noise."March Music Monday 3 · 12:36am March 19th
I think I mentioned in the first one of these that my manager always plays the same top-40 Country station all day every day.
Some time last year—or maybe it was the year before—the manager took a day off and left me in charge of the shop with our one other (at the time) employee. Since we weren't forced to listen to top-40 Country that day, my co-worker brought in his Bluetooth speaker and we sort of took turns playing our favorites on it.
And I can't even begin to tell you what a variety of music it was! In eleven hours you can cover a whole lot of genres, and while we don't have identical tastes in music, we're both interested in a variety of different things, and I came away with it from some music I'd never heard before.
After we closed for the day, I had to stop at our parts supplier to pick something up, and the girl at the counter said that when she'd called earlier, she could hear some of the music playing in the background and that it sounded like we were actually having a good time at the shop. And, in fact, we were.
One of the classes I took in college was called World Music, and to someone who was only familiar with Western harmonies and musical instruments . . . well, it was an eye-opener. Or ear-opener, I guess. Even so, it's not something that I normally seek out.
Since my co-worker watches at least one YouTube channel that explains harmonies and so on, he'd found some songs that he liked which he never would have known about otherwise. Same goes for me; I sometimes watch one that comments on technique (for a given value of 'comments') and have looked up original videos that he's played sections of, 'cause they're awesome.
Since I have a world audience, there's gonna be at least one reader who knows this type of music, this type of harmony, maybe even this group or this song. And it wasn't exactly foreign to me; it was covered in World Music.
I'll also admit that I got a lot of listening mileage off other songs YouTube recommended after I played that one. Here's another Bulgarian song that you might like.
In case you were interested in Charles Cornell's discussion of the harmonies in the song.
One thing he says which I think is important is "I can describe it in music theory terms that we use in Western music—that's not what this is. I can look at that chord [describes it], but is that how they're thinking of it? Probably not."
Also what were the odds of finding that outro pic?
EDIT: I also was gonna mention that the last blog post was number 888 but then I forgot to
I believe that businesses that play music in the background should have a Weird Al playlist to play on April 1st.
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I believe all corporate businesses that have music piped into their retail stores should be forced to have it pumped into their head office.
Weird Al was only the second album Ive listeened all teh way through, the other being Queen, but Ill give Drivethough a miss again, it was getting a bit too discontinous.
I was brought up on Steve Wrights version of Make me Smile/Come up and see me.
I might have a 17 hour playlist, but thats because theres a lot of cartoons.
Something for variations in a single piece of music, not Queen, might be Fanfare For The Common Man?
I just love acapella music in all its forms! I had no idea the Bulgarians used such an interesting and different harmony structure! The commentary video was very interesting.
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I used to work at Meijer (think a smaller, regional Wal-Mart, but one that actually has an employee union and decent paychecks), and while I could tune out most of the Muzak, the upbeat version of Don't Cry for Me, Argentina was just a little too much.
Although, at least it wasn't top-40 Country.
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The first CD I owned was Sir Mixalot, don't remember what cassette tapes I had before that (I know I had Juice Newton, which was one that I loved). Listened to lots of my parent's records, particularly love The Mitchell Trio. Also had (maybe still do have) Dark Side of the Moon on 8-track.
Yeah, could be. That's a good song.
Chaconne by Gustav Holst has seventeen or eighteen variations of its own theme in it, and we played it so well one time in band I though the director was gonna cry when we hit the last chord.
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I know, right? I'm not as much of a fan of acapella, but there's plenty of it I do appreciate. And the different harmonies different cultures use are always interesting to me. Some years ago I heard a segment on NPR covering a trumpeter who was influenced by Arabic music and got a custom-made trumpet with an extra valve so he could play half-tones. I don't remember his name, but some years ago I did find an album of his to give to my Dad, who's a trumpet player. To my delight, it also had French on it, and my Mom loves French.
For next week we're gonna have more instruments, but there's a good chance they are instruments you've never heard of before. Also a singing style that is unfamiliar to Westerners.
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Actually, I'd love to know the name of that album! Sounds great.
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Making my faulty memory work, aren't you? Short of calling my parents and having them look for the album, googling suggests it's Ibrahim Maalouf and he's got a YouTube channel with over 400 videos (LINK). Not 100% sure that's the right guy, but he's French-Lebanese, and the most recent video is titled UN HOMME QUI BOIT RÊVE TOUJOURS D'UN HOMME QUI L'ÉCOUTE which looks very French, so it's probably the right guy.
Hey, this is pretty nice.
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Thanks!
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Amusingly, I've found that the hardware store I work at has "Never Gonna Give You Up" and "The Macarena" in its background music playlist.
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Isn't it? Unusual (to Westerners) harmonies, but they sound fantastic
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Oh no. I'd say 'way to ruin good songs,' but . . . .
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Yes, exactly