recent years because mashup melodies are made from slices of other copyrighted songs. The music executives guarding the majority of music’s capitol think that it is unlawful for a mashup artist to charge for their songs, so most artists music is available for free download over the internet.

Austin-based mashup artist Andrew Phillips, who releases his music online under the name of D.E.A, says that selling an track that uses a copyrighted instrumental could be illegal. Not being able to sell his songs isn’t a huge problem for Phillips, who says he doesn’t really care that he can’t charge because he enjoys creating his own music.

“I like making the musica because it’s entertaining to me, entertaining to perform for others, and to share,

Phillips said. “Money will come with good performances and popularity so I guess it works out either way.

Similarly, Solimando says that he never started making music as a career, but instead started because it was fun for him, and his friends that he shared his music with.

“My friends enjoyed hearing cool combinations of music. I heard a lot of mashup artists that I didn’t agree with, so I set out to create my own subgenre of mashups,” Solimando said. “Most mashups are impossible to listen to in a car if you are simply relaxing. I look for the happy medium full of emotion and some curiosity.”

NEW FACES

Promotional flyers for parties exclusive to mashup music from bootieparty.com

Summer 2012 | TUNE | 7

photo from Spotify

OFF THE WALL:

Music app Spotify takes social music to another level with its connection to your facebook profile

A New Way to Listen

Spotify is redefining social music, allowing you to take their 15 million track library anywhere you go

E

b y R o b i n D a emmri ch

veryone loves all-you-can-eat buffets. Everyone loves music. So naturally, everyone loves Spotify.

Internet radio services came and went, and now the music industry is looking for a new spark to light their dwindling fire. The revenue peak of the US music industry passed in 1999 at almost 15 Billion dollars, but fell to about 7 billion in 2010. During that time, music went digital, iTunes was started, and the music industry shifted into a new era. CD’s went out, and online buying came in.

The music world became more faceless when the point of purchase moved from record store counters to computer screens. Today, the music industry needs a savior that can

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ring it to its former glory. It needs a savior that works with the internet, and works with the things that already work, such as Facebook and Twitter. This redeemer of music already exists, and it is called Spotify.

Music streaming services are the new playgrounds for music junkies. Spotifys’ library of 15 million tracks is enough music for a lifetime. Search their catalog, and play it, it’s that simple. You can practically have all the music you could want, and the best part is that it is free. “Freemium”, as Spotify CEO Daniel Ek calls it, is the pricing plan the hooks listeners in, and then convinces them to pay up for even greater feature. The idea is to gently move the generation that was raised on pirating and file-sharing

photo from Spotify

to listing to free samples DYNAMIC DUO: with occasional ads, and then Spotify founders Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon in front of the finally to paying customers. “Great Wall of Spotify” at the ofThis business model is made fices in Stockholm, Sweden to grow in value over time, and looks unpromising to record labels that want to see money up front.

Labels see the free version as a black hole. Their music goes in, and no profits come out. This free model is favored by those with little money to spend on music, particularly young music listeners. Contrary to what labels think, the money they spend on producing music is not entirely lost.

Spotify’s new Facebook integrated social aspect allows for exposure that iTunes tracks couldn’t dream of.

Spotifys new Facebook-integrated social aspect allows for more exposure than iTunes tracks could dream of. Artists can expect to have more fans, and make more money off of concerts than they ever could before. The industry is changing again, and the corporations should not battle with the music-loving consumers.

Spotify is changing the music listening experience. Never before has it been as easy to share and create playlist with friends. The mutually beneficial relationship between Facebook and Spotify is even more reason for investing in the streaming service. The music industry needs to embrace Spotify, not fight it.

I

Monopoly

n the popular board game Monopoly, the quality of play falls when one player owns all of the properties. Clear Channel Communications, a San Antonio based company, is essentially playing the same position.

