Plans for next year

My plan for next year is to successfully get through the year of the music business course whilst simultaneously working on my own music and earning money at the same time by having a part time job. Specifically with the course, my goal is to gain a different perspective of music in the business side of it and learn how to grow other artists as well as my self in the industry. When I finish my 2nd year of college in which I plan to get a distinction, as I get through the years of studying music business I will be performing and going to studio to release my album during the years of university and the techniques that I learn during the music business course I will apply on my own musical career such as promoting music and also creating my own business to seek for other talented artists that have potential in a career in music.

The steps I will take to achieve my goals is clearly related to working hard and working smart. One example is to continue songwriting and writing my music to eventually release an album and promote it. One thing that is also really important in my goals is to keep active online so I can keep people aware of what I release etc. I also plan to release a music video next year which has nothing to do with my album but I plan to release a single just to keep my social media active so then people are excited to hear the album which will be released in the following year.

Solo performance week four

 Throughout the week I have been practising songs that I am planning to use in my performance in January. I have been using dynamics and techniques in my songs to make sure they all have a difference in terms of tempo, tone and dynamics.  In my performance in January I will be doing a couple of original songs using piano which I will show a lot of dynamics not just on my vocal performance but also on my piano playing.

In today’s class, I performed human nature by Michael Jackson with accompanied piano and me playing guitar however I think I will play the piano with all my songs to avoid any complications on stage.

EXP idea

My idea is to do an album and to do a short documentary showing the process of the album recording and idea process.

funding application

My name is Paulo Reiss and I am applying for funding for my European tour that I am planning to go on soon. The best way to get this funding is by getting arts funding because I feel like it is a better approach to getting funded as I meet the criteria and since I don't have a massive fan base it might be harder to get enough money from the fans to go on tour. The funding I will be applying for is youth music as I am a student it makes sense to apply for something that relates to me as a young musical artist. I meet the eligibility criteria as it mentions about being able to support different music making projects across a variety of wide range music which is something that I will be able to do and I do already as I make my music not just based on one genre and I work with different artists with different musical roots. It also mentions being an active musician which is something that I do at the moment particularly with making music and being socially active on social media platforms. This will help me a lot in the future because due to already have been given funding it will give me more exposure as I will be going on tour which could possibly allow me to go to other places as my fan base begins to increase. This will most definitely be good for the fans too as they will get to see me more often.

The funding will help me a lot as it will help in many areas during the tour such as: travelling from show to show by car and also in places where I might stay in a hotel. It will help with food throughout the journeys, petrol and equipment that is needed for performance such as: guitars, drum kits and pianos. It would also help me with clothes that I choose to buy in different countries which I can use when I travel across Europe.

I want to do this will impact my career in the future in a great way as this will allow me to perform a lot more which will build up my fan base and opportunities will arise from getting the funding. Also, by getting this funding since it will make me grow as an artist financially and successfully, It means that as my career succeeds I won't need funding as I will start to make money for myself by the success which will begin to build. Therefore this will have a very big impact on myself as an artist for the rest of my career.

Besides from the impact the funding will have, I will develop it by possibly trying to collaborate with a bigger artist from the industry which will increase my audience by quiet a lot as my music could be interesting to a different crowd that might not necessarily listen to my type of music and it will also open doors for me as I might stand out on social media which might help me to get noticed. I could also collaborate with more artists in the future and which will lead me to better opportunities and more success.

A european tour will cost a lot of money but as I mentioned, it will have a career impact which will create fantastic opportunities. The funding might have to range to up to one hundred thousand to one hundred and fifty thousand pounds. I don't have a very big audience so I clearly wouldn't need millions to invest into a european tour as my venues would be much smaller in comparison to artists who are very successful worldwide.  The fund I will be applying for is youth music, this is the most suitable funding for me because it is focused for the younger generation and I meet all criteria,  whereas other  Art funding  require multiple songs to be released and be played on the radio before applying for funding which means I wouldn’t be suitable for those art funding as my music has not been played on the radio yet.

To what extent is current music from post 2010 influenced by the social and political issues of society today?

Intro
I am choosing to do the research on this topic because there are loads of things that I can talk about within this subject. This topic is very wide, opinionated and debatable which I have loads of ideas about. In this essay I will mention my opinion as well as using evidence in artists' music and lyrical content. Additionally, I will talk about the controversy that the hip/hop genre has in society and context of recent hip/hop inspired songs, in terms of issues that were happening in that time when the music was released.  I will also do research on artists lyrics and what the songs they write  mean to them and what made them write it, this is evidently a very important thing because researching artists and the music that they create can be used as a piece of evidence to prove the point that hip/hop music is influenced by society and political issues. However, just because one artist writes a song about their problems with political issues doesn't necessarily mean that all other hip/hop influenced artists have a problem with society. I will be using research and facts on the internet to show how different artists around the world have used their own music and lyrics to try and create a change in society.

