Category Archives: Musical

“Paul Is Dead”

Nationality: United States
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/11/13
Primary Language: English

"Paul Is Dead" Magazine Cover

The informant is taking a class at USC on the Beatles and recently learned about an urban legend surrounding the group. The legend is that Paul died in a car crash somewhere between 1967 and 1969 and was replaced by a double so as not to stop the Beatles’ success. Because the Beatles were so popular at the time, this was a huge story and many devoted fans went hunting for clues to solve this supposed mystery. One radio DJ claimed to have found proof when he played the song “Revolution 9” backwards live on the air and it appeared to be saying “Turn me on, dead man”. This was taken by many to be definitive proof of the other Beatles subliminally hinting at Paul’s death. Still, there were other examples cited. For example, in the song “Strawberry Fields Forever”, John is heard saying something that sounds like, “I buried Paul”. Also, the iconic cover of their album Abbey Road, which came out right after these rumors were started, was thought to be a metaphor for Paul’s funeral. John is in front, dressed in white like a preacher, Ringo in black as the undertaker, Paul barefoot, symbolizing how he would be buried, and George in denim work clothes as the gravedigger.

Although the legend is now mostly defunct because it was proven that Paul is indeed with us, it is still talked about. Now, people joke about how ridiculous it was, but people took it very seriously. It seems that there are still rumors of celebrity deaths that turn out to be hoaxes fairly often. I believe this is somewhat fueled by our media-driven culture. Magazines, newspapers, and TV news are constantly looking for the most sensational story. Any time someone famous dies, it is in the news for weeks, if not months. Beyond that, if the legend were true, it would imply a very complex and high-ranking conspiracy on the part of the Beatles and their record company. I believe these two factors are why celebrity death stories, especially Paul McCartney’s, are so fascinating and lead to such a great deal of speculation.

Xue Shan Chun Xiao (musical performance)

Nationality: Chinese
Age: 53
Occupation: Manager
Residence: Beijing, China
Performance Date: 2/15/13
Primary Language: Chinese
Language: Chinese

Analysis/Observation: The song is played on a traditional Chinese instrument called a “zither”. It is a Chinese folk instrument that is plucked as a harp. Like most Chinese instruments, it is either played in D or G major, and usually consists of five notes: Do, Re, Mi, So, La. There are 21 strings, and the sounds get lower as strings get thicker. The green strings symbolize the note “So”. It is made of wood, and usually has traditional art carvings along the side of the instrument, and is hollow inside.

The song is called “Xue Shan Chun Xiao”. Translated roughly, it means “Spring on the Mountain.”

The song started out very slow and sweet. The informant performed it with slow, exaggerated motions in her arms. She seemed very peaceful. In the middle, the song suddenly picked up pace and there was a very intense section where her fingers are moving very fast. She has an intense expression on her face, although it also looks like she’s concentrating very hard on plucking the right notes. The song ends with a “bang” like effect.

Informant (translated) : “The song is a minority dance song that is supposed to mimic the flow of water when it is spring. When the snow melts from a mountain, it starts slow, then suddenly goes faster and faster as more ice melts.”

Me: “When is this song normally performed?”

Informant: “It’s a more modern song that comes from the Dai minority. However it’s not a dance song. In traditional fol music, you have dance songs, and then you have solo songs. It’s actually used a lot in music exams because of the technique you need.”

Analysis: The Dai people reside in the province of Yunnan, where there is a mountain called the Jade Dragon Snow mountain. The mountain is approximately half the height of Mount Everest. The piece of music is most likely referring to this mountain and the flow of water into the river come spring. The Dai minority is commonly known for their festive dances that they do at the spring festival, so the song is not commonly played during the festival as it is not a dance piece. It is more often played during concerts or as a prelude to a show.

Annotation: Due to the large file of the original recording, it could not be uploaded. A link to the same piece (played by someone other than the informant) has been attached.

Xue Shan Chun Xiao

A variation of the GuZheng appeared the popular film “Gong Fu” or “Kung Fu Hustle”, which opened in 2004.

Recently, using Chinese traditional folk instruments to play pop music has become a trend. A girl playing Adele’s Rolling in the Deep on the zither went viral in Chinese forums.

