Melisma Winter 2014/15 by Melisma Magazine

Melisma TUFTS’ PREMIER JOURNAL OF MUSIC WINTER 2014 VOL 13.0

MELISMA EDITORS-IN-CHIEF Jordan Rosenthal-Kay Jessica Mow ART & LAYOUT DIRECTOR Moira Lavelle MANAGING EDITOR Grant Fox

FROM THE EDITORS M

elisma Magazine has gone through a lot of changes this year. Chiefly our changes were structural; that is, we now have structure. To this end, we have developed a beautiful website, strengthened our online presence, and now released this magazine.

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Maddie Bacchaus Julie Doten Max Ettelson Joseph Leone Ming Lewis Anna Linton Chelsea Wang

Melisma Magazine focuses its content on Tufts and its immediate area. We’re cataloguing Tufts musicians with our Snapshot interviews. We’re exploring the depths of our own music department. We’re reaching out to impressionable passerby musicians – we’ve interviewed Girl Talk, Porter Robinson, San Fermin, and more.

CONTRIBUTING DESIGNERS Ross Bretherson Ian James Elias Jarzombek Sahar Roodehchi

This issue presents a deep exploration of composers at Tufts, including a compelling interview with Rabbi Summit on his Grammy nomination.

FOREIGN CORRESPONDANT Rebecca Sinai PHOTOGRAPHERS Selin Ipek Amy Kao

Last year, former editor-in-chief Mitch Mosk wrote that Tufts was seeing “the naissance of a cohesive undergraduate music culture.” This year is Melisma’s naissance; we’re ready to fulfill our mission statement: we’re here to bring fresh insight into the local music scene, we seek to cultivate and expand Tufts’ musical palate.

Our features contain novel reporting on an underground collection of producers and a multi-article section concerning the burgeoning presence of Nordic music. It’s an engaging read and we’re proud to present it to you. If this issue doesn’t last you the entirety of your winter break, check out our website melismamagazine.com for more killer content. Cheers, Jordan Rosenthal-Kay and Jessica Mow Editors-in-Chief

Interested in writing, art or design? Questions, comments, adulation or hatemail? email melismamagazine@gmail.com

MELISMA < WINTER 2014 < CONTENTS MELISMA | FALL 2009 | CONTENTS

TUFTS

THE ACADEMIC APPROACH

Exploring the Tufts’ Composers Seminar By Jessica Mow

PEACE, COFFEE, & UGANDA

An inverview with Tufts’ Grammy-nominated ethnomusicologist By Anna Linton

APPLEJAM

By Josie Watson

SNAPSHOTS

By Staff

SPREAD

Nothing.

SCANDANVIAN INVASION

Sweden and its Northern European neighbors are quietly taking over pop music By Grant Fox

MØ

A punk wet dream

REFUSED ARE FUCKING DEAD

By Maddie Bacchaus

YUNG GUD

The Swedish producer talks about being angry a lot

By Grant Fox

Why we shouldn’t care about the death of platinum albums

PHOTOSHOP CONTEST: PRESIDENT MONACO’S FACE ON FAMOUS ALBUMS COVERS

ON THE COVER

16 years after its release, Refused’s seminal album continues to shape today’s punk

The page with pictures of your friends

WINTER 2014 VOLUME 13.0

NORDIC MINI ZINE

By Chelsea Wang

What’s the future of Applejam?

MELISMA’S WORST ALBUMS OF THE YEAR

FEATURES

WHAT IS JERSEY CLUB?

OPINION

LET IT BURN

By Joseph Leone

THE DANGER OF MUSIC VIDEOS

How music videos provide an opportunity for cultural misappropriation By Ming Lewis

Newark’s underground dance music goes global By Max Ettelson

Melisma Magazine is a non-profit student publication of Tufts University. The opinions expressed in articles, features or photos are solely those of the individual author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editors or the staff. Tufts University is not responsible for the content of Melisma Magazine. If you would like to submit a letter to Melisma Magazine, please send it to melismamagazine@gmail. com. Please limit your letter to four hundred words or less.

THE ACADEMIC APPROACH EXPLORING THE TUFTS’ COMPOSERS SEMINAR JESSICA MOW

cross campus and throughout popular culture, pop music and singer-songwriters dominate. Arguments over which genre produces the greatest artists and whether mainstream music is inherently good or bad pervade everyday conversations. Yet obscured by this popular view of music as mass entertainment lies a smaller subculture of people who utilize music as an art form. I’m not talking about art as a euphemism for “better music” – I’m talking about concert music, and the composers who write it. Last year, I set out to investigate the composing scene at Tufts with very little in mind of what I would find. I had heard about Grace Oberhofer’s project in which she wrote a score to the play Or, by Liz Duffy Adams and was pleasantly surprised to find that I had uncovered an entire musical scene of which I had not been aware: composers on the Tufts campus. While Oberhofer and Jennifer Seidel (whom I also interviewed) are very talented – Oberhofer, for instance, is in the process of writing an opera for her senior thesis – I merely scratched the surface of what is going on in the Tufts music department, compositional-wise. John McDonald is chair and professor of the music department at Tufts. Among his interests and talents is a passion for composition, which he has used to shape the academic composing culture among his students through the creation of a New Music Ensemble and a composition seminar, among other opportunities. His expertise and affinity for teaching have gained others’ attention: the two graduate students I spoke with had both come to Tufts because of trusted sources citing McDonald as an excellent mentor. Both proceeded to join this composition culture that McDonald formed many years ago. The composition seminar is the foundation on which that the culture is built. Open to both graduate and undergraduate students and available to take for multiple semesters, the seminar functions as a kind of extracurricular course much like the orchestra and wind ensemble, though as McDonald points out, “to call it a course would simultaneously overrate it and underrate it.” McDonald, of course, is the instructor of the seminar. It is largely unstructured; the minimum requirement is one song

composed per semester that is then performed. And while students have their own styles, approaches, and ideas in place, they are given various prompts and assignments that can range from basing a song on a location to incorporating musical elements that the student hates into their own compositions. Instrumentation can be a prompt as well; according to McDonald, a handful of students one semester were assigned to write music for a group called Transient Canvas, which consists of just a bass clarinet and a marimba. The students in the composition seminar come from a vast range of musical backgrounds, which are reflected in their very different compositional styles. McDonald introduced me to four students who could not be on further ends of the spectrum from each other. However, they all shared one thing in common: the characteristics that made them so different from one another were also constantly changing. As young composers, everything from their creative process to their plans for continuing composition in the future is in flux. “It has been a process for me since I came here to now,” said Wei Yang, a graduate student in the seminar. “The music I wrote when I first came here was totally different from the music I’m doing right now.” It’s not just their process and style that has changed, either. Yang said he used to take his audience into consideration much more than he does now. “I just cared much more than right now in terms of who’s listening to this piece, who am I writing for,” he said. “I guess I’ve become less concerned about it.” However, he still considers his audience – just in a different way. “Right now I don’t want my piece to be understood by people right away,” said Yang. “I want the audience to feel like when they hear it the first time, I want [them] to think ‘That’s interesting, but what’s so interesting about it I’m not sure yet, I

MELISMA need to listen to it again.’” Jeffery Shivers is another graduate student working on his master’s in the music department. He first began composing in the opposite order of Yang – Yang started by playing the piano, then beginning his compositional career after becoming a proficient player; Shivers discovered his love for composing even before he began playing the violin: “I was always the one sneaking into the music room after school so I could play on the piano,” he said. Although Shivers has been writing for a long time, he is still developing a process and style and does not like to categorize himself into any particular genre. Even his vision for the future is constantly changing. “In a way, [getting a master’s] is a way for me to buy time because as a composer, all I know that I really want to do is just write music,” he said. “And it’s hard to say exactly how I

WINTER 2014

TUFTS

would end up putting the two together.” Gray also seems to enjoy using humor in his writing – for the student group Bare Bodkin’s event Play-by-Play last year, he wrote a 10 minute musical called “Pizza Delivery Boy: A Tale of Life, Love, Lust, and Crust.” His biggest project, which he has been working on since his senior year of high school, is called “Holy Cow: The Moosical.” “It’s about cows, but it’s actually about human nature,” he said.

