#🎤 Music Artists’ Composition and Communication | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

ericleo108 · 7 years ago

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🎤 Music Artists’ Composition and Communication

Overt and Subliminal Tactics and Techniques

Intro

This essay is an update of The Collective (Un)conscious in Music & Media. It is more concise and directed in light of newly developed information like ETM, ETM2, The Blue Treatise, etc. As you will come to see there are different forms of linguistics, lyrics, music, imaging and cinematic semantics and mirroring. What we will explore are the various forms those semantics and mirroring portray themselves and try to make sense of what most people don’t even know occurs or exists.

Influence

“If I have seen further it is only by standing on the shoulders of giants.” - Sir Isaac Newton

When we think about music we think of our favorite composers. No matter what genre though your favorite artist got their start learning from someone that came before them. Doing things like learning another artist's songs and what their favorite cords, words, phrases, or metaphors are, will mold the proceeding artist in their image. As with anything familiar, their artistry will be “imprinted” in their mind.

Recognizing Similarities

I will be focusing on hip-hop but as long as I know the proceeding artist I can tell how the succeeding artist has been influenced. For an example, in song, you can tell Avril Lavigne was heavily influenced by Alanis Morissette; just listen to “Head Over Feet” and then “Complicated.” As an example in rap, Asher Roth talks about how he thinks he’s been successful because he sounds like Eminem as described in the track “As I Em.” Those are vocal examples, musically some artists and bands use other band’s work explicitly and deliberately. For example, Crazy Town’s “Butterfly” is just a riff from The Red Hot Chili Peppers “Pretty Little Ditty.”

I heard “Butterfly” when I was in grade school but never knew it was from TRHCP until College. I knew the first time I heard “Pretty Little Ditty” though that it was the same musical riff as “Butterfly.” I’ve shown this to a couple people that have heard both songs and they couldn’t tell it is the same musical progression. If the lay-person doesn’t recognize this, as we go deeper into the human mind, it should become more and more self evident that the similarities between various musical and lyrical associations become harder and harder to see!

Musical Samples

What most people don’t see are music similarities known as “samples” which are small snippets of work from another’s artistry. Some examples of obvious samples are Kid Cudi sampling Lady Gaga’s acoustic version of “Pokerface” in “Make Her Say” or Mac Miller sampling Nas in “Nike’s on my feet.”

Music artists often take a certain sounds and create a whole new musical piece, creating an original work from a classic or a classic from an otherwise unknown original work. Often the sampled classic become a classic. Kid Rock’s “All Summer Long” sampled from Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama” is a great example.

Musical sampling happens so often certain sounds (and phrases) are considered intellectual property and are copyrighted by the originator. If you do not credit or pay for the rights to use the sampled sound of a copyrighted work the originator can sue for damages. The most quintessential example of this is Vanilla Ice’s “Ice Ice Baby” and Queen’s “Under Pressure.”

Less noticeably, Mac Miller was sued for "Kool Aid & Frozen Pizza" because he didn’t clear samples from Lord Finesse's 1995 single "Hip 2 Da Game." More famously, controversial, and recent this type of copyright infringement sampling happened to Robin Thicke who “ripped off” Marvin Gaye's 1977 hit "Got to Give It Up" when he wrote the smash hit "Blurred Lines" with Pharrell Williams and T.I.

These examples are either obvious, identifiable, or published in the news because it’s protected and institutions get involved in protecting their property. But to people or the regular person, they can’t tell, don’t care, and/or have no idea (Robin Thicke sampled Marvin Gaye, for example)! ...and why should they?

Understanding Metaphors in Hip-Hop

There are other ways artists share without having to worry about copyright. For example, besides creative commons, in hip-hop, artists use metaphor and samples to communicate in music. The following are common metaphors, themes, tropes, or cliches in hip-hop that are (pretty) universally used (to show talent and ability).