Dark Side of the Rainbow

Nationality: Costa Rican - American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 5, 2013
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

“Have you ever played Dark Side of the Moon while watching the Wizard of Oz?” According to my informant, this is a widely known pairing of the 1939 movie and 1973 Pink Floyd album. “If you watch the movie while playing the whole album, they like, flow together. Its crazy.” I had never heard this before, so of course my curiosity was aroused. I then proceeded to watch the Wizard of Oz dubbed by the album. I started the album right as the credits roll after the last roar of the MGM lion.  I was shocked at how many eerie similarities occurred between the film and album. I took note of some notable coincidences;

  •  As Dorothy balances on the fence during , “Breathe’, the line “balanced on the biggest wave, race toward an early grave” is the background and Dorothy falls as the song changes.
  • The sound of an airplane speeding by is heard just as Dorothy looks from side of the sky to the other as she sings “Over the Rainbow”.
  • When Dorothy and her home are taken up by the tornado, “Great Gig in the Sky” plays, which is very suiting.
  • The song “Brain Damage” corresponds perfectly with the scarecrow scene.
  • A heartbeat is heard when Dorothy taps on the Tinmans hollow chest.

There are much deeper interpretations in listening to the lyrics as well. I don’t think I could catch many of them, but my informant did point some out to me. For example, once Dorothy arrives in Munchkin land, a line from “Money” is heard, “get a job with more pay and you’re okay” which could be interpreted as foreshadowing of Dorothy’s “promotion” to slaying the Wicked Witch of the West. Some of the coincidences my informant showed me were far-fetched, but I must admit thought provoking. The album can be put on repeat, as the film is longer but even when repeating the album similarities continue to occur. I ask my informant where she heard this from, and she says that her friends brother  had told her and she too was compelled to try it. Her “mind was blown” after seeing that it actually worked. Know one can really know how this syncing came about or who first thought about it.“Dark Side of the Rainbow” is a good time when you have nothing else to do or just can’t fight your curiosity, and I’m sure that is the main reason why so many know about this strange pairing.

Moshing

Nationality: American; Half-white, "an amalgamation"
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Pasadena/Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 4/26/2013
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish, Latin

(For the best presentation of the data collected for this entry on the folk dance form of Moshing, I have provided a transcription of my interview with the informant. Interviewer input/clarification is in brackets[] for the duration of the interview.)

“I guess [moshing] is the process of…of, like, uh, throwing yourself against other people in, like, kind of a dance that can look, sometimes, like it’s like fighting, but it’s more, like, just bumping up against each other, like, kinda hard. Usually associated with, like, uh, heavier music, so like uh punk or metal or hard rock or something like that. Although I’ve seen it happen at rap concerts too. Usually any kind of aggressive or loud music. I’ve seen it happen at a dubstep concert once, too, that was weird.

“[So what is generally the process for the formation of…] a mosh pit? Generally you need, like, one guy who is not afraid to be a little out there. Cause like you need one person to be a catalyst. No one wants to be the asshole who just starts pushing people around, you know? But someone who doesn’t mind being the asshol e will start, and then it’s kind of like uh, a space, and people will recognize the mosh pit, especially if it’s at a music venue, or like a uh, uh, type of music where like, it’s commonplace. And they’ll kind of see it, and they’ll kind of spread out in a circle and they’ll kinda like back everybody up, um, and then uh, and then it’s just kind of like a circle, I guess, and, people just come in from the sides of the circle, almost like a dance circle.

“There’s kind of two parts to the mosh pit, there’s  the people who are inside the mosh pit, and then there’s the people on the edges who are still participating in it because they’re kinda like pushing people back in, like, people bump up against the side, and they’ll kinda push them back. Then there’s the people in the mosh pit, which is like…basically, there’s a direction around the circle, like they’ll be going around the circle like this (making a circular motion with hand) like against each other, and sometimes people will go the opposite way if they want to get beat up a little bit, like, more intensely. And then there’s different variations on it depending on what kind of show you’re going to.”

[What kind of variations would that be?]

“Well a big one is, um, skanking, which is, uh, you do at ska concerts, which is, uh, ska is a mix between, um, punk and reggae, but, skanking is basically like almost dancing but you’re kicking out your legs and kinda like throwing your head down a little bit and moving your arms around, but you’re also kinda bumping into people so it kinda looks like a mosh pit and feels like one, but it’s not as intense, usually. Then sometimes, uh, I don’t really have words, like a vocabulary for what these other ones are called, but, like…okay, there’s just your average one, which I guess is just called a circle pit, is what they call it, uh, and that’s people, like, running around a circle, and like pushing each other. That’s like what you’ll usually see. Sometimes in really, really crowded places it could be like a mass of people just, like, so, like, bumping up against each other. They’re just, like, swaying back and forth and like, because there’s no room to even have, start a circle pit. Um, and then…there’s other stuff too I’m not that familiar with. There’s like hardcore dancing, which is like, throwing your legs around and like, I don’t know. I don’t really know how to describe it. It looks very odd. Um, yeah, let’s see…that’s most of it. Sure, I guess.”

