#well respected within the industry but not super famous or popular outside of it (to the general audience). He’s on programming

[starjxsung]

this might be...super controversial...but i truly truly hope this isn't skz trying to enter the western music industry if that makes sense. like how bts at one point just completely abandoned kpop and went full western shitty generic pop music. it's what drove me away from them and i would hate to see it happen to another group i love so much...if i wanted generic music, i would listen to american pop music. i like kpop bc it's so varied w the genres and the lyrics are always meaningful in some way. not to mention variety shows and just silly kpop content yknow that's more than half the fun of liking kpop!! you take that out and there's nothing there anymore especially when the music becomes bad. american tv shows are bland, most of the music is devoid of life. as much as i loved bts as people, it truly feels like they lost a bit of themselves AS BTS with songs like butter and ptd...idk. really hope this doesn't happen to skz.

WHEEWWWWWW opinions under the cut bc this is so long ✂️

I was just talking about this w my sister I literally would never say this on main™️ because people hate me on there as it is but I fully agree 🥲 I love bts but it’s so hard for me to get with their newer western stuff and it just feels like it has no emotion, no real substance to it. As an army I see people have this debate all the time and it’s such an issue that within the fandom, no one feels like they can have these conversations without getting attacked for it. But like it’s such a valid thing to acknowledge that hyyh era is vastly different from ptd? That is such a fair thing to point out and people who fell in love with bst, idol, dna, spring day, black swan, etc are allowed to not vibe either something that’s an entirely new sound. Especially one that emulates the generic pop music we already have in the west

There’s so much I could say about the tactics Hybe has to try and appeal to the west now and how it’s completely ruining classic kpop we all know and love, but I completely agree with you in fearing that they’ll want to push skz down the same road. And what’s unfortunate is that skz are at their peak right now in popularity, so I hope jype doesn’t see that as some weird opportunity to just change their sound or concept

I was also talking with my sister about how I think this is very much why Ateez seem to be quickly gaining traction, they’re very true to the original sound that they debuted with and their discography is so consistent and every album/single keeps being bigger than the last. Very traditional Korean sound and tying culture into performances and it’s all very well received in an atmosphere where we keep getting force fed all these western collabs. I know bang pd’s famous article about “removing the k in kpop” was a huge hit among stakeholders but I think for a lot of us, the “k” is what makes it unique. I like music in a different language, learning about culture, understanding how variety shows and award shows work. It’s a different subculture than we have in the west, and making them the same thing just negates the purpose of kpop in the first place. Like we don’t need “the next Justin Bieber” or “the next one direction”, those acts already existed. We have Jungkook and we have bts and skz and they didn’t get big for emulating western sound or culture, they got big for being a part of kpop !

Like could you imagine if we all collectively started saying “we need to make Bollywood more western! We need to make it appeal to western audiences!” How fucking disrespectful that would sound to the years of culture and uniqueness behind what it already is? Why are we doing that in Korean spaces now? Why can’t we just acknowledge when it’s a different culture and allow ourselves to immerse ourselves in it, learn about it, respect it and gain a newfound appreciation for something outside of western music? Why does everything have to appeal to the west??? 😭

I could go on about this for soooo long but I 100% agree with you and this was such a breath of fresh air to type out LMFAOOO

[our-happygirl500-fan]

I know I talk about Jason and Steph parallels a lot but one major similarity between them is that they are the only two members of that Batfamily that have actually died.

Now before any of you say anything about how Damian died or how Steph faked her death or how Cass died twice what I mean is they are the only two members of the Batfamily who were dead both in comics and dead to us the readers. When Jason died and when Stephanie died we did not expect them to come back, the reader thought that was legitimately the end of their stories. Jason’s death affected Batman comics for years and was the entire reason Tim Drake’s character was created, even now he’s still ‘the Robin who died’ despite the fact that literally every Robin has died at one point or another because Jason’s death was supposed to be exactly that, his death we never expected to hear from him again. Same with Steph, time and time again we’ve seen women stuffed in fridges in comics and then never heard from again. No one thought that Steph was going to come back, no one expected her to the most any one hoped for was a memorial case for her and Cass dreaming of her. Steph coming back was a surprise and a victory for women but not for a second in the years she was dead did any of us believe she would be alive again.

But everyone else? We knew those death’s were a gimmick, we knew they were coming back. The times Cass died she came back within a panel or a few pages, when Dick’s heart stopped we were shown he was fine the very next page, sure some of the characters thought he was dead but the readers were literally watching him have super spy adventures at the same time. When they ‘killed’ Tim they made sure to constantly show the reader that no he’s actually alive and he’s trying to get back home. Bruce’s death was a big event but we all knew it wasn’t going to stick, it wasn’t going to last not only because comics like to keep a status quo but also because Tim’s whole first art in Red Robin was all about proving how Bruce wasn’t dead and bringing him back. He was barely dead to the characters and he wasn’t dead to the readers.

Damian’s ‘death’ is something I refuse to acknowledge for many reasons. Firstly it was the beginning of the end for DC’s respect for Robins. Before killing a Robin was a major event both in comics and outside of comics, Jason’s death was a huge event that had a voter poll; his death changed the entirety of the Batfamily and is the entire reason Tim exists. Steph’s death resounded through comic fans and led to large-scale controversy and one of the biggest feminist movements in comics that the industry ever saw. War Games was the start of the angst period in comics where writers seemed to have a bet going on in who could make their characters more miserable or how many they could ‘kill’ off. In one way or another Jason and Steph’s deaths meant something and the repercussions resounded out both for the characters and the readers.

After Damian’s death though, killing a Robin became something DC did every week. It was nothing more than a plot point they could play with for a while instead of an actual important event, killing a Robin used to be an actual weighted choice that writers would have to be forced into by editorial (as they were with Steph) and something that came with heavy consideration (as it was with Jason).  With Damian though it was for nothing more than shock value and to sell comics.

Damian’s death is something I refuse to acknowledge merely on principle (a little like with the Ric storyline). The reason I don’t acknowledge Damian’s death is because at that point in comics death had become something of a joke the characters themselves even joke about it ‘no one stays dead anymore’ or ‘didn’t you die? I got better’ ect so we all knew that Damian could be brought back any time the comic writers wanted and Damian was too important of a character and too popular to not be brought back. After Damian’s death literally everyone who was sad about it said ‘well we just have to wait until they bring him back’ there wasn’t the resigned acceptance that fans had with Steph where we all believed she would stay dead because the girl killed off for man pain is pretty much never brought back and Jason’s death was such an intrinsic part of the DC universe for years that when he was actually brought back to life every one flipped their shit.

No one for a second believed that Damian’s death was permanent instead it heralded the age where DC would ‘kill’ off a Robin whenever they were stuck with what to do. Not only that but it also heralded the age where DC began to show what a huge disrespect they had for adopted families, before that point the Batfamily was the most famous found family there was and DC actually showed that just because they weren’t related didn’t make them any less than family.

However after Damian’s ‘death’ they threw it all out the window and started acting like adopted families were somehow less than blood families. DC writers would say in interviews that one of the reasons for Damian’s death was that ‘they wanted to show Batman holding the body of his dead son’ despite the fact that he’s already done that. Batman already did that in Death In The Family when Jason died. Batman already held the body of his dead son when he held dead Jason’s body, we didn’t need to see that again.

Also when Jason came back, the whole plot of Under The Red Hood was about how Jason wasn’t upset that he died, he had already forgiven Bruce for that, what he was upset about was the fact that Bruce let his killer practically walk free (because Arkham is a revolving door). He was upset that Bruce pretty much shrugged and moved onto Tim (no being mean to Tim here I’m talking about Jason’s point of view because it’s kind of messed up to be replaced like six months after your death). Jason wanted proof that Bruce cared about him and wanted Bruce in a way to kill the Joker so that the Joker could never hurt him or anyone else again but Bruce couldn’t give him that because it went against his code. However when Damian died the only thing that stopped Bruce from killing Heretic was Heretic’s resemblance to Damian. It’s incredibly messed up and is pretty much saying that Bruce cares more about his biological son than his adopted one, which is bad writing.

The fall out of Jason and Steph’s death were all about how their deaths had changed the world around them. Jason’s death made the Batman and comics in general darker in a sense and we’d always be reminded of this tragedy hanging over the Batfamily. Steph’s death rocked the Batfamily to its core leading to Barbara and the Birds of Prey going to Metropolis and Tim and Cass going to Bludhaven, Tim and Cass’s entire sibling relationship could be argued to have been founded on their shared grief over Steph since before then Tim had routinely stated that Cass creeped him out and that they weren’t friends, Steph’s death even changed the way writers wrote the Gotham underworld and made Black Mask one of the primary antagonists the Batfamily face that we know him as today. But the fall out of Damian’s death was not how it rocked the world, how it changed how Gotham and the Bats operated and shifted their dynamics, no the fall out of Damian’s death was all about trying to bring Damian back.

It could be argued that Jason was one of the first major deaths in comics and it wasn’t as normal to bring a character back in comics as it is today but it still is incredibly bad and messed up writing that Bruce did nothing but search for a way to bring Damian back when Jason didn’t get the same treatment. Even in comics we knew Damian’s death wasn’t permanent because all Bruce did was try to bring Damian back, even making a cover story that Damian was studying abroad because even the characters knew Damian would be back eventually.

Damian, Jason and Steph’s deaths were all gross and overly violent but it really felt like DC made us watch an 11 year old brutally die just for the heck of it. That’s why I like to say that if Cass and Steph had been around then Damian would have never died in the first place (I have mental images of Cass stopping Heretics sword like a badass while Steph whisks Damian away to safety).

To me I only consider the even Robins, Jason Todd and Stephanie Brown as the dead Robins because when they died we did not know they were coming back, they weren’t revealed to actually be okay in the next panel or comic they were dead and they were the only characters well and truly dead both in the comics and to us the readers.

They are the only characters in the Batfamily to truly beat death and they way they beat death in comics and metaphysically, parallels each other. Steph came back due to public outcry and the girl wonder feminist movement, when it was revealed that she was alive in comics she said it’s because Black Mask didn’t kill her, she survived, she was stronger than a gross male and gross male stereotypes it was a victory both for Stephanie and for every girl who loved comics. Jason was brought back because the guy who came up with Under The Red Hood had a really good idea; in comics he was brought back through a mysterious force to force Batman to face his past regrets.

Jason Todd and Stephanie Brown are the only Robins to actually come back from the dead.

[jdiep95]

Mariah Carey: Top 10 Most Iconic Songs

To celebrate the holiday season, which has really become the season of Mariah Carey this year, and “#All I Want For Christmas Is You” finally becoming a #1 single, I am sharing with you my “Top” lists of MC songs every Monday and Tuesday up until the 25th. For example, we’re going to start things off with the Top 10 Most Iconic Mariah Carey songs; on Tuesday, we’ll look at remixes. All songs mentioned these lists can be found on streaming services (e.g. Spotify and Apple Music). That means deep, deep cuts like “Slipping Away” off the B-side of the “Always Be My Baby” single, and “Help Me Make It (Through the Night)”, Mariah’s cover of a country song, which aren’t available, aren’t included. Unfortunately, that also means the entire Glitter soundtrack will not be mentioned as it is not yet available for streaming. #JusticeForGlitter #Loverboy2020 Let's make Loverboy MC's 20th #1 in 2020!!

To explore the most iconic MC songs, we have to look at streaming numbers (based on Spotify data, accurate as of Dec. 2019), MV views (based on YouTube data, accurate as of Dec. 2019), appearances on concert set lists, but also it’s prevalence outside of the Mariah fan base. “Butterfly” is an iconic ballad within the fan base, but pales compared to another empowering song like “Hero”, which non-MC fans most likely know even if they hate Mariah.