“

want to do it – if I want to stay in academia or if I want to be a freelance composer or write film scores. It’s really hard to say,

There’s this misconception that concert music is all about preservation and the conservation of classical ideas. It’s really not.

”

so the best thing to do is to stay in school and you know, just maybe figure it out along the way.”

Though the concept may seem silly, Gray is very serious

The undergraduates in the class, on the other hand, are not necessarily thinking of their future in the same way. Ruben

about “Holy Cow.” He wrote the show over the course of his senior year and produced it over the summer before arriving at

Sonz-Barnes, for instance, is a senior planning on going into music recording, production, or engineering.

Tufts. He plans to produce it again with a friend at Tufts before they graduate next year.

“I’m definitely not going to be … trying to make my living off going on tour and releasing albums - I mean first of

“There’s nothing that is more incredible than that feeling of having other people enjoy something that you’ve created, no

all, obviously it’s definitely difficult to do that,” Sonz-Barnes said. “But also it would kind of scare me to think that I would

matter what the pursuit really is,” he said. In a time where singer-songwriters are so prevalent and

start analyzing my musical process as, ‘How much money will I make off this?’ or like ‘How much mass appeal will this song

composers appear to be dwindling, these students are a rare breed. However, they don’t appear very concerned about the

have?’” Sonz-Barnes has already started working toward this goal in his undergraduate career – he’s taken all of Professor Paul Lehrman’s music engineering courses and helped create a new instrument, called the Spiral of Fifths, a disc with 36 buttons and a joystick. The buttons, each with a corresponding note, are arranged so that the further away they are from each other, the more dissonant they are. “If a little kid mashes his hands on a piano it sounds really terrible,” he pointed out. “But if you mash your hands on this instrument, it sounds pretty cool because you’re playing chord progressions pretty much no matter what you do.” Like Sonz-Barnes, Lincoln Gray – a junior – has worked on projects that have also focused on his musical goal of going into musical theater. The son of a music teacher, Gray loves being involved in musical theater because of his background. “From a very early age I started doing theater,” he said. “And I’ve always loved it … music and theater were like the two things I always loved doing. So it seemed kind of natural that I

state of concert music today. “I’m pretty confident in the culture as far as, ‘Is it surviving in some kind of parallel with popular music?’” Shivers said. “I think it is, and I think it always will. There’s this misconception that concert music is all about preservation and the conservation of classical ideas. It’s really not. It’s just about exploring things in a different medium and a different way that focuses more on the music itself.” “I think there’s a fair amount of music that’s composed [outside of Tufts] that I feel like is being composed only for other composers or other musicians,” Sonz-Barnes said. “And it is definitely a balance that I have to deal with … because I want it to be interesting in a certain way also that any person who doesn’t necessarily consider themselves a musician can like listen to it and [say], ‘Oh this sounds good,’ but there really is a lot of really cool music being made, especially even here, in the seminar. People are making really interesting stuff.”

RABBI SUMMIT’S ETHNOMUSICOLOGY

ach Friday a collection of Tufts students dine at the campus Hillel for Shabbat dinner, and each Friday Rabbi Jeffrey Summit reminds them, infamously, to eat slowly. Rabbi Jeffrey Summit is well known in the Tufts community as a prominent member of the Tufts chaplaincy; however, his studies in ethnomusicology, a Grammy nominated album Abayudaya: Music from the Jewish People of Uganda, and his most recent album, Delicious Peace: Coffee, Music and Interfaith Harmony in Uganda, which explores the interfaith music of Fair Trade coffee farmers in Uganda, are much less known to the Tufts community. Summit’s story is rich, his musical work is expansive, and the message behind his work demands to be heard. To uncover the context and the meaning behind his music, we asked Rabbi Jeffrey Summit about his recent work. Why is ethnomusicology so important? I have always seen the work I do in ethnomusicology to be a real augmentation, a way to go deeper into issues that draw me into Jewish practice in general— questions like: What’s the power of music and community? Why do people sing the music that they sing? What can we learn about people through the music they love and the music they hate? My whole approach in ethnomusicology has been to focus on how we understand core values in a community, and music is a very deep way to get people talking about what is important in their cultural and religious lives. How did you get started with your work in the Abayudaya community in Uganda? I worked with the American Jewish community for about 10 years. I wrote a book on music and identity and Jewish worship. I did other work on technology and its impact on Jewish oral tradition. And then about 14 years ago, my very good friend Richard Sobol, who is a photo journalist (the most intrepid person I know) came back from a trip to do a book on the mountain gorillas on the Ugandan Rwandan boarder, and he heard about this community in Uganda, the

ANNA LINTON

Photo: Richard Sobol

PEACE, COFFEE, & UGANDA: Abayudaya, the Jews of Uganda, and he stopped by when he came back and said that he spent about three days with them. And he came to me and he said that he needed an ethnomusicologist on this project, that this [community] was just incredible. I had just finished this book on music and prayer in suburban Boston and I said “Richard, I don’t want to go to Uganda, I like to sleep in a bed, I don’t want to deal with malaria,” and he said. “oh yeah, listen to this,” and he had a little MP3 player, with down and dirty recordings of the music and he played me about 2 minutes of the music and I said, “When do we leave?” Three months later I was on a plane to Uganda and have been back since then seven times to do research with this community. This culminated in a couple of things: a CD for Smithsonian folkways, and a book of the Abayudayan community that I did with Richard. I was just thrilled to work with the Smithsonian on this. How did your vision shift while working with the Smithsonian? I had gone [to Uganda] and was moved by [the Abayudaya community’s] liturgical music, the music they used in worship, and I came back to the Smithsonian with all the recordings of their music in worship and the people—who are now very dear friends of mine—said, “okay, this is interesting, but we want to know who are these people not just as Jews, but who are they as people.” So I went back and recorded their political songs, and lullabies, and drumming, and a whole range of additional music, and it put together a very broad picture of who this amazing Jewish community is in Uganda. What then lead to the creation of your second album working with the Abayudaya? JJ Kaki, who was one of the musicians working with us (who is on the cover of the CD), and who I actually brought with me to the Grammys—we lost the Grammy to

“

MELISMA with me to the Grammys, was staying with us in 2001 right before 9/11 and he went down to New York for a meeting. He was literally walking up to the World Trade Center when the planes hit the towers. He saw the planes hit the towers. And JJ’s reaction to this, to me, was inspirational. Because this was a time when there was tremendous xenophobia, and anti-Muslim sentiment, and fear. But JJ’s reaction was that every person has a responsibility to do something to bring peace to the world. He always said that he always believed that peace would come from simple people, that it would grow from the ground up. JJ went back [to Uganda] and literally walked door to door to his Muslim and Christian neighbors—he’s Jewish—and asked them to join a fair trade coffee cooperative that would be an interfaith cooperative that would model cooperation. And then the coffee farmers started to write music about interfaith harmony, tikun olam (repairing the world), social justice, education and fair trade and changing people’s lives and livelihoods. I was just so moved by the project and I thought, “I have to do a CD on this.” So I went back to Uganda three times, and recorded more than 400 farmers from the Delicious Peace cooperation. What was the role of the music that the Delicious Peace Cooperative was creating in the lives of the farmers? In East Africa specifically, music is used functionally as a tool for education, so when people have things to teach, they do it through music. They use music to teach important lessons.