Body

Decades before 2010 (80's and 90's) All genres of music was very greatly known for it’s specific use of lyrics in relation to social and political issues. Artists like Tracy Chapman and Tupac wrote their songs based on the social and political issues of society back in their day. For example, Tracy Chapman, an artist from the late 80’s and 90’s admitted that the song was about a regular life in the city, and the difficulties that life itself is a very complicated journey, especially when living in urban decay and when racism was a huge problem for African Americans as they were seen as just a “Person of colour” or “Different”. Even though society has changed a lot, social and political issues still run in this day and age and musical artists use this as a way to write music to express their feelings about this. An artist named CNG released a song in 2017 named “Not My President” and the name of the song comes from the recent event of Donald Trump becoming president in America, this become very clear when he says, “everybody tripping in the street's gotta mugging me cause I'm a young MEXICANO in the industry”. This lyrical sentence is related to the situation about Donald Trump saying that people of the Mexican race only bring, “drugs, crime and they are rapists”. This is a valid point in Donald Trumps mind, but the term “rapist” coming from him can be seen as a hypocritical statement due to the fact that he has been involved with several allegations in relation to groping and sexually abusing females in the past. One of these victims is Jessica Leeds, where she admitted to the New York Times that she had been groped by the President in the early 70’s, even though the allegations haven’t been in further investigation, there is a chance that this could be true and is a massive contradiction to his thoughts on Mexicans being “rapists”. This song written by CNG has been used to go against Donald Trumps beliefs and opinions on the country and people of Mexico, this song has also gained a lot of popularity due to the fact that the songwriter is a of Mexican ethnicity and has chosen to use music to go against Donald Trump.

Body

Regardless of all these issues against Donald Trump and political issues etc… This is only one big issue that is being seen around the world, which means that just because one artist has an issue with it doesn’t mean all artists have an issue with this. Especially to do with the fact that the world care more about what more worldwide successful write about rather than what underground or less popular artists choose to express in their music. The topic of social and political awareness can also be even more difficult to come across when most of the top hits in the world are mainly about heartbreak and relationships. The top ten successes of 2018 all have no relation or lyrical content that relates to the political and social issues of society. For example, the song “One kiss” by Dua Lipa and Calvin Harris is a song, which talks about trying to get into a relationship with another person and the typical upbeat love song of this day and age. Therefore, music isn’t necessarily as politically involved or written about in comparison to the 90’s mainly based on the fact that within the last three years top ten successes have been all about love and relationships. Where as in the 1990’s the top successes were mainly about the social and political issues of society back then and the problems that people faced during that time. Political music was the saviour of communities in the 90’s as society has become much a better place to be with a decrease in racism and segregation. However, in nowadays music, music is all about escapism, successful artists such as: Bruno Mars, Katy Perry and Ed Sheeran are all about partying and drinking, it’s almost used in a way to forget all about the negativity in the world and the issues that we all go through in these current days and divert from all those things that stop people from being happy. Nonetheless, is that the right way to go? There is a positive and a negative about that use of song writing in nowadays music as escaping from reality can sometimes make a good impact as well as making a bad impact around the world. By this I mean that escaping from reality can be used as a way to make people become happier and create a vibrant and cheerful atmosphere towards one another simultaneously, as all the social and political issues are happening. However that is more to do with creating an emotional illusion and forgetting about what is real, whereas the downside to this would be that politically, the world can become worse and people will become revolting towards society and the beliefs that people have around the world will have less of an impact on politics and the world can become a very dangerous place.

Body

In 2012, a punk band from Russia called “Pussy Riot” got arrested for hooliganism after performing an anti-Putin song in a cathedral in Moscow. The band has written and performed a song called “Dear mother of god, chase Putin away” which was about getting rid of president Putin as they were against his beliefs of church state confluence and protested for equality of woman and civil rights. This was a very big scandal at the time as it provoked violence during the live performance which caused an arrest to take place for the band members. During the years, the band have released several tracks in which some of them relate to the politics and issues in the world. In 2018, they got sent to jail for two weeks for invading the pitch because of human right abuse during the world cup. This just shows how over the years they have stuck with their beliefs and continued to protest against anything that they didn’t believe in. This in general just gives a clear indication that post 2010 artists have continued to use music to express their feelings towards politics and social issues. However, in my opinion I think that music in the last 10 years has dramatically decreased in terms of using political and social problems as part of their songs. This is mainly because society has developed a lot since the 80’s and 90’s in terms of racism and political issues. Nevertheless, there is a statistic that shows that 64 percent of American’s believe that racism remains a major problem in 2018, according to NBC news. One example was that two black men had been arrested at Starbucks for waiting for a friend and the workers had told them to get out because they weren’t buying anything but no violence or abusive language had been made from the two men, therefore this had caused a massive outrage for some American citizens as they believe the reason they got arrested was because the workers were racist. Regardless of this, as seen throughout the music industry, there have been various collaborations with mixed racial artist around the world which is something that there never was within the music industry and creative industry. Also, this is seen within music writing as artists from the last couple of years have embrace the use of different genres and cultures of music to progress their music making. Artists such as Charlie Puth have adopted this technique of using music that black artists from the 90’s used in their music in terms of drum patterns and melodies that were popular and relevant at the time in R&B and soul music.

Body
A university in Florida done massive amounts of research on how Love and Relationships dominates pop song lyrics and the differentiation of lyrics now and from the 20th centre. A music professor from the university researching about modern lyrics stated that, "The most notable difference between the song lyrics of the two eras was the prevalence of bad language in today’s songs. Many of the words, particularly in rap songs, are blatantly sexual and would have been considered obscene in the 1960s." Evidently, what this quote is simply trying to convey is that in modern music the lyrics are very specifically direct in terms of using sexual language in comparison to a few decades ago where songs used to be more elaborated in a way that there was metaphorical language and more thoughtful ways of conveying the love and relationship genre. Therefore, what this also indicates is that in modern music we are surrounded by songs that are very blatantly sexual and explicit language to make the song come across in a more direct way which in my opinion means that political issues and social issues are almost forgotten about by the way the last few decades have gone by as in the 80's and 90's, it was about using intelligent lyrics and language devices such as: metaphors and imagery to make the song come across in a certain way which conclusively suggests that political issues was something was taken more into account in the 80's and 90's purely because racial segregation and social issues were more worried about back then than in the present moment.

Conclusion
In conclusion, to what extent current music is influenced by social and political issues of society today is truly based on the facts that current modern music displays a very direct way of using lyrics to make the listeners understand what the song is about, particularly in love songs where sexual language is used very explicitly in comparison to the 80's and 90's which definitely suggests that music is currently under this phase of just having fun and forgetting about the problems that the world is facing. This relates to having fun and partying to create an emotional illusion in our minds to almost heal our minds from all the stress. Furthermore, we cannot forget that that in respect to having majority of current songs revolving around sex and love, there are artists who have expressed their feelings towards politics and social issues but haven't necessarily gotten the respect or recognition they deserve, but in my opinion this is because in the last couple of years artist that have tried to replicate the political way of lyrical writing in their music have been artist who haven't got a very big or massive supporting audience which makes it much harder to make a change or make a realisation in the publics eyes of all the dangers that all of us humans could end up facing in the future.

Harvard reference
Florida, U. (2018). 05 » Love still dominates pop song lyrics, but with raunchier language » University of Florida. [online] News.ufl.edu. Available at: http://news.ufl.edu/archive/2007/05/love-still-dominates-pop-song-lyrics-but-with-raunchier-language.html [Accessed 13 Dec. 2018].

BBC News. (2018). How Pussy Riot burst into World Cup final. [online] Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-44886550 [Accessed 13 Dec. 2018].

BBC News. (2018). Pussy Riot allies remain defiant. [online] Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19255291 [Accessed 13 Dec. 2018].

YouTube. (2018). Tracy Chapman - Fast car. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwrHwZyFN7M [Accessed 13 Dec. 2018].

YouTube. (2018). Donald Trump doubles down on calling Mexicans 'rapis.... [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jaz1J0s-cL4&t=24s [Accessed 13 Dec. 2018].

Graves, L. (2018). The sexual misconduct allegations against Donald Trump – the full list. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2017/nov/30/donald-trump-sexual-misconduct-allegations-full-list [Accessed 13 Dec. 2018].

NBC News. (2018). Poll: 64 percent of Americans say racism remains a major problem. [online] Available at: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/poll-64-percent-americans-say-racism-remains-major-problem-n877536 [Accessed 13 Dec. 2018].

Spinditty. (2018). Top 10 Social & Political Songs of Our Time. [online] Available at: https://spinditty.com/playlists/Top-10-Social-Political-Songs-of-Our-Time [Accessed 13 Dec. 2018].


BigTop40. (2018). Top 10 Biggest Songs of 2018. [online] Available at: https://www.bigtop40.com/features/top-songs-of-2018/ [Accessed 13 Dec. 2018].

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Band workshop phsychedlic soul

In this first lesson of band workshop we worked on Psychedelic Soul, we worked on "Papa was a rolling stone" and we didn't struggle at all with the making of the song but we had to find a way to make the song grow because the original song was quiet simple and empty but the singers added harmonies which made the song sound fuller. The genre of soul is usually known for its space in terms of the sounds used but the vocals and lyrics are the main focus for the listener because of the process of improvisation during performance which we managed to re-impersonate. However, to change this we decided to add in harmonies in the chorus to make the song sound unique and to keep the song interesting during the different parts of the song - especially in the chorus.

Solo Performance week 3

In this week we performed our songs again including both dynamics and changing tempo within our songs, what I managed to do with my song is I started off with a mid tempo on the verses and within certain parts I slowed it down to make it more intimate and I repeated certain things on the chorus.

We also looked at how to take our songs to the extreme using our instruments, when it came to playing the guitar I was using different effects to see how we can make our performances different and stand out. 

Solo Performance week 2

In week two of Solo Performance,  we performed our song for the second time using the dynamics we learnt in last weeks lesson. In my performance I added in different examples of dynamics such as: changing the volume of my vocals through out the song to create a flexibility in the song and to make it different. Also, naturally as I go higher in pitch I usually go louder in terms of volume, however, I do something completely different which is in that specific phrase I keep the volume the same as I go higher in pitch but change my tone softer instead of being too harsh. In terms of the guitar I also changed the way I play the guitar as I went through the song by changing the way I strum the guitar.

After this we looked at different examples of how we can change tempo to make our songs sound more interesting. We looked at an example by Queen "Bohemian Rhapsody and we looked at how they change their tempo from starting off slow for the first half of the song and then the tempo gets faster as it leads to the Acapella parts.


This week I will add this into my song, I will play around with the tempo and use certain parts throughout the song to slow down or speed up the song.

Solo Performance/ week 1

In our first lesson of Solo Performance we performed our chosen song for the performance in January and discussed and worked on dynamics.  We looked at various examples of dynamics using an artist called Bjorke and her song "its oh so quiet" which shows various examples of dynamics in terms of changing the level of the vocals throughout the songs and the change of tone from soft to hard.