Is the list TL;DR? No worries. I compiled each list into a respective playlist, starting from No. 10 and ending at No. 1, so you get to listen to the Most Iconic MC songs while on the go.

https://open.spotify.com/user/jdiep95/playlist/1T0OU0p1cjR82LV1XX7f7j?si=AT9_aL0kSgmxySvIasZjsw

10. “My All” Butterfly

No. of streams: 37 182 150

MV views: 142M

“My All” makes its way into almost all of MC’s concert set lists since its release in 1997, appearing most recently in Mariah’s Caution World Tour. In this way, it gathers a lot more exposure than some of her other #1’s, such as “Dreamlover” or “Honey”. Despite its relatively low number of streams compared to other songs on this list, the number of views for the main music video is actually placed sixth on this list, and for good reason. The MV for “My All” is arguably the most artistic of MC’s catalogue, if not at least the steamiest. The video is in black-and-white, and features Mariah Carey floating on water with cutscenes of some hot model. The song appeals to a more specific audience, mainly adults, but the incorporation of Latin guitars will evoke a certain headiness seen only in a handful of Mariah songs.

9. “Vision of Love” Mariah Carey

No. of streams: 25 938 743

MV views: 25M + 2.6M*

*Includes a live version from the Daydream World Tour released on Mariah Carey’s official Vevo channel

This may be confusing; overall, “Vision of Love” received the least views and least streams of any of the songs listed here. Why is it not last on the list? Unlike “My All”, this song is one for the entire family. Don’t believe me? Many popular artists of the 2000s cited this song as their inspiration, including the great Beyoncé. Besides the complex runs, which becomes more complex in the live version, “Vision of Love” is a peer into Mariah’s vocal range, from her lows (E♭3) to a signature whistle note (C7), and a blend of genres, including pop, R&B and gospel. Even if it spawned a generation of over-singing vocalists, this was MC’s debut, a tour de force that inspired a new generation of singers. And thanks to its prevalence in Mariah’s concert set lists, it could very well even be inspiring this new generation.

8. “Fantasy” Daydream

No. of streams: 85 048 626 + 24 904 151*

MV views: 58M + 11M*

*Includes the “Bad Boy Fantasy Remix” featuring O.D.B.

“Fantasy” is a bop, and arguably the song that pushed Mariah to super stardom. Despite being nominated in six categories and controversially winning nothing on the night of the 38th Grammy Awards, Daydream cemented MC’s status in the music industry. “Fantasy” was the album’s leading track, and it became the first ever single by a female artist to debut #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It stayed there eight consecutive weeks. If the pop version isn’t iconic enough, with the music video featuring Mariah riding on a roller coaster, the remix with O.D.B. is arguably just as famous, if not more so. The “Bad Boy Fantasy Remix” introduced the featured rapper formula into mainstream music, a formula that’s practically standard in the industry nowadays.

7. “Always Be My Baby” Daydream

No. of streams: 148 422 869

MV views: 162M

Yet, the numbers for "Fantasy" cannot compete with this song. A reason for this is perhaps a lack of airplay; “Fantasy” is danceable but there’s no hook.“Always Be My Baby” was the third single off the Daydream album. After breaking records with “Fantasy”, by debuting at #1, and “One Sweet Day”, for logging 16 weeks at #1, “Always Be My Baby” debuted at #2 and logged only 2 weeks at #1; however, the stats show how age has affected the song’s popularity with the MV views for “Always Be My Baby” doubling those of “Fantasy”. “Fantasy” takes more of a backseat in Mariah’s concert set lists. “One Sweet Day” almost faded into obscurity before it made a resurgence this decade when songs like “Despacito” and “Old Town Road” rivalled its chart records; it’s also made a reappearance on set lists. All of this is to illustrate that “Always Be My Baby” has always been a staple, a favourite amongst fans and the general listeners. The song has many great Mariah moments, but what really latches on and sets the ground for “Always Be My Baby” to play on is the opening “Doo doo doo”. This song does what “Fantasy” didn’t do, and that’s creating a feeling. The song and the music video is a perfect pairing. You listen to the song, and you are reminded of sitting by a firepit, reminiscing about a significant first love that’s no longer, the exact imagery that’s been replicated by the MV; this is probably why it has so many views.

6. “Touch My Body” E=MC²

No. of streams: 64 797 196

MV views: 185M

“Touch My Body” is Mariah’s second-most recent #1 single of her 19 chart-toppers, and the leading single to the 2008 album E=MC². Although its release was in the middle of February, the song really transports you to an eternal summer. The song received its fair share of critiques, including more than a couple that said “Touch My Body” lacks Mariah’s 5-octave range; nonetheless, if MC’s previous album, The Emancipation of Mimi, was MC’s comeback, this single solidified her status as 'the diva' with a new decade of listeners. It’ll be wrong to think, however, that Mariah wasn’t in on all the fun as well, and this is why the MV has its views. The music video is a fantasy sequence of Mariah flirting with Jack McBrayer in a mansion. After her comeback, this was Mariah’s way of going back to doing something that defied the critic’s expectations. With The Emancipation of Mimi, she proved that she still got it — the range, the ability to write hits, the star power; "Touch My Body” brings back the Mariah we have come to love in the past decade — the extravagance, the luxury, the seeming aloofness. For a moment, “Touch My Body” captures MC having fun, and the simple structure of this song reflects that.

5. “Obsessed” Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel

No. of streams: 82 625 131

MV views: 127M + 15M*

*Includes the remix featuring Gucci Mane

“Obsessed” gained new life this year, ten years after its initial release in 2009, with the #Obsessed challenge on TikTok. Teens were creating choreography for this song, and simultaneously propelling Mariah to becoming Queen of Memes, one of MC’s many titles. The opening to “Obsessed” breathes new life into a line borrowed from one of Mariah’s favourite movies, Mean Girls, “Why are you so obsessed with me?” This line, along with “I don’t know her”, has its place in meme culture. Besides its relevance to a new generation, its iconicity can also be contributed to the fact that it's a high profile diss track that attacks Eminem’s harassment, but it’s pop, not rap. Its conception introduced a new generation of pop artists to using their tracks as a way to call-out others. “Obsessed” resurfaces perennially when Eminem decides that his almost-two-decade old alleged fling with MC somehow deserves another mention. Maybe she’s the best thing to have happened to Eminem? Lyrically, “Obsessed” is one of Mariah’s sharpest, with her directly calling out Eminem’s desire to make something out of nothing; see: “you hatin' hard/Ain’t goin' feed you, I'm a let you starve/Graspin’ for air, and I'm ventilation/You out of breath, hope you ain't waitin’.”

