ASR Producer Podcast

                                                             Will. I. Am

             I choose Will. i. am for my project because I really like unique sound that he produced. Honestly, I haven’t thought him as a music producer until 2010. I just thought him as a member of Black Eyed Peas before. A little over two years ago, in the fall of 2010, a South Korean girl group 2ne1 dropped their album “To Anyone”. I was in Korea for my vacation at that time and I could listen their songs all over the place in Seoul where is a capital of South Korea. Their album was fantastic and sound was so unique. After half year from the album released, they recorded huge hit in France, England, and Japan and now people call Korean music as K-pop. So I searched who produced their album and found out that Will. i. am produced the entire album. After that, I searched and listened to the songs that he produced. I think he has his unique way to put all his imagination and expression to music that he produces. He keeps trying to generate new types of sounds and produces the entire process of production from making beats to controlling the entire session. This is why I like him as a new type of producers and choose him for my project.

                                                          References

            Fawn Renee, (2007,Sep 17). Will. I. Am: The Professor of Production; From Eazy-E and Black Eyed Peas, to Nas, and The Game. Retrieved April 1, 2012, from http://allhiphop.com/2007/09/17/will-i-am-the-professor-of-production-from-eazy-e-and-black-eyed-peas-to-nas-and-the-game/  

            Nabeela, (2012, Mar 31). Will.i.am. and 2NE1: The Long Awaited…World Takeover?. Retrieved April 1, 2012, from http://seoulbeats.com/2012/03/will-i-am-and-2ne1-the-long-awaited-world-takeover/
           
            Wikipedia: The free encyclopedia. (2011, Nov 23). Will.i.am. Retrieved April 1, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will.i.am

Podcast 2-Dr.Dre

<object height="81" width="100%"> <param name="movie" value="https://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F31101147"></param> <param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param> <embed allowscriptaccess="always" height="81" src="https://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F31101147" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="100%"></embed> </object>  <span><a href="http://soundcloud.com/marksoul8701/podcast-2dr-dre">Podcast 2Dr. Dre</a> by <a href="http://soundcloud.com/marksoul8701">Marksoul8701</a></span>


http://soundcloud.com/marksoul8701/podcast-2dr-dre

Peer Comment3

Great job Norkus. 

Your introduction is very informative and offers a great insight on Martin O’Donnell. The structure of your post is very organized and clear. I like the way that you explained his background information with providing his youth and how he started his career in the game music. I also found interesting information that only three people made Halo’s huge orchestral game music. I also impressed that you provide Marty’s philosophy for his work and how he expressed his work and philosophy in Halo. I cannot provide any constructive criticism, as you have fulfilled all the requirements. I also think you put a lot of effort into this paper. I have learned a lot about Martin O’Donnell and his work in the game music. 

Independent Research Entry


Andre Romelle Young, known as Dr. Dre, was born Feb 18, 1965. As a record producer, rapper, record executive, and entrepreneur, he is one of the most influential people in music industry. Dr. Dre, began to DJ at house parties, eventually becoming employed at the nightclub called Eve’s After Dark. And he started his rap artist career as a member of the World Class Wreckin’Cru. After while, he became and founded member of the influential gangsta rap group N.W.A. With his successful artist career, he became  a former co-owner and artist of Death Row Records and now he is the CEO of Aftermath Entertainment. With the creation of his successful brand of headphones, Beats by Dre, he has improved the quality of music heard by consumers and stated him as a successful entrepreneur.

As a recording producer, he has had huge effect on popular music. He developed and helped popularize the musical genre, West Coast G Funk. West Coast G Funk is a sub-genre of hip-hop music that used multi-layered and melodic synthesizers with slow, heavy beats and was popular rap music in early 90’s. He has produced so many smash hit albums with famous rap artist such as 2 pac, Snoop Dogg, The Game, Eminem and50 Cent. In 2001, Dr. Dre co-produced six tracks on Eminem’s landmark album Marshall Mathers LP, including the Grammy-winning lead single, The Real Slim Shady. In 2002, he focused on producing his most successful album, Get Rich Or Die Trying, for rapper 50 cent.

Dr. Dre is one of hip-hop producers who started to use electronic instrumental devices such as synthesizers and drum sequencers because his primary musical influences came from 70’s funk musicians such as George Clinton, Isaac Hayes and Curtis Mayfield. Based on his musical inspiration from 70’s funk music, he developed his famous hip-pop style G Funk.  Unlike other hip-hop producers, he tries to avoid using samples in his rap music. Instead of using samples, he actually makes studio musicians to play pieces of music he wants to use. This allows him to have more flexibility to control rhythms and tempo of pieces. This is why G Funk often utilized fewer, unaltered samples in a song.

