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(11/30/15 5:38am)
“Are you sick of this sh*t yet?” reads the first sentence of Pitchfork’s “Top 10 Albums of 1999” article published in 2001. “...Let's not forget the New York Times' incredibly out- of- touch list of the 25 best albums of all time. (One word: No.)” The introduction reads like an angry college student madly pounding at their keyboard, more concerned with establishing a flippant attitude towards mainstream music journalism than introducing a list for the best albums of the year. A Pitchfork article beginning in such a manner in the year 2015 would raise eyebrows with its complete lack of professionalism, yet it was this exact attitude that propelled the website into the cornerstone for independent music journalism that so many regard it as today.
(11/17/15 4:23am)
Sampling has always been closely intertwined with the idea of documenting and paying homage to the past. In his book “Off the Gangsta Tip,” author and professor Tim Brennan claims that rap music serves to be “both the encyclopedia and the built-in commentary on all the African cultural production that existed before it.” Sampling has become the most efficient and poignant way of achieving this effect. Structuring a song around one from the past that’s preloaded with history and connotation is a great way for people to be conscious of all of the influences that have led up to the modern sample—and it sounds amazing.
(11/10/15 4:31am)
Dark Side of the Moon has one of the most iconic album covers of all time. The prism transforming the solid beam of white light into a glorious array of colors perfectly embodies the sounds of the album itself: earthly themes of time, death and capitalism seamlessly twisting and melding with guitar riffs along with the occasional saxophone solo to create a beautiful rainbow of emotion.
(11/03/15 6:38am)
There are some sounds that are so iconic and influential, so pervasive in modern music that most listeners don’t notice them due to how effortlessly they find their way into hundreds of songs. About 90 percent of those sounds come from the Roland TR-808, a drum machine from the early ’80s that redefined electronic music.
(10/27/15 4:53pm)
Drake is currently walking a dangerous, thin line between the world’s most popular rapper and the Internet’s biggest meme. The side he plans to fall on could change the face of popular music for better or for worse.
(10/20/15 4:23am)
While his personality is constant in the public eye, Kanye West has put on many different hats and transformed his image within the music industry throughout his career. Starting off his legacy by producing hundreds of beats for some of the best hip-hop musicians of his time, he soon moved to rapping over his own beats and collaborating with the fresh talent coming up alongside him. Currently, he’s on a vicious path for world domination, with lines out the door just to pick up his latest shoe designs.
(10/06/15 4:01am)
Music scenes are fickle things. Artists in New York or Los Angeles will constantly create new music that zooms through the general population like fashion trends. If it’s already been done, it’s not worth talking about. Metropolitan areas with more than a million people have so much creative manpower crammed into such a small area that, by sheer luck, the right people can come together and make a sound the world has never heard before.
(09/29/15 3:29am)
The identity of the musician has always been intertwined with the identity of the struggling soul. Some would argue that one has to be sad to make good art. This notion has been prevalent ever since people began admiring artists such as Pablo Picasso; pain was energy, an energy that could be used to create beautiful imagery for less tortured individuals.
(09/23/15 2:29am)
I’ve heard friends and music critics alike describe many an album as “timeless.” I more often than not agree with their selections; The Velvet Underground & Nico, Loveless and Endtroducing….. are just a few of the albums that still sound fresh when played today. But in the back of my mind, I fear that these albums just operate on a longer timeline, their relevancy decaying at an unnoticeable rate, but all the while still decaying.
(09/14/15 4:46am)
It’s difficult to imagine that Art Paul Schlosser’s Wikipedia page was written by anybody other than Art Paul Schlosser. The page of the local Madison legend is riddled with typos and curious unsourced tidbits of knowledge about his personal life, reading more as an autobiography than an informational web page.
