American Idol said farewell with a massive finale. As promised by the show’s executive producer Nigel Lythgoe, the finale episode encompassed 15 years of the reality competition series’ legacy, bringing back the original as well as other former judges, contestants and even the long-lost Brian Dunkleman, who co-hosted the show’s…
Adobe Issues Emergency Update to Flash After Ransomware Attacks
Hear A$AP Ferg, Skrillex’s Buoyant ‘Hungry Ham’
A$AP Ferg has recruited an all-star team of collaborators for his upcoming Always Strive and Prosper, the follow-up to his breakout 2013 LP Trap Lord. Among the artists appearing on the Harlem rapper’s new album is Skrillex, who provides the buoyant, skittish beat on “Hungry Ham,” an ode to Ferg’s Hamilton…
Hear Cheap Trick Drummer’s New Song With Guided by Voices’ Robert Pollard
Cheap Trick are all set to celebrate their history at tonight’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, where the Illinois power-pop legends will take the stage to play a few of their classic songs. If all goes as planned, the performance will feature a reunion with drummer Bun E. Carlos — who hasn’t toured with the…
Executive Shuffles: Sony/ATV, UMG, Maverick Music…
The latest executive shuffles…
Sony/ATV Music Publishing has elevated Jorge Mejía to President of Latin America and U.S. Latin. Mejía has been working with Sony/ATV Publishing for over 19 years.
Universal Music Group is letting Francis Keeling go. Keeling was UMG’s Global Head of Digital Business and has worked for the label for 10 and a half years. Keeling’s departure was announced exactly 4 years after he took on the Head of Digital Business role.
Elsewhere…
Maverick Music has hired Greg Thompson as President. Thompson comes from Capitol Music Group where he was Executive Vice President of Sales, Promotion & Marketing. Thompson’s new role with Maverick Music will be effective as of mid-June.
Music Works International has hired David Greenberg as Director of Marketing/Development. Greenberg’s new role will involve developing and implementing global strategies to benefit artists development, long-term brand building and revenue growth.
Also, for the latest jobs in the music industry, check out Digital Music News’ job board.
(Image by Dave Conner, Creative Commons, Attribution 2.0 Generic, CC by 2.0)
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On Composing Music [Excerpt From "Songwriting: Get Your Black Belt In Music & Lyrics"]
In this excerpt from Songwriting: Get Your Black Belt In Music & Lyrics, we look at how the musical composition process, and how the use of different scales can effect the feel and mood of a piece of music, as demonstrated by the California thrash metal band referenced here.
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Guest Post excerpted from Songwriting: Get Your Black Belt In Music & Lyrics
EXCERPTS Nr. 2, ON COMPOSING MUSIC:
THE EVIL HAS LANDED – Locrian
Notes 1: excerpt from ”The Evil Has Landed”, by Testament
The song The Evil Has Landed by Californian thrash metal band Testament, from their album The Formation of Damnation, is based on the d sharp locrian scale. The image (notes 1) shows the first four measures of the song. Already in the first second you can hear the lowered fifth scale degree, the character tone of the locrian scale.
If the lydian scale has a dreamy, supernatural quality, the locrian scale carries a whisper of an underworld nightmare.
The perfect fifth interval (formed by the fifth and the first degrees) is gone. In the lydian scale it compensates for the unruly tritone interval (the raised fourth degree), but in the locrian scale, the fifth scale degree is the tritone.
Once called diabolus in musica (the devil within the music) the tritone has a reputation as the black sheep of the interval family. Maybe this is why the locrian scale is popular as a base for songs in the black metal, thrash metal, death metal, and related hard rock genres? As if it didn’t sound sprawling enough, the locrian scale also has a lowered second scale degree.
A tip: