For are final assignment of are communications and popular music module we where given the task of creating a podcast in which we had to discuss a decade of are choice. We then decided as a group to do are podcast on the 90s as most of us lived through at least some part of this decade and could remember a lot from it.

Are next task was then to give each person in the group a role in the creation of the podcast. We decided that Matthew would write the jingle and be a co-host, Gavin and I would be the main presenters as well as doing research into the big stories and events and the popular music at the time of the 90s, Junior was given the role of researching gangster rap and the culture of hip hop in the 90s and Pearse’s role was to record and edit the podcast.

Once we had agreed on the individual roles when then set a day to record the podcast which would suit us all and we then ordered a hand held digital recorder for that particular day. After we had all done are research we then decided on the structure of are podcast. We decided to open up with the jingle Matthew had created we then thought it would be best to discuss the big news stories of the 90s then the popular music of the time we would then lead into the rise in popularity of Gangster rap, after that we decided it would be good to discuss the beef that developed between East Coast Rap and West Coast Rap and then finish of the Podcast.

After all this was decided we then put some thought into what songs we were going to use for the podcast. We decided that Ice Ice Baby by Vanilla Ice would be a good song to put in when we where discussing the popular music of the 90s, we then decided to put in Gangsters Paradise when we discussing Gangster Rap, the next song we decided on was Hit Em Up By Tupac which we would play when we where discussing the East Coast West Coast Beef. And finally be decided on California Love by Tupac to play us out at the end of the podcast. After all this was decided all was left to do was record and we found that process smooth and hassle free and I actually quite enjoyed the discussion that we had.

 

Music plays a big part when it comes to national pride and identity even more than some might think. All over the world people use music as a way of expressing their love for their country. In some cases, a type of music can become synonymous with a region and becomes a badge of honor for those living in that region. For my blog today, I am going to take two examples that did just that and discuss what it was about the two genres that very much communicated national identity and what impact the music had on society, they are Krautrock and Brit Pop. I will then talk about music in my own culture.

Krautrock

Krautrock was formed in West Germany in 1960s, it is a type of experimental rock which is mostly electronic. When it became popular it created a new post war identity in Germany and helped them move on from their unwanted reputation as Nazi fascists. There was very little culture in Germany after World War 2, the people where ashamed of the crimes they had committed during the war. The economy was on its knees and people were just focused on rebuilding their homes and trying to get their life back to normal. With all this going on national pride was at an all-time low and you would be hard pushed to hear any German songs on the radio or in the bars. All this changed when Krautrock hit the scene.

Kraftwerk was one of the bands at the forefront of Krautrock. The fact that their songs where in German and that they sang about things that were directly related to Germany such as the Autobahn made them extremely popular in the region. The band members didn’t move around the stage much which made them look very robotic, this was another way of the band expressing their German pride as the felt the German Language was very mechanical also Germany was well known for its mechanical industries at the time.

With the success of Kraftwerk and other similar acts, the German people began to feel pride for their nation again and began to put their horrible past behind them and look to the future. It became normal to hear German songs on the radio again and even seeing German movies back in the cinemas. Krautrock was a huge influence in not only bringing pride back to the German people put also bringing back German culture.

         

Brit Pop 

In Britain in the early 1990s the music that the people listened to was for the most part American made music. This was unusual as from the 1960s on England had a stream of popular bands on the scene such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who and The Smiths. However, by the 90s it seemed that American culture had taken over, from music, fashion, food and Television the people of Britain seemed to want everything to do with America.

However, in 1994 the death of Kurt Cobian the lead singer of Nirvana who were an extremely popular American grunge band, seemed to leave a huge gap in the music market especially this side of the Atlantic. This led to the rise in popularity in a lot of English born bands such as Suede, Pulp, Blur and Oasis. Once again it became normal to hear regional accents on the radio and references to British culture and places in lyrics. The Lad/Ladette attitude was very much a part of the culture of these bands and indeed their fans, in the sense that they came across as they didn’t care about being polite and friendly, they were going to get their point across and they weren’t going to change who they are for anybody.

This type of attitude resonated with a lot of British people at the time as they were tired of copying of the Americans and wanted something to once again call their own. Brit Pop very much became that; no longer did you find poor imitations of Americans on the streets of Britain instead you found people proud of who they are and where they come from. It was once again viewed as cool to be British, even after Brit Pop began to fade away the sense of wanting to be individual stayed with the British people and I feel this was in no small part due to this unique genre and its raise to fame in the mid 90s.  Click link for examples of Brit pop hits.

   

 

Music and my Culture 

I come from a small border town in the Republic of Ireland called Dundalk. Music is a big part of the culture in Ireland and being that Dundalk is right beside the border of Northern Ireland there are a lot of pro republican roots in my town. Most people where brought up disliking the English and supporting Celtic Football Club (even if they don’t like football).

