"Things Just Ain’t the Same": Hip-Hop’s Reconstruction of the Gangster Rap Identity

by: Nathaniel Long

Gangster rap, or hardcore rap, is generally considered a sub genre of the larger category of rap music, which itself is a subcategory of hip-hop. Gangster rap is differentiable from other rap music in that it makes use of images of urban life associated with crime (Haugen, 2). According to the Encyclopedia Britannica definition of gangster rap, the top four images associated with the genre are violence, drugs, materialism and sexual promiscuity. Gangster Rappers as Defining the Hip-Hop Social Group As the hip-hop movement has gained recognition throughout the United States, it has established itself as one of the fastest growing social groups anywhere. In the late 1990s immediately following the murders of both Tupac Shakur and Christopher Wallace, two nationally known gangster rappers, a propaganda campaign escalated against rap music and the hip-hop culture (Slaughter). Although gangster rap only represented a small percentage of the hip-hop culture at the time, all hip-hop and rap music was instantly stereotyped negatively as being “gangter-like”. Why? Well, this gangster version of hip-hop was the highest selling and most recognized form of hip-hop music among the majority class. And many critics have determined that this is because America is in love with sex, drugs and violence (Whaley). Hip-Hop’s Rejection of Inferior Social Group Status Henri Tajfel, a social psychologist who developed a theory of inter-group relations and social change, argues that members of a social group deemed inferior by a majority class can either accept or reject their inferior position in society. If a group refuses to accept its inferior position in society as just, it will attempt as a group to change things (Coates, 8-9). A large number of hip-hop artists have used their musical lyrics to reject the inferior social status placed upon them by the majority class. The Reconstruction of the Gangster Identity I have found that hip-hop artists use lyrics, both musical and poetic, to redefine the negatives characteristics given to their culture by the majority class, and in the process, reconstruct the gangster identity. By examining these hip-hop and gangster rap lyrics as text, I will show ways in which the lyrics attempt to reconstruct the stereotyped gangster rap identity by examining different views of violence, drugs, materialism and sexual promiscuity. In the end, one tends to wonder: Who exactly are the real gangsters? Violence That the hip-hop culture represents gangster-like violence is perhaps the biggest disputed claim amongst hip-hop artists. In order to disprove this claim, many hip-hop artists have pointed to the violence that exists within the majority social group, and how it leads to violence all over the world. In “Violence”, 2 Pac demonstrates his belief that violence was prevalent long before gangster rap existed: I told em fight back, attack on society If this is violence, then violent's what I gotta be If you investigate you'll find out where it's comin’ from Look through our history, America's the violent one Here, the poet points to American society as “the violent one” and that he has to be violent in order to “fight back.” In “Who Knew”, Eminem showed a similar viewpoint by expressing his belief that violence is a common occurrence in American society, yet not challenged in genres outside of the urban environment: So who's bringin’ the guns in this country? I couldn't sneak a plastic pellet gun through customs over in London And last week, I seen a Schwarzaneggar movie Where he's shootin’ all sorts of these bad guys with an Uzi Here, the poet questions the existence of violence in a country that allows firearms and violent movies. In “Casualties of War”, Rakim blames the United States government, specifically its Head of State, as the group causing the violence in society with their war-like ways: I'ma get back to New York in one piece But I'm bent in the sand that is hot as the city streets Sky lights up like fireworks blind me Bullets, whistlin’ over my head remind me... President Bush said attack Flashback to Nam, I might not make it back In this text, the poet refers to our country’s decision to go to war as an example of the violence that exists amongst the majority social class. In “The