This week I will practice this dynamic technique in terms of using my guitar playing and vocal performance. I will change the level of the way I singing certain phrases and play around with tone which also helps with making the song sounding more dynamic

Portfolio - Research and Planning

My goal is to collaborate with other artists in terms of: producing, song writing and releasing. I would also like to work with people who come from different genres that I'm not used to working with or making, the reason I want to do this is because I don't want to limit myself to one specific genre because if I limit myself to one genre I wont be able to work with people from different areas of music. I am planning to release my music on: iTunes, Spotify,  Apple Music and a music video on YouTube. I plan to promote my music by doing campaigns on Facebook and Instagram which will come up as adverts on these social media platforms. As well as working on my own music, when I also go to university I am planning to study music business, this involves working for record companies as an A&R or manager etc... I am choosing to do this so I have a back up plan and so it is guaranteed I will have a career in music as long as I study hard and smart. However, my main goal is to evidently work on my music and get my music to a very good level. I will most likely co produce because to mix and master all by myself is too tiring and I wont have enough time to work on other things. I plan to also have my EP done which will follow the concept of love, relationships and heartbreak. However, these songs will entail a story that each song can have similarities to. By this I mean each song has a story in which the lyrics are very meaningful and thoughtful. Once my EP is complete, I plan to promote it online social media platforms and music apps such as: Apple Music and Spotify. When I save up money I will plan to have a press release which will make people aware of the music that will be released. This includes letting the people know who you are and information about yourself as an artist.

I have identified this as my target because I am in a place in my career where I have improved a lot vocally and I can write many songs and come up with very catchy melodies. Therefore, even though there is always room for improvement, I am at a stage where I can write many songs and put them on social media and promote my music. My dream is to hopefully get a record label or a management to be interested in my music and get opportunities from that. 

One of my role models is Bruno Mars, he is a 33 year old singer/songwriter/dancer/producer from Honolulu, Hawaii, United States. He started off his career as a Singer when he was a young child and in his home town he would perform in local places and on the streets. As he got older he performed in small concerts and would cover songs live. At the age of 18 he got signed by Motown records in which he managed to perform in different places, however, as the record label realised that he didn't know how to write music, he got dropped some time after which caused a massive upset for him. However, sine he got dropped he stopped making ,music for a while and then he managed to gain the confidence and  ability to go back to music and right for his dreams. He turned to songwriting when he moved from Hawaii to Los Angeles and started to work with a producer called Philip Lawrence. He suddenly started to find success by songwriting by writing songs such as: Brandy's "Long Distance" and Flo Rida's "Right.,Round." Currently, Bruno Mars is one of the most successful artists in the world and the last album he released was two years ago which was his most successful album with 3 million album sales. One thing I can do is use songwriting as a tool to write for other artists and use this to find a different way to get into the music industry. 

The steps I will take to achieve my goals is clearly related to working hard and working smart. One example is to continue songwriting and writing my music to eventually release an album and promote it. One thing that is also really important in my goals is to keep active online so I can keep people aware of what I release etc. One thing that is important for me is to keep my songs written very dynamic in terms of genre and what I can do to make the songs sound professional and enjoyable for someone to listen. One important thing for me though all of these years is to figure out who I am as an artist, this means what kind of music I want to make and what I enjoy doing. I'm still learning what kind of music I enjoy doing but I know for a fact that I love to make and write catchy, melodic and upbeat music because it makes me happy and I enjoy it a lot more which is something that I will continue to learn from by listening to a lot of music and finding that motivation that makes me want to move forward and succeed. In terms of songwriting I will expand my songwriting knowledge by possibly reading love and relationship poems because my songs are generally about the topic of heartbreak and relationships. When it comes to melodies, I will use my voice notes on my phone to record one or to vocal melodies which I come up with as well as production ideas that I come up with to develop a structure.

The content of my portfolio will be a record of all my performances on the exact days throughout the year and also keep record of all the songs that I release which will also help me see the progress of all my songs. I will arrange this in terms of dates and where my performances were located. As I continue to perform on a regular bases, I will also keep track of the capacity of all the venues I will perform at. 

When it comes to getting my music video filmed, the person who will film it will be a video producer called Pierre Jermaine, he is a professional video editor, director and producer. He's worked with many artists such as Rita Ora and many other UK based artists. Equipment that will be used is a canon camera, tripod and a dji ronin which is used to get better camera angles for different shoots as Pierre has used this equipment in recording other artists. 

YouTube. (2018). Bruno Mars - Unorthodox Jukebox : The Making Of The Album. [online] Available at: https://youtu.be/-e_2IXvKKJA [Accessed 7 Dec. 2018].

YouTube. (2018). The Smeezingtons at the 2012 ASCAP "I Create Music" EXPO (Part 1 of 2). [online] Available at: https://youtu.be/-d2Lt0Zk3aE [Accessed 7 Dec. 2018].

Cbsnews.com. (2018). Bruno Mars on songwriting: "It has to sound like me". [online] Available at: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bruno-mars-on-songwriting-60-minutes-overtime/ [Accessed 7 Dec. 2018].

Personal Statement

The course I am choosing to study at university is Music Business. The reason I have specifically chosen this course is because I want to develop the skills to pursue a music career in the industry, this could be as a: manager, A&R, marketing and many more options. Even though I also want to have a successful career as a singer/songwriter, I am taking into consideration that becoming a successful musician is not guaranteed and that I need to think outside the box and study something that can help me as a musician and help other people too. This course will most definitely help me because I will learn how to make my music become noticed and also to be able to help upcoming musicians.