Before the 1996 Telecommunications Act, it was illegal for a company to own more than 40 radio stations around the nation. Now, Clear Channel owns 1225 stations, and controls the music industry in 100 of 112 major markets. In 2001, the Clear Channel did 70% of national ticket sales. It is essentially a monopoly.

This huge company is a big problem. Their relationship with the FCC is too close for comfort. Investigations by the Center for Public Integrity (CPI) showed that almost 1400 all-expenses paid trips were budgeted by broadcasting companies such as Clear Channel for FCC employees. It is realistic to worry that the corporations have the government regulations wrapped around their Clear Channel fingertips. It is a waste of time for me, and other an avid music listener, to criticize the companies company as a whole. My beef comes try to make with the music that I hear over the it seem as radio. It seems like every time I get if there is a into a car with the radio on, playing local voice one of my favorite hip-hop channels, behind the I hear the same songs. This gets microphone. annoying very quick. Any value I had in a song is lost when I get it drilled into my head over and over.

The days of local radio DJs are so far gone, but Clear Channel and other companies try to make it seems as if there is a local voice behind the microphone. Today, playlists are decided in corporate headquarters with the goal of maximizing profit. The most popular(profitable) songs are played during the hours most people spend commuting (6 - 10AM; 3 - 7PM).

This corperate takeover of the radio has meant an end for music appreciation. Now when I turn on the radio, I hear the voice of someone in another city promoting concerts and sweepstakes.

It really ruins the listening experience for me, when all I want to do is listen and appreciate music for what it is, and not spend money that in turn supports the monopoly of the radio industry.

I can only hope that next time you turn on the radio and listen to the nationally syndicated broadcasts, twisted to appear local and familiar, you think about how the music is being ruined by b y Rob in Da e mmr i c h executives.

Summer 2012 | TUNE | 9

Nacho Creation

Football

c i s Mu Reasoning

Concerts 10 | TUNE | Summer 2012

Hidden treasure

Drawn by Stephen Robinson

By: Bryan Merlin

“Classical music has been cited as a great way to increase concentration and productivity.”

S

o you bought your new iPod and you have around 200 songs in iTunes. You stay awake all night doing homework and transferring music to your iPod. You can’t concentrate due to your iPod sitting right in front of you. You wonder, if I play some music will I concentrate better?

Studies have shown that the right kind of music can help you relax your mind which enables you to concentrate better. Perfect to studying, doing homework or studying for a test or exam. It cuts down on distractions and helps you focus on your work. The “Mozart effect” a set of research results that indicate that listening to Mozart’s music may induce a short-term improvement on the performance of certain kinds of mental tasks known as “spatial-temporal reasoning” which is the ability to think out long-term, more abstract solutions to logical problems that arise, but how does music really work to make you concentrate better. Music can help to drown out other annoying background noises. Music has also been found to engage the area of the brain involved with paying attention.

This might help us to focus on the present task and avoid drifting off to other topics. But what type of music helps you concentrate Classical music has been cited as a great way to increase concentration and productivity. Some researchers claim that music helps us to organize incoming information.

Other researchers cite that music with constant beats help us to march along in a productive fashion. Slow classical music (whose timing is about that of a human heart at rest) is supposed to help one concentrate best of all. Regardless, music without words tends to be recommended.

This is due to the impact of the words making your brain want to process the word of the song. Thus making you start first mimicking the lyrics to the song and then singing the song. Which eventually effects to the concentration which doesn’t help on what you’re doing.Now what music helps, it is really easy to just remove the lyrics to the songs and keep the rhythm. Either way if you delete the lyrics you are still seduced to hum the rhythm. And this still distract you from concentrating.

Now Baroque classical music is said to have mind-

boosting effects. Productivity writer David Allen of “Getting Things Done” fame has said he prefers music like Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons,” Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto #3, and other Baroque tunes. Others say that music at 60 beats-per-minute is required to put the brain in a “bright and breezy” frame of mind. In this state your thinking and creativity are said to be easier. Concertos for Recorder – Telemann & Vivaldi is recommended. Since classical music may not be your thing there are other types of music that have been shown to increase your concentration levels.

