So I know a guy, through a friend, that makes some pretty damned good music.
In the age of collapsed advertising structures and mostly free information, it can be really difficult to find music that you like because there is just so much stuff.
With this increased freedom I assume it's become more difficult for the creators to cash in on their craft, despite the enormous potential listener base. There will always be super megastars (enter current pop idol here) but I assume the availability of great quality, free music has made the middling artist a thing of the past. The group that scrapes by on a few album sales, a few tours and a little bit of luck are probably working normal day jobs at this point right?
This isn't due to quality. If there's a net positive for humanity in the democratisation of tools and knowledge, it's that the 'average' person is now capable of producing some exceptional work. This goes for books, music, painting, comics, even documentaries and films.
So now that we can all, within reason, produce high quality stuff - who gets to choose what makes it big? Luck? Or boning the right producer?
Who is to say.
Anyway, here is the music.
https://soundcloud.com/doctaters
Showing posts with label songs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label songs. Show all posts
Thursday, 31 August 2017
Wednesday, 3 June 2015
Music? What?
So I'm making a music CD (welcome to the year 2000 I guess?) for the third year (year 9 ish?) classes I teach. They have a five minute period before the class where they finish up homework, ask questions and generally potter about in English. During this time they listen to English language music, so far it's been all Queen. I've nothing against queen, they have some great songs and it's not a terrible introduction to music outside of Japan. The problem is that they've heard all the songs already, not to mention that Queen is adored here and is subseuently cut into every third commercial and every fifth TV program.
As such, I feel it is my duty to introduce some easy to understand English langauge songs. Remember, the only music available to anyone in Japan is this. Or this.
They are the only options. No other music exists. This is not hyperbole, they don't have any other music. Sometimes, rarely, those over one hundred years old will listen to enka, but that's not fashionable for any other demographic.
The problem is simple. If you've only ever listened to one type of music for your whole life, all your peers know only that music, and your parents and elders know only that kind of music, there's no way in hell that you're going to like anything other than that. It would be like introducing orangina to a drought bound tribe in the deepest deserts of Tanzania, they wouldn't know what to do with it and would immediately reject it.
As such, this is not a mission to enlighten the students, even marginally, no. It's a mission to give me something interesting to listen to that has a tenuous link to the English language. That means no swearing and lyrics that are mostly audible.
To pre-empt the comments and e-mails about how awful my taste in music is, I will say this: I don't know music. I literally searched online for songs for foreign language students, and these are what came up.
ALL SUGGESTIONS ARE WELCOME. New stuff and old stuff. Bizarre stuff is particularly appreciated, as long as there's a viable amount of English involved. I would love to jazz out to some Mars Volta before class, but they're Spanish (?) so no can do.
Anyway, my list so far:
Michael Jackson -> Smooth Criminal, Heal the World
Jackson 5 -> ABC
Phil Collins -> Dancing in the Air Tonight (if this one gets by the censors (by censors I mean the Japanese English teacher) I will be ecstatic)
The Police -> Every Breath You Take (I don't know why this was on that website, the owner must have been high when she added this one)
Pharrel Williams -> Happy (the theme of a 'dumb fun,' Summer animated movie, I quite like the song)
David Bowier -> Ground Control to Major Tom (this one is mine, an inspired pull from the memory banks, if I say so myself)
REM -> Man on the Moon (never heard of it)
Frank Sinatra -> Fly Me to the Moon, My Way
The White Stripes -> Seven Nation Army
Travis -> Sing
Amy Winehouse -> Rehab (This one is the wildcard, designed to throw the censors off and make them think they've done their job when they inevitably eliminate it, thereby allowing others to pass)
Coldplay -> The Scientist
Bare Nakes Ladies -> If I had a Million Dollars (added for the name of the band alone)
And that's the list so far. There's nothing particularly interesting on there, and only a couple of 'new,' songs, so any suggestions are welcome.
As such, I feel it is my duty to introduce some easy to understand English langauge songs. Remember, the only music available to anyone in Japan is this. Or this.
They are the only options. No other music exists. This is not hyperbole, they don't have any other music. Sometimes, rarely, those over one hundred years old will listen to enka, but that's not fashionable for any other demographic.
The problem is simple. If you've only ever listened to one type of music for your whole life, all your peers know only that music, and your parents and elders know only that kind of music, there's no way in hell that you're going to like anything other than that. It would be like introducing orangina to a drought bound tribe in the deepest deserts of Tanzania, they wouldn't know what to do with it and would immediately reject it.
As such, this is not a mission to enlighten the students, even marginally, no. It's a mission to give me something interesting to listen to that has a tenuous link to the English language. That means no swearing and lyrics that are mostly audible.
To pre-empt the comments and e-mails about how awful my taste in music is, I will say this: I don't know music. I literally searched online for songs for foreign language students, and these are what came up.
ALL SUGGESTIONS ARE WELCOME. New stuff and old stuff. Bizarre stuff is particularly appreciated, as long as there's a viable amount of English involved. I would love to jazz out to some Mars Volta before class, but they're Spanish (?) so no can do.