Watcher”, Dr. Dre redefines the negative characteristic of violence by pointing to the police force as the source of violence, and therefore, referring to them as “gangster-like”: Things just ain't the same for gangstas Cops is anxious to put people in handcuffs They wanna hang us, see us dead or enslave us Keep us trapped in the same place we raised in Then they wonder why we act so outrageous Run around stressed out and pull out gauges Cause everytime you let the animal out cages It's dangerous, to people who look like strangers Here, the poet accuses the majority class of keeping them “trapped in the same place we raised in” and that the perceived violence is only due to the introduction of “people who look like strangers.” These are examples of how hip-hop artists redefine the image of violence by showing how it exists or was created within the majority social group. Drugs Another common disputed stereotype of hip-hop artists is their use and distribution of illegal drugs. In attempts to redefine this negative characteristic, many hip-hop artists have pointed at the majority social group as the facilitator of drug abuse. In “Justify My Thug”, Jay-Z speaks directly to members of government, raising questions about who has made the availability and use of these drugs possible: Mr. President, there's drugs in our residence Tell me what you want me to do, come break bread with us Mr. Governor, I swear there's a cover up Every other corner there's a liquor store - what is up? In this example, the poet inquires as to why there is a liquor store in “every other corner” of his community. In “I Want to Talk to You”, Nas uses the same approach to challenge the notion of drug distribution by asking his representatives what they would do in his situation: Why y'all made it so hard, damn People gotta go create their own job Mr. Mayo,r imagine if this was your backyard Mr. Governo,r imagine if it was your kids that starved Imagine your kids gotta sling crack to survive Here, the poet claims that the distribution of drugs is not only an effect of the poverty that exists in his environment, but also a means of survival. In “Manifesto”, Talib Kweli actually accuses the government of being the body which allows drugs into the country: Like the C.I.A. be bringin’ in crack cocaine bailin’ out of planes With the George Bush connections, I push Reflection Like I'm sellin’ izm, like a dealer buildin’ the system Supply and the demand it's all capitalism People don't sell crack cause they like to see blacks smoke People sell crack cause they broke In this example, the poet accuses the C.I.A. of flying drugs into the country, and again reiterates the point that it is a means of survival due to the “supply and demand” of a capitalist society. In “Damn It Feels Good to be a Gangster”, the Geto Boys fully redefine the negative characteristic of drug distribution by accusing the President of being a drug dealer, and therefore, a gangster: And now, a word from the President! Damn it feels good to be a gangsta Getting’ voted into the White House Everything lookin’ good to the people of the world But the Mafia family is my boss So every now and then I owe a favor gettin' down Like lettin' a big drug shipment through And send 'em to the poor community So we can bust you know who These examples show how hip-hop artists redefine the image of being drug dealers and users by again pointing to the majority class as the creator of the drug problem in this country. Materialism Hip-hop music is also seen by the majority class as a genre dominated by materialism. Again, artists point back to the majority class in an attempt to redefine this negative characteristic. In “Respiration”, Black Star points to all the wealth surrounding urban areas, and how it absorbs the lower class in materialism, making them want parts of that wealth: Where mercenaries is paid to trade hot stock tips For profits, thirsty criminals take pockets Hard knuckles on the second hands of workin’ class watches Skyscrapers is colossus, the cost of living Is preposterous, stay alive, you play or die, no options Here, the poet talks about various materialistic aspects of the majority class, and how the lower class must “play or die” to “stay alive.” In “All Falls Down”, Kanye West actually blames this materialism on American society: It seems we living the American dream But