Genre Analysis: Studying How, And What, We Download

The article I picked to analyze is on National Public Radio and it is named “Studying How, And What, We Download.” The article focuses on how illegally downloading music has become a huge part of the fans. People no longer buy music, but they just torrent it. Limewire was a huge program for music but it got shut down a couple years ago. Artists complain about their fans not giving them credit, but they have to realize that they don’t come out with albums. They give away a song at a time, and the reason fans don’t pay 1$ for one song is because it’s overpriced. An album is different because you get an extra 20 songs for a 15$ album. A huge band right now is The Black Keys and their album contains 11 songs. The album costs 9$ so it is cheaper than the 1$ a song that itunes offers. Another artist is Calvin Harris, his album consists of 15 songs and it costs 10$. When the artists release a single and expect the audience to pay a dollar for it, they are ripping their fans off. 

The way NPR did their talk show was to do a quick overview at the start. Briefly talk about the topic so people know the overall subject that you will be talking about. They talked about it for around a minute, and then they moved on to talk about the companies involved with music piracy. While they were talking about the different artists who get illegally downloaded they would play a snippet of their songs on the radio. For my audio essay I will be using a sample of music in it, because it changes up the style. Someone talking for hours and hours would make it extremely boring so adding things to the audio essay will definitely help. Also adding a guest speaker will add another perspective to the topic. This audio essay from NPR had 2 guest speakers and they both added more substance to the podcast. The thing NPR did was they talked about the past companies involving music piracy and how they were shut down a couple years ago. NPR also talked about how there are alternative ways to listen to the music legally and illegally. When I do my audio essay I can look at an alternative perspective to add more detail. NPR has short audio essays but they get to the central point right away, and provide a lot of information quickly. They rarely pause for more than 5 seconds to play a song and then right after that they just discuss about the song that was played or move onto another topic. 

Topic I’d like to talk about in my audio essay: DJ’s taking over the music scene, Disney buying LucasArts. 

http://www.npr.org/blogs/therecord/2012/11/08/164656743/studying-how-and-what-we-download

Project 2 Reflection: Connection

Project 2 was a great success for me and my final draft was completely different from my first draft. What I did well in Project 2 was finding places to support my thesis statement. The diverse places around Arizona State University provided perfect evaluation for my thesis statement. The Hayden Library lawn was a more open area compared to the underground of the Memorial Union. Another part of the project that I did pretty well in was establishing criteria to judge the places in Arizona State University. I felt like my criteria was a good basis and it was not based on music taste. Music is a risky thing to judge because there are so many genres. It is really based on your own taste for picking out the best music. My project focused on interacting with people rather than the picking out which music is the best. The parts of the project that I struggled with was incorporating the sources into the synopsis. The sources were related to my paper, but they were hard to connect it with the material when I was writing it. Another thing I struggled with when I was writing the paper was trying to not say “I” during the paper because when I was evaluating the different places I wanted to add my input into it. What I learned from writing in this paper is how to evaluate different places and not add your input into the paper, I struggled with it at first but I eventually did it.The way I can alter my writing process is when I get my thesis statement I need to put it in the first paragraph because my first draft of this project I wrote it near the end of the synopsis. I feel like I did craft a strong evaluation and that my thesis statement was solid. The criteria in my project was strong but it could have more points. The problem with having criteria for music is that there is a fine line between judging genres of music compared to the instruments being played. I feel like when I was evaluating the points in the paper I had to be careful to not judge the genre of the music. The three points in my paper for evaluating music was perfect because it did not try to judge the genre of the music. It was evaluating the place of the music, the instrument of the music, and whether the people in the group were interacting with each other. The way I can apply my work to outside the university is by learning how to evaluate more places around me. I could notice how different the area’s are and how similar they are. 

Bibliography for Project 2

Bibliography:

Fonder, Mark. Journal of Historical Research in Music Education. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.

Ziegel, Aaron. One Person, One Music. N.p.: American Music, n.d. JSTOR. Web. 19 Oct. 2012.

Kavner, Lucas. "Classical Music Aims To Evolve, Build Audiences Without Alienating Old Guard." The Huffington Post. The Huffington Post, 10 Aug. 2012. Web. Oct.-Nov. 2012. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/10/classical-music-audiences_n_1761738.html>.

Hedding, Judy. "Tempe Attractions." About.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Nov. 2012. <http://phoenix.about.com/od/govtcity/ss/tempe_3.htm>.