During my time outside of college, I have been part of projects with people with have worked in the industry. This involves performing to A&R's and also taking part in competitions. Recently, I have thought about what makes a musician stand out and what a singer/songwriter needs to go through in order to be successful. Therefore, as I have been part of many things in the industry, I have started to be able to imagine myself in a position where I search for talented people or even work for a record company.

My UAL course (Level 3 music performance) relates to my chosen course at university because it covers the foundation of music business, song writing, performance etc... However, since it is a performance course, it involves a lot of performance aspects in terms of live shows, song writing and vocal progression. Regardless of it being a performance course, it helps to discover myself as an artist and know what I want to achieve, therefore, choosing to do music business will continue my goal of trying to promote myself as an artist and most evidently have a career in music. However, I also studied employability in the UAL course which involves setting up a tour which involves money and knowing how to travel and much more. Therefore, this is something that relates to the business side of music. In this course I also wrote my own portfolio which helps me discover myself as an artist and know what I want to achieve. In this year of college I am also fortunate to be invited to perform and the London Skills event at the Excel which will be a fantastic experience for me and build up my confidence as an artist.

When it comes to releasing music outside college I produce and release my own music which requires a bit of knowledge in terms of promoting the music. When I released my music video for one of my songs I used promotion on Youtube for my song to appear on adverts before someone would click on a music related video. I also put the song on different music platforms such as iTunes, Spotify and apple music. I have worked with many musicians outside college which gives me a greater perspective of the talent that exists. Normally we focus on ourselves as individuals, however I have realised that as you help other artists you learn things from them and you use that as inspiration and motivation for your own career path. I have helped artists with artwork and given important advice on  how to release their and how to make themselves stand out. This includes putting their songs on social media platforms and advice on promotion on those specific platforms such as: YouTube and Facebook. My dream is to become a successful artist and sell music around the world, however, as I have a lot of experience in terms of helping other people with their own work and I am going to study music music business, I know for sure that I will have a great career in music business.

My plan for next year is to successfully get through the year of the music business course whilst simultaneously working on my own music and earning money at the same time by having a part time job. Specifically with the course, my goal is to gain a different perspective of music in the business side of it and learn how to grow other artists as well as my self in the industry.

Portfolio week 2

My goals include to collaborate with other artists in terms of: producing, song writing and releasing. I would also like to work with people who come from different genres that I'm not used to working with or making, the reason I want to do this is because I don't want to limit myself to one specific genre because if I limit myself to one genre I wont be able to work with people from different areas of music. I am planning to release my music on: iTunes, Spotify,  Apple Music and a music video on YouTube. I plan to promote my music by doing campaigns on Facebook and Instagram which will come up as adverts on these social media platforms. As well as working on my own music, when I also go to university I am planning to study music business, this involves working for record companies as an A&R or producer etc... I am choosing to do this so I have a back up plan and so it is guaranteed I will have a career in music. However, my main goal is to evidently work on my music and get my music to a very good level. I will most likely co produce because to mix and master all by myself is too tiring and I wont have enough time to work on other things. 

When I save up money I will plan to have a press release which will make people aware of the music that will be released. This includes letting the people know who you are and information about yourself as an artist.

I plan to also have my EP done which will follow the concept of love, relationships and heartbreak. However, these songs will entail a story that each song can have similarities to. By this I mean each song has a story in which the lyrics are very meaningful and thoughtful. Once my EP is complete, I plan to promote it online 










March- Song writing/Production


April- Song writing/Production/mixing/mastering


May- Audio Single release/Promotion/
June- Music video: find director
July- Music video: planning
August- Music video: shoot/edit


September- Performances/radio interviews/making of merchandise


October- Performances

Ethnography

The genre I am picking for my ethnography is 80-00's Hip/Hop/Rap. The reason I am picking this genre is because a lot of the things that the genre of Hip/Hop talks about is drugs, money and females, however, artists like Tupac talk about very specific, real life situations. This makes it very raw and honest in terms of context and lyrics which allows there to be a balance in terms of what the genre talks about.

The genre of Hip/Hop in the 00's was mainly melodic and rhythmic. By this I mean that the instrumentals were really rich and full in sound, there was a lot of bass and instruments such as piano had a very catchy melody which is what made the song stand out. An example of this would be Changes by Tupac, the lead instrument is the piano which has a very catchy, melodic and cheerful feel which makes the song sound very positive and rhythmic. In my opinion, the way I hear these songs in my head makes me think that music has changed a lot in the last 20 years because Hip/Hop/Rap used to be a genre which sanded out a lot because of the fullness of sounds used in addition to the vocals and lyrics, however, in this day and age this genre has changed massively in my perspective because it is minimal in terms of sound in comparison to the early 2000's.

Hip/Hop was and still is a very controversial genre because it also started in the 1980's in a New York neighborhood called South Bronx when aspiring rappers from that neighborhood would make songs developed in a way that the communities struggles to find its own voice. Through the years of the 1980's and 1990's Hip/Hop was heavily influenced on negative things such as police, politics and drugs. This is evidently why this genre is such as a controversial genre because it negatively influences young people because of lyrics used and the context of the music itself. Swear words would be used in lyrics to demonstrate the hatred or the emotions that rappers felt on society or whatever the song was about and this would be a bad role model for young kids in there childhood.