“

In East Africa specifically, Music is used functionally as a tool for education, so when people have things to teach, they do it through music

”

So the farmers began to sing to model a different way to be in relationship with their neighbors. Uganda has a history of ethnic and religious strife, so this was quite unusual that this fair trade cooperative was an interfaith peace-building venture. And the music was great. When I brought it back to the Smith-

WINTER 2014 < INTERVIEWS

sonian it took them a while to do it, but when they did it, they included our video and Richard Sobol’s photography, and they did a beautiful job. Why was Delicious Peace so personally important to you? I believe in projects that are teaching values that I really support, so for the Abayudaya project, I loved the fact that this was showing that the Jewish community looks and sounds very different from the stereotypes that people have of Jews. People think that the Jewish community is a bunch of European white people, but around the world the Jewish community is very diverse, and the Jewish traditions of the Jews from Africa are mostly known to people by the prominent Jewish communities of North Africa. People don’t know about other groups, the Abayudaya converted to Judaism about 100 years ago. Did your work achieve what you hoped it would? What do you hope is the effect of listening to this music on listeners? A lot of the work that I’ve wanted to do through this, the music and the recording in Africa was very connected to how people use music to move forward values and agendas they think are important in the world. The project with the Abayudaya for me was very important because it underscored Jewish diversity, showing that Judaism crosses race, language, and borders. I wanted to dispel certain stereotypes about what Jews look and sound like. For the Delicious Peace project I was really inspired by this response to 9/11 at a time when the world seemed so fearful. JJ and the farmers in this very remote location were very effectively modeling peaceful relations through their music and their fair trade coffee cooperative. As someone who is very passionate about coffee, I wanted people to know the webs of connection that exist between us and the people who raise and grow the food that we value. There’s all this labor that goes into our lives that we don’t understand and conceptualize and I really believe that part of my concept of God is that when we say that God is one, it’s about understanding that there is this oneness that exists in the world that we fail to perceive. My hope was that through the music and through the story of the coffee farmers people would perceive a small part of that oneness that connects us to people halfway around the world who are raising food that is very important to us. If we could only live our lives understanding that we were connected to other people we wouldn’t kill them, or stereotype them, or demonize them, and that was the reason why I wanted to tell their story.

APPLEJAM A

pplejam Productions is a student-led booking collective that aims to foster an active music scene at Tufts. Operating in a “Do It Yourself” fashion, the members of the group try to do almost everything on their own. Their concerts usualy present three bands to the student community every month. A lot of the group has been influenced in both their musical and social lives by the ideologies of American underground and punk movements, deriving their self-dependency from the DIY punk ethos. Volunteers run all of their concerts – thus they are responsible for their own lighting, sound, advertising, and marketing of their shows. Applejam generally books music that is some sub-genre of rock, from indie rock to hardcore punk to avant-garde jazz and everything in between: noise-rock, pop punk, shoegaze, and soul. Applejam consists of around forty students and is open to anyone who wants to join and participate. Sam Worthington, Applejam’s president, noted that the members can participate in any aspect of Applejam they want to. He described the organization as horizontally driven with minimal administrative positions to ensure efficiency. All of the members are very passionate about music and are always looking for new, interesting bands to bring to Tufts. Worthington looks through blogs in order to find music that he thinks people would be excited about and interested in seeing. For example, they are currently looking into booking Porches, Alex G, and Dogs on Acid, as well as local bands like Ian and Littlefoot. Due to the group’s enthusiasm for and knowledge of music, Applejam has been able to find and book high quality bands before they gain too much of a fan base and become unattainable to book. Many of the bands Applejam has hosted in the past have ended up gaining significant acknowledgment and praise in publications like Pitchfork and Rolling Stone soon after they played at Tufts, such as Parquet Courts and Perfect Pussy. It’s really important to the group that students are able to see some really talented and interesting bands in a more intimate environment. Recently, booking concerts, while exciting, is a challenge. “Last year it was pretty easy to get a band with a

JULIE DOTEN medium size fan base, where people would actually want to come and see them, to come and play for around two or three hundred dollars. But now, the same bands are asking for $1000 to $2000,” Worthington explained. Even though the group’s budget has almost doubled since the previous year, the amount bands are asking for has also increased. Applejam is also committed to avoiding priced ticketing because they believe that it deters people from coming. Applejam’s style of college booking has grown popular in a lot of other schools, most notably in Boston and New York City. In the 1980’s, college radio played a large part in the growing popularity of college rock. Bands like R.E.M., Sebadoh, and the Lemonheads cite their success to the cultural movements of college booking and independent promotion. It also allowed students an avenue to explore genres of music that were not expressed or represented in the popular media. A similar phenomenon is occurring now with college booking, as a lot of liberal arts colleges are finding a growing attraction to indie and alternative rock. Applejam hopes to be a key player in this new movement of independent college booking. They want to provide independent bands and musicians an outlet while simultaneously allowing students a free way to experience a different side of the music scene that is not often represented. Applejam continues to look for new ways to expand their productions. For instance, this year they co-hosted an event with WMFO Radio to present Diarrhea Planet and Bummed. Other future collaborations may include working with MIT’s equivalent booking collective and the Tufts HipHop Collective, although these plans are still in the development. Worthington also expressed the hope to present a film series featuring documentaries of various bands throughout the years in the coming months: “We’ve proposed showing some documentaries such as Big Star’s Nothing Can Hurt Me, Modest Mouse’s The Lonesome Crowded West, and the Descendents’ Filmage, but at the moment it is totally up in the air, and anyone is welcome to contribute ideas as long as they are committed to making it happen.”

Photo: Selin Ipek

EXPLORING THE FUTURE OF TUFTS’ DIY-BOOKING COLLECTIVE.

MELISMA

WINTER 2014

INTERVIEWS

SNAPSHOTS MINI INTERVIEWS WITH YOUR FRIENDS ANNAHSTASIA ENUKE If you could tell your 7th grade self one thing what would it be? Shave your head and get 3 piercings. They all think you’re a lesbian anyway. [laughs] I dressed wildly and didn’t talk to many people, so people may have thought I was an ass, but it got my point across. I had as many close friends as I could trust and I was going to do my own thing no matter what people thought.

YOTAM BENTOV Who are you as a musician? I’ve played a lot of different instruments growing up and whatnot. I started DJing after senior year of high school. I got some money from the debate program at my school, and it was for strictly academic purposes, so I bought myself a pair of DJ turn tables and I’ve been kind of messing around ever since then. I think my identity as a musician has still yet to be shaped.

DANNY GARFIELD Where do you see yourself musically in a year? I want to play in a band with more than just me, and I want to have recordings that don’t suck, and I want to play an Applejam show! Listen up Sam Worthington, I’m talking to you! Book Me!

HENRY NICHOLS French fries or skinny thighs? I eat a lot of shitty food, but I don’t know why I’m skinny. People have told me I should be fat. Sometimes I wish I could gain a little weight. But french fries all the way I guess.