“Chill out” music genres such as Trip-hop, Nu jazz, Ambient House, and other sub-genres of Down tempo are designed to relax the mind and allow it to roam.”

Ambient music or sound is designed to keep your brain engaged at a lower, subconscious level. Waterfalls, rain, seashore, whatever your taste. Thats old you might say, well, More modern electronic “Chill out” music genres such as Trip-hop, Nu jazz, Ambient House, Ambient Trance, New Age and other sub-genres of Down tempo are designed to relax the mind and allow it to roam.

Eno’s “Music for Airports” has been noted as being useful for serious studying and deep concentration.

This music was designed to relax stressed out travelers at the airport and put them at ease.

These are music that has been tested on people and have been successful to show music helps you concentrate. So next time when you sit down and do your homework and you’re tempted to listen to music, why not go ahead, but remember to listen to the one that benefits you and not the one that will make things worse. Don’t think that music doesn’t help it actually benefits you. It just depends on the one you use.

Summer 2012 | TUNE | 11

Beat

in the Hood I

photo by Hoodiebuddie Website

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f you consider yourself, one hardcore music lover having your headphones on every second well now it’s time to change from those headphones and get a new and improved headphone. Why improve? Well this new improvement is the HoodieBuddie a hoodie with built in headphones that give you the maximum volume for your music.

The HoodieBuddie is one of the coolest trends in the market today it has HB3 technology, which gives the HoodieBuddie that special touch. The HoodieBuddie has built in headphones on the

drawstrings of the hoodie. These Built-in headphones have the ability that does not let encountered water they also have the ability of a 3.5mm plug-in. However, as we all know all good devices or trend have their pros and cons. In this article, we will analyze what owners of the HoodieBuddie think of this product.

“This product is amazing but it does have its ups and downs,” said LASA senior Yuni Borja the owner of a HoodieBuddie. said LASA senior Yuni Borja the owner of a HoodieBuddie.

Yuni, as any other HoodieBuddie owner, notices that the HoodieBuddie has advantages and disadvantages.

“The washing and drying...UGH… it’s so irritating,” says Yuni.

Washing is not the problem we can notice that, “The entire Hoodie is machine washable (even the headphones).” The HoodieBuddie Website says. Great, even the headphones are washable, you might say, but Yuni disagrees.

“You have to set the washers water

to 50° and then you have to air-dry it. It’s just too much of a hassle, if you leave your HoodieBuddie too long in the air you get a muggy smell,” she says.

Okay so we know it be agitating to clean your HoodieBuddie, but for trouble, usually something good that levels out the problems. The HoodieBuddie can be anywhere and at any time.

“Plug in to your HoodieBuddie wherever you go—at the gym, on your way to work or on the plane. Your headphones are always ready to rock and tanglefree because they’re built in.,” says the HoodieBuddie Website.

“It’s great I go to the mall, the grocery store, and to school with my HoodieBuddie and it’s great I can go anywhere and still listen to music when I feel like it,” Yuni mentions.

A great way to go anywhere and still listen to music. Now you do not have to go ad deal

with your headphones because now you just plug it in and you go. It’s so convenient and easy that I wake up put my HoodieBuddie on plug my iPod and go for a morning jog, it’s so easy and great, and it is the best item I have ever bought anyone at any age should buy a HoodieBuddie” Trends are so fast that some people cannot keep up with so before you move on and go for the next trend you find wait and take a shot of the HoodieBuddie one of the best trends that is still hot and fresh.

text by Bryan M. design by Robin D.

“It is the best item I have ever bought.

Anyone at any age should buy a HoodieBuddie.”

Summer 2012 | TUNE | 13

art by Horst Evans adapted album cover on ohlookout.com

Leader of two, father of one, JP Pfertner is a symbol of Austin Music

P

ac Man; shooting down the path, eating dots and dodging Pink.