That being said it shouldn’t come as a shock that there is a great tradition of Irish Rebel songs in Dundalk. Songs such as Come out you Black and Tans, The fields of Athenry and Boys of the old Brigade are all sang with pride in pretty much any pub you visit in Dundalk. I feel these songs for the people of this region myself included represent a time when are ancestors had to fight for what they believed in even if it meant giving their lives so that future generations could be free. For the most part the lyrics in the songs tell a story of fighting oppression and create a great sense of pride for most people in the region.

I would say that for anybody born outside of Ireland who wanted to get a taste of Irish history listening to Irish Rebel music would be a great place to start. Anything from Tin whistles, Flutes, Bodhrans and Fiddles can be heard in these songs, add the deep and meaning lyrics on top and your left with a great sense of what it is to be Irish especially in border towns like my home town.

     

 

The music industry was changed a lot over the last decade or so, before the rise of downloading mp3 music files the idea of paying for music and not having a hard copy to hold in your hand seemed ridiculous and even once downloading did become popular a lot of people saw it as a fad that would die out eventually. Of course, time would prove them wrong and in today’s world most people never own hard copies of albums and paying subscription to streaming sites such as Spotify has become the normal thing to do. Seen as most artist on sites such as Spotify don’t make a lot of money for their work naturally these artists must come up with new ways to distribute their music to the masses. In my blog today, I am going to discuss one way in which to do so crowdfunding.

What is Crowdfunding

So first off what is crowdfunding and how does it work. Crowdfunding is when you set up an account and ask your fans to donate, the idea is that the money goes towards the making of albums, music videos and other things like that with the idea that whoever donates gets first access to the new material. The business model is like street performers, people only pay if they want and give as much as they like. This model is both criticized and applauded for its direct approach in asking fans for money. So, I feel it would be a good idea to look at the pros and cons of crowdfunding.

Pros and Cons

Pros

•  The major pro that sticks out to me is that it allows artists to be as creative as the like and release exactly what they want rather than the record companies dictating how the artist should come across which is very common in the music industry. And in today’s world where everything sounds the same on the radio, that can only be a good thing.
• Another pro that comes to mind is that it provides another lane for artists to get themselves out there. You can generate a lot of buzz/hype for yourself with a successful campaign and with so many talented artists out there waiting to be discovered the more ways of getting yourself heard the better.
• Crowdfunding is also a great new channel of communication between the artist and the fans. This creates a unique bond between artist and fan like never before, in some cases fans give their input and may even affect the outcome of the artist work.

Cons 

• A successful campaign is not as easy as it looks. It does require a lot of effort and promotional work. So, artist considering this should be ready to spend money before they make any.
• Another drawback that I can see is that a lot of crowdfunding projects do not end in success. This may result in embarrassment for the artist if they fail to reach their goals and probably some heavy criticism if artist creation doesn’t live up to expectations.
• Also, there is a lack of protection for the people how invest in these projects. In some cases, successfully funded projects are never produced and the people who invested just lose their money.

 

Good or Bad?

In my opinion crowdfunding is a good new innovative way of creating music and do it exactly the way you want to do it for the people you want to do it for. However, I feel that it would be a risky strategy for an artist who is trying to kickstart a career in music as I feel that unless an artist has already generated a lot of fans on the local scene by playing regular gigs and things like that. Otherwise it would be hard for the artist to get enough funding as I feel most of us music fans like to hear something before we are willing to spend are hard earned cash on it.

Although I do believe it is a very good way to go if you are an established artist with a lot of fans and hype around you. Neil Young is an established artist who has had success with this and am sure there are a lot of established bands and artist that are feed up of doing things the way the record companies want and would like to explore their artistic side to its fullest. Indeed, if I was an established artist in this current music climate, it would defiantly be something that I would be interested in doing. As music lover I would be happy to donate to an artist or bands crowdfunder that I am already a fan of.

I think that the difference between the two scenarios is trust. When a fan has been listening and following a certain artist for a few years there is a certain trust that forms which is impossible for a new artist to form with fans.

Conclusion

After looking into the world of crowdfunding I defiantly feel that it has its upsides and downsides. But in my opinion artists need to change something about how their music is distributed because if it keeps going the way it has been going over the last decade there won’t be many artists left making money for the music they are creating, and this could majorly affect the quality of the music being released. Weather crowdfunding is the way in which to do so I feel it remains to be seen however in my view anything that takes money out of the record companies’ hands and into the artist hands is defiantly a step in the right direction.

If you would like to check out some crowdfunding sites for yourself I have included links to some of the most popular ones below.

• Kickstarter
• RocketHub
• Go Fund Me
• PledgeMusic

Today I have decided to do my blog on the subculture that is grunge. I will cover how and where it started, the fashion and characteristics associated with the culture, the different elements that are involved in grunge music, the bands and artists associated with raising the profile of grunge, and the impact it left behind.