As a listener, he is one of musicians who has had a huge influence on me. I really like to listen his songs with using his headphone. His mixing and recording is so experienced and well made. As an industry professional, he is one of great producers and engineers in music industry. He has his passion and style in his music. He always tries to create perfect music, beats and sound with new technology.  

Peer Comment2

To Norkus 
You had a lot of good material and explained each section really well. Providing background information of the band and electronic instruments and each album’s concept with detail makes your entry really strong and informative. And I like how you describe the sound of Kraftwerk in the end with your thoughts about the band. I was also impressed about your explanation with own opinion and agree with that people of the time could lose themselves in such a fantasy world with kraftwerk’s music. I enjoyed reading your post on Kraftwerk and seeing your point of view on such a great band. Great job!

Electronic Music Innovations Entry

Kraftwerk, the most influential electronic music band in 70’s and 80’s, was formed by Ralf Hutter and Florian Scheider from Dusseldorf, Germany in 1970. Their music was innovative to music at that time. The primary songwriters and leaders of kraftwerk, Florian Schneider and Ralf Hutter met and started as a duo in Organisation. After short period time as Organisation, they started the band Kraftwerk. Even though they worked with many different musicians as band members, Florian and Ralf were the only main members. Their music was fully experimental. They used repetitive rhythms with catchy melodies and electronic instrumentation. Kraftwerk are considered pioneers in electronic music history and electronic instrumentation and devices.

Kraftwerk truly helped development of music technology and electronic instruments such as the vocoder, the electronic drum kit and synthesizers. They always tried to create unique sounds with electronic devices in their Kling Klang Studio and even created their own instruments. They built an electronic drum pad that triggers synthetic percussion sounds. They even created conceptual electronic instruments such as light beam activated drum cage triggered sounds by arm movements. Kraftwerk was the first band that used the music sequencer. Their experimental effort with creating electronic instruments had a huge effect on today’s electronic music and technology.

Kraftwerk was one of the early users of the conceptual album form. Before the Kraftwerk, most albums were track based. Each song in the album had different lyrics and idea. However, Kraftwerk put one concept to the album and each track was connected to the main theme of the album. These types of albums gave an artistic impression and uniqueness to kraftwerk. This conceptual album concept and totally new sound allowed kraftwerk to become revolutionary artists. Their music has influenced other artists in many different genres of music. Cabaret Voltaire, Gary Numan, Joy Division, New Order, Soft Cell, Depeche Mode, and many other electronic music bands were probably influenced and developed by Kraftwerk, even if it was in indirect ways. 

2 years ago, I had a chance to use a vocorder. It wasn’t impressive back then because I got used to the hi-tech instruments. However, I never thought about creating vocoders or some sort of electronic instrument. I think their music was an experiment and a challenge to them. They successfully created their own music with their own technology. It is so impressive to me that the music form 30 years ago still has a huge influence on today’s music.

Electronic Music Entry

Kraftwerk was one of the most influential and innovative groups from 1970’s and 1980’s. This German band, Kraftwerk, showed and provided us the beginning of electronic music. Their music was totally innovative and new back then. They mostly used electronic synthesizers, keyboards and basic forms of electronic instruments to write the melody and rhythm of their music. Also each album had unique conceptual themes. However, they had a similar image of the rest of pop bands back then. They wore matching suits just like The Beach Boys and The Beatles.

From 1974 to 1981, Kraftwerk released 5 albums that could be remarkable to electronic music history. At the end of 1974, kraftwerk released album, Autobahn. This was their first conceptual album that inspired by The Beach Boys. With huge success with Autobahn, they came to the U.S. in 1975 and then they released album Radio Activity with concept of nuclear energy and the radio. After success with two albums, they released another conceptual album Trans-European Express in 1977. They came up with the idea of European interconnectivity and train travel as their new concept. They tried to emulate the train sound as rhythms and beats. However, this album didn’t make commercial success. In 1978, they released the album, The Man Machine and found success in the UK and the U.S. This was their first pop looking album. After while, kraftwerk released their remarkable album, Computer World in 1981. This album was about the rise of computers within society.

Kraftwerk earned the position of the biggest influence on electronic music history and forms. They experimentally tried to make new sound with synthesis and combined electronic music with the pop sound. They also started the form of conceptual albums. Kraftwerk put unique concept on each album. In the album Autobahn, they used Road Travel as their concept and used nuclear energy and the radio in the album Radio Activity. Not only did they put concepts in their albums, they tried to give messages to audiences. In their live performances, they used showroom dummies to express their ideas and concepts.

As a listener, kraftwerk leaves a huge impression on me. They did make music, which is what they loved to do and had a huge influence on electronic music and musicians.  They used unique concepts on albums with serious messages. As an industry professional, the sound of kraftwerk was all about innovation. Their revolutionary sound and skills leaves a huge effect on electronic music and modern music.