Archive for the ‘Music’ Category

New figures have been released by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) that says that ninety-five percent of downloaded music is illegal.

The global music trade body said that the biggest challenge it faces is ensuring the artists and their record labels are actually getting paid for their work.

Although the figure remains high, there has been a 25 percent rise from last year with downloads now accounting for a fifth of all recorder music sales. However the IFPI said that worldwide music revenues fell by 7 percent last year. The fall was blamed in dipping CD sales, and that the increase in digital sales could not balance the books.

The IFPI represents 1,400 companies across 72 companies, and estimate a staggering 40 billion music files were illegally downloaded in 2008, compared to just 1.4 billion legally downloaded tracks. The top selling download of last year was Lil Wayne’s awful “Lollipop” which somehow managed to shift 9.1 million copies.

Even though companies have been launching download services, such as Amazons MP3 store, many people prefer to use file sharing systems like Soulseek and LimeWire to get the latest tunes for free.

The IFPI’s report revealed that the digital music business has grown in the last six years and is currently worth around £2.5bn. UK music fans downloaded 110 million singles and 10.3 million albums from companies like iTunes – accounting for 7.7 percent of the music market.

IFPI chairman and CEO, John Kennedy, said that the industry has had to change its approach to doing business.

“There is a momentous debate going on about the environment on which our business, and all the people working in it, depends.

“Governments are beginning to accept that, in the debate over ‘free content’ and engaging ISPs in protecting intellectual property rights, doing nothing is not an option if there is to be a future for commercial digital content.”

As someone who prefers to buy CD’s as opposed to a digital copy, I have to feel a hint of sadness that to all intensive purposes the music industry is swiftly dying.

People have still not realised that record companies won’t pay artists their wages if no-one buys the CD’s, and if there are no wages, then there will be no music. As a musician myself I’ve had to work hard to sell CD’s to people at gigs, at my last show had to cut my price in half because people know they can download our material for free.

Now when you take into account the amount of money we spent on recording, mixing and mastering, then the album artwork and promotion, it left us in a serious negative – financially and emotionally – so you can understand why I think that people need to start buying music again.

The world’s most painfully boring band, otherwise known as Coldplay, are taking part in the world’s most lame tame dispute over a riff from a song that legendary guitarist Joe Satriani accuses the bland band of stealing.

The band of posh gents have gently refuted the riff master generals claims that they stole his work, all the while praising his talent.

The backboneless group of whiners broke their silence last night with a pathetically nice statement on the groups website.

In response to the claims that Coldplay took parts of the chart topping track “viva La Vida” from an instrumental track called by satriani they whimpered:

“With the greatest possible respect to Joe Satriani, we have now unfortunately found it necessary to respond publicly to his allegations.

“If there are any similarities between our two pieces of music, they are entirely coincidental, and just as surprising to us as to him.

“Joe Satriani is a great musician, but he did not write or have any influence on the song Viva La Vida. We respectfully ask him to accept our assurances of this and wish him well with all future endeavours.”

Sissys.

The lawsuit was filed by Satriani last week at a Los Angeles federal court, with claims that “substantial original portions” of the song were the same. Satriani is looking for a quick buck it would seem, and fair play, because Coldplay sure don’t deserve it. Its music to slit your wrists by that is no joke.

The guitarist who has played alongside the likes of Mick Jagger, is seeking a jury trial, damages and “any and all profits” attributable to the alleged copyright infringement.

Sadly for anyone living in the UK, this song has been on the radio far too much, and is their biggest selling hit to date. But from a country that accepted the Spice Girls, it’s fair to say it’s not unsurprising.

One of the best things about this story is that the track even got nominated by the British Association for the Deaf for a Grammy for song of the year.

The track is credited to all four members of the band. Enigmatic frontman Chris Martin, hyperactive bassist Guy Berryman, wild guitarist Johnny Buckland and frantic drummer Will Chapman… I can’t actually write that. They are about as enigmatic as four pieces of string. How long is the string? I just don’t care.

Somehow this band has sold more records than anyone else in the world in 2008. I really hope for my sake and the sake of Coldplay haters everywhere, they get busted for this one.

I want to have a moan about a popstar who I think deserves a slap, but first…I’m slowly driving myself a little mad. My eye will not stop itching. I made the school boy error of scratching it, and now its bright red. Good times. I’m starting to think it’s the heater next to me – when its on my head spins a little, and I feel a bit rubbish, so actually I now definitely think it’s the heater. Maybe it’s seeping out gas or something, who knows.