How it started 

So, first thing is first where did this massive craze start. The subculture is largely associated with and was started in Settle, Washington in the mid 80s. The early movement revolved around Seattle’s independent record label Sub Pop and the regions underground scene. Many people attribute Mark Arm the lead singer of Seattle band Green River as one of the first to use the term.

However, it really started with frustrated disadvantage teenagers and young adults who felt they were outcasts from normal society and where feed up of living for the much sought after “American Dream”. All this anger and frustration with society was the driving force for this new and alternative culture.

Fashion and Characteristics

The typical style associated with grunge was one that was laid back and not overly focused on their appearance more so on music and fighting for social rights. To people outside the culture the people involved may have come across as irresponsible and lazy, but there are always two sides to a coin, I guess. Plaid shirts, flannel shirts, ripped jeans, Doc Martens, converse, combat boots, wool ski hats and guys with long messy hair all go hand in hand when you talk about the grunge culture.

Many people feel that the grunge style was inspired by punk, however in my opinion the punk style was about anti fashion in the sense that their outfits made a statement against fashion normality whereas grunge fashion was indifferent in the sense that they made no statement at all. Really the reason this style was so popular in Seattle in the first place was because most where too poor to buy anything else also they get very cold and wet weather in that part of the world so really the cloths where more practical than anything else. It would probably be an over exaggeration to say that everybody in Settle in the early late 80s/90s had this kind of style, but you certainly couldn’t go to a local gig in at the time without seeing crowds of people all fitting this description.  

Music Characteristics

The word grunge means actually means dirt or grime, in my opinion this term wasn’t associated with this particular style music just because of the sloppy appearance of the bands and the fans, I believe it also got its name from the style of music being played. Many grunge bands where inspired by punk music, and to many people grunge is a mixture of punk and metal.

The typical style you would expect to hear when listening to a grunge song would be heavily distorted guitars, heavy drums and sometimes screaming vocals, all this while being blasted out through the speakers as loud as possible. The lyrics are often dark and sad and can be about discontent with life, relationship problems, depression and suicide. Thus, being praised for dealing with real life issues as opposed to the average pop song being played on the radio during the 80s.

 

 

Associated Bands/Labels 

Some of the most notable bands to be associated with grunge music are Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots and of course the most notable of them all the global superstars that where Nirvana. But it all started with the Melvins, they were the first band really to mix metal with punk. The year 1986 brought the founding of Sub Pop Records and saw this saw release of Deep Six, this was a compilation album which included acts such as the Melvins, Green River and Soundgarden, this compilation was credited as the first distribution of grunge. Between 1987 and 1990 many grunge bands where formed the most prominent of them being Nirvana. Nirvana gained a lot of attention, not only did they get radio play for some of their songs, they also were being played on MTVs alternative shows.

In 1991 when Nirvana reached number one on the alternative Songs list with Perl Jam following closely behind grunge went from being a bit of a joke to one of the most respected subgenres in music. After this the people involved in the grunge culture went crazy, finally their music was being played to the masses this was recognition they felt was long overdue.

In late 1991 Nirvana released their second studio album Nevermind, despite relatively low expectations the album became a huge success, largely due to the popularity of its lead single Smells Like Teen Spirit. It replaced Michael Jacksons album Dangerous at number one on the US Billboard. This was an astonishing result and an incredibly proud moment for everybody that was involved in the grunge scene at the time. This really drove grunge culture to the heart of mainstream society, after this everybody wanted to be involved the grunge culture and indeed you didn’t have to go to a local gig in Seattle to see someone wearing a plaid shirt and ripped jeans, suddenly you could find a person fitting this description walking on any street in America and even began hitting the catwalks.

Kurt Cobain who was the lead singer of Nirvana really epitomized what it was to be a member of the grunge culture, from the way he looked and dressed to the way spoke and behaved he has truly adored in the amongst grunge fans and was viewed as the front man of the entire movement. However, Cobain was dealing with a long- term drug addiction and a battle with depression and in April of 1994 he took his own life leaving the entire grunge community and beyond in mourning. This effectively signaled the end of Grunge in the mainstream, no longer where combat boots modeled on the catwalks and indeed it wasn’t long before grunge culture was no longer viewed as being the hip thing to do and went back to being the uniform for the outsiders.

Grunge Today

As the concept of grunge became more and more popular in the mainstream it was increasingly reject by the people of the anti-conformist Seattle. It became a blanket term for pretty much anything that was coming out of Northwest America in the 90s no matter how unrelated it was to the grunge sound.

Today however the term seems to have been reclaimed by the people of Seattle. They still hold the same values and have learned to embrace the subculture title that in a lot of ways put Seattle on the map. I believe that there will always be a place in people’s hearts all around the world for the grunge subculture and will always be remembered and celebrated amongst music fans.