the people highest up got the lowest self esteem The prettiest people do the ugliest things For the road to riches and diamond rings In this example, the poet blames the “American dream” for materialism, saying it causes people to “do the ugliest things” for “riches and diamond rings.” In “Los Angeles Times”, Xzibit also blames this materialism on the majority class, claiming that is what the youth are taught coming up in urban environments: Welcome to L.A. Where you can see the whole city burning Cause the cops got Uzis and the dealers keep serving And your kids ain't learning it, except this Sex power and wealth, forget everything else Here, the poet expresses his belief that certain aspects of materialism, including “power and wealth” are taught to children through occurrences in society. These are examples how hip-hop artists redefine the negative characteristic of being materialistic by showing examples of how this materialism is prevalent in the majority class, and often created within that class. Sex And the final debated stereotype of the hip-hop social class is that they are sexually promiscuous, often leading to disrespectful treatment towards women. The poets also attempt to redefine this stereotype by blaming the core of the problem on society. In “Pussy Galore”, the Roots claim that the country’s obsession with sex is pushed by sexually-driven marketing campaigns: Lookin' out the limo window up at the billboards 200 miles, she was the only thing I saw Promotin' everything, from the liquor to the nicotine Cell phones, anti-histamines, chicken wings You gotta show a little skin to get them listening For real yo, the world is a sex machine In this example, the poet retells a personal experience in which he saw sex advertisements as “promotin’ everything.” And in order to “get them listening”, he claims, “you gotta show a little skin.” In “Get By”, Talib Kweli blames this sexual obsession on what we view on television: The TV got us reachin’ for stars Not the ones between Venus and Mars, The ones that be readin’ for parts Some people get breast enhancements and penis enlargers Here, the poet expresses his belief that television creates a misconception of what people should be sexually, and that contributes to the promiscuity that is being blamed on the hip-hop movement. Hip-hop artists have used their lyrics and poetry to influence the rejection and reconstruction of the gangster identity that plagues their social class. This is accomplished through the redefining of negative characteristics assigned by the majority class. In most cases, these redefinitions include pointing to the majority class as the real holders of these negative characteristics. The redefining of these “gangster-like” images through hip-hop lyrics helps to reconstruct the gangster identity by questioning “gangster-like” behaviors and which social class actually has these behaviors. So the question presented is: Who exactly are the gangsters? Works Cited / Discography 2 Pac. 2Pacalypse Now. Jive Records, 1991. Black Star. Mos Def & Talib Kweli are Black Star. Rawkus Records, 1998. Coates, Jennifer. Women, Men and Language. Longman Publishing, New York: 1993. Dr. Dre. The Chronic 2001. Interscope Records, 1999. Eminem. The Marshall Mathers LP. Interscope Records, 2000. Geto Boys. Uncut Dope LP. Interscope Records, 1999. Haugen, Jason. “‘Unladylike Divas’: Language, Gender and Female Gangster Rappers.” Popular Music and Society: December, 2003. Jay Z. The Black Album. Def Jam, 2003. Kanye West. College Dropout. Roc-A-Fella Records, 2004. Nas. I Am. Sony Records, 1999. Rakim. Don’t Sweat the Technique. MCA Records, 1992. Rawkus Records. Lyricist Lounge Volume 1. Priority Records, 1999. Slaughter, Peter. “Attack on Rap Music.” Barutiwa Weekly News. June 14, 1997. Talib Kweli & DJ Hi-Tek. Train of Thought. Rawkus Records, 2000. Talib Kweli. Quality. Rawkus Records, 2003. The Roots. Phrenology. MCA Records, 2002. Whaley, Angela. “Hip Hop is Not for Sale.” Colorado State University’s Talking Back: Volume 3, Issue 1. Xzibit. 40 Days and 40 Nights. Loud Records, 1998. About the author: Nathaniel Long is the creator and editor of Hip Hop Linguistics, a website dedicated to studying, interpreting and understanding hip-hop music, language, philosophy and culture. You can read more articles and reviews at http://www.hiphoplinguistics.com.