Memorial Union

One situation that can be evaluated are when the DJ’s play for events next to the Memorial Union. Some days a group will want to promote itself so they hire a DJ to play live music in front of the Memorial Union. The first thing to evaluate and determine if the event is bringing the community together would be if the music is relaxing or loud. The music usually being played is techno so it would not be prime for discussion considering the lyrics for techno are absent or not deep. Techno is produced for the sound rather than the singing which means the audience members never talk about the lyrics in the song. The second part to evaluate is whether the audience is discussing about the music and the audience in the Memorial Union usually walk right by the music without even paying attention to it. There is never a crowd listening to the music outside the Memorial Union, the music being played there is for commercial use to promote a club while playing music. The third detail to notice the setting of where the live music is being played. The music being played from the DJ is at the Memorial Union is probably one of the worst places to talk about to people. If people were in a group it would be one of the worst places considering how loud the music is, and everyone is usually busy on their way from or to a class during that time in front of the Memorial Union. The place where DJ’s usually play in front of the Memorial Union would not be good to interact with people. They rarely play guitar music so this would not be an example of how people interact with each other through live guitar music. 

Hayden Library

The second situation is outside of the Hayden Library there was a guitar player with some people sitting around him conversing to each other. There was no commotion and the audience members were quietly talking to the guitar player and with themselves. The first detail to evaluate is if the music is relaxing or loud, and the music coming from the guitar was soothing. Guitar music can be loud, but it was an acoustic guitar playing some calm music. The second aspect would be to see how the audience is around the music. The audience during this time were conversing with each other, some were talking to the guitar player. This is perfect example of how Arizona State University can bring the community together because of live music. It also shows how many people interact with each other during live guitar music. The third detail we can use to grade this situation is the setting of where the music was being played. The guitar player and the audience members were outside the Hayden Library on the lawn, that is a perfect place with no distractions and it would not be busy at all. The area is completely isolated for groups to sit on the lawn and talk with each other. This is a prime example to show how interaction between people happens when someone is playing a live acoustic guitar. The guitar was playing soothing music and the crowd around the guitar player were talking to each other and it seemed like they were having a good time. This situation was perfect for each of the grading points and is a prime example to show how people interact during live guitar music.

Arizona State University Stadium

Another setting would be the music live coming from the Arizona State University stadium, the music is loud over the people sitting in the stands waiting for the game to play. The music does not completely drown over the people’s voices, but it does make it tough for a conversation to happen. There is absolutely no acoustic guitar being played, but there is an electric guitar to pump up the crowd. The stadium creates a game environment, which makes people become excited to watch the game that is about to start. The first detail is that the music coming from the speakers are blaring out over the giant stadium. Loud music usually means that there is no way for someone to have a conversation with another person. The second aspect to notice is whether or not the audience is talking to each other. Before a football game, the crowd is usually conversing with each other, talking about the upcoming game or various other topics at the time. The third detail to grade is to see if this situation helps the setting of where the music is being played. It is in a stadium and the stadium does offer time to talk with the person next to you. The music is not fairly loud during football games and friends do have conversations if the game is really that boring. The purpose of this event is to watch the football game and not talk with the surrounding people. This situation is not ideal to interact with other people, and the audience is usually focused on the football game rather than discussing with each other about a variety of topics. 

Underground in the Memorial Union

The fourth setting would be the music played over the speakers at the underground level of the Memorial Union. The music is being played while people are bowling, playing pool, or even playing ping pong. The first thing to notice is if the music is relaxing and the music coming from the speakers are pop songs. The songs are not being played loudly where people can not talk over them. It is more background music rather than speakers blaring out music for the people there. The music was not exactly a relaxing genre of music, but it was not annoying for people around there. It did contain guitar music, but it had a poppy feel to it. The second aspect to see is whether or not the audience is talking and the people there were talking to each other. They were having conversations about the local sports team and other various topics. It is good that they were talking to each other, but the music was not influencing them. The music was just in the distance being played. The third detail to notice about the underground in the Memorial Union is the setting of the underground in the Memorial Union. The groups of people who gather in the Memorial Union downstairs do converse with each other about everything. This fourth setting underground in the Memorial Union is a good place for people at Arizona State University to discuss while music is being played. Even though it is not guitar music, the area is does have people talking to each other.