I happen to like studying the techniques used by movie soundtrack composers. Maybe it isn’t art, or maybe it is. But I learn a lot about harmony, rhythm, tempo, etc., from listening carefully to that stuff.
I found a bunch of new ones this morning, from a group calling itself Full Tilt. I searched around and found out they are now a commercial sound-trailer house in Santa Monica. Some good stuff there, but looking at the high pressure corporate presentation, and trying to imagine what it must be like for a creative musician to have to adhere to company schedules and tight client deadlines, I thought this must be some new kind of hell…
But maybe not, at least for those younger kids. I’m an old burned-out hippie from the late 1960’s. I viewed commercialism as a sell-out, of sorts. I guess a lot in my generation held similar views. But apparently the new post millennials have a more modern entrepreneurial outlook.
Anyway, that, in turn, led me to a book by Timothy D. Taylor who is a professor of musicology at UCLA. The book is entitled The Sounds of Capitalism, Advertising, Music, and the Conquest of Culture.
Wow! Talk about roving beyond my own comfort zone… whew! But it is a terrific read for me, especially the last chapter, Chapter 9, where it introduces the modern (as of 2009) to me, and tells me about how this new generation views underground music in conjunction with modern marketing.
I recommend stepping out of your comfortable bubbles from time to time.
- DM