Video capture software for AVI and WMV

by: Mansi gupta

In this age of computer technology access and manipulation of information at any point of time and in any form has become absolutely common. With invention of CD, Camcorder, MP3, digital cameras and many more gizmos like them access to audio and video files have become a commonplace affair for most of us. Everyone just expect that if one has any sound track or any video clip they must be able to play and view it every time and at all places. But the problem is that these many diversified instruments each have their own format for storing the various audio and video clips. It’s not certain that the audio CD that produced excellent sounds in the MP3 would perform equally well on the home theater system at the house. Problems eventually arise when you eagerly switch on the computer to view some of the pictures recorded on the handy cam or when you want to listen to some rare and favorite sound track on the computer. After all the endeavor to attach the cords and devices you find that all the efforts was to only find the computer display a message that it did not support the format in which information was supplied to it and hence could not do anything with the audio or video. Believe me its very frustrating when such incidents happen. Usually one has to just sit back, get frustrated with the technology and miss their very rare favorite sound track. One desperately wishes that if they had some thing in this world that could change the format of the file and make the file work on the device they had. Blaze media pro is a perfect solution to all these problems and now you don’t have to miss viewing your much-loved pictures and hearing to the best of tracks just because the format in which they were stored was different. Blaze media pro is a blessing for a techno freak. Now none needs to pay a huge ransom to the technical experts for just changing formats of simply editing a little piece of information. All types of changes and inclusion or deletion of any part of the recording is only a click away. Blaze media pro has very exhaustive tutorial and extremely easy steps to perform all manipulations that are desired on video or audio files. It’s easy to follow steps enables even a novice to easily handle all the technicalities involved in the process. Many software’s promise to provide an easy way to convert audio and video files from one format to another but with most of the services there’s a limit that they can only perform one specific task that they had assured. Now each time one requires a different type of format exchanging they have to rush and mess with another device. Blaze media pro brings an end to all these hurdles in the way to universal access of information. It offers an one stop venue for all the your digital requirements. What better can it get than, that it’s available free for trial for 15 days on net and can be downloaded easily. About the author: Mansi gupta writes about video capture. Learn more athttp://www.blazemp.com/video_capture_software.htm

Media Player Shootout

by: James Kendall

Whether you call them media players, jukeboxes, mp3 apps, music managers, or whatever - we all need a proggy to listen to our digital music with, so we decided it was time for the Online Music Blog ( http://www.onlinemusicblog.com ) media player shootout. For the sake of this article I am only going to discuss players you can get for free and I am not going to go into p2p apps. So with that, lets dive right in. For my money there are are only 3 choices - Winamp, iTunes, or Windows Media Players - but I'll talk a little about RealPlayer 10 as well. All of these applications share baseline features - playing various media files, cataloging digital media, etc. We'll focus on things about them that are different. Back in the day, we had Winamp, and it was good. Unfortunately the original Nullsoft team has all moved on and instead of the hacker cred that Winamp used to have back when Justin Frankel et all were on the job it is now just another corporate media player with a hazy future. Winamp lost a lot of momentum that it had when it released a ( very ) bad Winamp3 - but with the release of Winamp5 they seem to be back on track - it is useable, responsive, and has a lot of plugins and skins created for it. The major problem is that for all of it's features it is not much, if any, better then the two dominant media players that are tied to successful music stores iTunes and WMP. Additionally you have to pay $14.95 to get the pro version that add features that iTunes and WMP include for free. One of the bonuses of using Winamp is the ability to tune into all of the cool shoutcast radio stations. iTunes is, of course, is the digital jukebox front end for the iPod and the iTunes music store from apple computer. The iTunes music store was the first to get pay for digital music downloads right and it still has the largest legal downloadable catalog on the net giving the iTunes jukebox a hefty advantage. If you are using a Mac then it is a no brainer - you should be using iTunes as you media player, but even if you are using Windows iTunes provides an attractive alternative. The iTunes store is superior ( imho ) to the Windows Media based stores such as Napster and with the legendary Apple ease of use in full effect iTunes makes a great Windows based Jukebox. Noteworthy is the Apple Lossless codec that allows one to rip CD's to the ACC format that sound as good as the CD itself to our ears. On the negative side, the iTunes jukebox feels heavy on moderately powered PC's compared to Winamp or WMP. It runs a little slower, seems to use more resources, etc. Last (of yea, except for RealPlayer... ) Windows Media Player 10 is one of Microsoft's best pieces of software and is some much better then the last generation of MS media players. The jukebox itself is stuffed with features such as its ability to monitor changes to your digital media files and update itself, simple sync and burn, ratings, and the auto tag features are all very nice. One of the changes in V.10 is the ability to rip files if the format and with ( or without ) the DRM of your choice. You also get the ability to listen to Internet radio streams with WMP, and although they tend to be more corporate then the hip shoutcast radio you can still find some good music. WMP also features a lossless ripping of CD's but I was less impressed with the results then I was with Apples Lossless. And finally there is RealPlayer. The free RealPlayer 10 is better then previous version although that is not saying much imho. It still takes over your file formats by default, tries to force you register, runs in the background (phoning home ?) unless you can find the settings to tell it not to - all of the problems that it has always have. I say stay as far away from Real as possible even if you can use "Harmony" to use your iPod with the Real store. While I may be being over critical of Real's jukebox - I do think that there are other alternatives that are less intrusive and have better feature sets. All in all I think that either iTunes or WMP is a solid choice and far and away the best media players available. Winamp is a okay too as long as you don't need to rip music or burn it back to a CD - but it is worth the download and install just to listen to Shoutcast stations from time to time. Personally I use WMP at work and iTunes are home, so take that for what it's worth. I think that I like WMP a little better, but not so much that I would take the time to switch my iTunes set up at home. About the author: This article was originally posted on Online Music Blog and was written by James Kendall ofCopacetix Digital Creation.