Anyway, that’s not what I’m going to whinge about today. It’s Madonna. You know, she’s the old women that gyrates in-front of young people at concerts because she thinks that makes her look hip and cool. Sorry luv, but it’s a plastic hip you’ll need soon (if she isn’t entirely made of plastic already).

You have to feel sorry for her now ex-husband, Guy, who has to see photos of ‘Madge’ “sticking the fingers up at her marriage” at her concerts in front of her young fans. What a top lady. If I had a wife like that I’d be glad to see the back of her, she’s horrific. She looks like an old bit of bacon that’s still to be cleaned off the cooker from last Sundays fry-up.

I think though all divorces are like this, but because she has a platform to shout from she’s using it. She’s not exactly setting a good example to her army of fans, and I think its massively unfair of her to do so, you can’t help but feel that it’s all just a publicity stunt to generate interest for her current tour. I mean, come on! Most people would be gutted at having to get divorced but instead she’s happily performing, and raking in tons of money. And that my friend’s is the problem…

It’s a simple thing: feed a person, they’ll get fat. She has a fat wallet because the general public insist on feeding her. It’s like that car crash Winehouse – whom I despise. If people stopped buying her digitally enhanced records – don’t tell me you think that either of these girls old women knows how to sing properly. You can make any of these ‘artists’ sound half decent with readily available auto-tune software, believe me, I’ve used it before for fun.

As a world we love feeding these terrible people, giving them longer careers than they truly deserve, along with special treatment when they deserve a slap for being so full-of-it. I’ve seen it first hand. I’ve cringed when backstage at festivals certain musicians have demanded something ridiculous – like a 7-seater van for they’re entourage to travel a whole 40 metres to the stage – I’m not even kidding.

We need to calm down with the molly-codling of these celebrities because they have such a ridiculous degree of self worth – yes you may be the big thing right now, but so were the thousands of bands before you, and the thousands there will be after your forgotten.

When I was a kid I used to be driven to near insanity when on the way to the local supermarket my dad would insist on putting a Neil Young tape in the cars high-tech (at the time) player and I’d beg for it to be turned off – much to his hilarity. Much to my fathers dismay, I wanted to listen to 80s hair rock like Billy Idol, Bon Jovi, Kiss or anything off the Hot City Nights compilation album, but I’d have rather listened to silence than Neil Young.

But it’s funny how your music tastes change. When I was really young I was addicted to these glam-rock bands. Unusual for a toddler yes, but I think I wanted to be a rock star form an early age. I used to sing along to Whitesnake’s “Here I go Again” on repeat, and thought I was cool signing along with Kiss’s classic “Crazy, Crazy Nights”. In fact, I was cool dammit!

As I hit double figures in age, and headed to secondary school I have to put my taste down to peer pressure, and the inability to find anyone remotely cool in my school which was full of pathetic malcontents and buck-toothed reprobates. I call this my dark days of music. Oasis were beginning to emerge, along with the dreadful Blur, and a host of other moronic Indie bands. But before they came along was 2Unlimited, and other such faux-techno bands that populated the early 90s rave scene. I hang my head in shame.

The mid-nineties was when Indie was really taking shape, but at the same time as that mediocre, emotionless drivel, the saviours of my musical soul arrived. 1991 brought me Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Sonic Youth, Mudhoney, and my music taste was changed forever.

I remember listening to it and feeling connected instantly, this music had anger, passion, thought, and talent – everything my idiotic peers had tried to push out of me. Deciding that I was better off with music than friends, I went deeper in to a world that seemed like a billion miles away. By the time 1994 hit, I think I’d heard about every grunge band going and it was the time of Nu-metal’s birth with the band Korn.

If I thought grunge was angry, my 13 year old mind was not ready for the sheer aggression of Korn. Ok it’s maybe tame-ish by today’s heavy music standards, but you can’t deny it didn’t stop you in your tracks the first time you heard it. There was no going back, I was addicted to metal. From Korn I got into Snot, Limp Bizkit, Coal Chamber, Slipknot, and so many more I couldn’t possibly list.

I broadened my taste from the American Nu-metal to UK hardcore sludge with bands like the immensely heavy Iron Monkey, Raging Speedhorn, Charger, then onto metalcore bands like Killswitch Engage, Lamb of God and God Forbid, and onward to Gallows, This Is Hell, Comback Kid and Champion. All of these bands in their own way left something with me, whether it would be immense enjoyment at “finding! A band before any of my mates like Still Remains (whose demo I picked up three months before they got signed to Roadrunner), or disappointment like when Limp Bizkit went painfully commercial, or when kids started wearing Slipknot hoodies having never even heard the music.

