Diary of a Music Producer

Okay, that sounds somewhat pretentious.  I am not a big time music producer by any means.  But the last few months I have been deeply entrenched in my studio for hours at a time working on a new theme for a local television news show.  It is not the first time I have done this;  my music ran on that show for three years in the early 2000’s and was then replaced by a corporate decision to brand a number of television stations across the country with the same music, produced somewhere back east.

The CitrusTV control room during a taping of C...
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This time, I was given a musical piece to emulate…not “copy”, but essentially create a similar feel and tension to.  At first what I came up with was too much the same and I knew that, but it eventually morphed into something much more original.  The most difficult part was creating the drum track.

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Amy Joins The 27 Club

Although a lot of people could see it coming, the death of Amy Winehouse was still a heck of a shock to many not wanting to believe that her addictions were so bad that they would ultimately kill her.  She was another one of those bright stars who burned herself out at a shocking rate, adding herself to the infamous 27 Club along with the likes of Kurt Cobain, Jim Hendrix and Janis Joplin, among others.

Amy Winehouse at Eurockéennes de Belfort (Fest...
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These were obviously talented people, musical trend-setters who’s influence in the musical world was undeniable.  Some might argue that they had yet to even show us their best work, and maybe that’s true.  Having experienced relationships with musicians all my life, I can certainly attest to one thing:  a lot of the really talented ones have a side to their personality that has a desire to go right to the edge.  You might consider them “musical thrill seekers”.  And thrill seekers tend to be that way in more than one area of their lives.  Their boundaries are almost non-existent, and that’s what makes them susceptible to addictions to hard drugs and other extreme behaviour.
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Another Case of Plagiarism

Singer Leona Lewis has been accused of plagiarism, after releasing a song called “Collide”, which has exactly the same piano track as a song by up and coming DJ Avici.  This time, when listening to both, there is no doubt in my mind that they are the same.  The piano melody is even the same key…no attempt to hide anything there!  Listen for yourself.  First Leona Lewis’ track “Collide”:

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How Commercials Are Selling Songs

I don’t really know when it first happened, but I do know that there was a period in the 1990’s and 2000’s when television advertisers began to use oldies songs (by “oldies” I mean songs from the 70’s and earlier) to attract people of my generation and older to their products. At first there was a bit of a backlash as artists were accused of “selling out”. But I’m sure that producers, publishers and agents everywhere began to pay attention, wondering if there were ways to get THEIR artists songs in commercials in order to create another gold mine of music royalties.

It still happens that older songs find their way into commercials, but more often these days, it’s newer songs and artists who are gaining recognition through television. You hear the song and Google the advertiser and almost immediately you’ll be able to find it. And that’s the beauty if it; not only does it promote the product, in turn it promotes the song and the artist or band performing it. All we have to do is go online and do a quick search and we’ve discovered a new band. The latest song that I looked up was from a recent Heineken commercial and it turned out to be a band I’d never heard of called The Asteroids Galaxy Tour with the song “Golden Age”:

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Taylor Swift, Your Songs Give Me Earworms!

From Wikipedia: “Earworm, a loan translation of the German Ohrwurm, is a portion of a song or other music that repeats compulsively within one’s mind, put colloquially as ‘music being stuck in one’s head.’ ”

Taylor Swift performing at the Cavendish Beach...
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According to statistics, 98% of us get earworms at one point or another. They apparently last longer in women, and annoy them more :-). I would have to say that I suffer from earworms moreso because I’m always listening to music more intensively when trying to figure out chords, licks and lyrics for my guitar students. And I’d have to say that Taylor Swift tops my list of earworm-causing songs. Bad, you say? Actually, not at all.

If you’re a songwriter, the earworm is your friend! You want parts of your song to stick in people’s heads, the longer the better. Hooks are often a cause of earworms. Do you remember James Blunt’s song “You’re Beautiful”? That earworm drove me nuts for days after I worked it out for a student. Blunt repeats that phrase over and over in the chorus and it was a huge hit for him. No wonder!

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