How Do You Write Songs?

by: Larry Ford

There was an interesting post today on a message board that I go to. It was about a guy that just started a new band and he wanted to know if anyone could give him some songwriting tips. First off, there isn't a wrong way to write songs. But after you've done it for a while, you'll find out that some ways to go about it are easier than others. This is how I do it. 1. Music and Melody Come First I never fit a melody to pre-existing lyrics. It’s forced and it doesn’t sound good to me. When you write the words before the melody, you’re trying to force the melody to fit your lyrics. The result is it doesn’t sound natural. A lot of songwriters start with an idea. It's just easier for me to know what angle I'm coming from. Usually how it happens with me is the music comes first and the melody comes right after that. Why do I write the melody first before my lyrics? If I don't know how many notes are in the melody, how do I know how many syllables need to be in my lines? I don’t. If there’s 8 notes in the first part of the melody and 6 notes in the second part , you’ll have to have 8 syllables in the first line and 6 in the second. Let’s say you want to put 4 lines in each of your verses, You’ll have 8 syllables in the first and third lines and six in the second and fourth. Here’s an example: In the song "I want you to want me" the lead singer for Cheap Trick wrote a four line melody that had six notes in the first three lines and seven in the last line. He knew that there had to be six syllables in the first three lines and seven syllables in the fourth. I Want You To Want Me I want you to want me =six syllables I need you to need me =six syllables I’d love you to love me =six syllables I’m begging’ you to beg me =seven syllables 2. Figure Out An Idea To Work From Ideas are everywhere. You can write about what a friend of yours is going through. You can write about what you're going through. I keep a journal just for this and make daily installments. I write down everything that I can think of that happened that day. And after a few months of that, I'll go through the journal harvest my ideas. I treat my journal like the garden it is. Most every song I write comes directly from my journals. 3. Put the idea into one to two sentences The best way to show you this is to give you an example. Keeping with "I Want You To Want Me", here’s the basic idea: "I want you to want me as bad as I want you." You only want one idea for each song. If you have any more, your song is going to last too long. And you're listeners won't be able to keep up. Believe me, nobody but you will understand them. I know from very bad experience. 4. Write The Lyrics To Fit The Melody Once you have the idea, you start to explain the idea in the verses with the number of syllables you have in the melody. The chorus is just the overall idea in a summed up fashion. That’s how I write songs. Music and melody come first. The idea comes after that. Write the idea in a statement form. And then, write the lyrics to fit the melody. About the author: Larry Ford runs a weblog giving beginner guitarist's quick and easy tips to help them build their skills. His weblog can be found at http://www.larrysjournal.com

How to Write a Chorus

by: Free Music Education Center Team

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Marble/9607 A song without a chorus can hardly be called a song. This rather bad statement is my personal opinion so if you don’t agree, that’s okay. But I would like to start this lesson with this statement, not only to wake you up, but rather because it’s one of the key-statements of this lesson. So if you don’t like songs without a chorus and never intend to write one, than probably you won’t feel at home in this class this month. I must say I never felt at home when I was at school but that’s another story... But if you do stick around, even if you don’t like to write choruses, maybe you will change your mind about them. A chorus is more or less the heart of a song, at least if it’s a good one of course. Why this is true is not as obvious as it seems. People always tend to remember the chorus of a song, while it may not even be the most interesting part of the song at all. The easiest explanation of course is the fact that the chorus is usually played a couple of times during a song. But if this was the only reason why a chorus is the heart of most songs, how come then that lots of choruses are easily forgotten, even if they are played seemingly endless in the fadeout of a song? So there must be more to it. In this lesson we will see it’s hard to reveal the secrets of a good chorus. Writing a good chorus may be more a matter of the heart (something called talent?) than the mind. But since this counts for songwriting in general, don’t be afraid; there are always some tricks to learn to help those who have to struggle a little more then the lucky, more talented ones. And believe me, most of us belong to the first group, to put it stronger, even the most talented ones often join the struggling crowd when they’re not inspired... In lesson 5, we already saw some elements a good chorus should have. Now we will take a closer look at these elements, by discussing some rules you should follow if you want to write a good chorus. These rules are: It should be catchy It should contain elements of the rest of the song It shouldn’t be an anti-climax Following these rules, you obey to the most important rules of writing a good chorus. We will take a look at these rules in the next paragraph. You can also click on the links to go directly to the discussion of each of these rules. Rule 1: a chorus should be catchy What makes a chorus catchy? The easiest answer (for me at least) is: listen to all those golden oldies. Almost all the classics from the sixties and the seventies have catchy choruses. Of course The Beatles were real masters at this, but it seems all the bands that became famous in those days were able to write catchy choruses which seem to stick in your mind forever. Who doesn’t know the chorus of Honky Tonk Women for example... Listening to examples is a great way to teach yourself, and that counts for songwriting too! But there's something more to say about this issue too. Keep it simple One of the main rules in writing a good chorus is to keep it simple. Try to avoid to make the chorus sound complicated. This doesn’t mean that as long as you keep it simple technically spoken the chorus will sound simple! A chorus built around a difficult, but well written musical part will be easier to listen to than a technically simple chorus which is written in an unlogical manner. Consider The Average Listener The above indicates you’ll have to keep the average listener in mind while writing your chorus. Most listeners aren’t musicians so don’t forget that! The average listener will often look for things he/she can recognize, a certain general feeling of what sounds logical and which has been developed during many years. You would probably think now that I’m saying most listeners are dumb but that’s not the case. So don’t treat them like that. They won’t buy the same stuff over and over again (‘though this seems to be heavily contradicted by the house-rage of this time....) so you will have to keep them anxious. In the chorus you can try this by experimenting with backing vocals, special arrangements etc, but be careful and don’t overdo things. So in general you could say the secret to write a catchy chorus is to make it sound logical. Rule 2: a chorus should contain elements of the rest of the song In this lesson we already saw a chorus is one of the most important parts of your song. In most cases, it's the part of the song which will be played the most often. So it better be good! Another trick to make your chorus a good chorus is to give it the treatment it deserves! Since it's the main element of your song, whether you like it or not, it should get all the attention it needs while you write it, to gain all the attention it needs when you play it. This brings me to a rather contradictionary issue: writing songs is a very intuïtive job and that also counts for writing choruses. But to obey to the rule that a chorus should contain elements of the rest of the song, you should at least examine and evaluate your music thoroughly. In mine opinion just writing your music from the heart will generally result in the best music, but