4. “We Belong Together” The Emancipation of Mimi

No. of streams: 210 251 706

MV views: 399M

“We Belong Together” is Mariah’s comeback track. Regardless of whether she knew this song would make it big when she was writing it, this song would live on in the history books as the song that told skeptics that Mariah ain’t going anywhere. “We Belong Together” is very stripped down — it’s Mariah singing on top of a piano and a beat, then Mariah singing on top of herself in the chorus. For a song about unrequited love, which Mariah usually packages as being more upbeat than it should be (see: “Always Be My Baby” or “All I Want For Christmas Is You”), “We Belong Together” is incredibly visceral. It’s a sad song and it shows, and somehow Mariah communicates the frustration and swirling of emotions so well that you might even tear up by the end when she holds that fifteen-second note. The other unique thing about this song is that she sings the lyrics as if it’s a rap, very reminiscent of her earlier hip-hop inspired tracks like “Breakdown” ft. Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, an overlooked fan favourite. Try singing it without ever practising, and you’ll find that MC placed words in a very specific rhythm. This song also introduced the ‘Mariah-ballad structure’, a formula that she continues to follow for many of her ballads: It consists of an absent bridge with a belted last chorus that takes its place. And as for the MV, Mariah elopes with a lover in a car while wearing the same Vera Wang wedding dress she wore at her real-life marriage is as iconic as it gets.

3. “Emotions” Emotions

No. of streams: 41 251 987

MV views: 32M + 2.7M* + 9.9M**

*Includes the Club Remix

**Includes the MTV Unplugged live version, and the 1993 Here is Mariah Carey live version

There’s a reason “We Belong Together” didn’t crack the Top 3: It’s strictly a song about unrequited love. Mariah, alone, has quite a few of those in her catalogue. And there’s only oh-so-many occasions in which to bring back this song unless it’s already part of your daily repertoire. If Minnie Riperton’s “Lovin’ You” takes first place for the most iconic use of whistle notes in a pop song, “Emotions” no doubt takes second; however “Emotions” has to take first for inspiring every pop singer and their grandmas to use whistle notes, from Christina Aguilera and Leona Lewis to Ariana Grande and Tori Kelly. Yes, “Emotions” is a love song, similar to “We Belong Together”, but it’s also a learning tool for many aspiring pop and R&B singers — this song is a resource. It’s like learning music theory and referring back to Mozart and Beethoven. “Emotions” contains those whistle notes, all the up to an E7, but it also contains low notes (several C3s), high belts (F5s and G5s), head notes (the “You” in G5), repetitive phrasing from C5 - E5, a couple of sustained E5 belts, and melismas. In the live versions, you really get to observe MC’s stamina as we goes through the song with ease. And if you compile all of the live versions of “Emotions”, Mariah demonstrates five full octaves from B2 to B7. Simply put, “Emotions” is an encyclopedia of vocal virtuosity for rising and seasoned singers.

2. “Hero” Music Box

No. of streams: 99 556 980

MV views: 236M + 5.7M*

*Includes a live version from the Daydream World Tour

There’s a thing about “Emotions”, and it’s best if I told you through an anecdote: I played this song in a classroom once, and one of the 5-year olds asked why she [Mariah] was screaming in the song. Blasphemous, I know. Arguably though, the whistle notes are more well-known than the actual song itself. But “Hero” is one of those instances where you know the song, even though you don’t think you do. Just listen to those opening piano notes; flashes of the entire song will surely follow. Not surprisingly, this is the first ever MC song I’ve ever heard; I heard it when I was seven because we had to perform an ASL version of it, but I didn’t know it was Mariah at the time. I didn’t know until possibly a decade later when I thought back on the signs, and the lyrics “And a hero comes along” popped into mind. Obviously, this list is tinged by my own biases; however, “Hero”, this song about loving yourself, and finding that hero within yourself, is special, not only to the fan base, but to anyone who needs a pick-me-up, even if they’re not Mariah fans. It’s radio-friendly; it’s singing competition-friendly (it only goes up to an E5, a mid-belt for Mariah; for reference Idina Menzel goes up to E♭5 in “Let It Go” and “Into the Unknown”); it’s graduation-friendly; and it’s concert-friendly, considering Mariah almost always ends her concert with “Hero”. It’s a sappy song, one that Mariah initially didn’t like, but she explains that she sings it every time because you never know who might need it.

1. “All I Want For Christmas Is You” Merry Christmas

No. of streams: 595 428 506

MV views: 602M + 11M*

*Includes the alternative Black & White version, and Unreleased Video Footage version

Perhaps you can avoid unrequited love, high notes, and graduations, but in North America, can you really avoid winter? With winter comes holiday season comes Mariah Carey, Queen of Christmas comes “All I Want For Christmas Is You”. Released in 1994, this song has finally reached #1 on the Billboards Hot 100 after 25 years. MC released a handful of versions, including a re-recorded, Disney-sounding version in 2010, and another with Justin Bieber in 2011, but let’s make it clear that the version that makes a resurgence every year, and that we all hear on the radio, is none other than the original 1994 recording. The original recording which was never released as a single was not allowed to chart in ‘94, but ever since Billboard updated its rules to allow songs to re-chart in the Top 50 in 2012, “All I Want For Christmas Is You” has made a reappearance every year. It broke into the Top 10 for the first time in 2017, then the Top 5 in 2018. It’s hard to best something when it’s already so close to perfection, if not perfect. “All I Want For Christmas Is You” is such a definitive holiday-pop standard that it’s been broken down into a two-part formula. The formula finds it’s way into many of the new released Christmas songs hoping to make it big, which in some ways are their downfall because it sounds disingenuous, particularly in a season where sentimentality drives sincerity, or at least the façade of it. This two-part formula that it has inspired includes: (A) Wrapping up a unrequited love song to sound like an upbeat Christmas song; and (B) The “Wall of Sound” sound originally created by Phil Spector, which includes a underlying chorus line, a strong accompaniment, and the use of symphonic instruments. You’ll find at least one, if not both, pieces of the formula, whether it’s intentional or not, in recent holiday songs such as “Mistletoe”, “Underneath the Tree”, “One More Sleep”, “Santa Tell Me”, and even “Christmas Tree Farm”. Walter Afanasieff, the co-writer of this song, said, “Back then, you didn’t have a lot of artists with Christmas albums,” and with that he meant in the ‘80s and ‘90s, rising stars didn’t record an entire studio album's worth of Christmas songs. Whitney didn’t have one yet, Madonna didn’t have one (and still continues not to have one), Michael stopped doing them when he recorded under Epic Records in 1979; and y’alls are probably thinking of Wham!’s “Last Christmas”, but that was a single. Despite Mariah initially not wanting to do a Christmas album, and as pessimistic as this may sound, Merry Christmas has re-introduced the lucrative Christmas song business to pop singers.