[So it seems like, from former experience, there are, like, rules to the mosh pit?]

“Yeah, there are definitely rules that are associated with it. A lot of it is like safety stuff, so, if somebody gets knocked down you definitely are gonna clear a space around them. Everybody in the mosh pit, like, they won’t necessarily stop but they’ll clear a space around them, and like, have people around the person, and then, uh, you’ll help them up too, I mean, it’s just common courtesy. And then, if there’s like a fight or something, they’ll try to break them up, unless it’s, kinda like a for fun fight, like that you can tell, but sometimes people get actually mad.”

[When would someone get mad?]

“Well, like, back in the day, like 1980s and shit when this stuff was like super intense, it’d be over like, almost like gangland stuff. So like, oh you’re not from, you know, my crew of like…this would happen mostly in like hardcore, especially in Los Angeles, so this is kinda specific, but, um, people get in fights over like not being in the right group of friends, or like, if you’re like associated with certain stuff. So let’s say you were, like, a Neo-Nazi or something like that, you’d probably get beat up by, you know, like anti-fascists or whatever. Um, or, uh, a lot of straightedge guys, back in the day, they’d use to, there were some straightedge militant groups that would beat up on people that were like drinking and stuff like that at shows. So there was like some stuff, but there was like regular stuff of like people just getting mad at each other, um, you know, like tensions could run high sometimes.

“Rules…well there kind of are, there’s like a structure to it, yeah, it’s just kind of funny cause like music associated with it, being just like an all-out melee but that doesn’t usually happen. I’ve never seen a total all-out melee at least. I dunno.”

[Now there’s obviously an element, of like, at least flirting with danger, would you say that’s a main draw to it?]

“Yeah, well like it’s a good release of energy. I know, like, at least for me, like once I started going to it, I kind of have to go every once in a while just to get rid of, like, any kind of tension I have. I dunno. I have this theory, this is gonna be really stupid. I have this theory that, like, it’s kind of related to, like, our primal need for like war-dancing and stuff like that because, um, well I was watching some stuff about, like Native American stuff, it’s just kinda like a similar kind of process. You need some way to get out aggression and stuff like that, like it’s a weird kind of way that would seem taboo, normally, but like, yeah, so that’s why people…I think that there’s something kind of primal about it, I guess. Yeah”

[So would you say this is tied to the music this is normally associated with it? Like does it spring from the music or is it more like applied to it?]

“Well it is, because the music is pure emotion. It’s definitely not, like, I mean, it’s not musicianship, that’s not why people go. It’s not like you’re like, a good-sounding show. People like it when it sounds, like, crappy or something sometimes. So it’s definitely about the energy of the moment, and the kind of emotional release it’s giving you. Um, but yeah. I don’t really know. I’m kind of bad with describing it, it just kinda feels like, you know, like a good release, I guess.”

[So, first show you ever went to, where you first saw moshing?]

“That I saw moshing? I think I went to, like, a Warped Tour with my friends, back in, like, sixth grade maybe. Fifth or sixth grade. And…oh, I remember what happened. So, it was the first show of the day, cause Warped Tour is set up, like, there’s like a bunch of bands or whatever, so first show of the day. Uh, my friends were more into this kind of stuff than I was, I was more into listening to stuff like industrial and stuff like that. I had like never really gone to shows because my parents had never really let me to. So this was the first show I was at, so this band called TSOL comes on, it was like this old-school punk band from like back in the day, and uh what happened was I was with my friends, and uh this humongous skinhead guy, like, uh comes over, grabs my friend by the neck, and like pulls him in as soon as the music starts playing, and there’s like this mass of people, and we were all like, ‘oh shit oh no, he has our friend’. Turns out my friend knew him, from like, it was like really weird to us so I didn’t even participate that first time I saw it. I didn’t participate until…I actually started out with doing, like, skanking and stuff first cause it’s a lot easier, like, and, in terms of getting over it, cause it looks more like dancing. And then I kind of moved into, I kinda go to like hardcore shows a lot and mosh.”

[When would you say you started getting into the more hardcore stuff?]

“Oh that was definitely when my brother, he was like always the person who, uh, who would be into the heavier music, so I think that was, like, around, let’s see…when I actually started going to hardcore shows and hardcore moshing was probably around, uh, eighth grade, ninth grade. Yeah.”

[Did you know about moshing before the first time you actually saw it?]

“Yeah, there was Youtube and stuff, so if you start off looking for your bands, you know some band or whatever on Youtube and you find some live show and you see what’s going on. It’s kinda just part of the vocabulary. I had already listened to punk music to so it was like, just like, I dunno when I first learned about it, but I’m sure it was pretty early.