it's not very sensible only to rely on your heart. Evaluating your music can be very useful and especially when it comes to writing a chorus. So no matter how you write, whether you write straight from the heart or not, you will have to evaluate your song. Not only because it will enhance your songwriting skills simply because you are "forced" to think about what you have written, but also because "technical rules" like these can only be followed by using technical means like evaluation. Since a chorus is the part that will be played and remembered most, it's the best place to "advertise" your song. Maybe if you consider the chorus to be the advertisement of your song, you will better understand the importance of putting elements of the rest of the song into it, making it kind of an excerpt of your song. Some advantages of doing so are: Recognition People will recognize the song by just hearing the chorus. But it works the other way around too; they will recognize the chorus as being part of that piece of music they accidentally hear when they enter a bar for example. Recollection People will remember your song much more easily. Because the chorus is an excerpt of the song, they will only have to remember the excerpt to remember the song. Why not using old school-tricks when they work fine? Strenght By putting elements of the song together in your chorus, in fact you are just making a miniature of your song. When you do this right, it will result in a very strong piece of music. Producers will be pleased when they see you have skills to achieve this, because they usually want you to cut out all the unnecessary stuff from your song. But what elements should you take? This in fact is completely up to you and depends on the song you are writing. Generally it works fine to pick some of the more melodic parts of your song, simply because most people remember a melodic piece of music better than a monotone piece. And that's about all there is to say on this issue, but there are some pitfalls to look out for. These tips might help you avoiding them: Don't copy too much While putting the best elements of your song together into your chorus, you are taking the risk of ending up with a chorus that unveils all the secrets of your song making the rest of the song predictable and dull. Therefor it's better not to copy too literally but hussle things a little. Tricks like changing the key of the parts while played during the chorus can help. Just consider all the best parts to be some sort of colour-palette, which enables you to make various versions of the same picture. Don't make the chorus too long. Better leave out some good parts than desperately putting everything together in the chorus! Good choruses almost never exceed 6 lines. As you can see, this part of writing songs can be very tricky. Don't forget your skills will grow after every song you've finished, even the more technical skills that you'll need to write a good song, like evaluating your song and deciding what parts should be reflected into the chorus. I deliberatly used the term reflect, because this is one of the most vague issues of writing songs, making it one of the most difficult parts of it. But aren't things always getting more difficult when technique meets feelings? Rule 3: a chorus shouldn’t be an anti-climax The third important rule seems simple but, unfortunatly, is not. Just like the second rule we discussed above, we will discover it's again a matter of walking on the edge. You will have to carefully find your way between what's good and what is bad, and there isn't a clear path to follow. But again, experience is something you can't buy but which comes free with endurance and perseverance. So just don't give up when it's getting tough; your peaks will get higher and your downs won't be as low as they used to be! So a chorus shouldn't be an anti-climax. Clear! But why is this rule not as simple as it seems? I will try to explain this. If you follow the first two rules you won't too quickly end up with a chorus that's an anti-climax, just because these two rules ensure your chorus will be more or less the heart of the song. But still your chorus can become an anti-climax, simply because another part of the song attrackts too much the attention. A very impressive instrumental break can easily put the chorus in the shadows. So if your chorus is an anti-climax depends not only on the chorus itself, but on the rest of the song too. To avoid this disturbing effect, you will have to be very careful where to put that instrumental break, charismatic leadvocal-line etc. To make things even more complicated, you will have to watch out for the chorus to become the climax of the song itself! This can be disasterous to your song, because you will end up with a song which repeats it's climax over and over again, with the result that you end up with a song that doesn't seem to have a climax at all! So every time you write a song you will have to deal with the problem to write a strong, catchy chorus but on the other hand not to make it too strong.... This virtual contradictionary is hard to solve, just listen to daily radio. But there are some ways to help you with this: Distinction To avoid the chorus and the climax of the song to interfere with each other, you can try to make a very clear distinction between these two rivals. You can do so by putting them apart from each other "physically" (give each of them their own space in the song), or by making them sound as different as the song allows you to. The clearer the difference, the less chance of interference. If you can't beat them... Another aproach is to put the climax in the chorus itself. This works best when done in the final chorus. This solution requires you to change that chorus, otherwise it won't work, as we discussed earlier in this lesson. These changes can range from just changing the key, adding additional instruments (like backing-vocals) to even changing the lead-vocal line. When done right you will end up with a super-chorus, which won't be forgotten easily! Some Examples I will briefly discuss each example and will try to show you how the above is implemented into the examples. I also will point at some tricks I used in these choruses. Don't forget there are numerous examples to come up with, each with different combinations and interpretations of the rules we discussed in this lesson. Just consider these soundfiles as my contribution to what this is all about: music and the fun of it! The first example is the chorus of Alien Tune, taken from the live-recorded third cassette of The Stag, Reset. Lesson 6 included the intro of this spacy song so maybe it's not a complete new-one for some of you. This version of the chorus is played at the end of the song, and to make it stand out to the other choruses just because it's the last one, the third line is added to it, which is actually a repetition of the first line. The original chorus has only three lines, this final one has four. Another trick I used in this chorus is as simple as efficiënt to draw the attention a chorus needs. I used an effects-processor to distort the lead-vocals. Keeping the original lead-vocaltrack and putting the distorted vocals behind it creates a very dramatic effect. A band like ZZ-Top used a trick like this in their song Manic Mechanic. The next example is also taken from Reset, and is more melodic than the previous example. This will make it a lot easier to remember this chorus as you will probably notice, but this of course is also due to the fact that parts of the lyrics are repeated a few times. Another trick used in this chorus to make it the eye-catcher of this song are the backing-vocals, which answer the questions "asked" by the lead-singer. Using several backing-vocals and making them "fade out" into the lead-vocals enhances the choir-effect. Recorded in a real studio in stead of the rehearsal-room this can sound real impressive. Please note the sound-sample starts with the last line of the verse, which features a break to focus the attention to the chorus even more. Another track taken from Reset, so recorded live at the rehearsal-room of The Stag, is the chorus of The Widow's Game. This chorus is an example of a miniature of the entire song. It contains parts of the main riff of the song, but the lead-vocals switch to a melodic, strong line, while they stick more to the rhythm of the song during the verses. The final example of this lesson features the first track of The Last Season, the first cassette of The Stag. This chorus is short and melodic, yet it sounds simple. A chorus like this is hard to forget, whether you like it or not. In this particular case, the trick I used to make the chorus stand out to the rest of the song is the addition of backing-vocals (again) and a more prominent role for the keyboards in comparison to the verses. Changes like this are great to draw the attention to the chorus. Taken from: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Marble/9607 About the author: Free Music Education Center provides free music lessons on all aspects. Taken from: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Marble/9607

Downloading Music!

by: Mike Yeager

MP3 technology was the catalyst to one of the biggest revolutions in the media business in nearly 30 years. When cassette tapes became popular in the late 1970's and early 1980's, the music industry did the now-familiar Chicken Little dance about its way of life being destroyed. The industry quickly co-opted that threat, turning albums on cassettes into a very lucrative business. In the mid-80's, CDs promised superior quality at lower prices, but we wound up only getting the better quality. Consumers never got the promised price break—album prices continued to climb. Those chickens would come home to roost soon enough. It's taken the music industry the better part of ten years to finally devise some legal alternatives to the P2P file-sharing networks, and now there are well over a dozen online music services legally offering a wide range of genres to satisfy most musical palettes. Aside from one service's downloads being three cents cheaper than the next, what sets them apart? Which one gives you most flexibility about how you enjoy your music? And which one really gives you the most of what you want for your money? About the author: http://www.a1-music-download-4u.info/