Tetris; multicolor shapes raining from the sky and fit to create a new ground. Galaxian; the ebony spikes of the enemy vessels shattering as you swoop and dodge return fire.

Asteroids; the creaking of stone and ice under fire as earth is saved. All so different, yet all so similar. As you enter the arcade, the songs blend into a single symphony, with each game creating a melody and counter melody, a baseline and a beat. The high soaring brain candy tunes have a root in all arcade music. With keyboards trilling and synthesizers singing, the electric arcade song is inQUITE ALRIGHT: An adaption of the album grained in the soul of every child of its age. cover ALRIGHT ALRIGHT ALRIGHT ALRIGHT ALRIGHT, with superimposed red on black outline Most do not expect the style to exist outside and the title of this article replacing the album the world of video games, but the electric title. arcade has evolved and reincarnated itself into the addictive songs of Oh Look Out. The childhood memories of the past collide with that futuristic feel in the present, existing as one.

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Summer 2012 | TUNE | 15

for their shows,” JP said, “It took about 6 months of his persistence before they finally said yes and featured our song.”

JP says it all comes down to promotion, having good songs, and being lucky. They put out their name with shows and radio airplay, and when someone heard their music, liked it, and got them a song licensed, JP said it would spread the word even more.

“We really considered every one of these licensing deals as promotion, so we never turned them down,” JP says.

“Yeah, lately I’ve been looking at it like I’m building a song army...”

OH LOOK OUT: The band of Oh Look Out. From left to right; JP, Matt Bryan, Kevin.w Photo by: Oh Look Out

The headman and creator of Oh Look Out is JP Pfertner. While this is his second band, during his music career his bands have participated in big gigs and had some large licensing deals. His bands reflect the local Austin culture and music, and show how minor bands survive in the competitive environment and evolve over time.

Built By Snow was JP’s first band. “We practiced a ton before we played our first show... and even then, our first show was pretty lame. It took about a year before we were even kind of good... and that’s when we won a Battle of the Bands competition, which had a prize of $1000,” JP says.

“We practiced a ton before out first show...and even then, [it] was pretty lame” That money went straight to the recording studio, where they recorded their first album, “NOISE.” That set them off on the trail to their 2008 album, “MEGA,” and into Toronto, Canada for the North by Northeast festival (NXNE). NXNE is the equivalent of SXSW for the higher latitudes. NXNE put their name out there, which resulted in song licenses. They’ve even got song licenses from some major companies like Google, Austin 360, and Cartoon Network. One of the licenses occurred when they met someone at NXNE who heard them play.

“This guy really loved our music and pushed it to Cartoon Network every time they were looking for music

16 | TUNE | Summer 2012

However, Built By Snow is on, “an extended break,” and while they still play together once or twice a year, the members have become wildly dispersed. The catalyst for the melting of snow was the birth of JP’s son, Charlie, two years ago. JP had to take a break for a couple years, and during that time their bass player, Ben, moved to Atlanta and their drummer, Brandon, started up with another band. Over his break, JP had been writing and recording songs in his spare time, but since two of his band members weren’t around anymore, he decided to create a new band to put the songs under. He called it Oh Look Out. Oh Look Out has released one album, “ALRIGHT ALRIGTH ALRIGHT ALRIGHT ALRIGHT,” and it contains a wide variety of music, from deep, hard, thrumming “This is Heavy” to calm, flowing, “Short Waves.”

JP laughs, “Yeah, lately I’ve been looking at it like I’m building a song army... I hope that after writing songs over a lifetime I will have a pretty serious arsenal! “This Is Heavy” is kind of like a grenade, and “Short Waves” is more like a pistol.”

The reason for such a wide variety is that JP tries to keep his albums from getting too monotonous for his listeners, and too boring for him. “…it wouldn’t be much of an army with just a bunch of pistols...” His favorite song on ALRIGHT is “Short Waves,” but short waves was originally going to be a meatier song.

“I was actually originally recording “Short Waves” with bunch of harmonies, drums, and guitars mixed in... but I realized that I just needed to let go and stop trying so hard,” JP says.

He got a lot of positive feedback from listeners about “Short Waves,” and says “…that’s given me a lot of confidence in my songwriting.” But JP is not the only songwriter in the group.

JP’s right hand man, Matt Murray, says the arcade music that he writes probably originates from his childhood as a heavy arcade gamer, burning a lot of his time down at his local arcade. He is the only other member in both bands.

Matt is one of JP’s, “best friends, a fantastic musician, and the first person I thought of to join in the band with me.”

The two of them have really been the bands’ essential cores.

“We all met at the TV station, and became friends before we started the band,” reminisces JP, “Honestly we did a lot of cool things, and I can’t really remember much of it off the top of my head...” says JP, “but I remember that it was rad.”

“We all met at the TV station, and became friends before we started the band” Of all the things that JP has done with the band; touring in Toronto and NXNE, getting big licensing deals with giants like Google, or even just evolving through two bands and living in the lyrics and lines of music, the way they formed does not follow normal formation procedure. JP had been writing some songs solo under the name of Built By Snow, and he wanted to release them, but he thought that it would look stupid to do so under a nonexistent band. So he asked the other members-to-be to pose for pictures with him to create the semblance of a band.

“It doesn’t make a ton of sense to me now, because who cares how many people it took to record the song? It probably wouldn’t have even mattered, but at the time I thought it seemed necessary.” JP says. “After we took the pictures, we started talking about really playing in a band together... those guys all played instruments and were super talented, so we all decided to become Built By Snow!”

MEGA: “Built by Snow’s” second album MEGA. Album art consists of a diagram of the head and neck nervous systme, with tape entering the brain. Band name top, album’s bottom.

All photos by Oh Look Out ALRIGHT: “Oh Look Out’s” first album ALRIGHT ALRIGHT ALRIGHT ALRIGHT ALRIGHT featuring the jet-pack Tyrannosaurus rex with a gun. The first page art was based off this album. band name top, album name below.

Summer 2012 | TUNE | 17

18 | TUNE | Summer 2012

M

inor oods

Why minor chords create a greater emotinal response than lyrics

Y

art and text by Horst Evans

ou are listening to Adele’s low, thrumming, heart-soul song “Someone Like You.” Its lyrics are deep and meaningful, but it is the music that resonates within you. It makes you sad; it makes you cry. The song pierces your heart and you leak tears. Why? What is it about that music that creates these strong emotions? People believe it is the lyrics that make your mind feel the emotions, but that is not true; the solution is the “off” sound, and the puppet-master of disharmonic moods is the minor chord.

However, minor chords don’t get their gloom from having only low notes.

You can have high minors and low majors. Andrew Pouska, creator of Study Bass, a website on the mechanics of music, points out that, “while there are 3 different [flat] notes [in a minor chord], the essential note giving these scales their major, or minor sound quality is the 3rd.” (Pouska) This means that every note that is marked flat will be slightly lower than it normally is. This overall flattening of the notes means that that piece of music will have a deeper quality to it than a major chord would, no matter how high or low you would play. You can accomplish this with lyrics by flattening the words you sing, but this creates more of a cappella effect were the voice is being used as the music, so I don’t count the emotions created by this due to lyrics.

In addition, when all the notes in a scale are natural (major), the root and

EMOTION:

Various forms of emotion that the minor chord can create.

Summer 2012 | TUNE | 19

art by Horst Evans

third’s frequencies are factors, HALF-STEP: so it creates a simple sound. This picture shows three quarter notes with the secIn a flattened chord (minor), ond note offset by half a step. the half steps create complex A full step is the equivalent of factors, and that creates a a line offset either both on lines or inbetween. “complex” sound. When a major and minor chord are played together, they create a dis-harmonic sound. Both of these sounds make us feel out of synch. This out of synch feeling is also experienced when a note is played, usually a half step off, that grates against the current harmony.