I suppose the moral of this story is that everyone is entitled to a music taste. Be it my dad with his Neil Young CDs or someone covered in glow-sticks listening to the Prodigy. The best thing about a music taste is that it’s yours and only yours. Even though I listen to hardcore/metal/punk and everything in-between, I still find time to chill out to Vivaldi, or Buddy Holly. Appreciation of musical ability, dedication and conviction should drive music on forever, not some guy with his trousers so far up his body that he can tuck his man boobs in the belt.

If you’ve ever played in a band, then you will completely understand this. Do you remember your first show? I certainly do, and after speaking to a few of my mates who play in bands around the country, it all seems very familiar…

This seems to be how it happens if you are a guitar based rock band. A young band of mid-late teenagers are jamming in a garage or practice room for a couple of months, and decide we need to play some gigs. A friend tells them, “I know a guy who puts on gigs”, and they talk to him and arrange a headline show at ‘The Duck, Pond and Rifle’.

The band franticly promotes themselves, handing out scrappy fliers to their mates, (or these days) posting relentless Myspace bulletins with the title “Our first show!!11!!”, asking all of their relatives to come along and show some support, (although it’s usually to fill the venue, and they generally come through guilt).

The band turns up at 6pm (lets say the doors open at 8), apart from the singer who is never on time, and they start to find out hat amps they can borrow. Twenty frantic calls to mates of mates, and a lot of pleading with the other bands, they have a terrible sounding Squire Combo Amp with a broken distortion channel, a farty bass amp, a drum kit that is more tired than Elton Johns dress sense, and a microphone that smells of bacon.

At this point the singer strolls in with his butt-ugly girlfriend on his arm, doesn’t apologise, and then complains that his mic smells. Generally at this point a full blown argument takes place between the band’s sensible person (there’s always one) and the prima dona singer (again, there’s always one). At this point, always right in the middle of this power struggle, the ever helpful sound guy/bitter failed musician, shouts “right guys, do you want to run through a song please”.

At this point, the band unsheathe their instruments, that are generally fifth hand, and haven’t had their strings changed for six months, and take to the stage. The drummer brings out two sticks that don’t match, and the singer is still in a huff so refuses to sing, instead opting to say “1…2…1…2…3”, while looking at his feet.

The band runs through a sound check, twiddling knobs on amps all the way through and forgetting parts of songs. That’s if they get that far. I once saw a band fight each other literally on stage because they couldn’t decide which song to play in sound check. What experienced musicians in older bands have learned, is to do all this stuff before hand, choose your song at the practice studio. It stops you from looking like amateurs in front of a bunch of other bands, and venue managers.

If you make it through soundcheck then you have probably about half an hour to kill before show time, but you generally have had enough of everyone by that point so all hand around outside the venue, or in a dark corner, sulking and wishing you played in a big band. You’ll think to yourself, ‘I bet big bands don’t have these problems’, and ‘I wish we had a manager’, but you have to suck it up, and realise that is not the case.

When show time is about five minutes away, it dawns on you have no set list, or you’ve lost your plectrum or your bassist is AWOL. The trick is to ignore it all, it’s your first gig, and it’s just your relatives in the crowd. When the nerves kick in, the butterflies are going, and you strum your first out of tune chord, you know right there and then that you want to do it for the rest of your life.

A story caught my eye today…

A new report out today has suggested that festival goers could be seriously damaging their hearing. The poll by the Royal National Institute for the Deaf included 2,700 people, and found that over half of them had felt loud music had caused damage to their ears.

Over 80 percent had experienced warning signs such as dulled hearing or ringing in the ears.

The RNID said people could take simple steps to avoid damage, including standing further away from the speakers to protect their hearing.

The poll for the RNID’s Don’t Lose the Music campaign surveyed over 1,700 music fans at the Glastonbury, Latitude, Rise Reading and Leeds festivals and another 1,000 online.

Even though half of the people polled reported experiencing pain in their ears when listening to loud music, just 17 percent take steps to protect their hearing such as by turning music down, stepping away from speakers, and taking regular breaks.

Of course, us men were the worst offenders with 59 percent of men aged 26-40 claiming to have listened to music loud enough to hurt their ears, while 66 percent aged 26-30 reckon they’ve already damaged their hearing.

Emma Harrison from the RNID said: “These results issue a stark warning about the UK’s future hearing health. Volume levels at festivals can reach levels over 110 decibels - that’s the same as a jet plane taking off. Repeated listening at this volume will cause premature hearing loss.”

As someone whose played in bands over the years, it can be insanely loud, and now at the tender age of 27 I wear ear plugs that are specially moulded into my ear shape that you can’t really see (generally no one notices until they ask me a question and I say: “what?”).