We may remember this decade’s Mariah — a diva with shaky performances, but this two-dimensional image erases the gut-wrenching, tear-jerking efforts she put into the two previous decades. MC was a trailblazer, and continues to be one as you will see in the upcoming lists. To say that Mariah leans only on past achievements, and relies too heavily on titles like “Queen of Christmas” or “Queen of Memes” diminishes the fact that the upkeep of the legacy she’s built for herself requires time and hard work.

[buttonholedlife]

Stefan Goldmann on the Institutional Weight of Techno Music|Telekom Electronic Hammers

" Electro-acoustic does not confine your creativity the way 'background' or 'experimental' carry out," states Stefan Goldmann. Working in between the dancefloor and also high fine art organizations, the techno revival man feet the line in between respecting nightclub songs's past and also fearlessly pushing its own kinds right into the future.

Goldmann is equally pleasant DJing and also discharging his personal productions on traces like Perlon, Ovum, Innervisions, Mule Electronic and also his very own Macro tag, which he co-founded with Telephone call Super in 2007, as he is actually lecturing in amphitheaters as well as penning the 2015 publication on audio-communication concept, Presets-- Digital Shortcuts to Audio. He's also the creator of the famous Elektroakustischer Salon at Berghain, an area which explores a more limitless method to digital music and has come to be a fixture in the speculative electronic scene. As Goldmann puts it, "The songs showed there tends to follow its personal policies."

Goldmann's interdisciplinary method to composition, creation, and also presentation has led him to compose as well as do site-specific commissioned parts at Kyoto's Honen-In Holy place, the Los Angeles County Museum of Craft and also the Centro Cultural Kirchner Buenos Aires. Tailored to the spatial problems, these functionalities give a special, irreproducible listening adventure-- one that cracks the listener out of passive paying attention habits.

With his extensive work as popular music scholar as well as techno manufacturer, he was an evident main runner to curate Strom, the very first festivity for electronic music that took area in the venerable Berlin Philharmonie this past weekend February 7th and also 8th. In the place's pentagonal Grand Venue developed by German designer Hans Scharoun, pioneering musicians like Kruder & & Dorfmeister, Cristian Vogel, and Ryoji Ikeda executed live, while Deena Abdelwahed, TWIST, and also Nina Kraviz played out under the advanced entrances in the foyer. After the milestone event, our experts asked Goldmann to probe deeper right into the capacity for cementing electronic popular music into time-honoured music companies and also traditions.

Electro-acoustic. functionality as well as composition plays an important part in your work. What concerning it. especially fascinates you?

Portion of the attraction remains in clearing yourself coming from conference. outside needs, like making songs danceable or beat-matchable by DJs. Dance. music manufacturers in some cases mute the beat to check out how other aspects appear on. their own, focusing and working on information. But then very most unmute the drums. once again, so you don't receive to experience this outside the studio. From time to. opportunity, I decide to maintain the beat muted and also permit those various other coatings bloom on their. personal.

What are some essential. moments that opened that entire sphere up for you?

A great deal of 1990s drum 'n' bass possessed excellent audios underneath the drums which I kept seeing. Folks like Matrix, Optical, and Source Direct created stunning guides however seldom troubled building these components right into their very own forms.

Later, I found techno in which the bass drum was actually additional of a. referral than a prevalent sound-- or even it was actually missing out on completely. Jeff Mills' Center. stuff, Plastikman's Consumed,. Wolfgang Voigt's work and also Mika Vainio's cds Onko and Oleva were all. eye openers, and I constantly intended to take a trip even further down this roadway. Don't get me. inappropriate, though; I really love beats.

Just what attracts your. interest to commissioned music parts as component of fine art jobs in comparison. to your very own a lot more club-oriented creations?

I earn money. Pranks aside, ever considering that I've been actually generating music, I. might possess taken any sort of monitor as a master plan and also rumbled out one more fifty. " soundalikes". But if you've been actually making songs for an even though as well as don't would like to. obtain burnt out, you begin to look left as well as best.

Right now, if you create songs that comes under a practical style like techno, there is actually generally additionally a structure in position that brings it to the people. Tags, DJs as well as clubs do that. If your music doesn't suit there certainly, that commercial infrastructure is skipping. Commissions offer accessible setups where you're devoid of professional criteria, where you can deliver ahead other components of the songs. They supply structures for music that does not accommodate a preconceived type.

Typically, there seems. to be an ongoing chat within speculative electronic and progressive. songs regarding its own intersection with visionary craft as well as its presentation in much more. " highbrow" environments. Why do you think this is?

I think highbrow and uneducated are actually a confusing set of terms when our team're chatting concerning popular music that's. either digital or generated predominantly for the audio tool. Historically, the distinction in between high as well as reduced used to be actually one. of social class. That is actually no more the scenario. Along with sound recording, everyone has. equivalent accessibility to the archives, as well as it falls to what people want to draw out that. calculates what remains therein. And also that frequently turns out to be actually one thing. somewhat various coming from what cultural establishments had envisioned.