Photos by Amy Kao

PRESIDENT MONACO’S FACE PHOTOSHOPPED ON YOUR FAVORITE ALBUM COVERS OUR FAVORITE SUBMISSIONS FROM THE BEST PHOTOSHOP CONTEST OF ALL TIME

MELISMA

WINTER 2014 < SPREAD

THE WORST ALBUMS OF 2014 MOONSHINE IN THE TRUNK BRAD PAISLEY

GHOST STORIES

THESE THINGS HAPPEN

COLDPLAY

G-EAZY

INDIE CINDY

MY KRAZY LIFE

PIXIES

SONGS OF INNOCENCE U2

WORLD PEACE IS NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS MORRISSEY

WHAT IS

JERSEY CLUB? BY MAX ETTElSON

DJ Sliink

Jersey Club: A niche genre of dance music that is

now rising as an influence for some of the biggest names in the industry. WHAT ARE ITS ORIGINS, and how do its originators feel about it?

ne of the benefits of going to boarding school is the opportunity to escape the cultural bubble that you grew up in. I took advantage of this opportunity and became friends with people I never would have met if I had gone to school in southern New Hampshire. One of those friends was a DJ from just outside of Newark, New Jersey. The first time I heard one of his sets, I was struck by the the music he was playing. It wasn’t house or hip hop, and it definitely wasn’t pop but it sounded like all three mashed together, like someone forgot to unloop a vocal sample and threw a drum loop underneath. I asked him, “what is this stuff?” He responded with two words: Jersey Club. Fast forward four years, and the strange sounds of this genre have begun to penetrate mainstream dance and pop music. Artists such as Trippy Turtle, who is currently touring with EDM heavyweight Dillon Francis, owe a large part of their sounds to Jersey and Baltimore Club. Though it may seem like it, Jersey Club didn’t come out of nowhere. The style originates from

Baltimore Club music, which mixes classic hip-hop breakbeats with old-school house (think Felix Da Housecat and Frankie Knuckles, not Swedish House Mafia). There is usually a vocal sample repeated throughout the song that originates from TV or YouTube. The songs are typically lo-fidelity with noticeable distortion and have very minimal arrangements. When DJs began to play Baltimore Club at parties in Newark, the city latched on to the style and began to create their own version of the genre. They sped up the tempo from 130 BPM to somewhere between 135 and 140 BPM and put more emphasis on the rhythms, and Jersey Club was born. Some of the originators of the style include DJ Tameil, DJ Tim Dolla, Mike V, and DJ Black Mic. Like Baltimore Club, Jersey Club music (Also known as Brick City Club Music) uses a very minimal sonic palette. Most tracks contain a vocal sample, a sped up breakbeat, and a kick drum that alternates between duplets and triplets. Other flourish-

MELISMA

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FEATURES

es can be added, but usually these are kept to a minimum. There are quite of few artists in the Jersey Club scene, many of whom

make it palatable to mainstream dance music fans. Another way these producers have modified the genre is

are originally from Newark. Nadus, DJ Uniique, and DJ Sliink are all from the area and are key members of the Brick Bandits

through improving the audio quality. Though much of the original Jersey Club was made to sound lo-fi, this aspect of the

Crew, which acts as the beating heart of the genre. Many of the best artists in the genre are a part of BBC, and it is a group that

music doesn’t mesh well with the crisp and clean productions of most modern-day dance tunes. Many of the newer artists

is constantly expanding and adding fresh talent. One thing in particular that distinguishes the Jersey Club

have cleaned up their productions and given them a more full sound in order to prevent them from sticking out amongst more

scene from many others is the sense of community. The older artists, such as DJ Tameil, take an interest in helping to teach the

conventional dance music. That’s not to say that Jersey’s talent isn’t also getting some

younger generation how to hone their production skills. “Jersey sticks together for sure. [There are] many different music groups

mainstream recognition. RL Grime released an edit of Brick Bandits member Nadus’ track “Nxwxrk”, and DJ Sliink has col-

in Jersey, but at the end of the day it’s all one sound. I enjoy watching the young dudes put out music, because it’s really a

laborated with the likes of Flosstradamus and released official remixes for Chromeo and Danny Brown. The genre’s influence

hobby that keeps them out of trouble,” DJ Sliink told me. Now the big name DJs in Jersey like Sliink and DJ Fire are taking rappers under their wing. Dougie F is a rapper from Newark who is making a name for himself rapping oiver Jersey Club beats. Tastemakers and EDM heavyweights are starting to take notice. Diplo’s Mad Decent label released his song with DJ Fire, “Back Up On It” earlier this year.

on up-and coming artists like Trippy Turtle shows just how much its audience has grown, and it will only get bigger in the years to come. When I told Sliink that one of our writers was hearing Jersey Club consistently at electronic shows in Paris, he was proud. “Jersey is everywhere, it’s crazy but it makes me and other people proud. Jersey club becoming worldwide is a great look point blank period.”

“

Jersey is everywhere, it’s crazy.

”

It is this growing mainstream acceptance of Jersey Club that is drawing outside DJs and producers to the sound. DJs that make Jersey Club outside of Jersey such as DJ Hoodboi (who is also touring with Dillon Francis) and Ryan Hemsworth are frowned upon by some of the genre’s biggest proponents. The Jersey Club coming out of places like Los Angeles is much more melodic and clean. Trippy Turtle and Ryan Hemsworth prefer to sample entire songs for their Jersey Club remixes rather than just short phrases. The result is a Jersey Club-style song that focuses more on melody rather than chops and breakbeats. “The sound is very clean but what draws people to Jersey is the urban and raw style,” says Sliink. Though these DJs aren’t supported by some of the originators of the genre, they are some of the DJs responsible for helping to popularize the genre and to

JERSEY CLUB ESSENTIALS: Kanye west – blood on the leaves (DJ SLIINK REMIX) nikki minaj ft ptafboss ass bitch (UNiiqu3 Remix) trippy turtle trippy’s theme dj yolo bear – That good good Nadus bandit stress athletixx all stars vol.01 mix

SCANDANAVIAN INVASION L

yor Cohen had a hard decision to make. He wanted to get

Migos, the burgeoning Atlanta rap trio, out of Atlanta to finish recording their debut album. After a year and a half the group had become veritable kings of the resurging Atlanta hiphop scene: remixes from Drake, millions of Twitter followers, weekly shows and club appearances earning them $40,000 a night, the works. But after performing at the EDM mecca TomorrowWorld, both Migos and Cohen, the executive of 300 Entertainment to which Migos is signed, saw the potential for the three to become a massive crossover success. So where to send Migos to finish their debut album? He could send them to New York where the biggest names in hip-hop from past and present live. Or to LA, the hub of American electronic and pop music. Or to Chicago where the rappers of the drill scene are the sonic cousins of Migos’ trap sound. But ultimately he made a seemingly oddball choice: Sweden. What Cohen knew and what the world is quickly finding out is that Sweden and it’s neighboring countries are rapidly becoming a hotbed for what’s next not only in rap but in pop, rock, and electronic music.