This is called an appoggiatura. “An appoggiatura is a type of ornamental note that clashes with the melody just enough to create a dissonant sound. This generates tension in the listener,” tells Martin Guhn, a psychologist at the University of British Columbia who co-wrote a 2007 study on the subject. “When the notes return to the anticipated melody, the tension resolves, and it feels good.” (Doucleff) If several of these are within close succession, it creates a build-up and release of tension, which produces chills and the like. These appoggiaturas rely on harsh, clashing dis-harmonies sprinkled within harmonies. They can occur within major and minor chords, but their effect is amplified when they music switches from a natural major to an appoggiatura minor, which creates an amplified dissonance from the already dis-harmonic major and minor scales. Mozart’s piano concert No. 23 does a good job of this where there are unexpected deviations of the harmony that are off from the original, making the whole melody like an appoggiatura (Doucleff).

The appoggiatura is one of the reasons that the Minor chord is superior at conveying strong emotions.

According to Gary Ewer, a senior instructor at Dalhousie University who blogs about

20 | TUNE | Summer 2012

songwriting, if you want to create strong emotions, like those created by the minor chord, you, “don’t want your [lyrics] to describe emotions, as much as you want them to create emotions.” (Ewer).

However, consider a good song that has excellent emotion inducing lyrics and music. If you read the lyrics without a musical quality, you don’t get as strong as a response as if you had read it with the musical quality.

Same goes for if you listen to just the lyrics or just the

music; the music gives off a stronger emotional response; the lyrics can change the song over but they cannot exist by themselves, you need the music to create the ideal tone, because music can express what cannot be expressed in words alone, like emotions.

ADELE:

Adele wrote “Someone Like You,” the heart wrenching song that mekes good use of lyrical disharmonics.

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compiled by Robin Daemmrich

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Name

Paradise

Wasted

Time

8:23 am

9:15 am

Artist

Coldplay

Lil Wayne

GENIUS Genius PLAYLISTS

iTunes DJ

Whale Songs Christmas

Military Use

Today’s Songs

Best of You 1:35 pm Foo Fighters

Speak Now

6:45 pm

Sky Might Fall 11:52 pm

Taylor Swift

Kid Cudi

Search

Emotion I woke up after a pleasant night of dreaming wanting to hear Paradise. The songs puts me into a wonderland only limited by my own imagination On the way to play frisbee, I needed some pump-up music. I choose my favorite Wayne song that carries the energy of a street riot and verses sharper than switchblades This song has been my FF’s favorite everlong as I can remember. It’s a powerful retrospective about scilent oppression.

Sometimes you don’t know that someone else is controlling your life I love music that tells stories. I get a vivid image of the scene listening to this song. A wedding that from the outside looks perfect, but in on the inside is misguided and empty Driving late at night, I want some music to break the scilence. Cudi should make his music only playable at night, because its sedated emotions burn brighter in the moonlight

Summer 2012 | TUNE | 21

A Decade of Music

By Horst Evans

2005-2006: Arcade Fire opens for U2 with “Wake Up.”

August 2003: Wil and Regine married.

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2003: Arcade Fire formed.

September 2004: “Funeral” album released.

February 2003: First EP released.

Photo by Chin Tin Tin

Photo by Loic Leuliette

22 | TUNE | Summer 2012

Photo by David Mead September 18, 2011: Arcade Fire plays live at ACL fest.

December 2009: Funeral appears on the most ‘best of the decade’ lists.

March 20,2012: Arcade fire records “Abraham’s Daughter” and Panem national anthem, “Horn of Plenty” for the Hunger games. The sound track was released on this date.

Chart by Horst Evans

2008

2009

2010

March 3,2007: “Neon Bible” album released.

2011

2012

February 2011: “The Suburbs” wins grammy award for ‘Best Album of the Year.’

August 2,2010: “The Suburbs” album released.

