blog seven

 The movie we watched last Thursday got me really excited for our upcoming classroom discussions.  In what other class do you get to talk about hip-hop?  That being said, I was ready to dive deep into Paul D. Miller, aka D.J. Spooky’s book titled Rhythm Science.  We were asked to comment on the reading, with deBourgoing’s piece first in mind.

What I gathered from deBourgoing was information about how hip-hop artists have used their resources to widen their audience.  She talks about ho artists today have an ability to use different forms of media to not only promote themselves but to spread their music, especially to those who may not typically have access.  This reminded me of just how powerful social media, in particular, can be.  I am not an expert on iTunes’ “Ping,” but I do not that it is a social media tool that is correlated with music taste and preferences.  I think this is a good example of what deBourgoing is talking about because it allows users with similar music interests to find out about new artists, and music that they may like.  The only downside to Ping could be that an artist would have to be an “iTunes artist,” but I still believe that this example works well.  This online presence of artists is what can break or make artists.  The accessibility of the Internet, itself, has allowed information, music, and artists more widespread.

Parts of deBourgoing’s piece reminded me of Weinberger’s three orders, and more specifically, his third order.  Weinberger described the third order an organization that was most easily accessible, and organized in ways that a user could type in various keywords to come up with certain results.  With things like Ping, artists can be correlated with other artists due to similar sounds or beats, so if a person typed in “Tribe Called Quest,” they would get recommendations such as The Roots, Common, etc.  This is similar to a class discussion we had about Amazon recommendations.

To conclude Miller’s statements made toward the end of the reading, I would summarize it, as saying is that music is somewhat subjective.  Just like other forms of arts, people gather different meanings, have different emotions, like or dislike, etc.  Factors like these are what create the use and need for artists to use media tools, like the example of Ping.  With so many different listeners, people are bound to have completely different reactions.  Whether good or bad, these allow for more people to find the music and make them more likely to go further or search for more.  DJ’s create this sense of widespread music as well because their various mash-ups or mixes allow for specific songs within the mixes to be searched upon as well.

This last point seemed to connect to the idea of the long tail, a concept that was once confusing to me.  As we described together in class, the long tail allows for less popular or less “needed” items to still be on the minds of the audience or shoppers.  That’s pretty confusing sounding, so I will put it into music terms.  Let’s examine the song “Friday Night” by Girl Talk.  This song includes clips from Notorious B.I.G, “Tipsy”, N.E.R.D, and…the Waitresses.  If you were someone that exclusively listened to Hip-Hop, but heard that sample from the Waitresses song, “I Know What Boys Like,” you might want to download that song, and find out more about the band and their music.  Perhaps the Waitresses had been off the radar for some time, but Girl Talk has now provided that music to a new listener.  Thus, a connection to the Long Tail.  This is a little bit easier for me to explain in person, but hopefully my example helps to get the idea across.  


This is what I gathered and understand from the reading, and it makes me realize just how much a DJ’s mashup can spark interest in an unsuspected audience.