Hip/Hop was made using real instruments and with vocals using a microphone and recorded into a musical software. The musical software would most likely be pro tools and this software came out in the 1980's in a time where Hip/Hop was beginning to create is own success. The music would be listened to on radio, live shows and shows that were on MTV such as MTV unplugged and the top 40 charts.

Most of the Hip/Hop/Rap genre would be made at a mid/fast tempo where rappers would use a lot of lyrics in a single phrase. Ass there was a lot of lyrical content in these lyrics, the songs would usually last a good 4-5 minutes. The reason songs were this long is because of the problems and political things that happened in that specific time in which the songs were released. There was a lot more to talk about because back in the 80's Hip/Hop music used there lyrics to talk about things such as racism and problems in society such as shootings and crime which caused a lot of popularity in the charts and success began to rise for the genre of Hip/Hop.

The Hip/Hop style changed variously depending on the type of music that was being made, in relation to lyrics and the intent the musician is trying to propose. However, most rappers would be dressed with: Hats, Jewellery and sometimes baggy trousers and jeans. A lot of the time on stage rappers would jump on stage and get the crowd to rap in unison to the them. There wasn't much dancing in terms of choreographs and dance routines but free styling would be used in live performances to show off the talent of the musician.

The effect of this type of music would go from jumping and waving there hands up and down to break dancing and street dancing. There would also be clapping sometimes but majority of the time this genre would create a lot jumping and also shouting from the crowd to interact with the performer on stage.

In terms of Media, Hip/Hop in between the 80's and the 2000's didn't involve social media. It only involved MTV, live shows, music show awards and radio. This is how artists would promote there music in comparison to current music. Even though the process of MTV and radio is still used, social media is now heavily relied on due to interactions with fans around the world and recording companies. Whilst in the earlier days of Hip/Hop you would be noticed by going into a record label and perform one of your tracks or performances in local venues. This genre in the 80's would be sold on Vinyl, in the 90's it would be sold on CD and in the 2000's music would be streamed and downloaded on musical platforms such as: iTunes,  Spotify and Sound Cloud.

Portfolio week 1

Section 1 - biography

1. What is his real name?

Peter Gene Hernandez

1. How old is he?

32

1. Where is he from?

Honolulu, Hawaii. United States

1. What is his brand called?

Bruno Mars

Section 2 - his career now

1. What music genre does he work in?

Pop/R&B/ Soul/Funk

1. What music roles has he worked in over his career?

Singer/Songwriter/Producer

1. What is his current position in the industry?

His current position at the moment in the industry is as a singer and a songwriter

1. Where does he work at present?

On Tour

1. Where is he performing on NYE 2017?

 The Bank at Bellagio, Las Vegas

Section 3 - building a career

1. At what age did he start? (or in what year did he start?)

In early 2000's he started writing songs for many artists such as K'Naan's "Wavin' Flag."

1. How did his career start?

His career started in the early 2000's when he moved to Los Angeles from Hawaii to pursue his musical career, which he managed to get opportunities to write for other artists whilst simultaneously trying to pursue his own brand as a worldwide famous musician.

1. What were his early steps as a musician?

He started off performing in different venues in his home country and performed to try and get his name worldwide

1. What steps did he take in order to go from a hobby to make it his career?

He invested in his music by saving money and going to studio, when he had songs prepared he would send it to contacts he had such as record labels and A&R’s.

1. What was his 'big break'?

Just the way you are Section 4 - a special career

1. What techniques is he famous for?

Using 90’s retro sounds in his music whilst simultaneously keeping it very modern 

1. Name one of his famous tracks.

Versace on the floor 

1. Describe a proud moment in his career.

When he performed at the super bowl in front of 80,000 people

1. What is one of his most memorable gigs?

Super bowl 

 Section 5 - your opinion

1. What important moments helped his career to grow?

Being turned down by major labels helped his career to grow because it made him work harder and make music that he enjoys doing rather than making something that Doesent mean anything to him 

How has he stayed successful for so long?

By constantly releasing his music every single year and touring his albums that get released roughly every two years. 

1. What is the secret to his success?

Originality, right now he is a pioneer at using retro sounds in modern day music. 

1. What have you learnt from Hype that you can apply to your own career?

Gap Year

aking a gap year could:

• develop your transferable skills, including your communication, leadership, time management and decision making;
• increase your work experience, through paid employment or voluntary work;
• allow you to learn a new craft, such as surfing, teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL), filmmaking, cookery or even the art of kung fu;
• hone your existing skills, for example basic language skills, IT skills and teamwork;
• increase your confidence and independence, by taking yourself out of your comfort zone
• help you decide what you want to study at university

Strengths and Plans

I would say that one of my main strengths is my songwriting. This is due to having so many years of practice and songwriting which has become a strength of mine. An example of this would be the songs that I managed to write in the first year of college for my FMP, one of the things I had struggled with was managing to stick to my original plan from the beginning of the term for each week, whether it was writing a song one week or rehearsing for another persons project. This therefore caused me to lose control of the direction I was going with my weekly work which caused me to have to rush the songwriting part of it. Nonetheless, since I have a lot fo experience, I managed not to stress out and got all my work done before the deadline.

