Throughout the history of popular music, there has been occasions, time and time again, that a particular artist or group manages to do something which is a technological landmark within the music industry. A selection of these songs have been chosen to feature on our ‘Landmarks of Technology’ CD for this weeks publication of ‘Technology Today.’
The first song on our CD is that of an English alternative rock-band, who in the late 90’s gained much publicity, from the controversy surrounding this song. The song is (quite ironically titled, as to what happens after the release and controversy of this song) ‘Bittersweet Symphony’ by The Verve. The song was released on 16th June 1997, reaching number 2 in the UK singles chart. The song is, however, now credited to Keith Richards and Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones after the charges that the song was plagiarized from the Andrew Oldham Orchestra recording of, ‘The Last Time.’
The Verve had agreed to contract allowing them to sample the song for their own use, however it was argued that too much of the sample was used as the foundation of the song. The lyrics were wrote by The Verve’s singer, and more layers were played on top of the sample - although parts of the sample, such as the violin, were highly prominent in the final mix of ‘Bittersweet Symphony.’
This type of sampling has gone on to become a rather popular use of technology in today’s music, especially within Pop and R&B music, with songs such as, quite possibly Kanye West’s biggest hit, ‘Stronger.’ Just like that of ‘Bittersweet Symphony’ the song is created around the sample of another song (Daft Punk’s ‘Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger’). The difference however is that the French house duo, Daft Punk, received writing credits for the song and actually had their costumes appear in the music video for Kanye West’s song. The reason behind this has to be that legal battles, such as the one with ‘Bittersweet Symphony,’ has helped the music industry learn and prevent them from making the same mistakes as others before them.
The second song to make it into our CD is ‘Sleep Now in the Fire,’ by a band that are infamous for their protests and the manner in which they do so, Rage Against the Machine. The reason for choosing this particular song isn’t really anything to do with the song at all – it’s to do with the music video for the song, shot on 26th January 2000, the location, the New York Stock Exchange (Wall Street, NY). The video shoot actually caused the doors of the New York Stock Exchange to close, although not actually counting as a closure due to trading continuing on one of the floors. A few were actually detained by police, including Michael Moore the director, with a threat of being arrested, despite the band having a federal permit to perform (for their vide). The lyrics in the song do, however, relate to why the video was shot where it was. They refer to greed, for example the US slavery in the 19th Century, as well as criticising the US government’s actions during wartime. There is also a clip of sound from a Korean radio that was picked up on Morello’s (lead guitarist) amp.
It is not uncommon for musicians to use songs as forms of protest, such as Bob Marley. As a philosopher, the majority of Bob Marley’s songs had some kind of meaning, for example ‘Get up, Stand Up. This song is the official fight song of Amnesty International, and was actually relating to a Rastafarian belief: “that the Emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie I (Ras Tafari) was God incarnate.”
Woodstock, is quite possibly the most famous music festival to ever grace the planet, which is why for the third song I made the obvious choice of Jimi Hendrix’s hit ‘Hey Joe.’ Jimi Hendrix was the last performer of the original Woodstock, and ‘Hey Joe’ was the last song of the original Woodstock. During a time of conflict, the Vietnam War, and ‘racial discord’ in the US, the Woodstock festival took on such a huge role as a venue of ‘peace’ and ‘love.’ A meaning far beyond what was originally intended, the festival became a mass group of people, all living together in harmony, where minds were free and drugs were used. The atmosphere of the entire event was what many strive to recreate worldwide, with other mass events such as Live Aid.
“If we join them, we can turn those adversities that are the problems of America today into a hope for a brighter ad more peaceful future.”
(Max Yasgur, the owner of the site the event was held upon)
Finally, in complete contrast to the last song I’ve chosen a song by a band that is often referenced to when talking about this particular genre/fashion. It was a big clique in the Mid-00’s, known as ‘emo’ or ‘scene’ and the band I’m talking about is My Chemical Romance. The band was often an idol or icon to the teenagers who followed the trends set by My Chemical Romance, which is why I decided to feature the song ‘Teenagers’ for the final song of the CD. Teenagers and young adults idolise their favourite pop star and look up to them in terms of behaviour, interests and, of course, fashion. Obviously people prefer to be around others of similar interests hence the reason the social groups form and stick. It’s surprising that something like music can influence people’s choice in friends.
My Chemical Romance is often associated to the clique known as ‘emo,’ as stated before. The way they dress and look reflects on the social group that idolise this rock band. In the videos for the first two singles released from My Chemical Romance’s third studio album, the entire band are seen wearing a black military style jacket with white parts on them. Within no time at all, stores were taking advantage of the way music affects society by selling this style jacket. It’s no surprise this jacket sold well as stated before, social groups want to dress like their musical idols. The most amazing thing is, the way a music artist expresses themselves with their music, also affects how society act and think. Groups of people not only dress like the person but can often act like them too. It’s trends like these that some artists and bands take advantage of when song writing/recording their next album by using techniques to appeal to their target audience.