The modern Scandinavian invasion of American pop music started with a man named Karl Martin Sandberg. After honing his production skills on Ace Of Base’s sophomore album The Bridge, the Stockholm native was recruited to work on the debut album from an American boy-band called the Backstreet Boys. “Quit Playing Games (With My Heart),” “Everybody,” and “As Long As You Love Me” were all co-written by Sandberg, who by then was going by the moniker Max Martin. Since the late ‘90s, he’s worked with everyone in American pop from Britney Spears to Taylor Swift, weaving in conspicuous elements of European pop and dance music. “Baby One More Time” was Martin; “Hot n Cold” was Martin; “Tik Tok” was Martin. Since the Backstreet Boys went platinum, America has had a steady stream of Swedish influence in its pop music. But the music industry has changed unfathomably since Max

Rocky, and borrowing the slurred, emotional autotuned flows of Future, the Swedish teenagers that make up the Sad Boys and Gravity Boys groups have taken American hip-hop by a storm. The vocalists Yung Lean, Bladee, Thaiboy Digital, and Ecco2k rely heavily on themes of negative emotions (loneliness, sadness, depression) and

Martin began crafting the signature sound of the early 2000s. The Internet has replaced physical stores as the marketplace for music. With platforms like Bandcamp, Soundcloud, and even iTunes, there’s an infinite shelf space for artists to release music. As radio has gotten more generic and access to music has gotten easier, listeners’ tastes have gotten more esoteric. Our desire for music, regardless of genre, that incorporates new sounds in a unique way has grown as our exposure to music from the far corners of the Internet (and the world) has increased. This is great news for non-American artists looking to break into the American market. All of a sudden, artists from all over the world are essentially releasing music in the same store as the hitmakers that Max Martin helped launch to platinum status. This brings us to 2014, where we’re in the midst of a full-flung invasion of artists from Northern Europe. Magnus Høiberg, a 26 yearold Norwegian who goes by Cashmere Cat, is quickly becoming a go-to pop producer much in the same way Max Martin was. With production for Ludacris, Ariana Grande, Jeremih, and support from American EDM tastemakers, American pop and electronic music is getting a heavy dose of the bright glittery synths distinct to Cashmere Cat and his Scottish labelmates of LuckyMe. Outside of production, artists like MØ, Mapei, Lykke Li, Tove Lo, iceage, and Little Dragon have found large American audiences for their unique blend of experimental pop, indie rock, and Nordic influence. While these artists have a influences that span the globe, they all incorprate a unique IKEA-esque minimalism. Lykke Li’s sparse new album incorporates production from Björn Yttling of Swedish rock band PB&J. The genre to receive the most recent Scandinavian takeover is hip-hop. Taking cues from cloud rap titans like Lil B and ASAP

comically alternate between scenes of confessional loneliness and distinctly American materialistic braggadocio. Fellow Stockholm natived White Armor, Yung Gud, and Yung Sherman, make up the core of the production team behind Sad Boys and Gravity Boys. The three producers have crafted a sound that mixes southern American hiphop drums with European dance music synthesizers. The result is a unique blend of sounds. Slowed down, reverby vocal samples and drums that would be at home in a Clams Casino beat are backed with synthesizers that would be right at home in a Euro-trance song. So far, the groups have done a European tour, an American tour, and are currently touring North America playing music from Yung Lean’s debut album before returning back to Europe to tour again. Yung Gud and Yung Sherman both have deals with electronic music labels to release solo projects, and Gud toured Europe this past fall performing as a DJ. All this has taken place in the past year. Thanks to internet music-sharing platforms like Soundcloud and social media tools that allow artists to share their music without the bounds of traditional distribution methods that impose extra costs for sharing music overseas, our access to (and taste for) nonAmerican music has expanded past traditional European pop acts like ABBA. And the same is true for artists and fans in northern Europe. There would be no Yung Lean without his American influences; Mapei would have a much harder time marketing her music without her 34,000 Soundcloud followers; and where would we all be without the prolific Björk, who’s used the tools of the Internet to market herself and stay relevant over the course of her 20-year solo career? The Internet has ushered in a Northern European invasion of new artists who are quickly finding their American fans have a taste for their sonic fusion.

“

they all incorprate a unique IKEA-esque minimalism.

”

MØ:

A PUNK WET DREAM

soundscape of MØ singing soft “hmm’s” and “ooh’s” starts playing from the stage, and the atmosphere of Paradise Rock Club shifts. Side conversations are brushed aside, lights are dimmed, and clusters of fan girls in signature MØ braided ponytails and grungy, athletic clothing crowd the front of the stage. Apart from the excited whispers of the more zealous MØ fans, the mood of the room briefly feels meditative and brooding. The room transports to Denmark, near the shore. Looking out into the distance at different shades of blue and gray in the water, the sky, and the mountains, the crowd is immersed in romantic and existential angst. This is something MØ’s gloomier songs are capable of doing artfully well. The stage is lit up and the drummer comes out. He plays a fast-paced drum roll and is followed by the guitarist and the keyboardist. Finally MØ, in a black Harley-Davidson sweater and black boxing shorts. She walks out on stage dressed to the nines in untamed teen angst and indie pop glamour. In the 70’s, there was Blue Swede (“Hooked On A Feeling”) and ABBA. In the 80’s, came A-ha and Roxette (“Listen To Your Heart”). The 90’s brought The Cardigans (“Lovefool”), Ace of Base (“The Sign”), Aqua, and Björk. And so quietly, Scandinavian pop became an integral part of American music. Now in the 21st century, it seems impossible to find someone who doesn’t listen to any Scandinavian artists. From electro pop to dream pop to R&B to trip hop to folk (the list goes on), Scandinavia has emerged as a massive music-producing region with countless artists progressing their genres and producing new genres. Some old and new artists of the 21st century that any Spotify user would recognize include: Miike Snow, Say Lou Lou, NONONO, Icona Pop, Mr. Little Jeans, Elliphant, Peter Bjorn & John, Robyn, The Tallest Man on Earth, Frida Sundemo, Faye, and, of course, MØ. In 2011, the Martin Prosperity Institute’s Global Creativity Index ranked four Scandinavian countries as being the 1st (Sweden), 3rd (Finland), 4th (Denmark), and 8th

CHELSEA WANG (Norway) most creative countries in the world. Maybe it’s the welfare culture of Scandi navia, where citi zens are allotted “equal access to social and health servies, education and culture,” as described by The Nordic Council. Maybe it’s that paying for an education, choosing a career, and providing for oneself is not as big a source of anxiousness in Scandinavia as it is in America and other countries. Maybe it’s the mesmerizing scenery of Northern Europe that inspired the likes of so many Romantic artists in the 19th century. Maybe it’s just in the water. Whatever the reason, Scandinavia has been producing the most exciting music of the past couple of years.

GLOBAL CREATIVTY INDEX

Courtesy Martin Prosperity Institute

MELISMA

“

It makes sense to make a big song people can relate to.

WINTER 2014

LIVE SHOWS

knowledge of your own material. Each live performance is a reconnection to the person she was when she wrote the song. She doesn’t have fancy light setups, costumes, or anything of the sort. Her stage presence, personality, and music is the meat of her performance. Paralleling her talent in performing on stage is her ability to organically transform specific feelings into appealing sounds, words, and rhythms. Her music captures a raw feeling of passion

”