My plans for after college is to continue my music journey by writing songs and work myself to get new opportunities such as getting a record deal or even a publishing deal, However, since the future can't be controlled I have to also be focused in the educational part of music when I go to university. By this I mean maybe studying music business to grasp my knowledge on a different side of music.

Evaluation

As this FMP has come to an end I have to be honest and say that I have done a great FMP but there are many areas that I could've improved in to make my music stand out even more than it has. One area that could have been improved is the mixing, for example, in one of my research studies I was influenced by artists such as Maluma and Charlie Puth. Maluma was mainly influenced on the genre influence of latin music and Charlie Puth on the production side of things. Both of these artists' music have songs which are mixed to an amazing standard, however, my music was well mixed but could've been mixed to a better standard in terms of levels of instruments and maybe even vocals to a certain extent. Due to this I can only say that I worked to the best of my ability but in comparison to the artists I was influenced there needs a lot of work in terms of mixing to get the song sounding more professional. In terms of fitting into the music industry, I would say my music fits into record labels such as: Island records, republic records and atlantic records. This is based on the fact that my songs are mainly pop/latin influenced which could be suited for these type of record labels because artists like: Justin Bieber, Shawn Mendes and some others pop artists. One area I struggled with and I still struggle with is the mixing part of making music, this is really important because this is what makes the songs sound more professional and suitable for radio and adverts. To make myself get better at mixing I need to make more music and research different youtube videos to make my music more professional. Something I would do differently is do more research during these 10 weeks to make my mixing better and collaborated with more production students to get more experience in producing.

My key areas of research was production techniques and genre influence, this includes looking at genres similar to the EP and see what production methods they use to make the music stand out. this includes things like drum patterns and similar chord progressions. I have been able to introduce the research into my music, for example, one of my key areas of research included looking at Charlie Puth's techniques when producing, this included using layering to make songs sound fuller and richer, I used this technique in many of my songs which helped my songs sound fuller and more professional. I think I have completed enough research because I have been able to fit these things into my music which has helped me progress massively. I don't think I needed to research anything else, however, I think I should've perhaps researched even more to see what other information could help me progress. I have learnt to layer instruments when needed and I have increased my instrumental knowledge, by this I mean using my strengths which is playing guitar and interpreting it in my music and my guitar lessons have become useful to put things I have learnt such as: pentatonic scales and other scales in my music to show a diversity of skills.

My research has developed my practical work because it has helped my production skills to progress in terms of levelling out instrument and even vocally knowing how to affect vocals and introducing vocal effects such as reverb and echo to make my vocals sound clean and more professional. I have therefore been able to incorporate this into my music and develop my musical skills. I think my practical kills have developed immensely, this includes my vocal skills because I have practiced with other people and developed things such as vocal range and vocals runs which I have been able to introduce into my music. My guitar skills have also improved due to my weekly guitar lessons, in the beginning of the year I didn't know guitar scales and how to play them but I have been able to increase my scale knowledge and become confident in playing them.

Problems I have encountered whilst doing my FMP was my timing and keeping up to date with my work, I didn't always keep tack of my work which slowed down my progression, however, I managed to keep up with my work. Also, one thing that also caused problems was my plan always changing, from deleting songs to not finishing them. This slowed down my project which I regret doing, but I have learnt to keep my unfinished tracks because I may use them in the future, however this didn't stop me from finishing all my work in this project. During the term I did overthink a lot in terms of my songs and trying to make every song sound perfect, nontheless, I thought that it was better to monitor my progress rather than overthink my songs which will evidently help my songs progress at a quicker rate. I had to reduce the amount of songs I did otherwise I wouldn't be able to balance my written work with my practical work. I didn't use the production rooms a lot for my project because I have a home studio that I used for my whole EP. However, when it came to featuring on other people's projects I used the rooms to feature on there projects and record songs from their EP.

I worked with Monet on my project, she featured on one of my songs which helped my song sound amazing because my initial idea was to get a female interpretation into the song to create a balance in the concept of the song and in the vocals. I also collaborated with: Ashley, Juan and Melika which they featured in my cover performance. Juan played the piano and sang with: Me, Melika and Ashley. We were able to use rehearsal rooms to practice the song many times and develop ideas such as harmonies and lead vocals. My collaborations only had one problem which was being able to find time to rehearse enough or to even get my songs recorded. However, I managed to get my songs recorded in time. I overcame these problems by being in contact with the people I am collaborating with and use the time affectively. I enjoyed collaborating because it has helped me develop my confidence and work with other people has also helped me work harder because it requires a full group effort to progress.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

FMP - The proposal

Introduction - The Proposal 
In this project, I will focus on completing three to four songs which will be part of my FMP. I will try to get a few collaborations with Monet and another artist from outside the college and one to two of the compositions will be performed in the summer gig. In these tracks, I will gain my musical and production skills in order to make my songs sound professional. The reason I choose to do a couple of tracks rather than a single is because I want to gain experience on collaborating with other artists and be aware of time management and plan my work carefully. The main reason to perform one of the songs live is mainly to do with promoting my songs. The good thing about performing the songs live is that it is a good way of promoting my music as myself as an artist, also, since this EP has different aspects of collaboration, an artist that features on my EP might have a certain group of people who like his or her specific music style, however, having collaboration might get an audience who would necessarily identify themselves with my style of music to maybe appreciate my music or even enjoy my way of writing or producing music. My EP will be released on different music platforms such as: Sound cloud and iTunes as well as social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. I will be using these social media platforms and social media platforms because they're the most popular platforms out there which will help my EP to get noticed by different audiences and people on the internet to listen to my music. Since this is all in relation to promoting, I will also use business cards which I can give to them at the end of my performance, the card will have my Facebook, Instagram and YouTube links to my original music and music pages so that if they like my music they can go to my social media and check out any other music related posts and I can keep them updated in terms of future music releases.

