Tagged: music

Digital witnesses: memory Vs experience.

I have recently had the double-privilege of going to Stonehenge to witness the sunrise on summer solstice, the longest day of the year, and then onto Glastonbury festival, to witness er… lots of live music and people dancing around in mud. I’ve been to Glastonbury many times before but Stonehenge was my first time. As you can see, I captured some of it on my camera-phone, and naturally I wasn’t the only one. The photo above prompted a friend of mine...

Not being on "Team Bublé": Musicians, Gender and Unspeakable Inequalities

  “My buddy here has more bitches that the Oprah Book Club”  “Now I’m not gay, but if I was I would be rubbing this guy’s bald head all night long” Last week, I (along with 2000 other screaming women) went to see Michael Bublé play at the 02 arena in London. The above statements were both made by Michael Bublé as part of his ‘band introduction’. The all-male brass section all had nicknames, funny quips and spinning portraits.The whole section of...

Woody Guthrie Turns 100: The Folk Icon, His Music, and Social Movements

Two days ago marked what would have been the centennial birthday of iconic folk artist Woody Guthrie (1912-1967), perhaps best known today for his classic “This Land is Your Land.” His biography is a fascinating (and short) read and provides some context for the scathing social commentary in many of his 100+ songs. Much of his music is raw, simple, and emotionally charged – just a man and his guitar. But it was also forged in his own contentious politics...

The new "old" music industry

by bmckernan A recent article in the NY Times highlights a potential major shift currently ensuing within the music industry. As the article reports, while in the past most musicians depended on the support of a major record label if they ever hoped of gaining access to a large audience and becoming financially successful, today many artists have the potential to achieve the same goals independently courtesy of digitalization and online distribution. If this trend continues, it may be possible...