Anyway, my list so far:
Michael Jackson -> Smooth Criminal, Heal the World
Jackson 5 -> ABC
Phil Collins -> Dancing in the Air Tonight (if this one gets by the censors (by censors I mean the Japanese English teacher) I will be ecstatic)
The Police -> Every Breath You Take (I don't know why this was on that website, the owner must have been high when she added this one)
Pharrel Williams -> Happy (the theme of a 'dumb fun,' Summer animated movie, I quite like the song)
David Bowier -> Ground Control to Major Tom (this one is mine, an inspired pull from the memory banks, if I say so myself)
REM -> Man on the Moon (never heard of it)
Frank Sinatra -> Fly Me to the Moon, My Way
The White Stripes -> Seven Nation Army
Travis -> Sing
Amy Winehouse -> Rehab (This one is the wildcard, designed to throw the censors off and make them think they've done their job when they inevitably eliminate it, thereby allowing others to pass)
Coldplay -> The Scientist
Bare Nakes Ladies -> If I had a Million Dollars (added for the name of the band alone)
And that's the list so far. There's nothing particularly interesting on there, and only a couple of 'new,' songs, so any suggestions are welcome.
Monday, 4 July 2011
You Gotta Get Up
Welcome to the annual music choice awards.
Wait, what?
So the teachers have been asked (at gunpoint) to select their favourite songs, to then be played at lunchtime for all the children to listen to. This is a vain attempt at staving lunacy, and one I fear will not work.
To put some perspective on matters, every school in Japan is identical. The buildings are identical, the classrooms are identical, the teachers are identical, the subject matter for every discipline is identical between schools, there is no variation. Continuing this theme, every day a jingle is played while eating lunch. The word jingle doesn't convey the filthy sweetness that pervades every note. I have cavities from merely listening to this shit. The number of italicised words in the preceding sentences serves to illustrate how much I loathe this act of insanity, and how much it destroys the soul.
At this stage, I feel it worth noting that I work with two very elderly teachers, employed in an advisory capacity (ala american military speak). One is/was an English teacher, the other a scientist. They are both completely indoctrinated in the world of schools and education. I suspect, without asking, that their entire lives have been spent in such formalised settings - seemingly without a glimpse at the outside world.
When the bell rings, they instinctively stand up and do something, whether it be cleaning or bowing, they have cornered the market in instinctive Pavlov reaction. The thing that I find curious is the evident lack of immediate reward. The dog received food and a test tube in the gob, what do these guys get?
They have even been trained to sit on the floor with the kids, come cleaning time. Now, ordinary teachers don't partake in that nonsense, so this pair are obviously seen as being less important than the 'real,' teachers. In an interesting foot-note, the principal teacher of the third years wanted me to sit on the floor with the kids, while he lorded over us. I flatly refused, which has caused polite ructions between us. I asked all the English speaking teachers whether I should sit on the floor with the kids, and they all said it wasn't the done thing, but I could see where pomposity might overtake reason - he has been at a relatively lowly position within the schooling system for his entire life and frustration must be setting in. A perennially overlooked lower management type, begrudgingly sharing his space with a stupid foreigner who invades my country etc. At least I've had the acknowledgement from other Japanese teachers that he's a dick. So it's not just me.
Why bring this up? If someone asked these elderly folks to mop the floor with their teeth, they would. I think the matrix famed idea of being 'inerged,' in a system is a perfect contemporary comparison to draw. They have spent their lives ordering and being ordered, and they seem so devoid of life and spark that I am genuinely worried. Everything about them screams 1984.
It begins with the education system, it continues through their working life, and even into retirement. Their pop music is the very definition of generic (whether you like it or not, it is empirically impossible to deny that the next song to be released will be as near-identical as it's possible to be to the song on the radio now, without technically infringing on copyrights and patents) with the sound not having changed in over a decade, they all eat watermelons in August, and cold noodles in September (dates pulled from my behind, but the principle holds true) with everyone working in private industry 'enjoying,' mandatory fun drinking sessions called enkai every week.
Even the rebels and societal outcasts dress the same and act the same way. They drive bikes with open exhausts, or cars without mufflers, or dye their hair red and wear makup if your a man, or none if a woman. That's it. That's the extent of rebellion. It's a socially accepted form of rebellion.
My point in all this? It's not negative, as it may at first appear. The simple fact that everyone and everything is the same gives rise to unfathomable opportunity. It's literally unfathomable for the average Japanese person, because they all conform.
Opportunity how, I hear you cry. Well, for one, what would happen if you came here with a hair dye that wasn't red? Pink hair dye would sell a million units in a month, and you would be a millionaire.
Or, if you were a retired worker earning 20,000 yen (150 GBP) a month advising teachers and said, nuts to this - if I worked part-time in a store I would earn four times this much, you would be much happier. There is life outside these here walls, you just need to go and find it.
P.s I happen to know that 20,000 yen is the going rate for the elderly advisors to teachers. They work two or three full working days a week. This ends up being 312 yen an hour. That's 2.40 GBP an hour, calculated to a 2 day working week.
UK minimum wage:
Wait, what?
So the teachers have been asked (at gunpoint) to select their favourite songs, to then be played at lunchtime for all the children to listen to. This is a vain attempt at staving lunacy, and one I fear will not work.
To put some perspective on matters, every school in Japan is identical. The buildings are identical, the classrooms are identical, the teachers are identical, the subject matter for every discipline is identical between schools, there is no variation. Continuing this theme, every day a jingle is played while eating lunch. The word jingle doesn't convey the filthy sweetness that pervades every note. I have cavities from merely listening to this shit. The number of italicised words in the preceding sentences serves to illustrate how much I loathe this act of insanity, and how much it destroys the soul.
At this stage, I feel it worth noting that I work with two very elderly teachers, employed in an advisory capacity (ala american military speak). One is/was an English teacher, the other a scientist. They are both completely indoctrinated in the world of schools and education. I suspect, without asking, that their entire lives have been spent in such formalised settings - seemingly without a glimpse at the outside world.
When the bell rings, they instinctively stand up and do something, whether it be cleaning or bowing, they have cornered the market in instinctive Pavlov reaction. The thing that I find curious is the evident lack of immediate reward. The dog received food and a test tube in the gob, what do these guys get?
They have even been trained to sit on the floor with the kids, come cleaning time. Now, ordinary teachers don't partake in that nonsense, so this pair are obviously seen as being less important than the 'real,' teachers. In an interesting foot-note, the principal teacher of the third years wanted me to sit on the floor with the kids, while he lorded over us. I flatly refused, which has caused polite ructions between us. I asked all the English speaking teachers whether I should sit on the floor with the kids, and they all said it wasn't the done thing, but I could see where pomposity might overtake reason - he has been at a relatively lowly position within the schooling system for his entire life and frustration must be setting in. A perennially overlooked lower management type, begrudgingly sharing his space with a stupid foreigner who invades my country etc. At least I've had the acknowledgement from other Japanese teachers that he's a dick. So it's not just me.
Why bring this up? If someone asked these elderly folks to mop the floor with their teeth, they would. I think the matrix famed idea of being 'inerged,' in a system is a perfect contemporary comparison to draw. They have spent their lives ordering and being ordered, and they seem so devoid of life and spark that I am genuinely worried. Everything about them screams 1984.
It begins with the education system, it continues through their working life, and even into retirement. Their pop music is the very definition of generic (whether you like it or not, it is empirically impossible to deny that the next song to be released will be as near-identical as it's possible to be to the song on the radio now, without technically infringing on copyrights and patents) with the sound not having changed in over a decade, they all eat watermelons in August, and cold noodles in September (dates pulled from my behind, but the principle holds true) with everyone working in private industry 'enjoying,' mandatory fun drinking sessions called enkai every week.
Even the rebels and societal outcasts dress the same and act the same way. They drive bikes with open exhausts, or cars without mufflers, or dye their hair red and wear makup if your a man, or none if a woman. That's it. That's the extent of rebellion. It's a socially accepted form of rebellion.
My point in all this? It's not negative, as it may at first appear. The simple fact that everyone and everything is the same gives rise to unfathomable opportunity. It's literally unfathomable for the average Japanese person, because they all conform.
Opportunity how, I hear you cry. Well, for one, what would happen if you came here with a hair dye that wasn't red? Pink hair dye would sell a million units in a month, and you would be a millionaire.
Or, if you were a retired worker earning 20,000 yen (150 GBP) a month advising teachers and said, nuts to this - if I worked part-time in a store I would earn four times this much, you would be much happier. There is life outside these here walls, you just need to go and find it.
P.s I happen to know that 20,000 yen is the going rate for the elderly advisors to teachers. They work two or three full working days a week. This ends up being 312 yen an hour. That's 2.40 GBP an hour, calculated to a 2 day working week.
UK minimum wage:
- £5.93 - the main rate for workers aged 21 and over
- £4.92 - the 18-20 rate
- £3.64 - the 16-17 rate for workers above school leaving age but under 18
- £2.50 - the apprentice rate, for apprentices under 19 or 19 or over and in the first year of their apprenticeship
These elderly folks are sure as hell not apprentices. Remember folks, criminal extortion doesn't just exist in drug rings, governments practice it too!
P.P.s While researching this entry, I googled 'inerged definition.' I suggest you do the same and look at the first link (and the second for that matter).
This makes me suspect that inerged isn't actually a word, just a matrix inspired stroke of genius. I will lobby in a quiet unassuming way for it to be included in the English Oxford dictionary, and I will continue using it whether it exists or not. The sound of the word encapsulates the meaning perfectly. Very rarely do I have the feeling that the definition of a word is inextricably linked to the sounds produced when saying the word, but this is one of those cases.
Inerged (adj.) - Description of a human being. Indoctrinated into any man-made system, parliamentary, scholastic, governmental etc. Ex. He was inerged in the system, and could not see its inherent flaws.
syn. Invested, (needs more synonyms, can't think of any (which, incidentally, bodes well for inclusion in the English language!)
Etymology - Science. Describing process of submerging solids, usually in liquids. Also describes unreactive materials. Origins unknown.
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