Clear winners in originality, boldness, and sheer musical talent, Scandinavian artists have proven themselves on the world stage of pop music. With catchy hooks, an unquestionable talent for singing, and a clear 90’s-pop influence, MØ could easily fall into the mechanical grind of making mindless Top 40 hits. She explains the pop elements in her music to The Guardian in an interview: “In my head I justify the pop thing with the fact that before I started

listening to Black Flag, I fucking loved pop music. The Spice Girls, Cher, I loved them all. It was such a big thing for me. It makes sense to make a big song people can relate to.” Where and how she deviates from the tired and worn Top 40 pop path is also exactly what gives her music a sound unique from her Scandinavian pop counterparts. Though not as experimental as Björk or as established as Lykke Li, MØ has developed a sound unlike her electropop counterparts. MØ’s music is both different and accessible to listeners. And from her stage presence to the poetic nature of her lyrics to the emotional versatility in her voice, her work is praiseworthy. After seeing a live MØ performance, one recognizes her stage presence as an extension of her music and an integral part of her work. Her dancing jumps from angry to restless to melancholic to excited. Every emotion expressed in her song is translated effortlessly into her performance on stage. As she said in an interview with Consequence of Sound, “So when [a song] is like about something ‘euuubleh,’ I also just want to be like ‘euuubleh’ [on stage].” She goes from hair flipping bumps and grinds to closing her eyes and embodying a classic Whitney Houston stance while singing her slower, ballads. Performing live, she is captivating and unique in her ability to capture the themes of her music seamlessly in her dancing, singing, and facial expressions – something that only comes from an intimate

and desperation familiar to anyone who’s ever lived through the ages of adolescence. From the wide range of emotional availability in her voice—akin to that of Kurt Cobain and Lana del Rey—to the ingenuity of her songwriting, her music causes an unavoidable aching in the heart of the listener. A beautiful occurrence that only comes from talented musicians composing sans influence of anyone other than themselves. Drawing from her teenage punkdom, her songs express the unsatisfied and restless malaise of unrealized expectations – a feeling of being lost and uncertain. In “Fire Rides,” she cries out in her melancholy: “What am I to do in the city if I can’t have it all and I just wanna feel pity? / For my doomed soul, doomed as the source, where can I find peace in the city?” She ends the song questioning, “What’s it gonna be like when the sound of you and I die out?” Her album is a true testament to the teen and post-teen whirlwind feelings of existential angst, punk nihilism, and rebellion. MØ’s music flows unadulterated from her confused and restless heart. Her work is genuine, and for this reason she has found a comfortable niche of listeners who understand and appreciate her talents. The listeners who come out to her concerts and can sing and scream along to her songs without missing a beat. For MØ along with all the Scandinavian artists storming America, one could never imagine their music as being forced or superficial. Everything she releases is completely natural. And that’s exactly what one finds when they see her performing live: complete liberation and freedom. A punk wet dream.

MØ ESSENTIALS: Glass Walk This Way XXX 88 ft. diplo

REFUSED ARE FUCKING DEAD A

MADELINE BACCHUS

ll artists, to some extent, strive to predict and shape the future of music. However, when Refused released The Shape of Punk to Come in 1998, the Swedish hardcore band literally attempted to predict what punk would sound like years after the album’s release. Though their estimate does not hold up with any level of uncanny precision, the accuracy of their prediction is predicated on the influence the band exerts on today’s punk. To understand the influence of Refused, it is first neces-

Shape of Jazz to Come. Refused packaged revolutionary lyrics into their music, usually along the themes of radical left and anti-capitalist politics. The band calls the public out on being complacent through their abrasive melodies. This trend picked up after the album, influencing bands like Green Day; see: American Idiot. While pop punk bands like Blink-182 partly dropped the screaming vocal style, they still kept the broken up blast-beat drumming

sary to understand what influenced Refused. Their musical style roots in Nordic rock, specifically second wave black metal. Sec-

style. The post-hardcore band La Dispute even quoted Refused as one of their influences.

ond wave black metal emerged through the Norwegian black metal scene in the early 1990s, with bands like Darkthrone and

As traditional punk bands have been on a slight decline over the past few years, hardstyle bands, like Worthwhile, are

Enslaved. Fast-paced tempos, screaming vocals, and blast-beat drumming characterize this strain of Nordic rock. Refused’s

emerging, reviving many elements of Refused’s sound. Modern hardstyle bands continue to uphold the screaming vocal style,

drummer, David Sandström, once joked that before the band, he was a “glue-sniffing death metal kid”.

though the lyrics stray from the revolutionary. For example, Worthwhile’s song “Unloveable” reflects all of Refused’s ap-

Bathory – of Sweden – first used the screaming vocal style which has since

proach, from the screaming vocals to the switch between blastbeat drumming and mellow tempos, but the lyrics focus more

defined black metal. Refused adopted the screaming style in their second album,

on a personal, emotional message. Today’s punk is split different subgenres, from post-hard-

combining it with revolutionary lyrics – thus amplifying their message.

core to pop punk. As a result, there could never have been a truly accurate prediction as to what punk music today would

Blast beat drumming from black metal tends to set the rapid tone for the whole piece and can at times become overwhelming. Refused counter this effect with the addition of jazz, breaking up the blast beasts with more mellow sections. The calmer moments provide an opportunity to gather yourself together and prepare for the next onslaught. This combination of jazz and metal helps break up the thickness of pure black metal without changing the fundamental heaviness the band held in the past. Refused acknowledges their adaption of certain aspects of jazz music in the title of the album itself, which references Ornette Coleman’s 1959 avant-garde jazz album The

have sounded like because there is no definitive modern punk sound. Even so, Refused’s album isn’t so much of a prediction as it was a source of influence. They preserved aspects of Nordic rock by not only incorporating them into their music, but then influencing future bands to do the same. Punk may have been different without Refused’s album. They synthesized some of the best aspects of both Nordic rock and American hardcore music from the 1990s, packaging it perfectly for their listeners. The Shape of Punk to Come to a fantastic hardcore album, even if it broke up the band in the end.

BEAUTIFUL, WONDERFUL, GUD GRANT FOX

n the short amount of time that it took for Yung Lean to introduce his unique brand of reverb-soaked electronic hip-hop, his producer Yung Gud established himself as an architect of a brand new sound. After gaining recognition for producing Yung Lean’s biggest hits including “Kyoto,” “Yoshi City,” and the Travis Scott assisted “Ghosttown,” Yung Gud, (born Micke Berlander) is making a name for himself as a solo electronic musician. His new EP Beautiful, Wonderful is a series of ethereal, bass heavy instrumentals. With a Jacques Greene remix, tours with Yung Lean, and a spot on a European tour DJing next to Lindsay Lowend and Odesza already under the 19 year-old’s belt, Gud is well on his way to a prolific career as a producer. What’s your life like right now? Where are you and what are you doing? Tour life right now, it’s kinda exhausting but I’m with good

sound now that people are trying to copy? Well, maybe more white kids started making beats with 808s and shit tons of reverb on them. I’m not sure about a Swedish

people so it’s all good. Trying to work on some new sounds too.

sound, it’s all internet anyway. What about America/Americans surprised you the most

What’s the hardest part about being Yung Gud? Being angry a lot, I’m usually pissed at something, or someone.

when you toured here this summer? How people survive on the food they got, like everything is

What’s the hip-hop scene in Sweden like? How has it

like 80% oils, bread, and cheese. It’s good though. I got a little surprised by how many people though I was Sherman(and vice

changed since Sad Boys and Gravity Boys came up and got big?

verse), and a little surprised that 100% of our supporters says my name wrong.

Not that much on a bigger scale, but I hear from a lot of kids our age getting inspired and creative though. But it’s basically

What are you looking forward to most on the upcoming

the same either shitty 90’s raps about having a hard time somewhere in Farsta, or some shitty dirty south-ish brag raps from

American tour? Smoking loads of cannabis cigarettes and playing our new al-

people that wear gold chains and football jackets in the videos.

bum for all the lovely people in the states!

You started out making trance music who were you listening to when you were just starting out?

What do you hope to accomplish with the release of your EP?

Trance music! No, but I’ve been going through a sub-genre a week since I was 12 so saying I started out with any type of genre is kind of not totally true.

Showcasing my first somewhat thought through type of sounds, carving my name into the internet. And to give myself a reason to make another EP.

Who are you listening to now? I’m trying not to listen to anything at the moment since I’m desperately trying to be groundbreaking ‘n shit. But some Paul Oakenfold mixes may pass through my brain every now and then.