Context Studies:
Since I am a songwriter and I normally start out writing a song on guitar, I tend to record my guitar melody down and vocal melody on logic so I have a certain idea of how I want it to sound using my voice recorder from my iPhone so I remember my ideas and so I can develop my song. Since I will be collaborating with other people, I will get some of my class peers to input their instrumental ideas by booking practice rooms and having jam sessions to get some ideas on how the track could sound. At the moment, I would say this is a beneficial way of making the music because it puts less pressure on the artists and makes the process hopefully easier to go through, it will also develop my sound as an artist and know what kind of EP I want to make. This will be a very exciting process because my collaborations might change the way I choose to introduce might vocal melody and the direction I choose to go musically. By choosing to do an EP, I will develop my musical skills as well as my production and social skills. In relation to social skills, I mean being able to work with other people and sharing my ideas with others to make a great EP. This will evidently have a positive impact on my music as I will be able to work with other musicians or producers in the future without worrying or being uncomfortable. As well as making an EP can positive as I get to work with other people, the negative side of releasing my music is getting criticism from people who don't enjoy my music which I personally think might be a good thing because it then allows me to analyze my own music and know how to make my music sound even better, not necessarily to fulfill a certain audiences needs who don't like my music, but to be able to take criticism with a pinch of salt and show progression through the music I make.

Research Plan
In this project, I will look at the work of many artists such as: Luis Fonsi, Maluma and other pop/Latin influential artists. The reason for this is because my EP is mainly based on that pop/Latin type genre. By listening and researching their music it will help me use similar technical and musical skills to make my music sound current and catchy. This will also help my songwriting as I will have more inspiration in terms of what I want to write about. The main idea is to mainly have an EP with the concept of love and heartbreak which is what I want to write about. However, the productions will have to be catchy and melodic and the lyrics need to have a special meaning so it doesn't become boring or too repetitive for the listener. This is why looking at different artists that have similar types of songs will benefit me because I can get inspiration from these artists and use techniques that they use in my own music. Also, since one of the songs will be performed live, I will also research live performances from these artists' songs so I know how to be on stage and how to deliver my song live to make the audience feel my song. Since I am doing a ballad, I need to perform the song in a specific way that makes the audience interested, I can do this by making eye contact with the audience but not move around too much whilst on stage because moving around too much might shift the attention away from the emotion of the song. To make sure the audience remain interested throughout the entire song the main focus is the vocals so I need to make sure to put full emotion into the song and connect with the lyrics so the audience feel the emotion.

Methodology

For me to meet my target I will plan my productions before hand so I can have a certain idea of how I want to follow through with my tracks. As every week passes, I will put an alarm on my phone every couple of days to put a reminder of what I need to do or any idea I can continue with. In terms of my song writing, I will always use the cut-up technique which involves writing down lyrics that relates to the song I am trying to write. This makes the songs easier to write and sing about. In the production side of things, I always stick to the same strategy and technique, I start off with a four bar loop and make any melody that comes to my mind and continuously add in sounds that are catchy or melodic. However, every time I add in a different sound I think about the structure in terms of the pre chorus and chorus and where I can add in these sounds to make the song grow effectively. I will effectively progress in terms of lyrics by listening to songs that have interesting lyrics and that have a deeper meaning. My goal for this project is to successfully complete it with songs that I personally feel people which I will enjoy listening to and other people will too, and the only way to do this is to continuously to write songs but not force them out. One method I haven't tried before is putting myself in another persons shoes, this means writing a song from another persons perspective and use their feelings and opinion to write lyrics down on paper and try to see how it would make me feel if I was in that position.

Timeline
Week 1 - This week I plan to research different types of musical artists to get some inspiration and see what ideas I can get from different artists.
Week 2 - In the second week I plan to get into a recording studio and get some music started with the ideas I have got from the previous week.
Week 3 - This week I will start an idea for a track which I am planning to have a feature on with Monet, I will possibly start the track myself and send the track to Monet so she can have an idea for her part of the song.
Week 4 - In the fourth week I am planning to research my case study and what techniques and strategies I can use in my music.
Week 5 - Get into a practice room and rehearse songs that I have finished up to that week and make sure I am confident with the performance part of it.
Week 6 - This week I will try to collaborate with an artist from outside college and make a track which I can hopefully finish in that week.
Week 7 - Get into a rehearsal room and practice songs from other people's projects which I will take part in, this involves playing instruments on other people's projects.
Week 8 - Mix tracks that I have completed and make sure all levels from the songs are balanced.
Week 9 - Rehearse cover song that I might ask people to collaborate on for the live performance.
Week 10 - This final week is the FMP performance which will take place on the 21st of May.

Case Study
In this video, Charlie Puth talks about his strategy to make his music sound better and to stand out and this relates to my music because I will try to use different production skills or maybe even vocal skills to make the music stand out.

Case Study
This a video of Bruno Mars playing a piano and singing which shows the emotion and the intimacy between the audience and the singer which similarly relates to one of the covers in my FMP which I will perform live.