I have suffered damage to my ears, I know this because I have a constant ringing in my left ear (I used to play on stage right), and there is not a lot that can be done to fix it, hooray…

I do regret only wearing ear plugs at gigs in the last couple of years, and I’ll be forcing my kids to wear ear protectors when we go to their first festivals (they’ll hate me for it, but at least they won’t go deaf). Its something we take for granted, but when you have to have hearing aids when you’re older, which I’m positive I’ll have to, you should think about it now.

I knew it. All you pop music fans out there…it turns out your all struggling with your sexuality…its scientific fact. Result.

A study published in the Australasian Psychiatry Journal, found that teens music taste define whether they are at risk of mental health problems, suicide, or being a Britney Spears fan.

The study’s author, Felicity Baker, said yesterday: “There is no evidence to suggest the type of music you listen to will cause you to commit suicide, but those who are vulnerable and at risk of committing suicide may be listening to certain types of music.”

The findings have prompted a call for doctors to include musical taste as a diagnostic indicator in mental health assessments.

She said an Australian study of year 10 students had shown significant associations between heavy metal and suicidal tendencies, depression, delinquency and drug-taking.

An American study has also shown that young adults who regularly listen to heavy metal had higher risk of suicide or depression than their peers, not to mention self-harm.

But, for once, its not just heavy metal getting a hard time. Rap music was linked to deviant behaviour, including theft, violence and drug use.

Dr Baker said. “But it’s important to point out that music doesn’t cause these behaviours,” she said.

“It’s more a case of teenagers who may have a mental illness or are involved in these antisocial behaviours being drawn to certain types of music.”

Michael Bowden, a child psychiatrist and the head of medical programs at the NSW Institute of Psychiatry, said most doctors already talk to teens about their influences, whether from their peers, the internet or music.

“Over the years there have been concerns about suicidal themes in some music and whenever a famous person, such as (Nirvana singer) Kurt Cobain, kills themselves we see a copycat effect among teenagers,” he said.

“But sometimes an adolescent’s musical tastes will reveal nothing. The key to understanding any teenager is to treat them with respect by listening to what they have to say, rather than typecasting them according to the type of music they listen to.”

This is what the study found out:

POP: Conformists, overly responsible, role-conscious, struggling with sexuality or peer acceptance.

HEAVY METAL: Higher levels of suicidal ideation, depression, drug use, self-harm, shoplifting, vandalism, unprotected sex.

DANCE: Higher levels of drug use regardless of socio-economic background.

JAZZ/RHYTHM & BLUES: Introverted misfits, loners.

RAP: Higher levels of theft, violence, anger, street gang membership, drug use and misogyny.

So this weekend I was at Scotland’s biggest music festival/gathering of scum, T in the Park.This marked the first time I’ve been to the site in Balado, Kinross and to be perfectly honest - I won’t be back. The site itself was ok; what you’d expect from a festival really. Big grassy fields, loads of toilets (disgusting toilets, yes, but again, it’s what you expect) and loads of decent bands.

I had the pleasure of catching some established bands like Rage Against The Machine, Bowling for Soup, Amy Winehouse, REM, as well as little known bands like Ghost of a Thousand, Departures and Cancer Bats. I was lucky enough to have backstage passes for the event, and if it wasn’t for that I’d have gave up on the Saturday, and went home.

The problem with festivals is always the food prices, the manky toilets and more often than not the weather. But this time, for me and a whole lot of other people if festival forums are anything to go by, the worst thing about this years festival was guy’s and girl’s pissing everywhere. And I mean everywhere.

By the time Saturday afternoon had hit, you couldn’t look anywhere and not see a guy or girls bits on show. Worst of all, these people were not just going to the perimeter fence to do it. No no. They were quite happy to just stand up (from their drunken stooper) and take a leak where they were, only to sit down in it again - even if the toilets were right beside them. I actually saw one guy peeing ON a porta-loo. WTF!?!

The level of alcohol consumed was frightening. I mean, I had my fair few, but there were people of both genders sprawled out across the field like the aftermath of a battle. How you can possibly enjoy any of the bands in that state is beyond me. Speaking to a mate on the phone that didn’t go, he told me Glasgow was a ghost town - “that explains it” I said to myself.

The other major bug-bear of my festival experience was the security. These guys were from about three different companies and didn’t communicate with each other which meant if you went past one gate, you had little or no chance getting back in - even with my Access All Areas pass.

The security staff were rude, unwashed and lazy. Here’s a photo that sums up these guys performance over the weekend:

In conclusion; I don’t reckon I’ll be going back to T in the Park unless the security?stop people pissing everwhere, which is a shame because you get to watch some really good bands.

?With just a day before the gates swing open, Glastonbury festival still has about 3000 tickets left unsold, which means it could be the first time in 15 years that the festival has not sold out in advance. Often blaming the mud in recent years for putting people off, Jay-Z is now the target for the reason of slow sales.

Organiser Michael Eavis said: “There’s a lot at stake. We really do need a good year this year, that’s for sure.”

Last year a total of 137,500 tickets went on sale in April, selling out in an hour and 45 minutes. “There were about 3,000 left this morning,” Mr Eavis told the BBC News website on Tuesday.

“But they are going out slowly. We did about 800 yesterday so we’ll just about scrape home without losing my shirt.”

Scrambling to make himself feel better and those who would normally go, worse, Mr Eavis said the charities that receive money from the festival - Water Aid, Oxfam and Greenpeace - were likely to lose out as a result of any unsold tickets and the rising cost of staging the event.

“The costs have gone up such a lot since we set the [ticket] price,” Mr Eavis said. “The diesel cost has gone up by ?160,000 for the generators and all the tractors.” The event aims to give ?2m to the charities every year. “The charity money will have to be reduced, I think,” he said. “We’ve got ?1m going to charity already, but it’s the second million that’s the problem if we don’t sell out.”

Music fans will arrive at the site from 8am tomorrow, before the music starts on Friday.

Mr Eavis, who founded the festival on his farm 38 years ago, said he was most looking forward to Amy Winehouse’s appearance on Saturday, which was “finally confirmed”. But this year has seen controversy over the choice of Jay-Z to top the bill on Saturday.

Oasis load-mouth Noel Gallagher said it was “wrong” for the event to have a hip-hop headliner. But Mr Eavis responded: “I’m thrilled about it. I think it’s going to be an absolutely brilliant evening.”

The festival had been the victim of the “great British tradition is of kicking down the people who are at the top of their game”, he added.
“We’re at the top of our game, or we have been. So we’re sitting targets for criticism.

“It’s quite natural that we should get a kicking and for some reasons we probably needed it. I’m proving this year that we’re going to bounce back and it’s going to be a vintage Glastonbury year.

“There’s a lot at stake. We really do need a good year this year, that’s for sure, with the weather and everything.”

After mudbaths at the past two festivals, Mr Eavis said the forecast for this year was “fine and dry with one or two spots of rain”.

“We might get 1mm of rain on Saturday, which is just what we need because it is quite dusty at the moment,” he said. “So a short shower from the heavens will be gratefully received.”

The music known as heavy metal has for years been misunderstood and much maligned by the general public each and every time they see someone in heavy metal clothing.

However, there are heavy metal artistes and bands who are wholly professional about their art, and are known as hardworking musicians who dedicate hours upon hours to their craft and music. Bands such as Dream Theater and surprisingly, Metallica, are serious musicians despite the latter’s famous partying ways often reported in the metal news.

Music magazines that concentrate on specific musical instruments have invited various band members to provide musical and performance advice, and these individuals are very much lauded in the professional music industry for their effort and abilities.

In fact, heavy metal bands can often boast of members who number amongst the top musicians in their specific musical instruments. Dream Theater’s John Petrucci has, for years, been considered one of the most gifted guitarists in modern times, and has been voted in numerous awards and often makes the metal news.

So it is solely the result of the merits derived from the work of these heavy metal musicians that the genre itself has over the years, been taken more seriously in both the music and entertainment industries.

While heavy metal music has its foundations in basic power chords, chugging rhythms and fast paced songs, the many sub genres that has spawned from a free spirited creativity in the community has resulted in it being one of the most versatile musical genre in history. Playthecrowd helps bring metal news?and all genres of heavy music.

There are many camps within heavy metal that swear by its more specialized forms, but these purists also encourage diversity and exploration from their own work. It is not uncommon to find heavy metal bands to have a wide repertoire throughout their discography. The more mainstream bands such as Metallica have one time or another in their career, explored different musical forms such as classical, rock and even pop.

Perhaps to emphasize the influence heavy metal has had on both the industry and the public has been the increasing number of heavy metal acts that have populated the popular music charts, as well as the growing visibility of the genre in commercial marketing and advertising avenues.

Heavy metal merchandise continues to be one of the top selling products in various forms, from heavy metal shirts and CD sales, to other apparel and even tattoos.

Many heavy metal bands, no matter how underground they consider themselves to be, are also keen to include merchandise sales in their efforts to promote themselves and the music. Even the hardest forms within the genre such as black and death metal have been able to break into the consciousness of the public in major European countries, making constant appearances in their musical charts, and you can rest assured - if something happens in the heavy metal news, playthecrowd will report it.