That could additionally aid detail why appearances are spilling over from one collection of institutions right into yet another. Clubs, tags, circulation networks as well as the associated push are actually one collection of companies and also opera house, art universities and institutes are actually another. There made use of to be actually a modern continuance of symphonic music called "brand new music", which populated these establishments essentially specifically regarding contemporary popular music was actually regarded. For some time, that new songs kept in lockstep with innovative developments in the various other arts. Stanley Kubrick utilized songs through György Ligeti in his movies, Gerhard Richter carried out art work referencing John Cage, Pierre Boulez made use of verses through E.E.Cummings.

This system of mutual referencing has altered totally with the last couple of creations. There are actually nearly no notable aesthetic artists, authors or even dramaturgists under fifty who had actually still think about the people at the regional hothouse as their peers. The institutions developed familiar with this change, and the next factor you recognized Kraftwerk went to the MoMA, Tate Modern, Neue Nationalgalerie as well as the Kremlin. Twenty years ago it appeared very improbable that an individual like Robert Henke would be a lecturer of songs at a German glasshouse, but my assumption is our team'll see much additional of this rather soon.

What have actually been actually standout. jobs of that kind for you just recently, as an individual that is an onlooker of that. industry?

Musicians like Robert Henke, Ryoji Ikeda, or even Carsten Nicolai have actually tided over between digital as well as scholarly music for a long period of time, opening doors for a lot of to observe. There is actually still really little score-based music for acoustic tools as well as formation where I presume the amount is higher than the parts, yet one significant exception is Ryuichi Sakamoto as well as Alva Noto's collaboration along with Set Modern, utp _.

On the contrary, exactly how. often do you see such ideas falling short, as well as what would certainly be lessons to become drawn. for a venture like Strom!.

?.!? There shows up to be a tempting desire to make fusion. Folks wish to place a DJ as well as a drum device in front of an orchestra. Create individuals work together for the sake of. beating boxes of the number of media formats you can perhaps force in to one venture. There has actually been an unmitigated flow of beginnings where 2 musicians. locate themselves on stage all together so a festivity may compose words "premiere". on its own course-- while each would come back by themselves and also on their own phrases.

The rather radical option for Strom was actually to come close to the Philharmonie as a room instead of as a celebration to socialize. with provided cultural content. Electronic popular music. performers rarely acquire to deal with a room like the Philharmonie's Great. Hall. I locate this pretty surprising, provided that experimental digital. popular music celebrations as well as auditorium both exist in Berlin, yet they hardly ever seem to be to. come together. As opposed to handing over percentages for. blend works, our team handed the artists the tricks and also let all of them select just how they. desired to cope with the setting.

There is this. prevalent expectation that the circumstance of development is necessary or even at minimum. important to the end result. Concerning your parts that include a specific. paying attention atmosphere, what creates the circumstance thus essential to the reader's. knowledge?

If you view it the. various other method around, it will appear somewhat irregular that the same should operate equally. well throughout greatly various setups. The concern is to what level you. would like to take this in to profile. Due to the fact that the majority of our team function in the audio medium. and then make an effort to convert the sound of that completely fabricated space right into actual. planet physical environments, it is actually certainly not many people's top priority to personalize. the only thing that much. Just the presence of regular specialist motorcyclists informs you enough in. this regard.

When I started receiving opportunities to perform site-specific jobs, I might have turned it a little into an action to the commodification of audios due to digitization. While most musicians I understand chased after every channel offered, tossing away their music in the chance of catching some elusive viewers, I felt I needed to offer one thing exclusive to those who bothered turning up at some area to hear me.

That is actually a qualitative. strategy to presentation that definitely calls for a higher amount of devotion.

You can't put in that volume of your time on investigation as well as modification when you participate in 120 jobs a year, so it's also a matter of priorities. It really felt worth my opportunity to put in the initiative. Regarding I know, I played the very first electronic concert at LACMA, as well as I'll play the 1st at the Philharmonie's Great Venue. I had not been the very first to play Honen-in, but I possessed over a month to visit the place as well as number out what to perform there before conducting. On Alif, our company had more than a year to structure the performance area in addition to Chiharu Shiota, Samir Odeh-Tamimi and Jeremias Schwarzer. We carried out pair of variations: one for Berlin's Radialsystem, and also yet another for Nuremberg's St. Lorenz Congregation. This timespan allowed an entirely different intensity reviewed to appearing at 6 PM for soundcheck and also striking the phase at 8.

Existed a trick. experience that sparked your enthusiasm in the hookup between music as well as the. unique rooms it exists in?

I had heard that there had been shows at Honen-in. One day I. rode my bike apex and also ended up spending five hrs merely resting in the. backyard. It was actually getting dark, and also I had actually planned to use back since I possessed no. lights. The soundscape was actually transforming therefore rapidly as well as intriguingly that I. couldn't get myself to leave. By coincidence, I satisfied a man that had been actually in touch along with. a few of the musicians who played there certainly, and also I asked him if he recognized that could potentially state if. there's an odds to carry out one thing there. He essentially applied for. his calendar as well as resembled, "Can you carry out June 29?" Which was actually that.

Exactly how did you normally. method these site-specific compensations in the past times? What's the operations like,. from initial idea to completion?

Considering the area and taking it from there is definitely the. well technique for me. Some percentage demands are all pre-determined for. every little thing but the area. They'll mention, "Our experts possess composer X's anniversary, as well as. our company will like a live remix where you enjoy with the orchestra over a harmony.". That is actually generally where any person who is actually certainly not entirely determined for work ought to state. thanks however no thanks.

I as if the ones that start with the room as opposed to along with a huge perspective of the information. It is actually also kind of an audacious knowledge, like a kid's imagine sneaking in to a museum past closing time as well as walking all around without direction. Plus it's an excuse to perform things in the workshop that you can not when you're creating something Ben Klock's expected to play.

In the system details,. it keeps in mind the performers you've selected have established their noises away from the. extent of Western Europe and North United States. Why was this crucial in your. curation process for the Philharmonie, a noticeably Western location, to highlight. these talents?

Berlin is actually a city where, in regards to digital music, everything. there is to hear has been heard. There is actually no necessity to contend along with the area's. clubs, festivals and various other establishments through redoing what they presently. stand for. Therefore the major concentration isn't on some demographic, design or even generation. On doing what I assume the location stands up for, which is presenting height. accomplishment at the private amount that is actually additionally appropriate to Berlin.