The “Lab” = Producing Hip-Hop, example:

“What, cause I been in the lab, wit a pen and a pad, try’na get this damn label off” - Forgot about Dre by Dr. Dre

“Back to the lab again yo, this whole rhapsody” - Lose Yourself by Eminem

“I be in the Lab” by G-Eazy

“Whipping” it in “the Kitchen,” example:

“Catch me in the kitchen, like a Simmons whippin' pastry” - Empire State of Mind by Jay-Z

“I throw down in the kitchen might hit your mom with my omelette” - Despicable by Eminem

"Woke up in the kitchen and I started mad whippin'" - Whippin' by Gucci Mane

Voltron/Weapons Capabilities of Transformers, example:

“Come on, you know the 'Tics connect like Voltron Collect so much grass, popo thinking we mow lawns.” - Shake Ya Tailfeather by P. Diddy

“But I form like Voltron and blast you with my shoulder missiles” - Just Don’t Give a F#$k by Eminem

"We form like Voltron, and GZA happen to be the head" - Can It Be All So Simple by Wu-Tang

“I'm a beast when you turn me on into the future cybertron” - Boom Boom Pow by The Black Eyed Peas

“Sleep on Me” is so cliche I don’t need any examples.

To identify metaphors you need to be able to recognize certain words and phrases and how they associate to one another. Another factor is the music. Like what is the tone/mood, is it reflecting another work, etc.? If you’d like to know how rappers use and write metaphors watch this video from the pro Novi Novak himself!

Lyrical Samples

There are musical samples but there are also lyrical samples. When it comes to “sampling” you have to be able to recognize patterns! Lyrical sampling is when you take another artist’s cadence (i.e. flow) and make your own (new and original) lyric progression. This typically starts with the first line from the original, sampled lyric followed by original lyrics in the same cadence (flow) as the sampled work. Some examples of sampling are as follows.

Drake samples Dead Prez’s “It’s bigger than Hip Hop” in “Over” starting with the lyric, “One thing bout music when it hit you feel no pain.” G-Eazy samples Kanye West’s “Stronger” in “Let’s Get Lost” starting with the lyric “Let’s get lost tonight.” Rita Ora is sampling Biggie Smalls’s “Party and Bullshit” in “How We Do” ...and 50 Cent’s is sampling 2pac’s “Picture me Roll’n” in “Places to Go.”

Artistic Communication

In music, especially in hip-hop, there is a form of artistic communication in musical, linguistic, and visual mirroring or responding. Sampling is usually a sign of respect and admiration. Some examples of positive linguistic artist communication is how Sublime honors KRS-One in their song “KRS-One,” Royce Da 5’9” honors Eminem in “Lighters,” Eminem honor’s Dr. Dre in “I Need a Doctor,” Taylor Swift honors Tim McGraw in “Tim McGraw,” or The Notorious BIG and Macklemore honors all of hip-hop in “Juicy” and “At the Party” respectively. An example of positive visual communication is how Justin Timberlake honors Michael Jackson posthumously in “Love Never Felt So Good.”

Biting

Biting is when you sample but “flip” the words/sentiment to make them negative or pejorative (i.e. a diss). Biting is more of a competitive condescending back-talk. Biting or negative artistic communication is all too common especially in hip-hop where it’s rampant and (almost) expected. Some historic examples of negative linguistic artist communication are 2Pac’s “Hit Em Up” and The Notorious BIG’s “Who Shot Ya,” Nas’s “Ether” and Jay-Z’s “The Takeover,” Ja Rule’s “Loose Change” and Eminem’s “Hailie’s Revenge.”

A less serious (showboating) example of negative visual artistic communication is how Hopsin makes fun of Tyler The Creator’s “Yonkers” in “Illmind of Hopsin 4.” Then The Game copy’s Hopsin’s look in “Martians Vs. Goblins” and Hopsin “calls-out” The Game for it in “Hop Madness.”

Subliminal Artist Communication

The previous examples in the “Artistic Communication” section were examples of overt artist communication. This makes sense because why would you subliminally honor an artist, if you like or love that fellow artist? You wouldn’t, you’d want to make it known. However, when it comes to biting (in contemporary artistry) the negative communication turns subliminal.

To be explicit, notice how Hopsin makes his communications overt and says the artist’s names and mirrors them while the mainstream artists never official say they are talking to Hopsin although it’s obvious once pointed out. This is done so the bigger mainstream artist (Tyler The Creator and The Game) doesn’t give attention to the independent artist (Hopsin). If you think about it, a mainstream artist gains (almost) nothing by mentioning a smaller independent or underground artist. These are the reasons why I believe subliminal artistic communication overwhelmingly, if not always, is negative and artistic communication between mainstream and independent artists remain subliminal.