What’s it like touring solo as a DJ? I love DJing, but it hasn’t been that solo so far (since I’m touring with like 150,000 nice people). But it’s something I wan’t to get as good as I can at.

What do you think about the influence you, Sherman, and White Armor have in hip-hop? Is there a certain Swedish

yung gud by ECCO2K

LET IT BURN WHY WE SHOULDN’T CARE ABOUT THE DEATH OF PLATINUM JOESEPH LEONE

e’ve all grown accustomed to the constant proclamations about the sorry state of the music industry. The

latest of these laments is for the death of the platinum album. For an album to achieve platinum certification, it must sell one million copies, and the number of records achieving this certification has been falling every year. This year, the only album to achieve a platinum certification has been Taylor Swift’s 1989, which reached this status in a matter of days. People have cried havoc at this apparent death stroke for the music industry, but is it really all that surprising? Due to these poor sales, publications like The Guardian issue bimonthly obituaries, announcing the death of the album format. The causes of this sinking trend in album sales are the usual suspects. We have had the ability for over a decade to just pick and choose which songs we want from an album without buying the whole thing, thanks to digital downloads. This helps explain why even artists that have dominated the charts in the past year, such as Lorde and Beyoncé, haven’t been able to reach the coveted status of platinum for their full albums. This comes as no surprise to all who bought Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy” and, like me, have no idea what the title of her album is. A lot of blame gets tossed towards streaming services, such as Spotify, and rampant music piracy, which allow us to listen to these albums without spending a single cent. The queen of music sales, Taylor Swift, was smart enough to avoid releasing her album on Spotify to guarantee more first week sales. With 5 platinum albums by October last year, and more reaching that status by the end of 2013, it seems shocking that the industry barely eked out a single platinum album in 2014, but if you compare this year to last year, the reasons for the extreme drop seem obvious. These days, only massive pop, country and hip-hop artists have

the ability to sell platinum albums, with the occasional appearance by the world’s 5 biggest rock bands or the Frozen soundtrack. Last year we had releases from Kanye West, Justin Timberlake, Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Eminem, Drake, Blake Shelton, and Luke Bryan. Those are the world’s biggest acts, and country music usually continues to perform well in album sales. This year, despite being a great year of music, has sorely lacked these sorts of superstar releases. Besides Taylor Swift, the only likely contenders for a platinum record were Coldplay - who barely promoted or toured their stripped-down, 9-song Ghost Stories, making it far less appealing to the public than their previous two larger-than-life albums – and U2 who disqualified themselves from their guarantee of selling a million copies by giving their record away. In light of this diminished competition, it is easy to see why Taylor Swift stands alone, with a very slim chance of welcoming Nicki Minaj or the Foo Fighters to the platinum club by year’s end. While this might seem like a tragic end to an era, the death of the platinum album could be a rejuvenating event to kick start a musical golden age. Despite the large amount of outcry about these plummeting sales from musicians, execs, and angry voices on the Internet, this is no doomsday for the art of music. It may cost some industry executives their jobs, but in a rapidly changing industry, that is to be expected. Artists don’t make their money off of album sales anymore, and rather than lead to the death of the album as a format, this opens up the potential for an artistic renaissance for the album. The more money tied-up in something often leads to a bland homogeneity in art, without risk-taking, as artists try to

MELISMA

WINTER 2014

OPINION

give the people what they want in order to sell more product. Occasionally, experimentation is rewarded with success, but

infectious singles. People will still want to see them live, and they will continue making money. Because albums won’t be a

why risk a bold flop when it is much more viable to produce two nearly identical albums and keep bringing in profit. Mumford

necessary facet of money-making, if a pop artist wants to release a full album of their work, it will be a more ambitious and

& Sons’ sophomore album Babel strictly adhered to the style and formula of their debut and went

cohesive effort, along the lines of Michael Jackson’s Thriller or Kanye West’s 808s and Heart-

“

double platinum in the United States. In the hey-day of music sales, labels could squash the creative ideas of artists in order to keep pumping out suc-

cessful records. Wilco was dropped by its label after they wrote Yankee Hotel Foxtrot because it strayed too far from the alt-country sound the band started with, and now it is one of the most critically acclaimed albums

if the death of the platinum album continues to fuel these creative ambitions, then let it die!

of the past 20 years. Freedom from financial constraints allows artists to hone their craft and produce the type of music they want to produce, which, more-often-than-not, has a far superior outcome than an album designed for high sales. Artists make the majority of their revenue by touring, and every type of artist is capable of attracting a crowd, whether the crowd comes to hear a few hit-singles or to watch a concept album played through on stage. Billboard ran an article last December stating that 2013 was the best year the touring industry had seen in decades. This is great news for today’s superstar acts that are essentially liberated to create whatever type of album they want, because they can rely on touring revenue. Kanye West can release an aggressive experiment like Yeezus without a lead single, and play to sold-out stadiums. U2 can release an album for free, because their 2009 tour was the highest grossing tour of all time, and Coldplay can release a short somber album with only one upbeat single and remain the world’s most popular band. However, It is not only these massive acts that prosper. Billboard notes that this success came in a year with surprisingly few of the mega-tours that skew these statistics upwards (i.e. Madonna, The Rolling Stones, U2). Small acts have been out of the running for platinum albums for quite some time now, so they have already coped with the importance of touring and filling a creative niche. This has led to a wide variety of excellent small to mid-size bands that can make a living, giving us, as listeners, an amazing selection of music to listen to. The lack of money in albums will, in a way, make albums more special. Some artists’ careers are based on their singles – releasing 4 great tracks and 6 useless pieces of filler per-album. With less of a focus on album sales, these artists can keep doing what they’re doing, and perhaps move away from the album format, and focus in on what gives them their appeal– well-crafted,

”

break. Artists will only create albums if they have a raison d’être, something that makes the longer format necessary to listen to in full. This process of revitalizing the album is already well underway. Every year some artist will declare that the art of the album is dying, but that this

inspired them to work extra hard and make an album that demands the listener’s attention. Green Day took on this task of saving the album with American Idiot 10 years ago, yet artists continue to come out with acclaimed albums making this same mission statement. Last month, Weezer released their ninth album Everything Will Be Alright in the End, which lead singer Rivers Cuomo prefaced by saying that his goal for the album was “for artistic and creative reasons, to try so hard to make this an album people want to listen to,” and the result of this focused effort is their best album in 18 years, revitalizing a band that had become a joke into respectable artists once more. You see this trend increasingly, despite the incessant claims of the demise of the album. The most respected artists in every genre are focusing their energies into crafting masterpieces: Kendrick Lamar’s good kid m.A.A.d city, Against Me!’s Transgender Dysphoria Blues, and Vampire Weekend’s Modern Vampires of the City soar to greater artistic heights when taken as a whole. Even Taylor Swift has described her platinum 1989 as a unique and consistent departure from her previous styles to a fully realized pop record. It may not be a concept album, but Swift realizes the importance of creating a unified album, and this helps feed her success. Of course, there’s nothing inherently better about album artists over singles artists. They can both amaze. Sometimes you just want to dance to a Katy Perry track, and other times you want to sit down and listen to a long-form study of suburban ennui with Arcade Fire. Both are perfectly wonderful musical expressions, but now with less pressure to generate profitable albums, creativity can flourish unhindered by economics. When albums aren’t mandatory, artists will try to create an album that demands to be heard in full - something worth listening to, and if the death of the platinum album continues to fuel these creative ambitions, then let it die!

THE DANGER OF MUSIC VIDEOS S

MMing Lewis

o what that Jason Derulo portrayed an Israeli saxophone sample with women playing trumpets in the video for his

the title of “The Feminist Critique,” accusing pop stars of “culturally appropriating”—cultural appropriation has been around

hot single, “Talk Dirty?” And is it really such a big deal that that Katy Perry dressed up as a geisha as part of an extravagant Asian-themed production at the 2013 AMA’s, or that Coldplay and Rihanna threw Japanese, Chinese, and Hindu facets into their music video for “Princess of China”? The answer is yes; it is a big deal. It seems as though the inclusion of different cultural elements in many pop stars’ songs, music videos, and performances has become the name of the game—that is, the let’s-try-to-be-exotic-to-sell-millions game. Many accuse today’s greatest pop stars of appropriating nonnative culture. Yet, this term is misused. Cultural appropriation refers to the borrowing and sharing between cultures that occurs on a daily basis in all aspects of life: fashion, music, knowledge, and other cultural practices. We tend to confuse appropriation with misappropriation, theft and manipulation— usually by a group of people in a position of privilege—of cultural elements typically belonging to minorities. Many of today’s pop stars should be accused of cultural misappropriation; however, we have incorrectly labeled their offense as “cultural appropriation” so many times that we have blurred the line between misappropriation and appropriation. Cultural misappropriation refers to privileged peoples’ use and ignorance of a historically oppressed minority’s culture and shared experiences for personal gain. Cultural misappropriation in music leads to controversial discourse on artists’ often racist stereotypes of a culture or group of people different from their own. Cultural appropriation can lead to creativity, innovation, and collaboration, and has influenced many of the great songwriters and musicians throughout our time. Music is culture. There is no way that music and culture can ever be separated. Unbeknownst to many of the online authors—from the Atlantic and The Huffington Post to a blogger writing under

since before the nineteenth century. Surprisingly, one of the earliest modern musicians to culturally appropriate was the French composer Claude Debussy. He incorporated Gamelan music into his own after becoming interested in its unique tones and rhythms at the 1889 Paris Exposition. At the time, Debussy was not seen as a musician who stole from another culture, but rather as one of the greatest Renaissance musicians who ever lived. We don’t view him differently now. The trend of infusing different cultures’ sounds and styles into your own music continued and evolved in the twentieth century. In the midst of the digital age of sound recording and motion pictures, jazz music formed as a result of ragtime’s incorporation into western music. Ragtime—and consequently, jazz—was a form of African-American music characterized by syncopated rhythms. Ragtime was brought from African-American jigs to mainstream, western society. Rock n’ roll, jazz, and R&B would not even have been created as we know them if were it not for the appropriation of African-American music by the West. In my admiration for the positive effects of cultural appropriation during this time, I am not denying that cultural misappropriation occurred as well or undermining the systematic oppression these people faced. Today, when we confuse appropriation and misappropriation, we blanket all cross-cultural interaction with shame instead of appreciating and understanding how these types of interactions have actually led to the creation of new music and unique interpretations. Today, music videos are channels through which artists are able to create a visual representation of their song and sound. While music videos provide an outlet for more creativity, at times this can end up offending entire groups of people when cultural symbols are stolen and belittled in their meaning or when the culture from which the artist is borrowing is misrep-

MELISMA

WINTER 2014

OPINION

sound. While music videos provide an outlet for more creativity, at times this can end up offending entire groups of people when cultural symbols are stolen and belittled in their meaning or when the culture from which the artist is borrowing is misrepresented. It’s hard to believe that the artist had good intentions of sharing a culture different from their own when they create an environment of mockery, generalization, and exoticism in doing so. In many music videos, non-western cultures are portrayed as radically different and thus, extremely foreign. In this light, these cultures are seen as the “other” and as a fashion with which artists can play dress-up. There is a more respectful way to approach other cultures. For starters, the use of other symbols should fit comfortably with the lyrics and storyline of the song. If there is a connection between the borrowed culture and the song, then the artist should be wary of including an overwhelming number of symbols to which the artist has little

It also seems as if Jason Derulo needs a lesson on how to appropriately include another culture’s sound into his own. His use of the catchy sample from “Hermetico” by Balkan Beat Box (BBB), a Tel Aviv/New York-based band, as a hook in “Talk Dirty,” has provoked much debate over whether this inclusion should be considered cultural misappropriation. While the “Hermetico” sample is originally played by an alto saxophone, in Derulo’s music video, the sample appears to be played by trumpets, a western instrument. Sure, it was ignorant of Derulo to misrepresent the original song in this way, but the addition of this Middle-Eastern styled sample is a stronger example of cultural appropriation than of cultural misappropriation. In the case of “Talk Dirty,” both Derulo and BBB achieved great success. Muskat, a member of BBB, noted in an interview with Rolling Stone Magazine this past July that many music producers have pursued their band in the hope of creating the next big hit.

or no cultural attachment. Despite many pop stars’ disrespect—both blatant and

Moreover, BBB welcomes the kind of collaboration that existed between the band and Derulo. For their second album, BBB

subtle—they are still able to sell their work and make millions at another cultural group’s expense. Now, I’m not saying that

“gave up all of [their] stems to people to work with and come back to [them] with stuff. That’s how Nu Made was created, by

one music video from one album can define the artist in all of their entirety. However, any piece of work speaks to the image

people who reinterpreted [their] music in fresh ways.” “Talk Dirty” is also often criticized for its raunchy lyrics and sexu-

that the artist attempts to create. An ignorant use of borrowed cultural elements makes us wonder what the artist’s intent was

alization of women to the tune BBB’s middle-Eastern sample. However, I don’t believe that the sexualization of the women in

in the first place. In the “Princess of China” music video, Chris Martin and Rihanna lament over their lost love. The fact that the

the music video offends the culture from which the sample is borrowed. BBB’s vision is to blend together Mediterranean and

lyrics and song title are completely disconnected doesn’t bother me. What bothers me is the artists’ lack of awareness of their

Balkan styles of music with hip hop and dance beats. Though the music video is not without its flaws, this should be seen as a current example of cultural appropriation. Culturally misappropriating in order to give music and

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any piece of work speaks to the image that the artist attempts to create.

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misguided, crass confusion of Japanese, Chinese, and Hindu culture in a song titled “Princess of China.” This sloppy cultural mishmash, with no apparent explanation or relevance to the storyline or title, alongside Rihanna’s slanted eye make-up, is extremely ignorant. What’s even more worrisome is that Coldplay and Rihanna might have actually thought that a geisha, a Hindu goddess with many arms, and the allusions to popular Chinese martial-arts films were all part of one people’s identity. Who knows, maybe Google was down for the day and they couldn’t find out what was considered Chinese and what was Japanese. Or Hindu.

style an exotic flair is unacceptable when it misrepresents a culture or is ignorant of the spiritual and religious meanings behind its symbolism. If many of today’s major acts intended to show their appreciation for another culture, there are ways to achieve this without being outright racist or using their position of privilege to distort other cultures for their personal gain. Being culturally sensitive and acknowledging the significant meanings of nonnative cultural practices would be a great starting point. Pop stars could even educate their audiences about cultural elements used and their importance to the song. Usually incorrectly labeled as “misappropriation,” cultural appropriation is necessary in order for music to evolve and survive. How can we deem cultural appropriation inherently bad if this method of making and sharing music created a whole genre of music, such as jazz? Culture is not created in a vacuum. Music is the amalgamation of a history of cultures, peoples, styles, and sounds. Culture influences music, and music influences culture.

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