“My friends were really into it, and also like the only two CDs I owned, my mom actually gave them to me, which was really funny, was like a Public Enemy CD and a Clash Greatest Hits CD, so you know I was just like listening to that kind of loud, aggressive music, I guess.

“I think it’s interesting that it’s not really limited to, like, just punk bands, it’s kind like funny when I saw it at a Dubstep thing, and then, um, I’ve seen it happen at Rap shows like twice now, and I don’t even go that often to those, so, it’s kind of funny to me.”

[Would you say there’s a kind of aspect to the music for when, like, a mosh pit usually starts?]

“Well, there’s definitely like, uh…usually it will start, like in the beginning or when they’ll do like their first little build-up. So like, okay, basically punk songs are like two minutes long so there’s not a lot of buildup but like you’ll hear a song start up and people just start going at it. But there’s usually just like some kind of um, oh I don’t know what the word it, uh some kind of, in the chorus like that they’ll usually speed up a certain part, just like ‘duh duh duh duh duh’ like that and that’s when, like, crazy, they start jumping off, like people will just start like jumping on the stage and jumping off, like doing backflips into the crowd and stuff.”

[So I guess a big thing is just, like, the emotion of the music which can kind of transcend genre.]

“It’s just fun, too, you know. Kinda just…I really don’t know why it’s fun. I have my theories, like I was saying, but it’s just, like, weird.”

 

Analysis:

Having sprung from Punk and Hardcore culture,

Drag Music

Nationality: American; Caucasian
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Cheshire, CT
Performance Date: 3/19/2013
Primary Language: English

Apathy Syndrome, “whendawurldends”

(For this entry, I asked my informant, who is a hobbyist underground music producer, about the genre of drag music, which is a form of remixing that my informant has had significant experience with, both as a producer and a member of the culture. A transcription of his explanation of the genre and its culture is included below.)

“Drag music came along as an extension of, um, what DJ Screw was doing with “chop and screw” remixes, which was taking a track and manipulating time, and specifically slowing it down, and what DJ Screw would do also was he’d have parts repeat and make it very choppy, hence the “chop and screw”. So what drag remixes did with that is they took it and they really emphasized the slowing it down and exaggerated the slowing it down, and then, in most cases, it took that and it applied it to popular music, pop songs, rather than just hip hop, and it would create a slowed down, darker version of whatever song you were drag remixing.

“I want to say my first exposure to drag, like actual drag, was…I want to say it was Salem’s “Until the World Ends”* or whatever that song’s called, but I’m not one hundred percent on that. It’s definitely the one that sticks out in my mind as being the first, um, yeah I think that’s the first.

“Drag is really tied into the witch house community, so, it’s not that they’re interchangeable, but most witch house groups – well that’s not true – most drag groups identify as witch house groups. So, as far as witch house communities, witch house has this thing where they try to be very underground, almost to an absurd degree, right? So they spell their names with symbols that can’t be Google searched and so it’s really hard to form a community around that. There is a message board, um, that I don’t personally, I’m not personally a member of, I very rarely log onto, but that message board, as far as I know, is the closest thing that witch house has to a community.

“So for typical drag, there’s not a whole lot to [the production]: you would take a track and you would, either digitally or with live turntablism, you would slow it down. What some groups, well depending on the group they’ll change up the drums, or maybe they’ll only [slow down] the acapella and then they’ll add in their own instrumentation, um, or else they’ll add effects on it. They’ll add reverb and, um, delay, or – it’s pretty much fair game. It’s not defined enough to really have a step-by-step process, there’s a lot of different ways to approach a drag piece. I’d say really the core aspect is the slowing, is the tempo manipulation and making it slower.

“It’s definitely deriving from elements of house music, um, but it really emphasizes tone and I would argue that really, that emphasis comes from goth music, like 80’s synth-y goth music. And it also pull from, whether they know it or not, pulls from a lot of music from musique concrète, found sound, really where sample manipulation first came from.

“I guess the most famous examples [of drag remixes] are pop songs. The first drag track to I know have existed, well it was a collection of tracks from sort of a proto-witch house group, Aids-3D, and they did an album called 11 Songs I Like More when I Slow them Down, and those songs were all pop songs, and that album was a huge influence on, like drag music now, so you’d have something like people remixing Justin Bieber or Britney Spears, or just whatever pop music comes up, and they’d take it, this sort of up-beat, pop music, and turn it into a down-beat, sort of dark music.