Subliminal Examples

Another example of subliminal artist communication is how Immortal Technique’s “Reverse Pimpology” is (in my profession opinion) a response to 50 Cent’s “P.I.M.P.” for reasons that should be/sound obvious in the songs similarity, region, and lyrical insinuation. An example of an obvious but subliminal mainstream negative visual artist communication is when Taylor Swift literally bites Kanye West visually in “Look at What You Made Me Do” by making fun of his bottom row of diamond encrusted gold fronts.

There are other reasons to keep your influences, mirroring, and “artistic theft” hidden and subliminal. Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” famously and controversially came from Madonna’s “Express Yourself.” Bruno Mars definitely is insinuating the word “pleasure” in his song “Treasure” but probably only used that choice of words as to not be restricted from radio or other airplay for being explicit or obscene (because America sees it obscene to give women pleasure). Finally, Eminem’s Despicable is a freestyle over Drake’s “Over” beat and was Eminem’s way of protecting his throne at the top of the chart and showing he was a better artist than Drake who was a threat on the charts and awards at the time when both “Recovery” and “Thank Me Later” were released in the same year.

Eminem’s Subliminals

The most famous example of overt artist communication turned subliminal is between Mariah Carey and Eminem. After Eminem and Mariah Carey were done dating Eminem came out with a few songs mentioning Mariah, notably "Bagpipes from Baghdad." In what can only be deemed as a response Mariah put out "Obsessed" which features a shady character (pun intended) that looks just like Em in a room with posters full of Mariah obviously obsessing over her. Although Mariah never mentioned his name, Eminem responded with "The Warning" where he says "I'm obsessed now? Oh gee, is that supposed to be me in the video with the goatee?" ...which it obviously is.

People saw this subliminal communication and went, “duh” but would you have noticed it if Eminem wouldn’t have responded so overtly? What if you didn’t know who Eminem was? The only reason people see the subliminal communication here is because they are both big name artists, Eminem made it obvious, and the events surrounding the communication were closely connected in time and suspect.

Taylor Swift Visual Sampling Example

We started with auditory sampling and we have now graduated into visual sampling as just discussed starting with the “Biting” section. The most recent and relevant example of visual “sampling” in a music video is to look at what TIME magazine is saying about Taylor Swift’s “Look What You Made Me Do.” I picked this article TIME wrote about Taylor visually sampling other artists to show it doesn’t get any more normal and mainstream to connect and associate visual similarities and references. For example, TIME talks about what the dollar bill means in Taylor’s bathtub of diamonds and I agree with their assertion.

In other articles there are a lot of people saying that Taylor copied Beyonce because she has a bat in the “bank scene” like Beyonce does in “Hold Up.” I personally see that as a stretch because the bat is an independent association with no other references (to “Hold Up”)! What would strengthen that argument is that people think the V formation in Taylor’s dance scene is actually copying Beyonce’s Superbowl dance formation but that’s a stretch. It’s more likely Taylor is copying the “V” formation for “The Mighty Ducks.” There are other articles about how Taylor’s cage scene is referencing Lindsay Lohan’s “Rumors” but it’s just as likely she reflecting the cage scene from Miley Cyrus’s “Can’t be Tamed.” However, I do agree with the consensus that Taylor is more likely referencing “Rumors” IF she is reflecting either of them at all.

Visual Sampling

The best representation of a similar music video is Nick Jonas’s “Chains” and Jay-Z and Kanye West’s “No Church in the Wild.” The music composition and the visual themes are very similar. They are both shot in widescreen, same style, hue/shade, and have the same props and characters. The music videos are so similar (in fact) I expect that both (music videos) were made by the same creator. They were both made by the same label, Universal Music Group (UMG).

Two other music videos that are also from the same parent label (UMG) and are in the same style, hue, and have the same themes are Taylor swift’s “Trouble” and Eminem’s “Love the Way You Lie.” Demi Lovato’s music video “Sorry Not Sorry” is in the same style and format as “Beauty and the Beat” by Justin Bieber. If you take away the fact that one is in black and white, there’s a lot of similarities between G - Eazy’s “Calm Down” and Drake’s “The Motto” which is unintentional due to the production coming from different labels (UMG and Sony respectively).

Can’t Keep My Hands To Myself

The question becomes what does all this reflecting mean considering it’s coming from the same label, UMG? This isn’t just mindless, random mirroring. There’s a deeper metaphor and narrative that UMG is creating/painting. As discussed in ETM2 it’s like playing balderdash where you have to associate words without using certain words or phrases. In the same respect UMG is playing balderdash with music videos and giving people ideas without their conscious recollections, which is what semantic priming is as discussed in ETM.

For example, we assume Selena Gomez’s character in the song “Hands to Myself,” is in the house of the boy she’s obsessed with, the one with the curly blonde hair. However, Rihanna's song “Stay” could be about the same curly haired blonde boy just over at Rihanna's place singing with her while Selena’s breaking into his place and he shows up to catch her after he leaves Rihanna. The ending scene in “Hands to Myself” could just represent what Selena wishes the reality would be while the actual reality is Selena getting arrested for trespassing. Although confusing, this is plausible, and seems to be a semantic mirroring regardless coming from the same parent label UMG.

To add to the complexity of UMG’s message it seems that Camila Cabello’s “Havana” is (also) intentionally reflecting Selena Gomez’s “Same Old Love.” The music videos are very similar in cadence and composition and at the end of the “Havana” music video Camila says “...if you don’t like my story, go write your own” after, what we can assume to be Selena Gomez, ends up alone.

UMG’s Societal Painting

The point I'm making and the question we must ask ourselves is what message is UMG trying to portray with all these similarities between music videos? What psychological conditions are UMG trying to create with the similarity between “No Church in the Wild” and “Chains,” “Trouble” and “Love the Way You Lie,” and “Beauty and the Beat” and “Sorry Not Sorry.” For example, both Taylor and Eminem have poor romantic reputations and their videos are similarly about the dismantling of love.

Considering The Fascist Capitalist Nazi Ideology journal we can assume the motivation and goal is pejorative. Its seems intuition and common sense would assume UMG is boguarding love and having these artists create their own mental blocks. As I ask in the Leo's Inception journal, why are the majority of these artists not married with a family?

Next Level

To be able to see the aforementioned it’s all about pattern recognition of all the various forms. However, there's a whole nother level in writing lyrics where you say something that sounds similar, imply it, omit it, say it without saying it, or give a double meaning.

An example of a double meaning is Uncle Kracker's “Follow Me.” Is it about love or cocaine? An example of just omitting words is in Eminem’s “Toy Soldier” when he says “I went my whole career without ever mentioning ___.” It’s clear he’s talking about “Suge (Knight)” by the rhyme scheme in relation to his history and what he’s talking about, but he doesn’t say it.

As an example of saying it without saying it (more subtle, but [what should be] just as obvious) is Taylor Swift’s “Picture to Burn.” She says “So go and tell your friends that I'm obsessive and crazy. That's fine, You won’t mind if I say... By the way, I hate that stupid old…” It’s obvious she’s implying she's going to “say” he’s “gay” because what else would she tell everybody that’s gonna hurt him and rhymes with say and way?

An example of saying something that sounds similar is when Taylor Swift says “make fun of our axes” in 22. She clearly means “accents.” One of the most famous examples (that’s probably unintentional) is from Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space” when she says “I have a long list of ex lovers” because everyone thinks she is really saying “starbucks lovers.”

Some examples of songs that imply what you are saying is Miley Cyrus’s “Wrecking Ball.” I swear everyone I tell this to says they see it and can’t get it out of their mind afterwards! In her music video “Wrecking Ball” Miley is naked and crying as it sounds like she’s saying “you Ra-a-aped me.” It’s almost as if the producers of the music video deliberately wanted the listener/viewer to make that connection in their head between her vulnerability, tears, and what it sounds like she’s saying without saying it, and used those similarities to such a tragic event to (balderdash [as discussed in ETM2 and) sell records.

#🎤 Music Artists’ Composition and Communication

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