(09/08/15 12:15am)
Seeing iLoveMakonnen for the first time live was a sobering experience. I am ashamed to admit that I know almost every lyric from each song on his mixtapes “Drink More Water 4” and “Drink More Water 5.” No, I am not from Atlanta, and no, I do not move bricks of cocaine as my day job, but there’s something electrifying in jumping up and down while belting lyrics that have no relevancy in my daily life. So when he appeared at the Green Stage at Pitchfork Music Festival this summer, I readily buried my thoughts about how I would feel about this music in even 10 years and sang every song I knew.
(04/29/15 4:28am)
It’s not discussed too often, but musical composition is wedded to mathematics. The way certain frequencies and tones sound good together is an artistic extension of physical laws that govern our universe. We currently live in an era of human technology where a computer program can make a piano composition so genuine that humans can’t distinguish its creation from a fellow human’s. Slowly, every part of our society that we used to accredit to mysticism and luck can now be explained by modern mathematical algorithms. Perhaps not in our lifetimes, but soon enough maybe even the human brain will be seen as nothing more than a series of biological wires and programming.
(04/20/15 10:48pm)
If you haven’t heard of Tidal yet, don’t worry; the streaming service backed by various big name artists such as Jay-Z and Kanye will whither away and die before you have a chance to stream one of their lossless quality songs. Two weeks ago, a conference was held in which several millionaire artists advertised the “premium” streaming service that would promise more money for artists on the site. This didn’t go over so well, as it’s hard to convince the common man that a millionaire on stage asking for more money has their best interests at heart.
(04/14/15 4:33am)
In the beginning there were artists. Single-celled organisms that produced art on a small scale. Some artists would group together to form bands that were able to make more complex music at the same rate. A bunch of artists got the bright idea to see what happened when they all clumped together and performed art all in one place. This petri dish became known as the music festival. 8,500 individuals attended at the Monterey Pop Festival way back in 1967.
(04/08/15 2:04am)
Last week, Mos Def released a series of videos via FACT Magazine of him covering various MF Doom songs. With each successive video, a hooded figure revealed more and more of his face until the final video, when he finally unmasks himself as the Grammy-nominated emcee. The mask imagery is a clear homage to MF Doom’s iconic mask that few have seen him without. More of a tribute than a proper cover, Mos Def rapped several of MF Doom’s songs, using the same lyrics and the original beats.
(03/25/15 7:15am)
Madison Mayor Paul Soglin and Monona Mayor Bob Miller used their experiences as city officials to give leadership advice at the Young Professionals Talks on Leadership Tuesday.
(03/24/15 7:27am)
Alright. It’s here. Every year Revelry Music and Arts Festival becomes bigger and bigger. This year there’s expected to be around 10,000 students mobbing the streets of Langdon to watch the festival, and the new lineup is sure to make those projected numbers become reality. So enough squabbling, let’s dive right into this lineup and see just how big this year’s Revelry is going to be.
(03/10/15 3:52am)
It’s still the part of March where Midwesterners mistake 40 degrees for sandal weather, and already 2015 has proven itself to be a massive year for hip-hop. There have been huge releases from rap giants like Drake and Kendrick, plus many promising drops from up-and-comers like Action Bronson and Vic Mensa. But the most recent hip-hop development that has me over the moon is Kanye West single-handedly bringing grime music into the mainstream spotlight.
(03/04/15 4:04am)
The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, a group representing the interests of 1,300 record companies around the globe, announced Feb. 26 that Friday is now the universal release date for all songs and albums. According to IFPI chief executive officer Frances Moore, the move has two purposes: to allow consumers easier access to music across national borders and to reignite the excitement of new music being released.
(02/18/15 4:33am)
The mics weren’t turning on. Our guitarist called out for the help of one of the owners of the house, who first had to wade through several dozen sweaty bodies before he could assess the situation. I grew more anxious with every unsuccessful utterance of “check” into the microphones. It was our first DIY show in Madison, and a basement filled to the brim with anticipating eyes was watching us struggle to get our equipment working.