Photo by Ya’akov

Summer 2012 | TUNE | 23

Transmit the Beat

By: Bryan Merlin

Many people today listen to music in very different ways; they might not have the newest technology, but one way or another they manage to listen to their favorite music. Examples of these are shown on the right and on the next two pages. modern examples are iPod’s, Stereo System, MP3 Player etc... Others are old in age and use other means to listen to their music. Some example of these old but still useful devices is Cassettes, Boom boxes’, and Old Radio’s.

It does not matter how, but people find the way to always stay connected with music. Many people use music in their lifestyle to finish work this photo essay shows different ways to listen to music during your everyday work.

24 | TUNE | Summer 2012

MODEL STUDENT The Apple iPod Touch is a technological marvel. The number of circuits inside the brushed steel case represent the incredible complexity of modern living.

Today, this device is relatively inexpensive, but only because our technology for listening to music has evolved so much

CAPTION

Summer 2012 | TUNE | 25

OLD RADIO An antique radio is a radio receiving set that is collectible because of its age and rarity. Although collectors may differ on the cutoff dates, most would use 50 years old, or the pre-World War II Era, for vacuum tube sets and the first five years of transistor sets.

TAPE CASSETTE The Compact Cassette, also called audio cassette, cassette tape, cassette, or simply tape, is a magnetic tape sound recording format. It was designed originally for dictation, but improvements in fidelity led the Compact Cassette to supplant the Stereo 8-track cartridge and reel-toreel tape recording in most non-professional applications.

Source: American Industries. 2005 26 | TUNE | Summer 2012

Source: Antiqueradio

BOOMBOX Boombox is a colloquial expression for a portable cassette or CD player with two or more loudspeakers. Other terms known are ghetto blaster, jambox or radio-cassette. It is a device capable of receiving radio stations and playing recorded music (usually cassettes or CDs), usually at relatively high volume.

Source: historyofaboombox.com

MP3 PLAYER The first physical mp3 player was released in 1998, and while only having 32 megabytes of flash memory, cost $250. A year later, when hard drives started being used in place of flash memory, a 5 gigabyte player was sold for $799. Many different companies launched mp3 player models at the beginning of the 2000’s, hoping to strike gold in a growing market.

Source: webopedia.com Summer 2012 | TUNE | 27

Letter From the Editors

A

Whattup dog,

This is [Tune Magazine], man welcome. I appreciate you for having this if you got this. If you [reading] to this, thank you. I’m really hoping your enjoying what you’re experiencing. Now I ain’t gonna talk too much, I’mma get back to this blunt, and let you get back to this [magazine].

-Lil Wayne, No Ceilings

t some point, this magazine was going to get published. We put hundreds of hours of work into this magazine so that hopefully you could take 15 minutes to read it.

Our purpose is to expand the appreciation of music though both an inside look a the people that make our music we listen to, and by editorializing as seasoned music listeners. Here at Tune, we believe that there is much more than meets the ear. True music appreciation comes from a lot of listening, because music often serves to represent the time period that it was created in. Many pop-culture influences have left their marks on our music, and vice versa.

Musicians are misunderstood people, since stereotypes are the easiest way for humans to judge others. What is important to remember is that what we are hearing is only a few verses of a person’s soul. A whole album, if turned into a book, would be just a few pages, so the words are much more powerful than regular writing.

This magazine seeks to expand on the lyrics.

We talk about a lot of artists, some who we like and some who we hate, but in the end, we appreciate all music for what it is. An art form that represents the many inescapable elements of the human condition. No matter what a musician sees when they look outside their window, they still know what it feels like to experience life, death, love, and happiness.

We can connect with it through the same experiences in our lives. Expression of emotion.

This is music in it’s purest form.

LONG LOST Much like Michael Jackson, our careers as magazine designers are probably dead photo from Fanpop.

Here at Tune, we believe that there is much more than meets the ear.

28 | TUNE | Summer 2012

Robin Bryan Horst Rasheed