There are actually performers along with all kind of backgrounds involved, yet. our team have actually likewise been seeing a shift to where it matters not where you are actually coming from. anymore. If you intended to be any person in drum 'n' bass in 1998, you needed to have to be actually. in Greater london or Bristol. Now you can easily show up of Dnipropetrovsk or Kwazulu Natal. or even anywhere else and also make a truly notable contribution to almost any. genre.

I think this is actually where the world must be moved in any case. Considering that. digital popular music's creation devices have come to be extensively obtainable, our experts observe even more. and also a lot more diverse backgrounds exemplified now, providing their very own tackles a. shared society. A number of this first creation of musicians from locations away from. Western Europe as well as The United States And Canada have "matured" partly that their. effect has been nourishing back in to the center, which is actually great to present listed here.

This meeting has been edited as well as short for clarity. Strom Event took place at the Berlin Philharmonie this past weekend 07.02-- 08.02.

This content was originally published here.

[howdoyoudoitall]

What interests me the most, is the balance Tor has been able to find between teaching and making art, and how that may be particularly inspiring to his students. He is not the teacher as he described before that had failed as a musician, he is doing it, just with an alternative narrative. A couple of his audio recording students at SOTA, Mimi and Nancy, both seniors, say, “I have more respect for him because I know that he’s out there doing it, road tripping, going to festivals, doing what he loves, and coming back here to teach us. It is honestly super inspiring to know that you can do both those things at once.” Nancy even says she herself has interest in becoming an adjunct at some point, and asked faculty how they go about the hiring process. She says, “You just have to know what you’re doing, like their just another dude in the city I can vibe with, another artist”. The role an adjunct artist plays in the classroom allows the students to feel they are able to have a more honest relationship, and be more openly themselves, compared to the way they feel they are supposed to present themselves in front of their regular teachers. Even shadowing Tor’s class I was able to see how different it was from any other high school class. Students were comfortable joking around with him like a friend, but produced work that was serious, creative, and inspiring. I think that is a reflection not necessarily of his teaching style, but his ability to create an alternative space that holds a sense of collaboration, and resonance within that exists because of his role outside of the classroom, in the community.

Besides teaching, Tor works a number of odd jobs within the music industry to sustain his lifestyle which include, DJing in nightclubs, working in his at home studio, doing audio engineering at some of the premier venues in Seattle, and occasionally some composition for other artists, creating beats, or instrumental backing tracks for vocalists. Tor even misses classes on occasion to play festivals, but his students and the rest of the SOTA faculty don’t see that as a set back, it’s just what comes along with the territory. The school wants adjuncts who are active in their art, and students think it is, “Cool”. They want to know how to sustain a life like that too. Since Tor has become an educator, musicians and friends that he interface with regularly have even started coming to him for help when facing walls creatively or technically. His status as a musician has actually improved because of his teaching job, saying, “Again it comes back to the thing that symbiotically, me teaching makes me a better artist as well.”

There comes a time however, when you turn your passion into a career, when with like any other job, burnout can begin to instill. Even famous jazz musicians throughout history like Joe Oliver, Louis Armstrong, and Bessie Smith who have, “made it” all worked multiple jobs in the beginning to sustain themselves. It is also true, that once these musicians made it, and worked solely as musicians, the lavish lifestyles, competitiveness to be the best and most current, built their egos into something that most of them could only sustain with heavy amounts of alcohol and drugs, and in turn, faced a young death. In Giants of Jazz by Studs Terkel, he writes about Bessie Smith’s career downfall with,

“More and more she became a problem for theater and nightclub managers. Packed houses often waited in vain for the star who never appeared. Either a backstage brawl or a drinking bout elsewhere caused the cancellation”(42).

So often the public isn’t able to see behind the veil of the music industry, and the anxiety to keep up that goes along with it for many musicians. Fame so easily clouds the reality of what is really going on, and kids who aspire to do what they love as a career, are not exposed to the more healthy and sustainable alternatives that exist. Maybe the option of working multiple jobs shouldn’t be viewed so much as a means of survival and getting somewhere, but more as a means of keeping sane within an incredibly cut throat trade. Diversifying yourself, or spreading yourself out amongst multiple facets shouldn’t mean you aren’t making it. This counter narrative that is introduced to SOTA students receiving classes from an adjunct artist, open up a whole new world of career pathways that don’t present themselves in popular culture.

Creating the space for students to think differently about  what a career is cable of looking like, produces people entering society who are more intune to question what is being fed to them on a continuous basis through art and the media in general. With technology we have been given more transparency, but that still doesn’t mean you are always getting the facts.  Tor says when teaching his students he thinks it is principally important to instill a type of knowledge that encourages kids to be open to questioning everything they are being fed through their phones. He says you have to ask yourself, “A: Do you agree with that? If it is real or not, do you agree with that and feel it still represents you? And B: Do you want that to be a reality? If not, kids can kind of start to develop their tastes and understand the cultural impact of that stuff.” In high school, it is so easy to become absorbed in whatever the majority migrates towards, or whatever their day to day influences them towards (i.e. the radio, older siblings) but Tor, and SOTA faculty as a whole make it a point of teaching students that they are a part of society, and they have a say in what does and what does not continue to prosper. What is popular only exists because those at the top of the music industry say it is. Yet with the power of social media, there are now multiple outlets and platforms artists are using to tell a different story, and the millennial generation has the highest influence over that. Mimi says, “I feel I was put on this earth to educate people about what I have learned here, that it is not ok to be racist, that they need to conform to me.” This, coming from a student who endured extreme racism as one of the few black kids at her middle school, and was placed in special ed, because of the anxiety she developed facing it, in a broken institutional system that, “Didn’t know how to handle it.” As Tor says, it is all symbiotic.