“You know, it’s interesting in that, um, I wouldn’t say Drag music specifically, but certainly from its associations with witch house, witch house has definitely cross-pollinated into popular music. Now you have artists like will.i.am have symbols, because a lot of witch house is about symbols, right? So you would have someone like will.i.am now have a music video where he raps in front of a black pyramid, and black pyramids, in their pagan and Christian sense, are a symbol in witch house.”

(At this point my recording became corrupted and the rest of the interview is unintelligible. The following is a summary of our conversation after this point, using notes that were taken during the interview.)

My informant continued to elaborate on the visual culture associated with drag and witch house music. In addition to the black pyramid, my informant included daggers as another common symbol, as well as many symbols drawing from paganism and Christianity, both Gnostic and modern. These symbols used both as art associated with the music, such as on album covers, and also in the names of drag groups and songs themselves, to add to the mystery and unsearchable aspect of the drag culture.

When asked to conjecture as to the spread of the style of drag remixing, my informant made a tie between the often-used popular music subject matter and the idea of guilty pleasures. While this couldn’t be confirmed, my informant guessed that many of the artists associated with drag remix culture actually do enjoy the music they are remixing, even though there is often a stigma against doing so within underground music circles. By dragging a favorite pop song, one can recontextualize the music into a new form, one that’s more abstract and thus acceptable as part of the underground, as well as a new way to enjoy a favorite song. There’s also an element of satire in the process of drag, that by taking a polished, easily digestible pop song and slowing it beyond recognition, one can corrupt the original with an individual’s distinct mark, transforming the gloss of a hyper-polished Justin Bieber or Britney Spears track into a dark, gothic dirge.

When asked about the idea of authorship in drag remix culture, my informant suggested that drag artists prefer to be thought of more as co-authors of a track, rather than just remixers. He makes this distinction: in a typical remix, the remixer usually credits the original artist first, delegating the remixing artist credit to either a title mention or a production credit. A drag artist, however, will often place their name first in the song’s credit, taking claim as the song’s artist, and then give credit to the original artist of the song they are dragging. With drag remixing, the remix artists present themselves as a coauthor of the song along with the original artists, where the ordinary remix artist relegates themselves to obscurity, not to be seen as an additional author to the track, but simply a remixer.

My informant is of the opinion that the trend toward co-authorship in drag music could derive from the amount of reimagining that goes into the process. With original chop and screw music, the remixing of a track was done with physical records and tapes, which was something a remixer had to physically acquire and put physical effort into manipulating. Even in the digital age, what emerges from a drag remix is often a very different song aesthetically, tonally, and atmospherically, than from where the track began. It’s very obvious where the drag artist’s influence comes into the sound of the drag remix.

The interview with my informant ended with a discussion of the practical element of drag music. The culture of drag music, according to my informant, has strong ties to drug use and drug culture, specifically codeine and cough syrup. My informant believes the development of drag music was at least partially spurred by a need for music to accompany the use of such drugs, the slowing of popular music turning songs that might be otherwise unpleasant in an altered state into music that could compliment the user’s experience.

 

Analysis:

As one who dabbles in music critique and culture beyond just popular music, I have often encountered “music snobbery”, where one can be made to feel inferior due to one’s tastes in music, often for enjoying what is most popular at the time. With my informant’s piece, whendawurldends, the masking of guilty pleasure can certainly be seen in the piece’s production. My informant divulged that the main source material for the remix comes from a Japanese Pop Song, which carries the stigma of both popular music and the “otherness” of foreign music and art that can be alienating to those outside of the culture. It is important that my informant pointed out the link between “guilty pleasure material” and the pieces of drag music that become popular, like the remixes of Britney Spears and Justin Bieber found on the Aids-3D “original” drag album. While my informant believes there is both an element of homage and corruption in the drag process, I propose that the element of homage, partaking in the guilty pleasure in a way that is not so guilty, is a much greater factor in the creation of drag music. Even the titles and personas of drag culture seem to suggest this, ranging from the trivial misspellings and reckless disregard for grammar of whendawurldends to the outright absurdity of Aids-3D. For such a dark, secluded culture and sound, drag remix culture does not seem to take itself too seriously.

It is perhaps this absurdity that has drawn these artists together to create a movement. My informant believes that drag remix culture actively defies categorization and popular exposure, due most drag artists having unsearchable names and rare releases, though such absurdity unites these artists in a more abstract way. The corruption of common music and artist tropes, the steps taken to stay underground, all these factors point to a singular desire to just be an “other”, undiscovered, always underground. It makes these artists mysterious; it makes them “cool”; but in the end, it helps place them together as drag.

*Citation: the song my informant refers to here as his first exposure to drag music is actually titled Till the World Ends. The official video for it can be found here (warning: video contains disturbing content).