For so long, our society, our friends, our families, have been telling us we need to fit into a clean, compact box. We go to college to smooth out the edges, file the corners, and sand the rough spots, so that we can ultimately, fit into a whole, or maybe hole of something much larger. Oftentimes a company, or institution much bigger than what can be seen on the ground level. When I came to Evergreen, I thought my box was “Kindergarten Teacher”. I wanted to fit somewhere, to feel accepted I guess, more like do what I thought I was supposed to do. At the time, I had no idea what the institution surrounding that job looked like, who was in charge of the policies implemented, or how little control I might have, to actually be the change I thought I could be. But truthfully, I just thought I could be happy in that box, I felt some sense of security in being able to say I had decided on one. Of course I was quickly smacked in the face with all the things I didn’t want to know. The overall structure I was trying to become a part of was broken, and held together by tired teachers that weren’t receiving the recognition, not to mention the pay that they deserved, or even the ability to teach what they felt was important for children to learn. I had the privilege to learn these things, and decide I wanted to explore other options.

From education, media and cultural studies, I went back to my love; which is music. I studied music composition, and performance,  where I learned how to be honest, and how to share my vulnerability to the world as a means of true power. I was really happy on that path, but I felt myself becoming too comfortable. Topics such as race, gender and class, were just not as much a part of that world, although they are, but not with what was offered at Evergreen. I wanted to be uncomfortable, to learn things that made me question my role in society, and others’ as well. So I decided to study linguistics, and systems of power, where I learned that languages are societal constructs, that shouldn’t dictate how I write or talk. After this I ended up going back to art, but not the same art, I experimented with painting, and writing. I studied artists I had never heard of, read books written by philosophers who are highly regarded throughout time, and I learned many things, but especially that the creation of an idea doesn’t come without a load of work in the process. Or that artists aren’t necessarily born with a gift, they work their asses off like everyone else. I created, through writing, pieces of art, that made me think, and others as well. I took the time to learn about my Mexican ancestry, and the history of the U.S.-Mexico border, as it was beginning to be something I needed to understand in order to continue claiming my culture, and as it was also something that was withheld from me throughout my 15 years of schooling prior.

By this time I was nearing my last year, and I felt like I needed time to work in the field and gain experience. My heart was beginning to feel more whole from all that I had learned and worked through the year before, and I wanted to be at a place to practice my Spanish, and learn first hand from real people. So I interned with a non-profit called, “Cielo”, providing a number of free resources to the Latino community. I needed to do this work, as I had been trying to learn about the Latin part of my identity since I have been at Evergreen. As I said,  it was something that was never given to me in k-12 schooling, but also something that I often had to still shove into my time at Evergreen with force. I learned about community, failure, growth, and more about the unappealing structures I had been running from for years, but I simultaneously found love, safety and solidarity from those I was working closest with.  

I have approached learning, and gained knowledge from a number of different lenses that all fall under the blanket of, “Liberal Arts”. I feel smarter, I feel wiser, I feel more aware, but I still get so afraid or embarrassed when I have to answer those dreaded questions like, “So what are you going to do now?” or, “So what is your career going to look like?” And I don’t think it is my fault for having taken a route that didn’t lead up to one particular destination. I am proud of the education I have received, I am proud of the adversities I have worked through, and I think now I am realizing it is the society I am entering that needs to change to conform to my cross and counter narrative way of thinking, because it is not bad, in fact it is more realistic and adaptable than what the average schooling or college education prepares you for. I think society is afraid of that; afraid because it is a disruption, it is a question thrown back at a question, it is someone saying, “No”. I don’t see why I should have to fit into any one place forever. I want to be a part of something that everyday  says to me:

“Be a thunder clap

and rouse me.

Be an earthquake

make me tremble

Be a river raging rampant

in my veins.

Shock me shitless.”

-Gloria Anzaldua, “I Want To Be Shocked Shitless” 1974

History shows, that history repeats itself, but we are living in an era that is finally disrupting that with all the voices that are now able to come forward, and come together, to say no all at once, and actually be heard all over the world. It scares those who have had the privilege to live without thinking about it, and it excites those who have been so goddamn tired all this time. In order for history to stop repeating itself, we have to reevaluate the structures surrounding us, and change the ways we think we are supposed to be living within it.

Something Tor said to me about the music industry is, “The best way to vote is with our dollar” but that holds so much truth for so many things within a capitalist society, because we, the workers, are the ones funding it. Having alternative schools like SOTA and Evergreen that promote and encourage ideas of counter culture are just the beginning, because as soon as you leave the school, you are thrown into a world that still rejects all the injustices you were taught to look for, and new ideologies so dependent on dialogue in order to thrive. I think the discourse is starting to shift however, because the counter culture is not counter to a lot of people who have been marginalized for years,

“The new mestizas have a connection with particular places, a connection to new notions of ethnicity, to a new tribalism that is devoid of any kind of romantic illusions. The new mestiza is a liminal subject who lives in borderlands between cultures, races, languages, and genders. In this state of in-betweenness the mestiza can mediate, translate, negotiate, and navigate these different locations. As mestizas, we are negotiating these worlds everyday, understanding that multiculturalism is a way of seeing and interpreting the world, a methodology of resistance”(The Gloria Anzaldua Reader, pg. 209)

When we see the world for what it is, which is a place of constant intersection and interplay, it no longer has to be a choice between this career or that path. We can contribute to society, and survive, while simultaneously rattling its cages. I think that it is not only possible to do it all, but itsactually a form of radically complying. You are setting the table, turning it, then flipping it upside down, and everyone is still eating off of it like nothing happened. Working multiple jobs, and diversifying your skills, might just be the best way to keep the spark in your heart alive, and keep your mind from becoming docile.

References:

Elements of Education. “SOTA and SAMI By The Numbers”. Youtube, Standard

Youtube License, Elements of Education, Sep. 29th, 2014,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXhTl5u--Zw.

Caspersen, Tor. In person interview. 18 Apr. 2018.

Atonassov, Nancy Jo and Duncan, Mykaila. In person interview. 15 May, 2018.

Anzaldúa Gloria E., and AnaLouise Keating. The Gloria Anzaldúa Reader. Duke

University Press, 2009.

Terkel, Studs, and Milly Hawk. Daniel. Giants of Jazz. New York. New Press, 2006.

Hughes, Sherick A., and Julie L. Pennington. Autoethnography Process, Product, and